Give Away CLOSED Let there be a winner and more voting??

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and left me comments. So many nice comments I wanted to give everyone something, to bad I am not a rich woman, so I could do that but alas one winners name was drawn form the hat and it was... first I want to say if you are a quilter come back after the first of the year for a mystery. OK the winner...

cat song and she said  Wow, I love what you've made!
I really love photography and scrapbooking :)

CONGRATS, I will email you privately for info.
Her two favorite crafts are two that I have never tried! Hmm I do have a sister big into scrapbooking, but know nothing about photography.

While be-bopping around on this give away, I visited sites I hadn't been too in awhile. One of them Quilting Bloggers, check out the button on the side bar. they have online (I am going to call them) quilt shows and you vote for your favorite. I decided to enter my Christmas quilt call Christmas Log Cabin. Click on it and vote for it or for some one elses. Just go look and maybe next time you will enter something.

Once agian Thanks for stopping by!

Give Away Day

Sew Mama Sew is hosting a Give Away Day Mon the 13th. This just means that different blogs have signed up to give away a hand crafted gift to a lucky winner. This is my gift to one lucky person.

This is a hand knitted Beret embellished with three little flowers on the side, hand knitted gloves, and a crocheted collar. These are in a size small to medium women's. I know these are not of wool but now unsure exact brand of yarn. Yes I made these a couple years back for a gift then never gave them out. So now is a good time to gift them to some one else. The head is not included.
To enter just leave me a comment on what is your favorite craft. That's it, one comment per person and one entry per person. This goes on until the 17th, so go visit all the other give away participants.
So my favorite craft, knitting is my passion and quilting my love. I used to do stain glass work but when my hubby bought me my long arm quilting machine I promised to cut out some of the hobbies. Stain glass went along with beading/ jewelry making. Never got to serious about those so they were easy to give up. Stain glass was a little harder. I did sell all but one complete set of crochet hooks, so I can do any thing in that that I may want. My knitting needles still hold a dear place in my heart. Yes I love to knit, I love to quilt. I would hate to have to chose between them and hope I never have to.
So leave me a comment on your favorite craft.
Thanks for stopping by

Give Aways

Here are a couple give aways, I can't believe that  you have a chance at a Yo-Yo quilt in this give away. But a great gift for sure and such a fun way to win it. Christmas eve memories!!
Then Janet has Honey Buns up for grabs. OH OH I want one.
The don't forget tomorrow is Give Away Day I am joining in on this one and will be posting later tonight my items that I will be giving away. Please come back and check it out and then you can skip right on over to the next blog in the give away and sign up their for a chance at theirs. It should abe a great time

Family Auction quilt, giveaway day

My family is having their family Christmas this next Sat (18th) due to my brother who lives in FL will be home at the parents home in MO. I can  not make it home for this I have to work! Ugh! For years we had a gift exchange of sorts, you know you bring a present draw a number then hope for the best and hope that no one steals yours after you get it. Well with the population explosion we have to rent a place to be together so to raise the money for this, and the eating utensils and such, we started a family auction. Even tho I can not make it home for the gathering I sent a quilt down for the auction. I posted a pic of this a couple posts ago but I re posting it now done!

This quilt came about from a two different Internet swaps. The first one was probably in 2005 and it was a black and white block swap. When I made my blocks I must have made 8 blocks only for I had 10 blocks and two of them where ones I had made, so I must have only swapped out eight. Don't know why I didn't do very many I love the black and white color combo. But I had them for years and did nothing with them. Then couple years ago I did a row x row and one of the rowers used some swapped blocks for her starter. Ah Ha that is what I wanted to do to rid myself of some blocks! So the next row x row that I joined in that was swappers choice, that is what I did. These were 12" blocks and I used my two and 3 others for the starter row.My starter row is the third on up from the bottom and my two blocks are the two on the right. I know you can't really see them but I thought I would tell you anyway. There were only 5 participants but I didn't care I had another five blocks to make a sixth row. It is the bottom row. So now I have all my black and white swapped blocks used up!  I do know that one other rower used her black and white swapped blocks too. I was lucky she didn't have any of the same blocks I did. I quilted this with a variegated black and white thread in zebra stripes to match the borders. I also used the zebra fabric on the back and binding. I am hoping that this quilt is bought by my sister who lives in Parsons KS, for her family has a pair of real zebras and she is crazy about anything zebra print.

