And Were Off~

Like a Herd of Turtles! My Dad would always say this when it was time to go and I have kept the tradition on, so when he visits and says it the kids get a chuckle every time!

As soon as this little girl seen the quads loaded she has been very apprehensive about being left behind! Every time we go somewhere she is patiently waiting to board up, she didn't know we were preparing early or she would have been able to get some more rest! So she will have to rest up on the ride because when Jaelynne sees her she will be on duty for the next 3-4 days! By the way her name is Mandi, or Panda as I call her, she is the absolute best dog that a family could have!


this one is just snoopy...................

Sharing one last meal together........

Ki-Ki, is just a little bugger, he carries his penguin around like it was his baby and I get such a kick out of watching him snuggle up to it!

The camera is charged and I will have fun getting as many shots as I can because it is going to be a fun weekend!

Oopsy Daisy~

When Husband gets off work at midnight he always gives a call to say goodnight and I can then fall into the nights rest peacefully, so when at 1:30am my cell phone rang again with the special ringer of 'Hey Good Lookin' my eyes flew open and my heart raced! His motorcycle decided to shut down out in the middle of the desert, the prison he works at is a good 45 miles from anything remotely close to Vegas and he was about 10 miles from the prison itself as well.

Thankfully we had just taken the white trailer to the dump last Monday to offload a bunch of stuff that had collected, because my truck was already hooked up with the quads loaded on the black trailer and it would have been very trying to offload it in the middle of the night!

Scottio was off but had fallen asleep early and since he has been on the graveyard shift he was ready to go so Chad gathered the tie downs and helped him hook up the trailer and off we went. The bummer part is we were 3 hours from him, he patiently waited, did a little star gazing and even took a short nap!

Once we got to him we dropped him off at his place in town, where he had the back up motorcycle and we headed straight back home. I was due to go to the Wednesday Bee with D but thought it best to cancel so we stopped at her home on our way up the Mountain to let her know.

Scottio's unit was in for maintenance and I needed to grocery shop and by then the Starbuck's triple shot Breve' had kicked in so we cruised back down to take care of the errands!

Once home we got everything put away and decided we may as well start loading things up, we are heading to Williams tomorrow to camp out for the next four days! It is actually a Church Group Event so there is going to be at least 7 Families going, we will also take the opportunity to scout for where we will get our firewood and the boys will fish to their hearts content!

We hopped over to Willow Beach this past Saturday so they could get a little time in and it was absolutely gorgeous out! Normally it is 110 plus but with the rain storm that was overhead it was in the low 90's.

William and Donnie each caught one, there were many nibbles though, Blake is looking to make it up as soon as we get there! and that evening even though the fair was small it was a pure treat and can't wait to have some more this weekend! I even bought more bait for them with the hopes that we can bring some home to freeze! And the crawdads are a plenty as well so there will be at least 2 feasts to come. Yumm!

Good & Good

I can have lots of fun on ebay, but sometimes I wonder at my sanity! There is absolutely no reason why I fell in love with this top, it isn't even complete mind you. So when I threw out a wonky bid I never dreamed I would win it, so when it arrived, this is the photo listed on ebay by the way, wish I had the wood flooring but that is a dream for another day. Anyway, I need to lay it out again and get some shots to post because the colors are just awesome and hand pieced to absolute perfection, total awe doesn't begin to cover my feelings for it.

Now my mind is working on how to complete it and I am leaning towards hand quilting it, I don't have the skills to hand piece it to completion but I don't think the piece will mind, it being finished will be what counts!

Then there is this little guy, it is a Christmas Tree Stand, a very old cast iron one, I have been having issues over where to store my batting since taking out the big table and I really don't know where the idea for using one of these came from but I tell you it is just great! Another shot I will have to take, I had one of the boys cut a piece of pvc pipe and wala, spelling doesn't look right but the point is there ~smile~, it is perfect! I really want to use one of those wood clothes hanging rods but was looking for some instant gratification to see if my idea worked. I am now on the prowl for two more as I have another two rolls just propped against the wall.

Those little things!

Finishes

Once returning home I needed to finish up this quilt before I could move on to the Orange Crushes.

This has to be my favorite quilt so far, the colors are just awesome and I love how the wonky borders came out, I put the same design on top, it just doesn't show in the photo.

And the panto is the small version of Frisky Feathers, I wanted a little dense in the big open squares and I think it came out perfect!

Then here is my attempt at scalloped edges, I learned a whole lot from this one and am anxious to try out some different techniques that were shared with me. I tried to follow the directions that came with the ruler but somehow I managed to make it way more difficult than it should have been! For me the simpler the better!

