Take it away school!

It's over.  Summer vacation is over.  I feel like crying.  There has been a noticeable absence from this blog because the summer was packed.  That is as it should be.  There was also a noticeable absence from sewing, knitting, crocheting, or any other handcrafts.  That isn't as it should be but it is what is.  When there are children here almost everyday and as many as 7 of them, there is no time for sittin' and knittin'.  I did miss sitting in the  yard and doing that though.  Our yard is secluded, shady, and perfect on even the hottest days to sit and enjoy.  Ahhh, well, the kids are only young once.  I did sit in the yard but more as a peace keeper with the sprinkler and hoses going.  As I said the summer was packed.  Below are a few of our adventures:                       

                                      Trips to the local water park

Time for napping

            Somebody turned two!  That was just one of the 10 birthdays we celebrated this summer!

                                             There were blue ribbons won at the fair!

                                     There was soap making

                             There was the family campout to Ft. Stevens.  The weather was perfect for playing on the beach, swimming in the lake, and riding bikes.

                           There was some Nonny cuddle time with a book.

                         What would camping be without hot dogs?

                     There were visits to the Battery for hide and seek and photo ops.

                  There were baseball games and routing for the home team.

                 There was painting in the yard and then sprinkler play to wash off.

             On a really hot day, inside play at Pump It Up was great fun.

                      There was one last trip to the water park.

                     And the last day before school starts, a trip on the rails, complete with a hold up.

Yep, summer was FUN!  And PACKED!  There was time for learning too.  We watched the entire series of Liberty Kids from OPB in half hour increments each day.  We all came away with a knowledge of the Revolutionary War.  I did manage a few sewing projects in the last week.  Little ones that will eventually make it on the blog but for now, I'm reliving summer and my eyes are misting over.  It went way too fast.  9 months until it's summer again!  In the meantime, there is fall and winter and spring fun to plan.

The sewing venture for the fair

Several of the grandmunchkins wanted to enter the fair this year as they have seen their Mom and I do for the past several years.  The entries were online this year and two weeks earlier than normal...yikes!  With VBS the second week after school and the fair entry the very next week we had to jump on it.  Jump we did.  Three entered sewing projects and one, having tried sewing in the spring, wanted to do a bird house in wood.  We convinced him a bird feeder would get more use.  So away we went.....

                                          cutting.....

                                         serging....

                                         sewing.............

                                         measuring...........

                                         more sewing.........

                                         hammering........

                                         more sewing.........

 TA DA!  A finished bird feeder.  Despite Graypa being very sick, he sucked it up to help get the project done.

 And when the sewing machine wasn't humming, the garden was getting some tlc.  I must admit it one pretty garden.  And the first zucchini found it's way to my lunch plate today.

The kids weren't the only ones sewing.  I dedicated an entire weekend to the sewing room to get the traditional 4th of July shirts and dresses done.
Now off to try and finish my knitting project for the fair.  Wish me luck!

Fair time!

It's been a busy summer thus far and I have lots of pictures but no time to post!  I took a few minutes to post our entries for the county fair so that some family members that can't get to the fair can see how we did.  I must admit I'm more proud of my daughters and their efforts that mine.  My older daughter with 4 children managed to knit all of her family a vest or sweater for Christmas wearing and earned a blue ribbon on her husband's vest!  And he is not a small man!  My younger daughter crochets like a fiend and entered an afghan in the disabled adults category and scored a red ribbon!  

 My entry in Girls' Halloween costume.  I was so pleased to see a judge's choice on this one.  It was a lot of work with fabric that isn't so easy to handle and sew.  But I was thrilled with the results.  So was my granddaughter!

 I made this dress just because I had the fabric and I wanted to try the pattern.  It's still a bit big for my granddaughter but it was fun to sew.

 I sew enough boys shirts that I usually have one or more to enter.  You can't see the buttons on this shirt but I think they make the shirt.

 I also make pajamas every year but never thought to enter them until this year.

