Friday, March 27, 2009

Checking in



Is everyone feeling like they can't get everything done? Seems like there's not enough hours in the day or maybe we have too much we want to get done. NO, can't be. I did get one thing crossed off my list. Yay! The Siggy blocks are done and on their way to Connie W to do her thing as Siggy Swap coordinator.


We saw these bluebonnets Sunday afternoon on our way to Weatherford.
We met and quilted Wednesday then I helped (what little help I was) with the donation quilt for the guild on Thursday. I sewed pinwheels. You know where you have to make sure the center looks really good. Yeah. I think I MAY have gotten three or four done. After ripping and sewing to get them to look good enough. But the quilt is going to be awesome. We hope to be done sewing it together in a couple of weeks.
Ya'll have a nice weekend.
Blessings,

Sunday, March 22, 2009

March 22, 2009 Blog of the Week

Be sure and check out this week's Blog of the Week in the sidebar. If you haven't already seen Quilting on a Budget you'll want to. Online fabric sales are listed plus much more.

Spring is here. The hummingbirds and the barn swallows are back. DH looked up yesterday and saw a hummingbird outside the window where I always put the feeder. So I went and got out the feeder and made food and put it out. Then I heard the familiar sound of the barn swallows. Some people don't like them (including DH) but I love to watch them raise a family and do their swooping throught the air. Besides they eat lots of insects.

Blessings,

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Recipe and Retreat pictures

Ziploc Omelet

This is so much fun. It is good for groups. My sister gave me this recipe and it works really good when they go camping with the Boy Scouts.

Have each one write their name on a quart size Ziploc freezer bag with a permanent marker.


Crack 2 eggs (large or extra-large) into the bag (not more than 2) shake and squish to combine them. Put out a variety of ingredients such as: cheeses, ham, sausage, bacon bits, (all meats need to be cooked and I sauted the onion and peppers) onion, green pepper, tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc. Each person adds prepared ingredients of choice to their bag and shake. Make sure to get the air out of the bag and zip it up.

Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. You can usually cook 6 to 8 omelets in a large pot (stock pot - 7 to 8 qt is good). For more, make another pot of boiling water.

Cut across the top of the bag and slide the omelet out and enjoy.




The bags are in the pot. As you can see I didn't have a 7 or 8 quart pot. I was told by the retreat owner that there was a large pot. Her idea and my idea of a large pot are two different things. If I do it again I will take my own pot.


We had so much fun with these at retreat. Getting the air out is important. I forgot to tell them that part and what will happen is the bag fills with air and takes up a lot of room in the pot. Don't cheat--they need the full 13 minutes.


Jan joined us on Tuesday and brought her Double Wedding Ring she is hand piecing. The colors are fantastic!


Dixie happily working away. This is our raffle/donation quilt and we all pieced a block of this sampler. Then Dixie cut the alternate blocks and she made the center block then set them all together. She then asked for suggestions on the borders. I suggested the putty color. What do you think? If you click on the picture it will make it bigger and you can see the floral fabric has that color in one of the flowers.
And then the next day--the finished project.


I got caught still in my jammies. See my Stacked Moons behind me on the design wall?


Dixie helping Marie sandwich a baby quilt for her to hand quilt.



Priscilla put many many stitches in her doll house quilt before retreat. Continued working on it at retreat.
And on the design wall. With Marie pinning her 4 Patch Stacked Posies on the design wall.


Kathleen with her string quilt. Aren't the colors beautiful? She sewed the blocks at home then brought them specifically to put on a design wall to arrange the colors better. She got the whole thing sewed together and then brought out her Turning Twenty.
Got it all pinned up then we all helped her rearrange as the colors needed. Then she got it all the blocks sewn together then into rows before it was time to go.


If you haven't gone on retreat I encourage you to give it a try. I have been in this group for years and we know each other pretty well. And you get to know each other even better at a retreat. I didn't take a picture of Priscilla's PJ's she made just for retreat. They were black and white striped pants with a black and white print top with appliqued flowers. (She's one of those over achievers.) The rest of us don't let it bother us.

Can't wait to go back.


Blessings,

Sisterhood Award



Lindi, has awarded the Sisterhood Award to me. What a sweet lady!
and along with the award comes the privilege of awarding those whom I
believe to have a great attitude or an attitude of gratitude.

Now to the award -The rules connected to the award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

There are so many bloggers who show great attitude and/or
gratitude! These are in no certain order but just as they come to mind:


Patricia, Lindi, Wanda, Margo, Connie W., Mary, Judy L., Mary J., and there are many more
that I just can't think of at the moment. But if you have a great attitude or show
gratitude when you blog count yourself awarded!
Blessings,

Friday, March 20, 2009

I won!

I won some beautiful dresden blocks from Judy at Quilting with Ragdolls. They came in the mail today and aren't they pretty?







I feel so blessed. Thank you, Judy. And thank you, God, for
giving me such pretty things. The Bible says that every good
and perfect gift comes from above. I do consider these good and
perfect. Just perfect for me--who loves quilts made from stacked
fabrics.

Hey, wanna see my brand new baby tomato plants?
If you listen close--you can hear them
growing. No kidding!

Blessings,

Thursday, March 19, 2009

I'm Back!

Oh, and we had such fun! We left Monday morning March 16 and returned last night, Wednesday March 18. We stayed at Le Retreat House in Gainesville, Texas. The house was built in 1920 and is very charming. There is lots of room with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. On Monday there were five of us with Jan joining us on Tuesday. Anna, Priscilla's sister, visited on Monday afternoon and ate our evening meal with us.