A & K's Orange Crushes

I had the privilege of quilting a couple quilts for a fellow blogger! Andee and Kathy followed Bonnies mystery quilt, Orange Crush and here are some sneak peaks for them!

This one is Andees, and I used a Burnt Copper Thread for the front and back.

The Panto is Swirl-n-Twirl and I just love the way it came out, the above photo is a shot to see the design a little better, the backing is also pieced with a pretty orange and cool label!

The above is another shot from above, I tried a different setting on the camera to see if it would show a little better!

Here is Kathy's, it also called for using the Burnt Copper thread, it actually looks like a nice deep orange that adds just the perfect touch!

And another close up of the design, this Panto is a Floral Meander that is another one of my favorites, it add just the right touch, at least I think so and am surely hoping Andee and Kathy will be as pleased with them as I was in doing them!

Aaaah!

Finally a note on an absolutely awesome weekend! We drove Friday to Flagstaff to enjoy the afternoon dinging around, we had hoped to visit a few more antique shops but it was ten minutes to closing when we finally made it to one!

We needed a little pep start so we visited the Campus Coffee Shop, they were so good we went back twice before heading home! On the left is a Breve' and mine was a Harvest Chai, our next visit though I tried the Breve' and was hooks, so much so that Donnie has been working on perfecting one so we can enjoy them at home!

We made a visit to Bernina Connections little store and found some nice tea dyed muslin, I just liked the colors and have a vision for them! We also found the Pinetree Quilt Shop where I scored the Valdani Threads! They are just gorgeous and I was able to incorporate them into the big-stitch part of the class!

Here is our Teacher Joe Cunningham, he was fabulous! Was kind of expecting him to be a little on the feminine side but totally not so! And his techniques were exactly what I needed to be able to conquer the little and big stitches!

And last but definitely not least was meeting Libby! I wish I wasn't so shy, because I could have spent the day just hanging out with her! We also got to meet the Princess and she is equally as sweet! I promised I wasn't going to stalk her but I tell you I would love to be her very best friend if we lived closer!

Fun Times

The rains have finally come! It is amazing watching things change when they do, this is a creek that runs in front of our house, it sounded like the rapids and we even endured the soaked hammocks to enjoy the soothing sounds!

This is a shot of where our road runs, this is where the chick truck comes in handy! Oh Yeah! But since we have an alternate safer route we generally take it instead.

Really haven't been able to do much piecing or quilting, that is about the one thing that drives me nuts, being in the mountains we get horrid power surges and outages, we have blown a few modems due to sudden lighting strikes. That is where the hand cranks and treadles come in, I do have designated projects that I work on in just these situations.

This isn't one of them though, its what was being worked on before all got shut down, it is another denim and flannel, the walking foot makes it easier to put together and I haven't been able to find a suitable one for any of the vintage machines, now if I wasn't using the Davis that has the built in walking foot cabinet for my vanity in my room that would take care of that problem, ~smile~.

And here is the best for last!! I am heading to Flagstaff tomorrow, a day early to be able to tink around but I am signed up for a Hand Quilting Class with Joe Cunningham, I am going with my great friend J, we have been planning for months but of course who would wait until the day before she left to get the home work of basting done? Yeah, generally things like that would drive me crazy if they weren't done as soon as I knew about it but somehow I kept having problems deciding on what to baste for the class, so I chose a tea dyed muslin for the traditional part of the class then I dug through the top ladder and measured everything, some would have needed additional borders to make the 40' square that was required and other stuff was just to big, but then I spotted this recent finish, OK not so recent but enough in the vicinity to call it that, it measured out at 45 so did a happy dance and basted her up! She is going to be getting the Big Stitch treatment.

It has been years since dinging around with hand quilting so it was quite the challenge to get them basted, thankfully Donnie hung out with me and we talked about fishing and making plans to do so in the near future, that and he kept my coffee cup full so I would be able to keep working and not just pop them on the longarm and use it to baste them! Would have been so much easier but in the end it was nice to spend the time with each to get the feel of the fabric and imagine how they are going to look once done, a very nice bonding time indeed!

Then another awesome bit of news is that one of my absolute favorite bloggers is going to be in the same class! Libby from ~A Simple Girl~ , How cool is that, I promised not to stalk her but I tell ya it will be great to meet her and sure hope to get a picture with her. She is such an inspiration with every project she works on!

