'cause Sandy Said Sew

Help the Food Bank

2010-11-26T08:02:00.000-08:00

Don't forget this weekend is our annual food drive for the local food bank. They always need help but especially this time of year. Check out our newsletter for how you can help. And, if you don't already get the newsletter, sign-up so you don't miss Quilt Country happenings,

Whew!

2010-11-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

Just finished looking at the sale books we have on-line. Well, we try to keep the website in sync with the shop, but that's a hard job.

So.... I took off the books we've already sold and added some sale books we'd never added on-line. What I'm saying is, keep on looking back for new stuff! Here are a couple.

There's still time!

2010-11-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

Every year I think I have PLENTY of time to get things done before the holidays. Then reality sets in...

Well this year, my friend Karen designed a quick and easy napkin pattern I just had to try. I love to set a pretty holiday table and these napkins are so quick, I made 14 yesterday. They're SO quick, I not only made some for Thanksgiving, I made some for Christmas. I may even make a few as quick gifts.

Sometimes we jokingly refer to Quilt Country as Kit Country because we like to make kits.... So, since these napkins were so much fun to make, we decided to share... if you can't come by the shop, look on-line to check out these kits if you want something that can be done quickly and looks great.

Fall Market 2010

2010-11-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well,we've always loved the look and feel of wool but hadn't been able to find any that matched the look and feel of Quilt Country. Guess what we found at this Market? Yummy wool kits!

This one in particular just has me itching to get my needle and floss out. And, it'll be something cheery to work on during the upcoming yucky winter weather.

Who knew there were so many young new designers from Australia? We found several kid's clothing patterns, embroideries and take a look at this whimsical quilt. Can't wait to get started!

Oh. There's just one thing, I guess. We'd better get all the notions, books and patterns we brought back from Market organized, put out on the floor, models made, etc. Of course, there'll be stuff that we couldn't bring back with us coming in for quite a while, too. (Yippee!!) So, maybe my needle and sewing machine will have to wait just a little longer....

The New Website

2010-04-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

A year in the making, the new website is live at last! There has been a REAL learning curve on my computer. I am relatively computer literate but this was something totally different. Take a look and see what you think. http://www.quiltcountry.com/

Below is a photo of new home page. Everything about the new website is so much better, the look, the shopping cart, all of the departments and well, just everything! On the home page there is also a spot to subscribe to our newsletter, which is also totally new. The newsletter will go out in the next day or so. We hope you enjoy all of the changes on the new site.

What an honor!

2010-01-20T17:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I was out front in the 30s fabrics and guess who walks in the door, the Statue of Liberty. Now this would be an honor for anyone BUT for us at Quilt Country it is a special treat! If you have never been in our bathroom it is really fun and full of Statue of Liberty memorabilia.

When she walked in the door I couldn't believe it. I told her she had to go to our bathroom. She stopped in her tracks. I explained our bathroom decorations and she went back to check it out. Krissy grabbed her camera, of course, and documented the event! Krissy even got the reflection of the torch in the mirror perfectly placed so it looks like she is holding it.

lessons learned from cleaning out the pantry

2009-11-29T10:29:00.000-08:00

We have been on a cleaning binge the past 4 days or so. We had a mini remodel in 2 bathrooms and so while everything was a mess we decided to take it a step further. We have a closet across the end of our den that is 6'X24'. It is really big so it can hold a lot of junk! It had gotten so bad that we couldn't get in it any longer so what else could we do. Even we were appalled at the amount of stuff that came out of there. We divided it into the appropriate groups and now we even have empty shelves.

Next it was on to the kitchen. I cleaned out the pantries, all of the cabinets and drawers and I got a lot of junk out of there too. There were packs of Jell-O that were 3 years past their expiration date and all sorts of partly used packs of seasonings and a bunch of opened crackers, cereals and pasta. There was a particularly interesting bottle of old rice. It was some sort of special red rice that I thought deserved to be poured down the disposal. It all went down with no problem. Next it was on to the coffee cabinet which had at least 6 partially used bags of assorted coffees One was a very old can of Folgers decaf which I thought needed to be poured down the disposal so that I could put old knives in it. Half way through the decaf things stopped working. Tony was working on hanging mirrors in the bathrooms and I really hated to tell him that the sink was stopped up. He was perturbed when I told him about the coffee. (You might guess that this is not the first time I put something that I shouldn't have in the disposal.) But then I had to fess up to the red rice. You know what happens to rice when it gets wet? Well, it expands. The rice had swollen and totally blocked both sides of the sink. He had to use a knife like an ice pick to get it out. As soon as he got the rice out of all of the nooks and crannies the coffee water started pouring out. It was totally gross. Of course, I got photos.

The bin was about 3"-4" deep in rice, water and coffee.

The moral of the story is, don't put uncooked rice down the disposal.

Judy Niemeyer Patterns and Getting Ready for Market

2009-08-26T03:40:00.000-07:00

Judy Niemeyer's new patterns, Bali Wedding Star and Stepping Stones are in. They are so pretty and use the 2 1/2" strip kits which Judy chose for us when she was here in June. She is definitely amazing and just does it so quickly. Bali Wedding Star is in and we also have the extra papers.

Below is a photo of our Scraparama strip kits that work beautifully with both the Bali Wedding Star and Stepping stones. (see photo below)

Stepping Stone is striking and also pretty simple to make, at least for a Judy Niemeyer pattern! We have this pattern in and also the extra papers to make the quilt larger.

We didn't go to Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh this year so we are a little ahead of the game with our patterns for fall...Not sure if that is the way to look at it but we are goin' with it!

One of my favorite new patterns was designed by our friend, Marianne Harwood, who loves floral quilts. It is called Blooming Vases. The scrappy black and blue backgrounds are very neat and the quarter square sashing in blues is pretty. What do you think?

Another really fun quilt is the Halloween quilt, which is neither finished nor named. We are changing the center block and making the witch a larger. It is bright and fun. The owl is very cool.

This photo is a work in progress. Betsy came up with this pattern to put her birthday swap blocks together last year and we all love it! So, of course we had to make it into a pattern! It is not quite ready yet but is in the "testing" phase.

Sassafras is a new very scrappy pieced pattern. There are four blocks, all with the same pieces but arranged differently.

Hope you are enjoying some cool fall weather. Here in TX it should be a pleasant temperature in a month or two.

Come see us at Quilt Country and check out our new models. We have added lots of new ones and re organized.

Indenpendence Day, Buck-A-Block and Strips

2009-07-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

We will be closed on Saturday, July 4th in observance of Independence Day. The Buck-A-Block packets may be picked up on Saturday, July 11. See you then!

