It's a Give Away!

Home Sweet Home, Noble is having a give away for her 100th post. Go over and sign up (even tho I"M GOING TO WIN *hehehehe*), and visit her blog. You can win dahlin' pincushions.....

or some cute little tags........

or some recipe cards and gingerbread jar toppers.

Weekend Fun and Preparing for Retreat

My weekend began when I picked up my granddaughter for the weekend. My DH is out of town and she decided we needed to have a "girl weekend." Here she is in her cheerleading uniform. She is sew cute, but then I am very partial.

On Saturday, we HAD to go to the movies to see High School Musical III. The move just came out this weekend. It was a very cute show. She LOVED IT. It did bring lots of memories back to me of my high school days. It is hard to believe that I've been out of high school for 38 years. My goodness, someone must be getting old!

After the movie and a bit of shopping, it was time to come home. We went to the quilting studio and got lots done. Camryn played school while I spent time getting ready for the upcoming annual Wacky Pack Opening Weekend of Deer Season Retreat. Here is a basket of treats (or tricks) for the Wackies.



Then I spent time cutting MORE 2-inch strips for the 4-patch exchange that the Wacky Pack Quilters are doing. I've made several sets of 4-patches, but now I have all the strips cut and in this handy little box to take to retreat.

Then I made this cute little Christmas apron. The picture really doesn't do it justice. One of the Wacky Quilters will have the opportunity to take this apron home from the retreat. How do they win it, you ask???? I haven't decided yet!

Then I finished putting the final border on the Spring Fling Round Robin II quilt top. This is just a "sneak peek". I can't show the final picture yet until it has reached its owner. It has left Fairfield and headed on to the quilter to finish and send to the final recipient.


I still have more to do to get ready for retreat. I can't wait. We always have sew much fun when we are all together. I hope the week goes by fast!

Helen's Having a Give-Away

Helen has announced five new patterns and she is having a give away. Go over and comment and maybe you'll win one!

A Dr. Visit, A Sweet Gift, and Some Stitcheries

Today, I had a visit at my Oncologist. It was a great appointment. The bloodwork looks good and I don't have to go back for ONE YEAR and I don't have to have another colonoscopy for FIVE YEARS! As we say in Texas "YEE HAW". I believe, without a doubt, that this is God working in my life. As the graphic above says "God will make a day." He always does. I'm so grateful and blessed.


Thru quilting, I met the neatest lady, Monica the Button Counter. She is so talented, witty, and just plain fun to be around. She decided to do something with all the old koozies she had stored in a box. She covered a koozie that is perfect for a quilter. The pictures aren't that great, but here they are. It is MUCH cuter in person. See the photo below. It says "Kathy's Cool, Little Padded Can". I appreciate her referring to my "can" as little -- LOL.

Another lady I met thru quilting is Rosie. She is a prolific stitcher. I purchased the following pattern from her and have been working on it off/on the past couple of years. When going out of town last weekend, I took it with me to work on and it renewed my desire to do stitcheries. It is near completion. I have been drooling over the "Nice People Nice Things" blog. The quilt that Helen created the pattern and it is great. I love the lettering and all the little pictures. I ordered the patterns and then, of course, I needed embroidery thread. The thread I have is from long ago cross-stitch days. I ordered Prescenia threads from my friend, Rosie. Everything came today -- YEA! It was like Christmas! Now to get some background fabrics cut and get started. This will be a great "take along" project.

A Day of Reflection

Today is a Day of Reflection for me. After a routine colonoscopy, I heard those dreaded words "You have cancer." I'll never forget it as long as I live. I was numb. All I could think about was my husband and how he was going to react. How did he react? (You see, prior associations with family/friends who was diagnosed with cancer died within months.) He said that "WE have cancer" not just me! He has been my rock thru it all. That was five years ago today. The prognosis wasn't real good. I had surgery where a section of my colon was removed. Today, I am cancer free. I have my regular appointment with my Oncologist this coming Thursday. If all is well (and I pray it will be), I will only have to go see him annually from this point forward. This is a major milestone! I am my own Hero. I know this sounds vain, but hey I kicked cancer's butt I have a right to celebrate!

I look at life differently now and do not take anything for granted. Life can change quicker than the blink of an eye. I'm so thankful and grateful to God as I know it was His healing powers that saved me. I often think "what if" they had told me I only had 5 years to live? What would I have missed?

