A Quick Peek!

Yesterday I decided to forego cleaning, painting and anything else that needed to get done. I NEEDED to SEW! Sew, I did! I am working on quilts for Christmas presents  One for oldest son and wife and one for granddaughter.

This is the start of son Richard and wife Rose quilt. I got the pieces cut and first seams all pieced. Now I need to cut those apart and re-piece. The pattern is Yellow Brick Road by Terry Atkinson.
They wanted Black, white and red and I think it will look awesome in this pattern.

Here is a peek at the fabrics for granddaughter, Rachels's quilt. Her bedroom is that bright green and eggplant. She liked these flannel fabrics, so whats a grandma to do but give her what she likes.

I choose the black for the background. I can't remember the pattern I will use but the black is really going to make those colors pop!

Here is just a sneak peek at my Therapy (sewing) room.

More to come!

Today is my birthday so maybe I can sneak some more sewing in before we all go out to dinner.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Piece and Hugs

Wild n' Crazy

A quick post to let you know I did not fall into the paint pan and die. Painting of walls is complete. I still have some painting to do of trim. It is coming along slow.

It has been wild here since Father's Day. That is the start of our "birthday season". It starts with the hubby guy Mel,  daughter in law Sara, god daughter Ashlee, my aunt, oldest son Richard, grandson Alex, Paula (me), my 4 best friends from high school, my neighbor, daughter in law Rose, and last but least my friend Sondra. Whew! I need to buy stock in Hallmark!

Add to this that my uncle has been in the hospital twice in the last two weeks. Congestive heart failure and kidney failure. He is back at Assisied Living but Palative Care has become involed and is a wonderful help.

Like so many places around the country, it has been very hot here. I am so thankful for air conditioning but I will be thankful when we can open windows and get some cool frsh air in here. We took a 3 day trip in the RV to northern Wisconsin trying to fine some of that cool fresh air.....didn't happen. It was a good get away even though. We even came upon a Quilt Shop I did not know about. Can you believe that??? Quilt Haven in Menominee,MI.. What a delightful shop. Very friendly, clean and even the customers were friendly. One customer was telling me about their Guild and wanted to come to the meeting that week. I could not make it since we only planned a 3 day trip and then uncle went into the hospital while we were gone. Anyway, I loved the shop. I didn't really NEED anything but , well, you know, we "Need" to buy something. I found some paper piecing patterns , the Guilds Cookbook and a few FQ's. At the check out I was told it was their birthday celebration and to reach into the basket, pull out a slip of paper to get a percentage off my purchase. I got....25% off. I was thrilled.

I will be back and I promise to show pictures of my" Therapy Room".

Hugs

Pulling up my BIG girl britches.

I have pulled up my big girl brithches and I am back!

Not much in sewing/quilting has been done as I am re-doing my sewing room. You see, after young son got married, he and Sara lived with us till they found a home. They moved into a "new to them" home this past December. While living here, they used my sewing room as their living room. I was pushed into the laundry room. :( So, I set up a table and did manage to adjust. (barely ;)) So now I am painting and hope to finish the dreaded deed tomorrow. Oh the ideas I have in my head for re-arranging and making this the room of my dreams. Ha! I need to find me a millionaire! Well, maybe someone with a checkbook balance bigger than mine! Anyone got more than 5 bucks! LOL!

I forgot to take a before picture but I will be back with an after picture.

Enjoy my little Charmer picture.

Piece and Hugs

Farewell, for awhile.

It has been quite some time since I blogged.

I can not explain everything but, sometimes you hit the good, sometimes the bad, and sometimes the ugly.

Right now I am tumbling out of control with the ugly. I am usually a bright sunny, cheery person. Life changes and I do not want to reflect my negativity. I want to remain that cheery person. So, it is my choice not to blog for awhile.
Once the clouds roll out and my heart heals, I will be back.

I will continue to read your blogs. I probably will not comment. Just know I am cheering you on, always.