We have had a a wild time last week at Quilt Country. Judy Niemeyer was here for a week and the classes were wonderful. I still think she is the best teacher I have ever seen in action. The students really enjoyed the class and many of them got quite a bit done. Judy bought several of her new patterns and quilts of her newer patterns that will not be released until August or September. The are beautiful. One of the patterns is the new Bali Wedding Star. This new pattern is really pretty with floating points on the stars. We are anxious for the new pattern to arrive. While Judy was here she hand picked sets of batiks for the arcs of the wedding ring. Of course, you can make anything with these beautiful batiks. Each set has eighty-eight 2 1/2" strips that are in eleven different color ways. They are so beautiful! The photo below is a photo of a set lined up before cutting and then arranged after cutting. We have a few left. They are just so beautiful that they are being gobbled up for lots of other projects. They are $79.95 for the set of strips.

Below are two photos taken during Judy's classes. If you are ever in a position to take a class from Judy it is a great opportunity. She has so many tips involving paper piecing and her beautiful quilts.

2009-07-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

Joshua went to swimming lessons today, his 3rd day. I think he is doing great.

Batiks Galore and More

2009-06-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

Quilt Country has been getting in a lot of fabric over the last few weeks. There are several pretty bright and cheery florals, the beginnings of our Christmas fabrics and 167 bolts of batiks 11 boxes, from Island Textiles. There were so many boxes the UPS truck backed up to our door! Below are photos of Joan unpacking and checking in the boxes.

Bobbie has been busy working on the displays for the Christmas area and the Christmas fabrics are beginning to arrive. We have ordered some pretty and also some fun Christmas fabrics this year. Our good friend, Sara Tuttle, has a new Christmas line with MODA. It is called Beach Birdies and they are in Santa hats. Really fun!!!

The supergirls have also been busy rearranging the shop and moving groups of fabric to better utilize the space. I think it looks great!!!

One of the things they have been making room for is an expanded line of Artgirlz items. We have new charms, kits and rubber stamps. Lots of cool stuff!

knitted tube socks, YUCK!

2009-05-31T14:42:00.000-07:00

I knitted my first sock! I decided on a tube sock because it seemed simple and I am usually OK with tube socks. Well, the self striping yarn doesn't look nice at all in a tube sock. Below are some photos, needles still attached. I like the yarn but not the sock. I will be taking it out and knitting a reg. sock.

2009-05-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

We had a fun Memorial Day. I met Jesse and Krissy at the gym for water aerobics which was fun. They hadn't been before and I was glad the came to see what we do. I think Krissy might start going at night. Then I brought Joshua home from the gym with me and he and Tony played in the pool and with the new water cannons. Of course, Tony had to "surprise" him by ambushing him when he walked out of the door in his suit. They had fun and then it was ribs on the grill and potato salad, etc. We celebrated Kelli's birthday with the light strawberry trifle. Yum!

Cooper and Porsche

2009-05-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Cooper is our new puppy. We have had him for one week and it has been very interesting. He is the first boy puppy we have ever had. There are a lot of things that are different when you have a boy instead of a girl.

Porsche really loves him and they play, fight and share the toys. He is a real cutie a while Porsche is sort of equally black and white Cooper is mostly black. He seems smart and eats like a pig. Really, I don't think he even tastes his food and when he finishes he runs over to Porsche's dish. We have to pick him up when he finishes so she can eat.

Crazy for quilting

2009-05-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

Crazy quilting has always been one of my favorite types of quilting. Being a slightly obsessive personality I would get into one type of quilting and concentrate on that. There was the Amish phase, the crazy quilting phase the "Lucky" phase...

We have a small display in the shop of some of the crazy quilting items I have done in the past. I loved the hand work at the time but was really bad at the machine finishing. One of the first items I crazy quilted was the heart below. We had just moved to TX and of course I had to make the French knot bluebonnets. Something went wrong when I tried to make it into the heart pin. As you can see the edges are not even at all.

Did you all have the quilted collars to wear over your "granny" dresses? I loved those and wore this one a lot.

This is one for Valentines day.

Many of us at Quilt Country are interested in crazy quilting and have decided to start a crazy quilt friendship group will be meeting on the second Friday of the month. This is not a class but there will be a variety of crazy quilters with a many styles of crazy quilting and we can learn from each other. I plan to use lots of beads on mine. We have the new Alice Wilhoit crazy quilting book and it is really pretty. She uses batiks for her fabrics. I do love batiks... We also have several books using beading instead of stitching. Beads are always fun! I think there is a renewed interest in hand work whether it is applique, embroidery or crazy quilting. The only decision left is to decide on colors and fabric style for my block.

To the dump. To the dump. To the dump, dump, dump!

2009-04-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

After many, many years of putting off the inevitable we cleaned out the storage room on Mill St yesterday. It was totally amazing, sort of like a clown car type of experience.

I wish I had thought to take a photo showing what it looked before. Suffice it to say that it was to the point of opening the door, throwing something in and shutting the door quickly. There were 6 of us and it took us 2 hours. Not bad.

First we took everything out. Oh my! I think the space is about 12' X 20'.

So after filling Joan's truck to the brim for the dump, Debbie's van for Goodwill, Sharon's van for the shop, Micki's cute little convertible trunk with quilts and my car for my house, we are done!! Doesn't it look great??? The boxes in the center are documents to be shredded.

In just a few short hours...

2009-04-08T04:05:00.000-07:00

SO much can happen. Yesterday I realized the if Joshua and I were going to dye Easter eggs it would have to be that afternoon. When I picked Joshua up at school I told him we were going to dye eggs and also plant our 2 tomato plants, 1 cherry and 1 Celebrity. He was very excited.

We got all of the egg dying paraphernalia together and he decided to color them before he dyed the eggs. So he was busy coloring while I was getting things set up. He did a great job, as you can see. If you look at his hands you can see the progression of dye migrating.

Cool! Look what happens when you "accidentally" drop the egg in.

Who needs to use the spoon when I have opposable thumbs???

I don't think this dye is permanent...

Next we moved outside to plant our two tomato plants. Porsche was very interested, as you can see.

As you can see Joshua did a great job!

Now this is when all of the trouble started. Joshua and I got the hose and I turned it on very low. He watered the plants and did a fine job. I held the hose while Joshua went to turn it off. It seems that Joshua didn't know which way to turn the hose and turned it the wrong way! The water was pouring out and Porsche freaked out. She was running around trying to catch the water and getting more and more wet. We got the water off and then tried to catch Porsche. She was running everywhere getting all of those VERY irritating little oak tree pollen thingys all stuck in her hair AND then she went over and rolled and rolled in the mulch. Next it was back in the house to try to get the trash out of Porsche's hair and it was quite a pain. It took about 15 minutes. Joshua was really excited and was squealing the whole time and begging to get in the tub with her. We got all clean and I blow dried Porsche then we sat down calmly and watched the end of Chicken Little. Whew!

