I took a quick walk on Thanksgiving. After all the rain recently it made me very thankful for such a beautiful day!

Note to self.....pay more attention to the smoker when smoking a large turkey.....  

For Thanksgiving, I cooked two turkeys (or to be more accurate, I attempted to cook two turkeys...)  One was in my reliable Big Easy (propane) and it was ready earlier than I expected.  I smoked the other one on my Weber Smoker.  I've smoked turkeys in the past, but this one was bigger than usual and I did not keep up on adding briquettes to it, so....it didn't cook.  Once I realized the problem (about the time the guests were arriving) I put more briquettes in but didn't continue to monitor it (I was busy....)  Instead of having a smoked turkey ready at 2:00, I had one ready at 8:00.  I didn't even test to see how dry the meat was, I just let it cool for a bit and tossed it in the frig.  I'll see how badly I destroyed it tonight.

On the up-side, the other turkey was great, the sides were great, and everyone had a good time and a good laugh at my poor turkey still smoking during dinner.  AJ helped me with desserts this year. He helps me cook dinner quite often, but doesn't usually help me with baking. I gave him instructions for making graham cracker crumbs for the crust of the pumpkin cheesecake, and he made fun of his lack of experience baking by using the wrong part of the rolling pin....

The cats got an early Christmas present - it was just too cute to pass up....

Jessie approves....

More fall leaves - taken while I was raking the leave from the driveway.  I didn't bother trying to rake the yard....I was working in between rain storms and just wanted the driveway clear. I'm hoping the storms that come through blow my leaves out of the yard.  They probably won't blow my leaves out, but will manage to blow the neighbor's leaves into my yard too....

I finished my hostess gift for Kirby - she's hosting the family Thanksgiving this year - a Christmas table runner.  My quilting is getting better, but still needs more practice. 

I got the Diamonds in the Rough quilt top finished and got it sandwiched up, ready to quilt.  Jessie thought it was a great kitty bed.....she ended up knocking it off on the floor by the time she was done "snuggling" in it.

The atmospheric river that's hitting the region is being pretty kind to us - just wind and rain. Of course, the wind wasn't too kind to the pop-up tent in the chicken pen.  The chickens are going to have to live without a pop-up in the winter.  It's nice in the summer to give them more shade, but not so good in the winter.  I went out Friday morning to check for wind damage and knew it wasn't going to be pretty when I looked toward the chicken pen and could see the leg of the pop-up up in the air.  We got almost 6 inches of rain with this storm, and another 2-4 inches expected in the next couple of days.

 

 

I had to replace the fence post....

I got the quilt top "almost" finished this weekend. I still have the borders to put on, and a good pressing is needed.  Flannel seems to need more pressing than the usual cotton to look sharp.  I like it!

 

The first of the leaves are falling - I spent my first morning of the season raking/shredding leaves on Saturday.  AJ helped with the raking, but the shredding is a one person job (though he did change the cutting line in the shredder for me.)  I'll be spending the next few weekend raking and shredding....and green-waste runs.  At least the shredding keeps the number of runs down. Saturday's leaves weren't even close to a full trailer, so maybe next week - depending on how many leaves fall.  Without shredding, it would have been a full trailer.

Ripley was helping though - she was keeping an eye out for intruders and any rabid squirrels....

 

One of my recent quilting upgrades was the purchase of a roll of batting.  Up to now, I've bought pre-cut pieces of batting, which worked fine, but I ended up with either needing something just a bit smaller and had lots of scraps of batting left over or just a bit bigger than what I had on hand.  (I use the letftovers  in my potholders and other projects, but I still have a lot!!)  I also had to run in to town to pick one up when I wanted to work on a quilt (since I'm not that great at planning ahead...). The roll should make 6 or 7 quilts,

And yes, I had a helper....

 

AJ watched Alli for me this weekend and I took the dogs out for a run in the field.  They had a great time while I grabbed some pictures of the changing foliage.

 

 

Alli and I went shopping at WalMart this weekend, and the trees are turning colors! It does make the WalMart parking lot a bit prettier....

 

 

It's done!  I got the border on and got it washed.  The only thing is I forgot to put a label on it. My new labels are sewn into the binding, and I forgot! 

 

 

 

My next piecing project - a flannel quilt!  It's super soft - light grey for the back ground.  Super simple piecing, but a very pretty quilt.  I have the blocks made (such as they are - just quick 4-patch blocks) so it's ready to put together. 

 

 

Done!  I finished the table runner for fall - and I'm impressed both that I finished it, and that it wasn't as hard as I was making it out to be.  I used a different technique for quilting it, which is what was making me hesitate - I've gotten used to (maybe not good yet...) quilting  on my frame with an all-over pattern.  This was done at the machine I use for sewing and each block is different.  There is still a large learning curve there, but....I like it!

 

 

 

With the recent time change, we have almost lost the opportunity to walk the dogs after work.  I have collars for them that light up so we can see them, but letting them run loose in the field in the dark is more than I want to do (I trip over the rough ground in the daylight.....just sayin')  We do get some nice sunset photos though.

 

At least they are equal opportunity helpers - now they are sitting on my crochet instructions for making snowflakes....so not helping....

I found boarder fabric for the Goose on the Loose quilt.  I was looking for something a bit less orange, but...it's not bad.  It's ready to get sandwiched up and quilted.

 

I got the table runner put together, ready to start practicing quilting!  I did have more "help" than I needed though.  I keep trying to tell her that quilts are supposed to keep us warm, she doesn't need to keep them warm.....

 

My newest project - a fall table runner.  The blocks are pretty simple, which provides room for some fancy quilting - in my case, an opportunity to quilt something small and if I do it wrong, it was just a table runner.  The idea is from one of the quilting books I picked up in Paducah this summer.  It has the pattern for the runner and several different ways to quilt it - a "sampler" of quilting patterns as a way to learn.  Hopefully it's successful enough I can use it!

 

I walked down the hallway last weekend, probably in my usual "hurry" mode, and slipped and almost fell.  The floor was covered in sand.  Sand?  I don't have anything "sandy" in the house??  I had sand in almost every room.  

As I was sweeping the entire house, I ran across this poor deflated toy....Roomba seems to have found one of AJ's old lizards toys and carried it around for a while, losing sand the whole time.  Mystery solved!