Introducing.....ANGEL! The newest addition to our family...And you all thought the next big announcement from me would be the arrival of the grandbaby!(due in 3 weeks now but could be born any time!).

We had a lovely Christmas with the kids. Their little Shih Tzu, Roxy is always a lot of fun. I guess that's why dh got to thinking about wanting a dog again. So, after the gift exchange, he says, "You should look up pictures of a Schnoodle on the internet." A Schnauzer is his favorite breed and a Poodle is mine(only the little ones though! lol) He had seen them advertised for sale in the paper and was thinking about going and looking at them. So all 5 of us were in the computer room looking at Schnoodles, Puggles and a couple of other mixes. We oohed and ahhed for a while then I went to petfinder.com and looked to see what was available at local shelters. I used the zip code of the town we had been planning to go shopping in today.......anyway, when I pulled up the pictures of Angel(the top 2 pictures were on their website), we all fell in love! So, rather than hitting JC Penney's and other after Christmas sales, we ended up driving 130 miles to adopt her! She is a one year old Beagle/Terrier mix and is supposedly already housebroken and good with other dogs and cats. Well we haven't had her around any other animals yet so not sure about that, and all she's done since we got her home is lay around and sleep! But she hasn't had any accidents either. A lot different than taking in a puppy. She's very calm so far. She loves to cuddle it seems. The only "bad" thing, is she has a "cherry" in her right eye that we will have to have taken care of right away, but she was so cheap to adopt, we decided not to let that keep us from bringing her home!She had been spayed already, so the shelter didn't have to charge us for that. We were told her previous owners had surrendered her because they didn't have a yard to play in. Whatever the reason, we are glad to have her!

Hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas!

"I didn't know basketballs were so small"... That was dd's comment to me when she sent me this picture! She still has 4 weeks til her due date, but no one thinks she's going to make it that long! Then again, we may all be surprised! He'll come when he's ready! What I love the most is the fact that she's still smiling! She told me she was miserable, but looking at her face in this picture, I don't see that! She's very excited to be having her first baby, and so am I!

Well, I don't have anything new to share other than this, and I have some towels to embroider, so I'd better get in there and get busy!

Bullfrogs!! Well, I ran into a friend at the store yesterday, and she informed me I hadn't posted in a while, so thought I'd better get a post up! So, here are the froggies all put together. However, when I looked at the picture, I decided I had all the light ones to close together, so I took a couple apart and haven't photoed them yet to show that they look better now! Will do that soon.

We had our annual weekend at a resort at the lake this weekend.....DH's work pays for a dinner, dance, a room and breakfast. We chose not to partake of thier dinner this year and opted to go out with another couple to a local restaurant instead. The 4 of us went to a place called Bandana's where they have yummy bbq. We were not disappointed! We then went back to the resort and had a drink in our room while we waited for the dance to start. It was nice spending time with friends just sitting around relaxing. Then, we went down to the dance. I guess we're getting old, because we did not care for thier choice of music at all! They normally play some good music at this dance, but had a different dj this year and we were not impressed! I guess some liked him, though, because there were dancers on the floor! DH said that was only the ones who had had plenty to drink and didn't care about the music! hehe. I don't think there I could drink enough alcohol to get me out there on the floor to some of that music! I'm not much of a drinker, so I'd be passed out long before they could get me up there!

One more week of work, then I get another week off! We did some more Christmas shopping this week and I think we are about done now. Just need to think of one more thing to get our son in law and pick up a thing or 2 for ds. Hard to buy for ds since he has a birthday Tuesday, too. We did get his birthday bought yesterday, so at least we are done with that! Still hard to believe that my "baby" will no longer be a teenager. Seems like yesterday he was born, and now here we are waiting for a grandbaby!

On that front, dd called me today and said they'd decided to go shopping and after 45 minutes in the store, she started having pains again, so they had to leave. She seems to think that when she's ready, all she has to do is go for a major walk and that will bring on her labor! She's went from "I love my big belly" to "I'm huge, uncomfortable and ready to get this overwith" in the last couple of weeks! Her actual due date is now less than a month away, so it's really getting close now! I bought dh and I toothbrushes yesterday. I intend to carry a bag with us to work after the holidays so we won't have to mess with coming home and can just head straight to St. Louis if she goes into labor while we are at work. I even got one of dh's bosses cell phone # so I could call him and have him give dh a msg if it happens during the day. The ladies in the office have better things to do than to deliver emergency msges(can you tell I've had a bad experience with them?) so I just asked James if I could call his cell phone. DH could carry his, but it is so noisy in there, I don't think he'd hear it, so wanted a back up plan! James is the assistant plant manager, and he and his wife are friends, so I just told him I needed his cell phone number just in case!

