Houston Trip Part II

Before going to Houston, I had such fun making the first Button Buddy that I had to make another. This one is all done in plastic buttons and although I gave it to Gianni, she has left here for safe keeping.

The other picture is a few things I picked up on the way home from Houston at an antique/junk mall in Nagadoches, Texas. I probably did not spell that right. It was a very good mall and held lots of treasures, but the coffers were low after the IQF show.

I could not leave this young man without any relatives. You know you find lots of sweet little girl pictures in books to use for images, but little boys seem to be rarer unless they look like Lil Lord Fontleroy. The 2 small crochet pieces may work on those candlestick pincushions I hope to make in the near future. They will be put on the top to cover where the seams come together.

The sweetest little vase in green was too cute to resist. Sorry, Pat it is in my kitchen window with my other green objects. Maybe I will show that in a future post.

Houston Trip IQF

At the last minute I decided I could not miss Houston this year after all. On Wednesday the 15th I traveled half-way to my sister's house in Henderson, TX and then drove the rest of the way to the IQF show on Thursday. Lola (my GPS) and I made it fine - she took me straight to the George R. Brown Convention Center and to the valet parking.

The picture above was the entrance I walked into - a Fairyland of quilts. It was one of the most beautiful sights to my eyes!!! The quilts were spectacular, inspiring and no display was any greater than the other. You had to see them all and I did three times while I was there.


One of the great things that has been added to IQF is the Make-It-University (MIU) headed by the Quilting Art's Team. They do a fantastic job of organizing. The Open Studios where you can see the Artist who contribute to QA and see them work their magic with their favorite techniques. MIU also gives 25 lucky people per session the opportunity to work with these artist. You put your name in a fish bowl and be there when Pokey Bolton pulls them out - then when they call your name - your scream and everyone moves out of your way so you can get into your seat. I don't know if they moved because I was screaming or just because I was coming through. (I did remember to say excuse me - mother would have been proud). I only put my name into 2 bowls on Friday - and joy I got both of them. One was the postcard using images, gel stamps, and Misty Fuse on a postcard. The other one was using the wonderful TAP paper images on a journal page. I even came home and immediately stitched it down and put a back on it. Unusual for me to finish things.
Every year when I leave Houston, I say it will be my last year - it is just so tiring. However, this year I decided to drive down again next year, if I am physically able. It is just the most wonderful place to be and to have fun.

Button Buddy

Hello, I know you haven't heard from me in a while, but I have become overwhelmed with life and all that goes with it. Not meaning to be morbid, but I come here every night and can't think of a thing to say.

But see my little "button buddy" he kind of got me going this week and I wanted to show him to you. He is not mine. I did him for a friend who provided her buttons to make him. She had tried and couldn't do it so I tried for her. It surprised me how easy it is to do. There may be one in my future too.

Exciting and Long Week

What started out as a normal last 2 days before school started ended up being entirely different. Sunday night when Tonya brought Gianni over to spend the night chaos broke out. Gianni slammed her thumb in the car door. The thumb is on the left and that is her toe on the right, Both should have pink polish. Her and I got about 3 hours sleep during the night because she was in such pain. We iced and we had Tylenol, we sat up and propped it, we laid down and propped it, etc. The next day we went to the doc. Thankfully it is not broken, they gave her a metal splint to protect it and all is much better. It still looks awful and she will lose that nail.

Tuesday after a decent nights sleep the cousins wanted to spend the day together at Mawmaw's house. Being the great Mawmaw that I am I agreed. We went to McDonalds and then took our lunch to the park. All is well with these two unless they are doing something competitive. They both want to be ahead and being young have not figured out how to be gracious losers yet. It was a good day, but hallelujah school started here on Wednesay.

Wednesday I rested and rested. Well don't you think I deserved some rest? LOL I did sit and hand quilt the initials on Will's quilt so now I can take it to the machine and quilt the nine patches.

Thursday I worked on my BowTie Quilt and only have one corner left to put on. These are 2 inch squares put together individually (not strip pieced) so it is a little slow. This is such a fun quilt and I love the colors. It has 7" borders.

