Hot weather is making me so lazy....

Gees, it is hot outside.  It must be 100+ out there today.  It feels like Las Vegas.  If you have never been to Las Vegas in the summer, then let me explain what it feels like when you walk out side.  Turn your oven to about 400 degrees, wait 10 minutes and then stick your head in...only for about 2 minutes because that is about as long as you can stay outside.  The humidity is so different here and in your oven, that you don't really "sweat"...you just get red faced and hot feeling.  At least my hair is not sopping wet like at home.  Ok, I have whined enough.

We went into town today to buy a ruler that I had left at home.  After that, we decided to look around one of the thrift shops.  I found a very old piece that is appliqued.  It is most amazing because it is only about 10" big.  I could not believe how much work someone put into this little piece of circular fabric.  Some of the applique pieces are only about 1/4 inch big.  There are over 300 pieces appliqued on the circle...and they did not even have good drugs back then.  The piece also has embroidery through out it.  The person must have had the patience of Jobe plus some.  I am going to wash it in some quilt soak and maybe have it framed.  I cannot imagine sewing this small.  The first picture is a full on picture and the second is a close up of the center.  It has one little place where it is coming apart...other than that, it is in very good condition.

The family member who donated it must have no idea of the time and effort put into this little baby.  For the most part, you must look hard to see the stitches.  The applique is very good quality.  I am excited about this little treasure.  Just had to share while it was on my mind.  Until we meet again....

Lazy day for me...

Today was a very peaceful lazy day.  I did not hit a lick at a snake all day long.  We even ate out tonight.  I helped Kallie with her quilt.  She has all the blocks sewed together and most of the rows sewed together.  She will have to stitch about 5 more rows and that part will be completed.  The next step is to sew the borders, quilt it and bind it.  It will probably take from now until Christmas to get it completed since she is not with Brad and Jennifer all the time.  This is a partial picture of what she got completed.  For the first time, she did pretty good.

I did the pinning, pressing and part of the ripping for her so that she could get most of it completed while they were here.  I will start my sewing projects after tomorrow.  I did not feel comfortable sewing with her since she had never sewed before...to much risk of her sewing a finger.  So I did not accomplish much this week other than enjoying Jennifer and her family.

Anyway, I cannot wait to get started on my sewing projects.  I also need to do some work in the yard here since most of my plants were weed wacked with the weeds.  I won't do much because my wrists won't take it.  I just plan on planting some seeds in some of the pots I have here so maybe I can enjoy watching them grown.

I brought Tababua tree seeds, plumera seeds from one of my plants, some purple spikey plant seeds that I cannot remember the name of right now, black eyed susans, cone plant seeds and sunflower seeds.  I had planted a lot of sunflower seed up by the road before we left last March...but a freeze came about a week later and froze them.  I might plant them again if I get it done this weekend.

It is supposed to be really hot here over the next few days so seeds should not have an issue sprouting.  Although it is supposed to be really hot, it is going to be in the 50's at night.  That is all for now....until we meet again.


 

I'm baaackkkkk

January, the last time I blogged seems like such a long time ago.  How time flies when you are having so much fun...yardwork, housework, clearing all the dead plants and junk off the patio.  Those are the fun things I have been doing.  I have not touched my sewing machine since March when I made a swirly strata table topper.  It was fun to make and I plan on making a patriotic and Halloween one at some point.

Jen and her family has been visiting us and I am teaching Kallie how to make a quilt.  We picked out fabrics at home to match some 5 inch squares that I have bought for her.  She has been learning the term "rippit".  She has gotten quite proficient with the seam ripper.  I could win a ripping contest for sure because I am the champion.  It seems I never have to "not" rip out seams when I am sewing.  I have helped rip some of her seams and I have done her pressing and matching up rows.  It would have been easier if she had just sewed all the squares random but it was my bright idea to lay them out in a pattern so that has been fun...keeping all the rows in order when we have ripped.  Ripping is just part of quilting so I figured she needed to learn that along with the sewing and matching seams.  She is about half way through with the rows.  Hopefully, we can work on it a lot tomorrow so she can at least get the top finished and then I will quilt it for her.  Jen can help with the binding when I get it quilted.

