Lake Waco, TX

We moved south from Lake Lewisville. Our first move was to Ennis and a Corp of Eng park on Lake Bardwell. We stayed there for 6 days and then moved on to Waco, TX.. We camped at Midway Park for 3 nights and then moved to Airport Park and we are here for 2 weeks. These have all been Corp of Eng parks. We love the COE parks.

We have never been to Airport Park and we are quite impressed. It is very quiet and has awesome sites on the lake. Here is picture of our site.

 I haven't done much sewing. :( I am working on a big stitch quilting on a small quilt.
Hubby guy did take me to a Quilt Shop here in Waco. Tomorrow Quilts. A lovely shop. Forgot the camera. I found fabric for grandson's quilt. I had planned to do a paper pieced pattern but it just isn't a pattern that is working for me. I love paper piecing but this pattern doesn't do it for me. So I am looking for another pattern for his quilt.

While at the quilt shop I was told of a shop hop they are having. It will be held at the Waco Convention Center on Jan 25 & 26.  Twenty (20) shops under one roof. No driving miles to get to all the shops.   Isn't that just the coolest idea? All kinds of prizes. Hopefully we will still be in the area so I can attend.

Although we have our Christmas at Thanksgiving I still get down that we are not home with family. The next few days will be very tough for me. I will talk to family but it just makes me even more homesick. Once Christmas is over, I am fine. Good thing I stocked up on Kleenex cuz I am going to need them.

I cannot imagine how the people of Newtown will get through Christmas. What a awful, awful thing to happen. I send to them my most heartfelt hugs.

On a lighter note... Aren't you glad the world didn't end? I know people who really thought it was going to happen. They were scared all day. Thankfully nothing happened.

I want to wish each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas.
Remember: it is not about the presents, it is about his presence! Happy Birthday, Jesus!


Piece!
Paula

Finally, I'm Back!!

I have no excuse for not blogging sooner. I am bad. I was packing. We have begun our snow birding trek south. We left this past Tuesday and we are now in Texas. North of Dallas. In a campground on Lewisville Lake. We arrived here today and the weather today was beautiful. It was sunny and in the 70's.

Our Thanksmas was wonderful. We had a delicious Thanksgiving turkey dinner.  After cleaning up from our gobble down it was time for our Christmas.

Granddaughter Rachel loved her quilt. Here it is just before I wrapped it up. Rachel opened it and wrapped herself in it and stayed that way even as they were leaving. The next day I was talking to her and she said she was still wrapped up in it. "It's so warm, grandma!" She also took it to her camp reunion last week-end. Poor dear got sick while there and wrapped up in the quilt while laying on the floor in the bathroom.

Son Richard and DIL Rose also loved their quilt.

Here is their quilt before it was wrapped. ( bribed the neighbor into helping with pictures)
Son Richard modeled it. Rose did not want her picture taken.

 
I think he likes it!

We had lots of gifts and everyone was happy with the treasures they got. 

I forgot to take a picture of my gift. I got a treadle machine!!! Wooowhooo! A 1924 Singer. What a surprise.

While we are traveling this winter I will make a quilt for grandson Alex. I found an interesting pattern for a paper pieced pattern.  The pattern is Hunters Star. Alex likes green and I thought this would be a perfect 2 color pattern using a green.

A quilt for young son John and DIL Sara will be made once they finish re-doing their bedroom and painting. I have no ideas for them. I will probably have Sara look through some patterns and then go fabric shopping with me.

The past 2 weeks have been quite busy. When I wasn't packing I was schmoozing with my friends. Gift exchanges, lunches and just spending some time with friends. Oh! That reminds me. Another wonderful gift I got was a Deluxe bobbin winder. Actually, I wanted one and they are 99.00. While at JoAnns with a friend, she was at the check out and said "hey, isn't that bobbin winder a Simplicity product?" She found a coupon for 50% off and gave it to me. So I keep telling her she gave me 50.00 for Christmas.  The bobbin winder will be wonderful for winding the bobbins for the long arm.

Piece!

Done, I got it all done!

The sweat was rolling down my forehead. The machine was smoking! Sewing, sewing, sewing. On to the long arm. It was a smokin too! On to the binding. With needle and thread in hand and I got it done! I GOT IT ALL DONE!! Yes, the Christmas quilts are done, being wrapped ever so carefully. (only to be ripped open tomorrow)

Stay tuned.....pictures to follow after the opening and once I am able to waddle my way to the computer. For now... I am off to the kitchen. Time to get the bakin and the cookin a going! Hi, Ho Silver and away!

Piece!

Looser???

