Easter

ok. This is the second time that I have tried to post. Blogger keeps eating my pics! I wanted to show a few of our Easter pics. We had a very nice Easter. We all went to church and enjoyed a great service. I teach 4th and 5th grade Sunday School. It is so heart warming to see those kids openly praising God. After church we all go to Andy's Mom's house for Easter lunch. We eat too much, talk and laugh! The Easter Bunny brings everyone something! Nanny also does an Easter Egg Hunt, my Cade at 11 said that he was too old this year and would not hunt eggs:(

Kelsey was home and that's always a good thing!

I don't know why Andy can't smile in a picture! It was very very hot in the house so I will excuse him! Kelsey is Daddy's girl! She knows how to play it up good! I think they went shopping everyday that she was home!

Our older boy Joey spent Easter with his girlfriend's family. We did have a guest of honor! Sweet Sydney! This is the baby that was born in October to Andy's baby brother and wife. Brad and Krista. They live in Rome Georgia so after Brad was done with his preaching, they drove down for lunch! We all love that baby so much!! We fought over her! Here are some pics of her "talking" to some of the younger boys.

She never fussed! She had just ate in this pictures and was so happy!

Next year she will be chasing these boys around the yard!

I hope you all had a great Easter!

Happy Easter!

I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday with your families!

I always feel so thankful and undeserving this time of year!

But, very very loved!

Year of the Pigs

Jill posted her next Year of the Pigs question. The question is: What part of quilting makes you cry and put your project away? ok. I paraphrased a little.

I HATE basting my quilts! Let me say that again. I hate basting so SO much! I hand baste with thread so it seems to take me f-o-r-e-v-e-r! I am sure it takes longer because of all my whining and crying and putting it off. I have tried to pay Kelsey to baste a quilt of mine...she wouldnt!

Some of the things I will do to put off basting are :

1. cry

2. get on the computer

3. stare into space

4. pluck my eyebrows

5. hide in the bathroom

6. nap

7. get on the computer

8. text my sister and make her feel sorry for me.

9. text Kelsey and make her feel sorry for me.

10. stare into space some more

11. get on the computer

12. cry some more

I have tried telling myself how glad I will be to start the quilting part and that kinda works. What finally works is that I set my timer usually 1 hour but longer if its a large quilt and I tell myself to baste for that long and then I'm done...no matter what. I have to stop when that timer goes off. Now, I want my quilt basted well so I rush to make sure that I get done before the timer goes off.

I still hate every minute of basting...but I truly love to hand-quilt so I will keep basting until I can find someone else to do it for me!

2 Reasons Why I Love My Husband

1. After hearing me talk about the talk about Denyse Schmidt designing a line of fabric for Joann's Stores....he took me to Joanns and let me buy a little (ok, in my world it was a lot!)

I don't have a problem buying fabric at Joann's. But, you have to be kinda picky about it. After working in a quilt store, I feel like I can judge fabric by feeling it and seeing it in person. This line feels wonderful! The colors are great too!

The 2 colorways are named "Picnic" and "Fairgrounds"

2. He's cooking fajita's for supper!

FNSI Results

o.k., o.k., I didnt get much done last night. What can I say except my sweet husband was home. I did some hand quilting then we had some strong thunderstorms move into our area. I spent the rest of the night in the living room with him watching tv and reading. Not a bad evening though! I am almost done with the quilting on the blocks. I should be able to move on to the borders this week! and another picture of Wendy enjoying the creek! Look at that smile!

I've been...

trying to make this guy get serious about his Science Fair Project. We are SO ready for Summer Break!

Hand Quilting my Bliss Baby Quilt.

and dreaming about making one of these pillows!

Whatever you are up to, I hope it's fun!

