Final Count - 12 Inches!

Well, the final count is 12 inches of snow from 5am to 4pm! Wheeeewww! I had forgotten what it was like! I'm glad I don't have to deal with it every day all season! Having to go to work would really stink!

Are you getting sick of looking at snow? Too bad - there's more coming!

Worst Snow Storm of the Season!!!!!!

We are expecting 10" of snow today!!!! My brother called this morning and said "Are you happy now!???!!!!" Well I am excited about the snow, but I do hate that many people have to make their way to work in this mess. Once it stops the main roads will be clear.


There is a paved road just beyond the pine tree in this picture.

This is looking off the side porch, the street is just beyond that pine tree.

My sister has been out to sweep off the porch twice since 6 this morning it is now 10:30 am and it needs it again.

She cleaned this off just minutes ago - it is covered again.

There is more to come Sunday and on and off all next week. I may be stuck here till spring.

Looky What I Did!

I was just looking at all the pictures that have collected on my camera and I realized I had not shown everyone some of the projects that have kept me off the computer lately.

I made Koozies for everyone I work with at the Post Office. For all the ladies I embroidered this little vintage blue bird and flowers on one side and

Monogrammed their initial on the other side.

They sure turned out pretty. I hope they like them.

The guys got one with something that they enjoy doing on it. Danny talks about playing golf, Johnny and his wife go camping, Henry is a preacher, Larry S. and Minwell like to deer hunt and Larry M. said something about Poker Night so I jumped on that for him.

I didn't get them in bags and labeled before leaving for Michigan, so they won't get them until I get back. Oh well, they didn't know they were getting anything from me anyway. I'm always a day late and a dollar short! Sigh!

There's No Place Like Home!!!!!!!

I have two! Michigan where I was born and raised and where my brothers, sister and all the kids live. Then there is Texas where I have spent the last 27 years of my life with my soul mate and many wonderful friends! Both are home to me, but being 1300 miles apart sure makes life rough!!! When leaving Texas Monday morning, I was very sad. I was already missing my dear husband and silly little dogs! But I was so looking forward to seeing the family! In a few weeks I will be missing Texas, my husband, dogs, and my Wackies and I will be ready to be home, but not wanting to leave everyone here! Oh the agony!



For now though, I'm going to enjoy everyone here and call Wayne every day to tell him what all we did and find out how Texas is surviving without me and be happy for all my wonderful Blessing!



I'll keep yawl posted on my goings on. Hugs - Kath

Praise the Lord!!!!!

God sure does love me and watches over me! Again, just like last Christmas, I arrived at my sister's house in Michigan just hours before a snow storm!

This picture was taken Wednesday morning. I arrived Tuesday afternoon.

I left Mexia Monday morning about 7 am. The only hazard at that time was the wind. By 4 pm I was in northern Arkansas just crossing the border into Missouri and it started sleeting! What a mess! In the next two hours I saw 5 accidents! After crossing the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois everything started clearing off. Unfortunately my car was not running very well. Missing and chugging here and there. So I decided to shut down a little earlier than planned (7 pm) fill up the car and give the ol' girl a shot of gas treatment and get a room for this old body! After a bite to eat at Cracker Barrel and checking the weather, I put myself to bed. The weather channel said the whole mid section of the country was under a "Winter Storm" warning. Could I possibly sleep a couple of hours and head out early enough to be in front of the storm????

I woke up a couple of times and checked out the window to make sure the storm had not caught up to me and about 4:30 am I couldn't stand it any more. I got up and showered and hit the road again. And Praise the Lord! It was dry roads all the way! I made great time and was at my sister's by 4:30 pm! They had been predicting the snow to start around 5 pm in the "Thumb" area of Michigan. But it didn't start until 7 or so.

This is the view from my sister's front porch on Wednesday morning!

Very beautiful! The roads were fairly clear - the salt trucks and snow plows had been out all night. All is well for right now, but there is another storm coming in on Thursday with freezing rain and more snow. I can do without the freezing rain, but I do love the snow! I feel like a kid again - hoping for a snow day! TeHe

Home-Sickness

I have been feeling a little sad lately - missing my family. As some of you know - I was born and raised in Michigan and all of my family is still there. I have been here in Texas for 27 years and have been home once every year until I retired in 2005. That year I went home in October for 3 weeks and again at Christmas for 4 weeks! It was so wonderful!!!! I have tried to make it home twice a year since. Although, I haven't been since last Christmas and when the price of gas kept going up and up all summer - it was looking like it would be next year before I could go again. But now with gas prices going back down and the deep ache in my heart . . . well . . . I'm going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm thinking I will leave around the 15th of December and stay until around the 4th of January. I'm afraid Christmas in Texas just isn't Christmas. Don't get me wrong . . . the reason for the season is Christ's Birth and no matter where I am that is what I celebrate. But it just seems that what makes the holidays even more special, are the childhood memories. Texas has much beauty and I love many things here, more so, I love many people here, but family is family and Christmas requires SNOW!