 Unfortunately they cut the categories to enter in this year and my daughter and I ended up competing in the children's knit category.  I love this sweater though and wanted to enter it.

 I was so glad to see this prominently displayed and it definitely earned a blue ribbon.  It is a beautiful vest and just one of 4 my daughter knit for Christmas Sunday.  There was another vest equally large in the same category and I could not read all of the judge's notes to see why it took second.  That was new this year, judge's notes on the knitted items.  I really appreciated the time the judges took to write why an item excelled or an improvement that could be made or both.

 These are my daughter's other entries.  The judge did write on her sweater that her knitting was very even and the stitches were beautiful.  Ahem, the judge also mentioned not knotting the yarn ends.  Oops, I do that.  I knot my old and new yarns, especially on children's garments.  I'll have to watch that and see if the judge mentioned that on my knits.

 Finally, my younger daughter's entry.  I don't think this is one of her best but I grabbed it in a hurry.

 And lastly, I grabbed this at the last minute as well and entered it, not expecting it to do well but glad it did.  The judge said it was a unique pattern but well done.  I can't show the pattern since it was a test knit and possibly going into a magazine.

Another successful fair!  I still would like to try for the niftiest needler award but I did not have enough entries this year to even compete.  Nor enough categories entered.

Summer means participation

Our church has hosted a jam festival for several years now for the community.  This year, for the first time, there was a "best berry dessert" contest and my granddaughter and daughter entered a strawberry pie.  They even went to the Farmer's market that morning to get the best fresh strawberries.  I heard they sampled a few in the process to make sure they got the best!

After fierce judging, their pie tied for first place!  They got a wonderful grape themed gift basket.  The cheeks on the little pie maker are full of yummy grapes.

 They compared their treasures with other winners.  I think Little pie maker  has a new hot chocolate mug.

 There were other events to participate in at the jam festival...smore making....

 a bounce house with a slide.  That would be Graypa partcipating with the grandmunchkins.  I took a few turns myself in the house and down the slide.  We participated in the Advil bottle that night too.

And then, before we knew it, the County Fair was upon us.  I've participated in one form or another since I was a young girl in the county fair.  My brothers raised pigs and showed them at the fair while my sister and I raised sheep to show and sell in the market lamb contest.  Today I do a different kind of participation and it was so much fun this year to take almost all of the grandmunchkins with us to the fair.  We never got to the rides and carnival part since there was so much to see and do and we all wore out.

 There were pumps to pump.

 There were tractors to try out, complete with making the proper tractor noise.

 There were reptiles to pet and see.

 There were shows to see.  Graypa had NO intention of participating but he was a good sport when he was called up from the audience.  I don't think the performer actually thought he would try and get up on the unicycle, but he did. 

 There were animals to pet and see. 

And then we headed over to the textile competion to see how we had done.  Blue ribbons, red ribbons, white ribbons!  We had a them all. 
Miss S entered a skirt and blouse she had made with her Great Grandmother's help.  She won two red ribbons!  She just entered a new level with much older girls competing in the same level so she did very well!

 Miss S entered a blanket in the special division and a hat.  A red and white ribbon.  The hat she entered competed against her older sister's hat. 

Our other daughter, home recooperating from having Mr. C, entered a scarf, hat, sweater, and vest.  A blue and red ribbon!

 I entered a lot of things this year, hoping to win the nifty needler award.  I didn't.  But I still won awards on most of what I entered, some blue, some red, and some white, and one judge's choice.  And best of all, all of the things I made are in use already!  The lady taking our things for entry told me some ladies work all year at making things for the fair so considering I work all year making things for the family and I had to "borrow" them back to enter in the fair because they were already being used, made me feel a bit better.

 All those ribbons and still not enough for the niftiest needler.  Wow, wonder how much the lady that won did?  There is always next year.

 And before we left, Great Grandpa actually got a hug from the littlest one.  A first!  Now we're off to participating in picking garden produce.