Retreating For The Second Time

I'm off at a retreat today...my second one ever.

Wow! Aren't I a social butterfly!

It's here in town, so no sleepovers for me. I'll come home after dinner to my own little bed.

I'm taking along my gazillion one and a half inch pieces that are now attached to my charm squares.

I even sewed a few of the finished blocks together...I was busy yesterday!

My Garden Party Quilt is moving along slowly, but quite nicely. 

Maybe it won't end up as a UFO after all!

Don't forget - 4 more days until we picnic!

And 5 more days until this starts!

My Grandmother's Paintings

My grandmother learned to oil paint when she was older and she got creative by painting Texas flowers and old buildings. Some of them were not so good so she gave those to her family. We all accepted them graciously and hung them whenever she visited. She kept the good paintings for herself.

My niece, Allison, visited my grandmother and was offered one of her paintings. "Pick whichever one you want," my grandmother said, so Allison chose one. My grandmother said, "No, not that one." So, Allison picked another, and another, and another only to get the same response from my grandmother, "No, not that one." Allison ended up not taking home a painting and really didn't want one after so many "No, not that one" responses. Apparently my grandmother didn't really want to let go of any of them.

There's a point to this story, really there is!

Over the Memorial Day weekend I was lucky enough to have all four of my nieces and some of their daughters come into my little sewing room for a "showing" of all my quilts and projects. They sat on the floor while I dragged each piece from my closet (I wish I'd taken a picture because it was so cute!) I was amazed at how many projects I had accumulated from all the blog hops. Those sweet girls ooo'd and aaah'd each piece I brought out. I was so touched by their kind words! 

Allison was there and said she'd love to have one of my projects, as did the other girls. With so many girls sitting in my sewing room, there was no way I could start handing over quilts without really thinking about which ones I wanted to give away. Because I hesitated, Allison (who has a great sense of humor like the rest of my family) teased me by saying, "No, not that one." We had a really good laugh, again, about that story...it's a story none of us will forget!

My closet is overflowing with so many quilts and things, but since I've given almost all of my family members something I've made I don't want them to be overwhelmed with my quilty stuff. There are several pieces that I want to hold on to for sentimental reasons, but I'll let my kids and nieces pick what they want from the rest of the quilts because I definitely don't want to be like my grandmother! I'd rather see them enjoy the quilts now rather than after I'm gone.

Bruster's happy that I'm sharing this one with him. When I laid it on the bed, he crawled right under it!

It was among my first attempts to embroider something...I'm a little better at it now.

I think this sounds so much better...
"Yes, you can have that one." 

It's The Beginning Of A Garden Party

I love the sound of these words:

"Hi, I'm Jenny from Missouri Star Quilt Company."

It gets me all pumped up and ready to watch her video and learn something new.

What's that? Missouri Star Quilt Company now has a magazine?

Well, sign me up, of course!

The magazine was accidently delivered to a distant neighbor (seriously, Barbara lives several blocks away) who kindly hand delivered it to me. That visit led to going to a new quilt group led by her. At yesterday's meeting Barbara showed us a quilt she had started using a pattern from the magazine.

Not that I'm competitive or anything (okay, so maybe a little bit), but as soon as I got home 

I grabbed the magazine and after looking through it I decided to make a quilt from it, too. 

Garden Party Quilt

Wait!

How many one and a half inch squares do I have to 

cut out...and sew...to charm blocks? 336? Wow!

This may take a while!

To be continued...

A Volkswagen Tammy Bag

 I love the Tammy Bag

and...

I love Vintage Scrapbook fabric by Benartex

so...

I put 'em together and what have I got,

bibbidi-bobbidi-boo 
(I couldn't help myself...now I'll be singing that all day!)

Actually it is a...

A Volkswagen Tammy Bag!

I love this combination of bag and fabric!

My scissors are beaded and I've rightly got my "other name" embroidered and on display.

Can you guess who made "I am the other lady" and the beaded scissor fobs?

I'm sure you can!

Don't forget what's coming next week!

Getting Ready To Hop For A Picnic

I'm getting ready to picnic during the "A Perfect Picnic" Blog Hop that begins on June 2nd, so I made some barbecued hot dogs for the event (my picnic quilt can't be shown until my day on June 3rd.)

These aren't done enough for me...mine have to be REALLY charcoal black!

If you eat hot dogs, how do you like them...barely warm, slightly grilled, or almost black?

Blog Hopping And Touring...They're Coming!

