Merry Christmas!! and other ramblings

This set of 4 placemats has been in my UFO pile for years, literally! So long in fact, I can't even remember when I started them. I know they have been at least 8 years in the making. So, what did I need to do to finish these? The binding....isn't that awful, all I had to do was stitch the binding down! How sad! And these were not the only placemats in my UFO pile that only needed the binding hand stitched down,yes....you are reading this correctly...the binding was machine stitched, I only needed to do the handwork. Sad, just sad. I did finish up another set but can't post the other set yet because they are a gift.

I love 30's prints and when I saw these prints I had to have them! I am so excited to have them finished to use in our new kitchen this year, and look at all that red!!!

Yesterday we canned this batch of pepper jelly, aren't the jars cute? One more batch of pepper jelly and we can cross it off our canning list. These will be gifts, when we can for ourselves seldom do we use the cute jars and lids. Next up in the canning dept is turkey soup stock but that will be later in the month after the kids come and go since we will be cooking a 24 lb turkey while they are home.

Today is the first day of October, how did that happen? Where did September go? October already? Well, OK, if we must ~ but that doesn't mean we can't protest just a little!!

October is busy for us every year, but this year it seems to be more so. To start with I have a business trip that I will be out of town for a couple of days this week. I am so so so looking forward to time away and alone.

Our boys (including DIL and 2 youngest grandkidlets) will be home the following week, everyone will arrive on Thursday. The house will go from 2 people to 7. On Friday we will all head to the cabin and spend the wknd enjoying sunsets, rockclimbing, skimboarding, laughing, games of Skipbo, clam chowder in breadbowls and we will celebrate both of our sons bdays. Roy turns 27 on the 15th and Ryan will be 25 on the 16th. I am getting old!

Each Saturday morning in October two grandkidlets have soccer games so we travel to various little towns in our area to watch games. Tuesday's our oldest grandkidlet has football games which start right after I get done at the office.

Hubby is considering attending a men's retreat the 20-21st, kinda waiting to decide to see if he will be sleeping better by then.

Of course we still have to keep up with our regular routine, trips into town to see momma several times a wk, Dr appts (hubby MIGHT be driving by the end of October!!) etc etc. With the days getting shorter and shorter I am wondering if October will fly by as quickly as September and I will be ponder the same thing about December when I flip the calendar to the eleventh month of the year...the ELEVENTH MONTH...HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???

Quilt Retreat. Ed has encouraged me to attend so I sent in my ck and have made the commitment to go. So, now I need to prepare for it. I have narrowed down which project(s) to take, need to start gathering stash and etc. Will also need to go through my traveling sewing tote and give my FW and once over. I have not been to any quilt camp for a couple of years (and never been with this particular group) so will need to make sure I have a well stocked sewing tote and everything I need since the nearest store is a 45 mile drive (one way) from the camp. Yes, it is literally a camp...quilt camp is held at a church camp up in the woods near Diamond Lake. It is beautiful up there, I am hoping to go on a photo shoot walk to stretch my legs from time to time.

I had planned to take half a day off from work in order to get to the camp (2½ hr drive from my home) before dark but my boss gave me the day off WITH PAY!!! How cool is that??? I have the best boss around! I will leave on Friday morning (Nov. 3rd) and return Sunday early afternoon.