Back from vacation in TX..... Pincushion swap received!

 I received my pincushion package the other day, it was chock full of goodies from my partner Carol,aka mamacjt at Flickr!  Look at all this loot!  2 fabulous pincushions- a big prince of a frog named Frank and a beautiful wristlet flower pincushion along with some decorative pins that look like cakes and desserts. Also, a box of Jelly Bellies that are drink flavored, and a bunch of prom queen stuff, since Carol was worried that I felt left out because I never went to an actual prom.  Aw, isn't she sweet?  She even wrote a fairy tale about it.  She sent me a Prom Queen sash and a tiara, cool! And of course, the Prom King, Frank.  LOL  The Fairy Tale is a hoot to read and it's very clever.  It incorporates the names of so many Flickr friends, it's just wonderful.

Frank is a chunky fellow, he has a wonderful feel to him and he's gigantic!

Thanks so much for being a fun swap partner, Carol!

Now on to vacation stuff-

(to see this better, click on the link below)

While in TX, my friends took me to a fun quilt shop called The Nimble Thimble, in Tyler.  As I was waiting to have some fabric cut, a lady came in with a really pretty quilt top that she had made for her granddaughter.  This is the pattern she started with, above.   It's called the  "You Are Everything" quilt and it's from Lizzie B Cre8tive.  We all just loved it- my friends came over to see what was going on- one was reading a book on her iPad and the other had her Kindle Fire, they don't sew or quilt, but they enable me to buy more fabric and patterns by cheerfully driving me there, coming inside, carrying bolts, offering suggestions, etc.  I just love those 2 ladies!  Lisa and Jennifer, you rock!

Anyway, the lady needed a backing and binding and I'm happy to say that we all got to be involved in that process and I think we guided her nicely.  :)  She really appreciated the help.  And when we saw her block in the bottom corner that had a red pig and said "the sooey to my Razorback", that struck up a whole new conversation because her granddaughter and I both live in Arkansas.  So this quilt can be personalized!  I want to make a sarcastic one, with things like "you are the thorn in my side" or "the pain in my ass", "the shark in my ocean", "the salt in my wound", "the knife in my back", etc.  LOL  Hey, I could make it for my Flickr buddy Kimmie! 

I had a wonderful time in TX at my friends Jennifer and Charles' house.  Our friend Lisa came up, too, from southern Louisiana with her little puppy, Charlie and he was just a delight.  He really entertained us and made us laugh even more than we already would.  He was so full of beans and he was FAST, running in circles, digging in some freshly turned dirt, getting filthy in the process.  Turned out, some fish carcasses had been buried in that garden and he was on the hunt for fish bones.  When told, my husband said he had a future as a cadaver dog!  lol  That was so funny.  Charlie is a terrier of some sort and weighs about 10 pounds.  I can just picture him working next to the big dogs!

Now I'm home and on a crusade to clean our house, it really needs a thorough deep-cleaning as we have company coming soon and we also need it just because I'm tired of looking anywhere in the house and seeing a mess.  So I'll be busy doing that, until I can't stand it anymore.  This is what I get for going and staying in immaculate houses!  

We went to our friends Blakeley and Sylvia's Open House at their shop, Wilson & Wilson Folk Art Co. in Eureka Springs a couple of weeks ago, and we got these 2 wonderful blackbirds!  They look great on our mantle along with all their other animals.  I just love their work!  These are an early birthday present from my sweet husband.  We got a cardinal last year that is to die for.

 And these are the pincushions I made for our swap- a trash can with a removable lid and storage inside, and a "cardboard" box for pins.  Inside the lid is a removable tape measure.  The trash can is my own pattern, I made it up as I went along.  It's made from felted wool and Timtex.  The box is cotton fabric, stuffed with ground walnut shells.

 I also made the snail from a Vanilla House pattern and shrunk it way down to be pincushion size.  Partner liked the trash can more, though, so I get to keep the snail! 

Our clematis (2 plants) is blooming wonderfully this year!

Have a great weekend everybody!  Thanks for plowing thru all the photos, I should blog more often and make these posts shorter, sorry about that.  I just never feel like I have much to say so I put it off until I suddenly have too much!

Girl time is the BEST time!

 Time for a get-away!  No, not to the beach, but I'm heading down to TX to a GF's  for a week or so.  We're jumping into the car again to head to Louisiana to another friend's house, to hang with her for a few days. 

 Here we are a couple of years ago at the beach- Jen, me, Lisa and Kate.  (Kate won't be with us this time, though.)  It was so cold and windy but we didn't care, we were on vacation!

