A Ribbon Runs Through It

Still can't find the small vacuum.  How weird is that for something to just completely disappear.  I could have used it on several occasions, so I guess I'll have to find another one on sale at Amazon.  I admit, I was never one to buy much on-line, even if the prices were pretty good.  

Nowadays however, all the stores around here except Walmart have closed down, making on-line shopping much cheaper than driving 35 miles.  In all of my 70+ years, there was ALWAYS shopping here.  Gottschalks, Penneys, Sears and lots of small clothing businesses to go with it.  Even the Mall here has closed except for one business on the end.

Oh you can shop Kohls ... high priced and terrible quality ... or Walmart ... low priced and terrible quality. So sad to see our country come to this.

On a much brighter note .... I finally got the call.  "A Ribbon Runs Through It" was ready for pickup.  Isn't she a beauty?  Every square has 136 pieces I cut and sewed together.  This is the most complicated gorgeous quilt I've ever made in my life.  I didn't really want to ruin it with my non-professional quilting skills, (besides which my machine is a tad bit too small for this one) so I had it done at a small shop out of town ... 40 miles away.

I'm so excited it turned out beautifully.  I spent the next hour scrounging through every box I had, looking for the binding material.  I seem to be losing a lot of stuff lately.  FOUND IT!  I cut and sewed for the next hour, making 400 inches of binding to go around the edge.  Now I get to HAND SEW same 400 inches.  That's going to take quite of few hours watching rodeo on TV.

In the meantime, here's the latest piece on the wall.  This one is called Jacob's Ladder.  Turns out it' a pretty easy pattern to make, but the results are fabulous!  To make it even better, much of this is scrap material I had laying around.

Here's an up close view of the fabric.  It really does have some pretty patterns.  I planned this to be a "guys" donation quilt, but I may have to rethink that.  In person, the fabric looks like velvet.

On the way home from the quilt store, I stopped in for fuel.  It's the cheapest station around, although you always have to jump through some hoops.  The first pump I stopped at, the screen was locked up.  I should have paid more attention.  It took my credit card, but wouldn't pump anything.  I went inside, but the nice Indian lady is VERY hard to understand.  

After six tries, I said I would just go move around to another pump.  I'll have to check my account today to make sure I didn't get charged for someone else's fuel.  At the second pump I filled up for $4.34 a gallon.  Other stations around town are still at $5.69, so it's worth the drive to fuel up here.  Can someone explain that to me?  Why this small station is so much cheaper than the big station in town?

I actually finished yet another quilt binding while watching the Stetson Wright Bull Riding Invitational.  A 17 year old kid rode a bull like I've never seen before ... 17 YEARS OLD ... and got a score of 94.  I think that's the highest bull riding score I've seen in my life, and he deserved it.  He's going to be a World Champion for sure!!!

Cooper was unimpressed.  By the way, he is NOT a love bug.  Do NOT, under any circumstances, try to give him a pet when he's sleeping.  He will growl at you like a lion ripping apart his prey.  No kidding  ... he guards his territory with ferocity!!  Such a sweet little face!

Tonight I've got a big challenge waiting for me.  The King of Bingo is the one who collects all the money for our Thursday dinners twice a month.  It happens he's out of town with all the mucky mucks, so he asked me to cashier for him.  Easy, yes?

That would be a NO.  I'll have to use a new-to-me hand held charging device I've never even held before.  This should be an interesting night filled with lots of confusion and errors.  It's like someone throwing a computer at you when you've never used one before.  

It's Cattlemen's night ... appropriate, yes?  I'm wearing my normal Levis and boots in the hopes they take pity on me.  Wish me luck!!