Ok, I guess I'd better go figure out something for supper. Have some towels I need to emb., too, so also need to get the emb. machine going! Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Birthday, JR!!! Today was my wonderful father in law's 81st birthday. I'm sure he sat in that home thinking he'd been forgotten on his birthday because we all had to work. But we hadn't forgotten him at all! I took mother in law to see him and went and bought supper. This man has always loved fish, but when I asked him if he wanted fish or cheeseburgers, he wanted cheeseburgers!! So, off I went to Wendy's to buy burgers and fries for everyone. My dh, ds and JR's son and his wife (JR is actually my dh's stepdad, but there is no step in father in law to me) all showed up and we had supper and birthday cake with him. He was so chipper.....the happiest I'd seen him in a while and even mother in law was in a great mood and feeling a little festive. Was so nice to bring that little bit of enjoyment to thier otherwise boring, dull lives. AND, I have even more news. Tomorrow, some really good friends of ours have thier annual Christmas party. Last year, I think there were like 50 people there. Well, today, while we were out and about, I mentioned it to my mother in law and casually asked her if she'd like to go and she accepted! I told dh I think she's finally tired of sitting around feeling sorry for herself! Not that she hasn't had every right, but it's nice to see her willing to get out and about again. I'll post about it tomorrow or Sunday! Meanwhile, have a great weekend, everyone!

Christmas has arrived!!!! Look what I got to open tonight! My neighbor/friend brought my gift over last night before I got home, and then asked me tonight what I thought of it. I told her I hadn't opened it yet, so she told me to open it! Isn't it PRETTY? It's all hand appliqued. The picture doesn't do it justice, I'll have to try again later. But thought I'd go ahead and post this one so you all could see! Now I feel awful that I ORDERED her something.....lol.But how can I beat this? Ooh, I have an idea, but will be pushing it to get it made.......will keep you posted. lol...
Well, going back to work was as bad as I thought it would be, but, since we like to eat and all that jazz, I'll keep working! DH would never let me buy fabric if I didn't have my own income! We may pool everything that comes in, but at least I'm contributing, so don't ever even consider "asking" his permission to buy fabric and such. Anyway, just wanted to share this for now. Will check back in later! Hope you all are having a good week.

Hard to say goodbye... this shot of ForestJane and me was taken just before Mary and I had to head back to Missouri. We had a wonderful visit and I'm really looking forward to next year!

Suzanne Marshall and me. This is a picture of me with a very special lady. She was the guest teacher at the retreat and I wanted to be sure and have a picture of the 2 of us and I think this one turned out great. Suzanne was a very interesting lady and a wonderful teacher. I'm so glad I got the chance to meet her and learn from her.

My poor car... this is what I saw when I first heard the crash that brought the carport down on my car. DH said there is a small ding in the roof, but looking at this picture, I was sure the whole car would be a wreck. I consider myself very lucky if a small ding is all we got. Below is a picture of the antique desk that used to belong to dh's grandmother and was recently given to us by his great aunt. We use it as a "docking station" for the laptop as we don't want to take any chances on ruining the desk by using it or sitting in the chair. We tend to be rough on chairs, so figured this is a great place for the laptop to charge, but then when we want to use it, we bring it to our laps, or on a small table in front of the chair or couch..

I did get the 12 bullfrogs all done, now I'm working on stitching on the sashing. Will try to post pics of all that soon!

SNOW...... Well, the ice finally turned to snow sometime during the night. But before it did, the roof of my "carport(tarp over a metal frame) fell on top of my car. With a heavy heart, I had to knock all the ice off the tarp so I could survey the damage and see if any windows were broken or any other damage. THANK GOD there was no damage that I could see, so we avoided that one catastraphe. But my car can't move til we take the hacksaw to the poles and get them out of the way. At least I have the old ford if I need to get anywhere.. As you can see the difference from the shot I showed of it yesterday, we really got the snow! Then, the swan shows how deep it is, as well. And I couldn't get my back door open, and showing the reason for that, as well. If this new google version(I just switched this morning) will let me, I'll show a few more pictures I took on my outing into the yard this morning! I thought the snow on the roof was pretty the way it drifted. I covered my car with the tarp since I can't move it, anyway. My front steps look more like a ramp. Wish I could have taken a picture before I had to make footprints! Then, I took another shot of the little weeping cherry tree.