I was around to see my husband retire after working for over 33 years at the power plant; my third grandchild was born; my youngest son got married and blessed me with a wonderful daughter-in-law; I retired from my 20+ year job as office manager; I have renewed relationships with some old friends; I have a wonderful group of quilting buddies -- the Wacky Pack that I LOVE to be with; I spent an entire month in Europe visiting several countries; I went on a quilting cruise in the Caribbean with the Wacky Pack Quilters; I did the 'zip-line thing' in Honduras and just "knew" I was going to die!; I've witnessed healing in sibling relationships in my DH's family; I watched my oldest son make a career change that required sacrifices on the part of his family and himself -- he is now a Fireman in Houston, TX, and found his calling. I have witnessed my youngest son graduating from Texas A&M and watched his career SOAR and him become so successful! I am so proud of both of my sons. I have started another career as the Director of Senior Services/Transit in Freestone County. It is a great job and one where I truly feel I make a difference in lives. As a result of this job, I have a new set of friends that I consider a true blessing in my life. I have won a couple of awards with my quilts. I have made quilts for both sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren plus other friends. I was so scared I wouldn't get this accomplished. I could go on and on, but I'll stop now. I am just so happy and proud on this 5th anniversary of a very life-changing event.

This 'n That in My Life

I haven't posted much this week, so I thought I would give you a little recap of what's been going on in my life the past week. Grab you a cup of good ole coffee or tea (or wine LOL) and enjoy your visit.

Last weekend, we went to the Hill Country to visit family. My older brother is retiring and in the process of moving to a ranch outside of Blanco. Here is a picture of the entrance to the "Rockin' Chair Ranch".

This is a view of the land. It has a number of hills. It is so peaceful and I LOVE being in the Hill Country.

Here is a picture of the windmill. Don't you just love windmills?
We drove the jeep to the highest point of the ranch and here is a view of the lake from the top of the mountain.
And look at these two little cuties, my grandsons. They had a great time exploring the place.


This is a picture of the old ranch house. It is currently under rennovation. I thought I had taken a picture of the wonderful rock fireplace on the inside, BUT, I guess I didn't.


This is the rock walkway to the front of the house and the screened porch.


Of course, we had to have some quilting pictures from this trip! Here is a picture of a double wedding ring quilt that belongs to my sister-in-law. Her grandmother was not a quilter, but she had this quilt made using my sister-in-laws old clothing. I fell in love with it.



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That "big boy" is loaded! Not with alcohol -- but loaded on the longarm. It is in the quilting process and is about one-half quilted! I will finish the quilting today and then make the binding. I plan to sit back tonight and watch moves while putting the binding on.




A close-up of one of the blocks.

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I had to go to Waco, TX, on Thursday for a meeting for work. Well, I just "had" to go by the quilt store and these are my purchases. Some Thimbleberries fabric that was 40% off (bought 4 yards -- thought it would be a good border fabric) and the red western fabric is going to be the borders for my western string quilt in the making. (Nope, it was NOT on sale.) Then I picked up some new tweezers and some fat quarters from the sale bin.

A Birthday Give Away

Nicole over at Back in the Day is celebrating her birthday with a give away -- great prim stuff. Go over and enter to win (although I'm going to be winning, at least you can give her birthday wishes!) LOL

*Sigh* uuuurrrrrggggg! -- Venting

Well, I'm a bit frustrated from the weekend. Actually, just from Sunday. You see, I attend a retreat every January and January 2009 will be our 10th year of retreating together. Each year, we come up with some type of swap or exchange for the following year. This January, we are exchanging blocks for an "Our Town" quilt. We put the names of different buildings in a basket and each person drew for their building. I drew a fire station. This is ironic because my son is a Houston, TX, fireman. Well, here I go, get out the ole graph paper and start designing. That required me to use a pencil, ruler, and my BRAIN (scares someof you, I know). I come up with a block, make a prototype. Now, all I need is a fire truck. I plan to cut out a fire truck and applique it in front of the station. The fabric I have has a really realistic fire truck, but not enough to use for all 14 blocks. I have some fabric with retro fire trucks, but I really didn't like those. After searching the internet, I have found some fabric that I think will work. Now I'm waiting for the fabric. I would post a picture of the block but there are 2 reasons I won't. #1 -- I want to wait until the protype block is complete. #2 -- I can't find the battery charger to my camera!!!!!

On Saturday, my buddies Kathleen and Molly and I went to our favorite quilt shop for a quick trip of shopping. I bought lots of different fabrics, but I can't take a picture (remember I misplaced the camera battery). BUT, go over to Molly's Place and you can read all about the trip.

Okay, I finished venting! I feel better and thank you for your time!

A Great Mail Day

Yesterday was a great mail day. It was a typical Monday at work and I was ready for the day to be over. I get home, check the mail and there were two brown envelopes, both addressed to me. One was two patterns that I had ordered from a girl in Virginia Beach, VA -- Patchalot Patterns. I ordered her new pattern "Indian Paintbrush" and "Our Home". See picture to the left. I was excited to get them -- speedy service.