Let me introduce you to my family:

This is my big brother, Lee, (he's 10 years older than me) his wife Florence and their youngest son, Arend (who is in his late 20s and works for Edward Jones in New York City). The little guy at the bottom of the picture is my great nephew, Jason.

This is my "older" sister, Jan (she looks younger than me and she is 8 years older! Not fair!) The boys are her grandsons, Jason II and Cole. Little Cole has some very serious medical issues that Drs can't seem to diagnose.

Isn't he the cutest?! He is 10 and little Cole is 5.

This is Jason and Diana. Jason is Jan's son and the little boys, Jason and Cole are their little boys.

The pretty young lady seated is my sister's daughter, Jennifer. She is a nurse practitioner. The handsome young man behind her is her husband, Claudio. He is from Italy.

This is my "little" brother, Paul. He is 5 years younger than me. He is holding his grandson, Andre.

Here he is with his two daughters, Leah, 18 and Amanda 19. Amanda is Andre's mom.

Now, get this . . . this is Jerry and Andre. Jerry is Andre's uncle. Yes, Jerry is Paul's youngest - age 5. Andre is 3.






This is Andre's mom and dad and Aunt Leah.

See why I want to go home? I need to go every 3 or 4 months to be able to keep up with everyone! I am missing so much!!!!

Ok, I'll shut up! Just wanted to introduce you to my gang. It gave me a good reason to spend some time looking at pictures!

I'll get back to some quilting stuff tomorrow.

Good night!

Opening Weekend Retreat

Oh! We are having SEW much fun! With Hollowen this weekend the creatures have come out!!!!!!
Kathy has a little visitor on her machine - no more Janome chirp!

Can you believe Rhonda would let this little feller' sit on her finger?
What the heck?!?!?! They seem to be a little surprised about something!


Ok, Ok, put your eyes back in your heads and GET TO WORK! Quit playing around!

Ok - first we have Molly working diligently. She wants those RWB Wacky blocks done! It's time for something new!

Well, Kathy has quite a string of pieces there. Do you have any idea which end is up?

Who me? Well, I have decided on this border . . . well, maybe this border . . . . no I don't like that one either . . . How about. . . Well, bother!

Oh Annie! Your blue and yellow is beautiful! You go girl!

Here is a two year old project - blocks were done but not put together. It's called "Buck A Block" from "Thangles". Just love that border!

There! Borders on another project - ready to go in the "To Quilt" pile!

This one is made from "charm packs" and "jelly rolls".

Lookie Here Now . . .

Well, it has been a while since I posted and I have been busy! So get a drink and a comfy chair and take a look at what I have been up to. . .

First I want to show you what I got in the mail . . . it is awesome!

This is my Round Robin. Actually - I have not put a stitch into this piece! I joined a group of gals for this round robin and ran out of time to "build" a center, so I went hunting for an orphan block and ran across a "brown box" swap that I participated in about 5 years ago! My theme was "Cabin in the Woods by the Lake". Catchy huh? Anyway - I picked out a block that Molly made for me . . . a cute little cabin with a squirrel. I loved the fall-looking fabric she used so I loaded up my round robin box with some of my favorite fabric scraps and off it went. The first one to do a round was Monica. This gal is truly talented! The next round was by Erika - the fabrics she picked were fabulous! Then Carol did a creative round with canoes, trees, bear tracks and flying geese. One of the ladies in our group got very sick and was unable to do her round, so Monica asked if I would mind if she did another round. Well, I loved my little quilt just like it was, but I also knew that Monica would really add something wonderful to it, so . . . there you have it! Not only did she add another beautiful round, but she also put the design in EQ6 and sent me the file so that I can play around with more possibilities! What a gal!

Now for some stuff I've been working on . . .

Well, shoot! I didn't make any of these either! This is the Wacky Pac Quilter's 2008 string swap. I chose the middle fabric and placed it diagonally in the center of a 13 1/2" square of muslin and gave each of my 8 Wacky sisters 3 and they added strips of cream on one side and browns on the other. They were laying on my cutting table this past weekend and I decided to git-r-done! So I squared them up to 12 1/2 and set them together, then added a border . . .