Kallie, Jen and I went to the Tuesday Technique sewing demo today.  The lady who taught the swirl strata table topper was there and showed a Christmas tree skirt using the same type technique.  Maxine showed a prairie point ornament that was really cute.  I have seen them before and made a pine cone ornament similar several years ago.  The Christmas skirt which could also be a table topper was really pretty and I am going to have Lisa bring my ruler when they come.  I love the quilt that was  shown last week.  Here is a u-tube video that shows my next quilt.  I picked the fabrics from my stash.  Hopefully, I will get the piecing completed next month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sII20q7IrtQ

Maxine the owner of the shop is such a sweet and helpful person.  I am sure it is a lot of work to come up with something to demonstrate each week.  I enjoyed seeing several friends that I have not seen in a couple of months.  We all went to lunch at the Gazebo after the demo.

Bill and Brad have been weed whacking the yard.  We have a whole yard full of thorny blackberries.  Most have not turned black.  When you look out, all you see is red berries.  They whacked a lot of them.  I went down and picked some for Cooper and Kallie yesterday.  Kallie did not care for them but my little berry boy loved them.  He had them again in his yogurt tonight.  I wish they were not so thorny and I would pick a bunch to make a cobbler.  Maybe when more ripen closer to the outside edge, I can get enough.  They are good to me.

I guess I have to be in the mood to blog so maybe I will try to be in the mood more...until we meet again...

This week in a nutshell!

It is an amazing thing but you really can't put much in a nutshell.  A walnut shell of course would hold more than a pecan shell unless it was one of those giant paper shell pecans.  In that case, you could probably get more in a pecan than walnut shell.  Just in case you were wondering how big my nut shell is in size.

This week has been quiet.  I have been working on my polka dot quilt.  I finished all the paper I had printed and left the last group at home.  That is what packing at midnight the night before we leave will get you.  I think when it is done, I am going to be seeing big dots everywhere.  There are almost 900 pieces to it and it only has 9 squares.  Some of those pieces finish at .5 inches by 2 inches...quite small.  The pattern is similar to a New York Beauty.  Tomorrow, I have to decide which unfinished project I want to do next.  Decisions...decisions.

The weather has been really cool and nice for me.  It snowed about an inch and a half on Monday night and the wind chill factor was -10degrees.  It was actually about 16 degrees with a 35 mph wind.  I loved it and Bill was shivering.  It is amazing how we have switched places in the temperature department.  It was beautiful the next morning with the sun shining on the snow.  It looked like it had little diamonds in it.  The last couple of mornings have been really cool, but it has been nice in the afternoon.  Today, it got up to 56....practically a heatwave.  I thought about taking my kindle out on the deck to read...but decided to sew instead.  Here is the truck with snow.

Bella has turned into a traitor with Bill.  He fussed so much about getting her and now they have bonded.  She has dumped me for him since I took her to be fixed.  I guess dogs are sort of sensitive about those sort of things.  As you can see she is quite comfortable inside Bill's jacket.  Aren't they so cute?

I went to the thrift stores with my friend Pam today.  I bought 2 pairs bigger jeans...POOOOH.  Who wants bigger jeans?  I also got a long sleeve shirt, flannel sleep pants for Bill and a pair of cotton sleep pants for me.     We also stopped by one of the quilt stores and I got a new pattern and 1/8 yard of polka fabric.  That is pretty good for me in a quilt store.

I am thinking of baking another pumpkin bread...the only thing stopping me is that bigger pair of jeans I bought today.  Until we meet again.......

Is it over yet?????

YES IT IS!!!  Last night about 8 o'clock as I looked at the pile of cooking pans and stones on my counter and sink, I blinked my eyes and pooof!!! it was all cleaned up.  I also won the Florida lottery last night.

It was really such a nice holiday season of giving, visiting and sharing with family and friends which truly is what it is all about.  As I stressed through getting my gifts all together and wrapped (close to the last minute), doing the baking and cooking for the social events, it occurred to me that all that stress culminates in the brightness of the grandkids eyes as their parents shuffle them through all the celebrations and hubbub of the season.  It is so worth seeing how they are so excited over the gifts they open.  I guess it is all worth it in the end.  Austin told me he thought he had won the lottery because he got everything he wanted ..a TV for his room and a game that I got him that has little monster bodies that you stick on and they turn into action figures...space raiders is what I think it is called.

I was teary eyed as I opened my gifts from my children.  My daughter and her husband refinished an old wrought iron sewing stand that goes with a treadle machine.  It was given to me by one of Bill's cousins.  It was rusted and not very pretty.  They had it sand blasted and then "black powdered".  I don't know exactly what that is, but the finish is very pretty and it treadles as smooth as butter.

