End of the Year

Well it is finally the last day of the year. I couldn't believe I didn't post anything since I left for the beach back in October, shame on me. Well no sewing here, did quilt out 3 quilts on miz gracie and that is it!! So sad here. No motivations what so ever, sad, sad.

I did visit a couple of quilt shops in Wilmington, NC & was so disappointed. Heck one of them I felt I had more fabric in my sewing room then they carried, but they had enough Bernina sewing machines to hook up a small country. Once they figured out I wasn't there to buy a machine, needless to say, I was left completely left alone to look around. The second was the gals were very nice but not a whole lot sung to me, I did manage to buy a yard of batik that was too pretty to pass up. The rest of the trip was a bust on quilt shops. Planned on stopping on some on the way home but when you have a 11 yr old with stomach virus, nope not happening, just wanted to get home at that point.

I did manage to get to a joann fabric this past Monday with Friends. Which was so needed. We shopped, which I bought some pretty blue flannel in paisley print to do a rag quilt in. Which I've never done one before but thought my son's girlfriend would like, plus I get to use up 2 totes that are crammed full of left over scrap batting. We went to lunch at Olive Garden, which is one of my favorite spots to spend time with friends. I had the chicken parm, oh yummy, let alone the salad which I could just eat till I get sick, LOL. So now I have a project to work on, like I don't have enough to keep me busy for the next 5 years. Which I know all of us have right??????

So what quilty item(s) did you all get for Christmas?? I made out with an ott light, and a $100.00 check to buy a quilt kit of my choice, a neat cross stitch picture, kt fabric, a small vacuum and a $25.00 gift card from Joann's. Now I did make out with a new 10 piece set of rachel ray cookware, a new hand mixer with dough hooks, and I get to pick out a new kitchen aid mixer when I get around to it. Most of my stuff except cookware is sooo old i believe around 20 yrs old now, LOL. My hubby loves to buy kitchen stuff & I don't mind he is darn good at it.

Any quilty New Years Resolution??? I plan on blogging more often and with pictures. I plan to quilt up my 11 tops before March and no buying until the May Quilt Retreat in Amish Country. I want to use up my some of my stash. anyone who post their new years resolutions by January 5, I'll pick a winner and send some fat quarters to~~~~ Let see them ladies~~~~

down to the wire

We are getting down to the wire to leaving for the beach, Yea!! I've already have some quilt shops lined up while I'm down there to check out & maybe get some "memory" fabric. Bet your wondering what memory fabric is well it is fabric you get on vacation to remember the memories with. LOL. I cut out a bunch of chocolate/tan/brown fabric to make some cathedral windows lap quilt out of along with pink prints of various shades. I'm hoping this will look good plus it will keep me busy with some handwork too. hopefully I can find some fabric to go in with it. I'm also doing an "adult" i spy so I'll be on the look out for some good things too. I found some with a little playing a flute ( I played it in the band), volleyball, a sexy outdoor man one, one gal gave me a sexy fire man, plus some other awesome ones that brings up some cool childhood memories. This should be a neat looking quilt once I get completed LOL hopefully by the time I retire from life.

My goal by the end of november is to atleast complete 4 quilt tops all quilted out. hopefully i can stick with that goal. what is all you wonderful quilters goals????

Getting ready for the beach

Will be heading down to the beach before long can't wait. We are going to be staying at holden beach. Hopefully i can find some quilt shops along the way. No too far off the beaten path. I'm planning on taking some type of hand work, not sure if it will be cathedral windows i'm wanting to make a pink/ brown scrappy one, lap size. Or maybe do some redwork. Anyone else have anyother handwork that is portable??

So looking forward to a break, the boys are going with me but hubby is staying home because it is hunting season. So it will be my mom/stepdad, my sister maria, her son tommy & boyfriend, my sister lisa, my brother jimmy & his wife kelly. we are hoping my neice Brenda will go, my other niece will drop in for an overnighter & maybe my nephew will drop in as well.

I'm going to take the laptop so hopefully i'll post some pictures and updates. well off to sewing room & put some dinner in the crock pot. I'm thinking some chicken parma tonight, better get the sauce in the pot to cook all day.