The other package was from South Carolina???? It was squishy and I was thinking it was the Spring Fling Roundrobin II. I opened the envie and there was the cutest pin cushion. Now who sent this to me??? A card was enclosed and it was from Teresa! She was the winner of a recent give-away on my blog and she sent me the pincushion as a thank you. How sweet! It absolutely made my "not that great" day into a fantastic day. THANKS TERESA.

Solo Retreat Weekend

It's been a great weekend of sewing. I had a retreat all by my BIG SELF! DH was gone and I spent the past two days in my studio sewing away, watching old movies and making some progress. I had planned to work on the Spring Fling Round Robin II, but I need batik fabric. I don't have a lot of batiks in my stash and wouldn't you know it -- I didn't have the color I needed.

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Here is a picture of the quilt top for my DS & DIL. This quilt has 110 (yes, I said 110) 8-inch blocks plus two borders. It is the largest quilt I have ever made. I've been working on it for a LOOOOOONNNNNNGG time. I grew bored with making the same block over and over and would always find some other little project to squeeze in. Well, the top is ready, the backing pieced, quilting thread selected and ready to be quilted. I would have quilted it over the weekend but I didn't have a batting large enough -- the largest I had was a queen size.

Here is a picture of the backing (all pieced and ready to go) draped over the longarm.

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The very first quilting retreat I ever went on was nearly 10 years ago. In January, we will celebrate our 10th anniversary of retreating together. There are only 7 of the original quilters left out of 17. We still have about 15 retreaters though. We decided the 7 charter members would exchange churn dash blocks. The center was to be made from a grey fabric to look like tin, which is a symbol for a 10-year anniversary.

The block on the left back in August at a retreat at the Compass Centre. It just looks so washed out and I really didn't like it at all. The grey, pink and purple seemed to just blend together. SEW, I made new blocks this morning (the block on the right). The center looks like grey cat hair with the churn dash being a lime green and the other portion black with brightly colored paw prints. I still have to sign my name.

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A few posts back, I was soliciting ideas for organizing my fabric. When going thru all my fabric, I found these Christmas redwork blocks done on my Janome 10000 a few years back. I had forgotten all about making them -- what a pleasant surprise. They are stitched on a white fabric with snowflake motifs. I decided to put them together. I just went to the Christmas drawer (see, I got somewhat organized --LOL!), and found some fabrics that I thought would look good with the blocks.

I put a red "flipper" (my own personal quilting term) around each block before sashing with the green stripe and red polka dot cornerstones. I then put a red "stop border" around the blocks before adding the final border. I thought the border fabric that looks like old-fashion Christmas trees with toys was a good compliment to the red and green fabrics. It is ready to be quilted. I plan to use the red polka dot as the binding. Here are some pictures of the finished top.

Let's Go to the Texas State Fair!

Oh My! We have (see earlier posts) learned that three members of The Wacky Pac Quilters had their blocks selected to be incorporated in the "Toast A Rising Star" quilt sponsored by The Texas Department of Agriculture. Texas is 5th in the nation in wine production, so this quilt depicts this great accomplishment. Get you a cup of coffee, tea, glass of wine, or whatever and lets make a trip to the State Fair of Texas for the big unveling!

The picture to the left is the winning Wackies (l-r --Kathy, Jerri, and Rhonda). Now you notice that Kathy is sporting a big hat and sunglasses as well as Rhonda. We just "know" we are going to be mauled by photographers and public wanting our photos and autographs! LOL SEW, here we go seven -- did I say SEVEN WILD AND WACKY WOMEN -- load up in my surburban so we can make the 2-hour trip to Dallas. It's a good thing I had new tires and new shocks on that car! (Just kidding girls). We have a map, written traveling directions from the TDA, a Texas map, and a GPS. As we get to the exit off I-45, it appeared everyone knew how to get there. We made it safely....parked.....got out.....walked into the fair....find out we can't park there.......so Kathleen and I head back to move the car.

We all finally get into the Food and Fiber Pavallion, and here we sit, waiting for the award ceremony to begin. Now, note that we are ALL wearing our "infamous" Wacky denim shirts that we made that is covered in Sworvorski gems. The place is aglow!

The quilt is on display, but it is COVERED IN BROWN PAPER! We can't see it yet, even though Jerri tried and tried to peek.

We eagerly await the ceremony to begin. Here we go......."Rhonda Lawton".