When Jesse came to pick Joshua up I decided to try the hat I knitted on Joshua. It looked pretty cute and was my first attempt at knitting on the double needles. The mittens? Well these were one pair of 4 1/2 pairs we found in the den!

Celebration of Life

2009-04-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

Today was Joshua's birthday party at school. Instead of calling it a birthday party it is called a Celebration of Life. All of the children in the class, except for the birthday boy/girl. sit in a big circle. Joshua sat in a chair outside of the circle. The teacher put a tray in the center of the circle and on the tray was a large white candle with several smaller candles and a dish of sand. Around this she places pieces of paper with the months of the year on them in order. Then she asks Joshua questions about the earth and sun and how many days it takes the earth to go around the sun etc. Then she lights the center candle. Next she asks about being one year old and what you remember and/or did. He has to go to the circle of candles and walk slowly around them while the children all say the months of the year in order.

Then she lights one of the smaller candles. It continues like this until all of the candles are lit and then they sing Happy Birthday.

Then he puts all of the candles out.

It was really neat and he was embarrassed by the attention and kept trying to hide behind me. Once he even fell on the floor on his head. His teachers are so great and seem to take everything in stride.

Next he got to pick something from the "treasure chest" because he had gotten the certain number of stickers it takes to get something from the treasure chest. Apparently it is a big deal!

Next it was home to Granny and Granddaddy's house for a hug from Porsche and our little birthday party.

We got him a cream filled choc covered donut and had 5 candles on it.

Then he opened presents.

Grandaddy is so funny...

Grandaddy helped put the bionicles together. They are new easier with only about 12-14 pieces each.

Sunday is his big party. I am really glad we had the quiet party.

Congrats to Connie, Dallas Show and more

2009-02-26T11:15:00.000-08:00

This month Connie was in Des Moines, Iowa at the Rep Rally for APQS American Quilting Systems for classes and training Connie was awarded the Top salesman award for the company.
I asked her what her thoughts were and she said, "This is a job that I JUST LOVE!!!! I feel so fortunate everyday that I get to come to Quilt Country, work with so many incredible women and share my passion and love for quilting."

Congratulations to Connie Keller for receiving top honors at the APQS Rep Rally!! We are very proud of her and all that she has accomplished since she began representing APQS at Quilt Country.

Our new Quilt Country rulers by Creative Grid arrived this week. They are SO cute! The ruler is 2 1/2" X 6 1/2", the perfect size for carrying to retreats or classes and also just to have hear your machine for paper piecing or checking seam allowances or the size of that piece that just doesn't seam right. They sell for $6.25 and are the great quality of all of the rulers we love from Creative Grids.

The Dallas show is coming up, fast!!! The dates are March 13, 14, and 15. If you haven't ever been you should do your best to go. It is a great show and there are a lot of beautiful quilts of all types and also lots of vendors.

They also have a live mini auction on Saturday of the show every year. It is really great and the minis are so cute!! I made one this year, it is a bull's eye, 16" X 20".

This weekend we have two classes that I want to tell you about. On Saturday Joan will be teaching the Bella, Bella Bargello. A photo of her quilt is below. The photo doesn't do it justice!

Then on Sunday Debbie will be teaching the Strip-a-Rama class. This is a class, held once a month, designed to help you use those great fabrics in your stash. Below are photos of the design you will be learning this month.

Wurggling

2009-02-13T14:51:00.000-08:00

Porsche is getting more and more brave outside. At first she stayed right next to us when we took her out but now she wanders and just sits there when we call her to come in. If we head toward the door she still just sits there but when we go in she runs as fast as she can, which, by the way, is pretty darn fast!

I am trying to get a video of her stalking in the monkey grass. It is so cute! She is really into wurggling right now.

Our newest family member

2009-02-02T03:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday we drove to Houston to get our new puppy. She is a Havanese, not a very common breed and that is why we had to drive to Houston to pick her up. I have been researching dogs that don't shed much for over a year. Her hair is like human hair, with no undercoat, and this breed sheds about as much as a human does. The hair feels like long Minkee, which we all know is sooooooo wonderfully soft. We named her Porsche, or should I say my husband, Tony, named her. I was thrilled that he was thinking of names and I didn't really have a name for her so Porsche it is. He named her for his favorite car. It is a cute name and we spell it a little differently than the common spelling, Portia.

She weighs 3.8 pounds and is about 14" long and 8" tall. When she is grown she will weigh about 12-14 pounds. Porsche is very energetic, like all puppies, and loves to walk right beside you and I mean RIGHT beside you. The nick name for this breed is "The Velcro Dog". I can certainly see where they got this nick name. I think she is very intelligent and possibly smarter than we are because she seems to be holding out for hamburger. ;-/ I am confident we will win in the end but between the eating (or should I say not eating), playing and the potty training it is a full time job. Hmmmm, seems like there could be a lot of "I told you so" comments right here. It is almost like having a baby but you can leave them all night, if you can stand the crying. It is so amazing how loud such a itsy-bitsy, tiny puppy can be. The moment you put her in the play yard she starts and it is LOUD!

I will keep you posted on our progress.

Here she is on her first night home.

Here she is on her batik flannel blanket. (Being a member of the Quilt Country family, she had to have batik blankees!)

Playing with Joshua on the kitchen floor.

We're Ready

2009-01-29T17:10:00.001-08:00

Yesterday and today we were busy getting ready for the big sale at Quilt Country this weekend. The batiks are right at the entrance of the shop and look so pretty. It will be hard to say goodbye to them. I took some photos this afternoon. I doubt that they will look this way very long. I also took some photos of our florals.

Batiks, YUM!!

2009-01-28T06:15:00.000-08:00

I just love batiks, don't you? We have been working with batiks a lot lately. The employees at QC and also the group of retreat friends I belong to are working on birthday blocks. They are so pretty! We could choose from 4 color ways and we will receive 25+ blocks on our birthday. Some of us in both groups will get over 50 blocks! Last year we made a sawtooth star block and this year it is a churn dash. Below are some of the ones I have made so far. Tony and I are really excited to be adding a new member of our family. Her name is Porsche (Tony named her) and we will be picking her up THIS Saturday. She is just the cutest thing! Porsche is a Havanese and will be 8 weeks old. Below is a baby photo and also one of her a few weeks ago. Isn't she cute? I guess I am a bit prejudiced.

