Silly People~

The things they can get their Dad to go along with! Not sure where the other goofy pics went of the rest of da' hood!

Can't see any of the quilting here but just the idea of how BIG it all is, the blocks are made using the half log cabin and the variations are endless like its Parent. If I'm not mistaken it is a memory quilt using a gal's husbands shirts.

One of my favorite designs, simple and classy, The Paisley~

On another front, a way cute baby quilt! The main fabrics all had outdoor themes going on so I thought all over Kites with Clouds would be cute! And what is that peeking on the floor to the bottom left? Triangles? They seem to be in every picture I take!

Thought our problems were over with the well scene, not so! Like any simple home improvement job once you start it just keeps snowballing into something else! We do have water, thanks to our Waterboy Willy, he goes and manually turns the well on so we can take care of business then shuts it back down, the problem is with the lighting in the well house but it does effect being able to keep the whole thing running. Don is back to work until Saturday and just so happens to have a couple of electricians at his fingertips to ask questions to, he has already called twice to have Waterboy Willy check this or that.

Been a busy day in the studio and am pleased at everything accomplished thus far!

A Family Affair~

This is the most ever dumplings that we have made at one time! Of course I did go overboard in the pork chop/sauerkraut department, chops were on sale so it was hard to resist making 2 big pots!

But the dumplings are Dads job! Didn't get the shots of the dough in this grouping but my oh my was the board covered!

The trick is in the timing of the cooking, once they start to float give them 3 more minutes! At least that is what I was told!

But for me~this is what it is always about. The day after when they get fried up in REAL Butter.

Just doesn't get any better than this! On another note, see that black doo-hicky? It originally was tongs, until they went to battle against who knows what, I had two pair but now they are all in pieces as the above, they work perfect for flipping things, just the right size! But my favorite use? A Back Scratcher! I have one in the studio just for that purpose! Those little things~smile~

Dat's My Baby!~

I am a very proud Mama! He happened to be at the right place at the right time for this photo opp! He had been out in the field and of course Kingman being desert his boots was the first thing he thought of when he seen what was going on! He had been in the office working on paperwork, he had hoped they wouldn't show, not so, I think he looks pretty groovy!(another favorite saying) and I don't think anyone will notice them unless they are pointed out! My Bad! hehehehe!

Slowly I am learning how to use the different button functions on the apple, very cool indeed and I can proudly say I am starting to be truly Y2K compliant~Where do they come up with these sayings?! And how do they manage to worm their way into everyday conversations? ~smile~

Edit~ Well, I guess we can honestly say that last statement was false! Not only did the article I so cleverly copy and pasted not copy and paste, I managed to change the font in part and delete that whole section from the original post. Sigh, anyone care to join me in the pride before the fall? Guess who uses that?

Water~Sweet~Water

Oh Happy Day! Dishes are done, everyone drew sticks as to who got to shower first after myself and Dad of course! Awwwww, feels great! Thank you Babe!

And here is the culprit, it wasn't placed in the best spot on the side of the house, and being city folk we didn't really check it out all that close once we moved in, when you have water and things are running you tend to just go with the flow! Not anymore, DH will pay closer attention to some of these outside goodies, we were spoiled when he worked a schedule of being home 3 days one week and 4 the next rotating shifts, then they went to 4 tens and now that his time has run out being in that position he is going to 5 8's and that means when a problem comes along we will be without him for long periods of time! Thankfully the boys are now growing into young men so they have learned a lot about home repairs for times such as what is coming!

I've managed to get some quilting time in, still have shots to get of the last one done, Blake has waited patiently for it and I broke protocol to get 'er done for 'em! Minus the binding, but that won't take to much, already have it picked and cut out, just need to sew it on and I get the pleasure of staying toasty cuddly while hand stitching it down!!

Holiday Traditions~

Usually at one major holiday we go with out something! Usually its the Kitchen Sink clogging up but lately its our water source! At two in the afternoon on Thanksgiving our water went out, thankfully it wasn't due to there not being any in the well, but that didn't help any when you went to the faucet and there was nothing coming out.................