 Lisa and Jennifer, 5 AM, I am a task-mistress! Get up, get up, get up, we have a long way to go today, fun awaits!  Jen has on her shrimpy Mardi Gras beads and Lisa is wearing her Star Trek communicator so we wouldn't lose her.  lol

Our friend Tiger made us all scarves that trip! The light above Jen's head looks like a big gold bow, bwahahahah!

So we're off to have more fun, see ya when I get back!

Part 2- vacation....

We left FL on a Wed morning and spent the night just south of Jackson, MS. It takes FOREVER to get out of Florida, it's a long state to begin with and then we ran across the top of it, in the panhandle. It was about 10 PM when we finally stopped and we were so tired that we didn't even care much that our door was loose in its frame and wobbly, we just showered and conked out and slept a good 5 hours before getting up a little after 3 and hitting the road again. We were heading to Longview TX and there were fish there with Jim's and Charles' names on them, just waiting to be caught. Got to Longview about 9 AM and after a quick bite to eat, the boys left to fish. Jen and I spent the day catching up and she worked some, she works from home. The men came home hot and happy, having caught a slew of bass and catfish. I think we all hit the sack early that night, it had been another long day for us.

The next day Jen had lots of work errands to do and I was her assistant, pulling real estate signs, labeling envelopes, etc. That earned us lunch out at a sandwich shop called Newks that was SO good, I could eat there every day. We had a chicken/pesto/goat cheese sandwich and a Greek salad, it was all yummy. Mmmm mmm. Now I have to add goat cheese to the shopping list! The boys caught a couple of fish, not as good a day as the one before, so they requested and got an early dinner so they could go out again and do some later fishing. Chicken/spinach enchiladas, that was so good! I have that recipe now, Jim really likes it too so I'll be making it a lot, I'm sure.

The day after that was Saturday and the boys took the day off from fishing. They went to Academy, a fabulous sporting goods store where I had bought some wonderful shirts for Jim(like the aqua one in the photo, $12.88!) and got myself one, too. Jen and I went to the local quilt shop, Sharmin's. It's very nice, not huge but well stocked and I got more fat quarters and ..... vacuum cleaner bags! lol They sell vacuums and sewing machines there, and fabric. That was great, I always have trouble finding bags for my vac.

One night we made shish-ka-bob and corn on the cob. OK, here's what good friends we are- after dinner, we all sat around the table with little flossers in our hands and got all the corn and meat out from between our teeth. lol You couldn't do that with just ANYBODY, you know? *snork* We laughed SO much over this long weekend, we all got along so well and had just the best time. Pranks were played, even a game of Uno and Chinese Checkers (my husband is a whiz at that game, what an analytical mind he has), all in good fun but very competitive, too.

We stayed several days with Charles and Jennifer, had a wonderful time and hated to leave, but our housesitter had other jobs to go to, so we drove home happy and content, but already missing our best friends. Did I mention the boys washed all the love-bugs off my car the night before and that Charles even cleaned my tires? I felt so swanky on the drive home!

Nosey Parker was happy to see us, all the animals were, so that was nice. NP actually came inside and sat with us for hours, during her usual play time, so I think she really missed us.

Here she is on one of the towels Jen gave me, a shark attack towel. Way to feed my fears, Jen! lol Good thing the baby isn't as neurotic as her mother.

Memorial Day Weekend, Longview, TX

My best buddy, Jennifer and me, in her front yard, waiting for Robo-Jogger to run by in the heat of the day, and believe you me, it is H.O.T. there at noon. She was always telling me about this crazy guy with the super-erect running form who runs when it's just too, too hot. So when he ran past just as we got home from shopping, her DH set up a viewing stand in the front yard and got out binoculars and everything for his return pass. Then he stood there and took pictures of the poor guy, and of us, until we got to laughing so hard we were crying. Poor guy must think we're insane, but it was so funny how Charles just pimped that guy out for us.

It's been crazy since we got home- we had to take Artie to the vet to get an ear infection cleaned up, we installed a ceiling fan in the guest room which took all day on Thursday (long boring story, no good way to get into attic, required removal of attic fan and lots of itching and crawling, poor husband and a drive to the big city for parts) and then our pond messed up yesterday and we had to take it all apart and clean it and catch fish, etc. Now he's mowing and I'm off to the grocery because we have company coming tonight, my brother and SIL will be here for a week. My other brother is already here, staying at my parents, he's allergic to pets.

Never a dull moment around here!

Be sure to check out the Doll Quilt Swap button on the right- sign ups are over and the fun is about to begin! I'll be busy with it a lot because I'm a swap mama this go-round, this ought to be interesting!