For sale/cleaning out sewing room

Well I started cleaning out my stash & all of my craft stuff. Things have settled down with my mom & i'm really wanting to simplify my "stuff" so I decided to get rid of some of my stuff. Plus this is my son's senior year, we got the information for his senior trip, pictures and stuff so i'm going to start using this money towards all of that stuff.

Everything is on my webshots the prices is under the picture in the caption part. I'm selling a bunch of 1930's charms ( the pictures are just samples, you'd get an assortment), fat quarters and doll making stuff. i'm going to be doing this off and on this week so be sure to keep checking to see what i might put up. the webshot link is on the left side of my blog~~

Have a great day.

were have the days gone

Geesh were have all of the days gone by? I mean seems like the boys have just gotten off to school now September has slipped right by me. time is sure flying by. I haven't been quilting much, besides making some bags to take on vacation next month. Well we are leaving on October 17th. Looking so forward to it, need a break. I have been going thru my stash to reduce it, since there are some gorgeous lines coming out. Got to make some room!! On a sad note, we got our garage/storage shed broken into last week, ( I have a feeling it will get worse) but the blessing was nothing was taken. Yea!! The shed didn't have a whole lot in there but the lil garage is my sewing room converted over. The door lock was busted off but nothing was taken or damaged, thank God. I don't know if they just didn't want my 3 sewing machines, fabric, patterns etc, they didn't even want the chocolate stash in my lil frig. I praise God he was watching over us. The big garage they couldn't get in. So I don't know if it sad they didn't want my stuff or sad they broke in. LOL

My goal for the rest of the year is to finally get those tops all quilted out, don't know what I'll do with them, where to put them but I really want to get them done. heck I might give out some for christmas presents.

Back to School & More

Well School has finally started here in the hills, Thank You God!!! I mean I love my boys but boy I do love having my routine plus my time. Josh has starting his senior year, so one of my babies will be leaving the nest before long. So far he is enjoying it, dealing with a new girlfriend, yearbook club and going to every school function. Caleb has started his 5th grade year, last year of elementary school. They grow up so quickly. He is plannng on joining band this year instead chorus. He loves to sing. Hopefully I will be back to quilting soon.

Well God likes to throw you a curve just when you think you have it all planned out. :) Here I thought finally time to myself, maybe get caught up on some reading, get those quilt kits sewn up, well Nope nada not now.

Last sunday my mom fell in her yard, yep seperated her shoulder. The Blessing is that it wasn't broken and she doesn't have to have surgery, so I give God Thanks for that. Then my sister broke her hip soooo................ So much for quiet life right now, LOL.

What is that saying " Want a laugh, Tell God your plans " Boy that is so true. ONe good thing is I've been catching up on some reading. One book I've been reading is The Facts of Life & other lessons my father taught me by Lisa Whelchel. I use to love watching The Facts of Life on TV while growing up. So far the book is pretty good, she shares parts of her life & how much God is in control. Very good read~~~

Well Time to get caught up on my housework.

Cleaning Day

Well I started "fall" cleaning, LOL on the sewing room. I haven't done any primitive folkart dollmaking in such a long time, I figured it was time to go thru that whole wall of stuff I've collected over the years. So I'm downsizing it considerable. Not sure what I'm going to do with all of the stuff quite yet. Wiped everything off, vacuumed the floor and rearranged things too. Spent over 2 hours doing that, but boy do I feel so much better. Now i'm going to work on the cabinets that hold all of my fabric. Have you ever bought some fabric then after a year or longer, and wonder what the heck was I thinking when I bought that??? Was I nuts?? Must have been on sale.... or maybe I was in deep dark depression was hoping shopping made me feel better. Atleast looking at it, it better have made me feel better cause it sure doesn't now. I'm hoping to rearrage things there & also do some downsizing on some of it. Are you Shock?!!! I know a quilter getting rid of fabric, is almost a sin.... hehehe. Well I want to make some room for maybe some new fabric. I know when I'm heading down to holden beach come october I'll be driving by Mary Jo's in north carolina, plus a couple other shops so who knows what I may come home with this time. I better get this done this weekend so I can get started on a pink/brown block swap that i'm hosting come october. I hope to make a nice lap quilt out of the blocks. I love that combination. well off to the sewing room.....................