My son and his wife gave me a beautiful elegant quilt that Lisa had made.  I had admired the top and even started searching for similar fabrics to buy to make me one.  She made the top a couple of years ago but just had not finished it.  She had it quilted and added the binding as a present for me.  The name of the quilt is Elegance and it is surely fitting because it is so very elegant and beautiful.  Pictures will be up as soon as I can get someone to hold it up.  Bill got me a Kindle since I can hardly ever wrench the one we have out of his hands to read on it.  I had a super day but the gifts don't mean anything compared to the joy of having my kids and grand kids close enough that I can see them all the time and through the holidays.  I know I am truly blessed.  Until we meet again.....

All in all, it was a tiring day but just so worth it to visit family and friends.  We never know what next year will bring so I am very thankful for the people God has put in my life.  Here is to a wonderful New Year for all.  Until we meet again...............

Celebrations with friends.

Well, the last two days have been filled with celebrations with friends...old friends and even older friends, not in age so much but just in years of sharing with each other.  Sometimes it is quite shameful that we do not see each other more often.  However, no matter how long between our visits, two blinks of the eyes and it is like we have never been separated.

Rebecca, Alice's daughter hosted our probably 45th annual Christmas celebration.  Ruth Ann, Me (in case you don't recognize me with my Santa shirt in the picture), Ruthie (Ruth Ann's mom and matriarch to all of us) and Alice have been the best of friends since I was 16.  I just cannot understand why Ruth Ann and Alice''s hair is not that beautiful "almost blonde" (some have the audacity to refer to it as gray) hair like Ruthie and me.  About 1966 is when I came into the picture with this unruly group.  I think Alice and Ruth have been friends since grade school.  Of course, Ruthie has always been there to guide, advise and love us through this hard thing called life.  My kids and Grand-kids have always thought of her as "Grandma Ruthie".  And she is just that.. a wonderful matriarchal figure for all of us whom we love and respect.  I love them all more than I can say and don't see any of them as much as I should.  Our children have grown up friends and hopefully will continue to be good friends until we are all in wheelchairs.

We have survived thick and thin and will continue to do so.  We have been together in our marriages, births of our babies, deaths in our families and so much joy with each other for far too many years to remember.  I know when these ladies are in my presence, that I will be joyful and thankful for them always for their love and friendship.  Life has treated us all good and sometimes not so good in one way or the other because of illnesses and deaths.  We are all strong and together, we put our faith in God and have always survived those tough times and will continue to do so with our love strengthening each other.  Through these wonderful times and the hard times, life has also tied an invisible thread through our hearts looping them together and it is a string that we know will never be broken.  The love we share would be hard to duplicate.

It is almost beyond words what I feel for these women, these friends of 45+ years.  I truly wish for more time with each of them in the coming year and another 45+ years of celebrations of life's joys and holidays with them.

Today was another celebration with friends.  These too are long time friends.  My friend Opal and I took our friend Jean to lunch for her 65th birthday.  Jean's friend, Giana, her daughter, Stacy and granddaughter, Courtney joined us to celebrate.  Jean and Opal are much like my other friends.  They make me laugh and we have been through happy times and some sad times in the past 30+ years. They both are sweet beyond any expectations of a friend.  They have listened to me, laughed with me and cried with me in the last 30 years.  I've know Stacy and Courtney almost all their life and Giana for probably 15 years.  

It seems God has blessed me so graciously with friends, longtime friends and many newer friends like my quilting friends.  I feel so lucky to have family and friends so close to me sharing my life.  My wish for all my friends is to always have relationships with other women that mean something and to have friends that not only love them but support them but make them laugh when life throws us curves.

Here is Jean with her big Mexican hat and waiter trying to light the candle.  Also, here is Opal giving Jean something we all need...a little helping hand from our friends. :)  Until we meet again...........

Head Exam badly needed!

We are home and the yards are a mess and I did what any normal person would do.  Instead of getting everything unpacked and picked up, and the weeds pulled, I unloaded everything out of my longarm room and replaced the old cabinets and shelves with some new to me cabinets that I had picked up at Habitat for Humanity.  They can be stacked and Bill added some additional shelving.

So now I have standard cabinets along one wall and I am working on putting it all back up.  My grandkids helped me unload and they thought that was fun.  I can only carry small loads from the living room back to the sewing room and I sure needed them to get all the books and stuff back in the room.  I still have one more box, a basket and a table full of "stuff" to find a home for in the room.  What makes a person so crazy as to get home from a trip knowing they have a week full of appointments and other chores that need to be completed, start a huge project like this.  I need my head examined...no wonder I have headaches.

When I get a chance, I will send pictures of the new dog, Bella, and the new organized room...might be a while so don't hold your breath.  Until we meet again....