So Many Activities happening...

 Well here I go again. The month is almost over and I'm just now putting together a blog post of everything happening.  

Started the month off with a few doctor visits and surprise my A1C is 5.3. Yahoo! It hasn't been that low in at least 15+ years. And the rest of the lab work numbers were all in the normal range. Now they didn't test brain waves but bloodwork was all good.  The brain probably wouldn't come back normal. lol

Thursday 7/9 was book club time. Our book for discussion this month was "Confessions on the 7:45" by Lisa Unger chosen by Peggy.  This was a good book but a little crazy. The wife discovers her husband is having a fling with the nanny via the Nanny cam. Ooops.  Then for some odd reason she decides to tell a total stranger on the 7:45 train the whole story. But there's a few twists and turns and some people aren't who they appear to be. The Detective is determined to sort out all the facts and find the truth. 

For this meeting we met at Emily's home. Plenty of room in the dining area and no extra noise. We make plenty of our own noise chattering about anything and everything.

 

These ladies are so much fun. Then maybe tonight Jamie helped by making and bringing the jello shots.

  

Didn't take an official picture of the group but got this one. It happens. Until next month..

Isn't Jerry handsome with the yellow of the pasture in the background.   The next picture is of Jerry and a new friend. When I drove up they were nose to nose. 

 
He actually has lots of new friends.  We ended up selling our last 6 cows and now lease our property to the young man down the road. One less thing for David to worry about. At least he doesn't have to worry about me killing him with a hay bale. 😲 I would never.

This is a busy month. On Saturday 7/11 we and the other Kennedy's went to the Gin on Nolan Creek for a yummy dinner and then over to Wilson Valley Mercantile in Little River for drinks and the music of Trick Myers.

These are David's volunteer purslanes.  This is the first time they've come up like this. We had two hanging baskets of them and this year all these popped up. Love them. Hopefully they'll return again next year and more.  

On Sunday 7/12 I went to Houston with Pamela for our friend Brittany and Avery's baby shower.  They're opening the baby quilt I made and Pamela helped with the design. 

And I made special quilted gift postcard

 

Big sister Adelina helped.  She has a quilt I made her when she was born and now little sister will have her own quilt. 

 

I hope the little one likes her new quilt to keep warm and wrapped in hugs.

On Wednesday 7/15 the exercise group got together and surprised our friend Michele for her birthday. She's out of commission since she broke her foot and had to have surgery on it. 

She has a scooter to keep her foot up. She's not been allowed to put weight on it.  Her husband kept the secret and Michele couldn't figure out why all the cars were pulling up to her house.  LOL Surprise!  

We only stayed a couple hours so we wouldn't wear her out.  Found that as of last Thursday I think she can put partial weight on her foot.  We miss her smile at exercise.

A few days later the book club went out to celebrate the 3 girls who have birthdays in July-September early. 

We started at Hush & Whisper in downtown Bryan for drinks and then on to Casa Monarca for supper. So much fun! Good drinks, food and friendship.

Most but not all of the drinks were served with orchids. Emily even got one with a popsicle in it. I had a yummy chocolate martini with a sprig of mint. The drinks had interesting names and can't remember a one of them right now.

The birthday girls.  Sheri in Orange, Linda with blue print top and Ina is in the next picture with Kelli.

I'm pretty sure they and everyone else had a great time.  Even the drinks at Casa Monarco came with orchids.

The first drink is my spicy margarita. My first margarita since 2020 when I went into Afib after having a margarita. It didn't cause it, it just happened but I avoided them for the last 6 years.

Kelli had her own flight of margarita's.

Emily and Teri shared a flight and tasted each one to determine which they liked best.

And the food was soooo good. This is just the food I got pictures of.

  

I can't say enough about the service either. The staff were very attentive and got all the orders out in a timely manner.  They brought lemon drop shots for the birthday girls and a piece of cheesecake. Too cool. This group of 10 had no complaints but had lots of fun. 

I'll end on this happy note. 

Oh wait let me ask this question...

How can our baby girl be comfortable like this?  LOL This is how she sleeps most nights. But Sadie is all proper when laying on her pallet in the den.

      

Until next post...A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.     ~ Bernard Meltzer

It's all about quilts, laughs and friendship

 So Saturday (6/27) I finished packing and loading my car to head to Hummingbird Quilt Retreat with 10 of my Quilty friends on Sunday. We've never been to this place so let's hope it's good one.  Of course I have to worry about leaving David because he's had a nasty virus since last Week. 

Sunday (6/28) David says he feels better than yesterday but still no real appetite. And he's basically avoiding food so he won't feel so bad but he said he was ok. So I hopped in the car at 11:30 and headed out for Huntsville.  The group met at Papa Lachos on the I45 feeder in Huntsville. Diana was there on Saturday and hooked us up with Edgar and he was ready for us. Great service and the food was good. We got finished early so we headed out to the retreat to waste at the quilt shop because we weren't supposed to be able to check in before 3 but we got surprised. The gals from the retreat came out and told us to go ahead and unload they were done cleaning things up. Yippee!