Inspiration Winner is.......

Well I finally got some sewing/quilting done over the weekend. I've had a quilt I've been sewing over a year, I've taken it to any quilt retreat I attended. I mean geesh it had 90 light snowball blocks and 74 dark snowball blocks that used 5" squares and 1 3/4" corner squares . So it is finally put together, I just need to put a border on it. Once that is done I'll post a picture. It was done with charm packs I bought and scraps I had on hand.

There was some great comments from some fabulous quilters out there with lots of different ways to get inspiration to jump start quilting again. I hope I'm not the only one that gets something from this then me.

The winner is Regina~~~~ yea, congratulations!!! Here is her comment she wrote.

I value my online quilting buddies -and their blogs -they really help keep the momentum going for me. When I find a slump, I pick an evening and say "well, I will just sew for an hour tonight" and go from there -sometimes that one hour kick starts me again, and sometimes I stay in the slump a bit longer.

Thanks for all that had posted, was fun reading them. Happy Quilting.

Summer Gone, Need Inspiration!!

Summer is just about over, school will be starting soon ( august 19th, Yippe), and hopefully things will be back to "normal". This summer has been so busy with doing things with the boys, keeping up with daily house crap, church things, but no sewing. :( I just can't seem to get in the mood these past few months. Don't know what the deal is hadn't been in a quilt shop for awhile, went into joanns last week first time since may!! I didn't even get to go to the NQA show this past June. You'd think I was having withdrawels by now, but none.

What do you do for inspiration?? What keeps you motivated? Do you go shopping? Hook up with other quilters? Retreat? Leave me a comment & I'll send someone 4 fat quarters in their color choice. I'll do this for a couple of weeks, say the end date is August 4th. I'll do a random number poll for the winner. Please leave your blog address so I can get in touch with the winner & post a link to my blog on your blog as well. If you leave your blog address & a link ( because I'll be checking, LOL) you might get an additional gift. :)

wow June is almost over~~

Where is the time going to?? Geesh~~~ Time is sure flying here in Ohio. I haven't quilted much at all seems like this whole month running the boys here and there. Caleb joined an after school program for the first two weeks, well the boy went up to cosi, the aquarium is Cincinnati, paints baseball game, swimming, Tecumseh, and lots of other places. He sure had fun those two weeks.

We made it thru vacation bible school which was fun over 100 kids showed up this year. What a blessing that is.

Josh starts his summer job at school next week, yea~~~ He got his four wisdom teeth pulled yesterday which he seems to be doing fine so far. Fingers crossed here. We've been planting the garden, and flowers. Have all of that done. We had a heck of a rain storm a couple weeks ago which flooded my sewing room in half of it. thank God it was the half that wasn't the cabinets with my fabric. The rest was fine cause they were all in totes on the floor which kept them water free. :) yea!!

Hoping to start quilting next week, on Miz gracie I really want to get these tops completed. Missed NQA show this year, so happy to hear they are keeping it in Columbus another three years. They were discussing it going to st. Louis cause Columbus hadn't signed a renewal contract with them.

I've posted some pictures of my flowers and finally my dad's fish quilt which is sooo green!! but he loved it and wanted it that way. LOL.

Hope your having a great summer.

Wow End of the Month

Hard to believe it is end of the month already, this year is flying by. Before long Christmas will be here & then singing in the new year.

Hadn't done too much quilting this past week or so, this darn weather is havoc on my fibro. Been sleeping a lot, plus body been hurting. I'm going to have make an appointment with a massage therapist, I've been reading that is does help with fibro so going to give it a shot.

The boys last day is this Friday so been trying to get them all finished up, report done & handed in, studying for finals, plus other "fun" things going on for them. It is fun for the kids but not the parents I think sometimes.

