Thursday, May 31, 2012

It is driving me Crazy!

I can't find three of my embroidery patterns. They must be hiding somewhere together. I bought them at different times. I remember buying the Christmas embroidery pattern envelope at the Dallas quilt show one year.  Then there's the envelope of basket embroidery by Lace Tales of Fredericksburg, Tx.  And the package of pig embroidery patterns. I have looked and looked. Oh where can they be? I will find them. I just wished it was now. Because when I can't find something I want to find--it drives me crazy.

Blessings,

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Yesterday

Can you say B-U-S  T-R-I-P?! Yes. Wise County Quilt Guild took another bus trip. Yes. We first went to Van Alstyne to the Alford Inn Quilt Shoppe and Retreat had some fun demos and shopped. I found some dragonfly fabric for Aimee's quilt. Then it was time for lunch at The Durning House Restaurant and Bed & Breakfast. 

There were three of these pigs below their sign. I think the Durning House has very good taste. In more ways than one! I think they like their pork on the table. Come to think of it we like it both ways, too. LOL  The meal we had was wonderful. They prepared a totally homecooked meal for us. We had a delicious chicken casserole, bow tie pasta salad, strawberry and spinach salad with poppy seed dressing, with a homemade crescent roll (oh my) and a toasted bagel slice. Then came dessert  --
Oh My! A small slice (thank goodness) of strawberry cake and a wonderful good sized serving of a WARM bread pudding with whiskey sauce (OH MY!). You could taste the butter!  They normally aren't open on Saturday so plan accordingly or if you are planning a bus trip call ahead and schedule.

After that we moaned a lot and waddled to the bus. Then we rode down Central Expressway to . . . anther quilt shop. Of course.  The Quilt Asylum in McKinney to be exact.  If two quilt shops could be totally different these were.  While Alford Inn is housed in an old house with antiques The Quilt Asylum was totally modern with bright and modern/urban type fabrics. Can you say Kaffe Fasset? Plus much more. I have never seen so many quilting books in one place. We had room to spread out and they had a constant stream of customers.  I found some batik fat quarters to add to my collection.  AND I was so hoping they had Quiltmaker's Vol. 5 100 Blocks and they did!

Then we still had some time and as we boarded the bus someone said -- Can we go to Happiness Is . . . Quilting just down the road.  They called ahead to make sure they were okay with a bus load of women. Sure! So away we went. Very nice quilt store. Extra bonus -- Sue Daley of Sue Daley Designs of Australia was there! She is teaching a series of workshops there at the quilt shop. She was so nice and did a demo for us. She has a new book out New English Paper Piecing. She paper pieces clamshells and many other shapes. Sue Daley is the one in the center. She demoed the clamshell paper piecing for us. The outer border in the quilt on the right in the photo above uses the clamshells. Pretty cool, huh? The other quilts pictured are hers as well.

Then we loaded up in the bus one more time and headed west to Denton. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for the evening meal. I was still too full from lunch and only ordered a Dr. Pepper.  We loaded up for the last time and headed west for Decatur Wal-Mart parking lot. It was a full day and a fun day.

Blessings and happy quilting,


Friday, May 18, 2012

More Babies


This is Little Mama and her newest litter. I had a talk with her -- went like this--"Little Mama, you really NEED to have more babies 10 to 12 would be VERY nice. Well, she has 13. She did good. VERY good.  See that little black and white one- yeah, the only one like that. It's a girl. The rest are blue butts. Some have very light black freckles on their butts. Aren't they cute?

Blessings,

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day


A very happy Mother's Day to all you mothers.

Blessings,

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Sorry for the absence

There are not enough hours in the day seems like anymore.  Lately, Hog Man has gone back to work and I've been cooking lunch for him.  Wait a minute--I was doing that before when he was home recuperating.  The difference is now lunch needs to be ready at a certain time.  You know what that means. Cook, eat, clean up.

We are having some really nice cool weather -- 70s. Week before last though was much warmer. We got in the low 90s. Nothing like in other parts of Texas who were in the 100s. In April?! We haven't had any rain, though, and we really need it.

How does my garden grow? See for yourself.
I planted in containers this year all but the tomatoes.   See that cute baby squash? Gonna grace our table probably next week.
These are the cucumbers. We have two containers of them and we are going to try the baskets and see how they do.
These are the three tomato plants. I started out with four and one died.  : (  I've been putting my used coffee grounds, banana peel, potato peelings, etc. in the middle between the plants.

Sunday evening when we finished feeding the hogs; Hog Man told me to get his big hammer and he would stake the baskets. I started across the yard and eeeeekkkk--there was this black snake RIGHT there in the grass. LONG BLACK SNAKE. 5 ft or more.  After catching my breath and Hog Man stopped laughing we checked it out and determined it was harmless.  We left it alone and it left us alone. We got the baskets all staked and went in the house to eat. I came out a little while later and big black snake was gone. I'm sorry I didn't have my camera but from my research it looked just like the black ones in these pictures.

This is my block for WCQG block of the month. I didn't win last month : ( -- Carolyn K did.  If you visit the WCQG blog shortly you will probably see pictures of Carolyn K with the blocks.  Gaila is doing a fantastic job with our blog. She also took over our newsletter and she is doing an absolutely stunning job with it. There is a link on the blog to the newsletter.

And these are little blocks we (the guild) are making for another baby quilt for Wise Choices Pregnancy Resource Center.

I'm working on a demo to take to the Bowie quilters this month.  Quilting on Wednesdays with the Kraz-z Quilters and trying to keep a clean house.  Time--it goes so fast.

Oh yeah. Patsy, my mother-in-law asked me if I could figure a quilt pattern out for her in Electric Quilt. It was the push I needed. I made myself do the lessons after supper each night and guess what? I did it. I learned to draw straight lines and do a simple block with a square in the middle and flying geese going around. I learned how to put fabric of different colors in each block. I will keep on doing more and learning more.  It is amazing and I am enjoying it.  Thank you again.

I have been making and using my own spray starch using corn starch.  I found a recipe here.  I haven't used the lavender oil but I might try it. I have seen where there are those who boil their water first. They say the cornstarch dissolves better.

I've also made my own laundry detergent. I've tried the powered recipe and now I want to try the liquid version. I've started using vinegar in the rinse instead of fabric softener. I was very pleased how the detergent cleaned. I have a pair of black capris and I thought they had faded due to hanging in the sun. After washing with the homemade detergent they are no longer "faded".  A very nice surprise. Who would've thought?  The recipe I used for the detergent used Fels Naptha, Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, and 20 Mule Team Borax.  I'm not real fond of the smell of the Fels Naptha.  I have since picked up a bar of Zote and will use it for the next batch. I will keep you posted on my adventures.

Blessings,