Another "Mason" weekend

Yes, it was another "Mason" weekend. We enjoyed him so much. I keep saying that he is a sweet baby--but he really is--and I have babysat lots of babies over the years. I got to rock him to sleep! He is crawling very fast these days. He was much better about the cabinets. He knows what the word "No" means. And you know what I am tired!

But he wasn't the only reason I'm tired. Thursday I pulled grass from the rocks in our rock patio. I refuse to use weed killers. We lost a darling Brittany Spaniel years ago to cancer and I read that weed killers are believed to contribute to cancer in animals. I could sure tell the next day that my muscles in my "rear end" had been used to squat and bend. I couldn't stand for our boys to see our patio all "grown up" since they always did such a good job keeping the yard when they lived at home with us.

This weekend we celebrated my youngest son's 25th birthday. I am amazed at him. He is so mature. He was recently promoted to assistant project manager at his engineering firm and he told his dad that he may be made project manager soon. So for his birthday celebration DH grilled steaks; I made a jello salad, homemade rolls, fried squash and a red velvet birthday cake from scratch. "Patting myself on the back". This is the second time this season that I have fried squash. We usually eat them steamed.

Friday, I went to Wal-Mart early. I needed print cartridges for the printer and of course lots of other "stuff". I found this neat stripe fabric to back one of the 4PSP baby quilts I made. I just love the way it turned out.

This quilt or the other one I made will go to Houston to a brand new little girl named Brooklyn.

DIL thinks the mommy might like the one with the polka dots better. This one is my favorite. But it's because I LOVE the shade of pink in the sashing. Click on the photo and look at the itty bitty 4 patches that make the corner stones. Aren't they so fun?

I wanted to post some more pics from the quilt retreat at The Quilt House. Patsy, I learned how to do the linky thing from Split Decisionz. Yippee! The bed to the right is where I slept.

Dixie is cooking lunch for us. Her Mexican dish was wonderful! I gotta get her recipe. Jan is cutting at the cutting table.

Kathleen posing with her Boondoggle quilt she completely sewed at the retreat. Great job! Jan's 4PSP she cut and sewed a big part of it at retreat. Another great job. Click on the photo to see the beautiful fabric. Dixie's quilt (sorry, I forgot the name of the pattern) on the design wall. Before we left she had put all the blocks together and some of the borders. This last Wednesday Jan and Dixie brought their completed quilt tops. I will have photos next post. We had a very productive retreat.

Blessings,

Hello World!

Last week and the three days of retreat went by like a blur! What fun I have had! God is so good! My DH is so good to me.

First off -- I didn't get a lot of pictures of Aimee. We were too busy having fun! Here she is doing a craft for NaNaw.

She made me a 3D paper sculpture of my Max. He is sitting down and do you see his tail in the second picture. She is going to be six next month. I am amazed at her imagination.

And she helped me sort my scraps. She is also very good at sorting.
Her mommy is a dream at organizing. I believe she inherited those traits.


My DH brought these stacked plastic bins from work. He found them in a storage area and they were going to throw them away. And now any thing smaller than a fat quarter lives here except for squares that are already cut down and the strings already sorted for projects. I even got all my bigger pieces folded and stacked. Yippeee!


I also made her a purse from this pattern while she sewed yo-yo's using the Clover yo-yo maker. And you DGMs out there know--it's "NaNaw, my thread is tangled!" or "Nanaw, I don't know what I did, but can you help me?" So the purse took much longer than I wanted it to. But it turned out cute. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. Bad blogger, I know. I got caught up in the moment. Did I say moment? It was hours. It really is a simple pattern but the whole fitting the side/bottom piece to the front and back thingy took ME a while. And I do plan on making her an outfit to go along with the purse. I got her measurements.

We went swimming at the public pool. There were NO pictures. I (ahem) have gained weight since the last time I wore my swimsuit. So I wore shorts so folks couldn't see where I oosed out of my suit. We had a lot of fun.

Okay, now for the retreat! Oh, my gosh, we had so much fun! We can't wait to do it again. We stayed at The Quilt House in Azle, Texas. It was just what our small group of four needed. She can handle eight but it gave us good room and honestly eight would be a little crowded. It is very affordable! We would like to go back someday soon. But we also want to try out some others. She didn't have an area with a sofa and that would have been nice to relax. But we were very busy sewing, talking, and of course, EATING. Oh, my gosh, I am still so full.
The first picture is myself on the left and my fellow quilter, Jan, enjoying the swing. I finished the Time Travel quilt. Woohoo! And the purple 4 Patch Stacked Posies is on the design wall. I had never used a design wall. Oh, my gosh! Wonderful! There were three design walls. I got all the blocks sewn together for the purple 4PSP and then barely got started with the sashing before it was time to go. On Tuesday we shopped at a local quilt shop. AND Nancy, the owner of The Quilt House, runs an online quilt store from the converted garage in The Quilt House and she is a vendor (Quiltin' Gals) at a lot of the big quilt shows SO we got to shop her store anytime day or night we wanted. She specializes in 30's reproduction prints. She has more fabric than a lot of quilt shops, folks. There is very little walking room in her store.