I am joining in on Sew Mama Sews' give away day. I tried to put her button on the side bar but for some reason it just put the link. Well you know sometimes things just don't turn out like you plan. I do have my handcrafted item picked out and it something I have knitted. Hand knitting is my passion and quilting my love. Or is it visa versa. Any one I am usually do one or the other. Knitting has taken a back sit recently for quilting, well when you quilt for others sometimes it has to come first. But come back tomorrow or Monday to check it out! Maybe you will win it or someone elses.  

Give Away Day

Oh Oh I just found something I think will be really fun. A Give away day. The jest of it I pick something handcrafted or supplies for such and post on MON 13 about it. Then one lucky person will win it. I have picked out my item a hand ...................................just in time for winter. Here is more info from Sew, Mama, Sew on the giveaway day. I hope to see you joining in.

And.......

I hope everyone had a wonderful and filling Thanksgiving. It was the first year that I did not cook. it is also the first year that I didn't get to see my grand kids. This was a downer for the day and week and month and well til the divorce is settled their mom is with holding them from us. could go on for days on this but lets move right along before I get depressed.

The and................. I forgot to post, so here it is. Months ago I was away back home in MO and the hubby goes to an auction and makes a couple of purchases. When I get home I was pleasantly surprised with these two beauties.

These two  wall hangings are  hand quilted machine pieced. I don't know the maker of them and neither have labels on them. but I love em just the same. I can't believe the hubby got them for me. He is the one always complaining I have to much stuff in the house and I need a scoop shovel and trash dumpster to get it cleaned out. Well now I have the man trained!!! He got each of these for $20.00 and they both came with their rods to hang on the wall.  This flying geese one had a cute wooden rod with the hearts on the end. Take the hearts off and slip the wall hanging on. The second wall hanging the flowers, was on a cream metal rod with silver tips. I had to trade the rods on the quilts to fit the spaces on my walls to hang them. But never less $20.00 !!! I believe he got a good deal. He even picked up a floor quilt rack for displaying the quilts. It now sits at the end of the bed in the downstairs bedroom. this pretty blue floral wall hanging  is a lot prettier in person. Don't let the goldie walls fool ya.

.

This next quilt is Karen O's and we have dubbed it the monster. I believe she used that in her description and I have kept in suit with it. I am not a homespun collector and really have no plaids in my stash. (you know I have found by keeping this blog I am really biased in my stash. And I need to learn to branch out more) but when I opened this top to quilt it, I never wanted it to leave. She gave me a brief history of it making by calling it a monster. Now if she didn't then I am putting words in her mouth for I took that out of her words. But since reading her little excerpt I have called it the monster, maybe cuz it is so huge. We chose a panto to do on this one, it looks wonderful!   I would think that the stars where from a swap, but not sure. If so what a cleaver clever way to use them up. I think that is what is so cool about quilting for others is to see what and how each one uses their blocks and specially their orphans. Sometimes I get so many ideas in my head from the quilts that I quilt that I feel I am going to explode. OH maybe that is just from all the food I have eaten this weekend. But it is a beauty of a monster and I hope she is pleased with what I did on it. If not I volunteered to keep it for her.                                                                                               

Close up of the monster! Great job Karen O can't wait to see what you do next!












Well I have one of mine own to do today so I better get with it!

Fri Night Sew In and ......

Ok I got the pics of what I did at the Fri Night Sew In. Now this in itself is a miracle, considering the last couple months I didn't even post about what I did. Now two post and pics!!!!

