New Year's Eve

Reynald has been fussing at me about doing a new blog post and he's right.  I just haven't done much the last two months that I consider interesting, since I have been trying to get acquainted with my new knee! 

I have been doing some reading and quite a bit sewing and hand work as well as lots of knee exercises.  Here are a few photos of projects I have been working on between exercises.

Last spring I delivered two quilts to Kathy Woods for her to machine quilt.  She returned the finished products about a month ago and I am so pleased with her work.  The last step in finishing was to sew on the binding and then hand sew it down.  Hand sewing binding is one of my favorite things to do for some reason.

 You may remember that I have a goal of completing a seasonal quilt for each bedroom in our house.  This pink double Irish Chain is the spring quilt for the guest room and completes this room!  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Hand sewing the binding down.  

I'm so happy with the way Kathy quilted this.

Didn't take time for the pillow tuck because the Christmas quilt is still on this bed.

Folded and hanging on one of the two quilt racks that my dad made for us.

Guest room Christmas quilt.

This is the fall quilt for our bedroom and completes the seasonal series for this room as well.  I'm also pleased with this one. 

Hand sewing the binding down, with supervision from Charlie.

I usually have quite a bit of help with my projects.

I had to put it on the bed just to see what it looks like.  Didn't take time for the pillow tuck, as the Christmas quilt is still on the bed as well.

Hanging on the rack, ready for fall!

I have rather ambitious goals for quilt piecing before spring work starts.  I'm hot on the trail of finishing the last fall quilt and just figured out what I want to do for a summer quilt with help from Beth.  I also have two 30's reproduction quilts cut and ready to piece that I intend to use as spring quilts.  And there's always a couple hand projects thrown in for good measure, on the list of winter projects. 

Combine repair

Reynald and Alicia have been working on repairing the combines this week.  They do this every winter.  There is always a great deal of wear from harvest.  The deeper they look, the more they find to fix, which is why they take on this task now, instead of two weeks before harvest!

This combine still has the feeder house attached.  This is the piece that attaches to the header.  Every piece of grain has to run through here, so there is always a lot of wear.

This is the feeder house detached from the other combine.

Here you can see where the feeder house is supposed to be.  Taking this off allows access to several high wear points and pieces.

This is the side of the combine where the rotary mechanism lives.  The rotary drum spins and separates the grain from the chaff.  There are some significant holes that have worn through the drum.

These fins are supposed to be smooth, not jagged and wavy like these are.

Kind of a fuzzy picture but wanted to show the head mechanic at work!

And, playing the role of supervisor, is Reynald!

Tiny toy gator on the shop window sill with giant heads of wheat, looking out to the real gator!

Vintage Christmas

I'm pretty sure I posted photos of the vintage Christmas decorations last year, but it's worth doing it again.  These decorations were part of the town of Harrington decorations when I was a little girl.  The most exciting day of the season was when we we came to town and the Christmas decorations were up on main street.  The memory makes me smile, and having a piece of this heritage makes the season even more Merry and Bright.