Playing Around

The weather here was so nice yesterday that I decided to go on another walk. Cade (and the dogs) went along. Instead of making you sit through 5 or 6 more blog posts about my walks, I will just show a picture or two when I blog. This is a picture from the pond. It was a beautiful day. We walked for an hour. Someone had to have a tick removed from a sensitive part of their body;) and, to make sure that there is no doubt that I shamelessly copy Kristie (Cowgirl Quilter) I saw her beautiful Dresden Plate Blocks that she has been making and I HAD to try it out! I had the ruler that she used already but had never used it. The Easy Dresden Tool by Darlene Zimmerman. It was pretty easy but time consuming. I used scraps to make this test block. I just laid it on some white fabric that I had folded and laying around my sewing room. I would love to make a Dresden Quilt out of 30's fabrics with a pretty yellow center!

I hope that everyone is enjoying there week! Andy has been home all day today so I have got nothing done except this post!

Walking To The Pond 2

Here are more pictures from my walk to the pond with Brick and Wendy. Here is Wendy cooling off in a little creek. My sister and I used to load our Barbies up and bring them to play in this creek. Did you play with Barbies? We did everyday! We always had one Barbie that was mean, we always called her "The Show-Off" We couldnt think of anything worse than being a show-off.

This is another part of the trail. Kelsey and Joey spent hours and hours riding these trails on 4-wheelers.

In this picture, I am at the top of the gardens, just out of the woods. You can see the little dirt road and at the waaay top center is the top of my Grandmothers barn. This road make a turn at my Granmother's and goes around to my Uncle's house. That also leads to more trails. One will lead you back to the pond. I didnt follow that road because I had the dogs with me. My Grandmother has chickens that she likes to put out everyday and I didnt need Wendy eating a chicken...or a chicken eating poor Brick!!

I think in this picture I am almost to the pond looking back at the woods that I had come through.

Here is our pond. Right now it looks like a big mud puddle. My parents, Aunt and Uncle and my sister's family all like to fish here. My boys fish some but I have no desire to fish. I will stand around and talk to everyone..if the mosquitos arent bad. This is where we shoot fireworks off on 4th of July. You can see my Grandmother's barn in this picture too.

I have a few more pictures of my walk so I will probably show them later.

Cade went back to school today. I sure miss him! I have been cleaning house and getting reading to handquilt for awhile. I think I will take another walk after lunch.

Walking To The Pond

The other day Kristie (Cowgirl Quilter) showed some pictures off her walk around her farm. I thought it was fun to see where she lives so I thought (copied) I would take some pictures the next time I went for a walk. Saturday was very pretty so when I finished up a row of handquilting I decided to grab my camera and go for a walk. I couldnt talk Cade or Andy into going with me but that was o.k. I ended up with 2 very good companions. This first picture is of our dog Brick. Don't let his cuteness fool you. Brick is 15 years old and has been run over twice. Once by my Mother and once by my Sister. Poor Brick. He has had a good life. He loves being outside and he loves our other dog Wendy. This is Wendy. She was my sister's dog, when my sister had to move out of state we adopted her. We love her so much! She is the sweetest dog ever!! She has only been hit by a car once. Anybody want to pay our Vet. bills??

My walk starts by crossing the road to my parents house. The house I grew up in. Don't worry, I make sure the dogs cross with me. Behind my parents house is the land that has been in my grandmothers family for years. It has been used as pastures and gardens. We use the old tractor paths for four-wheelers and hiking. This is one of the paths. You can walk all the way to my Grandmothers farm on this trail. I have walked it many, many times. I wish I could describe the smell to you. It smells like my childhood. The wet ground, leaves, ferns, trees blooming all take me back to being a kid playing in these paths with my brother, sister and cousins. I remember camping out here. My Mom named our campsite "Camp Cow Pile"

Here is a picture of some of the damage that the beavers have done. I don't rember beavers being here when I was young but they are here now. They have taken tons of trees down.

In this last picture I am standing at the edge of the woods fixing follow the path into the "gardens" There is nothing planted in this field now. This path takes me around the pond and right behind my Grandmother's barn.

Blogger would only let me load 5 pictures so I will continue my walk with you tomorrow!