Ok, I've procrastinated enough. I got all the units sewn for the bullfrogs, and now they need to be trimmed....my least favorite part. But I'm going to force myself to do it now, so will try to have some quilty pictures to post later! Hope you are all having a good day!

More winter photos I was sitting here this morning and heard a crash. Looked out the front door and this is what I saw. I'm just glad it fell beside the old ford and not ON the windshield. This is our canoe hauling truck and I'd hate to see something happen to it! While I was out there, I snapped the shot of the Christmas lights that David(ds) just got out put up for me yesterday. I hope this doesn't hurt them.

Winter has arrived!! These are some shots I took this morning. They were taken from my back door.The first one is the tops of the trees in my neighbors yard. The 2nd one is my newest little Weeping Cherry tree. I hope he survives. I'm sure he will, he's about 3 or 4 years old now. The bottom one is of a couple of the neighbors bushes. I just thought they were pretty, so snapped a shot.


Both guys(dh and ds) work in opposite directions and each took clothes to stay the night if it is to treacherous to come home. DH has his mom in the same town where he works and ds works in a hotel, surely they can spare him a bed! I have been trying to get some housecleaning done and am going to bring the sewing machine in the living room so I can sew and watch tv. Missed Simply Quilts this morning because the electricity went off at 7:25 and came back on at about 7:56..Just in time for me to see Alex say good bye to her guest........Oh well, life goes on! I'm sure I've probably seen that one before, anyway.(trying to make myself feel better!

It's now almost 2:00 and the sleet is coming down again. I may have to take more pictures this afternoon. They are calling for around a foot of snow after the ice stops. I have my tv, laptop and sewing machine and lots of projects, so I'm not complaining. As long as my guys are safe. I'm just thankful I'm finally over the bug that I've had the last 5 days and feel like doing something.

More Retreat Photos... I'm finally finding time to read blogs and post some more retreat photos. Here are 2 sets of the challenge blocks. I know there is a 3rd set somewhere, I'll find that photo and post it later. The log cabin tumbling block with the tulip in the center was the first place winner. It truly was a gorgeous block. There were some really great ones there. I enjoyed making one and look forward to doing it again next year! There was one(top center in the pic on the right) that some one had actually fussy cut 2 of the paisley type shapes for eyes for the owl. I have to admit, that was my favorite block! The top right in the right picture are the ribbons. Close up of them coming soon, as blogger isn't allowing me to post it right now. I thought the ribbons were absolutely beautiful.
I have to finish a set of "dingo dog" ears and paws for my nephew in OK today, so I can get them in the mail. He's in a play, and if his mom and dad share pictures, I'll be sure to share them here, as well. My week and a half off is already half over and I still haven't touched the sewing machine. But I did get the old computer broke down and the desk out of here to make room for the antique one that used to belong to dh's grandma. His great aunt gave it to us last weekend, and it's a perfect size to "dock" the laptop we got ourselves as an early Christmas gift! Bad thing is, we decided that we will have it there to charge the batteries, but we would not sit at the desk to surf, as we want to treat the desk with kid gloves. As soon as I get the camera to cooperate, I'll show you a picture of the desk and you'll see why. It's beautiful and we'd hate for anything to happen to it.

2 more months!! Who besides me thinks she won't make it? I look for him to arrive a little early, but then, I also thought for sure she was having a girl, so what do I know? She had a wonderful shower yesterday and got all kinds of fun loot. When we got home, Jeff was anxiously waiting to "play" with it all. Several of us told her she should have let him come to the shower, too. He and I put the cradle and stroller together, while Sara put things away. It was a fun evening. Now we just need a baby! We talked about how all of this made us more anxious for the birth. As you can see from the picture below, he's not going to want for much! Sara got a little upset because there was so much "I love Daddy" stuff, but she has to realize, most of the shower guests were Jeff's family.She doesn't have any around. I guess I'll embroider some bibs and stuff for her between now and Christmas. Saw a really cute one this weekend that said, "My mommy rocks"....guess I'll make him one of those!
On the quilty/sewing front, I arrived in St. Louis early yesterday, so ran by Joann's before heading to Babies R Us and the shower. Bought a really nice piece of fabric and a pattern for myself a dressy coat. I need a new winter coat, and thought this fabric was gorgeous...and it was on clearance for $3 per yard, then they were having 50% off Clearance prices on top of that! How could I resist? I told hubby the lining will cost me more than the outer fabric did! I think I'm going to buy some of that prequilted stuff for the lining. Will show pictures when I get it made. Also, while I was there at Joann's, I found the PERFECT thread for my onion quilt. It is variegated oranges-browns. Now I just have to decide on the backing for it. Thinking about just sewing together the leftovers haphazardly and creating a back that way, but not sure I have enough. May have to run to the fabric store I "found" last week and see what they have.I bought a couple of pieces for it there, maybe they'll have a big enough piece of some of it left. Wish me luck!