Been cleaning out my sewing room in between everything else, so got a huge pile of things to sell on ebay or somewhere. Trying to save up some cash when I go down to Holden beach this October, gotta hit Mary Jo's on the way, wouldn't be a trip without that. But that darn gas keeps creeping up which takes some of my fun money away, darn those oil guys don't they realize they are messing with mama's fabric cash, shame on them.

Hope everyone is sewing for me, the orange crush mystery is sitting nicely in it's container waiting for me to put it together, along with the other 18 kits i have waiting on me, LOL.

The Winner is~~~

Well we've gotten a winner~~this has been so much fun. I used a random number picker to be fair.

Simply put, this script will generate a random integer between 0 and the number you enter.
Enter an integer here
63

Here is the result

25

So the person that was the 25th seperate posting is the winner, which is Pat, from Wisconsin. I'll email you pat. This was so much fun.

I know if I would happen to have $50,000.00 just laying around I would build me the perfect studio with lots of storage space, then a nice long arm then me and a friend would head to some quilt shows & load it up & move the fabric/notions etc out. I would stock up on kits, I love kits, moda especially kt fabric.

thanks for all that posted a comment I had so much fun reading them. I hope you all did too.

Giveaway~~

Okay since I've past 3000 people have checked out my blog since I started I'm celebrating a giveaway. Plus it is raining once again in Ohio, sooo we need a pick me up. I've got 4 fat quarters, patterns and something else that will be a surprise. I'm planning on going thru my quilting room this sunday soooo who knows what I may throw in the giveaway blog. Okay here is the rules: ( isn't there rules to everything in life, hopefully these won't be too bad. )

1) If you were given $50,000.00 to spend on yourself Plus your very bestest friend ( only one) . You have to spend all of it on yourself & bestest friend Only!!!! Because your family, kids, pets ect have everything in the world they could possible need/want. It could be anything you would do /buy, plus include atleast ONE quilt related thing in there. Sky is the limit, well atleast $50,000.00 worth. Post in the comment section

2) Place a link from my blog on your blog, plus include your blog link in the comment section with your above answer.

that is it, wasn't so bad was it. I'll be pulling a winner come Monday May 19th~~~~

Retreat Raffle Quilt

Here is a picture of the Raffle Quilt at the OhioQuilter's Retreat. Kathie Crabtree is the winner of it, she is on the left & on the right is me. Isn't it just beautiful!!! Congratulations to Kathie!! I know she will treasure it, for a very long time!!! Don't you love the binding which is done in Prairie Points, so pretty.

A Quilting Day

Well today spending the whole day out in the quilting room in between loads of laundry. There is always something going on in the house. I've got my dad's fish quilt done, he wanted something simple well he got it. :) So today I'll be loading it on the frame & quilting it out today. Not sure how i'm going to quilt it but will think of something i'm sure. He is not picky at all but I still want it too look nice. Going to give it to him for his birthday on Friday he will be 64~~~ I made him a quilt about a year or so ago, well come to think of it was about 2 christmas ago when I gave it to him, but he said he was too short didn't cover his feet, LOL. I made a lap, but he was using it in his camper when he stayed down at fish camp. So he wanted to just to sew along the bottom a 10" piece of quilted flannel, now how tacky would that be!!!!! I"m surprised he didn't do it himself. I told him nope wasn't going to do that I'd make him a longer one. So I pieced a simple design, made it 86" long and 66" wide. He didn't want a too big of one cause it was for the camper, getting kinda picky in his old age, but I guess he has lived long enough he can. I'll post a picture once I get it quilted out today.

Miranda Day Bag Done

Well this is the bag I done at the Retreat last weekend. I thought it turned out so pretty. I can't wait to do another one, now that I know what I'm doing, hehehe. There was quite a few of us doing it at the retreat around 10 or so of us bought the patterns & worked on them. There were some pretty ones. So here is mine. I think the next one I'll do with straps instead.

a neat blog to read~~

Well I'm usually reading a blog or two while eating breakfast, during chatting, or when I'm bored. This is one I love to read~~~ http://quiltingcowgirl.blogspot.com/ a very nice site, and fun to read. She has posted she has had her 300th post, way to go!!! that is so awesome. Congratulations to her. Be sure to check it out.