Now my sweet DH works in another state, 3 hours from home, usually he is on the 10am to 8pm shift but had special hours Thursday and pulled a 6am to 4pm shift. And being able to get a hold of him is usually not easy, but on the first call he actually answered the phone! I was excited and started the conversation off very lightly then got that icky feeling in my stomach at having to tell him. He is my Hero! He knew what the problem was and thought it would be a quick fix of a switch that he knew was going to be needing replacing at a discovery around a month ago and we already had the part on hand! Woo-Hoo!

Moments like that are such a tease~It was the switch but it was actually faulty because the electrical box was damaged from where it was placed by the previous owners and that needed swapping out. Of course everything is closed at 10:30pm and a quick search showed Home Depot would be open at 5am for Black Friday specials! So he was there at opening and they didn't have "that" part, sigh, and True Value was not due to open until 7:30 and that is where the previous home owners had purchased everything because that was the only place at the time, Home Depot has only been in our area a couple years. Poop~

Now DH could have called in but the State considers the day after Thanksgiving a Holiday as well and when you work that means double time and a half, and being he was on the schedule and it was no question about what he was going to be doing with his day he headed off at 7 but not before loading us up with water which he picked up while in town!!

So Scottie went to town and got the elusive parts and he is out there in 20 degree weather fixing us up! It amazes me at the things he does for his family without question, he hated leaving us like that but we camp alot so it wasn't like we didn't know how to make it a day without water coming out the tap, warmed some up on the stove to get dishes done and poured some into the toilet tank to flush, all the conveniences were way better than camping that is for sure!!

Plus it just again showed how Blessed we really are, what an unconditional Love that MY Husband has for Me and our Children, our year was a tough one and it isn't quite over with yet but its times like these that really puts what we think are problems into perspective. Yes, the stuff still has to be dealt with but when you join forces with the one you Love in the little things just imagine how effective they truly are in those bigger things!! It's just taking the time to see them!!

We are going to make his favorite meal today! Pork Chops slow cooked in sauerkraut and potato dumplings!! Yumm Yumm eat 'em up!! Hehehe, that is a favorite saying of the kids from when they were little and they heard it on one of the old Little Rascals show, we use it still today! Fond memories.....................

Everyday Blessings To All~

Birthday Boy~

Amazing! Fourteen Years have passed since birthing this Little (Big) Man (Boy)~ When he was a Baby he use to snuggle just like this~the shot was taken from my Berry by William, he thought he was going to have some blackmailing power with it! Ha! Not!

Picking out something he does not need another of! A knife, he has one for every need~

He enjoyed a Mexican Meal and scarfed down a Fried Ice Cream Dessert then rolled to the Movie theatre. Good Times~

Triangles~

I was asked to make 2 quilts for Christmas Gifts~ this is the first one, Mrs. B liked the triangles and thought how cool would it be if it was all in graduated blues! The recipient is a Hanglider so her vision was of the mountains at the bottom and the sky and clouds at the top. And thanks to Accucut Quilt Studio's Banner die cut that made the cutting go so nice and easy!

Wasn't sure where to start so just laid them out and used the camera to see the shades~this was way to bottom heavy!

So worked in some more mediums and still not quite right~

Getting better but those few are showing to grey even though they are blues~I am sure they will have their place, I just haven't found it yet!

Hmmmm, now we getting somewhere, instead of doing perfect graduations of color like we started off with, blending them all upward made the vision come alive!

Me thinks this is about what we came up with, it is pieced and ready to be quilted, thought I had a pic on the camera but will get some after it is quilted and bound. The second one will be done using the new pineapple technique I learned at Market! Am excited about that one!

And being a super sucker and not able to say NO, I now have 2 more commissioned quilts to complete by Christmas~ What was I thinking? Apparently not clearly at the moment, thankfully I have my Secret Helper 3 days out of the week to help bail me out!

