Slow Sunday UNStitching...

 I'll be doing some Slow Sunday Stitching today, but it will be more like UNSTITCHING...  I finally loaded my Garden Party quilt (design by Bonnie Hunter).  It is going VERY crooked. 

I have a feeling that I may keep the border on the top where it is attached and take off the 2.5" border.  That seems to be where the problem is coming from.  I put that border on because it's easier for me to longarm when I have a nice, smooth piece to work with to baste down on the edge.  My original plan was to cut it off mostly of the finished quilt anyways so that I didn't lose all of my points.  I just can't stand to have it all crooked like this.  I'll never be able to square up the quilt nicely.  It did lay flat when I had it on the floor until I added the border.

I'm pretty sure I will only have to take out one row of longarm stitches.  That won't be too bad.  You can see in the photo above that the sides (border) do not lay flat at all.  Look how it is rolled on the left side!  I should have known better than to try to work in all that play.  I didn't want to stretch it out of shape by pulling it tight because of the border.  Also, you can tell by the rows of red that it is starting to go crooked.

In other news our elves were up to no good.  But our elf, Blue, is turning the bad around for good and teaching the others not to swallow gum.

Our COVID numbers are increasing about 500 cases per day in our COUNTY!  Our county went to the "purple" (most severe on watch) status today.  I took our son out and left him do his Christmas shopping at the Dollar Tree.  The important thing about this year was that I left him go into the store ALL BY HIMSELF as I waited in the truck.  He was soooo proud of himself and so excited that he got to go into a store by himself and make all of his selections.  He knew how much money he had, he knew how many things he could buy, and even considered adding the tax.

When we are in a busy place like this I feel okay to park far enough away as long as I am where he doesn't have to walk out into a parking lot and cross in front of cars.  He gets so excited and I don't want him to forget where he is.  He is getting very good at safety, but you never can be too sure.

His next suggestion was to celebrate being on the Merit Roll at school.  I'm super proud of this because he does almost all of his remote learning by himself.  He can tell how much he has to do for the week.  He plans his time so that he can get his work done in four days vs. five school days.  He learned that I will let him have fun on Fridays if he gets his work done timely.  He wanted to go to Chipotle.  He wanted to go in and order and pay by himself.  I knew he could do it.  This time I could park right next to the window and watch.

This is another big milestone of being independent.  He is a very high-functioning individual that just happens to have Down syndrome.  He rocks his extra chromosome! We are sooooo proud of him!  He has been going into our local grocery store in our very small town by himself to get one or two items for at least three years.  Now he is starting to go out into the "big world" and doing things indepently.

He is 13 years old and in the 7th grade.  He overheard me talking on the phone to his principal a couple weeks ago about goals I wanted to set in his next IEP (individual education plan) meeting that is coming up in February.  I finally expressed to the principal the plan I have had in my head for the past few years.  I would like Owen to be able to go to our vocational school and possibly take TWO vocational programs (because in his case he can be in school until he is age 23). 

Today Owen told me he wanted to take WELDING!!!  I am soooo excited about this.  I am a certified welder!  My husband is a much better welder than I will ever be, but he is not certified.  We never pushed this idea to Owen.  I'm so happy he is thinking about it on his own.  Wow -- Mind blowing!

Owen is much better at taking photos from the truck than I am.  He took this picture of the city Christmas tree in downtown Canton, Ohio.  Canton, Ohio is slightly famous for being the home of the Football Hall of Fame.  In the years past this tree would be a huge tree.  The company my husband used to work for used to go get a large donated tree from the yard someone that was fancy and prestigious.  My husband used to work for the crane and rigging company that would take it down and set it up using a crane.  The cool thing is that one of the guys he worked with resembled Santa.  That guy would always be part of putting up the tree and wear his regular work clothes and a Santa hat.  That guy passed away several years ago.  I knew who he was before I met my husband.  May he RIP.  I always think about him when I see this tree and the funny stories my husband would tell about it.

I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Did you see the picture of her mystery quilt she put in her header lately?  It's a show stopper!  Swing by for some creative inspiration.