2026 OneThing #31 - Prep for Pahl Picnic (fail)

I'm really on a roll . . . of not successfully getting my OneThing done. I thoroughly enjoyed the picnic with my cousins, but I did not spend time preparing for it. My Pahl family notes, photos, etc. are not extensive, but it would be nice to share. It surprised me to realize / remember that my cousins are older than we four "Somers" kids (Not sure about Chris and Tom - they are about the same age). They have memories and stories of grandma and grandpa that I don't! I didn't realize that the "shack" to the south of our house on Aldrich (long since torn down) was the Pahl home before the "big" farmhouse was built! Jane told me that.

 

Here's a picture that Raymond sent to us four:

 

Front row: me, Barb (Kevin's), Jane, Ann, Louise, Julie, Tom

 

"Middle" row: Raymond, Linda (Mark's), Kathy (Chris's)

 

Back row: Louie, Kevin, David, Bob, Mark, Chris

 

 

Or in order of eyes: Louie, Jeanne, Barb, Kevin, Jane, David, Ann, Bob, Raymond, Louise, Mark, Linda, Chris, Julie, Kathy, Tom 

 

I did get other things done during the week. Specifically with family genealogy, we visited with Louie's cousin Chynne and now I have four more boxes of LaMoore history and photos. There's some really neat stuff, but it's a lot! Stacie has offered to help go through it. My basement is more full, not less.

 

One of my Pahl cousins commented that it was unusual for all eight of them to be in attendance. Many have lost spouses . . . Marilyn (Raymond's), Steve (Jane's), Chuck (Julie's ex), Becky (David's), Nan (Tom's) . . . and I'm not really sure about Bob. I feel as though I don't know my cousins very well! Next summer, I hope to be more on the ball. I had also forgotten that I missed the 2025 picnic. I don't remember why, but it's a priority for me moving forward.

 

Oh! At the quilt retreat that Ann won (A Place to Sew in DeSoto, Wisconsin), I put together the fleece pieces for a baby blanket / decrease my fleece. This past week, I snipped the seams for a finished baby blanket for Del and Jeff's new grandson Leon. Yay! I didn't take pictures of the finished blanket, but here are the "layout" pictures:

 

2026 OneThing#19 - Make Challenge Quilt Top (fail!)

I don't know why I struggled with this! The week was full of activity, but I really wanted to hunker down and do this. As it is, I'm blogging on Tuesday instead of Sunday. I guess I thought I'd still be able to get into my sewing room and make this happen.

 

I did iron fusible interfacing to some of my silky type fabrics . . . and I cut out a large square for each of my novelty / theme fabrics so I can fussy cut the 4 1/2" center of each star. But that was it.

 

Since I love to celebrate successes and share photos, here are two!

 

I had saved a LOT of toilet paper tubes to make little seedling planters . . . and once again, did not do any planting. I brought them to NPHS to give to the teacher who does an environmental studies class. I had subbed for her last spring and the students and I were folding newspaper to make planters. I hope she can make use of these! From now on, my cardboard tubes are heading straight to the recycle bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had three old style camp chairs (wooden frame with canvas seat). I had planned to repair the two that needed it, but honestly just didn't want them. Long story short, a lovely person from St. Paul drove out to get them AND a bag of fabric scraps from RaDon, AND three chaise lounge chairs from our garage attic that I didn't even know we had! It felt so amazing to re-home all those things! 

 

I wanted to share a link to her site. She must sell these, right? What a talented person! 

2025 OneThing #8 - A Fail and A Lesson

My "One Thing" for February 9-15 was "Order trusses and telehandler." These are for our pole barn project at Strawberry Lake. I have not yet done those things (Fail).

The lesson is: set a goal you can achieve independently. 

Our son was working on the plans and specs for the trusses. He emailed it to us on Friday. He is incredibly busy right now with work and his own projects. I didn't even really know how to find someone to build custom trusses and I didn't make any phone calls because I didn't have the plans. Anyhow, I have the plans now and I have an idea of how to find a builder. But it was not a this week thing . . . 

I almost ordered the telehandler! I had one onscreen, the delivery date and pickup date, the address, etc. . . . then while talking with Louie and Nick on Thursday night some questions arose. Do we need a truss jib or not? Their website doesn't seem to show that as an option. Are we okay with the 233-1370 model or do we need the 233-1650 with the support legs? Louie wants to talk to his brother about it. 

 

I don't think waiting until next week will be problematic, but I'd rather set an achievable goal for myself! This isn't time sensitive (yet) but it's important to me. Since I'm calling this week a "fail," I'll put some of the little things I've been hanging on to:

I made two baking beads bags for two of my daughters-in-law. I had gotten the pie weights (baking beads) as Christmas stocking stuffers for them, but they weren't in reusable containers. So I made two of the yellow bags. The turquoise one was my model. It was my first time and I had to figure out the technical parts of the opening and double-ribbon closure. It was more challenging than I expected! (Done 1.6.2025)

I made a difficult phone call to a challenging person. (Done 1.6.2025)

I wrote "quilt query 4 sibs" . . . but I have no idea what that refers to now! (1.7.2025) Whatever it was, I did it. <Update on 3.2.2025! This was contacting Ina Mae's four living children (Jennifer, Cookie, Bonnie, and Scott) to see if any of them wanted the Christmas quilt and pillow shams she had made! I didn't feel right about donating them without checking with her kids first. Today in church, Bonnie brought me some glassware from her mom's house that none of them wanted. Scott and Catherine ended up taking the quilt and shams.>

Bow bin sort and donate (1.14.2025) I had a LARGE bin of bows (which I almost never use any more) and I put nice groups of bows into plastic bags to donate to Goodwill. The bows I have left are nice, a variety of colors, and fit in a Rubbermaid bin that's half the size of the old one! Most of my gift wrap these days consists of whatever cloth bag I've sewn and some tissue paper. Still, bows can add a nice touch to things. I just didn't need so many.