Retreat is done Yippee~~

Well Retreat is finally over, what a weekend. I laugh so much~~ it was such a great atmosphere this year, lots of laughter, renewed friendships, some new friendships, there was such comfort 7 joy being passed around it was amazing. There was no stress/drama at all which is such a blessing. Lot of stuff being sewed and lots of talking.

I got my dad his fish quilt done except for the borders, a miranda day purse, and binding put on a quilt. That was a lot for me cause I'm usually yacking my head off trying to catch up with everyone's life. We had some bad news on some of the gal's lives but we all rallied around them, showed comfort to them & said many prayers. Isn't God good~~~ I know it was a comfort to a few of them.

I posted some pictures, I have a lot more to post in my webshots album at http://community.webshots.com/user/ohioquilter2.

So today i'm going to put everything back into it's place in the sewing room, that might take me all day. Have to make up some mushroom bags for my FIL to take mushroom hunting next week too.

I'll post some pictures of my miranda bag today too. Now I can get back to "normal" LOL. Hopefully I can get some things quilted on the frame this month that I keep putting off, then I need to decide what to do with them after they are quilted~~~~ Have any ideas???

Staying busy

Well right now I'm working on stuff for the retreat so staying super busy with that. I'm making the nametag badges out of some beautiful fabric which I'd love to show you all BUT that would spoil the fun for the gals coming to retreat, sorry~~~~ will post a finish picture after the retreat. Also working on a giveaway which are turning out so cute, they will match the nametags as well. Oh then I have to work on my Miranda Day Bag by Lazygirl designs. A bunch of us bought the pattern to work on up there, I voluntered like a crazy person to make a sample pieces for us to follow, what was I thinking.

Now I have to go thru all of my stuff to figure out what I'm taking, that part I believe is the hardest. hhmmm how many projects to take, what to take.

Then I've got to decide on what kind of snack to bring. I know I'm bringing the fixins for some taco soup to put in a crock pot, love that soup. hhmm should i bring some chocolate surprise cupcakes, or maybe some pineapple upside down muffins. Heck I might stop at an amish bakery & pick something up there, take the easy route. LOL.

I'm still behind on the orange crush mystery over at quiltville, maybe play catch up at the retreat with it. I'm thinking of doing it major scrappy or civil war reproductions just can't make up my mind.

Friendships~~

Well I was tagged by Phyllis which was so cool~~ so here is a few things about friendship some quotes I like

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being."

"Give others freedom to be themselves. Appreciate the differences between their ways an yours


I have lots of girls in my circle and decided that they all needed to know that someone cares about them and appreciate the difference they make in my life. If you are here it may be because I tagged you as one of the girls in my circle! If I didn't tag you , no offense intended. Tag! You're it! Consider yourself tagged.
***Phyllis
Nancy
Ann
***
Wanna let your friends know you love them and appreciate the difference they make in your life? Go here to learn how.

A Free IPod Giveaway & Great Cooking Site

Well while surfing blogs I came across this really neat site called. Cooking By the Seat of My Pants. I love cooking so I will checking out this place off and on. Looks like it could be a keeper. She is doing a giveaway of an IPOD nano so here is all of the information. Good luck~~
http://www.cookingbytheseatofmypants.com/ipod-touch-giveaway/

A neat baby Quilt

Well I got the baby quilt for a friend of ours that is due the end of the month. they are expecting their first son, after 2 girls which the youngest is I believe 10, talking about starting over. You'd have to put me in the loney bin for sure if that happened to me, mine are 6 years apart which was bad enough. I believe God thought it would funny and me get pregnant again especially since I was planning on getting "fixed" in June ended up pregnant in January. Oh well Caleb has sure been a blessing to me. Here is a picture of him, isn't he so cute~~ You just want to pinch those cheeks dontcha?

Here is the quilt I was talking about at the beginning. It is made out of flannels and minkie style fabric for the ears & paws. This sucker is huge in size. It is rag style. So fuzzy, soft and warm. I heat & bond his nose & eyes down then buttonholed stitched them down then embroidered his mouth. I just hope their ultrasounds are right he is to be a boy, LOL. If not the lil girl will have to like doggie stuff. We are taking it over to them come this weekend after we Hopefuly, fingers & toes crossed, of picking up a new car. Well not new but new to us. A friend called and said his dad is selling off his paper route car, which is a 2001 hyundia elantra, giving us a great price on it, well kept, little high miles but hey only used in a paper route. I hope when i get his age which is in his late seventies I'll be going like him.

