The 4th, more redneck pool shots...and family fun.

Well, Happy Belated 4th to everyone. We had all the kids and the grands..and what fun. We even enjoyed phone calls from our special Italian exchange student, Francesco. It was fun hearing from our UK buddies and texts from South Africa. It really is a smaller world we live in. June and July saw many family members birthdays...so we had to have cake...and a cookie cake...er...well ....lets just say the kids "really got into it!" And leave it at that.

Now the redneck Pool was a huge hit. All of the kids and babies loved it! Even most of the grownups made a dip or two. The Princess and Wee One, had their own little paddling pool...but seemed to enjoy being in the big pool too. While we had the kids all here...we went through some of the many stored things of our grown up kids...and DS2 found some of his swimming medals.... Michael Phelps.... probably looked like this after the last Olympics... the kids were sure impressed with the medals... and now they are no longer at my house....more room for fabric!

Since it was the fourth of July... we had sparklers and glow sticks.... I even found these very cool glow stick balls that the dads put together quick quick. And because I don't want anyone to get in trouble...but a certain Aunt and Uncle.... set off some pretty awesome fireworks.... and sparklers and charcoal snakes. We ate and grilled and sat out on the deck every night until quite late. The fireflies were fun for the kids to try and catch. WE even managed a couple of games of horse shoes! It is the best 4th I have had in years. And all thanks to my family. I did manage to do a few quilts... this week after all the company left

The pictures don't do them justice...but they were both lovely quilts. I also completed a sweet baby quilt for one of these gals..but the photo is way out of focus... I have that affect on many things. Hope you all had a great weekend. I am off to a visit a new quilt group... tomorrow.... new to me...hope they show some pretty things.

Garden goodies, More quilts and Birmingham quilt show....

The garden has been producing some yummy things finally. I picked fresh blueberries, this morning for lunch and some fresh grape tomatoes, with a few tomatoes for slicing. I love fresh tomatoes. The peppers are finally growing..in that I can see them... a couple of inches. The only peppers going great are the cayenne. I have no idea why I planted them...except they sounded good that day at the garden center. We are preparing for family to come for a get together. So have loads to do..extra baking. But have finished up a few more quilts for customers. Two sisters sent me similar colored lone star quilts. I wanted to do them slightly different...but still keep them similar. They actually turned out so well...that I really want a red, white and blue one of my own. I love these quilts..but don't think I have the patience to do one of my own. For myself. I have finally finished a simple little bargello style flag for Independence day. Now I had never done my own pattern...and these were scraps...so they didnt turn out exactly as I planned, in fact...I forgot about cutting the pieces apart to sew back together...so it is narrower than a waving flag should be...but Its finished. Yeah. I started this quite a while back...so that is another UFO done. I also had the pleasure to go to the Birmingham quilt show in Alabama last weekend with some other quilters. Let me tell you it is a very small world... while standing in the Altzeimer's exhibition looking at the quilts another lady and I began chatting...and somehow having a longarm machine came up.... come to find out we have emailed and chatted online. What are the chances.... I had no idea ...it was definitely fun seeing a face to put to a name. It also was a lovely show. Lots of beautiful quilts. I really enjoyed seeing each of them. I loved this chicken applique, pieced wall hanging. It was lovely and so beautifully quilted. And today is my darling Elisie-Pie's birthday... she is growing up so quickly. This photo was taken by her mom at the "Broadway" evening at her school. She of course was one of the performers. She is so talented... making quilts... I am going to recieve one very soon of her very own creations! I can hardly wait.

Quilts for Africa, Warm Feelings and being Blessed and more ...

When I left Africa about 15 1/2 months ago.... I thought it would be like most moves.... YOu leave, then slowly but surely your new home takes over your thoughts...but I find that hasn't exactly happened. I am not sure if it was because of the caliber of ladies whom I felt privileged to call my friends...or just because I did volunteer work with them, and had no close family or job to distract me. I love these ladies because of their wonderful hearts.... never thinking anything is too big to get accomplished, or not important enough to do. I have to post this photo...as of course ..being a quilter, and living there for 4 years, I did accumulate a stash. I had to leave much more behind than I was able to bring back with me.Just before I left, a dear lady donated some more fabric to me, so I bequeathed them to my dear quilting ladies. Well, they have outdone themselves. They made 24 quilts...with the bits and pieces and have delivered them to the Komani Hospital in Queenstown South Africa. The email and photo I received said they were snatched up, by the long term patients there. More will hopefully be made in the future for the rest of the mental health patients there. They live very sub-standard with little more than a bed in their rooms, and It is very cold there at the moment, so I know they were appreciated. How could I not be nostalgiac for these dear, caring ladies. And I am so privileged to have known them, even for a short time.