This is Kathy's, I taught this method at a retreat that she attended a couple years back. Kudo's Kathy for getting it done. I just sashed one of the samples this past retreat also. So you are ahead of me by getting yours completed. She made hers out of homspuns! Isn't it just wonderful. The colors are so lucious, I just want pick it up and taste. It reminds of a bowl of starbursts candy. Yum Yum. I was so pleased with her piano key border. I was really worried that it would stretch out of shape, being homespuns, but it didn't! Yay Kathy great job! Her backing was of a nice heavy flannel, pieced together in color blocks. So cool and it will be so warm this winter!

Here is a close up of the quilting!

Here is Stacy's bag challenge. I have had the top made for months but kept it to demo it at the state guild meeting. I had to go to SW MO to help in my Dads recovery care so a friend did the demo instead. Since I had it so long I decided to quilt it for her and then Fri night I decided to make her a pillowcase to store it in. Well before I could make the pillowcase I needed to cut the binding for the quilt so that is the binding, that little blob just to the left of the pillowcase. The body of the pillowcase is the same green as that small first inner border. The it has a small flange of the green floral outer border and the last trim of pillowcase is the same as in the outer row of blocks lighter color. I used almost every scrap of fabric that she sent me! I just hope Stacy likes it
So these are the items that I worked on at the Fri night sew in. Now back to sewing

Fri Night Sew IN and Can Creativity Be Lost

Well I have done it! For months now I sign up for the Fri night sew in and I sew but I never post about it so I am going to do it now even before the photos are taken. After coming home from eating out I got busy quilting a clients quilt. Yep that is how I spent the Fri night sew in. It seems I can't stand at the machine for long periods of time. OK really I can't do anything for long periods of time. I guess that is why it is so hard for me to finish a quilt I get bored of it before to long. And I guess that is why I have some many UFO's. So anyhow in between times of (I call it resting) I did piece together some scraps for a pillow flange and binding. Months ago I did a bag challenge but never sent the finished item to the owner for I was asked to demo the block construction for our state guild.Stacy wsa kind enough to let me keep the top until this was done.  I didn't get to go to the state meeting, becuz my dad had surgery, but a friend did it for me. So I decided since I have kept this womans top for so long I would quilt it. Yes advantage of having a Gammill on hand. Well in my resting moments last night (I normal look at patterns to start something new) I decided that I would use the left overs and make a pillow case for the quilt. When I get the pillow case photographed I will post it all. so that was my Fri night sew in. maybe I cna ge the photos up tomorrow but til then look at these.

This is Karen's Christmas Scraps and boy is it a beauty. So clever use of fabrics. I get some sort of brain freeze when it comes to Christmas fabrics. I have a hard time with them. Yep so fall colors and Christmas colors are my downfall.  My sister and I have a chllenge with Christams frabrics going on. I bet she makes something wonderful with hers and I don't even think I can find mine. But getting way off track, this simple block made such a beauty of a quilt. I used Jingle Bell Dance panto from Meadowlyon on this. I really like this panto it is such a great Christmas pattern. I think it really looks great on this quilt. I hope Karen loves this as much as I do. Her is a pic of it a little closer.

                                                                                

This is another one of Karen's. I want to say that this was swap blocks but I am not sure. I seem to remember a swap of this sort sometime back. but I could be totally wrong. I have been before and I am sure I will again.Here is a close up of it.

Now here is my question in the header. Can Creativity be lost? I was given this wonderful baby quilt. It is such a cutie. She told me she wanted stars. soem meandering stars in it. If I could do something else with stars then do that on the borders. BLANK I couldn't think of one thing to do for the borders. On hand I feel liek a heel for not being able to do anything for her and on the other hand I am wondering have I lost it? I have never (at least not like this) before, drew such a blank when it comes to quilting. It has me worried. These past couple quilts have been pantos so that is easy. I am worried that the next custom job, creativity won't be there. Can it be lost, Will it come back??????? I felt so bad about his one I didn't even charge her full price for it. Could stress be getting to me?? I hope this was a fluke and it doesn't happen again. I love standing in front of the machine and just creating. I hate to think that it would be gone. But anyhow here is the cute little baby quilt.

Ok I need to get pics taken of what I did last night and oh what got  done today. It will amaze you!