Then another . . .

That is probably as far as I would have gone, but I was talking to Kathy E. and she decided I needed to be challenged. (Little did she know, I am very challenged!) My challenge is to have it quilted, the binding on and a label by our (Wacky Pac) "Opening Weekend" retreat. October 30, 31, November 1, 2. Well, I just have to have it done or . . . well, I had just better have it done!
I had to go to the Dr. Tuesday in Waco so I dropped by the nice little quilt shop - Tomorrow's Quilts - and purchased a backing for the quilt. That's not all I bought - but I'll cover that later. Hopefully I will have it loaded on the machine tomorrow.

Now, remember the barn block that I made and was going to have to do 13 more for a swap in January? Well, all 13 are cut out and ironed down! They just need to be stitched down. I will probably try to do one a week, until I get them finished. Stitching around all that makes me sleepy!



Well, you must be getting a little bored now, so here are some pictures of some stuff I have added to my studio . . . I put 2 long shelves up in the room where my quilting machine is. This is where I will store battings and quilts needing to be quilted.

Some of the tubs on the shelves have kits or projects in them.






This last one is of my embroidery area, which is the long part of an "L" shaped work area.
That's it for tonight - I'm beat! Hope you enjoyed my last two weeks of work! I feel good about all I have accomplished.
Later!

This is for You Monica

Most of my other followers know all this already.

A. Attached or Single? attached
B. Best Friend? My sister, Jan
C. Cake or pie? Pie (Pecan)
D. Day of choice? Saturday
E. Essential item? FAN!
F. Favorite color? Blue
G. Gummy bears or worms? worms, I think - Kathy E. shared some with me once.
H. Hometown? Brown City, Michigan
I. Favorite indulgence? Retreats with my dear quilting sisters!
J. January or July? July in Michigan and January in Texas!
K. Kids? None of my own, but many by other mothers.
L. Life isn’t complete without? my family, my husband, and my quilting sister.
M. Marriage date? April 27, 1996
N. Number of brothers and sisters? Two brothers and One sisters
O. Oranges or Apples? Apples, Girl! You crack me up! -unless we are talking about those chocolate orange balls that you whack against the table then cram into your mouth like a squirrel on a 10 day starve.
P. Phobias? Under water, tight spaces, large crowds
Q. Quotes? "Blessings are like buttons; people seldom notice them until one is missing." I like that one too!
R. Reasons to smile? Reading your blog!!!!
S. Season of choice? Spring and Fall but I like Cinnomon too!
T. Tag 5 people: I never tag any one...I never like to pressure anyone except my husband. Dito
U. Unknown fact about me? My mother was from England, her mother was from Irland and my dad's ancestors were native Indian and German. Now tell me I'm not a confused soul.
V. Vegetable? Brocoli and corn on the cob
W. Worst habit? Living to eat instead of eating to live.
X. X-ray or Ultrasound? Lets hope that I don't have to choose. Dito
Y. Your favorite food? Italian, Seafood
Z. Zodiac sign? Sagittarious

Building Barns

One down and 12 more to go!!! Crap! What was I thinking! Same as always - I got caught up in the excitment. I guess it's not that bad.

Here it is before I stitched it.

After I stitched it:

Here's a little detail.

Another Project Complete!

Here's another project ready to go! My Wacky Americana blocks:

Thanks

Just a quick thanks to all of you that made comments. You are so very sweet! I will do better with posting.

Thanks again - see you in cyber space!

Deer Camp Koozies

Here are the koozies I have been working on. On one side it says "Quality Drinkin' Time Sheffield, TX" That's the town that the lease is near. On the other side there is a deer rack and it says "Nothin' But Horns".

The story, as I understand it, is that, one very cold windy hunting day, 3 fearless hunters, Wayne Wells, Wayne Hughes and Brick Sullivan took one of the hunting vehicles (one with a heater) to a favorite hunting spot. They sat quietly, sipping on an icy cold beverage, waiting for "the big one" to show up in the clearing. When suddenly something came into view. Well's drew up the binoculars and one of the other great hunters steadied their gun out the window of the vehicle and whispered, "Whadoyasee, Wells?" To which he replied softly, "Nothin' But Horns, man! Nothin' But Horns!" Well, if you know Wells like I do, then you probably already know that he added something like "Shoot the Bastard!" Any way - that's where that little saying came from. There's probably more to that story than this - but you will have to ask one of the great hunters about it to get the real feeling of being there!

Anyway - on the bottom of each koozie are the initials of each man on the deer lease. That is to keep them from fighting over them! LOL