I'm quilting

I am quilting! Don't look too closely at the quilting--I am very much still refreshing myself. This will be a C.A.S.A. quilt.



Another C.A.S.A. quilt. This is the one that was on the frame when the thread kept breaking. The colors aren't true. What looks blue is more turqoise.

 

DH and Sissy. She is doing very well. She has gained weight and loves playing with her toy. Butterball has gotten to be a real "butterball"--he weighs 9 1/2 pounds and is six months old. We got a lot of painting done but have a lot more to go. This week looks good weather wise. The house is looking so good.

I plan on more quilting and more painting next week.

Blessings to all,

An Online Quilt Festival

Wanna see beautiful quilts and not leave your chair? Click on the button and it will take you to links of over OVER 500 quilts. Enjoy and thank Park City Girl.

Blessings,

Something Quilty

A post with quilty stuff and quilts--it's about time! I have received two gifts from two special people. The first came right before I left to go on retreat and I totally forgot to post a picture.




Connie W from Cootie Bug 2 held a PIF several months ago and I entered and here is her gift. Isn't it adorable?



AND Patricia who has been reading my blog since it's beginning sent me these wonderful strings and crumbs. The colors are so pretty. I have one of those fabrics, Patricia. The blue with the dark. And check out the one that says Welcome to Grandma's that I positioned in the middle.


And I promised quilts! Here is the Time Travel quilt. All it needs is quilting. Yay!



And here is the latest. I found this fabric and used it to demo 4 Patch Stacked Posies earlier in the summer. I saw Geta's quilt and used her tutorial. I need a name folks. I'm thinking Floating Flowers at Midnight or something. I need help.



Blessings,

Home Again!

Yes, I'm home. And it feels good. DS is doing good after back surgery. He should be able to drive this week. He is getting around slowly but good. Thanks for all the prayers. He and I had a good time together at his house this last week. I had time to read a book, finish sewing "Pieces Parts" quilt (and DGD Aimee loved it when she saw it this weekend).



I cooked and cleaned and watched TV.


And we celebrated DGS Mason's 2nd birthday Saturday afternoon. What a precious baby! AND we are going to be grandparents again! Mason is going to have a baby brother or sister! Praise the Lord!
Can you see Butterball and I in the reflection of the patio door? You can click on the picture to enlarge it.



AND we have a new doggie at our house. Ruby is her name. She is a border collie. Yes, there may be puppies--someday. Max is getting older--ten years old. Ruby belonged to our DD and family and since moving into their new house Ruby wasn't happy in their smaller backyard. She was herding bugs. Poor baby. She seems to be happy here. She is 9 months old. Lots of energy! Oh, boy, here we go again. Poor Max. First Butterball--lots of energy and now Ruby--lots of energy. His naps will never be the same! We took Ruby down to meet the calves and hogs last night. It was feeding time and everyone was making lots of noise and she didn't like it at all! Ruby and Butterball are very curious of each other. So funny. Ruby had the habit of licking DD's dogs faces. Go figure. She tried it with Max just now. Let's just say it didn't go over too well! She probably thought "Grumpy, Old Man!"


Blessings,

Popping In

I am at my DS#1's house taking care of him after his surgery. He is doing well. He was dismissed from the hospital on Friday. He is progressing every day. He can't drive for two weeks following his surgery and can't go back to work for four weeks. I will stay until he can drive. I have been cooking and doing some cleaning. ; ) He hasn't offered to disown me or suggested I go home yet so I guess we are getting along peachy.

I brought some quilting projects. : ) and my sewing machine! Can you say "almost quilt retreat"?
I got the "Pieces Parts" quilt all together. There is a Jo-Anns right up the road. I went there today to buy ball-point needles to hem up lounge pants that are knit that DS#1 had bought. There's also a large thrift store I want to check out. I've visited a Super Target. Love it. AND maybe I will find time to check out the two quilt stores in the area.

I missed you guys in the last few days. I am using his computer to post. Trying to catch up on blogs. Thanks for all the prayers.

Blessings,

It is a small world after all!

Park City Girl had a quilt festival online a couple of months ago and I go back to her site and look at more quilts from time to time. I happened onto to this one and thought, "I've seen this quilt before." Sure enough. I have a book Friendships in Bloom and on page 34 there is a picture of the beginnings of this quilt. The book is based on round robin exchanges between women from America and Norway. From what I understand the center block was made by the owner of the quilt and then passed on for a row to be added. I bought the book because I was involved in a round robin several years ago and enjoyed and for the interesting border ideas. It was very interesting to see this quilt again and completed.



