When It Rain It Pours! Photo heavy.

Literally. The area I live in has been affected by major flooding. Just to give you a glimpse of some area photos. This first one is a sensational one and it's just amazing that no one was hurt or worst yet, killed. The woman driving the van, Anna Maywood was able to jump to safety when she felt the bridge collapsing in Moriah NY. photo by Lohr McKinstry

While traveling to Vt. this past Thursday I took several photos. As you can see my photographic skills are extremely limited. It seems that when I take a pic on a beautiful day the photos have too much light and get washed out. If any of you know what I need to do to try to fix it, I would appreciate any tips. The camera is on an automatic setting and this is one of the reasons I have always wanted to take a photography class at the local university. Might have to move that up on my bucket list!





Even the ferry did a great job of engineering. Since the record levels of the lake have been so high many engineering feats have had to be done. Stones hauled in so you don't drive through water and with the alignment of the boat with the load on ramps that had to be figured out as well. The last four photos don't look that bad until you realise that those photos are normally dry land with a picturesque little clump of trees scattered along a very nice sandy beach in the background. The little dark square in the last photo above is a building along the beach.

Time in my world has sped up to a 10X warp speed lately. The photos above are from my recent trip to Vermont to get my Bernina fixed. It seems as if everything around here needs repairing, fixing or a bit more attention lately. So there again when it rains it pours! Besides DH's cardiac Event, now his participation in Cardiac rehab and my having to chauffeur him everywhere, the wrecked car and numerous little happenings with that (typical car repairs needed doing that are not covered from the accident {of course}), the Septic and plumbing repairs (Both are totally fixed and correct now- can I say a major Cha ching!), the basement flooding with the area's problems (had 2-3 "of water in basement and we caught in time to set up a sump pump etc.), Furnace wasn't working correctly (probably because of the flooding - service calls), and then to top it off my Bernina Broke down! Enuf!!!!! Despite all these inconveniences my attitude has been positive after witnessing last month's blessings. Attitude is an amazing thing. What is that biblical phrase that comes to mind, oh yea, I can do all things through Christ. But please, let the dust settle a bit, I'm a bit on overload.

Amidst all of this several items have been completed in the project area.

The first thing I'd love to share with you is this quilt my Mom made for my PGS#2.



How she designed it herself is wonderful. She wanted it to have a masculine feel since PGS#2 is now 14 years old. That's him in the second photo on the top right, albeit a bit washed out since my camera skills are severely lacking. Mom's skills are amazing. This is a queen size quilt and besides designing it herself she fussy cut the fabric for the borders to get a tribal feel that would accompany the Savannah and safari panel in the center. We shopped my stash last summer while she was visiting NY and started and finished it these past 4 months. This quilt was also machine quilted by her on her domestic sewing machine all with different patterns appropriate for that section within the quilt.

Thanks Mom.

I love it and I think J likes it too, but he's at THAT age when communication isn't forth coming. The next 2 shots are the doll blanket PGD#1 and I did.

She is always wanting to have FUN, or is saying "Ccommmonnn, Meme, let 's do something funnnn!" Drawing out the words but, thank goodness bot whining- I just can't stand a whine! So for the doll blanket she selected all her own fabrics and trim. Am glad I didn't try to talk her out of using any of it even though when she selected the brown background floral print to accompany the black with pastel pink heart print I cringed a bit. Luckily the stash held a soft pastel pink that worked with both sides for the binding. That girl is definitely not afraid to use color!



Here's a snap of my current focus.


It's last month's UFO project that Judy Laquidera pulled, that I couldn't find the time to work on it last month. How nice to just settle with my machine and stitch. It was on this project when my Bernina started throwing a hissy fit. Thank goodness I had my trusty little Singer featherweight! I had forgotten how sweet it is to sew on. This is the same type of machine that I learned how to sew on when I was 7 years old. OMG, It might be the perfect machine for little miss PGD#1 to learn on. The only bit of sewing she does now is to sit on my lap and help manage the fabrics through the machine while I operate the foot pedal and of course she removes all the pins and places them nicely in the cushions.

If you are not too saturated with photos these last two snaps are of a bracelet that was finished yesterday. Can you believe it's made out of hex nuts! It's an odd count peyote stitch and thankfully Allison, the friend who shared the technique, had some 12lb. test fire line that I could use. Imagine my surprise to find my 10 lb. spool empty.



So this is a glimpse of some of the happenings and what has been keeping me busy lately. Sorry I haven't been able to post that often recently and I hope you understand. I also wanted to thank you for stopping by and all the lovely comments. I do appreciate them.

Enjoy your day,

Jane