Another finish

These colors are washed out. It is much brighter! I used Bonnie Hunter's pattern Crayon Box. It is very easy to put together and as you can tell it is very scrappy.

Actually I finished this a week ago -- just haven't posted. What have I been doing? That's a good question. LOL Oh yeah, I straightened up my sewing area (reorganized--although I'm the only one who can tell- LOL) and did some cleaning. I finished appliqueing the centers on the Dresden Plates. Yay! I had used blue marker to mark the turn line on the plates and rinsed them in plain water. Laid them out to dry on towels. Oh dear. One color -- a bluish gray bled a little. I will hand wash them in Synthapol with some color catchers and see it that won't take care of it. If not out comes the seam ripper and take out the offending fabric and replace it. Better to find it now than once the quilt is together. So that's part of what I will be doing today.

And this week I also have a customer's string quilt that I am repairing and then will quilt. Then I need to get the guild's Christmas party invitations labeled and in the mail. Larry has a doctor appointment tomorrow. One more step before hip replacement. He has his okay from his primary care and heart doctors. Yay!

This year we didn't gather at Larry's parents for Thanksgiving. First time in many a year. They went to see Larry's aunt and sister. Instead I cooked lunch for us. Chicken and dressing and the fixings. And pies. I have a new favorite. I made pecan and buttermilk pies. I always make pecan but not buttermilk. The buttermilk pie made me remember my mom's Jeff Davis pies that she made years ago but a little different. Really they are made pretty much the same accept one uses sweet milk and the other buttermilk. Correct me if I'm wrong. I added a little cinnamon to mine. Just a dash. Oh, and I have a new favorite pie crust recipe using olive oil. It makes me feel so much better not using shortening. I was genuinely surprised how well it turned out. I rolled it out between waxed paper and it turned out perfect. Our daughter invited us for the evening meal. We enjoyed spending time with them. Our other kids went to their other destinations for Thanksgiving.  And I stayed home and enjoyed some down time. No shopping!

Blessings,

WCQG Bus Trip

The guild took a bus trip to Stitchin' Heaven yesterday. It was our first ever and not the last. We had a ton of fun. We left the Decatur Wal-Mart parking lot around 8am and we were driven (quite possibly the almost best part) to Quitman, Tx. We arrived around 10:45 and immediately the shop was filled with 40 women. There was plenty of room for us. They had prepared little demonstrations for us. Our bus trip coordinator had arranged for lunch through Stitchin' Heaven so we didn't have to leave to eat! They had ordered club sandwiches, chips, water, and cookies for us. It was part of our ticket price. And of course there was shopping! Those who wanted to played fat quarter bingo after lunch. Then mid afternoon we loaded back on the bus. We stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel in Denton then loaded back up and arrived in Decatur before 7:30pm. There were snacks, water, games and DOOR PRIZES on the bus. Karen did a great job getting the trip together.

I took this standing at the front door. There were many samples hung throughout the store.

 This was their classroom--where we ate lunch and here they are playing fat quarter bingo.

I was on a mission to find fabric to sash Amanda's dresden plates. I found two pieces that I think will work well. I may rob some from another project -- you know -- the P.I.G.S. -- project in grocery sacks and replenish them when I get to them. LOL I also found a really cute fabric for DGD Aimee's butterfly quilt that we will probably start on the next time she gets to come.


I just had to have this fabric! It will be perfect. And of course we have to have some polka dots and bright pinks and yellow!

And don't you think these will go good with the Dresden Plates? I'm planning on making sashing with nine patch corner stones and then a piano key border -- real scrappy.

And then there was this scrap bag of mostly batiks --squares and rectangles-- that I couldn't resist. I was asked what I was going to do with them. I didn't know at the time I just knew I fell in love with them. After sorting them and caressing them : ) I'm thinking Christmas gifts! Little zippered bags. Tote bags. God, could you please give me superhuman ability for say two weeks so I can get everything done that I would like to make. : ) 

We were given goodie bags on the bus and there were several fat quarters for the stash. Can there ever be too much? Don't answer that!