Friday I had lunch with my friend Kathy. She has been taking care of her husband who had knee surgery and she really needed a small break. We went to work on our booths at Blue Suede Shoes Antique Mall.

So you can see it was a busy and hectic week, but on reflection there was fun in there too and I honestly can't say I was ever bored.

Growing Things -Or Not!!!!

It has come to my attention that I DO NOT have a green thumb. The tomato is one of 4 that has shown up on 4 plants, supposedly to be grown on the patio. False advertisement. I have watered, worked, and babied these 4 plants and they hate me.

Now on the other had these beautiful dianthius (sp) were not planted by me, well they were, but I planted them last year. Pansies (or was it petunias) came up by themselves earlier this summer. Now these beautiful plants have come up on their own.

It has come to my attention that I need to allow green things and flowers to be grown by others and I should leave them alone. Thanks goodness for farmer's markets and Wal-mart.

My Life in Catch Up Mode

Okay, I don't blog all the time, I do think about it, but my life is in full throttle mode most of the time, especially now with summer and the grandbabies.

Gianni has been here all week, sewing squares together on her new sewing machine. She does an excellent quarter inch and is a whiz at the "frog stitch". Since she is 7 we are not getting too technical, we don't have a lot of time left since school starts Wednesday. She has had a lot of fun making doll size tops and small pillows. Although I am in the sewing room with her, right now I am totally comfortable letting her fly with the sewing machine, although I did let her do quite a lot by herself Thursday while I did other things in the room. She is very careful.

Grandson Will had the swine flu this past week, but he got medicine right away and has not had fever since Wednesday. Thankfully I had not seen him for a week before because they had been on vacation. Nasty stuff and really need to stay away from it if at all possible with my heart problem.

Last night I got to go to see Julie & Julia with my friend Renee. She has 5 grandkids and I have 2 and we are both equally involved with all of them. A night out together to see a show and eat is a privilege and joy. The movie reminded me to blog for me- not for any readers - although the few I have I love to get comments from. But blogging is a way to talk to myself and no one worries!!! The movie is good, but not quite as good as I thought it would be. I would have liked to see more of Meryl Streep - she did an excellent Julia Child.

This week I hope to get more done in my sewing room that will finish a few projects. And I will do that as long as I am having fun!

Sewing with Gianni

Well it has finally begun. Gianni is now learning to sew at age 7. Wednesday I went and purchased a nice Kenmore for her to learn on and for me to take to workshops. It has needle positions and several decorative stitches. Mostly today we worked on mainly sewing straight. After about 3 hours of learning to thread the machine, fill a bobbin and sew a straight line she picked out some 5" squares from my stash.

Here is what she got done after about 3 hours. The blue one is a flying pig and the other one is a frog. Later we will adding some more squares to make some 9 patches. These 5" squares came from swaps I had done several years ago and they have really come in handy for little ones to play with and pick out colors.

Gianni ask me if I was going to teach Will to quilt? Well that depends on if he wants to and his Daddy thinks it is okay. I really think he should at least learn to thread a needle and sew on a button - necessary skills for any young man. We will look at that road a little later. Right now he is content to come over and just hang out at Mawmaw's, play Wii and PS2 and play with little men and cars. He gets to do that on Monday - we have a play date!.

Gianni and got dressed and went out - we were starving by 12:30 so we went to Red Lobster for lunch. That little girl can eat. She had a salad, the cheese biscuit, popcorn shrimp and fries and Choclate Wave for dessert - glad she has her Daddy's metabolism.

We left and went to an estate sale. She got a dolphin and a turtle to sit on her shelf at home. Then we went to see Jim Gatling's petit point and needlepoint exhibit at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock. What an awesome exhibit and it is not near all of his actual collection that they are showing. Gianni liked the miniature doll furniture -she thinks it is Barbie furniture?

It was a full day and a lot of fun to share all of these things with Gianni. As my friend Pat says - we are making "memories".

