Okay… Where have I been?  It’s been a busy month for me and seems like it will continue to be busy for a while longer.  I guess I forgot to tell you that I went to Amana, Iowa the week of July 4th for a mini-vacation.  One of the fun things I got to do there was sit in a big rocking chair.  For those of you who are older, you might remember Lily Tomlin playing the part of Edith Ann and sitting in this particular rocking chair as she played the part.

When I got back from Amana, I tried to catch up on all the UFOs (UnFinished Objects) I’ve got going on right now.  Tomorrow is our quilt guild meeting and it is supposed to be the big reveal of all our finished projects.  Well, guess what?  I am still working on the major parts of them!  Eek!

What I have been working on is a variety of other things as well as other people’s’ quilts.  First off, the house next door has been bought by a “flipper.”  This is his first house flip, and so far he has improved the looks of that house 200%.  Before, the yard to that house made my house and yard look good.  Now, I need to get my porch fixed and yard fixed up so we don’t stick out as the trashy neighbors.  Since I am on a tight budget, I have started recycling, re-purposing, and upcycling.  The neighbor asked whose wooden fence that was on the edge of his yard – it’s his.  He asked if we minded if he took it down since there were 3 different kinds of fencing over there.  I asked what he was going to do with the wood (it is good, solid wood), and he said he was going to burn it.  So, I asked if I could have it.  My sister and I have been talking about starting a salvage business where we take ugly things and make them beautiful once more; kind of like an antique business.  Anyhow, 2 weeks ago, she and I took down the wooden fence, much to my neighbor’s pleasure.  He thinks he got a great deal because he got out of the work of tearing down the fence.  My sister, Ruthie, and I think we got the good deal, because we got free wood.  In fact, it was enough wood to fill up the back-end of my sister’s truck!  Here’s a shot of my sister working on the fence.  Don’t look too closely, because she wasn’t too concerned about safety (her feet???).

It was so hot that day, we sweat our butts off, but we got it done in several hours… well, it took most of the day.  She is going to use the wood as wainscoting on her dining room wall.  It looks kind of like barn wood, but they are going to remove the rusty nails (which could have stuck into her foot – one went through the bottom of my shoe !) and then power wash it so it will be like new again.  I am going to use some of the wood to make myself some shelves for my many cones of thread.

We had been looking into the many uses of pallets.  People are doing crazy stuff with them and are charging for them, too!  I got 2 of them for free and thought I was going to be really creative with pallets, but I think this was my first and my last project with pallets (fencing wood is much easier to work with).  Originally, I was going to use this for my thread shelving.  Ugh!

Yes, it’s crooked.  Shazam!  Those dog-gone things are not square!  This is in my laundry room, holding a bunch of my fabric dye stuff.

I did manage to get a purse made for the UFO reveal tomorrow, but you should see it.  In fact, I’m not going to post a picture of it, I’m so embarrassed.  It’s not REEEEEAAAAL bad and would probably look a lot better if I’d put my stuff into it.  But, when my sister stifled a laugh and said it looks like luggage, I knew it was not one of my better creations.  But, but, but… it has tons of pockets and 3 zippered compartments.  I was so proud of myself for getting that all figured out.  The lesson here is that whatever you do and however it turns out, you learn something from it.  And, I learned that this would have been a great handbag if I had left off that stiff interfacing and only used the fusible fleece (next time…).

So, what did I do?  I ordered a Vera Bradley handbag, which was the original reason for me making my own.  I wasn’t going to spend the money on a Vera Bradley bag if I had the stuff here to make it already (FREE – yes!).  I have to say, though, that Vera Bradley has the best method of delivery.  My big thing lately has been customer service, and when I opened the box, the money spent on this bag that I could not afford was so worth it.  I felt very special.  I mean, look at this!  On the outside of the shipping box is plain brown, just like any other shipping box.  But, when you open it up, you see a happy green with special saying written on it and “signed” by Vera.  The bag is wrapped in tissue paper and sealed with an embossed sticker.  The invoice is inside a nice embossed card sleeve.  I feel so pampered.  Vera Bradley has definitely won me over as a customer for life!  Thank you, Vera!  🙂

Now to get to the quilts I’ve been working on…