Here's a C.A.S.A. quilt I finished. These are crumb blocks sewn block to block with sashing and borders. I have another one quilted that needs trimming and binding. I will get that done today while Larry is gone hunting. Here's a link to a tutorial for crumb quilt blocks and another (I'm not sure if I will ever make any as small as Bonnie Hunter's blocks.) But I have learned to never say never. : )

I had a little escapade with the pigs while Larry's been gone. Friday evening when I went out to feed there were feeder pigs out of their pen. These four are probably 40 to 50 pounders. The sows had rooted  the sandy soil out under the fence of their pen trying to get to the feed trough and the feeders had crawled under the fence. I got all the hogs fed and set about figuring out how was I going to get them back in their pen? They wanted to go everywhere but there. But darkness helped. One by one they went to their pen knowing that was where they needed to be and they wanted to be together. All but one. It was the stubborn one. By the time it decided it wanted in the pen it was pretty dark. I was gone all day Saturday so I didn't get to feed until Sunday morning. Uh oh -- they were out again! Repeat of Friday night. Hunger and thirst were on my side.  Got them all back in again -- there was one again that was the hold out. Probably the same one! This time the sows are locked up in their pen. Normally we leave them to graze all the time. Let's just say they won't be tasting any grass until the pen situation is remedied.

Have a wonderful Sunday and now I'm off to make a binding and get 'er dun. Then more Dresden Plate centers need appliqueing. Just a few more!

Blessings,

Blessings to our Veterans and Service Men and Women

A big Thank you to all who have served or are serving our country! Also thank you to their families who have been by their side.  They don't always get noticed for their service as well.

11/11/11 -- Too cool! Isn't it wonderful to be alive on a day like today? Make the most of it-- live like today is the most important day of your life. And tomorrow.

Blessings to all,

Did you feel the Oklahoma earthquake?

I had fallen asleep on the couch and didn't. Larry woke me up and said he could feel it in his recliner and he watched the angels that hang from the mantel swing back and forth and said he could have sworn the wall was moving. I was so groggy that I just looked and him and went back to sleep. Then this morning I remembered and got online and googled it. Wow! 5.6 is an earthquake.

Blessings,

A whirlwind of activity!

That's what it has seemed like around here. LOL Week before last I sewed five more tote bags for the veterans. I worked in the yard--dug grass burrs, mowed and weed eated. Cleaned house. All in preparation of company coming. Larry's parents came and most of our kids and all their children. We had Mason and Paisley Friday and Saturday nights. Mac and Aimee spent Saturday night with us. Amanda and John brought pumpkins for them to carve and they had a good time doing that.

Okay, can you see Paisley marking on herself with her marker? Caught her in the act.

Paisley is scooping out the "guts" of her pumpkin. She really got into this activity!

On a sadder note--one of the ladies in our quilt guild suddenly died and her funeral was Friday afternoon. Then Larry's employer passed away Wed. and his funeral was Saturday. I was so busy getting things ready that I didn't think my menu through enough. Forgot to buy bread. I made biscuits. I forgot to buy cream of chicken soup. We managed without it.  No one (hopefully)knew the difference. : )  All in all it was a great weekend.

We have had some FOG several mornings. We're talking thick! It didn't burn off until almost 11am. 

How 'bout those Texas Rangers? Are you watching the World Series? I haven't got a clue most of time what most of any of it means. LOL Not a good baseball follower. Update: It was intense watching some of the games especially the 7th one! Of course, I wish they had won the Series but since they didn't maybe next year.

I've washed laundry and hung out on the clothesline AFTER the fog lifted. I got things put away and picked up after the weekend. I will put the clean sheets on the guest bed. Larry has been home since last Thursday. Since his employer had passed away and the shop is relatively close to their house they thought they would allow the family some private time without all the noise and also allow more parking for extra family and friends coming. SO you gals know what it's like to try and clean or do ANYTHING around a man. Extra patience is required. LOL And the questions--what are you doing now? What are doing that for? Why don't you do it this way?

I told you I would keep you posted about Larry's hip replacement surgery. He's had the x-rays done for the first diagnostic visit. We have an appointment with the DARS rep this Friday morning to discuss the plan of action. Woohoo! Update: We attended our appointment. Doc wants more x-rays -- of his knees now. Hopefully things will start progressing.

This post started out week before last. It got pushed to the back burner. LOL  Hence the updates.