And I haven't even mentioned the total make over that my studio is going through, I visited another long armer's studio last week and it was just awesome! So before we even left my mind was already kicked into gear at what all I wanted to do, then came convincing DH what a great idea it would really be, in the end I bribed the kids, whoever helped willingly and wasn't asked twice to help was treated to their favorite place to eat, chinese! It looks great and there is only a few things left to get put into place but it ended up falling perfect with the power outages and surges we have been having, and it feels great having purged a bunch of stuff, another bonus was a lot of things are going to a gal who posted a request on freecycle for cross stitch items, that was my passion before quilting so once it is gone I will have even more room!

Ok, this is way long, haven't even gotten to Levia and her little brush with a tree while out on a quad ride, sigh, kids..............thankfully all fingers work but boy she bruised it but good!

More light stuff~

Here is my chuckle picture, the original shot didn't include the truck in the background but when I seen it back there I adjusted the doo-hickey so I could get a shot of my truck in the background, she is affectionately called the 'chick-truck', and her plates read MTNQLTR, go girl!! By the way that water in the background is what I guess would be called Lake Havasu.

Here is Don in uniform, he had the honor of pinning Scott's badge on and had to sit in a different section than the rest of us, he was lonely.........

I would have gotten a shot of Dad hugging Son but a huge bug flew into my eye at that exact moment and both my eyes started leaking, true story with a twist.

Well its about time little brother showed up! Make you wonder who looks up to who!

Something Light~

This is my Mom's quilt, I can't recall the line of fabric that the squares are, pretty sure they were from Moda but she went a little crazy in putting it together, it is huge!! But it came out so nice once it was washed!

And here is one sunflower that reseeded itself from last year, I had Donnie just start watering the areas where we had planted in the past and this one actually had to have blown in from another area. Since we aren't getting much in the rain department I had to have him stop since we are on a well and a never ending draught, so prayerfully once the monsoon kicks in whatever is out there will start popping! I have a shot also of some hollyhocks I think they are called that also must have blown in from the neighbors yard.

And here is one shot of 142 photos that I took on Scott's graduation day, I wish Chad would have been there for it, he and Levia rode in with their Grandparents for the ceremony that started at 11am while we arrived at 6:45am to see the final inspection part of it!

They are Donnie (Jr.), Dad (Sr.), Blake, Scott and William, it is one of my favorites shots and now I need to weed through the rest and start getting copies made.

Don delivered Mrs. Black her tumbler and she loved it! I waited to hear with bated breath but from all accounts and I got a minute by minute one that I drug out of Don, ~smile~, she was out that afternoon picking paint to re-do the room where she plans to use it. I was very honored to hear that, and it was a perfect distraction for her to get through her first week without Chuck. Did I mention they were married 54 years? Amazing!

Haven't been doing much in the piecing department but have been quilting like a mad women this past week once I got recouped from the two before. I am missing it though and think something mindless might be in order and I have the perfect project for just that type of piecing!

ps. I love the spell-checker! It is my friend! ~smile~

Proud Moment!

First there is a Big Fat Congratulations in order! This Little Bugger, also soon to be known as Deputy Davis, had his final exams this last Friday and passed! We didn't expect anything otherwise as he has been preparing for this day since he turned 17! Graduation is this coming Friday and he will have a good 20 people there to cheer and celebrate with him! Afterwards we are going to host a big bar-b-q bash, thankfully my Dad and Mom are coming in Tuesday night to not only visit but help put it all together! Good Times! Then he will have the weekend off and report for duty at 6am Monday morning,

Then here is just a quick shot of the two baby quilts I finally got quilted, the one on the left is a pattern from Jan Patek, I like her stuff!

The Pink one is for Rosie, it is going to have the scalloped edges, the design idea is from Alex Anderson's Baby Quilt Book, she has some cute stuff in that one and Christmas Goose Quilt Shop in Las Vegas had quite a few samples up on one visit this last year.

I probably should have marked it first before quilting but I figured it wouldn't really matter, we shall see!

Was hoping to put up a shot of the quilt I did for my Mom but must have accidentally deleted them from my camera thinking I had already downloaded them. That is OK though as I put the first phase of the binding on it while in Vegas so will have her bring it back up so as to retake the pictures. She found a really pretty blue to go against the gold sashing and it is really going to be very striking when done, plus it will be washed by then and that always makes the quilt and quilting stand out for better shots.

Sorry for the jumble!

I have no idea why I can't get things lined up properly! The posts are looking horrible so please bear with me while I try to figure it out!

Any suggestions fellow bloggers?

Trying again! This Goof is David, we were trying to figure if we needed to add another row and this was his way of deciding!