Well, I think I'll go try to catch up with some of the blogs I've missed reading. Hope you all have a great week!

How cute is This??? This is the most recent picture of my beautiful daughter and her handsome hubby. This was taken on her birthday a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow is the baby shower, so I'll have more pictures next week. I can't believe there are less than 2 months to go til she has to share the baby with the rest of us! I know this granma is definitely ready to hold that little fellow in her arms!
I'm still working on editing the pictures from the retreat, but will be sharing more later. Will be gone most of this weekend, so not sure I'll find the time or not. But, after only 3 days of work next week, I'll be off for 1 1/2 weeks!! I can't wait! I need the break.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this while I was thinking about it! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

TAADAAA!! The proof is in the pudding.....err.....picture! Here I am showing off my completed top while Mary and Jane are still working on theirs! Well, they WERE working on them til I asked some one to snap a picture so I could show *I* finished first! hehe.....we really weren't competing, but we had a lot of fun pretending we were! Some of the ladies were amazed that the 3 of us got ours done because we three made more blocks than anyone else, therefore had bigger tops.
My local quilt guild had "sew night" tonight, and I've been asked to talk about our trip for our January program. I may have to make some notes because I'm afraid I'll forget some of the details that are so vivid in my mind now! I guess it's a good thing I took so many pictures! I'm hoping to put them on a website soon, so I can just share a link and you all can see as many pictures as you want to see. Still learning this laptop, though, so may be a few days before I get that far. Also, have my daughters baby shower this weekend, so will be gone again! I'm really, REALLY looking forward to that week and a half I have off work coming up soon!!!
Well, guess that's it for tonight. Hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Retreat was a BLAST.... And ForestJane was even more fun in person than she is online! We had such a good time, that Mary and I are planning on going back next year already! We met so many wonderful people. They all welcomed us with open arms and we could not have asked for a warmer welcome.
The only sad note of the weekend was I got a phone call about my father in law while we were there. Sometime Friday night, he wandered outside and into the detached garage and fell and was there for a while. When Mother in law woke and couldn't find him, she called the neighbors and they are the ones who found him and called 911. He suffered some hypothermia and a hurt hand(which seems to be ok now), and is still in the hospital. Seeing as how he didn't suffer anything more serious than that, this could almost be viewed as a blessing in disguise.If he stays in the hospital at least 3 days and nights, their insurance will pay for him to go straight into a nursing home and for the first little bit while he's there. Maybe by then, we'll have all the VA paperwork taken care of and he'll be set. I want to thank everyone for all the warm wishes and prayers.
Well, I'm still overwhelmed. Will post more pics as I get them edited. Working on a new laptop, so learning all over again! Hope you all had half as wonderful a weekend as I had!

Guess who!!! My mom said, "I'd recognize that mug anywhere!" Actually, the pattern is not mine, it belongs to Rita D, from the EQ5 library. I just changed it a little to make it look more like me! This is my challenge block for the Quilt retreat I'm going to this weekend! I don't know what I'm more excited about, meeting ForestJane , or just getting to get away and do what I love best with a bunch of others who enjoy the same thing! Both are pretty exciting prospects! Nice to have something to look forward to!(of course, I'm STILL very ANXIOUS about the arrival of young Caleb in January, but this will be something fun, too!)
Well, it's late and I need to get to bed. I just wanted to show this block, since Jane showed hers! hehe....I'm sure she and I will both have lots of stories to tell come Monday!

Just checking in...... Well, I dont' have any new pictures uploaded, but wanted to check in. Things are proceeding with mother in law. She goes tomorrow (Monday) to see the surgeon, and hopefully schedule the surgery to have her toes amputated. She is very scared, but in so much pain, she's ready to get it over with. Her dh will finally have to be put in a home. She just cannot take care of him any longer and has finally accepted that fact and the fact that she herself will probably be in a home for a while til she can become mobile again after this surgery. I have been working on the frogs and hope to have some pics of them later this week. Have a great week everyone!