This is a very long post and I will post some more pictures in another post. Bye for now.
Blessings,

Retreat!

I'm going on my first quilt retreat! I leave in the morning and return Wednesday. I will post with pictures when I return.

Blessings,

It's an "Aimee" week

Yes, we have been invaded by our DGD Aimee. She arrived Saturday and I will take her home on Friday. So far we have made crafts (her favorite), shopped, made a trip to the library for books and videos, pulled more grass out of the garden and she fed it to the pigs, and today we are baking and hopefully we can get some sewing done and go swimming at the pool and I need to clean house?! Wheww! And before we know it the week will be over. She helps her PaPaw feed the animals every evening and she really enjoys that. We have a new litter of baby pigs born July 3. Then it's get ready for bed and read a story and off to dreamland. And then we do it all over again. The dishwasher is running; soon the washing machine will be humming and Aimee is still sleeping. She didn't get to bed until nearly ten. We are hostesses tomorrow for quilting so we are going to bake sugar cookies to go along with the fruit salad we are making and pimento cheese sandwiches. I like to bake my own bread, too. Want to join us?

And I have an abundance of zucchini! So I found some yummy chocolate zucchini bread recipes online to try and I am going to make zucchini jam today. Last year I made it and it was wonderful. It will be good to teach her about making different things. AND we just gotta find time to SEW! Okay, in reality--we're not going to get all that done today. But we are going to have fun doing what we can get done!

Sorry, no pictures today but I will take some and post next time of our adventures.

Blessings,

It's a flimsy

I went ahead and did it anyway. I'm still not sure I like the green polka-dot. It is bright for sure!

Blessings and happy quilting,

Feeling Better

I am feeling better. I was very lazy last week and now I have to get busy. We had guild meeting Saturday. Jeanne and I were hostesses for refreshments. She brought the fixings for yogurt parfaits and I made banana muffins, iced tea, and orange juice. It was nice to see everyone and see their show and tell. I took the pink 4 Patch Stacked Posies to show. They want me to have a class and show them how to do it. Yup, it's contagious. Can't even get near one I'm telling you; so look out!

Here's a picture of the 4PSP I'm making with the fabric I posted sometime back. I showed my Wednesday group the method of 4PSP using that fabric. This weekend I sewed the blocks and then I tried a different setting. I need some comments. What do you think? My husband tells me he's not sure. He thinks I need a lighter color to border the blocks before I put them with the polka dots. I like this setting but I'm thinking that the kaliedoscope effect is getting lost. Maybe the green with pink polka dots needs to go and be replace with a lighter color. Please, please give me some insight!

I plan on putting nine of these blocks together and bordering with focus fabric for a baby quilt. I have 51 more blocks and will probably make another baby quilt and throw.

I hoed in the garden this morning for a few hours. We got a tiller but the grass grew too quick and the tiller is having a hard time with the grass. So I will do it the old-fashioned way. Hoeing and pulling. I am making progress. Only half of it has a lot of grass in it anyway. Good exercise for me! I am going to sew some more of the blocks after a shower -- ewwww! and I'll see you later.

Blessings,

A Pasta Salad Recipe

I found this recipe in The Best of Concho Cookery produced by The San Angelo Standard-Times which is a cookbook I got while we lived in San Angelo, Texas. This cookbook represents a twenty-five year gathering of winners in the Concho Cookery Contest sponsored annually by the San Angelo Standard-Times copyrighted 1982.

I have changed up the original to our liking so I will list the original and then my changes. Okay.

One Dish Salad

3 cups cooked rice, cooled (I use pasta--elbow, or twists)
1/2 cup sliced ripe olives (I have used the diced version)
1 pkg. frozen sweet peas, cooked accordeing to pkg. directions (I'm not a fan of these so I omitted
the peas)
1/4 cup chopped pimento
3/4 cup coarsely grated carrots
1/4 cup chopped red onion (any variety will do--the red is pretty)
1 8 oz. pkg. sliced ham, cut into strips ( had our ham from our hogs and diced it and I have used diced chicken and it is equally good)
1 cup cheddar cheese cubes
1/2 pkg. dry Italian salad dressing mix (save the rest for the next salad--no worry--you will probably make it again real soon)
1 cup mayonaise ( I use Miracle Whip) or you can use a lighter version
Tomato wedges (I'm not a fan of tomatoes in pasta salad--soggy)
Lettuce leaves (if you want to be fancy)
I also added chopped celery, red bell peppers(kinda a duplicate with the pimentoes I guess), yellow bell peppers or green bell peppers.

