Wedding, New Car, Sewing Progress

Wow, what a week! It has been almost nonstop go-go-go. But it’s all good!

On Saturday evening of last week, we attended the wedding of Bruce’s younger daughter Stacy to her fiancé Chad. This is the second marriage for both.  Here is Bruce walking the lovely bride down the grass “aisle”. The wedding was held in their backyard, and the weather was perfect! It was very casual and absolutely lovely and fun.

The ceremony was short and sweet, then the music, food and beverages (alcoholic and non) were brought out. There were so many extended family members on our side that we hadn’t seen in years, so it was nice to catch up. And Chad’s (the groom) family were so friendly and warm as well. It was just such a pleasant evening.

The Wedding Party 
Back Row, L-R, Hunter (Stacy’s oldest), Aleisha (Chad’s daughter), Stacy, Chad and Aleisha’s best friend, whom Chad said is like a daughter to him
Front Row (all Stacy’s kids): Evie, Bear, Oakley and Remi in pink

The guys: Hunter, Groom Chad, Bear (who was Ring Bearer)

On Sunday, Cousin Kim and friend Ruby came over as usual, and we sewed the day away. It’s always so fun and relaxing to laugh, sew, listen to music and even squeeze in a bit of puzzle-making with friends. 

Monday saw us working out in the yard All. Day. Well, almost all day. I did come inside about mid-afternoon to finally get a shower and start tackling Mt. Washmore.

Tuesday morning was my Weight Watchers weigh-in as usual. I’m a mere point six (.6) away from my goal. Total weight loss to date: 63.8 pounds. Once I hit that goal, my Lifetime Membership will be restored (no monthly fees!). I plan to lose another 11 pounds after that so I can have a total loss of 75 pounds. That will give me a little leeway in minor weight fluctuations without having to stress about losing that Lifetime status again! 

On Tuesday, Bruce and I began car shopping for me. We’ve been a one-vehicle family for several years. We figured that once we retired and his arm was amputated, one car would be plenty. But now that we’re in the process of getting divorced (very amicable, don’t feel sorry for us), we realized we’d need to get another car. On Wednesday, we purchased this 2021 Nissan Kicks for me. It has low miles, a pristine Carfax history and title, and was very clean. I would’ve preferred a lighter or brighter color, but I’m totally thrilled with my new baby.

   

But you’re probably here to see what was happening in my sewing studio this week, and I’m pleased to say that it was, at least, SOMEthing. 

More 4.5” Christmas Stars were sewn. As well, I decided that where I could, I would replace some of the little stars with squares of red print, low-contrast (with the red background) fabric. I think that will save me from having to make about 16-18 of the 89 small stars I’m working towards. Also, Cousin Kim has volunteered to help me churn out a few stars, so we’re hoping to finish those off by mid-October. 

Here are the three sizes of stars for comparison. Naturally, I’m only showing a few of the 19 large stars and a few of the 50 medium (8”) stars. The quilt will finish at roughly 90x96”, or something like that. I’ll give you more of the details as the top gets closer to a finish. 

Once the stars are all sewn, it should be only a day or two (hopefully) to get the top assembled. Then I can hand it off to the quilter before the end of October so I can have it back by Thanksgiving weekend. I want to be able to give it to son Ryan and daughter-in-law Kim so that they can have it on their bed this Christmas season.

Finally, I did get the aqua strings quilt top sewn together as was my goal this week.

I have the perfect piece of aqua fabric with bright dots on it for the backing. Perhaps I can get this basted this week, along with a scrappy quilt top I made a couple weeks ago at the Quilts for Kids workshop. Come to think of it, I’ve never shown that top, but I will soon enough. 

That’s about it for now. Has fall arrived where you are? Our temps dipped on Friday, and it was positively frigid here. The furnace even kicked on. But it’s supposed to warm up to the high seventies for next week. I believe that is an early Indian Summer for us, and I hope it lasts. It just feels to me as though this is going to be another long, cold, snowy winter. We’re busy “gathering our nuts and acorns” - which means harvesting the remaining tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and potatoes. It sure has been good eating (and sharing) from the garden this year.

Linking up to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.