A Relaxing Trip

It has been a while since I have been on my Blog. Maybe I got TOO rested on my recent trip to Cedar Hill, Texas (a Dallas suburb). A group of 6 quilters went on a littel retreat and it was one of the best times I have ever had. In fact my Dr. suggested maybe I should move there, but he knows I won't leave the family, especially the grandbabies. The place we went is the 1890's House (www.1890quilters.com). Oh how I hate to tell you that because I want it all to myself. You may take up to 8 people there to rest and to create. Our happy group of 6 did both. The first picture is the The Sewing Cottage and it is fully equipped except for your sewing machine and fabric, etc. By the way paper artist, mixed media artist, etc are welcome also. The house has been in the same family for 4 generations and is extremely well maintained and clean.

This is one of the 4 bedrooms. Each room has 2 twin beds. There are 3 bathrooms, two upstairs and one downstairs. One of the bathrooms has a clawfoot tub, but alas I didn't get that room. Maybe next time.

You can see that 3 of my friends are enjoying the parlor. We kept waiting for the farm family to come home and greet us it was that authentic. The dining room is next to this room and then there is a fully equipped kitchen. You bring your own food and can cook if you want to???? There are LOTS of places to eat within 5 miles, so we did breakfast there, one other meal and ate one big meal. And for you who have to have special coffee, I reccommend the White Rhino in Cedar Hill.

This is all 6 of the happy retreaters on the last day, standing on the wonderful back porch, where we had been visiting and talking about coming back on that last day. Don't we look rested and happy and having fun. I really can't wait until I can go again.

Blessings to you.

Flea Market Shopping Finds

Is this not the cutest little egg cup. I bought 3 of them on a recent trip from Springfield, MO back home to Little Rock. My sister Martha and I went to Springfield to meet our brother Eddie at an ABA meeting he was in charge of. We made the most of our trip and I picked up all the finds you see in this post.

I found 2 bundles of beautiful wool for less than $2.00 each for these rolls. The green swan salts I thought were delightful and they look really nice for sale in my showcase at Blue Suede Shoes.

The teacup has my favorite color flowers on it and it will end up in my china cupboard with my mother's Tea Rose dishes. These delicate tea cups just say elegance and the joy of sharing a cuppa tea with a friend.

These are small handmade doilies that spoke to me. Don't you think they will look pretty as little toppers on those pincushion candlesticks I plan on making.

Anyway I wanted to share my finds with ya'll. My sister and I had a wonderful time on this trip together.

Does This Need A New Cover?

Last Thursday some of us went antique/flea market shopping in Morrilton, AR. Their downtown has several shops to choose from and we tried to hit several. I think everyone of us came away with some new treasures. I know I did.

This rocker sewing caddy called my name. It was made by a local company in Morrilton, probably not that long ago because the address includes a zip code. When were zip codes required? Anyway, old or not, it has personality.

Now my question - do you think I should change out the seat cushion. It does not seem original and I thought about using wool to make a new cover. Do you think the wool will give it character?

Thanks for letting me ask for suggestions.

Springfield Trip and Family

I got back last night from a trip with my sister Martha (blue striped blouse) to Springfield, Missouri. Our brother Eddie (white shirt) is Director of Meetings for the American Baptist Assoc. He is a very busy person this week and we were lucky to have been able to even have breakfast with him and his son Neal (blue shirt). Eddie's job is to make sure that all goes smoothly for the approx. 3,000 people who come to the yearly meeting. He does an excellent job because he has had it for many years.

Martha and I did get to go to a local flea market on Tuesday and then on the way to and from Springfield we stopped at every flea market and antique mall that we could. There were some wonderful bargains we found. When I get the energy to unwrap and sort everything I will be posting pictures.

This is the first trip that Martha and I have had alone and we had a wonderful time. We enjoy a lot of the same things and we both love our brother and nephew.

The blue house was seen outside and across the street from our hotel. There is nothing so beautiful to me than an old Victorian house that is renovated and well kept. This one is either apartments or a Bed and Breakfast. The blue looks so cool amongst the surrounding trees and this year we need all the cool thoughts that we can get. The heat and humidity this year is pretty bad and this is only June. I may continue to have fun, but it will be more inside than out.