Quilting, and giveaway

 Check out Corrie for a great give away. I am in hopes of winning this one. Great frabics for sure!
So to some eye candy.

This is a quilt for Teri. It was made by Margie. She wanted something other than an edge to edge pattern. No problem! I love to create what the quilt wants. Teri picked out the center motif for the Ohio stars, but I was free to do anything else I wanted. I hear that she loves the quilt and I am glad! Here it is on her bed. OH I love the bed! I am an antique nut. I have this bad habit of buying antique beds. This one is a beauty. Ofcourse it does have a georgeous quilt on it. And look at that quilt hanging on the wall! A basket quilt and I love the way it is sashed. UMM what a nice room. Here is a close up of the quilting. I don't think it shows real well but when you take the pics you never really know.



and the back



Eye Candy

I went to retreat this past weekend and it always takes a full week to recoup from it so, I will try to post some pics form it. But I have to warn you the ugliest quilt you will ever see is in the group of photos. I took my own advice and tried to go outside of my comfort zone. Oh it failed, failed horribly.

Ok this pic has the 3 tops that I got done at retreat. The far left I added borders to the black and white row x row. The far right I finished the shuffled 9 patch blocks and sashed them. The quilt in the center is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I tired I really did. Why is some can work with these tones and I can't. I used the disappearing 9-patch method and I thought it was going to be great but as you can see it is a horrid blob! I am hoping if I add borders it will help but I don't even know where to start with borders. Stay the course of dark or find something light or....... Oh oh oh what to do. I am at a loss. I really wanted to learn to like these tones but I guess I still have to practice with them. I thought I was good at putting colors together but...... well we can see that something went wrong with this one. In fact so wrong that even ReJena the gal that loves these colors was at a loss for words with this one.
so now lets get to the good ones.

This black n white is a result of two differnt internet swaps. First was a black n white block swap on one of the yahoo groups.Mailblocks I had done this swap years back and had the blocks sitting around. I love the black n white but just never seemed to get anything done with them. Maybe it was because I only had 10 of them and since I like big quilts I just never had the time to make more. So when a rowx row swap came up and we could do anything we wanted, I decided to use the black n whites. 3rd row down was my starting row.  After it came back I added the top row on,so now all my balc n whites are gone and in this top. I struggled with borders. I had an old piece of black n white zig zag fabric that I loved, but there wasn't enough of it. I knew I needed something to make the borders flow or move. I found the zebra print and that was it! I only wish I would have made the border just a little bigger but you know what they say about hind sight!
Well it is late so I will have to give you more eye candy tomorrow when my eyes are fresh and fingers can type better. Night all

Eye Candy

Well I don't think I will ever catch up on things! I know of course if I would stay off Facebook  I would have more time for home stuff. I have been busy getting things done and I thought I better get some pic on here. So here goes.

This is Carmie's and it is for a grandson. The back is just as wild and I thought I had got a pic of it but like with everything else, I must have thought wrong. Carmie usually does everything by hand, but like the rest of us, time is getting away from her  and she decided that getting a few machine quilted wasn't a bad idea. she has another one that she is getting together for a grandaughter. I can't wait to see what that one looks like.

This belongs to Miss ReJena. Now I have to tell you that this quilt did nothing for me. Oh don't worry ReJena knows it too. These are absolutely not my colors. I get quilts like this to quilt and sometimes just have a real hard time figuring out what to do on them and am very thankful when the owner tells me what they want. I think for a real challenge I am going to go out and get some fabrics in these tones and force myself to do something with them. Then just maybe I will get over the blahs for the mutes. Now ReJena had asked for just a bunch of leaves. I kinda cringed I thought not a bad design but it could have so much more.  But look at that pic somehow the tree behind me got into the pic. See I guess leaves were destined to be there. Too dark for a shadow...but getting off track. I got a call from a sister (has a long arm too) and she said she had a couple pantos she was getting rid of and wanted to know if I wanted them. One was a pumpkin panto. OH OH yes yes that is what this quilt needs pumpkins not a bunch of leaves. So I got with ReJena and  we waited for the panto to arrive.