Each one of us was responsible for a meal and what food! Marie had Monday lunch--with 24 karat sandwiches and a wonderful salad. Priscilla had the evening meal with white chili and salad. Kathleen had breakfast on Tuesday morning with a wonderful hash brown and sausage casserole with a fried egg for everyone and toast. Dixie had lunch that day with sloppy joes on an English muffin with the leftover salads from Monday. Then Dixie (being Dixie) went into the kitchen that evening and made us baked potatoes with trimmings and we had fruit and salad. My turn came Wednesday morning with breakfast. I made Ziploc bag omelets with choices of sausauge, ham, bacon, onion, red bell pepper, and cheese. (If you want the recipe--just leave a comment and I will post the recipe.) It was fun. Oh, I took some of my homemade bread and sliced and made toast and had Kathleen's leftover hash brown casserole. Since Wednesday was our last day and breakfast was big we ate later in the afternoon and ate leftovers (trying to clean out the refrigerator).


And of course we sewed! I got all my siggy blocks sewn and now all I have to do is sign them and mail.



I sewed up the little blocks our guild is doing for a project.

I worked on my Stacked Moons.


Isn't this one sweet? Isn't that little circle in the center amazing? I couldn't have made that happen; it just is that way. And of course we know as Christians that things don't just happen. There's a purpose. So amazing! I'm not sure how I will put these together yet. I laid them out on this green fabric and I kinda like it. I'm thinking of making a table runner/topper or a wall hanging because I don't have much of this fabric. I am open to suggestions. I had sewn them all into full moons and while at retreat did some unsewing and resewing to make the other shapes--where the stacked arcs form the kaleidoscope effect--and I think I like it that way. Again I am open to suggestions.
I cut out and sewed up Block #13 of the Star BOM and then began cutting the sashing strips and setting triangles before it was time to go.


We laughed and helped each other with color placements. We helped Marie (our oldest at 82 years old) cut out some of her things. Jan brought her foot bath and gave foot treatments (with sea salt, lotions, and massage) and pedicures. She is a doll! We had an absolutely wonderful time and can't wait until we plan another.

Blessings,

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Blog of the Week

Please check out Blog of the Week in the sidebar. Geta is a very gifted and talented quilter. And she likes Kaleidoscopes quilts so that's always a plus in my book. Check her out--she has some neat tutorials as well.

Now I've got to run.

Bye and blessings,

Copyright and no pictures

So sorry but I cannot post pictures from the Dallas Quilt Show due to the paragraph in the program under Quilt Photography-

"You may photograph entries in the judged show. However, please respect the copyright protection to which our quiltmakers are entitled by obtaining written permission from the quiltmaker before posting a photo on the internet."

Since I only have a name, city, and state I don't see how I could contact these quiltmakers.
There were some really pretty quilts. I thank the Quilter's Guild of Dallas for putting on another wonderful show. There were a lot of neat and very interesting vendor booths. Oh and I gotta tell you--John Flynn was there. My fellow quilter, Priscilla, invited her sister who is a budding quilter to meet us at the show. Her sister, Anna, bought one of John Flynn's quilting frames. In the process (this was toward the end of the show) we got to have one on one time with John Flynn. He is a very nice man. I so admire his designs and machine quilting. John was one of the judges for the show this year. John has a blog here.

Okay, that's all for now. I gotta go get ready for retreat.

Blessings and happy quilting,

Friday, March 13, 2009

Guess what?

I get to do two things I absolutely love! Quilt show and retreat! The Dallas Quilt Show is this weekend and two of my Kraz-z Quilters and I are going and then THEN we have a retreat planned. I will tell you all about when we get back. Hopefully I will get some projects completed.
We are going to a different place this time and I will tell you all about it with pictures.

I'm busy making up an order--making phone calls to customers for orders (I love that part--get to talk about more quilting LOL), looking for what they need (love that part, too), and looking at all the BEAUTIFUL fabric. I've also got to do some cooking for DH for when I'm gone and round up my projects, charge the camera battery, get my stuff together for retreat -- you get the picture, right. I'm busy.

Oh, and by the way, check out this week's Blog of the Week in the sidebar. It's a good one. And be sure and check out next week's it going to be one close to my heart.

Blessings and happy quilting,

Sunday, March 08, 2009

What I've been working on




We presented the quilt top to Marie on Wednesday. She was very pleased and just about cried.

And here are my siggy blocks I've done so far. I need 23 more.



On Friday Feb 27 three of us from Kraz-z Quilters traveled to Denton and Lewisville to shop for backing fabric for Marie's quilt. We stopped at Jo-Anns, Tuesday Morning (Priscilla needed a gift), Linda's Quilt Shop in Denton, and then Quilt Country in Lewisville. While at Quilt Country there was a sample on the wall that got me thinking. And I had a brain storm. You heard the thunder and lightning right? LOL I can't stop thinking about what can be done with stacked fabric. Got it bad don't I? I don't know if you've heard of the Many Moons and Miny Moons templates that The Quilting House in Breckenridge, Tx has designed. I bought the Mini Moons
template and stacked four layers and have sewn up several to give it a try. What's neat is that they make their own sashing. I wasn't sure the Miny Moon would be small enough to best show the kaliedoscope effect so I did some figuring (great mathmetician that I am LOL) and went to my dishes and found a saucer that would work for cutting smaller ones. Hence the smaller block in the photo. The smaller ones are a little more tedious to sew though. I think the effect is just fine with the Mini Moons and will probably stick with them. What do you think?






Blessings and happy quilting,

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Blog of the Week

You gotta check out the Blog of the Week in my sidebar! Cindy Carter of Quilt Patterns from Seattle has free quilt patterns on her blog and they are some neat ones. I know there are several I want to try. The list gets longer.

I've been working on my Siggy blocks and will post a picture soon.

Blessings and happy quilting,