Quilting Barn Update

My handyman has started on my barn, inside now. He has the loft framed in and is moving some outlets up from where I had them put. He said that where I had them put I wouldn't be able to use them. He was right because that is where I am putting my cutting table. He has the bracket for my ceiling fan put up. Butch and I went to Lowes the other night and I got the fan and the baseboard heaters and I was going to get the airconditioner but they told me that they are going on clearance so I could save a bunch of money on that so I waited. I am hoping that it is all done by the time my job ends so I can move in. The way he is working it should be done before that. I will have to paint my stars on the walls before I move in. I have to put my cabinets together before I move my fabric in. I hope they are big enough cause I have a lot of fabric. Some I haven't see for awhile. I hope to take inside pictures tomorrow.

My Work and anything else I can think of

On August 26th they called a meeting at work. Then they left the boot drop! At the end of October they are closing the doors for the last time. That means unemployment again only this time I really have to look for a new job. Of course we can relocate if we want to but who wants to go to Texas or Oklahoma. Not me I [and my husband ] couldn't leave the littles. We wouldn't want to miss that much of their young lives. Now we could pack them up and take them with us but we like it when we can have them for a while and then send them home and besides all of that their moms wouldn't like it if we took them. Well maybe they would! This is going to be a big change for me, I have done the samething for 33 years and thinking about change is very hard for me. I really like what I do and then I think about all of the friends I have made there and it makes me sad because I will probably never see some of them again and some I will only see if I run into them at Wal-mart. On the other hand work on the inside of my barn will start within the next week. I can't hardly wait. I know it will be a wonderful place to go. It will be all mine. I know that I will be suprised when I see all of my fabric again. I haven't seen some of it for years, not since Butch put it in totes in the garage. I see lots and lots of scrap quilts coming from the barn. I used to buy only 1/3 of a yard of fabric when I found something I liked. Now I know better and I buy more. I know some of you are saying to yourself that you want to come and play with my stash, I mean organize my stash. That is going to be fun and it sounds like I will have plenty of time to do it. I have all of the paint for the inside picked out and Aunt Mary gave me fabric that is perfect for the curtains[lime green with cows]. I plan to paint quilts blocks on the walls and I have cow wallies that I am going to put in the center of the blocks. I think the blocks are going to be a sawtooth star. I am really getting excited about it all. When we built the barn we didn't think it was going to take this long to finish it[2 years] but it is all coming together. Brittany is leaving for college next weekend. The family is going to all go to dinner with her next Sat. night. Butch is going to bake her some cookies to take with her. I am planning some care packages for her. I have thought of some things that I can send her that she will like getting in the mail. Shawn has a job. He has been off of work since January. He worked really hard and got his GED and then went looking for a job and it paid off. He started last Tuesday. The starting pay is almost what he was making before he got laid off at his other job and he worked there for 4 years. The best part of the new job is that he likes it.

The Red Barn

This is my handyman, Donny my brother-in -law. I tried to zoom in but this is as close as I could get from the deck. He has been getting it painted again. I did it the first time but the primer bled through the red. It looks much better now. He will start working on the inside next month sometime.

Here it is all painted red and white. He does nice work. I can't wait till the inside is done and I can move my quilting things in. I will be able to go in and lock the door and have my things right where I left them the last time I used them. I won't have to look for my pieces when I need them because the grew legs and walked away from where I left them. My machine will still be threaded when I go to use it. WOW it sounds great.

We planted some dalias this year and they got huge. Well this one did. It is alot bigger that what it looks in this picture. The other ones look puny compared to this one. We used to plant them at our other house but they never grew this big. All of our other flowers are wilting. It has been pretty dry here and even though we water them every day it is not the same as a nice steady rain. We did get some rain this week but not enough.

The grandkids start school Sept. 1. All of them go this year except for Zoey. Nick will be in grade 3, Ryan in grade 2, Korey in grade 1, and Gabby in Kindergarten. The oldes one Brittany will be a freshman in college and Mikey will be a senior in High school. Alex is living in Chicago.

I haven't been doing any sewing [no suprise there] but I have 14 blocks that I need to get done before the 29th. That is when the family quilters come here again. We are doing row quilts this year. We are taking turns picking a block and then we each have to do 7 of them and give one to everyone for their quilts. So far we have a tree block, a star, a cardtrick, and an album block. It is my turn to pick a block and I have picked a house block. After this month we will only have Lisa and Terry's blocks to do and then the fun begins, we get to put them together. I think I know how I am going to do mine. I want it to fit my queensize bed so I have to put sashing in it or some kind of pieced borders. I am leaning to the pieced borders and I was thinking about doing a couple of rows made with smaller blocks.