One of my friends, and a former Supergirl, Barb McCraw is going to begin teaching at Quilt Country. Another friend, Teresa Sherling will be co-teaching the classes with Barb. They are two very talented ladies. For some time they have been teaching a Baltimore album class in Denton. We have heard rave reviews on the class and also the pattern. They are also teaching several other classes with techniques that we are all interested in, paper piecing, 3D folded flowers and several others.

We are also working on several new patterns. One of them is called Eclipse. The quilt uses a curved piecing technique. The curve is very gentle and easy to sew. Paula made the beautiful model below. We are making several kits in different color ways. The quilt is pictured in the green/purple color way and the cool and warm kits are pictured below. We are also working on the kit for the bright/multi kit which is lots of fun! The main problem for me...which one to choose???

Cool batik kit

Warm batik kit

Holiday treats or why you should never flush jellied cranberry sauce down the toilet!

2008-12-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

OK, after Thanksgiving I took all of my “fat” food up to the store and the girls have been eating on it for a few days. A few days later I tossed the leftovers but the really juicy ones I thought would be better flushed. We don't have a disposal at work and they were to liquidy to go in the trash bag. So I got two containers flushed and then it was time for the sliced, jellied cranberry sauce. The slices just perfectly fit in the hole in the toilet. The toilet started filling up, I took the lid off of the back and stopped the flow of water. All the time I am sort of yelling. Judy and Micki came running. We couldn’t even use the plunger because the water was at the top edge. So Judy scooped most of the water out and then we used the plunger. It just made each slice of cranberry sauce pop up. I reached in and got them and then we did another slice. We were laughing so hard they heard us in the front of the shop. It all worked out fine and I am SO glad the bathrooms were cleaned at lunchtime that day!

Vacation, Darth Vader and ornament

2008-11-25T06:21:00.000-08:00

The past week some friends and I went on a vacation together. My brother has a wonderful condo on Anna Maria Island in Florida. What a beautiful location! There were 8 of us and it was so much fun. I highly recommend taking a vacation with friends if possible. There are a lot of photos at the links below, a lot!

http://krissysquilting.smugmug.com/

http://sannton.smugmug.com/

http://ocarol.smugmug.com/

This is a photo of me kissing the manatee on the Anna Maria sign. It is such a fun sign.

Four of us went parasailing. It was so great. We were on an 800 ft. line 500 ft. above the water. Then as you are coming in for a landing the dunk your feet in the water. I was a little worried about the taking off and landing but it was actually very easy!

Krissy was attacked by the man eating plant. ;-D Just kidding. Krissy is a really great photographer and has a knack of taking awesome and also funny photos.

The family came later and we all went to Disney World for 2 days. It was Joshua's first trip to DW. What fun. He is a bit taken with Star Wars right now and he got to actually fight Darth Vader! Too cool! I was so afraid they weren't going to choose him but he was the last one chosen so, whew! Below is a link to see him actually fighting Darth Vader with his purple light saver, ummmm I mean light saber. (he insists that it is a light saver)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XGy8Ph0R-TA

I have been busy making Christmas ornaments. Not quite finished. The really wonderful "Merry" by Patrick Lose inspired me. I am thinking of a wire hanger with a bead or two twisted onto the wire.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-02T05:05:00.000-08:00

Saturday Joshua and I went to the Pumpkin Patch. It is a local place that has a fun, fall, free-for-all for kids each year. We stayed about 2 1/2-3 hours, which was a pretty long time for Granny! There were 6 bounce houses, 2 mazes made from hay, a merry-go-round, hay ride and the MOST copyright infringements I have ever seen in one place. As you can see from the movie below there is Mickey, Madagascar, and the Backyardigans. Also on display was Star Wars, Dora, Sesame Street, Ratatouille and lots, lots more.

Joshua had his first snow cone. He decided on grape but then noticed there was a guy with a blue one. He asked what flavor that was and I told him coconut. He lets me know that coconuts are brown. It is hard to argue with that type of logic.

WOW!!!

2008-09-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

It was a crazy day at the shop. Since we are getting ready for the garage sale it was sort of busy and distracting all day. We also saw and ordered some beautiful new fabrics. Check out the garage sale photos below!

Linda stopped in and showed us two quilts she has been working on. They are both beautiful. This first photo is a king sized quilt made from silk ties. They are really pretty. She used a fusible interfacing on the back to keep them from unraveling.

The quilt below are blocks from a swap we did. Her quilt is stunning. She has an embroidery machine and embroidered beautiful blocks which she placed in between the swap blocks. Linda is one talented lady!

This beautiful block below is one of the larger embroidered blocks Linda made. Beautiful!

I wanted you to see a preview of the garage sale stuff!! IT IS AMAZING.

Serendipity!

2008-08-10T07:30:00.001-07:00

I spent this past week visiting my mom and my brother in Georgia. It was a wonderful visit and we celebrated my brother's birthday where I also got to see both of my nephews, 2 aunts and a cousin.

I left to come home yesterday and when I got to the gate at the Atlanta Airport there was an exhibit there called Found Objects Transfigured. It was awesome and at the time it didn't occur to me that there was more of the exhibit in the airport. Time was very short and I was trying to take a few photos with my phone, keep an eye on my stuff and watch my coffee while they were starting to board my flight. I took one of the small catalogs near the display, which was behind glass, and when I looked at it on the plane I realized that there were several displays in the airport that I missed! Susan Shie has a piece in this exhibit but it wasn't near my gate so...

I have checked the web and can't really get a link with photos to give you but I will post my blurry, glarry, not so great photos anyway. If you are in the Atlanta Airport through August be sure to check out this exhibit in the T Gates area.

This one is by Jane Burch Cochran and called Rabbit Hash. There is amazing detail but of course you can't really tell in my photos.

This amazing "postage stamp" quilt is made with real postage stamps. I am so sorry I didn't get the name of the artist. It was really pretty too.

This piece is also by Jane Burch Cochran and I didn't get the name of the piece. It has a lot of yo-yos which I find amusing because it seems to me that most people do not like to make yo-yos and find them well...tacky and dated. Again sorry for the blur.

This really interesting piece is by Gordon Chandler. It is made from an old wooden hand truck. I thought it would look especially great in my friend Carol's back yard.

Cute competition for machine quilters and fun classes

2008-07-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

Our classes are really exciting this summer. We have quite a few new classes and also several that I am interested in taking too.

This Wednesday is our Project Linus day at the shop and we are hoping for a large group. Joan, who is in charge of our Project Linus has found a great spot for the quilts everyone so lovingly makes. I will keep you posted and let you know about the group as we learn more. There are so many quilts in her office that it is getting difficult to walk around. Great job everyone!