Happy quilting and blessings,

The next Tiger Woods?

The next Tiger Woods? We were in Abilene Saturday. Let me back up--we met DS#2 and DIL in Decatur at a mexican restaurant Friday night and came home with DGS Mason. Then we got up Saturday morning and drove to Abilene to meet DH's parents and brother and wife and we ate lunch at another mexican restaurant. We like mexican food--; ) . We were visiting in the backyard and I asked DBIL if he could find a ball in the garage for Mason to play with. He found a tennis ball and then got the idea to improvise a golf club/baseball bat (which ever Mason was imagining). A plunger -- you know the kind you use for plumbing problems. Yeah! Unscrewed the stick from the rubber. The stick became the club/bat and the rubber became the tee. It worked good! Okay, okay. No, it wasn't all gross so don't go saying ewwww! Mason loved it. He even backed up and got down on the ground and looked at his shot. I kid you not! It was hilarious. That was lunch and early Saturday afternoon. Then we stopped at DD and family on the way back and ate supper with them. She made a mexican dish! Can you say MEXICAN FOOD?! All the grandkids had a ball playing together. Then we headed home. Got Mason a bath and he (and us) slept well. He woke up at 7am. You put him on the ground and he runs. I took him down to the garden and we did some watering. He had a blast with the garden hose. Yes, he got soaked. My plan entirely. Not necessarily my plan to get pretty much soaked from the knees down. 8 ) Silly NaNaw had on blue jeans. Oh well not to bother. We got that all done and came in and got baths. Ate a light lunch and then loaded Mason and DH up and drove him home. DS#2 and DIL cooked us supper. Not mexican! Yay! Steak on the grill. Yummy. DH and I came home and pretty much collapsed.

Earlier in the week I made a blackberry cobbler from blackberries a friend from Bowie brought us. Oh my goodness! Some vanilla ice cream and warm blackberry cobbler--doesn't get any better. Unless it's chocolate and then we're talking a whole new thing! LOL

And I've had to discipline myself. Yeah, you may be thinking diet. That, too. But I've had to discipline myself to finish the repair of this quilt for someone. This is an older quilt that had lots of wear. The customer wanted to preserve it as much as possible. I am sewing down the pieces by hand that have come apart. This must have been a beautiful quilt in it's day. I don't know how old it is. It is hand pieced and hand quilted. It has flannel between the layers. I have worked on this for hours! A labor of love let me tell you. I don't have too many hours left. Yay!

Today, I went to a demonstration. A free demonstration making a jacket using a sweatshirt. I've never done one before. I've admired those I've seen others wearing. A nice demo! And a nice salad luncheon followed. You know I haven't had to cook much lately. This is working pretty good! Stay tuned but don't hold your breath for the jacket I do. LOL ANOTHER project in the making! Oh, no! Where does it all end? I know six feet under. Let's not rush things, okay? What the heck -- give me another project. I can do it.

Happy quilting and blessings,

Check it out!

Check out the Featured Blog in my sidebar! Lots of freebies and great stuff.

Blessings,

Butterball and Pieces Parts

That title will make you look, huh?! LOL I will 'splain. Butterball is the new kitten and Pieces Parts is the new quilt. Not as bad as it sounded.

Here he is sleeping--shhh! ON MAX'S MAT! Yup, the critter has taken over. Isn't he cute? I took this while he was sleeping because he doesn't stay still long.



This is what DGD Aimee and I started when she last was here. Pieces Parts! Below you will see her inspiration. It is a skirt for my short arm quilting machine table--I hide things under there. Shhhh! Anyway this is my version of the skirt below. I did not make the one below -- it came with the machine. Pretty neat, huh? Hers are very neat--mine are kind of wonky. I have been sewing pieces parts together for days. Click on the picture to make it bigger. I was thinking this would make a good leader and ender project like Bonnie H. does.

And I wasn't able to use my design wall (bed) because I already had something on it. Yes, it is gathering dust waiting for me to finish the project above so I can change thread to dark and finish it. What do you think?

We went to a fundraiser concert Saturday night at a local church. A nice Christian band played. At the end of the concert a young man gave us a show in the parking lot. I have no idea what these are called. He took these baseball sized balls that hung by cords lit each ball with a flame and began to twirl them. Really neat!

I pulled sunflowers beside the pig pens this morning. I told DH that I had declared war on them. He asked me if I won. I told him we had merely had a battle and the war wasn't over. See you shortly after sunrise, Sunflowers! Where I have pulled them up the grass has been able to take over. Yay!