Keep on quilting.

A Very Small Quilt Show!

No stitchin got done this week. We spent our last days in Biloxi getting ready to roll down the road. We also had some excitement. On the week-ends our son John goes to our house and calls me with mail. He also checks the answering machine. He said a message from my uncle was on it and all it said was "it's Uncle Emil and I am in trouble." The message was left on Thursday. He has my cell number but he called the house for some reason. I called and called him but no answer. Called his apartment manager and she had not seen him since Thursday. She can not go in unless a family member is there. I called hospitals and no one had him as a patient. It was decided to call the police to do a well being visit. When I called them they said an ambulance call was made on Saturday for him.. I told them that I called the hospital and they did not have him as a patient. They called the hospital but the computer system was down so they could not tell them if he was discharged or transfered. So an officer was sent to the apartment. The manager let him in and he was not there. His car was there but not him. SO, I called the hospital again and talked to a nurse supervisor.  Since the computers were down she could not acess his Privacy Act form that allows her to give me information on him. About 45 minutes later, when computers were up again, she called and told me he had been transfered to another hospital due to his critical condition and I would have to call them to get futher information. I called. He has congestive heart failure and pneumonia and was on a ventilater to help him breath! His condition was "just ok". WOW! We decided that on Friday we would probably be heading straight home. As the week went on he improved, ALOT. He went off the ventilater on Wednesday, was eating like a horse and they would move him out of CCU the next day into a medical room. He got moved on Thursday and is doing wonderful. So we are back to our orginial plan and we will be home in about 10 days.

So, on Friday we left Biloxi and drove the 68 miles to Fountainebleau State Park in Mandeville. We love this park. Upon check in,  I noticed that on Sunday they were having a small quilt show and demonstrations at the visitor center. It was being put on by the Hosanna Quilters. Hosanna quilters meet weekly at Hosanna church and make donation quilts. Each year they make and deliver over 300 quilts. I have gone to this quilt group a number of times in the past. They had a small showing of quilts. Some of which, are donation quilts and some personal quilts. Here is a quick peek.

This is "Insanity". Those squares are folded little squares of fabric to look like prairie points, then sewn to another square and so forth. I had a hard time understanding exactly how it was worked, but it was interesting.

These 2 quilts are over 100 years old. Quilter Pat brough them to show. She is documenting them, so as they get passed down the history goes with them. Aren't they lovely? What a treasure.

Look at this flag quilt. It was found in a box of donated fabric to the group.Can you believe it? Since they tie all the donation quilts, it was decided that this one deserved to be machine quilted. One of the quilters took it home and machine quilted and finished it off.

What a lovely basket. Applique' and tiny little yo-yo's. Done on silky fabric. Bet that was fun!!!

This Stained Galss quilt was beautiful. The quilter that made it was not there so I could not get a full picture of it. Only the quilter could hold up their quilts.

A darling baby quilt.

A Disappearing 9 patch that is a donation quilt.

Look at this lovely Wedding Ring quilt. To bad this is NOT a donation quilt. Those are my wedding colors. I would gladly take this as donation. LOL!

                                        Very colorful Cathedral Windows. This is awesome!

These are pieces from a Crazy Quilt made in 1894! I wonder who d.p. is?

This was also found in donation box of fabric.

There you have it. A small show but yet exciting and some history also.

We have friends here at Fountainebleau so I am sure no quilting will be done while here. We are going on a swamp tour on Tuesday. I wonder how many "gaters" we will see?

Till next time...Enjoy!

Small Quilts

I decided that while we were "snow birding" this winter I would  just make small quilts. One of our LQS went out of business this past fall. I purchased a number of Snap Sacks. I mean, who could pass up 60% off!  Snap Sacks are a little paper lunch bag filled with a pattern and fabric. Everything is included....fabric for the top, the backing and binding. They make a small quilt and finish quite quickly.

The first one I made is called Autumn Patches and finishes at 14 x 19.  A nice table topper.