Pincushion and Yellow Flowers

My friend Pat at www.birdnestontheground.blogspot.com/ taught me and our friend Kelley how to make one of her pedestal pincushions. It was one of the most fun days at the nest. This is the first one that I made and I see more of them in the future and somewhat different. The pincushions are almost like eating candy you can't just make one. Yes, this one has a tag on it to sell at my flea market showcase at Blue Suede Shoes Antique Mall. Hopefully someone will love it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Now about the flower pictures. Everyone has been blogging about their beautiful flowers. Well this is all I have!!! As I have mentioned before my thumb leans toward the brown shade. The pansies came up all on their own left over from last year. Of course the most beautiful flowers are wild flowers and that is what the yellow black -eyed susans are. I appreciate whatever flowers God gives me to look at and appreciate, even if I have named them wrong.

Now that school is out most of my time has been spent with Gianni. We have a state softball tournament this weekend and then softball is over.

Monday I make a trip to Springfield, Missouri so maybe I can find some interesting subjects to take pictures of for the blog. Have fun and stay cool!!!

New Computer and Memphis

Now that I am back with a new computer and my pictures have been downloaded I thought I would share with you a few of the pictures from a recent day trip that I took with Grand Escape Tours. We went to Memphis. No we didn't go to Graceland, but we hit some other places that surprised me in how interesting they turned out to be.

First we visited St. Jude's Hospital - not the actual hospital, but where Danny and his wife are buried is a building with history of Danny Thomas and how St. Jude's came to be. There are so many success stories there that is so uplifting. I know there are sad stories there too, but their efforts are working miracles in the fight for curing cancer.

After lunch we set off for the Memphis Botanical Gardens. A large complex of various type garden settings. One more beautiful than the other. There is an impressive rose garden with so many types of hyrbrid tea roses, even the Princess Diana Rose. The rose pictured here is not it - I don't know now which rose it was. The heat had reduced some of the beauty of the gardens, but one garden, the Japanese garden was a reflection of beauty. You can see one the elements, the red bridge with the swan floating in a Koi pond.

Now the one place you would think - yuck!, turned out to be the most interesting stop we made. Set on the Mississippi is a converted Civil War Hospital into the National Ornamental Metal museum. The strange bird on the right is an idea of what type of metal is done there. Various metal artist show their work there and there is an apprenticeship program for metal workers and blacksmiths. The gate where you entered was done with a rosette design that various metal artist were ask to design and make a rosette for each space. Of course I had to take pictures, the butterfly was one, a psychiatrist couch, various Texas symbols, a teacup with a hand, just to name a few of the designs.

I know I sound like a tour guide, but this was an interesting trip and I love to share my pictures.

This post could have either been my trip to Memphis or my weekend at the ballpark with Gianni . I promise I will get back to flea markets, art and beading when state tournaments are over, but I am still having fun.

Just a Note

Still no pictures because my new computer just arrived, but I am not quite up and running yet, as we have spent another weekend in the bleachers watching granddaughter play 12 games of softball. They placed 2nd in the District in "C' class, so in 2 weeks it is off to state tournament. Gianni is staying with me to rest up for a few days, but her Daddy came and got her early.
Yesterday I did get to spend some time with friends Pat (www.birdnestontheground.blogspot.com/) and Kelley (you have seen pictures of her here on the blog). Pat gave the program at our guild last night (aren't we lucky!!!!). Before the meeting we visited and went to Olive Garden for supper. It was a very pleasant time with friends, something we all need.
I hope to be able to have pictures my next post so stay tuned.
Ya'll have fun now.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY

No pictures, my computer that had all my pictures downloaded crashed on Monday. It crashed so hard the Geek Squad cannot revive it. Hopefully they have been able to get my hard drive information and pictures onto a "whatever" to put into the new computer my husband had to order for me.
Anyway, today is birthday number 59. Now most women wouldn't be blaring their age across the internet, however girls, I am just so blessed to be here.
Last night I spent the night at my daughter's house so I could take Gianni to school. The first sleepy face I saw was my daughters, followed by Gianni's and then her Dad before he left for work. Before coming home I stopped at Cracker Barrel and treated myself to French Toast, while answering phone calls filled with HB greetings.I picked up my grandson Will and he came over to play for a couple of hours. Then my friend Kelley and I went and had a very nice lunch in downtown Little Rock, followed by a little shopping at Hobby Lobby and Joann's.
Tonight both grandchildren have ballgames and we are going to make parts of both of them. That is a birthday in the life of me!!!!

What its All About!

This is how I spend my time right now. Art, quilting and other things are put in second place when it comes to my family, especially the grandbabies. We are all about ball season this year. Will is playing games during the week, but has not had but one tournament this year. The boys are so much fun to watch, especially when they are 5 and 6 years old. He is really developing into quite the player.

Gianni has been playing for a year and a half now and loves the game. Her daddy, Jack is one of the couches. This Saturday we went to a local town, Cabot, for an Invitational National 8U Softball Tournament. We played 3 other teams in our "C" class. The wonderful thing we played 5 games and never lost a game. We won the big trophy!!! I believe the picture says it all. As my friend Pat says, "moments".

I Got A New Toy

This is my new toy. A Janome Memory Craft 6600. My dear husband let me buy it when I was in Paducah because I could get it for such a good deal. Today is my day to play with it and see where it can go.
There is a funny story about this. When I was in Houston in November last year I decided to stay through Saturday although my friends went home that morning. It was my goal to try out every brand of machine and look at all the features, etc. Quilt shows like this are a great place to shop because all the brands are there and you can test drive them all if you desire. My DH did not know that I wanted a new machine. Mine was a good machine, a Sears Kenmore that was made by Janome. It has served me well for 10 years and my daughter-in-law Megan now has it at her home.
After a day of searching (well some shopping on the side as I went up and down the aisles) I decided that the Janome was the machine for me. They had a good deal,not near as good a deal as I ended up getting in Paducah, but of course I didn't know that then. So I called my DH and after our hello's and I miss you, I asked "Were you planning on buying me a new sewing machine"? His reply "No, have I bought you a new sewing machine"? Well if I had known he was going to answer that way, of course I would have already bought it and ask for forgiveness when I got home. My plot was foiled!!! So I came home a little unhappy, but with a mission.
He knew I was not happy and that I was determined to sometime soon try to get that machine. Unbeknownst to me, bless his heart, he started putting back money to surprise me with getting the machine before this year was out. Sweetheart that he is. Anyway, when I called him from Paducah Quilt Show with the same deal, he was prepared and told me to get the machine.
So friends I am going to play with my new toy today.
The weather here is suppose to NOT be rainy today. Sorry, it isn't raining - it is DRIZZLING!!
What can I say? Play anyway.

Rainy Days and Web Feet

Do you wonder what these pictures have to do with rainy days and web feet?Well it is the one day we have had sunshine and we were blessed for it to be on our monthly Art Day. The 1st Thursday of each month a group of us meet at Pat's studio The Bird Nest (www.birdnestontheground.blogspot.com/) . This is a picture of The Nest. Now you may think she was doing laundry that day, but that is some of her vintage garments that she has collected over the years for their beauty. She decided to decorate with them that day and they were a pleasure to look at.

We were able to take our lunch and eat outside in the beautiful sunshine. I almost ate a tiny little spider, but was able to swat him away in time. We had a cooling breeze, good food and great conversation. Sorry to say the rain returned before Kelley and I made it back home to Little Rock. It was so wonderful while we had the sunshine.

I called Pat today to see if her feet were beginning to web, since I feel like mine are. The rain is really beginning to be a little depressing and I don't function or feel very artsy when the weather is blah!!! But since I took pictures of our sunshiny day, I think I will enlarge one and remember what the sunshine looks like. I remember that we can appreciate the sunshine more, if we have a "little rain".