It looks like Krissy may have some competition with her machine quilting. Connie got her new machine set up, with ORANGE legs no less, and yesterday when I took Joshua up to the shop she let him quilt on it. he did super and just moved all over the quilt. He is only 4! As you can see from the photos he is fearless.

This Friday is our Freaky Friday class and we are going to make this cute little quilt. We don't have quite enough students so if we don't have enough we will just have to cancel it. That will be a shame because this is SO cute!

Friday night is our first Gifts Galore class and we are making the little cupcake pin cushion. It is really neat and the pattern is included in the class.Next Saturday, the 26 of July, is Carol Mc's class on the little fabric boxes. They look so fun. I am going to do my best to take this class. The boxes would make such cute gifts. Just imagine all the fun presents you can make for someone you care about. You can even use the fabric box you make to hold a gift. These are pretty wild but you could make the boxes soft and feminine too.

Last year some friends and I did a swap of rows for a quilt that we wanted to make. Each of us picked a theme and then the rest of us made a row for everyone. The themes were very neat and so different; ocean/beach, Oriental, new grandson, garden and Krissy's row was for photographs. Krissy's row used the vinyl in quilt blocks and when she puts it together it will make a great display for photos. Very unique idea! My row was the ocean/beach theme and the rows were so wonderful. I got a palm tree, turtles, dolphins, undersea scene, hibiscus, and more. They are so great. Joan made me this amazing landscape row and I mention it because i am going to take her landscape class next Sunday. I think I am going to make a small underwater landscape. I can't wait to get this quilt together. Would you all like to see my other rows?

Isn't this cool little tool neat? It has a suction cup that attaches to your smaller rulers and is a real finger saver! Many times when I am using a small ruler my fingers start to hurt from pushing down on the ruler. This little tool gives you a handle!

Our good friend Sharon is going to teach her mini pineapple quilt in September. It is SO cute! I am lucky enough to own one of hers which I bought at a mini auction at the Dallas show a few years ago. The whole quilt, including the borders is only about 10". She makes these a lot for gifts and for the auction. I want to take this class too!

Emilyanna Jones

2008-07-01T15:24:00.001-07:00

Well, today was really exciting at Quilt Country. Emily was coming into work and she saw a large snake in the road and ran over it and saw it wasn't dead so backed up over it. Somewhere in there the snake jumped up into the motor/wheel well section of the car. She went to the gas station and they couldn't do anything but the birds were dive bombing her car. Strange! Then she just drove to QC where we all had to go out and see the snake. It was HUGE, about 5' long!!!! Of course no one wanted to touch it so Lewisville animal control was called. Meantime all of the guys in the shopping center had to come check it out. I guess snakes are a "guy thing". The animal control guy couldn't do it alone so Emily's dad, Todd, came and helped. Part of the car had to be taken off to get to it. So They got it in the bag and all ended well. The photos below tell the story. You can see that Emily wasn't afraid of it and held the bag!
Thanks to Emily's mom, Connie, for the fun title.

It seemed appropriate that the security company was Viper!

PEEK-A-BOO

Lots of fun stuff

2008-06-27T04:42:00.001-07:00

It has been a busy June so far. We have been working in the yard a lot and also having some work done in the yard. We finally had a HUGE bed that was 23' X 54' and 4' high (no kidding!) taken out of the front yard and grass put down. We have been fighting that thing since we moved into this house 4 1/2 years ago. Did you know that when you buy mulch that you need to be sure that it has been baked/treated for weeds??? Well if you ever get nut grass in a flower bed that is thick enough to mow...you might as well just plow or burn it off and start over. At least that is our experience.

Quilt Country has also been really busy. The two sales at the beginning of the month were fun and everyone seemed to enjoy them. We have gotten lots of Christmas fabrics and more is on the way. We have the new schedule ready and there are some fun classes. I have been wanting to take Joan's landscaping class and now there is Carol Mc's new fabric box that is tempting me. There are some photos of Carol's boxes below. Then we have 2 machine quilting classes using your small machine on the schedule. Martha is teaching a beginning machine quilting class and Carol Mo is teaching an advanced machine quilting class. These should be great!

I think Joshua and I may go see Wall-e today. It looks like great summer fun!

Boy does time fly!

2008-06-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that my last post was the end of April. When I started this blog I had every intention of writing every week. Well, with the flood, quilt market, a visit to our moms in Atlanta and life the month of May just flew by. Sorry this post is so long but...

We did have a great time in Portland at Quilt Market and the weather was really nice. There are a lot of "free spirits" up there. Many people we saw had tattoos, piercings and pink or purple hair. They weren't all young either. It was neat and the city has a great public transportation system. One evening our group was on the lite rail with Sandy Gervais and her family and we were enjoying visiting so much that we missed our stop. That was funny and we all had a good laugh. When we split to go to our separate hotels we all said if we weren't at the convention center in the morning to come looking for us. The city of Portland is very into conserving water and energy and also into recycling. Even the toilets in the convention center had two ways to flush, up for liquid waste and down for solid waste. That is a neat way to put it, huh? There was lots of delicious seafood too.

One of our favorite booths at Quilt Market is the Artgirlz booth. Those girls are such fun! Below are photos of us together in their booth. There is also a photo of the quilt we are making in our Freaky Friday class this week. It uses their felted wool balls, flowers and squares with the charm in the middle.

Krissy had a beautiful quilt debut at Quilt Market, the Hibiscus. We have a red and a yellow version at the shop.

The Judy Day sew-in at the shop is going really well. One Sunday a month we sew on our Judy Niemeyer quilts from 9-5. Several of the group have finished one of their quilts. Since these quilts are like potato chips, you can't make just one, many of us have more than one going at a time.

Our applique group is meeting in the shop on the second Friday of every month EXCEPT for this month of course!!! I forgot and put the garage sale on that Friday so our applique group will meet on the third Friday in June. This is the quilt they are working on. The project they are all working on is from a book called Affairs of the Heart. This is not a class but they all help each other with tips and techniques so if you are interested come check it out on the the second Friday of each month except for June of course which will be the third Friday.

Floods, parties, inchies, Linus and more

2008-04-23T04:16:00.000-07:00

What a wild and crazy last few weeks it has been. We have had swaps, birthdays, huge Project Linus Day, and of course the flood.

We are always busy just before Quilt Market because we are finalizing new patterns, taking care of photography and stuffing patterns. That is usually enough to keep things mildly nuts but this time... About 2 weeks ago my husband Tony, who usually gets up earlier that I do, yells back to the bedroom "Sandy, grab some towels and come help mop up the kitchen." I jump out of bed and before I can get the towels and get there he yells again, "Never mind, just go back to sleep." As if that could happen. I walk in the kitchen and it is covered in water. A pipe under the sink had broken and apparently the water had been flowing for hours and hours. Every room in the house was covered in water and the den had 3" of standing water. Where do you begin? Well, it is 2 weeks later, the contractors have been out and it looks like we will be in the remodeling phase for a while. Below is a photo of the back door in the den, after we had gotten about 1"-2" of water out. We are SO lucky though, almost none of our personal possessions were damaged!