Sew We Quilt's "A Perfect Picnic Blog Hop" begins on June 2nd and will be hosted by

that very cool lady at I Piece 2-Mary. There will be so many great ideas for picnics!

The whole schedule can be found HERE!

The wonderful sponsors will be Peterboro Baskets and Riley Blake Designs.

I've got my barbecue ready to grill, my picnic basket on stand-by waiting to be filled with

important necessities for a picnic, and a blanket to spread out on the grass for a day of fun.

I'm so ready to picnic!

And to add even more excitement, Riley Blake's Quilted Cotton Blog Tour begins on June 3rd.

There are some pretty amazing quilters who will be a part of this

and I get to hang out with them during this tour...see, that's me on the 17th!

June 3 - Riley Blake Designs

June 5 - Jedi Craft Girl

June 10 - Nancy Zieman

June 12 - The Sassy Quilter

June 17 - Just Let Me Quilt

June 19 - Simple Simon & Co

June 24 - Haberdashery Fun

June 26 - Sew We Quilt

July 1 - Jina Barney Designz

July 3 - Leigh Laurel Studios

July 8 - Riley Blake Designs

The Beatle Bag That Bugged Me

I signed up for a class a few months ago to make a bag, but after gathering all the necessary items needed and dragging my sewing machine to the class, I wasn't even able to start sewing due to reasons beyond an explanation. So there that little bundle of a project sat staring at me. It begged to be sewn...yeah, whatever! I had other things to do.

And then...

I woke up at 4 a.m. yesterday and couldn't go back to sleep.

Maybe it was that darn bag calling to me or the repeated music in my head...

"We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine.."

Whatever it was, I did what any self-respecting sewer/quilter would do. 

I got out of bed and started sewing the The Beatle Bag by Abbey Lane Quilts,

"Yellow Submarine Bag" 

This bag has inserts that can hold lots of things.

-On-the-go sewing needs

-Emergency prep items for the car or home

-Beads and tools for making scissor fobs or something else crafty

-Embroidery threads and all the tools needed to create a work of art 

I do have some problems following patterns and I just might have made a few boo-boos

along the way, but overall I managed to make a usable bag that didn't look too bad.

The pattern recommends using Soft & Stable foam by Annie ...have you ever used it?

It's pretty amazing stuff! I've met Annie and taken a class from her...she's so nice!

There's A Winner!

Oh my gosh! 

There were so many entries in my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway...so cool!

#297

Congratulations to Ali!

(an email has been sent to her)

Thanks to all of you who came to visit.

It was such fun!

Comfy In A Quilt Dog

Bruster has always loved crawling under the covers to sleep, but this time 

I caught him laying on his back under a rag quilt I made several years ago.

To quote that sweet lady over at More Stars in Comanche,

"There's nothing more comfy than sleeping in a quilt!"

Don't forget...tomorrow is the last day to enter my Sew Mama Sew giveaway

HERE!

The next blog hop...

"No Big Deal" Winner

Thanks to all of you who helped me celebrate my birthday!

Sorry, a little late getting this out!

#69

Marit Johanne

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Is Here!

Sew Mama Sew is hosting an amazing giveaway with tons of bloggers
linking up to share their giveaways...you really must check it out!
It's my favorite way to find new blogs that are just over-the-top wonderful.

A big thanks to Sew Mama Sew for hosting this event!

What's my giveaway?

Four fat quarters of Vintage Scrapbook by Benartex.

I love this fabric!

This giveaway is over.

Thanks to all of you who came to visit!

1. Leave a comment telling me what country you are from.
2. You don't have to be a follower to enter, but if you are one you can leave an extra comment for an extra chance if you want to. 
3. Random Generator will pick the winner.
4. It can be mailed anywhere...yes, even to the other side of the world.
5. Giveaway ends at 5 p.m. PST on May 16th. Entries after 5 p.m. PST on May 16th will not be included in the giveaway.

I'm so glad you stopped by!

Now go check out the rest of those amazing giveaway links at Sew Mama Sew!

Happy Mother's Day

My mom was one tough cookie!

She managed to survive an early life of abuse with an alcoholic father and a mother that required her constant attention and care. My mom's job at a young age was to care for the sick and elderly in a nursing home.

Mom married young and ended up being the main bread winner of the family when my dad caught a really bad case of polio and spent time in an iron lung. He wasn't able to work after that so she worked at a grocery store and managed to take care of her two daughters (I wasn't born yet.)

Once he was better (and I had arrived) she did the unthinkable for a woman of that era and got a divorce, moved away with three young girls, and settled us with my grandmother and her new husband. My mom had to work full-time as a grocery clerk to pay my grandparents to let us live with them.