Bullfrogs........ I know it's been a while since I posted, but things have been really hectic around here. Been working 50+ hours a week, and still dealing with major medical problems with the inlaws. We think we finally have mother in law convinced that father in law HAS to go into a home for a while. She has had to call the ambulance twice recently because he has somehow gotten himself on the floor and stuck between the bed and dresser or in the bathroom doorway and she is unable to assist him in getting back up. And she goes in tomorrow to schedule surgery to amputate her toes, so she'll not be able to take care of herself, let alone another person who needs almost everything done for him.........anyway.....back to the frogs.
This is my special project I have been working on. There are going to be 12 different green frogs, and the backgrounds will all be the same. I'll try to be better about posting as I get them done.
Hope all of you are fairing well. I haven't had a chance to do much blogging, so am waaaaay behind on what is going on with everyone. One day, I'll catch up! Have some time off coming, so really looking forward to that!

Guild Raffle...... Geez, I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since I posted. Things have been really busy around here. First of all, I'll tell you about the picture I'm sharing tonight. This quilt was put together by our guild and is being raffled off tomorrow at our towns' Founders Day Celebration. I can't take credit for anything more than one block, but it's a pretty quilt I thought I'd share a photo of.
Update on our lives......well, nothing new on the pregnancy front. DD is still doing really well and we are now down to just a little over 3 more months before she has him! I finally bought fabrics to make him a quilt last week, now just to find the time to make it. First, I need to get the sewing room back in order. It's a disaster area. Well, the whole house is..lol
It's been a hard month on my mother in law. A couple of weeks ago we were over there and her toes looked extremely red. DH told her, "Mom, you have a bad ingrown toenail." She was in such pain she finally called and made a Dr. appt. He told her it wasn't an ingrown toenail, but poor circulation and that she almost had gangrene(sp?). So sent her to yet another speciallist, who ordered an angiogram. We went for that on Tuesday of this week. After the procedure, she had to lay flat for 6 hours, so we got to the hosp. at 10 am and didn't leave til almost 7:30. I felt so sorry for her. She hates to inconvenience anyone, and I tried to convince her I didn't mind. They found a blockage about 3" long above her right knee and the Dr. "rotorootered" it out.(her words, not mine!). They told us she couldn't be left alone for 24 hours, so she told them "I have my husband at home." Well, being the troublemaker I am, I went to the nurses behind her back and explained the situation to them(her husband has alzheimers) and they said she needed some one there that could call 911 if her "puncture wound" started bleeding at all. So, I called dh and told him that he and I would stay the night with them, and I arranged for his step brother to spend the next day with them(Garry is unable to work because he can't drive, but he could call 911 if necessary). THEN, after all the arrangements were made I told her about it. She wasn't happy, but wasn't as upset as I thought she'd be, either. I think she's finally accepting the fact that she is not superwoman! She even let me take her shopping this morning because she just didn't feel up to driving. It's so hard for them to give up thier independence. And it's so sad to watch him lose his mind. Last week, he made a joke that was like the man we used to know, then less than 10 minutes later, he asked if his son and dil had left, even though his dil had kissed him goodbye and he'd watched them walk out the door. Then, when we left, and I hugged and kissed him goodbye, he said, "Luvs me".........another comment typical of the man he used to be. Almost makes me cry.
Well, I'll finish catching up later. Will definitely not wait 3 weeks b4 posting again! Have a great weekend!

Wow... Happy Anniversary to my beautiful dd and dsil. Can't believe a year has passed already since my baby girl became a wife. And now she's going to be a mother. I still can't get over how fast time flies. People have always told me "The older you get, the faster time flies". I used to think NO WAY, it can't go any faster than it already does, but by golly, those folks were right. It sure seems like only yesterday I was changing diapers and all that fun stuff that she now has in her future!

Hubby and I went on a road trip yesterday. There was supposed to be a "100 mile yard sale" and we thought it sounded like fun. Well, there wasn't a lot of sales at either end of the 100 miles, but we did have fun and found a lot of good bargains. Of course we bought several things for the baby, including a swing. The cover is pretty dirty, but Grandma here can make a new one if it doesnt' come clean in the wash! I may do it anyway, just to make it "ours"!