Next I made Simplicity. It finished at 15 x 18.

Last I made  Dutch Treat. It finishes at 12 x 26.

Sew, those are 3 of the Snap Sacks I made so far. Take a good look at them and see which one is pieced wrong. Yup, wrong. I did not notice till I had it all done. How did that happen?  Ha! It said to piece according to the  "picture" and I followed a diagram in the directions that was for pressing seams.  Dang! I was not about to rip out binding, quiting and rip it all apart. So it will remain wrong. Lesson learned. Did you figure it out which one??

I also made other small things. Such as this dresden candle mat.

I had made another one of these in Christmas fabrics this past December but, I did not take a picture of it. :(

A friend had shown me paper piecing and I found a pattern for a pin cushion and made this. It is not done yet. I am waiting till I get home to finish and fill it.

I really like the paper piecing and would love to make this block much bigger. It finished at 5x5.

I have another small quilt I am still working on. I have it all pieced and I am hand quilting it. I will show a picture once that is done.

We have been enjoying sunny and warm weather here in Biloxi. Although, yesterday (Sunday) it was 3 degrees warmer at home, in Wisconsin, than it was here. What's up with that? They have been having very unusual warm weather for March. I wonder what that means for April or what our summer will be like.

We leave here this Friday and start our trek home. Plan to be home in the first week of April.

We have errands to finish up, friends to say farewell to and getting the coach ready to roll. Not much sewing will be done this week.

I want to give a big THANK YOU to Denise at http://daneesey.blogspot.com/ for spreading the word about my blog. Hugs to you, girlfriend. We have never met but it sure feels like we have been friends forever.

Till next time.

A bit more about me

I am a wife. Married 32 years to a man that chased me down like I was the run away frosting to his cake! I actually was not sure if I wanted to get involved with a man that was divorced and had a child. I think I fell in love with his son before I did him! What an adorable lovable child. When we married he became our son. He is never referred to as a step son.
I am a mother. Two wonderful boys that I love equally. They are be 18 years apart. ( we needed the tax deduction. LOL!)
I am a grandmother to Alex and Rachel. The cutest grand kids I ever had! ( Looking forward to more now that young son is married. :) )
I am a mother-in -law that loves those girls like they are my own.
I am retired. Well, actually, I am NOT old enough to retire. A benefit of being married to an older man.
I live in Wisconsin. Wausau. Right in the middle of the state.
We are snowbirds. Yes, we leave the wonders of the "winter wonderland" in search of sun and warmer weather. We have an RV that we spend our winters in. I have all the amenities of home, except on a smaller scale.
Right now we are in Biloxi, MS.. This is our first winter in the south. We usually winter in AZ.. The rising prices of gas, food and campground fees made us change our migration along with health issues. After all , I do need money for fabric!
I "sew" enjoy quilting.  Cutting up a perfectly beautiful piece of material and sewing back together to make something even more beautiful is awesome. The joy and pride, once that last stitch is done in a binding, and I stand back to look at what I have made, is just outstanding. At that point, you wish everyone you knew was there to share that moment.
I also putter in gardening. I say "putter" because I am really not into it. It makes the yard look good, nuff said!

Let me introduce you to my family.

My "hubby guy"

He looks up quilt shops, enters them into his GPS, and takes me to buy the fabric that I hoard!

What a guy!

                                   Oldest son Richard. A very proud father to his children.

Richards wife, Rosalie. Oh, I wish you could hear her sing!

Grandson, Alex. He is just a happy guy!

Granddaughter, Rachel. The gymnast!

Our youngest son John. He knows how to make me laugh. On his wedding day to Sara. Sara is the family cheesecake maker.She is responsible for my weight gain!

So there you have it ...my family. Oh wait, you say you want to see me?

Well, Here I am....cheesecake cheeks and all!

Hoping you enjoyed this peek into my life and I didn't scare you away!

Have a wonderful week-end.

I'll be back!