Happy quilting and blessings,

It's Finished to Quilt top stage

I got the blocks sewn together a week or so ago and then Saturday at Paradise Piecemakers I got the borders cut and sewn on. This one will be tied or quilted and donated to C.A.S.A. in our area for a child they have been assigned.




And another for C.A.S.A. I pieced these blocks a year or two ago and they got put away. I got the backing pieced, too. Yay. If you're interested in the block pattern--I think I found it at allabout.com. I think. When I have some time I will look back and check on that. I looked and found it. Look here. I didn't have enough of the stripe fabric to follow the pattern exactly.


And may I introduce our new residents. Aren't they pretty? One boy and three girls. Yes, Donna, he is still a boy. Don't know how long.








What our grass looks like after all the rain we've had. God is so good.

Blessings,

Down Under Quilts

A six months free online subscription to Down Under Quilts can be found here. Thanks, Mary, for the heads up. I can't wait to see what quilts there are.

I bought the peppers plants and got them planted right before sundown along with some marigolds around the squash. We've had some strong south winds and it's not doing the newly planted tomatoes very good.

Blessings,

Still Busy

No Swine flu here. Praise God! All the schools have reopened.

Pictures of DD's house.

Donna, if you're reading this--you would love her house!

This is the cabinet in her bathroom. Click on the picture to enlarge to see the glass knobs.

DD moved this weekend into their BIGGER house. I went Friday to help do some cleaning before the move. The house had been empty for awhile so lots of cobwebs and dust. I volunteered to clean her bedroom. Did I mention that this house is bigger? Oh yeah! They are going to enjoy it so much. Her regular housekeeper came in the afternoon and cleaned the kids bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen. DD took on the living room, dining room and breakfast area. Then I did the laundry area. I wanted to share some photos. This is an old home with glass door knobs, wood floors, a huge pantry, pocket doors, and a beautiful cabinet in her bathroom. And she has all new cabinets in her kitchen! They moved from a little house and she loves to organize so she is going to be so happy. There is so much storage!

Saturday we planted our garden! Yay! There was preparation--not yay. We have those pesky sunflowers. I pulled all them up by the roots while DH tilled. Then he marked the rows and dug the holes for the tomatoes. We have planted a total of 42 tomatoes, twelve hills of squash, six hills of cucumbers, five rows of blackeyed peas, three rows of okra, five rows of green beans and I still have to pick up some pepper plants. DH wanted to know what army I was going to feed. Well, there are people out of jobs and some people we know have opened a food pantry at a biker church. Ya'll do me a favor will you? In July and August remind me why I wanted to plant all this will you? I have a canner, jars, freezers, and hopefully time and God willing we will all eat good. AND get this! It rained in the wee hours of Sunday morning. God is so good. AND it rained again this morning. DITTO! It's been a long time since we planted a garden and didn't have to water to get it up. God is so good. The muscles? Yes, the muscles are sore. You know the ones used to squat and bend over. DH was sore too. Just keep moving, just keep moving, just keep moving. Remember Dory in Finding Nemo? Except she said--"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, etc."

Sunday we took a hog to the butcher for a customer. The wildflowers were so pretty. Sorry I forgot my camera. Ya'll please say a prayer for our butcher, please. He is having some health issues.

Some quilting stuff--

My basket for Saturday for Wise County Quilt Guild. I used Lite Steam a Seam 2 to fuse the flowers and basket. I machine appliqued the basket before fusing the flowers in place. My first! I have appliqued before using interfacing and turning and hand applique. This took some small sharp scissors.

The fabric I used to cut appliques from. (P.S. I have this for sale on the bolt.)


Below are blocks from part of my presentation at the April meeting of guild.

You can find the free tutorial here.




A close-up.

This is the fabric I used for the 4 Patch Stacked Posies.

Blessings,

My Favorite Quilt

I don't meet or make many quilts that I don't like or love for that matter. LOL But in choosing a favorite I would have to say that this 4 Patch Stacked Posies is my favorite. I absolutely love the kaldeiscope effect of these quilts. I first saw a quilt made from this pattern at Judy L's blog and fell in love. Sorry it was on her old blog and now I can't show you the picture of the quilt she made. One Saturday at Paradise Piecemakers a couple of years ago someone had brought in a fabric stash of a quilter who had died. She had started making curtains from this fabric. One curtain was partially made. I fell in love with it and brought it home. I took the seams apart and pressed it; stacked it and whacked it.