We also bought a storm door for our back door. The dog had demolished the old one, and we took our chances on this one for $10. Lo and behold it FITS!! WOOHOO. Now I think he's back there trying to hang it by himself, so I'd better go offer some help! Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Peace! Last year, I hit the after Christmas sale at the fabric department and bought a couple of yards of this print. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, other than NOT cut it up into tiny pieces and lose the scenes. When I saw Tonya's wonky letters, I immediately wanted to try them, but HAD to wait til I finished the kids' quilt. Well, it's not finished, but the top is and I can't quilt it til I get a backing. I thought I had enough of the blue floral, but, alas, of course I don't. Anyway, after I saw Tonya do the "Merry" wallhanging with a Christmas print, I decided that I would try that with this piece of fabric. I polled the girls I work with for one word and PEACE won! I then went to EQ and drew up these stars to paper piece for either side of the word and waalaa......here it is! I LOVED making the letters, so see more projects in my future using them! I'd say I'll be making a C-A-L-E-B one day soon! (Just hope that Dr doesn't change her mind or discover she's wrong!)
Ok, just wanted to show this! I'm tickled with myself to get something done so fast for a change! Going to go dig for a backing for this and decide how I want to quilt it.

This is my beautiful pregnant dd...Doesn't she look great? She's now 5 months pregnant and I love this picture of her. We took it last night after a day on the river. She's really proud of this belly!

The kids were talking about wanting a new bedroom suite yesterday. I told them, "While you are talking about your bedroom, I have something to show you." I showed them the quilt top that will be thier anniversary present and they liked it. At first she said it was "alright", then when I told them it was thiers, she kind of changed her tune and started in about which color they liked best and how they could use it to decide on how to paint thier bedroom! lol She just wants to see how it looks when it's really done(quilted) and now she wants a new bedroom suite even more! They already bought a bedroom suite for the little guy. They found a great deal on baby furniture a couple of months ago and called and asked me if I thought it was to early to buy it. I told them no, go for it since it was such a great deal!. Now they want furniture for Mommy and Daddy!
Well, we have a lot to do today, so I guess I'd better get off here and get busy! Have a great day, everyone!

~~TAA DAA~~

Well, here it is! At least most of it. It still needs the borders added, but you can't tell that from this picture! This picture shows the design. After I get the borders on it, I'll get some help and take a picture of the whole thing. But Jane has been wanting to see the star sashing, so thought I'd go ahead and share this now. I'm in love with it now that it's done! Did a little cursing on those star points, but now I'm glad I did them! I love the way they look. The pattern came from Quiltmaker and they called it Autumn Glow because of the colors they used. I'm trying to think of a name for this one as Autumn doesn't fit. I was thinking something along the lines of Starshine......I hope the kids like it! They are coming tonight, so will show it to them then!

Well, need to go change the sheets on the bed..Told them they could use our bed since dd is pg...They weren't supposed to be here til tomorrow, so I was going to wait to do that in the morning.......oh well, it's ok! Hope you all are having a great weekend.

Grandma's Tulips...... this picture shows the damage to the stitching on one of the tulips, and it also shows a little of the dirt on the quilt that I'm afraid to try to wash away. The batting in this one is a lumpy cotton batt. I'm very in love with this quilt, just the way it is and will one day find a way to display it without causing more damage to it. I will think of my grandmother every time I look at this quilt. I still miss her terribly after 14 years and am so thankful to have had a hard working woman such as her in my life. She had a very rough life, having had to quit school before she even learned to read and write so she could help with chores and things at home. In this day and age, can you imagine pulling a 2nd grader out of school permanently because of the need for help at home? While it's appalling to think of today, it's just the way it was for her. She never knew how to read or write, nor did she ever learn to drive, but the woman was amazing with needlecrafts. She sewed anything and everything and also did some beautiful crochet work.

Ok, I'm off now.Got a lot to do tomorrow, on my day "off". Going to be a rough weekend. I have to take our dog to be put down. She is as sweet as she can be to us, but is vicious whenever anyone else comes around. We've put it off as long as we can, but we cannot have a dog like this with the baby coming. Dd and her dh are even afraid of her, and it's just to hard any more. I tried to get DH to get rid of her 2 years ago when she first showed signs of aggression and snapped at a friend who was just sitting in the back yard with dh and she snapped at him. But, nooo......he wouldn't hear of it. Now, 2 years later, she is worse and I'm using the baby to finally get him to agree to getting rid of her. I hate to get rid of her as much as he does. It's nice to have such a good guard dog, but she's to good, if you know what I mean, and anyway........enough of that. Just think of me tomorrow, as I'm sure I'll have a rough day. I hate that I have to be the one to do this, but if I don't, it won't get done..........

Just a quick note this morning.... I finally remembered to take a picture of this quilt my grandmother made over 50 years ago. It is in sad shape, as it was used a LOT when my mom was a little girl. I just wanted to share it while I was thinking about it, but now dh is ready to go out the door.......have a great day everyone!