The Hummingbird Quilt Retreat was clean, comfortable, and the food was tasty. It even had a quilt shop for us to shop. Of course none of us bought anything. Cough cough. And the owner Martha was a sweetheart. We will be going back hopefully next year to bug her again. LOL

Six of the ladies in the above picture are in ths picture from our first retreat together in 2013 @ RR Retreats by Margie in LaGrange.  Can you find us or yourself? We might of changed a tad but not much. It's been an adventure and sew many laughs and quilt

The retreat house had so many cool antiques around the house. Like the drive in speakers or this old switch board. Several of us immediately thought of Lily Tomlin as Ernestine at the Switch Board on Laugh In

 

One Ringy Dingy Two Ringy Dingy Three Ringy Dingy

A while back I started making bags for my long time retreaters to carry their ironing and cutting mats and/or  rulers. The idea came to me when I was trying to carry my mats and rules without dropping one or all of them. I always managed to drop something out of the stack. LOL It's been a learning experience making them. Each one I've made has gotten better. My apologies to the first 5 ladies to receive theirs. At this retreat Ellen got her bag.
Should have gotten a picture of Donna Marie and Bekki but I can share a picture of their bags.  90% of the fabrics of sewing/quilting themed but I try to include each gals favorite color, fabric or something that represents them. One girl loves cats so there were cats playing with yarn etc.

I have maybe 5 more to make and one to make for a newer quilter Tina. 

I have fun and silly quilt friends. Group hug and selfie.

 Everyone has projects they've put off and are trying to finish. Ellen is working on her Hawaiian quilt top and Judy is working a colorful block top.

Bekki was working on the blue and white top and she did finish but I didn't get a picture. She moved on to a top she ripped apart and total resewed it.

 

Can we just say this top Denise is working on is mind blowing. This girl works with some of the smallest blocks then puts them in an order that makes a beautiful and unique quilt top.

Now to brag on this girl.. Valerie is Ellen's daughter. She is her mother's daughter and so energetic and talented.

This is her second retreat with us.  She actually designed this fabric. Not her first one. 

 

She can also take say a pair denim jeans or anything else and turn them into a vest and a skirt. No real pattern, she just creates. So impressive.

Sandy Y. working on I think a casserole carrier. I forgot but then she worked on a pretty blue panel top. Donna Lynn is working on her pretty vintage quilt top.

   

With Fabric under the needle and the creativity flowing the wine starts coming out in the evening.  My friend Judy bought me a wine that was perfect for a quilt retreat. It's from Thread Count.. a white wine called Quilt. 

   

And we got a surprise visit from Kim.  She hasn't been able to retreat with us for a couple of years. She's missed so it was great seeing her. She looks great.

We always play a game of Left Right Center. This was a crazy game this retreat. The first round or two almost everyone rolled a C, which meant you had to toss a $ into the bucket.  Or like me you roll the 3 dice and I get an L C and an R.  Good thing we start with 5 one dollar bills. And the person to my left rolled an R so she had to pass a dollar back to me. 

So what do I do the next time I get the dice.... I roll 3 C's.  Really I mean really. I was out. Now I did have a dollar passed back to me a couple times but I promptly lost on my next roll. LOL

 Poor Bekki sat through at least 5 rounds with no money and got so excited when she received but lost on another round.

Now can you guess who won! Yep Denise.

 

Sandy B. takes a break from working on quilt tops she works on her diamond painting flag.  Donna is bugging Bekki. LOL

   

Donna Marie is working on finishing up two more Little Dress quilt tops called Dressed to the Nines if I remember right.  I think these make 5 she's made now. They're adorable. Se was sew excited when she finished them. 

  

Then she started working on little house. She was having fun deciding who/what would stand in the doorways. Can't wait to see what it will look like when she finishes.  This block is one you can make a few at a time, put it in a project bag and come back later and make some more.  Say make one house a day or a week and you'll have a whole neighborhood.  They're fun and easy.  

Bekki took this quilt completely apart. I didn't see what it looked like before but it looks cool now. I finished another t-shirt quilt top for my daughter. It went home with Donna Lynn to quilt it.

And Ellen finished her quilt top for her bed made with primarily fabric she had bought when in Hawaii if I remember right. So bright and colorful. Really pretty. 

Diana finished her Sasquatch quilt top. They're sew cute.

It was a productive week for everyone and we went to town to check out 2 fabric stores there in Huntsville. One was the Fabric Carousel and the other was Little Split Peas. Both great shops and super nice staff.

We didn't want to leave but it was time to go home Thursday (7/2). I checked on my husband everyday while gone since when I left he was feeling sick. We think food poisoning but not sure. He kept telling me he was fine but it was time to find out for sure.

How about this I managed to put our retreat into one post.

Until next post....Life is quiltisentially about being together