I also can now share the finished photos of Toni Brenker from PA's quilts... she has received them now. One is the Orange Crush and the other is the Double Delight quilt from Quiltville. com .

We are preparing for our children to come for a visit over the 4th. Of course, we wanted to have someplace to cool off..so last year at the end of the season we purchased a large pool..... and tried to set it up this week...only to find out that the ground needs to be way more level than our back yard is.... a dilemma...it capsized... ( I wish I would have had a photo of that one!) So undaunted we went back to the store to see if there was a slightly smaller one... well we didn't find one that would work...or that wouldn't break the bank...so back home...and after much swearing and gnashing of teeth...we decided to go redneck!!! It is only temporary...( or will it be????) but here it is...... set up on the only level area we have.... ON the CARPORT! I know.... now I am thinking of hanging some mosquito curtaining..... along the front just to give us a little privacy while the kids are here.... I really don't want to expose my bits and pieces to the neighbors either!!!!! But it will be wet for the grands when they come. Until we sort something else out.

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Family travel in South AFrica, Gardening in the jungle....more quilts and the princess!

Where does time seem to go. In between, working, quilting for customers...trying to make something for me, visiting and loving every moment of being with the grands, and every day life, I can't seem to keep up with posts! Had to post a photo sent to me by a dear friend from South Africa...now this is family togetherness. Scary but a real reality if you don't want to walk. And the little garden has become semi- jungle.... !!!! I have lots of tomatoes, both large and grape sized.... but the peppers seem to be taking forever. Now, when we visited the princess, she loved helping in her Mom's strawberry patch...Some of the water ended up on the plants even. I have

quilt guild this week...and have been busily working on my challenge quilt. We were given this "Ugly" lime green fabric with little alien people on it and instructed to make a small quilt...many of which will be donated to the Sheriff's dept. for our charity project.( so sorry to the designer of it) Well the more I looked at it...I decided I needed to think outside the box...and oila.... an applique quilt was born. It is fun,

and I have made another to donate to the Sheriff's dept...but will probably use this for Halloween ....it is the proper colors after all.They say that you just have to cut the pieces small enough to overcome ugly fabric.... I think you just have to use it in an unusual way. I also have done several customer quilts..... Here are two that I can share. I have a few more, but don't want to spoil the surprise when TONI from PA, gets hers in the mail.

More later! Unfortunately, maybe much later!

Another visit with the Wee one, water fun, The princess in her Pillowcase dress and more quilts.....

We had the wee one here with his folks,this past weekend, and he enjoyed the pool we had for him. The Princess wore her little pillowcase dress and don't you love those red shoes????!

I had the opportunity to take a Bargello quilt from Dorinda Evans a couple of weeks ago, and although my quilt is still in strips.... a real shame, these ladies did finish theirs and several had the same Kaffe Fassett fabrics, yet they are so unique! I loved seeing them.

Another two finishers from the class.

Then at quilt guild I loved this quilt. It was a simple but effective quilt.

I also am happy to post a couple of photos of finished customer quilts from the past week or two. I have another on the longarm, and a stack to finish in the next couple of weeks. Where has the time gone??? I can't beleive it is June almost, and I am just not ready for summer yet. My garden has baby tomatoes and peppers, but forgot to grab a photo of them. DD and I did take a stack and whack class this past weekend while she was here on her visit...and it was so much fun.

Her blocks are gorgeous..but I didn't get any photos.

I will snap a few of mine very soon. I only had 4 blocks done, but she finished about 12. I guess she just used her time more wisely than I did.

Don't you love this vintage quilt. It was sewn by hand, by a customers great gran, and I loved seeing the vintage fabrics up close. Really a fun quilt to do.

Arkansas,Oklahoma, Texas and Tennesee...man am I bushed!