A good man came into her life and married her along with her three daughters, but her life was never easy. She was a hard woman to get along with and would argue about everything. Seriously, there was no subject that didn't rile her up and get her going. Politics and religion were dangerous things to talk about around her. 

To say our relationship was rocky is a huge understatement.

But...

because of her I learned to:

be independent

not expect someone to take care of me

work hard

sew and quilt

bake and decorate cakes

do service for others

never be selfish and share with others

love genealogy and my family's heritage

She's been gone several years and I miss being able to ask her "how to" from her wealth of knowledge. 

She was such a smart woman! 

Thanks, Mom, for teaching me so many things...good and bad.

Happy Mother's Day!

It Was A Honky Tonk Kind Of Day

Thanks for all the sweet birthday wishes...it was a really nice day!

Cheesecake, Family, & Quilt Store

Yep, it was a great day!

I picked up these fat quarters for my Birthday/Follower's Giveaway
(Enter the giveaway by clicking HERE )

Five fat quarters of Honky Tonk fabric by Eric and Julie Comstock

Have yourself a Honky Tonk kind of day today!

P.S. Just for fun and if you want to, go give yourself another entry to win these fat quarters.

Another Day...No Big Deal

It's JUST my birthday.

No big deal!

I was about 6 in this photo...so that's just a few years ago

I don't need any gifts, fanfare, or special treatment.

Wait! What am I saying?

A birthday deserves LOTS of fanfare!

So...

How about a Follower's Giveaway?

All you have to do to enter is:

1. Be a FOLLOWER by one of the gazillion ways to follow me.
2. Leave a short and sweet comment
3. Only one entry per person.
4. The Follower's Giveaway will end on May 12th at 6 p.m. MST (comments left after that time won't count.)
5. Make sure I have your email address or you can't win!

What's the prize you ask? I can't tell you because it's a surprise...

I'm going to the quilt store today to pick out 

something for me (for my birthday) and something for a lucky winner.

It's going to be a great day!

P.S. I have a new email address:

Comments...Where Are You? UPDATE!

Whenever anyone comments on my blog I get notified by email.

I love this because it makes it easy to respond to those sweet comments.

On my last post only three out of five comments made their way to my inbox.

Where did those other two go?

They are not in my SPAM...I looked.

How many other comments have I missed? Ugh!

I searched the internet for a reason and came up empty.

Anyone else having this problem?

If so, did you find a solution?

Update:

Sharon at Vrooman's Quilts had the right on answer...it IS DMARC!
Just Google "DMARC" and you'll be swept away with all sorts of information.

From what my slightly and small techie brain can understand, if you are AOL or Yahoo (and a few others) the new updates of DMARC have been put in place to stop SPAM, but unfortunately it is whamming us little bloggers by stopping and returning some incoming emails because it thinks they are evil. 

Most things I read in and around the internet recommend changing to other email services that are on your domain (though I've heard a word or two that says that's not necessarily true.) Guess I better switch to a different email address until I'm not considered "evil" anymore. The WORD is that they are working on a fix, but who knows when that will happen! 

Just A Few Holes To Fix...Easy Peasy!

It all started with a few holes in the wall that needed patching.

No problem...there was an old can of matching paint in the garage.

Off to the store to have them match it and it will be a quick fix.

Wrong!

The girl at the counter was maybe 16, new on the job, and obviously not excited about helping me.

No problem...she had someone training her.

Uh-oh, trainer went off to help someone else. Yikes!

The 16-year-old disappeared down the paint can aisle in search of the base coat.

She was gone about 7 minutes.

I think I might have displayed signs of melting down.

Once she matched it, shook it, and left it sitting on the counter for me to figure out she was done,

I was off to pay for it. What's that you say sweet check out lady?

This is the cheapest type of paint your store sells?

Um...I didn't ask for that.

I'm sure it will be fine...right?

Nope! 
It was a shade darker and drippy, but I went forth and painted anyway.

With Cleopatra and Creepy Bunny supervising, I painted the living room and family room.

Just "a few holes" became a two day project. It looks good, though!

Exciting news! (for me anyway)

I won't win the Farmer of the Year award, but I have a tomato on my plant.

It's there, just look close.

4-year-old Monkey Boy is staying with us for a few days.

Good and not so good.
He has a fever and threw-up all over his grandpa.

Hopefully, today will be a better day!

I've been sewing, really I have, just nothing I can show.

Wish I could, but they're all for gifts or upcoming blog hops.

Enjoy your day!