Ohio Quilt Retreat for May 2-4th, 2008

If anyone is interested in coming to a retreat this may in the heart of Amish Country, Berlin, Ohio please let me know.
you can find the information at the ohioquilters.com website near the bottom of the page.
we will have show & tell, raffle table, giveaways, mystery quilt, fat quarter bag class, snacks, fat quarter bingo, dinner provided by a mennonite lady which is awesome!! plus lots of laugher, fun and more.

I've got a few openings due to a couple gals had to drop out due to personal things, so come & join the fun you and a friend~~~

Have a great day

Paula Deen chinese Salad~~~

Okay I'm making this today to munch on. I love her recipes she is so good & such a hoot~~ I read her biography book it was wonderful I loved it, would be so cool to meet her. She is one of the few people on food network that I enjoy watching, some are too "who is going to fix that" stuff, I'm just a country gal so that is probable why i like her and a few other shows there.

Here is her Chinese Salad.
1 head Napa or bok choy cabbage (I'm using shredded cabbage in a bag cause I have it on hand)
3 green onions ( chopped these up pretty thin)
1 (3-ounce) package ramen noodles with seasoning pack ( using chicken flavored)
1 (6-ounce) package slivered almonds
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/2 cup vegetable oil ( using olive oil here)
1/4 cup sugar ( using some splenda)
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat the broiler.
Tear the cabbage and slice the onions, and place in a large salad bowl. Crumble the noodles into a broiler pan, add the almonds, sesame seeds, and broil for 2 minutes, being careful not to scorch the sesame seeds. In a jar with a tight lid, combine the oil, sugar, vinegar, and salt with the contents of the seasoning pack. Cover the jar and shake well to blend the dressing. Pour the dressing over the salad, add the toasted sesame and almond, and toss to combine

Let me know what you think~~~

No March posts~~~

Well March really got away from me. Let see I celebrated my 38th birthday on the 9th with my brother who turned 43 on the same day. I was his birthday gift to him when he turned 5. He just loves that. :) Then my oldest baby finally got his driver's license which took a new girlfriend in his life to get his butt in gear. He turned 16 back in august & just now got them. So a new set of emotions have set in, so we've been car shopping for over 2 weeks now. Which hasn't turned up anything within our spending range, everyone wants to sell us a new car with low payments up to 84 months ( 7years, oh they do up to 8 years if you spend enough) or we are lied to on the car's history/problems. ( We carfax them, lol) soo good thing we aren't in any hurry. Josh is driving the jeep cherokee, clyde the truck & me the van so no biggie right now. we are just wanting something for clyde to drive with better gas then the jeep, the Ford truck has 260,000 miiles on it so we are limiting it's driving. Oh well God will set me up with exactly what I want & in our price range, I just have to be patient.

HHmmm as too quilting, I was suppose to go to a Quilt Retreat the beginning of March for my birthday well Mother Nature decided to dump 14 inches of snow the friday I was to leave, no needless to say Nope didn't happen. Here is a couple of pictures of it.

Don't this look fun~~~ LOL we went thru almost 15 lbs of bird food that weekend. My cats loved looking out at the window at them & meowing~~

I'm still working on my ufo's Getting ready for the 8th annual OhioQuilter's Quilt Retreat in Berlin, Ohio come the first week of May. We've gotten some great donations, working on a couple of giveaways, finally got the menu we'd be serving finalized ( we have a great caterer that is a mennonite lady, OMGosh she is wonderful), working on the demo's & the mystery Class. So if you think you'd be interested in coming give me a hollar I've got a couple rooms left.

Well off to work in the sewing room today. Have a great one.

"When Love and Skill work together expect a masterpiece" by John Ruskin

Favorite Friendship Quotes

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. ~Elisabeth Foley

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked. ~Author Unknown

True friends stab you in the front. ~Oscar Wilde

Good friends are like fancy chocolates - it's what's inside that makes them special.