We waited and we waited. Days turned to weeks. I really think that ReJena thought I was just trying to get out of quilting it. But alas it arrived. I think it was well worth the wait. The front fabrics have pumpkins in them. This is the back pic.

Then I have this one that is ReJena's. It is a baby quilt for someone in her Church. It has precious little doggies on it so I put little Scottish terriers on it with a meander. I

 This is one of mine. I needle turned the appliqued baby animals. It is really my first quilt with needle turn. I think I am going to have to learn to love doing needle turn, for every pattern I pick out is appliqued. I know I know I could machine it but... applique is one thing I believe in old school on it. Funny isn't it. I wouldn't hand quilt if my life depended on it but I it is reverse with applique. So hand applique it is with machine quilting. Yes I am just shaking my head here too.  Well back to the quilt. After quilting it I realized that I forgot to embroider the details of the animals. So know I am struggling with do I embroider or just use the pigma pen and draw them on. Any thoughts on this from anyone????

This last one is mine also. It is made with this cool template tool called the X Block. I did many demos of this and with each one I added a new top to my UFO list. Well check one off. This is a little boy quilt and the one above is a little girl. I told my youngest son, I am ready. He laughed quite loudly I may add. (Nope he isn't even dating anyone) Grandma can hope. But I am ready. Ok that is it for now I think.

Hectic

I did the Fri night sew in for the past two months but have forgotten to post after wards. Well this month I got very little done that Fri. night. It was the rehearsal dinner night for my Step daughters wedding but I came home and quilted (long arm) a baby blanket. Camera battery out so I will have to wait to post pics. The wedding was beautiful, thought life was back to normal, trying to catch up on some quilting but I had a little hitch on the quilt that was on my machine. So I spent a few days piecing. I was 7 months behind on my buck a block and I had a secret sister block of the month for years now that I have been working on. but the quilt got repaired and done. Pics to come once I get new batteries. So life back to normal NOT. My birthday came and was a wonderful day until that night got a call from sister that lives close to parents. Dad is going in for heart procedure. Guess they call it angioplasty (I have no clue she just said they go in and try to open veins with balloon). So 750 miles away I stress all the next day, get home from work and yep by-pass surgery. He is 86 more stress.Get the call, quadruple by-pass.I hate being so far. For a week keep in touch by phone and the sisters, there are 5 of us, decide that we need to be there when he gets out. One sister living close has hurt her leg so her help has no ended so that leaves the other sister close, she does a might fine job of transporting mom back n forth. Props to ya Marla. I arrange to take a week off work so I left on the Oct 9th for MO. I have spent the past week helping with whatever I could to take the stress off my mother and to assist with my father. Got home late last night. So now can life get back to normal. Gosh I hope so.

Soldier Quilts

The Grandkids are here this weekend, well 2 of the 3 are. Maybe I should get adjusted to just having 2. My son is getting a divorce and the oldest child is not his. The mother said she would never take him away from us but I feel as tho she is.  I know I know I am just feeling sorry for myself. There is so much to this story, but anyone who reads this just pray for that little boy, he is 11 and my son has been the Dad for almost 10 years now. I am sure he (grandson) is very confused.
OK so I have dedicated today for the soldiers. My local quilt club gives out quilts to our local service members, so I thought today would be  the perfect day to make a few quilts for that purpose. Here are 2 that I put together. This first one was from swapped blocks that I have had now over a year. I thought I had  lost them then one day, 'poof ' there were here. I have more of these blocks and thought I would put them altogether but........the mind takes over and I guess I have decided to use them in  4 different quilts. All the pieced blocks (Friendship Links) were made by the same swapper, Karen, so  the blues on the diagonal from bottom left to top  right are the same and the reds going from top left to bottom right are the same.  Thought this basic 9-patch setting was nice and I know it was easy.  I see quilting big feather hearts in the red squares. Maybe I should just do feather circles since some guys might think it too sissy if it has big hearts. Hmmm any thoughts?






