Yea! It's the weekend!

As soon as I'm finished writing this post, I have to pack a bag and get ready to go to the cabin.  Yea for Don and me!  His cousin has a cabin about 2 hours drive from here and we go there every year for a family gathering and cookout. This year, we're not coming home after but we're staying in the hotel where my guild holds its fall retreat.  I call it the "Orange Moose" hotel but it's really a Best Western in Black River Falls.

Isn't she (or he) a beauty!  This orange moose is huge and can be easily seen from the freeway as you pass. Great marketing device, I think.  

Anyway, we're staying there because I have a meeting with the hotel staff and the retreat committee on Saturday morning and it's a lot of driving back and forth for us to come back home tonight.  

After we return home, Don will continue his adventure with pickle making--he put up 28 quarts of spicy hot dill pickles already with another 28 more to go.  I have to put up a few pints of dilly beans and the rest will go in the freezer.

Today the 18th block of the Bee-utiful Quilt Along was released:  

And here's the link if you want to get it for yourself:  http://www.modabakeshop.com/tag/bee-utiful-quilt-a-long  I was all caught up with the blocks so last night I decided to try my hand at knitting with the wrist splint on. Not a problem!  It's a little clumsy but I got used to that.

Let me explain about my knitting adventures. In November, the local domestic abuse program holds a fundraiser called The Quilt Tour.  There are four sites where local quilters display their work and guests go from one to the other, kind of like a garden tour.  At the church where my guild displays, we also offer a lunch and have a store where we have handmade items for sale.  Mostly gifty things since it's the middle of November and the holidays are nearing.  I decided to make doll clothes for 18" dolls like American Girl. I found a couple of sweater patterns online--a pullover and a cardigan--and I'm knitting a dozen or so to go with the dresses and slacks that I'm sewing. As soon as I can, I'm going to go full steam at sewing doll clothes and get as many finished as I possibly can.  Whatever doesn't sell in the shop I'll put in my Etsy store, Jolly Ruby.  Half of the proceeds from the store and the lunch go to the domestic abuse program and half are kept by the guild, so we want to make as much money as we can. I also have a recipe for an orange and spice scented bar soap and for a lavender milk bath that I'll be making up as well. So, as usual, I have a full plate in front of me.

But now, it's off to pack my bag and get out of here!