For Shannon~

Here ya go!! Sorry I got distracted and didn't get done sooner!!

A Challenge Met~

In a previous post I mentioned how we no sooner got back from Houston we had Shop Hop the following week, I foolishly agreed to making a sample for this quilt to help this line of fabric move a little . Le Poulet is the name and the manufacture escapes me at the moment.......

Thought it would be super simple until I checked out the directions! Those little baskets called for 1 7/8 squares to be cut on the diagonal making the block super teeny!

And it called for 16 of the little buggers!!! It literally took a full day to just cut everything out for these and when I started piecing them I started crying, not literally, but very very close!

The seams did not want to play nice at all, then I broke out Mary Ellen, she would not have any of the rebellion and they pressed out like a dream and the piecing went together just beautifully! And I learned a new way to make flying geese! Using one big square and two small in opposite corners with a diagonal line drawn through to stitch on either side, worked wonderfully and cant wait to try it out on another project!

I finished it up the night before the Hop began and I was pleased as punch when yards of the fabric began flying out of there! And it is a Windham Fabric line! Just remembered~

additional shots~

A couple of additional pics of what the micro handles actually attach to on the longarm!

Micro Handles~

Per a request, here are some shots as to how the micro handles attach to the longarm.

These are the holes on the head for attachment~

The handle in place~not screwed in~ the handle swings up and locks into place when not in use. Can take a shot of that look if needed~

And the handles themselves, hopefully the shots will go bigger when clicked on!

Houston~Schoolhouse

I forget when picking photos to do so in reverse and I am too pooped to rearrange them so will just go with the flow on this one! And of course I don't have my information as to who the speakers were and my memory is on failure mode I won't even try to guess! But the classes were amazing!! I chose as many lectures as I could during schoolhouse and also for the picked classes during the other days, one was a class on making a pineapple block in a really cool way but that is for another post~

I really like the Taupes! And her lecture was in Japanese and her partner translated for us, it was very interesting to learn they don't worry about producing special lines for their fabric,

example~ these little pictures represent winter, spring and summer, just choosing the different colors available and placing them accordingly makes the feel you are after without having to choose from a specific colorway! Beautiful Samples!

Here they are showing where they get their inspiration from, food, table settings, teas are just a few of the things that they pull from, and when I think about it myself, how we are drawn to eat at Japanese restaurants it is those colors that I enjoy being around!

And on another spectrum these gals were sharing ideas how to use some of those big beautiful prints being pieced into the quilts for borders but not necessarily just as a wide border onto itself. Very nice!

And the rave of the show! The new Go Baby! It is amazing how they keep coming up with new ideas for making cutting easier at a very affordable price, I personally am thrilled with having the Studio, but am jealous at the better variety of dies they have available for the Go and now the Baby. We signed Fiddlesticks up to be a distributor of the new machine so it should be fun getting to play with it none the less!

We just finished up with our yearly Shop Hop yesterday! What a whirlwind of activity it was! And in the middle of our busiest day power went out on our main register and debit/credit card machine! Yikes! What a test of patience that was for all working, I was operating the cash/check only register and doing my darndest to keep all the feathers that were starting to ruffle smoothed! Thankfully Courtney was quick to check out other outlets and found it was only that one that went out and ran an extension cord and got it up and running in record time! She was every ones Hero!

Plane Trip!~

I never got an opportunity to post about my upcoming (now past) trip!

YES! Houston! I was honored to attend Quilt Market with Merry representing Fiddlesticks'

I hadn't been on a plane in a lotta years, and since we didn't get to do the boarding pass early enough I ended up with a middle seat so when the window girl fell asleep I got a few shots off, mostly to be able to show the kids~

Just Beautiful!

And after the turbulent weather that kept the plane be-bopping around it was nice to get on solid ground! Sent a shot of this to the kids to show I made it!

This was on display at the convention center, getting ahead of myself with this photo but it was just really neat!