Home from our FL/TX vacation! This is loooong....

This is the lighthouse at Sanibel Island, FL.

We had a great trip, saw 2 different sets of cousins and 2 sets of friends, too. First we stopped in Homosassa, FL to have a visit and breakfast with Jim's cousin Peg and her friend, Jimmy, that was wonderful. We had time for a nice chatty visit at their lovely home in their wooded neighborhood and a great brekkie at their favorite local restaurant where everyone knows everyone else, a real fun place.

Then we headed south to Pine Island to visit his other cousin, Joan, and her husband Charlie. Joan and Charlie are an absolute delight and so much fun to be around. They have a lovely home on a waterway where we saw manatees toodling about and a pod/school/swarm of baby manta rays, they were so cute! ( I wasn't quick enough with the camera, darn it!)

We went out in their boat on Friday and went over to Sanibel Island where I BRAVELY went into the (shark infested, in my mind) water and walked on the sand bar looking for shells, up to my armpits at some points. Eeek. Scares me now, just thinking about it. Jim and Joan and Charlie came along to protect me!

Then we scooted over to the Sanibel Harbour Resort/Marriot for a lovely lunch which got funnier and funnier as the time passed. Our waiter, Chris, kept bringing us huge glasses of iced tea with bendy straws. Every time he'd come, one of the straws wouldn't work- there were holes in the bendy parts and you'd be sucking up air instead of tea. Finally, after the 3rd one, Jim told Chris that he would be sure to never buy condoms from him. OMG. We all just died, right there on the table, laughing. Even Chris played along, saying "is that why I have 6 kids?" lol He was a fun, sassy waiter in what could have been a bit of a snooty atmosphere, but he sure made it fun for us. (All four of us were in wet clothes from being in the water earlier and while we ate outside on the balcony, we still didn't feel like we were dressed correctly.) After lunch, and with MORE iced tea in to-go cups, we went back to the island and Joanie and I walked the beach for a while. That was nice, too.

After a nice boat ride back to their house, we swam in the pool, ate more wonderful food, drank nice wine, dinner and dominoes! We played Mexican Train every night- first it was every man for himself, then the next night it was the girls against the guys and then mixed couples. It was riot, we had to learn their rules so we made them conform to some of ours to even it out. It was lively to say the least. :) I think I didn't fall asleep until about 4 AM that next day, all that iced tea really affected me! I don't usually drink caffeinated stuff, wow.

The next day was Saturday and it was my birthday. Joanie took me shopping, I wanted to go to some quilt shops and spend birthday money. :) We went to 2 of them, they were both wonderful, then she treated me to lunch out and then we went to a Joann's and a Beall's to get some shoes for Jim and a shirt to fish in. What a lovely store! Then we headed back to find the boys at the door with glasses of cold adult beverages in their hands, for us! They had worked all day on getting the boat ready to leave for the summer, as they summer up north. They were pooped but not too tired to fix us a lovely shrimp scampi dinner to celebrate. And we had Angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. What a wonderful day!

Here you can see all the fabric I bought over the course of the vacation.

I needed more black and whites after starting that hexagon quilt.

I always need more blues and greens!

I even found some precious Heather Ross tadpoles! Man, that's yummy soft fabric! And I think I'll make a bag out of the mermaid fabric.

The word bubbles and the blah, blah, blah are Maxine fabrics and just above that is some hard to find Laurel Burch rainbow hearts hummingbirds, 4 fat quarters, woot!

And I was getting low on oranges, reds and purples, too.

After a few wonderful days at Pine Island, we headed north a bit to Indian Shores. We had a great brunch of crustless quiche and dandelion salad at Patrick and Katie's townhouse and a fun visit before heading over to the condo they graciously lent us for our visit. It was on the 5th floor and practically across Gulf Blvd from their home. Very convenient. And lovely, it had everything anyone would need there, even a Christmas tree in the closet! This is the view from our balcony, overlooking the beautiful Gulf.

We were only there for about 2.5 days, but it was fun and we ate out some, in some, and out again. The beach was pretty quiet, too, I guess a lot of people canceled their plans thinking of the oil spill. There was NO oil at all, the beach was as wonderful as usual. I think we found about 15 fossilized sharks teeth in one day.

I got to visit a friend for a bit and hit my favorite quilt shop in Dunedin, Rainbow's End, and Jim and I did a few repairs for Pat and Kay at the same time. Jim is such a handy guy! He fixed a leaking water line in their fridge and rehung a broken kitchen cabinet door. None of which was easy, but the man got it done!

Then we headed for TX, after coffee the last morning with Pat and Kay...

to be continued.....