January BJP08Update

My inspiration and my January Bead Journal Project finally got done. Yes, I do realize that this is the first day of May. My time has been taken up with both my grandchildren playing ball, a trip to Paducah and life. My muse is silent, I think because of the yelling at the ballfield, that yelling is Mawmaw when Will and Gianni do well. The picture above is a play day that Will and I had in January. He loves to paint.

This is the inspiration for January - Will's finished painting. The lines were done by running a toy car through paint and then onto the paper. He really loves to do that and really I tried it, its fun.

This is my beaded project inspired by the painting. Lots of beading colors to choose from. I mixed the sizes of beads on this, not just seed beads, but a mixed lot of blues that were all shapes and sizes.

It was fun doing this one and I have the materials ready for my next beadproject. Time and my muse will return. Ball season ends in June and it will be too hot to be out and about so I look forward to having some fun beading soon.

Paducah, Kentucky

Today is a special day and I hope a special couple of days. Some friends and I are off to Paducah to the Quilt Show and MOST importantly to Hancocks!!! It has been about 4years since I went and so it will be almost new to me. The town is my favorite part - yes even above the quilt show. To walk its streets of so much history and to see the old homes and downtown buildings still standing. Paducah is a peaceful town to me. Well since I can't travel in my PJ's I will sign off and get dressed.
Off to have fun!!!!!

Quiltmania Projects

Recently I posted about a quilt retreat in Ferndale. We had Monday thru Thursday to work, visit, create, visit, eat, visit, well it was a retreat with a lot of old friends and new. I had 2goals during this time and made both of them, plus added one. The first
picture above is a paper-piecing class I took with Pat Wade. She is a wonderful, patient teacher, which we all need and want when we take a class. Won't this make a wonderful wallhanging?

The one goal I had was to get started on granddaughter Gianni's quilt. She chose the brown fabric with pink, off-white and green polka dots when we went to Cincinnati, Ohio last summer. There is a quilt shop in Waynesville, Ohio that is wonderful. This pattern will be a double pinwheel from Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day Series (right!!!!). Anyone out there get a quilt done in a day - I want to meet you!.

The bottom picture will be the border blocks. The top picture is the inside blocks. In between I am going to use the green as an accent color. Haven't gotten that yet, but since I get to go to Paducah next week, surely Hancocks will have just what I need. And won't the search be fun?

The other goal I had was getting the backing done for my grandson Will's quilt and getting it basted. That has also been accomplished. If I could only get as much done here at home as I do at a retreat, life would be wonderful. However, at a retreat there are no piles, of dirty laundry, no phone calls, no television and not very many interruptions, except to eat,visit, play, eat, visit, play. Well you get the picture. If you ever have an opportunity to get away with friends, do it. Life is too short not to have fun.

Some Quiltmania Pictures

Last week I had the pleasure of going again to Saline County Guild's Quiltmania. Our guild has been doing this retreat for several years.
Above, seated is one of the teachers, Royce Stoker who was teaching Seminole Patchwork, which she is well known for. The next day Pat Wade did a class in Paper Piecing, which I will show later. That was the class I chose to take and so enjoyed getting perfect little pieces.

These two ladies have been in our guild for many years and have helped me on several occassions. Bobbie is in the plaid shirt and Billie is in the denim. It just dawned on me they both have boy sounding names. I talked Bobbie into taking the paper piecing class with me on Tuesday.

Everyone has their own table to put their sewing machines and cutting mats,etc on. You can see they cluster, there were several of these clusters around the room. You get there early and you get to set up a clusteror joine one. We all do a lot of roaming around visiting and oohing and awing at each others work. My next post will be of some of the work that was done there, but I wanted to show Cabe Hall where we are so blessed to be able to meet.

This is my friend Kelley busily working on her binding for some crazy quilt placemats she made earlier. She came out just to spend the day, which was an option if you didn't want to stay there all four days. Ferndale where it is held is a lovely drive of about 15 miles from Little Rock. It is so enjoyable to have someone cook for you for 4 days where you can concentrate on friends, quilting, and most of all having fun.