Beware of KMART online ordering !

Do not order from KMart online.

I placed an order in good faith on Cyber Monday, for my daughter to pick it up in another state.  The screen said that the item was in stock.  When I gave her verification information, a screen came up saying that there was something wrong with the order, and yet the order went through when  I gave my card info.  I received an order confirmation email immediately.  Now, today, I receive an email saying that the order has been cancelled .  Customer service tells me that the item is not only not in stock, but is no longer available, and that it will recredit my bank account in 3 to 5 days.  Then before I hang up the girl tells me to check back before Christmas for availability..........AS IF !

They should not take payment if there is a problem with the order, plus, now the other rep tells me that the item was NOT IN STOCK when I placed the order !!!!!!!!!   Then why did you charge me?   I'll tell you why,........so that they could gain interest on that money in their account for all the days that it takes to get it back in my account.  They may not make a lot of interest on my little ol' $76.20, but when they do this to thousands of customers, it becomes quite a nice little racket !

Rant over for now..............maybe more if I'm not credited before next Thursday evening.

Poor photos........

I mean, the colors are way off on the red/teal set, but, I enjoyed a good afternoon of sewing.

I made a couple of potholders for myself a few days ago, after realizing during Thanksgiving that my potholders were in BAD shape !  For mine, I used some blue and green scraps I had, mixed with Tufted Tweets couch print.

Then when I got the birthday package from Wanda Gayle, I saw that the fabrics she sent would be perfect in my niece's kitchen.

Here's a fuzzy photo I found online of the actual colors of the fabrics.  It's Lila Tueller's woodland bloom.

  So, today I paper-pieced a couple of patterns that I made up on the spot, and finished the blocks into potholders for part of her Christmas gift.

I hope to find some coordinating kitchen towels to put with these.

Next, I'd like to make a couple that would go with a kitchen decorated with an apple theme.

I'm 55 and life is good !

I've had a very nice birthday today.   As a matter of wonderment, I don't remember anyone outside of the family EVER making ME a birthday cake before, but ROSE did !   In fact, she made me TWO !   She and Josephine and the baby, Elizabeth, came up, ..... and hubby and I had cake and ice cream with them.

While they were here, my older brother called and he and his wife serenaded me with the birthday song.  I opened a fun package from girlfriend, Wanda Gayle, got a new commission from Jodie Ann, and hubby gave me money to spend on Connecting Thread's Black FridaySale.   I got to speak with my beautiful granddaughter who shares my birthday out in Oklahoma........she's 9 already !

Now I'm stuffed and relaxing in front of the computer.  Sadly, I noticed in my birthday photos that there's a bit more of me this birthday, so the celebrating needs to end, and the pushing back from the table must begin !  Anyone with me there? 

Another little downer.......the dryer quit again, and this time I think I'm going to have to replace it.  I hung a small load of clothes out on the line today, and the RAIN got them !  Bad time of the year to be without a dryer, but the LORD will provide, as he takes such good care of hubby and me. 

Thanksgiving was nice........

........Jeff gave me a nearly 20 pound turkey to roast, and I made all the fixin's to go along with it, dressing, peas, real mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, gravy, pies (chocolate and chess), rolls, cranberry sauce (from a can).   Jeff brought deviled eggs and a peach cobbler.  He came in time to eat with hubby and myself.  Then his daughter Mandy came with her boyfriend, and her son and daughter.......she brought baked apple slices.  Then, surprise-surprise, my brother, Jim, called and said that he was in town and wanted directions to my place !   So he came over and Jjeff came back and we visited and he ate too.  

     I got up first thing this morning searching for Black Friday internet sales, specifically Connecting Threads.  I ordered a collection of fat-quarters called Rivera II, (it's sold out, but it's the fabrics used in this wallhanging)and checked out.  Then I went back and found something else and by the time I called to see if they could add it to the first order, the second thing I picked out was GONE !  I wish I had atleast copied a picture of the quilt in the kit so that I could buy the individual fabrics to make it without the kit !  Oh well, it gave me an idea for a quilt out of some fabric I ordered 2 years ago on Cyber Monday !

Enjoy the rest of this weekend, and be safe if you're on the highway !   Be blessed !

Today was a beautiful Fall day

Made the mistake of going to bed, beat, at 8:30 last night so I woke up at 4:30 a.m., restless 'til 5:30 a.m. I got up and fixed coffee for hubby and self.  Around ten , I went to use the tiller, but it was hesitant to start, so I took advantage of the sunny morning to wash the jeep maybe one last time before I store the water hose for the winter. 

Then after getting hubby some lunch, the tiller finally started for me.   I got 2 full 3 ft. wide rows done before running out of gas.  I'll probably try one more time before draining the tank and readying the tiller for it's winter storage too.

Yesterday, I caused a short in my kitchen range while I was cleaning it for Thanksgiving's heavy workload.  The light that signals that a burner is turned on wouldn't go off after that, so I deemed it unsafe.  I've been wanting a new range for awhile, so that was a good enough excuse for me !!

I finally got myself a smooth-top range.  I feel like I'm going to have to replace my cookware too now, something that I wasn't aware of before this purchase,.  But my older pans are making marks on the top, so I won't be quite satisfied until I've done that.
But the oven performed wonderfully today when  I made biscuits and later, cornbread muffins.  I wish I could have gotten a white one, but stock is very limited in this little town.   However, the price was right, so I have what I have.  It actually looks alright, I just have to be a little more proactive about the super-cleaning, since every fingerprint, or even speck of dust, shows up grandly.