Power gli....gli....glitch..... Grrrrr.

We lost power on Thursday morning, about 5 minutes after I gave my husband an anniversary card that said "Come rain or come shine, we'll be doing fine...as long as we have each other! (And electricity!!)" Geez! We were laughing ourselves silly until it came back on and we discovered that we had lost a TV, a satellite receiver, a DVD/VCR combo and a clock and a $10 lightbulb, from 3 different rooms. And it's all the same stuff we lost 20 months ago when Ike came whipping through and wreaking havoc. We stopped laughing for a while, it wasn't funny any more. Well, he fixed the DVD/VCR combo. We bought a new clock. (It didn't work, we had to return it, another trip to WalMart, 20+ miles away.) We ran all over trying to find a part for the TV- the capacitor blew out- we had to order one online. The satellite receiver is being replaced no charge. We have had no TV since Wed night. We are missing the last 2 episodes of Survivor, which is just MEAN. A friend is recording it for me, though, thank you LIZ!!!!!

So, since we're leaving on vacation on Wed, we have to get as much of this stuff fixed before then AND clean the house and make sure everything is in order for our housesitter to stay here in comfort while we're gone. Sheesh, nothing is ever easy. The lawnmower broke, the parts place was closed, we're having monsoon rain storms, and the list goes on and on and time is of the essence!

To distract myself a little, I've played this week with the layouts for both sides of my hexagon quilt.

This side is mostly black. I arranged the mixed hexies to be somewhat orderly, by color, either greens or blues or reds, etc. I spent so much time on the floor getting up, squatting, bending, etc that I could barely move without moaning for 2 days afterward, man I'm out of shape!

This side is bright hexagons with mixed blacks and whites interspersed. I arranged this side so the warms are on one side and cools on the other, but not divided straight up and down, a little looser than that. I locked the cats out of the sewing area so I didn't have to worry about them scrambling up my layouts, this took HOURS and hours to perfect, believe it or not. Anyway, they're all stacked, numbered and put up safely until I can sew all 430 triangles together!

And here are 9 mini 3.5" quilt blocks for a swap I'm in. The challenge was black and white and one other color, I picked yellow. So I made wonky liberated stars and I think they look like nice little suns. I'll send 8 of them away and get back 8, each one black and white and one other color. Then we'll all assemble our mini blocks and make mini quilts!

I also made a mini quilt for a new friend in CA, I'll show you that in another entry, it came out pretty cute, I think.

The Aspens Were Turning......

The aspen trees were SO pretty in Steamboat Springs and out at the lake. These photos were taken out at the lake in a huge grove of OLD aspens, some of them had carvings on them from the 50's. Once again, we had a great time with our friends Katie and Patrick and we thank them for letting us stay at their beautiful homes and hanging out with them, it was a lot of fun and we had so many laughs!

The view from this piece of property is breathtaking- you can see Steamboat Lake, Hahn's Peak, the village below it, even the dam at the far right end of the lake (not seen in this photo). The aspen grove is behind us now, we had to walk down thru it to get to this point, see Jim on the trail? Everything out there is HUGE. He looks so tiny. No wonder Patrick wanted us to see this! He's right, this is THE spot for a house at the lake. Of course, their house has views that rival this, it's about 100 acres to the left of this one.


It seems like ages ago since my last post, probably because it was! To those of you who emailed me, worried, I apologize. It just got crazy here before we headed off to Colorado- I had to teach a class on making a quilted duffle bag and that threw my whole schedule into a tizzy. Then I decided I needed a special purse for the trip and quick whipped up one my little strappy bags made out of that cool paint-by-number deer fabric that I found on Etsy.

I was able to get all the machine sewing done before we left and I finished the hand sewing part of it in the car, using my handy-dandy sewing organizer/caddy. I just love these little purses and I'm in the process of making a real pattern for it and soon I'll be teaching a class on them. I just need to perfect the purse first and come up with a zippered closure for the top of it, an alternative to the elastic closure that I prefer. I also have an order for purse slightly larger than this one, I need to get on that, too. Busy, busy.

Anyway, CO was beautiful. It snowed a few days after we got there but melted soon after and when the weather cleared up and got sunny, we went for a few hikes. This was taken at King Solomon's Creek. We wanted to hike to the falls but the way was too wet and treacherous so we headed to Nipple Peak, instead.

Katie, Jim, me and Shep, our friend Pam's dog, he's a good boy!

The Lodge Pole Pines have been decimated by a pine boring beetle and a lot of logging has been going on. Our friend Pam tried to beat me in a game of tic-tac-toe, but it was a tie game. :)

Pam is X's.