And we did, I originally wanted it to be a charm but since making the change I ended up duplicating, this quilt is a gift to a special family friend and I cut for two quilts using the wonking huge tumbler template from Pinwheels. When you look at her you can see she is a Daiwabo Lady!

Her Husband of 54 years had been dying a slow death from cancer and originally I was wanting it to be a little something for her while dealing with it all. It turns out he died the day before it was to be delivered so we held it back for a week.

Don took it with him this morning and will deliver it tomorrow so I will be anxiously waiting to hear what she has to say!

I don't think I can make too many of these! It is probably one of my absolute favorite patterns and it is

making me want to get another one that I have going with all scraps completed!

This was my first time dealing with

an odd ball binding but it went great and now I am ready to tackle the baby quilt that requires scalloped edges! I got that plus another quilted up yesterday so it will be neat to see it completed as well!

Little Rosie is only 9 months old now so she won't mind having waited a little while! ~smile~

Does Dirty Little Boys Bath apply to Carpets?

It seems we go through with a Rug Doctor every six months! Generally we do a thorough cleaning once a year with touch ups throughout.








The folks who had the house before us were a little on the eccentric side and had this once creamy carpet througout, it is very nice carpet but man alive it just doesn't cut it with this crew. I was going to get everyone together and get a shot of the 18 feet that travel through here but thought it might be a little over the top, hmmm, I just might do it still because it just sounds funny now!








Donnie took over for a bit since he likes to wear combat boots and travel the hills I figured he owed a little more to the cause.








William was in charge of the keeping hot water going and I didn't get a shot of Blake as he was in charge of emptying the mud er dirt water out!

and here is Courtney after getting everything put back into place, it always smells so fresh afterwards!

Hanging Head in Shame~

This about sums it up! It pretty much started a good month ago, there has just been so much going on with the family and trying to get projects into the completion stage.

We decided that we are going to get a booth at one of the local craft fairs that is put on at the lodge where the kids work, so that means having to prepare things to sell! Plus I am hoping that it will also bring a little more attention to some quilting services!

I have done quite a few things but one quilt I had the privilege of doing was for Niki, here is the link to the quilt as she did a much finer job in taking pictures of it!

Then I just felt like I needed to add a little sunshine into my life so came up with this monstrosity! Still toying with adding borders but I am leaning more to quilting it with some spirals and binding it in a bright red.

It really is quite cheerful to gaze upon, especially from a distance with sunscreen and shades on!

There are a lot of pictures I need to get downloaded so I can share a little bit more of what all has been going on.

There were a few weeks thrown in there of my not feeling so great, I am 99.9% sure it was a little ulcer I have acting up, wasnt doing a good job of just venting things, I tend to just hold things in a wait for them to pass but sometimes it is ok to just stick your head under a pillow and scream, I am getting there though and all is well again!

Thank you Ladies for the nice notes that were sent my way in wondering where I had disappeared to! It felt great knowing you cared!

More to come!!

Getting Old~

I am a day late in wishing everyone a Happy Mothers Day! It is a special day but we seem to celebrate every holiday every day of the year! Sounds crazy huh? I think the main thing I look for is what kind of card Don finds for me and who he has set up to put it out for me as he is generally not home to do it himself.

I had ordered some supplies for the Longarm and Scottie grabbed up the statement and wrote a check out for the total so that was his gift to me! I was thrilled! Then Levia bought me a new Bible, mine has been falling apart slowly the past few years, Don had bought it for me right after we started dating 22 years ago, I will still use it for my personal devotions but the new one will be for Church.

Courtney came home with a Lobster Tail and Fillet Mignon from the lodge! She is something else, they had extras left over from the special menu and she negotiated a deal to be able to bring me one! It was after 11 when she got off but I stayed up for it! Haven't had some of that in years!!

Then Saturday night Scottie Levia and I went to see Trace Adkins! It was a great show and what makes it funner is the fact they offer special deals to the locals so it was a buy one ticket get one free! Can't beat that and since I have the Jetta back home we can drive there pretty economically!

Then my Folks came up on Thursday and stayed until noon time Saturday, it was nice but boy they wear me out! Mother always wants to go shopping so I spend the days hauling her around, and they are now looking at the different areas and homes so they can start planning their move. Then Dad (he is my step-dad but he has earned the honor of being called Dad!!) likes to bring movies so we were up until 2am each night then back up by 7am starting the day. Yawn!!

Today I am playing catch up, and hopefully get to some quilting, started a new project, need to still finish an old one..............and Mother brought a quilt she just finished up for me to longarm, she also brought the backing that I need to piece yet. Usually I put the binding on for her to stitch down but she forgot and I conveniently didn't mention it!