I've since made many more and continue to spread the addiction. Yes, it is habit forming! AND I have discovered so many ways of setting the blocks together! So fun.

Park City Girl is hosting a Quilt Festival and today is the last day to enter! So hurry on over and read how to enter your favorite quilt and register for prizes. It is going to be fun to visit all the sites and see all the quilts.

Blessings,

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,

It's Done

Yup, the Rose 4 Patch Stacked Posies is now a quilt top. I finished it up last night. I was doing a happy dance last night! This is a gift for someone and once it is presented I will take more pictures.

Also be sure and check out Blog of the Week in the sidebar. Some neat stuff.

Blessings and happy quilting,

Busy Week

Happy Valentines! We loaded pigs to take to auction on Tuesday before daylight. Then Tuesday afternoon DGS Mac had a program at school that I was invited to. It was a musical with percussion instruments and he had a speaking part. He did good. I got pictures. Wanna see? I knew you would!




This one was after the program and they
had already taken up the thingy a ma jiggys.



Afterward I got to check both DGS and DGD out of school early (lucky me with parental permission, of course) and we went to Dairy Queen for a treat and visited while their mom was still teaching. Then we met mom at their house and visited. While we were talking it came a hail storm. Nothing big -- marble size at the most. And the sun was shining! I knew we were forecast for bad weather later that evening so I gave my goodbye hugs and kisses and headed home. We didn't get any bad weather just rain and some wind. But Colleyville in the DFW area and areas near the Red River and Oklahoma just across the Red River from us did receive some really bad weather.

Then Wednesday as you know I have Kraz-z Quilters. I made lasagna (Stouffer's lasagna --Stouffer's did all the work) and salad and we quilted and quilted. Then Thursday I loaded up my quilting notions and went to Post Oak. I had a lovely time with the Busy Bees of Post Oak and a wonderful meal. Folks, this is the real thing. An old time quilting bee! Thanks, ladies.

Needless to say you didn't have to rock me to sleep either night. And I have been sewing rows on the Navy 4 Patch Stacked Posies as I have time per Wanda at Exuberant Color's method to save time. I think I'm going to like this. Since it is chained together, nothing gets separated and it's easy to pin the next step.



I'll get you a picture of my crumb blocks later. I have a total of 63 now. I love quilting! 8 )


Blessings,

String Lone Star Quilt

If you go to this link you will find directions for making a string lone star quilt. Don't you think this quilt is so beautiful? And if you go here you see Faye Burden's quilts. On the right column are her string quilts with the string stars down toward the middle of the list. I SOOOO want to do one. But that is another day/month/year LOL. Put it on the list! But (sigh) I must finish UFOs first.

Wouldn't you just love to go to Faye Burden's house and SEE her beautiful poster bed with the canopy and touch and FEEL these hand quilted quilts?

Happy quilting and blessings,

Giveaway at Terry Atkinson

If you go to Terry Atkinson's blog and leave a comment on this post you will be entered to win a copy of her new book Fat Quarter Fonts.

I went to Paradise today. Paradise is only a few miles from my house. We meet and sew in the fellowship hall of a local church there the fourth Saturday of each month. I got all the Navy 4 Patch Stacked Posies blocks squared up ( I used my new square ruler-and it made quick work of squaring up). Yahoo! Now I just have to sew them together and then decide on borders. I also took my crumb blocks to show them. It's always fun to see everyone's projects. They are as individual as they are. Oh, by the way, we had a cold front come through last night. Yesterday it was near 80 degrees. Today we may have gotten up to 38 degrees with a brisk north wind. Brrrrrr! Perfect day for sewing! Just a little cool hauling the stuff in and out. Well worth it!

Happy quilting and blessings,

Another link

I was reading Mary's blog this morning. Mary posted a link to Karen Griska's blog about selvage quilting. I had visited very shortly before thinking "Yeah, right! Like I'm going to do that!" But I revisited and spent some time looking. Very interesting. She has links to not only selvage quilts but totes, purses, small zippered purses, etc. etc. And if you make a selvage project email Karen and she will post a picture.

Today is Kraz-z Quilters. I will come home happily tired having enjoyed my therapy.

Blessings,

Another crumb quilt link

If you're interested here's another good link to crumb quilting also sometimes called mile a minute quilting. This one is a good speed piecing way found at Quilting is Still My Passion . I also have a link to her blog in my sidebar under tutorials where you can find tutorials for quilting.

Blessings and Merry Christmas,