This next top took a little more time. I used another one of Karens Friendship Links block for the center and went out from there. I do a lot of swaps with what

we call Happy blocks. The scrappy squares are made up of them. They have bee collected for the past couple of years, and these are from Ramona, Mary, Maggie and of course me. I put four together and then surrounded them with a gold. The stripe fabric corners has been donated from one of the club members for the soldier quilts. I have used it on a back before but I wanted something with a little more interest then just plain squares. The tan and Navy stripes are dotted with blue and red stars. I think I like this top as it falls in to my scrappy catagory. I guess now I just have to find time to quilt them. I guess if I would stay off the computer I could have more time for such things.  I do have other pics but I will wait and post them tomorrow.

Eye Candy

Well I have been working so I thought I would post a few pics of what I have been doing.

This is Billie's, I love the fabrics in this one. I wouldn't care if this one was never picked up. This is for her daughter and I heard that her daughter likes butterflies so I meandered them in. plain and simple but hen with that fabric you didn't need to much!

Lee brought this one to me. A friend of hers did this one and found out she had late stages of cancer. So we hurried on this one so the woman could see it done and give it to whomever she had planned on. I really love doing this one. I think that is probably my best time ot the machine when I can just 'do it'.









.

This is a bag challenge on one of my Yahoo groups. Stacy sent me this bag of floral fabrics. Way out of my comfort zone! There was lots of the floral green and small amounts of the fuchsia,  cream/fuchsia mix,dark green and the beige. I used this ne (to me) technique, take a four patch and cut it up into a 9 patch. I used all the fuchsia  set them on point but it wasn't big enough go I then di the same thing with the cream/fuchsia mix. It is now 71 x 71 so it will make a nice couch throw. I was to have this back to her the 1st of Aug but I begged her to keep it till later this week when I have to give class demo on this technique again. I really like it now that I have it done and believe that the beige border just 'makes' it.

On pne of my Yahoo groups we did a 30's sampler swap. Only 7 entered it so to make a nice size sampler we all did 3 blocks. Here are 2 of mine the 3rd one is needle turned appliqued double fans. Yep I know I need to take a pic of it. I didn't take a pic of all of them before I sent them off to new owners but I do have mine. I never really liked the 30's repro fabric but it is growing on me.

Now this is mine. I did something for me. I have had this baby quilt pieced for about a year or maybe more. I decided that I needed to do something for me to get some UFO's out of the way. This quilt was made with the too called X Block. If you don't have it get it! It is great the designs you can make with it. The border pieces are from the left overs of the center. In this pic I don't have the binding down but it is done now and I just need to add a label.

This was done by Margie for her brother. He is a Harley rider and the fabrics state that. The skull and cross bone panto was a good fit for this one. She called to tell me how much he loved it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Well that is about it for now.

Give Aways

Jackie has a great give away going on but you have to hurry it is over on the 26, so hop on over to Jackie's if you want a chance at an AccuQuilt Go.

Also I have found another leaflet to add to my give away so that is three leaflets. This last one is Southwest designs, so go back to my previous post and enter there,

Trying to catch up and a Give Away

Ok this summer has been a wild one. First I want to post a couple pics of eye candy. This first quilt belongs to Neva. I had to get this one done before the parents came. You may remember my ribbon quilt and one that ReJena did. We all did them at the same retreat.

The while getting the room ready for the parents I managed to get these two done

This is Jean's. She won the fans at her Local Quilt Clubs raffle. Lucky Jean! She made a wonderful choice in how to set them. I was honored that she brought it to me to quilt to do.

This one is Kathy's. If I am not mistaken this one is for a friends daughter. They were leaving to go on a missions trip in just a few days so I had to rush rush on this one so she could get the binding on it in time.

