Haircut: Before, During, and After

This boy needs a haircut. He and his next-older brother have the same hair type...it just gets thicker and thicker, but doesn't hang down. It kind of poofs out. The need for a cut kind of sneaks up on them, happening very gradually.

I've cut my WH's hair since before we were married. Only once has someone else cut his hair in our nearly 20 years of marriage...I was pregnant and on bed rest in a hospital.

As the children came along, I cut their hair, too. My WH will occasionally cut the boys' hair, but mostly it falls to me.

As gas prices have risen, I've been even more thankful for being able to do so much for ourselves at home. Think of the zillions of dollars we've saved by simply cutting hair! Well, maybe not zillions, but hundreds and hundreds at least!! Nine people every 6 weeks. I'm the only one that gets haircuts that are done out of house.

Here Isaac is before the haircut. He has a couple loose baby teeth--only adding to his charm.

We use a pair of clippers that have snap-on guides of several sizes. We've used the same pair all these years, only replacing the blades once--last year. For Isaac, I cut the top with a 3/8" guide, and use 1/4" for the sides and back. It's not unlike shearing a sheep, I'd imagine.
Here I am cutting from right to left in the picture. See the hair rolling up as I cut? With my two oldest boys and WH, it just falls to the floor as I cut. Not with Isaac and the next oldest boy, Benjamin. It just rolls and rolls as I cut, only falling (ending with a *boing* on the floor) when I reach the end of their hairline.
Voila! Here he is...freshly shorn. I made my WH the cape from parachute fabric when we were engaged. The hair just flies off of it. I took a big square, cut a seam up the back, finished the seam and neck (which I cut freehand in a circle), and had his initials embroidered on it for added flair! I put black Velcro around the neck to hold it in place.

Over 20 years of use, and still doing a great job.

My goal today is to re-quilt a customer's quilt. This has been something I've been meaning to do for months now. I quilted it with a thread recommended by the local sewing shop. I didn't think it would work well, but they insisted. After using the quilt lightly for only a few months, the threads started wearing down and eventually away on the top of the quilt. So it had to be un-quilted and then re-quilted. An arduous process, let me tell you. I have it about 1/5 re-quilted. I did that much on my DSM. Today I loaded it on the Little Gracie frame. I should be able to knock it out in an hour or so if all goes well. I'll post some pics later if I still have my sanity.

I placed safety pins about every 6" as it was un-quilted to keep the batting from shifting. I will remove them as I re-quilt. I can hardly wait until this project is off the list of things to do.

~Joan

Scrappy Stars Renamed...Center Finished

Lo, and behold...a mostly finished quilt top! This pattern is called "Scrappy Stars", but I had to rename it considering that I have lots of scrappy star quilts already. I think Zigzag Stars will be the new name for this. It still needs a thin inner and wide outer border to be complete, but this is a great start! It measures 68" square now. The original pattern only had 3 rows of blocks, but bigger is better here at the ole homestead. If you want to see past posts about this, search for "scrappy stars".

Just got some great news. My family will be "house sitting" for one of my husband's cousins for a week in July. They have a large in-ground pool (that's a big plus for us), and we can use their house for housing. It would cost a fortune for our family to pay for temporary housing for a week (hotel, condo, cabin--you name it!). So this is a huge blessing for us. We will be close to my WH's family, so we will be visiting with them as well.

~Joan

Stick a Daisy in Your Hat, and Be Happy

Contentment is a wonderful thing, but it's a conscious decision.

Sometimes when my children complain, I feel like it's my duty to remind them to decide to be cheerful. That's when I spout my famous saying, "Stick a daisy in your hat, and be happy!" I did not take the above photo, but it is so neat! Daisies are my favorite flower...they just look so cheerful!

Off to do a little hand piecing on my Seeds of Kindness quilt. Take care now.

~Joan

An Apple A Day...

Above is an up-to-the-minute picture of my Seeds of Kindness quilt. I've sewn on it in the last few days. Plus, I've finished cutting out all my donation pieces. In case you just started reading my blog...this is an apple core charm quilt. I threw all dignity aside some time ago and begged for scraps from others. Not just any scraps. I am a scrap snob for this quilt. Only Thimbleberries (new or vintage) will do.

If you click on "seeds of kindness" at the bottom of the post, Blogger will bring up all the posts on this project. It truly is growing. I remember way back when it was 4 lonely apple cores, and look at my baby now! Eighteen rows by 16 rows, and more to come! This is about 52" wide and a little shorter.

I think it's looking great. If you're afraid to make a scrap quilt, study this and others carefully. Notice that the extreme darks and lights are spread out over the quilt? That keeps you from looking at the dark (or light) blob and wondering why they are so attention-getting. I even have a few huge florals, but they don't call attention to themselves because they are far away from their friends!

Donations are still welcome. Your scrap needs to be at least 4" x 5". Email me for details!

The farthest right column is not sewn all the way down. It's a little less than halfway.