I am just like you and love it when I can get something for free. The only problem I have is, I am a looser! Yup, a looser! I have never had luck at winning much of anything.
Then, one day my luck changed, for that one day. I had entered a giveaway at http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com. It was for a book "Back to Charm School" plus she was also giving away 2 table runners. This was way back in February. Guess what? I won a table runner. It was my 'once in a lifetime win!' ( i have only ever won anything once, and this was it) I about wet myself when I got an email form Sarah informing me that I had won. We were still snow birding in the south so I wouldn't get to touch and feel my win till we got back home in April. I love it!

 If you remember from the pictures of my Rehab Room (aka: sewing room) I am doing black and grays. This works in perfect.

I had every intention of posting about this as soon as we got home but things got a little out of control.  It got pushed to the back burner and then forgotten about. Sorry, Sarah! Thank you Sarah, for the chance to win it. I love it and I will cherish my 'once in a lifetime' win forever.

How lucky are you? Have you had wins from blogger giveaways?

Only two weeks until our Thanksgiving/Christmas so I need to get to work on another quilt. Yikes!
We have our Thanksgiving and Christmas together since we leave for the south the first week of December. We call it our Thanksmas. A day were we have our Thanksgiving dinner, clean up and into the living room we go to start Christmas. We open gifts and usually end up with game systems set up and the games begin. It gets pretty loud in here but I love it. I love all the activity, laughter and noise. Towards evening we have our Christmas dinner. Yes, you read that right. We have two huge meals. ( we all waddle afterwards for about a week) More game playing goes on into the evening. It is a full day of family, food, gifts and fun. When everyone leaves and I sit back and reflect on the day, I realize just how lucky I am.......HEY! I am not a looser after all!

Piece!

Inheritance?

After I came out of being in total awe, I wiped the drool from my face and it was time to do some shopping. Sew many patterns, sew much fabric, sew much wool and sew many dang cute samples! I loved them all. Oh, the choices.
I knew of one that I HAD to have. I had seen it many times in blogs and adored it and wanted it. Sew, my first choice was to get this:

A pattern book written by, of course, Lisa and Carole.  This book has many patterns that I love but the one that really, really got me was this.

I fell in love with this the first time I saw it and knew I had to have it. Isn't it wonderful? I want to frame it and hang it in my sewing room. Won't it look lovely on my freshly painted walls and the black and gray theme I have going?
In order to make it I "had" to buy the wool. And lucky for me they had a kit with all the wool in it.

Which came with these wonderful wools.

Then I saw this.

A mini matt.

Isn't that just to stinkin cute!
As I am walking, looking, admiring, what jumps out, grabs me and says "I'm going home with you."
I pull it away from my body and I see this.

Hydrangea! Who doesn't love them?! Another love at first site. It will look lovely in my living room on the coffee table. So, off I go to look for, what else, wool!

Since this  wool thing is new to me I also needed to get the appropriate notions, right? I mean, ya just gotta do this the RIGHT way. So I just had to get these.

 Thread, it needs these wonderful threads. For that I need these.

 Needles to sew that special thread.I also needed a fusible, like the nice lady showed me when she did her demo for me. So...

Got me some of that too.

It was exciting and fun. We loved PG. We will be back!

Many of shops only allowed pictures from the outside, no inside pictures. The shops we got to on the hop were all nice but PG will always be in my heart. As I said before, each shop had a pattern, using the same block but in a different design. After visiting 6 of the 9 shops I really like the project at PG. So you know what that meant. I went back! Yes, I did! I loved the fabrics they used in the little quilt so I purchased them.

 

Beautiful! Now I will make this wonderful quilt.

 

 

This is my haul. ( minus the the project pattern and fabric.)

 Doesn't look like much ,but I am sure the kids will understand why I HAD to spend their inheritance, won't they?

Piece!

 

World Famous

I had 2 weeks before we would be going back for the shop hop. A lot of things needed to get done. I did get the borders on my black, white and red quilt. Finished cleaning up the flower beds and planting more bulbs for spring flowers. I had our quilt group over for our monthly get together. They all loved my sewing (Therapy) room.

Karen was excited about us coming to camp with them again and her first shop hop! We arrived on Sunday but the hop did not start till Wednesday. We spent the days checking out re-sell shops. Finally, Wednesday was here and Karen was ready to go. Hubby guy was also ready to drive us around.So off we went and our first stop was the famous Primitive Gatherings. Do you think Karen was excited or what!