The summer then brought my parents, they are from SW Missouri, and I was happy to see them. Even tho getting them a bedroom downstairs forced me to clean out the junk room and totally exhausted me for weeks I was happy to do it for them. We had a wonderful time. I do hope they did too.Now I know it was trying for my hubby and a bit boring for my Dad. Dad being a carpenter all his life likes to still dabble in and is always doing something around their house. He just built them a garage and a front parch in the past couple of years. So for him taking a vacation is almost like a punishment. Well he found a wall in his room that wasn't finished so that became his project. I will get a pic of it sometime, but for now it is done, and he seemed to enjoy his stay l little better with something to do. The last weekend that my folks were here my sisters, 2 from SW MO and one from SE KS all came up then we met my sister that is in VT at a lake in SW MI. We (including mom) ( no guys allowed)stayed in a nice (big) lake cottage of my BIL  at a small lake just inland from lake MI . It had been a long time, (actually never) since we had all gotten together and done something like this. We had a great time. Well I did and they seemed to too. I think we are going to try to do this every year. NOTE spend as much time with your family as you can.  The hubby and I took the parents back home to SW MO. I decided it was time for him to see where I grew up Erie, KS. Now there is not much to see but at least now he knows where my love for old houses comes in. I took him by our old place and it still looks a regal as I remember. Mind you in is not a grand old house just an old big house. Some one was walking in the door she saw me gawking and I should have just jumped out and talked with her. Maybe I could have seen the inside again.   AAAHHHHHHHHH the memories it would have held.We then got together with a couple of high school classmates of mine. Love ya Sheryl and Melody, so glad to have seen you after all these years.Hubby and I then jumped over to Pittsburgh KS. We had seen the food war  on TV's travel channel about the two chicken places their. I had eaten at one or maybe both growing up and I thought it would be great for him to try it. BUT they were closed due to being the 4th of July. Shucks! We did stay at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast called the Himmel House

the people that own this beauty should be proud. They are delightful and very helpful. Will stay there again if they let us. No I really didn't cause any problems. Beautiful place can't say enough nice things for that overnight stay. We sat in their 'garden patio' and watched the cities fireworks display through the trees. this was after walking the neighborhood and drooling over the other beautiful homes, and watching the locals shoot off fireworks just above our heads. What a 4th to remember. So back home to Indiana. Computer had crashed while we were gone. Still don't have everything back as it was but am thankful that I got the puter back. I don't know what happened but the computer was blown up while gone then hooked the laptop to the router and it went out on us. So it was not the best homecoming but life goes on.

 Trunk show in Ohio and class to teach. Boy I think I may have scheduled them a little to close together but they got done and I think everyone had fun. I had Mom's quilts to do then. She left a couple of them for me to do and since I was going back down in a couple weeks I wanted to get them done so to save on shipping.                                                               

She had made this quilt from a pattern she had gotten from me a couple of years earlier when they were here. The book I remember I got a Christmas present at my Local Quilt Club. Fat Quarter Quilt Blocks, published by House of White Birches here in Berne, IN. So I guess that is one Christmas present that I can say has now been used.

Now this second quilt was left over batiks from the first one. I love scrappies so both of these are just right up my alley.

I then went back to Kansas the first of AUG for (I know this will shock some of you) my Army Reserve Reunion. Yes I was in the Army Reserves. I wish I had never gotten out but at the time I thought it was best for my family if I did. These are some of the people I love the most, think the world of, cherish highly, honor to no end, and just generally glad to have met, are the men and women I served with. I have pics of that too,

There weren't many of us here this year, I think that they heard that I was coming and stayed home. Last year they had over 30, this year 14. Two are missing from photo. I think that the heat, yes it was over 100 and very humid that weekend, kept alot of them home and in the air conditioning.

I took my sister that lives there and had her be my photographer. Another great weekend except the hotel pool was closed. So no swimming but then I don't know when I would have found the time. I met up with high school classmates (different than those the month before) and spent small amounts of time with each. My sister and I decided to go back to Pittsburgh to eat,what else but Chicken. Oh the hubby will be mad. But as the meal went on I decided that I could take chicken home from both places for him. My room had the lil fridge. So left overs and a to go order. We both picked Chicken Annie's, even tho Mary's won on the Show but we still think that the chicken we had in Miche Tavern in VA was the best. Sorry Annie's and Mary's.