My Day off

Well, I finally had a day off on Friday and here's what I did! Part of the day, anyway. I worked on THE quilt. Now my goal is to have it done by this coming Friday and hope my friend doesn't have a quilt on her long arm so I can quilt it if I'm off again(which I'm supposed to be, but we all know how plans change in the blink of an eye). If I can't do it on hers, I may just quilt it on my machine. Still thinking on that one. The kids' anniversary is 2 weeks from today and I am determined to have it done by then, though I won't give it to them til the end of the month so I can show it off at our guild meeting! Aren't I mean?

And here is a picture of the apron I showed the fabric for last week. The apron was a simple pattern and went together pretty quickly. The fabric was gorgeous and I have a little of it leftover and trying to decide on a wallhanging design to use it in!

Ok, now I'm heading back to the sewing room for a bit before dh decides I need to cook dinner! Hope you all are having a great day. We are having a much needed rainy weekend here. Great day for staying indoors and sewing!

Here ya go, Jane! Jane asked for pictures of the quilt I am working on with the stars in the sashing. This is as far as I've gotten with it. I have all of the blocks done(on the left) and about half of the sashing pieces done. They are a royal pain in the bottom because I followed the directions(against my better judgement) in the magazine. (Quiltmaker......from last year sometime). I have my own way of doing things normally, but for some oddball reason, when I was cutting this one out last year, I followed thier instructions. Normally, I would have done this a different way, but since I already have them cut to do this way, I'm stuck..lol....Will definitely follow my gut next time!

And here are more of the pieces for the Strip Twist I started for the guild samples. I figured if I had to make a few, I may as well make several! It's kind of addictive! BUT, it adds yet another UFO to my pile........sigh. For those of you who read the article in Quilters Home, I have to say, I will not be able to keep my promise of finishing half of my UFO's b4 starting any new ones because since that interview, I discovered I'm going to be a grandma and a quilt for Caleb(what dd and dsil are naming my grandson) will have top priority as soon as I finish ONE certain project. (the one in piles in the picture above).
Our guild broke into groups and each group is making a goody basket to raffle off at our towns Founders Day in September. My project was to make a Fall apron. The fabric below is what I am using. I got it all cut out today, but didn't find anything in my stash I liked (that I had enough of) to do an edging. The directions call for purchased binding, so I'm hoping to find some I like tomorrow at Walmart.

I'm not sure what is wrong with me. It is 11:01 and I am still up. I have to get up at 3:40, so I guess I should give the bed another try. I went to bed earlier, but after 30 minutes of laying there wide awake, I decided to go ahead and get back up. The only thing I can think of, is I drank 2 glasses of that new diet Jazz pepsi today......but that was b4 5:00, wouldn't think that would still be keeping me awake. But, since I don't do much caffeine, that's the only reason I can think of that I can't sleep. Normally, I have a hard time keeping my eyes open by 9:00!Anyway......off to bed I go..gn everyone!

LOOK!!! I CAN Sew!

Well, I finally found time to spend in the sewing room today!! Worked on these Strip Twist blocks from Bonnie's website:www.quiltville.com where I have asked her permission to use these as my guilds' bom this month. I hope I get her permission now that I've made the samples! If not, I guess it'll be back to the drawing board for me! Tomorrow, I have to make an apron to put in our basket that we will be raffling off at our town's Founders Day in September. 2 days in a row in the sewing room........not sure I can stand it! OH, I ALSO dug out the stuff for dd and dsil's quilt and worked on it a bit! Now that I have things out, maybe I can do a little sewing in the evenings after supper again!

We spent the evening with friends and it is WAAAAY past my bedtime, so I think I'll keep it short and sweet this evening! (oops, it's MORNING already!)

Introducing...........Caleb Michael

Yep! DD found out today, she is having a boy. Well, the doctor said she was 90-95% sure she saw "Boy parts" lol. For those of you who can't make out the picture, tilt your head a little to the left and you'll see his face. It looks almost as if he's smiling at you. We are thrilled, of course..though I can honestly say we would have been just as thrilled with a girl! I can't wait to hold him now! NOW I can start planning that special quilt! DD's dh asked the Dr. if he could paint the nursery now and she told him wait til next months' appointment! lol As soon as they decide on a decorating theme, I'll plan accordingly!

Just wanted to share the news! Hope you all are having as nice a week as I am! Work stinks, but who cares with news like this!