Mid-November already !

Wow, I just can hardly believe how quickly my life is passing these days !

Inside kitty, Lottie-dah

 I haven't done anything quilty since finishing Seth's quilt (technically, I HAVEN'T finished it, since I haven't applied the label, although I did choose it and sign it today).

Outside kitty, Marmalade

But, thanks to a reminder from Wanda over at Exuberant Color, I got my flower pots dumped today, now that everything has gone the way of Autumn.  It was in the 60's, I guess, and so nice for working outside in the sunshine.  I've been tilling up what I hope to be my garden spot next Spring, and I think that tomorrow might be perfect for doing another section.

The crew is coming back to finish the porch roof this weekend........we decided we'd be better off spending the money rather than letting the moisture get to the unpainted/unfinished surfaces.  Hopefully, there won't be ONE thing left to do to it when they're finished.  I borrowed a ladder to do some painting on it myself, and decided that their prices weren't THAT BAD after all.  I'm just no longer anxious to do painting over my head, up on a ladder...........no thank you !  Praise God.

I kept my grand-niece, Lissy, on Tuesday for a few hours and it is just amazing the difference that being in Head Start has made in her.  She talks up a storm and is so cute and funny.  And now, out of the blue, she just hugs my neck and tells me she loves me.....sighhhhhhh......do you think I miss my grandbabies a little bit?

Chalk up another finish !

Phewwwwwww.........every one of these I do makes me wonder if it will be the last !

Basting this quilt, at 72 x 90 inches, was such a chore, I was aching in my back by the time I finished.
But then, wrestling it through the small opening of my old Singer machine was a real tug of war !

I started out by using the walking foot, outlining all major seams.   I thought that that was all that I was going to do.  But realizing that this batting is cotton and was going to shrink up in the dryer, I knew that the big unquilted portions of each block were going to be unsightly.  So, dreading it, but knowing that I somehow had to make it work, I went back in with the darning foot.

I HAVE to find a new walking foot !   This one pushed the top along, making a little tuck when I would come upon another seam crossing my way !   I was very frustrated by that, I don't mind telling you.  I would have bought a new foot long ago, but I can't find one to fit my old Singer, and still has a wide area at the needle hole so that I can see where I'm stitching.  This one gives you almost a blind view.  
















 I free-motion-quilted loop-de-loops in both sides of the blocks, leaving the 1 1/2 inch strip unquilted except for the ditch-quilting that they had already received.

 
I had to figure out paths for the quilting to take as I traveled from one section of a block to the next.  Most of the quilt is connected that way, continuously, but I did wind up with a couple of sections that I had to do on their own.

At one point, the thread broke, and I found that I had been quilting with the presser foot up..........yikes, there were loops everywhere on the back.  Well, it seemed like it at the time, but in reality, it was probably just part of one block.  But before I had done that, the tension had gotten skewed by the quilt rubbing against the dial somehow, and there was a bunch more quilting that had small loops all along the back of it.   So, I had to sit down and remove quite a bit of stitching, and then go in and redo it.  Blessedly, all was good after that, and in pretty good time, I got it all done to my satisfaction. 

I actually quilted the outer border before I went back and quilted the loopies in the blocks. I did a meandering pattern in the last border, and a wiggly/squiggly line in the dark blue border.   I even bound the two long, side edges before I realized that I had to do more quilting within the quilt itself.   The binding is the same fabric as the back.

It's not a coordinate of the other fabrics in the top, which are a collection called, "Mastermind" by Jennifer Callo for Connecting Threads, it but goes well with it.  On the other hand, I had planned to bind it in the dark blue that I used for the next-to-last border, but when I placed it against the backing fabric, it looked terrible from the back.  So, I switched to the backing fabric for binding.

The quilt has been through the washer and dryer, and I actually liked it better before that.    I still need to stitch a label onto the back, and then figure out how I'm going to get it to my 3-year-old grandson in Oklahoma..........no hurry, as he still sleeps on a crib-sized mattress in a little boy bed.

EDIT:  Just adding my wishlist from Connecting Threads in order to be added to their 'wishlist giveaway' sweepstakes. 

Quilting and Construction........

........both were on today's schedule, but, blessedly, I didn't have to do the construction !

Lottie helped me as I got alot of the in-the-ditch quilting done on Seth's quilt.  I don't know that I'll do anything else in the interior of the quilt, as this is the heaviest cotton batting I have ever dealt with.  I mean, this quilt is for a 3 YEAR OLD.   Hey, maybe that's a good thing.........cuz once that baby gets under this thing, he ain't gettin' up for nuthin' !   No more running back and forth to sissy's room for an hour !  Ha !  Kelley tells me that that is the normal nightly routine.......an hour of back and forth, leading to morning sleepyheads !

But while I was quilting today, a construction crew from the local Mennonite community was building a roof over my front porch/deck.  I'm so thrilled.  I couldn't afford to get all the finishing work with siding/soffets, so-forth, but it'll be great for now.  And God just sent us a little rain-shower.......well after they've finished construction........to show me how well the new roof will protect the front door, and even let us sit out and enjoy the rain sometimes.   Thank the Lord,  he is so GOOD !

Someday, I'll have to do a  little painting, I fear, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy the newness !