So life has slowed down now and pretty much back to normal. The computer is back out of the hospital even tho I lost a bunch of stuff, I am sure I can live with out it. The mystery that I wanted to do on here is gone, but maybe someday I will get the directions wrote back up. That is if I can remember what all the notes and marking on the rough draft mean. So to make it up to my faithful followers that were looking forward to this mystery, I am going to do a give away. I have two leaflets Quilting Toppers for Every Table. Has 7 seasonal Table Runners NICE!  Second is Quilting Bold and Bright Kids' Quilts features 3-D Designs

The rules are leave a comment to this post and gain one entry. Either state that you are a follower or become a follower and get 3 entries. If you blog and you link to this post (and not a follower) than that is 3 entries also. If you blog and are a follower and you link then that is 5 entries. I will have a random drawing on the 1st of SEP. Good luck and hope every ones Summer has been as hectic and wonderful as mine!!!

Computer Troubles

Well I got my computer back with a new hard drive BUT lost most of my stuff and what a lesson to learn. The mystery pattern I was going to do on here was on that hard drive. I have my first rough draft, but not the copy with all the corrections, after it got back from the tester. Sometimes Life is just unfair. I am taking the tower back in to see what is going on with it. Everytime they try to log in by remote log in, my screen goes blank. So back to the hospital it goes. But I thought I better pop in here to say yes we are still hanging in there and trying to get everything back to the way it was.

Just wanting to say I will be back

Sorry for being AWOL, I have had my parents here and then went to take them home and came home to find that my puter was dead. Left the grandkids here on it. Wonder what they have done now. Last time the granddaughter was on it she lost my wallpaper and I was trying to add comments to some comments on one of my blog entries and it dissappeared too. Now this time the whole computer is black. So we took it to the shop and I am on the hubbies laptop. When I get the puter back or a new one I will get back to the mystery that I just couldn't find the time for with my parents here. Sorry to anyone who was waiting on it.

It's been a crazy couple weeks

The online Quilt Festival was a blast. I didn't get to everyone in that week but I tried. Lord knows I spent way to much time on here surfing and not quilting. I have had to clean my spare room up. Now mind you this was where I would throw just about anything. Of course most of it would be sewing related. But my parents who live about 750 miles away are coming to visit. I have an old house and the stairs are steep and I just didn't feel that at 85 and 80 going up and down these things would be the best for them so I had to make them a bedroom downstairs. That of course is my junk room. Which I knew for resale value of the home a down stairs bedroom would be great. So the venture started and now has ended (so to speak)

Quilt frame and boxes full of YARN! White rubber drawers full of fabric and old hankies. From this to that. Walls are not done but atleast it is cleaned up. Antique dresser with antique dresser scarves and anitque gas lite. (Perry's grandmothers)

That is one corner of the room as you walk into it from the bathroom yes this room will get to use the new bathroom and I will go back to the old tub n shower bathroom across the way so I  won't (possibly) wake the parents when I get up to go off to work.

Now this is looking into the room form the living area, before and after. Perry is trying out the bed after I made him set it all up. Please don't get the wrong impression I didn't make him carry all the boxes out. He only took the stuff down to the basement. Yarn and fabric had to stay inside and upstairs. see you have to go out side to get to the basement and that would just be to hard for me (ok out of my way) to go get something if I needed it. so I took boxes of it upstairs to the closests, and other areas that weren't being used. I wish money would have allowed for us to really do something with this room but.... still paying off the bathroom make over and until it is paid off I will have to make do with this.

The Mystery wow I have almost forgotten about it. I do have a pic of my fabrics and in the process of cleaning out the spare room I have shuffled other things around so give me a few days to get it together I know I had the instructions laying here but right now I can't seem to locate them.But here is a pic of my fabrics.

As you can see I have 4 fabrics. Solid Black then a Black with grey. Then a grey and a magenta. To make a queen size quilt pick fabrics that you have at least 3½ yds of each.  With out my directions exact measurements are just a dream. What could I have done with them??? Finding them is on the top of my list!