Grandbob with our Little Ballerina "princess"

Been gone for quite a while... and happy to be home. Saw all of our grandchildren and was that wonderful!First we saw

the Princess...and she loved the tutu...it was the first thing she put on in the morning, as she grabbed toothbrushes!

Then it was on to Oklahoma and three other grands! Not sure how I managed to not get a close up of my gorgeous Elisie-Pie, but she is in the soccer picture. We watched soccer practice and movies! Gave out a few "just because we love you" things...( not the water pistols or water balloons...as I promised DDIL) I know some people, think their grands are smart, beautiful and

talented...but MINE really ARE!!!!We so en

joyed seeing each of them...and the little boys, carried on the long standing tradition of playing with Great Grandma's curlers.... when we drove over to see DH's mom. I loved driving back through Texas, seeing the Texas flag flying everywhere along with the USA's of course and especially to see friends from long ago...and look what my buddy Dodi had hiding in the spare room. I am so jealous!!! Loved this old machine. It is a very old treadle...think she said it was her grandma's. LOvley.

Then is was on to Tennessee to see the "Wee one" while his folks went to a concert. Isn't he getting big????

We had some great times this past couple of weeks...but I did manage to do a couple of really cute college quilts this week, one Alabama and one Divided between Bama and Mississippi State.I so have to do one of these. Have a stack of other quilts waiting to jump on the longarm ..so better get off this computer.

Have a great day!!!

Tornados, a No sew tutu and a pillow case dress for the Princess....

We woke this AM to the wail of the tornado sirens going off.... but thankfully nothing landed on us..... not the way I want to wake up in the morning I can assure you. It kind of reminds me of waking in the middle of the night to the burglar alarm going off... which happened way too often in South Africa! But thankfully it was a fast moving storm, which left just as quickly as it came. Now on to the sewing front, although I have been sewing .... actually started my scrappy bargello, from a class I took on Sat. which is still in strips... and have made progress on a customer quilt, if there are no thunder storms this afternoon, I may finish up a sunflower illusion quilt. Very pretty, and fun to do. I have made a darling little no sew tutu for the Princess to wear, Just wish I could have found some lavender tulle... as it would have added the right amount of color. I also made a sweet little pillow case dress. We are traveling to see 4 of the grands this coming weekend, with another trip to see DH 's MOM, and I wanted to take a little something for them. I have some fun things for the "older" ones, but needed something for the Princess. Since she probably isn't ready for water balloons and squirt guns. ( No Jen, I will probably wait for the family get together to share those with the kids!) Now, I had never sewn a pillow case dress before...but figured it had to be similar to the little halters made for DD when she was just a little girl.... and rightly so.... it was very similar. I did find some adorable spaghetti strap( remember those ???) trim already made up in a similar color to the polka dots of this dress, at the fabric shop I work in. My boss bought out a shop going out of business, and we have a cupboard ( a large closet really ) full of lace and trims. I found some green gingham trim that I am hoping to do another pillow case dress for the Princess, using the same shade of green in polka dots. Its been a long time since I sewed for a little girl. But summer things have always been my favorite thing to sew up. I still may add a little pink ric rac on the bottom of the yellow dress. But otherwise it is finished. So had to share I am sewing something....just not something I usually sew up.

Construction... has begun... and finished. And floating bubbles too!!!

We have been planning on building a deck for many months...in fact since we bought the house we live in. Please note, we didn't paint the addition on the house blue, I would have chosen a more neutral color..but it is what it is...and I sure don't want to repaint if I can help it. Anyways, this past weekend... DD and her dear hubby came to assist, between the expertise and the brute force... we have a new deck. And although it didn't quite get finished while all the strong help was here, Bob and I managed to put the last 2/3 of the decking on and do we love it. Have to admit, it seriously cut into my time, but I did get to chase the wee one around... shame, I was so busy, forgot to take even one photo of the gang. But did get a " I am just going to sit here and have a cold drink " when we finished the decking. Since this was taken the PRofessor has added another built on bench along the back of the deck. I did splurge and buy some plants for pots to set out and we will break it in officially this weekend, when the gradutate students and several professors are invited over for the end of semester party. I can hardly believe that the Professor has completed his first year of classes.... so we figure he has just about earned the "P" of the PHD program.
Woohoo!!!!