This is a photo of the kitchen with the fans. They are trying to dry out the cabinets. It didn't work so the lower cabinets will be replaced in the kitchen. If you want to see all of the photos you can check out my smugmug site http://sannton.smugmug.com/. The fans are so noisy and in every room so we were in a hotel for 4 nights. It is good to be back in the house with all our stuff!

INCHIE SWAP - Remember the inchies I told you about? Well, 11 of my friends and I had a quick little swap and it was so fun! We had about 2 weeks to sign up, get them done and turn them in. Some of us made 12 just a like and others made each one different. They are SO cool. I think I will put them on a bracelet, but I haven't done that yet. The photo below shows the 12 inchies that I received. I love them all and each one is so different.

This photo shows some of the swappers oooooing and ahhhhhing over each person's swap.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - Last weekend was Krissy's birthday and Jesse wanted to give her a surprise party. It was fun and the cake was beautiful. I picked up some of the items for the party and did a really goofy thing. I went by and picked up the plates but forgot the napkins so when I went back to get them I totally forgot which plates I had gotten and the result was NOT pretty!

PROJECT LINUS - Last Wednesday was Project Linus day. One Wednesday a month is dedicated to making quilts for Project Linus. This past week the ladies were VERY prolific!!! The completed 14 quilt tops and have several more that are partially done. Amazing. You can come join the group at Quilt Country on May 21 and June 18. It us such a worthwhile project.

Very Hungry Caterpillar, Angelina and dollies

2008-04-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly time passes and that it has been so long. Time sure flies when life is zooming by! The Dallas quilt show, Freaky Friday and Easter just flew by. The show was really beautiful and the guild did a super job, as usual. There were some beautiful quilts and some interesting quilts too. We were busy in our booth demoing the yo-yo makers. I am working on a mini yo-yo quilt for the American Girl doll bed at the shop. It is looking really cute! The yo-yos are about the size of a nickle.

Last week we received the CUTEST fabric. The Very Hungry Caterpillar panel and coordinates arrived. They are just beautiful just like the photos in the book. It is going really quickly with several shoppers getting 2, 3 and more of the panel. Joan is working on a really cute model and we have already ordered more of the fabric.

We had a fun time making our embellished dolls last month and this coming Friday (just 2 days away!!! April 4) we are going to work with Angelina. Below are some of the interesting dolls that were made in our class last month. There seemed to be a slight fascination with cleavage. Some used the felted wool for the heads and others used photos from magazines. Unfortunately some of the photos were too blurry to use.

Juanita brought here absolutely precious fiber charm bracelet. I have to admit to being green with envy. I want one too! She was in an on line group that did the swap. Uh-oh, I think I feel another swap coming on!

March Madness

2008-03-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

Last month we had a nice group for our Judy Day. We had about 13 or so and it was great because we were able to help each other with tips we had picked up in our class. It is a fun day to just get out of the house and sew with a nice group of quilters.

Janet was in for a machine quilting class this week and brought her finished Hawaiian Star. It is absolutely gorgeous!

I also took a close up of the center. The colors are scrumptious.

Our friend Juanita made this beautiful bracelet with charms she received in a swap last Oct. Isn't it great? You can see the felted wool pieces in the different charms. Next Friday we will be working with some of the felted wool at our Freaky Friday.

We have been busy working on several new patterns at Quilt Country. One is Free to Fly, a butterfly quilt, and the other is Sweet Hearts. The photo of the heart quilt is the smallest version. The hearts are raw edge applique.

Riding with Joshua

2008-03-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

Today Joshua and i were in the car and saw a big fire truck. He was talking about it and I asked if he had ever been on a fire truck before. He said no, he wasn't a fireman. I told him you didn't have to be a fireman to go on a fire truck. He said he wasn't a fireman because he had always just been a kid. I snapped this one with my phone at the red light.

The other day Joshua and I were on the way home from school and we were singing along with Raffi, there's a bug on the floor, on the floor. I tried to snap a photo of us being scared while we were singing. Of course we were already home and just waiting for the song to be over. The photos are blurred because he is moving around to the music a lot. His favorite Raffi song is Willoby Wallaby Woo. (not sure about that spelling.)

Freaky Friday, Tony & Tina and The Caucus

2008-03-05T17:34:00.001-08:00

It is almost time for the March Freaky Friday! It seems impossible that it has been a month! We are having a great time with this class and I think the students and customers are too. Below is a photo of Tonya's paintstick piece. She is so good about taking her project home and making it into something wonderful! She is one talented lady.

Since I last wrote we also went to see Tony and Tina's Wedding. It is a very funny musical about a couple from NY and NJ and their families and friends. It was really funny and you are a part of the wedding, not sitting in seats in the audience but part of the group. We laughed a lot and you just never knew what they were going to do. There was a "cheesy" wedding singer who had a great voice. He actually sang through the complete reception. Below is a photo of my husband, Tony, with the daughter of the caterer. She was very "goth" and never smiled once! She just came up and put her foot on the table next to Tony and waited to see his reaction. It was SO funny! The second photo is of Krissy, my daughter in law and the wedding singer. I think you get the idea. The third photo is Tony with one of the bridesmaids. She was having boyfriend trouble and came around often. All of the ladies seemed to like Tony. I think he was an easy target. Go see it if you get a chance but it is not for kids.

Well the primary/caucus is over. It has been an amazing year, one that I think will be remembered for some time. Tony and I decided to go check out the caucus at the Lewisville Town Hall. There must have been about 200 or more standing in line to vote in the caucus. I snapped a few photos with my phone. The quality isn't that great.

Valentines Week and Christian fabric

2008-02-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

Valentines week is special for my husband and me. Tony and I were married on the 13th. Lots of people ask us why didn't we wait one day and get married on Valentines Day. Well, when you get married on a 3 day pass from the Air Force you don't have time to wait a day. Tomorrow will be our 37th anniversary. February 13th is also the date of our first date when we were in the 9th grade. We went to his church's Sweetheart banquet and he brought me a corsage of pink sweetheart roses. My boquet at our wedding was pink sweetheart roses. Seems like we have had 3 lifetimes during this 37 years. We have done a lot of fun things and lived many interesting places during our life together. One of our favorite places to go together is Disney World and my favorite ride is the Rockin' Roller Coaster. It is SO fun, 0-60 in less than 4 seconds. Oh yeah, Aerosmith is blasting in your ears and it is dark with lots of neon.