I am O's.

I had a lot of fun feeding and photographing my little friends, the chipmunks. I just love these guys, they are incredibly tiny! This one had had a small problem with its tail, part of it is missing, but isn't it cute? If I lived there, I have them all eating out of the palm of my hand, I just didn't have enough time to get them to trust me. They came close a few times but I think it was by accident- when they'd notice me their eyes would get real big, a little shriek would come out of them and they'd skedaddle into the grass or up a wall or something, it was so funny. When I was sitting quietly, they wouldn't come near me. When I was talking on my cell phone, they'd practically run right over me, go figure. I guess they wanted some air time, too. They do love their peanuts, I'll say that for them. And stale bread, too.

This one was my favorite!

I really missed my sewing machine while we were away. Fortunately, Katie and Patrick needed something made and it was a hand-sewing project. They had seen fleece blankets for sale for using while flying, since the airline blankies can be kind of gross and unwashed. We off we went to the only place in Steamboat that sells fabric (sob) - Wal Mart. We got fleece for both of them and then proceeded to do a blanket stitch all the way around them and fashioned some straps so they can be hung over the handle of a carryon bag and dragged thru the airport with ease, or slung over the shoulder and carried like a purse. Katie's is like the latter, Patrick's is the black one and he's still waiting for me to make him a matching pillow. I needed the machine for that!

This is their backyard at the house in town, that's the ski mountain but the slopes are off to the left.

And even more than my sewing machine, we missed Nosey Parker! She was at home with our pet sitter and all her brothers and sisters, just hanging out waiting for us.

I had a few photos of her in my phone- I would console myself by looking at them several times a day and saying "Where's the baby?" like we do all the time with her, it's a game we play. The little stinker took several days to warm back up to us after we got home, I was a little surprised about that. She's back to normal though, coming over to me in bed at 3 or 4 AM and wanting some cuddling and smooches, I just love when she does that! She's a busy girl and doesn't take too much time during the day for a cuddle, she's got things to do and places to explore. She's a good girl, though and she's still cracking us up on a regular basis!

More stories later, the house will awaken soon and I want to go sew a wonky block or 2 first. We're making a Wonky Log Cabin quilt and I have 7 blocks done, only a hoo-gob more to go (OK, maybe only 18 more, but it seems daunting to me!) It'll be 5 x 5, probably and the blocks are 15" square, so it'll finish out about 75" square. I may make it smaller, though, I'm not sure yet. I'm having fun with the Hooter Quilt. See the owls in the centers? :) Oh, the sashing is a dark brown, not black like you might think. Looks pretty sharp with the bright solids, I like it.

Vacations are F.U.N.

We're home and struggling to get back into the routine and catching up on orders and laundry, etc. We had a great time, thanks to our friends and hosts, Katie and Patrick. They are so kind and gracious to open up their beach house to us every summer and we always have the best of times. Sun and sand and searching for sharks teeth during the day (141 this year); our annual craft project painted in the front yard (this year we painted totems); eating fabulous dinners at the picnic table while we wait for the sun to set (2 green flashes this year) and falling into our Murphy bed exhausted shortly thereafter. Drinks in the pavilion as the Gulf breeze washes over you, you just never feel hot when you're at the beach. There's nothing like it, really. Bliss.

As usual, we hated to leave but needed to come back to the real world of grown grass, happy dogs and 3 cats who seem to have brought home a dozen live mice that we're busy now trying to catch and some sewing that needed doing.

One project was for a reversible apron for a friend in TX. Don't you just love this happy fabric? This is the Lucy apron pattern by The Brassy Apple. I've made this before and I keep changing little things on it. I added longer ties so I can tie it in the front, raised them a bit higher so they tie at my waist rather than the hip and added about 4" of elastic into the neck strap (hidden in the casing) so I can pull it on and off without untying the neck. I love it! I'm trying to find more of this fabric so I can make myself one.

And, just to add to my own self-induced stress levels, I've joined, already in progress, a new quilt-along by Old Red Barn Co. I'm kind of behind, so I've been pretty busy since Tuesday. I picked out these fabrics and have pressed them and cut them into 2.5" strips, ready to be sewn together. I've added a few and deleted a few since this photo, but this will give you an idea of what colors I'm using. Yes, same kind of colors as last time. I seem to only buy bright colors as they make me happy, so instead of going out and buying more fabric, I used what I had. My husband would be so pleased, if he had a clue what I was doing upstairs all day yesterday! lol

So, it's been a busy June so far, hope all y'all are having fun and doing something you like to do, too!

Oh, and look what's blooming! This is our best clematis year in ages.