And I am finally showing the Designer, DD in laws finished quilt, Floating bubbles, hanging in the quilt shop. It should have more circles or bubbles, but I lost a few...then forgot to cut a few more... and I liked it anyway! Just the way it was! I am also posting a few of the quilts from our last guild meeting. I do love these also. The string

quilt is too pretty. And the Christmas quilt is also lovely. I had to share this quilt ...the brilliant one, that came with a traveling trunk show...to a Bernina school house show.... at a quilt shop up in Tupelo I was able to attend last week. What a pleasure to see some really cool quilting. I am going to try some of these on a quilt I am working on this week. Just loaded it this afternoon. Our quilt guild is bringing in a quilt teacher to teach some kind of jelly roll bargello class this weekend. I will so get some pictures. It is my mothers day gift! I have never tried one before, and can't wait to try. Thanks for stopping by.

My favorite quilt for the online quilt festival..... gone but not forgotten....

The online quilt festival...just found it at Park city Girls blog...and have to post my favorite quilt. It is the one pictured in my heading.... it was the first quilt I made in South Africa,and the first quilt that the girl I taught to hand quilt did for me while I lived there. It unfortunately was stolen when our home was burglarized. I offered a reward and the local paper kindly ran a featured article about the missing quilt, but to no avail.... I console myself with the fact that it is most likely keeping someone in South Africa warm, expecially now that winter is coming on in the Southern hemisphere. It was made using South African schwe-schwe, printed and produced by the Da Gama fabric company. I loved those geometric prints. And absolutely loved having this quilt on my bed...for the short time it was in my possession. PS- Don't forget the GIVEAWAY at JEN's Blog.

A giveaway, quilts, Amish photos and South African garden

It has been such crazy weather here.... but finally spring is definitely here. We are preparing to build a deck on the back of the house over the next month or so ... and today the Professor replaced a missing bench on the side porch. The end of classes doctoral student bash is scheduled for our house in a couple of weeks, a good way to wind down after the Professors classes for the semester. There is also one doctoral student who is finishing up and moving away...so all of the professors ( the real ones... :o) ) are invited also to say goodbye. Crawfish is on the menu... I have to admit...I have never eaten them...but I am game. Now, there is a giveaway over at Jen's blog where you can win a gift certificate. Go by and enter. I felt compelled to show the photos of a local school bus, which was parked, running, in the parking lot of a local strip mall. It was there for over an hour that I shopped. But the funny thing was that apparently they picked up their laundry/dry cleaning too... You can see it hanging in the window of the bus. Maybe I am just being gritchy, but this so reminded me of South Africa, where the school buses would be parked...at the grocery store...on teachers paydays. But they didn't just go to the store, they took the kids out of school.... too!!!! Kind of like a field trip... except it was to the grocery store. Several teachers would go together....and leave one teacher watching the children out in the parking lot. A bit of a shock, to see...till I saw this bus. I guess some things just are the same...no matter where they happen. Ok, off my soap box and onto a few quilt photos. I forgot to get a photo of the quilt hanging at the quilt shop, but do have a few photos to share of finished customer quilts. First up is a sweet little charity quilt, I volunteered to quilt for my guild.We are donating this one and a bed sized quilt to the cancer drive fundraiser. It didn't have to be done until October...but thought it best to try to do at least one donation quilt a month... the second photo shows the back side. It turned out really well. I love this red white and blue Carolina Crossroads quilt.It is scrappy...and very well done. Her mini patch squares...were perfect. What a pleasure to quilt. Next up is a cowboy quilt I did for a customer, it was a lot of fun to do.









Then a photo of my summer garden in South AFrica. It was walled in...and so pretty in early summer...this is later in the summer, after many plants had bloomed out. I sure enjoyed having Majuba keep it looking so nice. The first gardener's name was July, I adored him...but he left the landlords employ and was replaced with Majuba, who enjoyed building much more than gardening. I can say that I miss having them water and dig up the garden for me. The Professor has been filling those shoes...and when I laid all the plants out where I wanted them planted, the Professor pointed out that "Majuba" wouldn't be planting them anymore for me, so I might want to get a shovel! He is cheeky! Lastly I had to post this photo of the Amish lady and little girl putting their groceries into their buggy. I shot this when traveling in Pennsylvania last summer. This grocery store has a hitching post at the end of the parking lot...for the buggies.