A true friend warms you by her presence - trusts you with her secrets - remembers you in her prayers.

One good reason to only maintain a small circle of friends is that three out of four murders are committed by people who know the victim.-- George Carlin

An old friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a dead body.-- Jim Hayes

A friend drops their plans when you're in trouble, shares joy in your accomplishments, feels sad when you're in pain. A friend encourages your dreams and offers advice--but when you don't follow it, they still respect and love you.

Great Weekend & End of month

well finally the end of the month, well tomorrow is anyway. :) Had the most wonderful time last weekend a few of us friends that got together last sept for a mini retreat decided to do it again. it was so much fun, from someone getting stuck in ditch because of the snow & Ice, to the hhmmmm handy dandy wreaker man ( we don't even go there) that needed a set of suspenders, pushing cars in the snow, fish tailing up the hill to the retreat place ( yep that was me, was fun) and once we all got there we didn't leave. Well a couple gals ventured in to town for a fabric fix & picked us up pizzas she had 4-wheel drive. We had a snow/ice storm come in on a thursday, but us quilters didn't let that slow us down, we are hard core quilters. Or maybe more like we really really wanted to get a away from home. :0) We had fabric, food, fireplace, fun and friends what more could we ask for in a weekend.


Here is the top I got put together still needs a couple borders they didn't get on that weekend cause I didnt' bring the extra fabric. It is called Indian Summer It was in a quilt sampler magazine. going to put a small navy border and then a larger red border.

One of the gals had the quilting fairy visit her and kept bringing her lint rolling brushes, those were mulipling like rabbit, then they all ran away and then showed up again before she traveled home. I leave next weekend for another retreat which I'm sure will be just as so much fun~~~ if you can ever get away to a sewing retreat do it, is lots of fun with friends. Heck just invite some friends over to just sit & sew if you got the room, you'll be so glad you did.