~Joan

Order of The Day

The order of the day? First I walk uphill (this hill is Mt. Everest in my mind...it's not far into my walking route). It's not that big of a grade. For a woman like me who is physically phphphphphittttttt (read that "fit"), this is a mountain. I am so glad to say that even though this is only the 3rd day in a row that I've gotten up early and walked, it was a little easier than the past two days, which were agonizing torture. That was one my excuses in the past..."I can't exercise...it's too hard." Hopefully it will get easier as I shed some pounds and get used to the routine. Then at the end, I join my lovely walking partner of the AM (in this case, Rachel), and gently stroll down to our house, only to repeat the circle one more time.

If you look closely, you will see "for sale" signs in 3 of the yards, one on the left and two on the right. Signs of our times for sure. I thank God daily for food and raiment (that's KJV). A house is just a bonus, but I surely am grateful for that, too.

I did my best not to exceed the speed limit!
And last, but certainly not LEAST, is my Bible-reading time. I read while I'm cooling down from the walk before I shower and wash my hair. I'm reading in Deuteronomy. Those children of Israel just didn't get it, but God made it very clear...follow His way and be blessed, or go your own way and be cursed. It was as plain as the nose on your face. But I am the same way. I do something that is not "just right" and think it won't matter. Then I cry and lament when I have troubles. Could some of those troubles be brought on by my own wrongdoings? Preachin' to the choir here. Hmmm...definitely food for thought.
I can hardly believe that I've gotten up early (that might be the most shocking of all), walked (also shocking) and read my Bible first thing in the AM for 3 days in the road. This is not of my own strength. Any glory for this should go to God. I am not a naturally disciplined person.

We've been trying to involve our children in more family activities. Left to themselves, they'd be watching movies (albeit, approved-by-us movies) and playing computer games on Friday nights. When I saw the 100-degree-reading thermometer yesterday, I had a brainstorm (you probably thought that was heat lightning!). Susanna made our homemade pizza for Friday night as usual. I suggested we eat in the basement. Our former kitchen table (bless its sad little existence) is now in my sewing room. I called while I was still out doing errands and had a couple of the boys clear off the table and put the 3 leaves in, once again making it a table that can seat ten. We gathered up chairs and ate down there. It felt 15 degrees cooler than upstairs. Then the fun really began...

We all played Bible Pictionary. Ever drawn an ambush? or a leek? or Gideon? It was fun (at least *I* thought so).

I had to stay up until 10 to pick up my son when he finished work. That was a challenge since we've been getting up at 5:30. So I sewed a few units of my Scrappy Stars quilt together to occupy my time. Only a few units as I was drawn into a Dutch Blitz card game in the meantime.

Today I hope to clean up my sewing area. Too many odd units floating around down there. I want to find a jumper pattern that my oldests daughter wants to use this coming week. It just might be buried under a pile of scraps.

~Joan

Triple Digits!!

Yes--that's right. One HUNDRED degrees this AM. That's for those of you who were jealous earlier this year because my spring bulbs were blooming (while you were staying indoors because you didn't want to get out in the snow!). It has been unseasonably hot here the past few days. I was still surprised to see the thermometer readout go from 98 to 99 than 100 degrees in just a few minutes. It was 75 degrees when I was outside walking this AM at 5:45!

Stay cool--
~Joan

New Day...New Way!

I know it's more interesting to read a post with a great picture. The above is a quilt top I made for my oldest son. I hope to quilt it soon. I saw one similar to it on the Internet somewhere and kept the photo as a guideline. The center is made of Jacob's Ladders blocks. I like the small inner border followed by the Tri-Recs ruler triangles going around. It's queen-bed sized.

But that's not the big news for today (that's the news from months ago...maybe a year). I was just looking for a good picture. I searched online for a cartoon or pic to depict my AM, but I couldn't find one.

For the past week or so, my WH has exercised with my 4 boys. They walk, run, walk (or is it run, walk, run?) then do calisthenic-type exercises. My oldest daughter walks with a friend who lives a few streets over. My 2nd oldest daughter does a DVD workout video. They get up at 5:30 to do this. I, on the other hand, would be annoyed that my sleep had been disturbed. Even after going back to sleep (which would sometimes take 30 minutes or so), I would wake up grumpy because I could only sleep a little while, amidst door bangings, etc. Just keepin' it real.

Last night I realized how out-of-shape I am (again). I can't do much at all before I'm huffin' and puffin'. But this time, I decided to do something about it. I decided that this AM, instead of stumbling, bleary-eyed to the bathroom and then the computer chair, I would get dressed and walk a mile, then have my Bible-reading time, and then check the blogs I read, etc. That gave me time to cool off before I showered and washed my hair. I figured I'd be motivated to do the first things first if I had the reward of blog reading at the end. I really look forward to that...several times a day (in other words, too much--I'm cutting it back to once a day, in the AMs). The truly shocking thing is that that is exactly what I did. And I'm so happy about it that I wanted YOU to know.

Have a great day!

~Joan