Japan Embroidery

I finished my embroidery piece for the quilt that Mom Wald's Place is making for the earthquake victims in Japan. The theme is fruits/veggies. I put alot of pressure on myself to make this block perfect. Of course, it is not perfect. I did my best but faces sure arent my specialty. So why did I pick a pattern with faces on it?? Because it is so darn cute!! I found the sweet pattern on Flickr by the awesome member MMAAMMBR

I love her vintage patterns and find myself using them alot! I am so glad that Mary is doing this project and I am so glad to help out.

After finishing up my embroidery I decided to go check out the new Quilt Shop. It is called Sewn with Love. I know the owner from the quilt shop that I used to work at (she worked there a little while too) She has always wanted to own a shop and when the only quilt shop in town closed..this was her chance! It's a cute shop and she has some beautiful stuff! I didnt have my camera or I would have taken a few pics. To help her stay in business I bought some 1/2 yards and a fat quarter. I was surprised to find out that her FQ's are still $2.50. I was immediately drawn to all the large scale prints but I remembered that I have PLENTY of those at home so I tried to buy some blenders. I love the fabrics that I got!

Here are a few shots form Cade and Andy's adventure. The went to The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center. They loved it!!

This is the little chapel on base. They both want to go back!

Enjoy this day! I have to go to the grocery store then I HAVE to get a quilt basted!

Year of the Pigs

Jill has come to my rescue! Over at her blog, Ramblings of a Fabric and Yarn Obsessor, she posted my question about being in a slump and bored with your fabric. How do you get motivated? I am so excitied to read the comments.

I took some of Jill's advice and put my fabric away and got busy! I am finishing up my embroidery.

My fabric cabinet is shut (almost)

and we took a little trip to Krispy Kreme. What can I say? The hot light was on.

Andy has taken Cade and a friend to an Army/War/Gun Museum. They were shocked that I didnt want to go with them. I have most of the day to myself and I plan on enjoying it. Our local quilt shop (the one that I worked at for awhile) closed down in December. A new shop has opened up in town. I plan to go there today. I feel that if we don't support these shops then they will close and we will all lose out! We drove past the shop a few days ago. It is in a little chain of shops, it looks small which is probably a good idea in the beginning! It is called "Sewn with Love" Andy took my camera so I wont be able to take pictures. I will be back tomorrow to tell you all about it!

Don't forget to visit Jill and find out how others get their MoJo back!

Spring Break

Saturday morning Andy and I got up really early to go to Kelsey's college. We went to her sorority banquet. I feel like a loser Mom cause I know nothing about her sorority. Well, I do know that the mascot is a squirrel, they wear lots of formal dresses and they all seemed very sweet. I think they are Delta Gams. Here is Kelsey and her "big sis"

This is a shot of Kelsey and the Delta Gam House. She will be living here next year. That sounds like something out of Animal House. It is beautiful inside, I didnt want to seem like a creeper though so I didnt take any inside pics.

We also took her took a very cute cupcake bakery in town. It is called Hello Cupcake. Very yummy! Someone (Andy) stole the banana chip off the cupcake in the front!

We had a very nice visit. I think she will be home at Easter then she will be home for the summer!

Today is the first day of Spring Break so I'm off to enjoy the day!

Happy April Fools Day!

HELLO!! I am still here! I was just telling Jill that I think I have lost my quilting "mojo" I havent blogged because I really have not done anything blog worthy (have I ever?) Same old school and housework and Cade stuff. I have 2 projects that I need to get busy on but...sigh..I havent:( I do have the house to myself today (till Cade gets home) and I have been in my sewing room...not sewing, eating Cheese-Its and watching Criminal Minds. I went through some of my fabrics hoping to get a fabric high. Here is my main fabric cabinet. It doesnt look bad. Til I realized that I have to stuff all of this back in there

and this...

Tomorrow, Andy and I are going to Kelsey's college for a Sorority Banquet. I am excitied to see her and meet her "Sister's"

What do you do when you have no desire to sew? Do you ever get bored with your fabric and look for a different direction?