A Few Goodies

Just a quickie to show a few of the goodies I got at the Nashville Quilt Expo. Yes, I succumbed to the whole yo-yo maker thing to make it easier to make the small ones! I didn't buy any of the larger ones or any of the shapes (flower, heart, etc.), but I did buy the 2 smallest ones - 3/4 inch and 1 1/4 inch because they can be a pain to make and yet are so versatile. Lots of vendors had them, but I got them at the booth with the lowest price. I love the wholecloth quilts, so when I saw a good deal on the printed tops, I snagged 3. One of them is black, which I've never done before. I'm trying to decide whether or not to do it with black thread or maybe a bright variegated thread or maybe even metallic. Nah, probably not metallic - I hate working with them. There were lots of the little Bare Roots candle mats in all sorts of designs, so I got this kit to make for Beth - she really, really loves pumpkins and fall stuff! (When I get it done, I'll sneak it into her classroom at school as a surprise.) There were several folks who had some really neat framed things that used the little quilted hearts, most of them with stitchery words. I got 2 little packages of them - the other package is faded repro fabric that really does look old, but I didn't think it would show up in a picture. I'll show my other goodies later.

Enjoy!

hey, it's working!

After days when I couldn't see anything or do anything, it seems to be working! Hurrah! I'll try to post some pics of the goodies I got at the quilt expo! It was great, by the way. And guess who didn't take a camera . . . .??

AAARRRGGGHHHHH

Don't know what's going on with blogger or me or what.....can't view the blog, can't see anything but that last picture and one paragraph. This is just a test to see if I can get it to work at all. You know - " This is a test. This is just a test. If this were a real emergency ... blah blah blah"

Hope everyone enjoys the day!!!

p.s. I just LOVE Rosie!

Just a quickie morning post when I should be watering the flowers on the porch . . .the above is looking across the driveway one afternoon from one end of the porch where the driveway turns up to go behind the house and the road goes on down to the gate to go up the holler (that's "hollow" for you non-hillbilly folk).

I have been enjoying "lurking" around some blogs and seeing what's happening even though I haven't really had time to comment or post. Somehow so many of you manage to get so much more done than me!

The heat let up for a couple of days, but today it's set to be over 100 yet again. At least the humidity is down a bit, and that really helps. So far Evan is managing to survive the heat while he's drilling and shooting as part of putting a new waterline for a subdivision. And, thankfully, the rheumatoid arthritis is under control at the moment.

I think I mentioned that we performed in a fundraiser for the local museum a couple of weeks ago - done and forgotten. Forgotten, that is, until folks I see at the clinic or the grocery store or wherever who tell me they just saw me on tv - the local cable folks filmed the silly thing and keep using it for filler! We had no idea it was to be filmed. We live in out in the country and are happy to have satellite tv (after several years of no tv) but we have no local programming, so it always catches me offguard when folks talk about seeing us on tv. Various performances, whether actual plays like A Christmas Carol or the annual Christmas concert we sing in, get shown again and again at the right season. It's just a hoot.

Guess what!!! Friday I'm going to the AQS Quilt Exposition in Nashville!!!! It's at the Opryland Hotel, and it is truly an extravaganza!!! It actually begins today, but I can only afford to take off the one day for it. I won't be taking any classes this year, but I sure will enjoy seeing the myriads of quilts from all over the world and all the vendors. One year I took a class from Mary Ellen Hopkins that was wonderful, and one year I took a class from Becky Goldsmith that was also wonderful. It's so cool to see folks that you've previously only seen on tv! Eleanor Burns is usually there, too....Ami Simms....all sorts of people. The quilts themselves are the best part, of course. The creativity and skills displayed are mind-boggling in the extreme!!! You can't touch them, but you can get very close and peer at the fabrics and the stitches and ooh and ahh to your heart's content! There are quilts for everyone's personal preferences - pieced, appliqued, art quilts, vintage quilts, painted quilts, wooden quilts - if you can think of it, I can just about guarantee it will be there. Can't wait!

Postcards!

Well, here are a few of the stitchery postcards I've been working on. I managed to get a few of them almost done today. Underneath you can kind of see the stamp I've used - from Alpha Stamps - which is ever so much easier and nicer-looking than the postcard back I was printing on fabric from a book with cool images. It's easier because I don't have to fight with trying to position that piece of fabric in addition to trying to position the front and can just get on with things! I'm always trying to use the absolute minimum piece of fabric which can make for some positioning difficulties. It's nicer-looking because I don't have to fiddle with settings and fabric and all that jazz. The quilting is actually quite pathetic - had thread problems and bobbin problems and just went at it rather than try a practice piece first...silly, impatient me! Not to mention no real sense of balance with the whole meandering thing. Ah, well...hopefully the recipients won't mind. I'm planing to work on some ribbon or other edging trim for the next few - the zig-zag looks pretty plain. However, on some of the ones I did a few weeks ago, I used a variegated thread that coordinated with the stitchery thread for the zig-zag and it looked pretty nice. I just failed to get them scanned or photographed. :-(
It's been another extremely hot day today, and the humidity is back up after a day or so of unbelievably low humidity (as in 30% or less). The sun is still beautiful. We saw several young bucks with nice-looking antlers still in the velvet stage. Lots of adolescent turkeys wandering around.
One of the guys form our small church family was invited to speak tonight at the large, downtown congregation....a bunch of us went to support him and the effort....enjoyed a dessert and fellowship feast afterwards....it was really enjoyable to reconnect and visit with folks we used to go to church with...

Blessings and gratitudes:

• incredible husband


• incredible daughter and son-in-law who are interested in spiritual things over the popular and socially and culturally surrounding things


• sunshine


• health and well-being which are so thankfully present in spite of various aches and pains and disabilities


• good friends from all tme periods

What a case of "Bed Head"!!

Well, the last little Carolina Wrens have left the nest. This is the family raised in my lantana pot, severely hindering the lantana growth and blooming because of all the digging around the parents did and because I had to be so careful and chintzy with the watering so as not to waterlog the nest. I was probably too careful - the nest was probably much better armored than I guessed. The first picture shows pretty much naked little babies and just a couple of days later they had the funky "bed-head" look with feathers and the down sticking up so wildly as it was being replaced from below with the feathers. The babies were just about eye level to me and looked as though they had a bad case of the morning-after syndrome. The pictures just don't do justice - it's a cheap camera and I'm no photographer! The down just looks like a blur in the picture, but it was really spiky.

I've been trying to keep up with reading blogs even though I haven't had time to post. Everybody seems busy and doing all sorts of wonderful things. I was blessed by attending the annual retreat for the teachers (and now Board) of our Christian school, which was incredibly wonderful. Then had a pretty stressful end-of-month at the medical office where I work. The heat is really getting to folks (95 - 103 each day), so tempers flare easily and you feel tired and drained even when you haven't done much. ( Sure makes me appreciate air conditioning, though!) Then Thursday evening, Evan and I were part of a group of folks from our local theatre group who performed some short skits for the annual Pasta Premier, which is a fund-raiser for the local Museum. The Museum is housed in the old Borden Milk plant, so even though air conditioning has been added, it was pretty hot backstage and onstage. (Yes, the stage was added SINCE the days of milk processing - when parts of the building were being somewhat renovated to enhance its functionality for the community.) In addition to the rooms with museum displays, there is the small theatre-type area, a tiny kitchen, a good lobby, and a very pretty little courtyard. Lots of weddings and wedding receptions are held at the Museum. Our theatre group has put on numerous plays there, also, inlcuding dinner theatre and dessert theatre.

Oops - I'm out of time! SOOOOO many chores are calling to me!! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!