I don't think hubby guy even had the car in park and she was out! LOL! Have you ever been to this shop? Oh my! Just opening the door has you ohhhing and ahhhhing. Really! You can not take it in fast enough. It is a whole world of it's own. We just walked and looked and walked and looked like a bunch of zombies. All we kept saying to each other was "look at this", "no, look at this".  I wish I would have gotten the name of the sales lady, she was wonderful. She welcomed us to the shop, gave us our passports for the hop and explained about how we would get a free pattern at each shop that would be the same block but made into different items. (ie: small quilt, table runner, table topper and even a clock!) As we walked around and drooled about ourselves we decided this was actually heaven and we were getting a preview. I did ask if I could take pictures in the shop and was told I could and where I could take them from.

On both sides are areas with fabric and patterns and many samples. Oh and some wool on the right.
It was amazing.

This is the "Wool" area.  Tons of samples, kits, wool and it goes off to your right yet with more! Actually for as much as they had in this shop it was displayed very well. The samples had numbers on them so you find the pattern or the kit easily. The shop was very clean and very organized.

 I do not know if this was the first "Fox Valley Shop Hop" but somethings seemed a little unorganized. On the brochure for the hop it said each shop would be doing a demonstration and PG's was working with wool. I am new to wool so I asked about the demo. The poor lady said it was mentioned in a meeting but she never heard more about it. She said she had her project here and would show from that. She explained everything from tracing to stitching and answered all my questions. She did a wonderful, Johnny on the spot, demo. Only one other shop had a demo. When we asked at other shops we almost always got a deer in the headlights look.

If PG's is on your "Bucket List", it is worth it.  Twice! First time to walk around in total awe and the second time to shop! LOL!

Have a great week-end.

Piece!

Note

In my last post I forgot to show you where the scraps came from that Karen used in her paper pieced
lesson. I had made this table topper for Karen.

 As you can see, she has her paper pieced coasters setting on the table. Karen and Steve also have a Safari coach as we do,  and we have the same floor plan. Actually we met them through a Safari site that my hubby guy goes to.  Now you can continue on to the next post that will tell you about Karen learning a new trade.

Piece!

Here I am!

I finally caught up with myself! Whew! It has been crazy for past few weeks.

WARNING: This post has LOTS of pictures!

When last we talked I was preparing for a camping trip. The weather was great. A beautiful sunny day for our drive. Along the way we saw Barn Quilts. Did you ever try to photo one of those at 60mph, through a double pane window? Sheesh!

It just does not work well at all.
We enjoyed the 90 mile drive but yet happy to arrive.

Got settled into our site.

I am here! I am WOMAN!

It did not take but seconds for the guys to settle in and start solving whatever needed to be solved.

Karen and Steve are in the next site and we made our "meeting" place at their site.  Steve works at High Cliff and since it was after Labor Day the Museum was closed for the season but, Steve got us in. Wait till you see what they had! It was the Post Office and the General Store for the area.

 We found many items of interest but look at this.....

FABRIC!!!! And a quilting frame. Parts of it are on the counter.

Lots of memories in this place. Do you remember these?

I loved the look of the Post Office...

Isn't that wonderful! So I thought, hmmm, I need to mail something. So, in the drop box with the hubby guy...

I had to rescue him back out. He was not ready to go home.

Back at camp Karen wanted to learn how to paper piece. Karen is a fiber artist. She has many looms and makes wonderful rugs. She also has a sock machine from back in early 1900's and makes awesome wool socks. She also makes towels on her looms. Anyway, she want to learn how to paperpiece. She got out her grandmother's sewing machine, a bag of scrap fabric I brought along and the lesson began. She was an easy student and did a fabulous job.

I had made a sample for her so she knew what the pattern would like. She took to it like a quilter in a quilt shop! Here is her finished pieced and the one I made. Karen's is the green, red, and beige one.

She is hooked my friends........hook, line and sinker! She has since collected many paper pieced patterns, and made coasters, potholders and wouldn't doubt if she has already made a quilt! LOL!

I decided we needed to celebrate so a crab dinner was in order. Well, at least for Karen and I. The guys had tenderloins. Time to cook up some crab...

We cooked up 3 pounds of crab and this was just the beginning. We made it a healthy meal by adding this to the menu..

 A good vegie tray cancels out all that butter, right? Of course, we had to wash it all down something fancy also.

WINE! Steve made this wine from a Cherry tree in his yard. It was wonderful! We even let Steve have a glass of his wine...LOL!

The guys steak dinner.

I think Karen and I did a good job on that crab... (we ate like pigs ... squeal!)

After the clean up it was time to waddle over to the fire for awhile and wait for dessert. NOT!!!!

It was a nice get away. So nice to have time with friends. We discovered that a shop hop was coming up in the fox valley in 2 weeks. Guess what? We went back for that. Guess what famous shop was on the hop? Primitive Gatherings. Guess what I will tell you about next time? Meanwhile, I had to go home, paint a room, put the furniture back into our guest room, put the borders on the black, red and white quilt, clean up the flower beds for winter, get ready for the roofers to come and do laundry! Whew!

