Sunday Grateful Thoughts

I love Fall, don't you?  Sure, there's the allergies, mold, crazy change in the weather - but I think the scents, colors, sounds and the flavors that come with the changing of this season out weigh all those "nasty" things.

I'm grateful for the changing of seasons and how each time it comes how I take time to evaluate how the seasons effect me.

I'm grateful for pumpkin patches and the day spent with family.
I'm grateful for the shorter days, cool nights and warm toasty quilts.
I'm grateful for the seasonal treats with pumpkins and apples.
I'm grateful for the ever changing scenery and the sounds of the falling leaves.
I'm grateful for the smell of damp leaves and wood pit fires that linger in the neighborhood.

What are you grateful for this Fall?

Memories . . .

So, as I was digging through my small limited stash deseperately looking for fabric to make samples, I came across this and laughed:

Why?  Because I made this about 10 years ago for my older sister.  The blocks were part of a swap and I used my brand new Brother 8200 machine playing with all the stitches and never gave it to my sister - I think more of embarrassment than anything.  Because a few months after I made this my sister sent me this one for my birthday:

I decided to hang it up for January in my living room.  She said it was a mystery quilt and I love it and use it all the time. This is the first time I have hung it up.  Here's the label -  - - 2001!

LOL, I realized taking the picture I hung the quilt upside down! DOH!  Unfortunately, my sister no longer sews or quilt so I'm very blessed to have this piece from her.   Thank you again Lisa!

I did find some fabric for one of my samples:

L-R: My backing, outer border---I LOVE this Kaffe Fasset sea shells and need more for stash, I will only use 1 1/4 yds --I have 3, inner border and the last 3 are for the blocks.

Hope to whip this top and quilt together by this afternoon!

Happy Belated Holidays!

I hope yours was just as peaceful and wonderful as mine was!

I think my holiday kicked off nicely with our shop's party!  We had a great time playing bunco and "Dirty Santa" and I came away with a huge lot of stuff.  We were suppose to bring a white elephant gift wrapped.  In the bag I picked and ended up with I had 3 knick-nacks, a large-weird turtle cookie jar (which I'm going to put in my garden in the spring) and a small beautiful completed quilt that screams me :)  It's funny to see how many folks tossed in UFO's into their elephant bags - I thought better of doing that, but next year I might just get rid of a few that way :)

My husband drove from Maryland and brought with him our two sons and our youngest son's girlfriend of 4 years (and their adorable little weiner dog, Linguine - hey, they are both chefs, perfect name their puppy!).  We spent time with family here in Tennessee and spent Christmas day opening presents, chilling and bubbling with new excitement - - when my son proposed to his girlfriend!  It will be a long engagement at least 18 months, but there's a ring on her finger and everyone's a buzz.

We also took family portraits for the first time!  Kinda sad, but this time we made sure hubby and me were in them as well.  A very talented and nice gentleman, Ben who owns Studio Benjamin came over to my little apartment and we ended outside in brrrrrrr-ing light wind and a beautiful setting sun behind us. Hope to share a few of the images in a week or so!

This past two weeks have been a whirlwind of new friends, family and emotions.  It was most stress-less holiday ever and the most rewarding.

My daughters and I bowled in the New Year last night at our local bowling lanes.

I figure the best way to share my past few weeks is through this random slide show.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I have done a little bit of sewing here and there, so those images will be shared over the next few days.

Happy New Year to you!!

Friday is Football!

Stepping away from quilting images to share a new facet of our lives here in TN.  My oldest daughter is in the marching band and that means Football Friday nights.

We are definitely in football country when the local wal-mart does a coke display with the high school's initials:

My daughter plays flute and stands a lot on the 30 yard line (she's the first one in line) - - - it's near impossible to get a good picture through:

And a random shot of the football team:

Tonight's an away game, but next week is a big game at home - even the middle school band will play, which means both of my girls will be on the field together - how cool is that!!

Mental note  - - - MUST REMEMBER seat cushion, my butt was soo sore after last week's game :)

Good luck to your home team and GO WILDCATS!!

Randomness. . .

Don't have any quilty pictures today - though I did discover the project I will be making for a graduation presents next year, so time to start collecting fabric - but I found some summer pictures that were on my computer.

My family on the 4th of July:



My friend -Betty's sunflowers



New home of my sunflower quilt - notice the hexagon quilt on sofa, made by my grandma



A summer rainbow last week

It was an outdoor kinda weekend....

With our kids on their limited spring break (they only have 1/2 day on last Thursday through today off) and being on a limited budget, we decided to do a few roads trips....one to the ocean and one to a local park.