So, I will add recent activities and not put off posting for another week. LOL  Would you believe I have  done very little sewing? I patched some of Larry's bib overalls and sewed one more tote and turned it in. Our total totes 194 and possibly some others will be turned in. What have I been doing? Working outside! The weather is gorgeous. I have declared war on the sunflowers again. Seems like this battle is never ending. I tried pulling them up before the rains and it was impossible (they just broke off or worse didn't budge) not to mention too hot to be outside much less pulling weeds. So with the wonderful rains we've had the conditions are perfect. I got a lot done over the weekend and hope to get more done today.

Since Larry took off for his appointment Friday we used the day to get other errands done. We both needed new tennis shoes and Beall's had a good sale. A trip to Tractor Supply, of course, for stuff for the pigs. A trip to the feed store and then it was time for lunch. We tried a new place in Bridgeport called Rock City Burgers. We got the jalapeno bun. Very tasty.


Blessings,

We were busy little bees!

That we were! Yesterday was a work day at guild. We needed to finish up our charitable projects. The last two years we have provided the local DAV auxillary with 200 tote bags for veterans. They fill them with whatever they fill them with and gift them to veterans in the hospital. Most of the totes had been made-- just needed a few more. Isn't it always just a few more? Like a bad dream. Just a few more. Chasing you through the night hours -- just a few more. I think several of us had dreams like that last week. LOL  I brought a few more home to do-- oh, dear.  I hope to get them out in the next few days so I can move on to MY projects. Yeah.

We also worked on Christmas stockings for C.A.S.A.  We estimated 100 needed. We got the bulk of them done yesterday. Woohoo! Lots of talking, eating, laughing, and humming of sewing machines.

It was a very good productive day. Guess what happens next month on meeting day. BUS TRIP! Oh, yeah! I will report every detail. And hopefully have pictures. Because as you see I didn't take my camera yesterday. I had too much stuff to pack and carry. Yeah, that's my story and I staying with it.

Blessings,

Rain!

And lots of it! It started raining late Saturday afternoon and didn't stop until Sunday morning. So wonderful. When Larry (DH) went out Sunday morning to check the rain gauge it was over-flowing! It holds 5 to 6 inches. Praise the Lord.

 Remember this quilt?

Our darling granddaughter Aimee came and spent Friday and Saturday nights with us. Her mom and dad were celebrating their wedding anniversary. Congrats, kids. We had such fun. She wanted to sew. =D A girl after mine own heart. I prepared the backing for her quilt Friday afternoon before she arrived. BUT before the sewing could begin--there was the usual everyday stuff that had to be taken care of like feeding animals, preparing our evening meal, cleaning up afterwards, etc. Then I asked what they wanted for breakfast - sausage and pancakes- okay. Went out to the freezer. Uhoh! Things in freezer thawing. Not good. Relayed bad news to Larry aka DH. We begin process of transferring items from non-working freezer to other freezer and freezer section of refrigerator. I wound up with a large bowl of meat that had thawed too much to refreeze so I made room in the refrigerator. After getting all that moved around it was 8pm and I really didn't want to start sewing that late ALTHOUGH Aimee really wanted to. I convinced her we would sew the next day.

Saturday morning--I had bananas that needing baking into banana bread after cooking breakfast. Got that done. I had promised Larry and Aimee chocolate chips cookies. Got those started with Aimee's help. We had a late lunch of leftover chicken and spaghetti. I asked her to go with Papaw to the feed store. She did. While they were gone I prepared one of the round steaks that had thawed for smothered steak. Got that in the crock pot for our evening meal. Now all set for sewing!

I had some pieces of batting that needed whip stitched together to use for small quilts. So Aimee and I got one whip stitched for her quilt. Then we layered the backing, batting and top and safety pinned in a few places. I found some yellow embroidery floss that would work. She had wanted me to machine quilt her quilt but I thought it might be fun for us to tie it. Saturday afternoon we tied. And we tied. And we tied. We took a break. She went with Papaw to feed the animals and I got our meal together. Just as they got outside it thundered and the bottom fell out. They got soaking wet and enjoyed every minute of it!