The clapping, yelling, whistling begins! Yep, you got it -- the other 6 of us can really make some noise. Everyone in the place was looking......Then it was "Kathy Earley" more claping and excitement.

Then it was "Jerri Hendrix" and again more cheering. I think it was at that point the others realize what kind of group we were -- LOL!

Now it's time for the "big unveiling". The quilt was hung amongst a beautiful display board telling all about the quilt. There were 24 blocks chosen to be in the quilt, but only 4 of the block descriptions were chosen to be put up on the display. Mine was picked! I was so surprised.

So the TDA staff 'rips' off the paper! What a BEAUTIFUL quilt it is! Several people said it was the most beautiful so far. (The Texas Department sponsors a quilt contest every two years). And 'ta da' a picture of all the block winners who are honored to have their designs in the quilt that will travel around the great State of Texas! Congratulations to all!

Primitive Excellence Award

My Wacky Friend, Rhonda, awarded me with the Primitive Excellence Award. Thank you Rhonda. I am just now getting around to putting it on my blog. I sometimes really feel "primitive" LOL! But I do LOVE primitive things. I love hearing and reading about stories from the past. I think it is so wonderful when people have things that have been passed down in their families from generation to generation. I don't have very many of those things, but I'm sure making sure my generation is passing down things! I am suppose to now give this award to seven other people/blogs. Well, guess what? The ones that I wanted to give it too already have been tagged! So, to all my Primitive Excellence Award Folks, I feel like I am now part of an elite group!

ABC's

My friend, Monica the Button Counter, has posted the ABCs on her blog and challenged everyone to do the same........SEW, here goes my friend:

A. Attached or Single? Attached for 37 years to the same guy (by the Grace of God -- LOL)
B. Best Friend? Friend...how 'bout friendS.....all my Wacky Pac Sisters
C. Cake or pie? Do I have to choose?
D. Day of choice? Saturday
E. Essential item? I reckon that would be my cell phone....How did we live without 'em
F. Favorite color? Purple, then pink, then blues, then....
G. Gummy bears or worms? Worms, of course
H. Hometown? Humble, TX
I. Favorite indulgence? Uninterrupted time in my quilting studio
J. January or July? January
K. Kids? Yep; 2 wonderful sons that I am very proud of (ages 34 and 32)
L. Life isn’t complete without? Prayer and my family
M. Marriage date? June 11, 1971 was marriage and yes we still date
N. Number of brothers and sisters? 2 older brothers
O. Oranges or Apples? oranges with vodka
P. Phobias? Snakes
Q. Quotes? "Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do and damned if you don't." by Eleanor Roosevelt
R. Reasons to smile? Waking up each morning
S. Season of choice? Fall
T. Tag 5 people: Oh Dear.....
U. Unknown fact about me?
V. Vegetable? Tomato, but some say it is really a fruit
W. Worst habit? Just one??? Procrastination
X. X-ray or Ultrasound? Had 'em both; don't care as long as results are good
Y. Your favorite food? Mexican
Z. Zodiac sign? Gemini

Fall Decorating

I did a little fall decorating this weekend. Even though in Texas, you don't see the "changing of the seasons" as much as you do any other states, Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. This is a picture of an old school desk that I picked up at a flea market many years ago. My hubby loves this little desk and tends to "pile it up" with his junk -- hunting/fishing magazines, etc. When he saw this, he just said "hump....girl stuff". LOL! Here is a picture of our mantle. If you notice the candle to the right of the clock, that is a handmade beeswax candle that came from Frankfurt, Germany. The picture to the right is my parents' wedding picture. The antique frame belonged to my "Aunt Eller". The glass is cracked, but that is the way it was when I got it -- just haven't changed it out!
Here's a little hutch in my kitchen that my hubby made for me a number of years ago. He used to do a lot of woodworking in his "younger years".

This is the top two shelves of the hutch. My new doll, "Carla Jo", sits to the left along with some of my roosters. She sits on a little doll quilt that I picked up at an antique store in Blanco, TX.
The bottom shelves are decorated with Fall stuff with a rooster tucked in there!
This is the fireplace screen.....Hubby gave it to me for Christmas a few years back. Not decorated too much.......

This is a quilt rack that hangs in my kitchen. Hubby made the quilt rack too. The pumpkin quilt was made a few years ago from Thimbleberries fabric.


On the shelf of the qult rack are some things special t o me. The old tin coffee pot to the left and the rolling pin on the left belong to my "Aunt Eller". The old wooden grater was my Mama's. All the other things are just some stuff I picked up "here and there."
The table in the kitchen sports a runner that matches the quilt hanging on the rack. It as three pumpkins, but one doesn't show well because the crock bowl with pumpkins is covering it up.