We do not love people because they are beautiful

They seem beautiful to us because we love them

~~~Russian Proverb~~

Where did February go??

Wow hard to believe february is almost over. This has been one wild month. Between kids having the flu along with husband, taxes done & sent in, and basic life stuff I'm ready for a weekend just for me. Well I'm hoping & praying I get that this weekend coming up. A few of us friends are getting together for a weekend of sewing, laughing, and good food to get us over this crazy Ohio weather. This Ohio Weather has been from Ice/freezing rain, snow, sleet and in temps of the 50's. never know what it is going to be.

Well i finished up another quilt on miz gracie, well actually two done. My cousin's dad quilt of deer she made for him for christmas, but she didn't get the top done until right before christmas & I didn't have time to machine quilt it until now. I also got my aunt purdy's quilted out too, just need to put the binding on it. I finished all of my embroidered bible quilt blocks now to decide on what kind of sashing or setting to use with them. here is a picture of them.

They are done on unbleached muslin, 8 1/2"x11". So thought about doing flying geese, gulp, that would be a lot to do. maybe scrappy in fabrics?? wanting something to make them go wow!!

will have to think about.

Neat quote

Love if you have it you don't need anything else, and if you don't have it, it doesn't matter what else you have~~~~

J.M. Barrie

Quilters Non Profit

Well I've had on my heart now for over a year to do a non profit geared with something with quilting. I keep thinking about have a whole notebook full of ideas etc. So I decided this is the year I'm going to try to get it started, with the help from God cause I feel this is coming from him.

So I took a grant writing class yesterday which was pretty neat to do and learn something. Wow there is a lot to do with this very informative.

I'm wanting to do a non profit benefiting ladies who are dealing with cancer/diabetes/ or some other awful illness. I've got a ton of idea's swirling thru my head just need to get them down on paper, weed them all out, get a mission statement all wrote up and get my paper work filed for a 501c3. then we are off. so any ideas please email me,I'd appreciate any comment/idea that comes my way.

I've got a couple of gals to bounce ideas off of but we get so tired of bouncing our head on the wall. If there are any thing that would make your life easier going thru an illness to reduce your stress, raise your self esteem/confidence, or quality of life please let me Know. I'm not sure what direction this will all be going but.............. I'm going to give it a try.

what a month~~

Boy this month has just flown by, been busy with the kids, house crap and mostly trying to keep warm. Hadn't sewn a whole lot this month.Now I have two quilts that finally got quilted but still need binding on them, which is the absolute most boring thing for me to do. I hate doing binding, I would much rather pay someone else to do it or trade something to someone to do it, LOL.

i love making tops, puttting them together then I feel so good it is the rest of the process I don't really get a "high" off of. Now I'm on my last block of the antique roses quilt so hopefully will be getting it done before I go to a retreat to work on the pieced sashing & borders.

With this cold weather I just can't seem to get into the mood to sew, want to snuggle under a quilt with a good book which I pretty much did all weekend. I love days like that every once in awhile but seems like when I do that house crap gets all piled up.

I think I'll put my feet up snuggle under a quilt and do some embroidery while veggin out on some DVR stuff.

Happy Anniversay~~~ 18 years

Here is picture of me and my mom Kay and my Dad Jim.

Her is Clyde and me after we got married, man I love that dress, too bad I can't fit into a size 5 anymore~~~ I love that train. I made all the flowers and headpiece
Here is clyde taking off my garder at our reception. Those were the days
Here is our whole group. My sister was the maid of honor Maria, Clyde's sister Angie, My cousin Danielle, Clyde's Step sister Chris, and my friend Tina. My neice was the flower girl Krista. The guys Mark was Best man, Brother Roger ( aka Boo), Step brother Phil, friends Danny and Kevin.
Here I am shoving cake up his nose, I mean I shoved it.

Well come the 13th of January I'll be married a total of 18 years to a wonderful guy, that I've been truely blessed having him in my life. We got married back in 1990, both us were didn't know what we were getting into, but has been a great ride. Hopefully we can reach a 25th or even a 50th anniversary. We'vehad a few rough patches, have two wonderful boys and a pretty good relationship. I posted pictures of our wedding day, we paid for our own wedding & couldn't afford a photographer so we relied on friends and family for pictures. Some are kinda good and some are dark, oh well we had such a fun time. a few have asked us how do we stay together, we always reply, be as honest as possible, love one another for who you are & accept one another including your faults. Marriage isn't easy but if you work at it, so worth it. Nothing like you see on TV, they forget to show you the everyday crap, the tears, and basically dealing with everyday life. No one in this life is perfect and you shouldn't expect you spouse is, if you aren't either. Don't try to change one another into something you think you want or what he/she should be, accept them for who they are faults and all. You know the grass may be greener on the other side but you still have to mow it.
Don't you love the hair do's in these pictures?? And we were the bomb then too. memories are so wonderful, and all started when two people fell in love.

Have a great weekend~~~

UFO Challenge~~

Well it is already 2008 hard to believe but here it is and boy did it come in like a lion. we woke up to 3" of snow and more coming down. I love to watch it fall, so beatiful and innocent. The boys are home from school and it was their first day back after Christmas break.
Well UFO Challenge at the Ohioquilters has begun. This was started so we could make room for the new stuff you always see while at the quilt shop & have to leave with. i Know I have well over 100 plus patterns that are screaming out pick me, pick me next. Not including the stash that I have in cabinets, drawers, and baskets just dieing to be put into a quilt. So a bunch of us posted our before pictures of our UFO's, and we have until 6 months to complete what we can and post the after pictures as well. Prizes to be given out at the end. But the biggest prize to each of us is completing them and screaming out loud "YES!!!!" .
So Here is my list of the first 10 I'm going to do.
Indian summer
Bible Quilt
Golden Rule
Heartland crossing
Jellie bellies
07" May Retreat Mystery
Antique Roses
Kansas Trouble Spider quilt
Civil War blues/browns
Raspberry truffle
I posted a picture of the Antique Roses there are 4 of these really huge blocks with side pieced sashing and them pieced borders. I love the colors of it. Got it as a kit at the NQA show back in 2006.
All of the "roses" are blanket stitched down.
So let the fun begin