Guess I put the days if reverse order here, didn't make back to Tuesday nights activities, Chad and Dale talked me into going to see Iron Man, the only kicker is since they closed the theatre here the closest now is in Laughlin, and the tickets here were $2.50 per person, there $9!! but the last show is only $5 and that was 11:45pm, sigh, so that is the one we went to, thankfully Levia was up to going along as well, I have to say it was worth it, the movie was great!

There you have it in a nutshell, I am anxious to get back into a routine and I see there is going to be a quiltathon this coming weekend so may take advantage of it and get some stuff finished up!

Some Encouragement!

YOU SAY
GOD SAYS
BIBLE VERSES
You say: 'It's impossible'
God says: All things are possible
(Luke 18:27)

You say: 'I'm too tired'
God says: I will give you rest
(Matthew 11:28-30)

You say: 'Nobody really loves me'
God says: I love you
(John 3:1 6 & John 3:34 )

You say: 'I can't go on'
God says: My grace is sufficient
(II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)

You say: 'I can't figure things out'
God says: I will direct your steps
(Proverbs 3:5- 6)

You say: 'I can't do it'
God says: You can do all things
(Philippians 4:13)

You say: 'I'm not able'
God says: I am able
(II Corinthians 9:8)

You say: 'It's not worth it'
God says: It will be worth it
(Roman 8:28 )

You say: 'I can't forgive myself'
God says: I Forgive you
(I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)

You say: 'I can't manage'
God says: I will supply all your needs
(Philippians 4:19)

You say: 'I'm afraid'
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear
(II Timothy 1:7)

You say: 'I'm always worried and frustrated'
God says: Cast all your cares on ME
(I Peter 5:7)

You say: 'I'm not smart enough'
God says: I give you wisdom
(I Corinthians 1:30)

You say: 'I feel all alone'
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you
(Hebrews 13:5)

Back at it

Hello! Ever feel like you just don't have anything to say? I kind of felt like that the past couple weeks, mostly because I went and exposed myself to too much sun and came down with a nice case of sun poisoning and it is usually my lips that get it the worst! It was kind of my own fault because I forgot my sun protection at home but it was a nice cool breezy day and thought all would be well. Not!

So now I not only have one tube of the 40spf but 4 and I these guys are constantly nagging me about it, then as things were healing up I had a yummy piece of pizza from Papa Murphy's that's cheese was still piping hot from the oven that got right in a sore spot and that part is taking awhile to heal up. Ouchi~Momma!

Figured it usually takes a good two weeks to clear up so I enjoyed a few books that have been compiling and even did two runs into Vegas, one was to a sale at Quiltique, a shop in Henderson that was having a nice sale, did get two fat quarters there but struck gold at Joann's that had their denim 50% off. I did manage to get 12 yards without blinking an eye!

We had stopped at Fiddlestick's and I made it out with a pattern but when we had to stop again on our way home I ended up with 4 yards of 2 different solids. They are absolutely gorgeous and will make up a nice 2 color quilt!

The next trip was to get my Darlins' car serviced, we spent the night at my Folk's and rode home with him when he got off work,
it put us home at about 4am! It was nice to be with him though, he spends 4 days away from us and sometimes it gets to me, especially when I am not feeling well!

By Saturday I was feeling up to getting going again in the studio,
I had this quilt all cut out and ready to go, sometimes it is nice to
work on something mindless, but once I got to putting the other half together my brain couldn't comprehend the middle section.








I had bought the kit at a quilt show probably 8 years ago at a little
show in Vegas. About a year ago I came across the very same quilt on McCall's site that was a free pattern! It had been copied word for word and sold under another name, it left a bad taste. I decided not to add any additional borders to the copycat, it just said done to me! But I was able to figure out what I was missing from going to the web site for help!








I don't usually buy any fabrics from Wal-Mart, but I do check out the denim from time to time and found this cool striped one! I chose all dark plaid flannels to back it and thought by turning the blocks it might give it a weaved affect, not sure yet if it will but the colors are very stunning together so either way it will be a pretty throw!

I just finished stitching up the backing for the copycat and will get it loaded up, the binding is cut as well so it will be nice to cross it off the list, I need to rename it on the side bar as well.

As for the Books I was offering, they have all found new homes! I was thrilled to be able to share them with the ones who left comment and not worry about having to draw a name! Bren suggested The Ultimate Quilting would be great for a beginner so I asked if she knew of one and did! So I am thrilled to pass that on, it turns out it is another Blogging Gal who's Blog I enjoy so am doubly thrilled to gift her and her daughters with it!