Today after I picked Joshua up at school we decorated Valentines Day Cookies. I baked the cookies yesterday so they would be ready. He was very excited. I had bought a variety pack of cookie decorations and one of the colors was hot pink. I said lets do a hot pink one. He says he doesn't like hot. After I explained it to him he called the red and purple hot too. I decided to lay a clean towel on the counter so it would collect all of the "extra" sprinkles. You can tell by the expression on his face that it took a lot of concentration.
Of course we had to sample a few. I think we both like them best with no icing.
This is an icing recipe that I have had for years. It works great on any cookies and gets hard so you can stack the cookies. You can add flavoring and also dye it for the occasion.

COOKIE ICING
1 cup conf. sugar
1-2 tsp. Milk
1-2 tsp light corn syrup
Place sugar and milk in bowl and mix well. Add corn syrup and mix. Add coloring and or flavoring. Spread on cookies; add sprinkles if desired and leave to dry for about an hour. The length of drying time depends on how thick you spread the icing. Stack them up and you are ready to take them anywhere with no mess.

We just received the new fabric with the religious symbols, prayers and Bible verses. It is very nice and the colors are pretty.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

2008-02-08T04:36:00.000-08:00

Isn't this fabric great??? The Wizard of Oz is so much fun. I know it has terrorized children for years but I think we all have a place in our hearts for this movie. There are many more prints at the shop, this is just a sampling. This past year Tony and I went to see Wicked and loved it. If you ever get a chance go see it because it will give you a totally new outlook on the Wizard of Oz. Now, what to do with this fun stuff??? Any ideas?

This new Kaffe Fasset fabric also arrived this week. It is always so fresh and interesting.

I am excited about our "Judy Day" coming up every month in the next few months. Maybe some of us can make progress on our "Judy" quilts!

Freaky Friday, Watermelons and Tortilla Soup

2008-02-03T14:49:00.000-08:00

We held our second Freaky Friday this past week. It was a lot of fun and we had 24 for the first class. We were learning about Paintsticks this month. First we told them a bit about the Paintsticks and then let them loose with the fabric, brushes and Paintsticks. The photo below is the first class. They stayed and played untill about lunch time. It was really interesting to see all of their creations. Speaking of beautiful creations, Pam brought in her gorgeous Journal Quilts for us to see. They were amazing and the detail was really something. This first photo isn't really great but you get the idea. Right under it is a detailed photo of three of them.
I haven't really decided what to do as my theme and may not have one. Several ladies are using holidays or seasonal themes. This gives you all sorts of ideas right off the bat. I think I may do a color and a a shape. Maybe not.
The first Friday of the month are for our demo days and we are going to use the Freaky Fridays the remainder of the months to work on Journal Quilts or really anything you want. I hope you will join us one or all of the Fridays.
If you check out Pam's purple Journal Quilt you will see Angelina is used on it. We are going to demo Angelina in the next Freaky Friday which will be Friday, March 7.

You probably won't believe this but Lois, one of our Quilt Country Supergirls, has finished her Dragon Star! Isn't that amazing???? I wonder if she slept since Judy Niemeyer left. Isn't it gorgeous?

It may seem odd to you but we are busy getting things ready for our booth at the Dallas show in March. I just finished making this really cute watermelon table runner. We will have kits that are mostly precut. I still have to get it quilted and add the watermelon seeds. I love log cabins, don't you?

Before I go I want to share this soup recipe with you. Connie made if for us when Judy was there and I just had to have the recipe. She is a great cook and really spoils us!

Connie’s Tortilla Soup

1 cup onion 1 can hominy
1 cup celery 1 can black beans
½ cup chopped carrots
½ cup bell pepper
8 cups chicken broth
3 cups chicken cubed
28 oz can diced tomatoes
¼ cup lime juice
¼ cup fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon basil
½ teaspoon cumin
Salt/Garlic salt
Pepper
Garnish with tortilla chips, sour cream and Monterey Jack cheese.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-01-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

It has been a crazy January. Mom left on the third, very sad. I always cry when she leaves. We talk about twice a day most days and I really enjoy that. We are very close. I am thinking of going to see her in the Spring sometime but not sure when.

After mom left I got some crazy crud and was home sick for almost a week! YUCK, didn't even feel like sewing, beading on knitting. Hopefully all of you will avoid that and all of the other things going around this year.

Just as I was getting over the crud we had a "going away party" for our friend Lorna. She is Eileen's mom and had decided to move back to Nebraska. We will miss her but know she will enjoy living there where she also has lots of friends and family. All of the Supergirls got together and made her this lovely lavender rag quilt. Lavender is her favorite color and the size is just perfect for her lap. The quilt was a group effort and when we were discussing the label someone said that Nikki had an embroidery machine so Nikki embroidered Lorna's name on the quilt, in purple of course, and it turned out great!

Next Judy Neimeyer arrived. She is a great quilter, teacher and such a wonderfully pleasant person to be around. She is truly amazing in her classes. There were 20 students in our classes doing 4+ different quilt patterns and she would glide easily from one to another even though they were making different quilts. Amazing! She really is sweet and I enjoyed her visit very much. She was here from Wed. - Friday the next week. The first photo is Judy demonstrating a Wedding Ring technique.

This is a funny photo of everyone crowded around the cutting table for the demo on cutting techniques, and Judy has some GREAT tips!

Our dear friend Kara, who lives in CO, came for a visit too. She took one of Judy's classes with me and it was so nice to have a long visit with her. She stayed at our house, in the Mickey room, so we were able to visit even more. Then on Friday we went to a retreat together. I was so amazed when she took out the center sections she had made in Judy's class and started creating this gorgeous quilt. She just invented it right before our eyes!

Of course the photo doesn't do it justice and the colors are off a bit but you certainly "get the picture". Isn't she amazing? We really miss her but know she is happy in CO with lots of friends and family.

Well, I am pooped from all of the happenings and signing off. This week we are going to get busy learning more about the Paintsticks for our Freaky Friday. It is going to be fun! I will post photos of the creations.

A Time to Bead

2008-01-10T04:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted lately, been a bit under the weather.

Last Friday we had a really fun day at the shop. It was the first of our Freaky Friday events. The first Friday of every month we are having a little demo/class/make & take. This one was a beading make & take and lots of students came to learn a bit about beading. I forgot my camera and also forgot to ask Micki to snap a photo in the 10:30 class but here is a photo of part of the second, 1:00 class.