To make a long story short--the tying was finished Saturday night. I had planned on turning the backing forward for binding. I miscalculated. Oh no! I didn't allow enough for the top and bottom. So Sunday I had to make binding. Aimee did help sew the strips together. We had to stop and help Larry in between. We had so much rain the weaned pigs were standing in water. He made a pen for them in a dry area. Aimee and I helped transfer them. Funny little squealing pigs! Then it was lunch time. Pork chops (that had thawed) with rice.

Then we pressed the binding--pressing the seams open and then pressing in half. But the sewing had to wait. Sigh. Larry aka DH had sold a pig and had an appointment to get it to the butcher. He loaded her while we were pressing. We rode with him to Weatherford. I wanted to go just in case he needed any help. Last Wednesday we had another hog to deliver to a butcher in Muenster. Had a blow-out on the trailer just a little over half way there. No spare. Limped on in and made to the butcher before they closed. Whew! The butcher knew of a mom and pop tire shop just a few blocks over. He made the call. Praise the Lord, they fixed us right up with a used tire and we were on our way. So I had wanted to go along JUST in case he had a repeat of Wednesday evening. The other tires on the trailer--yeah--need replacing. One of these days.

Back to the quilt--I decided it would be best for me to machine sew the binding on.  I got that done when we returned from Weatherford. Just in time before we needed to meet Aimee's folks in Jacksboro. Whew!

Today, I turned the binding and finished it by machine. Not the best job I have done. : (  But it will have to do. It is in the washer now and then I will toss in the dryer.

Now to finish the C.A.S.A. quilt I machine quilted last week. It needs trimming, binding, washing and drying. Then to make a backing for another C.A.S.A. quilt and pin it on the frame and quilt. But that quilt will wait for tomorrow.

I hope and pray that you've had rain if you needed it and of course as always--

Blessings,

Quilts and Pigs

What else do you expect from me? LOL

I sewed this together several weeks ago. I've been using Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders method with the little squares then sewed them leaders and enders again into four patches. Then I used Mary's pattern
4 Patches on the Diagonal and put them all together. And of course my quilt top is turned the opposite from Mary's pictured in her instructions. LOL It is VERY scrappy. Some people like scrappy and some like "controlled" scrappy. I like SCRAPPY. But next time I might use solid or solid looking fabric for the large half square triangles. What do you think? I will definitely be making more quilts from this pattern. I have lots more squares! LOL  I haven't decided whether to add a border or not yet. What do you think?

We have four litters of pigs that have been born with one more due in a couple of days.  The pen on the left has one mama and one baby. This mama had trouble having hers and we were very blessed that she and one baby are alive and well. The mama in front of the camera has six babies. Can you see the little ones in the back napping in the sun? These babies are around 3 weeks old. They are starting to eat feed and will be weaned soon.

These are still in the barn and are from a litter of ten. They have a Berkshire mama and a Hampshire daddy.

These are Hampshires babies also still in the barn and also ten in their litter.

Aren't they all sweet? I just love to hear the mama hogs call their babies when their milk lets down. They all scramble to latch on and fight over teats and squeal. Hilarious.

Blessings,

Picture Perfect Weekend

That's what we had at the Post Oak Quilt Show. DH and I had an outdoor booth and it was an absolutely fantastic weekend. I was busy last week preparing for the booth: cutting fat quarters, yards, etc. I organized totes; priced items; made a few kits up; etc. We had a good profitable time. I counted how many fat quarters and yards we sold. I am so surprised. We sold a good many but you know you can barely tell that they are missing! Did God multiply? Did they fluff up? It is amazing for sure. Thanks to all who came out and stopped by our booth. We had a great time. And most of all--Thank You Post Oak Quilters.

We got everything unloaded and put back in it's place. And again DH was great help. I couldn't do it without him. I did call ahead and got some help putting up and taking down the canopy. Thanks to the Scarbers and others who lent a hand. 

One of our customers showed me a picture of a quilt on her cell phone asking if I had the pattern. I did not.  I did some searching today. I hope she reads this so she can find it. I found it at Joy's Fabrics & Quilts in Godley, Tx. The pattern is called Quick Pieced Posies by Jan Ward. The link below is the a jpg of the quilt.
http://www.joysfabrics.com/Bluebonnets2002.JPG

DH has an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon Wednesday about his hip. I will keep you posted.

Blessings,