Toss the first eight ingredients in a large salad bowl. Stir the Italian salad dressing mix into the mayonnaise. Add to salad and mix well. Chill. Serve on lettuce leaves and garnish with tomato wedges. Makes a big bowl and is perfect in my opinion for a hot summer evening meal.

If you make this and like it please leave me a comment. If you make changes, let me know I might like YOUR changes.

Blessings and happy quilting,

It was a "Mason" weekend!

We had DGS Mason this weekend so his mommy and daddy could do the activities they each had to do. He is on the move now. So there was picking up somethings out of his reach. And we played ball. They have been playing with him at home. We were so amazed at him. I have lots of cabinets doors he wanted to check out. I use big rubber bands on those that have knobs that meet each other. It always worked for DGD Aimee. He's a boy! He figured it out. His dad is an engineer and his grandfather is a diesel mechanic; do you think I have my work cut out for me?!

Yep, he just pulled the doors open wide enough for him to get his hand in and commenced to extract. Like I said DGD is no dummie for sure and this tactic worked real good for her but he is another story. This will be a plus when he is older and I "need" him to help figure out a problem. We had "surprise" visitors this weekend. On Saturday morning we found two young raccoons in our hedge by the patio. And later DH looked up in the tree beside these hedges and saw another one. They're gone now. I don't know WHERE they have gone. DH sure didn't want them in his barn where he stores his feed. Max found a mole and killed it. It was on the patio Saturday morning, too. Good boy! I just wish he would scare that amardillo away that is digging holes all in the yard at night.

I demonstrated the 4 Patch Stacked Posies pattern at my Wednesday group last week. It was fun showing them my addiction. You think it's contagious. I sure hope so. Hee, hee. I wasn't feeling the best in the world. I went to the doctor this morning--urinary tract infection. I used to get them all the time in my twenties. I could've lived without this one. I am drinking water, cranberry juice, taking my meds, and posting. I will live. I will live. I will live. Keep saying it long enough and I will convince myself.

Thanks goes out to Patsy again. She is responsible for the signature. If it wasn't for you, Patsy, I wouldn't know how to do anything. Now can you could tell me how to do the linky thing so that when people click on your name it would take them to your blog? Sure would appreciate it. Hugs.

Blessings and happy quilting,

Finished!

Here it is --ta dah! All quilted and bound! And you know what I've already cut out another 4 Patch Stacked Posies before I have completed the Rose 4PSP and the Flower Box. Bad quilter! Shame on me, I know. I told you I was addicted. These are the two fabrics I am using and in the next picture are two blocks laid out for sewing. There's lots of purple in this quilt; although, you may not can tell it by the phot0. Anyway, I have cut two different size blocks. The individual squares above are cut 3" and the larger ones I have cut are 5 3/4". I will sash them with Kona Bone and a pretty purple fabric I found. I am thinking of giving this to a lady in my Wednesday group for a house warming present. She loves purple. In fact, her new bedroom is painted purple. Would my husband die or what?!

Never fails--if we have the water going in the garden it rains. A nice shower of rain just came and I had just turned off the well right before it started raining. Last time we had the sprinkler going we got an inch of rain and it was lightning and raining so hard I didn't turn off the well until it was over. I'm not complaining; mind you, we need this rain very badly. I can't wait for fresh squah, etc. etc. My daughter got her squash in several weeks before we did and she is enjoying fresh squash now. A friend of ours is harvesting fresh blackberries. She doesn't have as many this year because we didn't have as much rain. My oh my aren't some people getting massive amounts of rain and flooding? Seems like if they aren't getting tornadoes they're getting floods. And if they're not getting that then they're getting the heat.

Okay, I need an idea for the label to put on the Pink 4 Patch Stacked Posies. Got any ideas just leave a comment or email me. Thanks. I need all the help I can get.

Thanks goes out to Patsy. She told me how to get the Quilting Bloggers badge on my blog. I told you I need help! LOL Speaking of the Quilting Bloggers, that is an amazing site. I absolutely love reading other bloggers pages about as much as I love the 4 Patch Stacked Posies. If you haven't listed your blog be sure and go by and do it.

Blessings and happy quilting,