They learned some basic info about beading and how to create about 6 different stitches. We had the cutest little kits made up for each of them. They practiced all of the stitches and left with the little kits to finish or use to embellish something else. A student from the first class sent me this photo of her "practice piece". She made this really cool design with part of her bead kit. The hot pink square sequins were a part of the kit.

Below is a photo of Carol Mc's beaded vessel she started from Larkin Van Horn's Beaded Vessel class. Her vessel is almost finished. Isn't it beautiful?

We also discussed the Journal Quilts we are going to make this year. I know you will believe this, Connie has already finished her first one! Her beautiful beaded blue journal quilt is really stunning. The other two photos are of Tonya's Journal quilts. She made twelve of them and when she was finished she sewed them together to form one large piece. They ae really stunning. This is going to be a fun progect and I hope lots of people join us.

The next Freaky Friday on Feb. 1 is going to be fun! We are going to learn all about Paintsticks with a hands on class again. I know a lot of you have been interested in these so come on down and try them yourself! The Paintsticks are very cool.

New Year Tradition

2008-01-02T04:01:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we finished taking inventory at Quilt Country. What fun!! I am kidding of course but it isn't all that bad. I get to spend the day with lots of people I care about and get something done must be done in the process. Of course there is always pizza for lunch!

This is a photo of the group who worked on inventory yesterday. The husbands and one mom aren't in the photo though. It is so good to have that job over and done with!

I don't understand how it is that we always find items that are not priced when we take inventory. Carol Mc decided, and rightly so, that the pricing gun needed a new ink roller. The photo below gives her thoughts on the instructions.

2007-12-26T05:05:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas. Jesse, Krissy and Joshua came over for breakfast and then we opened presents. It was a lot of fun and Joashua was a big help passing out the presents. He could even tell who most of them were for because he could read and sound out the letters in the tags. (Grandaddy helped.)

We got Joshua a bicycle with training wheels and he loved it. He spent a great deal of the day outside riding. We have to get him a helmet because we forgot that part! He also loved the organ Granny Hazel got him and the new cars. It seems like all little boys love matchbox cars!

Mom loved her jacket and can't wait to get photos loaded on her digital frame.

Felton and Kelli arrived earlier than we thought they would and had a great surprise. They both quit smoking! That is a great gift.

Kyle and Michael are coming this weekend for Christmas with us. That will be fun.

2007-12-21T03:45:00.000-08:00

This is weird! A REAL piece of ivy is growing out of our fake ivy. The front porch gets zero light and we have tried to grow several things there but finally attached a piece of iron to the wall and put some fake ivy there. Now a piece of real ivy is growing there. How did this happen? You can see the roots of the real ivy mixed in with the fake ivy.

When we moved into this house we knew the yard was big but... it is HUGE and way over our heads. We have had a few things done and also done some ourselves. The front beds have been a mess and we needed help with them. Eileen gave me the name of someone who helps her in her yard and he did a great job. You can see Joshua walking through the little path in the middle of the bed. It just looks so much better!

We are still wrapping gifts for Christmas and getting ready. It will be a strange Christmas this year. For the first time in several years the kids won't be joining us for Christmas breakfast. They will be here for Christmas dinner in the evening. Maybe mom, Tony and I will go to a movie during the day. It will be a great evening when they all get here because we will have been waiting all day to visit and open presents!

Parties & Statue of Liberty

2007-12-16T05:23:00.000-08:00

The last two nights we have had our annual Quilt Country Supergirl and Quiltingfriends party here at our home. They were great fun and of course the food was yummy. My mom is visiting from Georgia and Krissy snapped this photo of me and mom at dinner on Friday.

Martha brought some beautiful sarongs back from Thailand. She was there visiting her new granddaughter who, by the way, is beautiful. Here we are pouncing on the sarongs in the basket. Martha also had some fascinating photos of Thailand. What a great adventure she had.

I really scored at the Quiltingfriends party on Saturday when my friend Debbie gave me a purse I had been admiring for some time. She has carried it in the summer for several years and every time I see her I would mention it. The purse has the Statue of Liberty on it and is VERY cool. You see, I NEEDED it for the restroom at Quilt Country which is full of Statue of Liberty memorabilia. We love collecting it and trying to find a new place for all of the cool things. I picture this purse with a nice silk fern placed inside. What a great planter it will make! Below are photos of the purse and the main part of the bathroom at Quilt Country.

2007-12-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

We have been busy decorating for Christmas AND shopping since we returned from FL. It has been a busy time. Joshua, my 3 year old grandson, has helped with the decorating and today we got into the last box of goodies. Inside there was a Nativity set that I tole painted about 20 years ago. It is very cute and Joshua played with it while Tony and I struggled with the lights for a table display. He knew who the pieces were and was having a really good time with them and talking to them for about 10 minutes. Then I heard him say something like "OK, baby Jesus, do the limbo". As he said this he had the baby Jesus moving horizontally under the piece of wood on the side of the stable. It was all so cute I asked him to show me again and snapped the photo. Later we watched the Mickey Mouse version of The Three Muskateers. Maybe that is spelled Mouskateers?

Numero Uno

2007-12-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well, this is my first attempt at blogging. Since I love to talk and also love email it should be a perfect match! I hope to write one or two times a week. Hopefully this first post will look OK and not be too full of errors. I was able to add the photos but had a heck of a time moving them to the correct paragraph. Actually, I am not sure they are in the right place but I am sure this will become second nature before you know it.

Tony and I just returned from a trip to Florida last week. We visited with my brother and his wife on Anna Maria Island. It is so beautiful there and the weather was perfect! Their condo is totally unbelievable and we really enjoyed the visit. We also went to Disney World for two days and rode all of our favorite rides. My favorite is the Rockin' Roller Coaster, 0-60MPH in 3.8 seconds. Of course Aerosmith is blasting in your ears and it is totally dark. Tony's favorite is The Tower of Terror which drops you several stories then up, then down, then up, then down... You get the picture. The Mickey quilt here is one I made a few years ago using the technique Susan Shie taught me. It is a lot of fun and I love doing it.

While we were on Anna Maria we went by the house my mom and dad lived in during my latter teenage years, when Tony and I were married and also when the kids were very young. It is in Bradenton and always makes me a little sad ever since my dad passed away BUT the house also has wonderful memories that don't make me sad; lots of cookouts, mom reading to all of the grandsons, dad and I making green tomato pickles, etc. Anyway two streets over from mom and dad's house there was this home which always had a concrete block wall around it. The new residents have certainly given it a new look!

As you can see by the photos it is very cool. Each pillar has all sorts of wonderful tiles and well, it looks like just about anything they want attached to the pillars. Next visit I may go up and knock on the door. They also have a garden on the side that you would have to walk in to the yard to really get a good look at.