We got up early Saturday morning to drive to Ocean City, Maryland to see the sunrise.  Guess what we saw instead:



FOG!  It remain foggy on the ocean until we left around 2ish.  We did enjoy the boardwalk, Bayside Skillet, and some fishing.  And the kites were flying:



On Sunday we decided to do some yard work and then go and play at Piney Run Park.  This time it was sunny and gorgeous!  We got more fishing in an caught a catfish - we let him go, one fish isn't enough for all of us :)



And to end the weekend we watched the sun set from the fishing pier:



It was good family bonding weekend, some sunburn, some fishing, lots of driving, lots of fun!  Now back to reality.

Random stuff

It is still Renaissance Faire season here and I've been going almost every weekend.  We even camped in the rain 2 weekends ago.  Here are some of my favorite pictures so far this season:

Hubby and me



My dear friend Stacie & Me



My Jingle Ho friends (one is missing) L-R: Sam, JoJo, Cheri (new ho), Mish, Marty, Bottom: Me, Sati, Vicki



My dear friend Sati with Vikie's daughter



Daddy and Daughter (Kendra's birthday trip to faire)



Kendra and mom

Girly kinda of weekend....

My oldest daughter celebrated her 16th birthday last Friday and we spent the day being girly, which continued over the weekend.

She got her first pedicure--well, I needed one too:



Her toes are the red ones :)  Lime green are mine (of course)!

Then her dad surprised her Saturday morning with her first riding lesson.  She loves horses but has never been on one:



We also colored her hair this weekend for the first time....DOH, her hair is soo thick and long I wasn't thinking and only go one box of color realizing after that bottle was empty, we needed more.  Luckily it blended well with her natural blonde tones, it looks acceptable for school...whew.

Then Sunday we made more salsa....mmmmmm...salsa:



What a fun weekend...

Weekend Stuff...

well, most of this doesn't have to do with quilting, but there are pictures involved!

Hubby and I made date night a traveling show!  We picked up my car, dropped off stuff to the mission, got both cars emissions done, then we window shopped at Bass Pro Shop, then Dicks and finally we ended up at the Howard County Fair!  Whew....just rethinking about it is crazy...we are nonstop!!

I took a few fun shots of the fair and only one quilt, mainly because all the quilts are covered with plastic and it's really hard to get a good image.  The one I did capture was incredible!  It won a ribbon and was hand quilt, the design mimicked the bias work.  And to top it off it was done in Raven's fabric!





Then driving home yesterday from picking up my girls, we got to enjoy a hot air balloon:



This weekend is a whirl wind.....whooshhhhhhhh....and we are off again today.  Spending morning/early afternoon at a Stitch and Bitch, then coming spending time with family, then off to hit golf balls with my new golf set...oh did I mention we purchase clubs at Dicks?? :)

I truly have wonderful friends. . . .

We have been enjoying the company of my brother & sister-in-law and a surprise bonus visit from my oldest niece with her husband and 2 little girls.  Our house was a rocking last night!

We spend the entire day getting lost in Pennsylvania, but did end up doing some amish things, like buggy riding:



My girls got the front row action sitting next to the buggy driver and the full horses' behind effect as well....it was highly amusing!  We ate a nice restaurant at Bird In Hand (town's name), but we paid way too much for a lunch buffet.  Speaking of "buffet".......oh, wait....

So, Cheryl who was doing some binding work for me on a table runner called yesterday to return it and see if I had anything else...hello, sure I do!!  So, she surprised me and took my sunflower wall quilt and finished the binding yesterday...WOW....I'll get to see it tomorrow when we hook up with her and her family to see Jimmy Buffett in concert! :)  FREEE....they are lawn tickets, but I've never been to a Buffett concert and I am a pirate after all.   It should be a lot of fun!

Well, this morning, realizing we missed the mail lady yesterday, finally checked the box to see that I had received something from Anjea!?!?  Opened the box to my amazement and saw this 9" adorable quiltlet:



I took pictures and immediately hung it up with my other little ones:



I'm soo excited and love it!!  It hangs next to my grandmother's dresden sampler.  Thank you Anjea!

I have amazing friends and am so grateful for them in my live and appreciate all their talents, love and friendship.  I can't thank them enough.

Seasons Greetings….

from my family to yours...

Micheal, Brianna, Allen and Kendra

I’m still around….

but haven't had time to read up on blogs and other favorite internet spots. While I'm missing all the good and wonderful things everyone is doing, I'm taking care of December stuff.

I have sewn several holiday gifts and a few birthday ones as well. Planning on basting 2 quilts to hopefully have quilted by end of next week - both are lap size and gifts for my sister and niece (who arrive hopefully here next Wednesday).

I can't share quilty pictures yet, mainly because they are gifts, but I have some other holiday pictures to share. . .

My new Pirate Santa given to me by a friend:


My youngest prepared for her holiday choir concert:


Off to work, though looking forward to 2 days off this weekend - it's been a while and I'm behind on my normal household duties.