Two weeks ago my pump quite working and then the search was on. I had to find a pump that wouldn't break the bank. I found a 1 1/2 horse powered one at In The Swim, on line. I could only find 1 horse ones in town here. It was the same price as the 1 horse and I didn't have to pay shipping, just handling. So if you have a pool and need something for it check out In The Swim. My pool is clean again.
This post is getting pretty long so I am going to quit rambling on an let you go for tonight. Have a great week and I hope I will post again soon.

Brittany was over last night and Nick came running out to give her a big hug. It shows how big he is getting. He is half of Brittany's age and almost as tall as her. Of course she is not that tall herself. Nick misses her when he hasn't seen her for awhile. Most of the time she stops over he is not here. She is busy getting ready to go to college. It sure is going to be different for her to go away, for her and us. We are used to her just popping in when she has time. She is going to Ohio State so she will be able to come home often.

Nick turned 9 on July 18 and we had a small party for him. All of his brothers and sisters was here. There was only 7 kids here[2 of them are under 1 so they didn't do anything] but they sure made a mess.

His cake was a spiderman one. It was yummy.

The raffle quilt that my guild does every year is done now. I put the last stitches in it Friday after work. I had to take it to Carolyn so she could take it to the Berlin Hights basket festival. We set up there to sell tickets. I am very happy at how it turned out. I really wanted to keep this one.It is king sized but if the winner has a smaller bed it will just drape more over the side.

Now I need to get busy and work on some of my stuff. I have lots of starts that I need to finish. Some of my quilts only needs the borders yet before the go to the quilter and some of them needs a whole lot more. For some reason that I don't know I have been a starter and not a finisher. I have to get over that. Some of my things I have cut everything out and never sewed a stitch on it.

I did go back to work about 5 weeks ago. We worked 1 week for the old company and then started working for the new company. We are now owned by Cover Craft. We still have no benefits and still don't know if they are going to leave us in Fremont or not. The only good things so far is they are not taking 10% of our pay any more and we are working steady 5 days a week.

Grandma Hoy

On saturday July 11, 2009 Ardis Hoy passed away after a very short illnes. Grandma had just turned 90 in May. This is her with my brother, Den and I at the graveside service for Dad. Our family is getting smaller and it wasn't that big to begin with. Grandma and Grandpa only had 2 boys. Dad and Uncle Jerry. They each had 2 kids. Lucky me I was the only girl untill my cousins had kids. Grandpa passed away a long time ago.

This picture is of Grandma and Grandpa. I think it was taken after they were married. Nice looking couple. They were married over 50 years before Grandpa died. I am glad I have great memorys of times with them. Grandma always made me feel special and I was to her because I was her only girl. She used to do things for me that she didn't do for the boys. She is the one that taught me how to crochet. If anyone got any potholders from Mom or me she is the one that made them. My Grandma was very special to me and I will miss her for the rest of my life.

Kitties and babies

This is Kimmy our other cat. She was helping me on the puter the other night. More like getting in the way. She usually lays on top of the quilt rack that I have next to the desk when I am on the puter. We got both kitties at the Humane Soceity about 5 years ago.

This is Zoey enjoying one of Grammy's quilts. She has gained about 3 pounds now. Now she feels like a real baby. She was too small when she was born. She is 6 weeks old. Her mom went back to work this week so her daddy is getting to know what its like to have a baby and take care of it for a few hours at a time. It will do him good! He wasn't around the other ones much when they were that small. He was working then. Now if only they had their own place. Maybe some day.

Mostly Brittany

Today was the day for darling granddaughter,Brittany. Done with school till Sept. when she goes off to Ohio State. She ended up 6th in her class. My hope for her is that she ends up being what ever she decides to be. And what she will be happy doing. To me she in not old enough to be out of high school, it seems like yesterday that I was holding her as a little baby.
This is our family back row is grandson Mikey, stepson Mike, me, stepdaughter Rita,[Brittany's mom] and her other grandma Kathy. Front row is Gary,[Brittany's dad] Butch,[my husband] and last but not least is Brittany. Kathy is my husbands xwife and Rita and Mike are their kids.

I tried to get the whole class in the picture at the same time and I couldn't from where I was sitting. Sorry about the fence but it was in front of me and they didn't want us to stand there and block anyones view. We had a great day for it today, we was a little worried because the said we was going to get rain but we didn't. If it would have been inside each grad could only have 4 guest so I wouldn't have gotten to go. Worked out well for that.