The past, how ever many weeks it has been since I posted, has been a whirlwind of fun and work.

I'll be back tomorrow with the shop hop.

Piece,
Paula

The Last Day & Questions

Today is the last day of summer. I can't say I will miss those endless HOT days we had. I much prefer cooler weather. Tomorrow we will welcome in Autumn. The leaves are changing color and starting to fall. I love to go for walks in the forest and hear the crunch of the dried leaves. Oh, and the smell. Autumn has wonderful smells. Not just the leaves but now our diets turn to those comfort foods. Stews, soups, casseroles and not to mention the baked goods.....pies, cakes, strudels and puddings. What wonderful delights autumn brings with it.

This Sunday will be going camping for a week with friends. On Sunday we will meet up with Steve and Karen at High Cliff State Park. Then on Thursday we will move north to Boulder Lake and meet up with friends Pete and Jeannie. It should be a fun week. Karen and I have many things planned. I am going to show her how to paper piece. She is fiber artist. Has many looms and makes wonderful rugs, blankets and towels. She also has an antique sock machine and makes the most wonderful, warm socks. We love her socks. Check out her esty shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/kareninthewoods
She spins her own yarn and dyes it also.

We will also check out many re-sale shops, quilt shops and cook. We have some pretty good menu's in the planning going on.

 Boulder Lake is away from everything. We will stock up before heading there to meet with Pete and Jeannie. It will a nice quite week-end, sitting around the campfire and probably more eating.

Not much sewing going on. I did manage to get the black, white and red quilt pieced together last Thursday. It was raining so I headed down to my Therapy Room and sewed the day away. I tired to get pictures of the quilt so far. I laid it on the floor, took a picture. Stood on a chair and took a picture. They just were not coming out right. Here is a look at what I got.

Another view from atop  the chair.

I will be adding a 6" border all around in black. It will be queen size. The pattern is Yellow Brick Road. I just love the way this turned out so far.

I have been having some problems with my longarm. First I had big loopies on the bottom so I increased the top tension. Then I had loopies on the top and I backed off my top tension. Now I have little bitty loopies on both top and bottom. I think I know the problem....me! Well, actually, I think we need to re-level the frame. I did notice that the machine moves when I stop to the right. I am thinking that when the kids moved out, they moved the frame and machine out of the way and now it needs to be re-leveled.

Has anyone been having problems using Warm & Natural batting? At the quilt shop the other day it was brought up that a couple of the long arm quilter's are having problems using that batting. Someone said with the price of cotton going up they changed the product and they have more poly in the base that the cotton is put into. Many are using Hobbs Tuscany Collection and they love it. What do you use?

I will be back with more soon. Hoping to be able to post some while we are camping.

Piece and Hugs!

We have a WINNER!

It already has been a long day. Hubby guy had Doctor appointments today. All is well and he is healing nicely.

It was time to pick a winner. I have to say I sure was surprised at how fast I got to 5oo views, but, I was also kind of disappointed in only 5 entries. I don't need to use the random generator for this. I just wrote eveyone's name on a piece of paper and put them into a bowl.

I had to stir them up. Did you get dizzy?

 

 

Then I had to grab one.

 

Drumroll.........

Oh wait.  have to tellyou about Monday night. A small group of quilter's met at Michelle's house.
We talked quilting, currents events, health situtations and ate the most wonderful lemon cake. We had a small show and tell.

Kay joined in to a Shoebox Swap through our local quilt shop.  Each person picks their fabics and fills a shoebox. The shoebox gets passed around to 12 other people during a 12 month time period. When you recieve a shoebox you make a 12 1/2" block with the fabric the person has chosen. At the end of 12 months you have 12 blocks to finish into a quilt. Here is Kay's....

She is still working on the binding. Isn't it beautiful? I loved the colors she choose.

Sharon is making a quilt as you go qiult. Here is what she has done so far. Again, I love the fabrics.

I can't wait to see it done!

Mary was busy also.

Isn't that adorable? I love it.

She also made 2 quilts using the Jelly Roll race pattern. She cut her own strips and sewed them as you would in the jelly roll races.

Those will make nice Christams presents. No one wanted their picture taken but I got you, Mary! ( and Bonnie's head!)

It was a nice evening.

So on with the drumroll...............


THE WINNER IS:

Congratulations Melissa! I will email you for your information.

I wish I could have choosen each and every one of you. Maybe, sometime down the road I will do this again and then you can win! ;)

Thanks for playing along.

Piece and Hugs!