OOPS.......... a few days ago, Laurie Ann requested that I post my salsa recipe and I had forgotten til just now. And Jane, we make so much salsa because as you know, we eat a lot of hot and spicy foods and I use our home made salsa when I make chilli, taco meat, breakfast burritos and a few other things. Plus, we keep the kids (dd and dsil) supplied with it, too, as they love it as much as we do. Not sure how much of it dd will be able to eat this year, though! DH is insisting we make it HOT this year, and with dd being pregnant, she may not be able to handle it as well as she has in the past!...........Well, for anyone who is interested, here is the recipe:

Salsa

• 1/2 bushel of tomatoes
• 10 bell peppers
• 15 yellow banana peppers ( mixture of hot and sweet)
• 1/2 cup salt
• 5 yellow onions
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• At least 2 tablespoons pepper
• 10 tablespoons corn starch
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 4-8 jalepeno peppers

Chop all vegetables, then combine with remaining ingredients and cook til boiling. Let boil slowly for about 1/2 hour, stirring frequently. Ladle into hot canning jars and seal in boiling water bath 45 minutes.

This is the basic recipe we received several years ago. We no longer follow it very closely as we add extra peppers(habenaros) and I'm not a measurer! The only thing I measure is the salt and vinegar for some strange reason. Guess because I am strange! hehe. Also, dh likes to squeeze the juice out of the tomatoes because he doesn't like a runny salsa. We use a food proccessor to "chop" our veggies because we make so much. Hope you all enjoy it! We found it a very good recipe and have had lots of compliments on it.

SMILE??? This is the face I got when I told my 2 y/o nephew to smile. He did it several times, so we decided he didn't know how to smile! So we tried to explain it to him and my aunt said, "Jimmy, show your teeth and smile" and the picture you'll see next is the result of that. He's such a sweetie. Sometimes I wish I lived closer to them.










We are hoping to find out the sex of our grandbaby this week. DD called me Thursday night and asked me if I wanted to hear it over the phone or if I wanted to wait and find out in person.......DUH!!! I told her to call my cell phone and if my break was over and I couldn't answer it, to leave a msg so I could check it when I had a free minute!
I had bad news at the sewing machine shop yesterday. My embroidery machine was in bad shape and needed several hundred $$ worth of work.(a $224 part and that didn't include labor), so instead of getting it repaired, I put a down payment on a newer one! I'm getting one that takes the same cards I already have, so I'm not losing all of that. I have 3 months to pay it off, but I bet I have it b4 the end of September! He threw in one of those machine cases on wheels, a walking foot(this one is a sewing machine with an embroidery unit, whereas my old one was strictly emb.), a serging foot(cuts off the excess as you use an overlock stitch like a serger) and a new design card. I asked him if I could pick out my design card when I came and picked up the machine since by then I should know what my dd is having! There were some cute ones that would be fine for either/or, but I figured why pick one out now when it won't do me any good til I get the machine off layaway, anyway!
Hope everyone is having a good Sunday. Me, I've got yet more salsa to make! We're up to 28 quarts, I think. Our goal is at least 40, I think, so we should have those today then the rest of the tomatoes, I'll just can plain. Have a great week!

Vacation pictures......at last......... well, life is back to "normal". Here it is only Thursday and I've already worked 44 hours and have to work 5 1/2 tomorrow. We've also been busy in the evenings making salsa. 17 1/2 quarts and more to come. That doesn't really sound like a lot to some, but after an 11 hour day, it sounds like a lot to me! Anyway......such is life and we'll be glad we went to all the trouble later in the year. We just love our home made salsa. We eat a lot of it and I even use it when I make chili......yummy!

Above is a picture of me holding the twins I had made the frog and turtle quilts for. I got to meet thier mom, finally and I absolutely loved her. She greeted dh and I at the door with hugs, even though she'd never met us before. She fits into our family just fine! And the babies were adorable, of course! Mom loved the quilts. Her first comment was on the size.....they were huge when compared to the boys, but like I told her, by the time winter gets here, she'll be glad they are big!

I'm sure I told you about my nephew chasing the geese away from our campsite. Well, here is the picture Auntie Ann took while running after him with the camera. We were afraid one of the geese may decide to turn around and chase him, so we tried not to let him get to far ahead, but it was hard to run after him and take pictures all at the same time we were laughing our butts off! As you can see to the left of the shot, big sister couldn't let little brother have ALL the fun (or attention) so she had to give chase, too.

I haven't really had time to do much sewing, so no new quilty photos, but I will share a few more vacation pictures in the next few days til I get some pics taken of the old quilt my mom sent home with me. But for now, I'm going to call it a night and get some sleep. Have a great weekend, everyone!