A First - Giving a class, a sew a long & a completion.

Well I did a thing.. I said yes to teaching a friend how to quilt. I warned and continue to warn her that quilting is an expensive hobby. But it does provide gratification. You create something by your own hands and either keep or  give that creation as a gift.  I give probably 95% of mine away. I rarely keep them. Where would I put them all.  Fabric runs $14-$28/yard and most quilts will take at least a total of 7-8 for just a lap or twin size. Then you have to pay for the quilting which can run .02 - .05 cents per inch. So you do the math. Oh and you need thread and batting plus the person's time that put the quilt together. So if you get a homemade quilt as a gift don't think the person is being cheap. LOL  I know most of my readers don't think that but there are some folks out there that do.  Anyway.....

Emily is my student and she's never sewn before. Clothing, quilts, crafts zip. So her first class was learning to cut with the rulers and rotary cutter.  I had made Emily a care package so we went through it and I explained why she would or might need the items.  Like Jack the Ripper. LOL  A sewer's least favorite tool, a seam ripper. It never fails that you'll sew a block up wrong.  I gave her some scraps to continue practice cutting and when she felt comfortable to start some fabric to make a Nine Patch block.  

Well she understood the assignment. Of course she did and I showed her how to lay out her blocks.  She did have to cut some more blocks to be able to make a quilt top.  She did a good job.

 

She pulled out her project journal I created for her with cheat sheets and Project Tracker to mark off the column for cutting.  I told her our next class will be learning her machine and  sewing the blocks together.  

We'll also need to go on her first fabric shopping trip. We need fabric for the sashing between the 9 patch blocks. I'm trying to teach her the good habits. Like pressing her fabric before cutting and how to square up her blocks as she goes along.  Two things I have been not to do but I'm getting better.  

The photographer for VTRA group at the race on the 9 & 10 in Little River captured a picture of David's motorcycle all shiny and waiting for it's turn to show off

Another thing I started last week was a Sew A Long with Moda's Blockhead 7 blocks. There's 38 blocks to make. One a week so maybe I can keep up and finish.

They used Fat Quarters and I just happened to have a Riley Blake Fat Quarter Bundle.  Hopefully it's enough to get all 38 blocks done. I find out.  

I picked the colors for my first block and chose which colors I wanted to use in this first block and labeled them.  You also have choices of what sizes to make your blocks 9, 12, 18, or 24. You can mix the sizes too.  I chose the 12" size thinking that should be easy enough. That's what I get for thinking. When I started cutting for the first block I realized that of the parts are really small. Yikes but I did.  

Block 1 finished.

Now Block 2 looked easy enough except for the paper piecing part. I am not goo with paper piecing but after watching the tutorial at least 4 times and twisted and turned the template I finally got it. Again I marked all the pieces so I'd know which was which. I laid the template on the fabric and lined it up according to the tutorial, double checked the line up had a 1/4" seam allowance, 

  

pressed it, then trimmed the excess off fabric.
                             

I sewed the left point to the right point and it worked! Until I sewed it together wrong and out comes Jack the Ripper. I didn't press the wrong one so it wasn't too back to rip out the seams. 

 

Here's Block 1 and 2. I only added one new color to block 2. The blue floral. Can't wait to see what block 3 looks like. 

Friday (10/16) was Debra's birthday. She's in bookclub and a quilter. She celebrated at the Pony Express in Hearne. She had quite the turn out and her man was in from Austin so it was extra special.  Food is always 
good and the service too. 

A good time was had by all. Especially the birthday girl.
My latest finish. It's called Voyager by Fabric Cafe'. It measures 42.25" x 53.5". Pieced by me and quilted by my awesome friend Donna Lynn @Donna's Lavender Nest.

 

This one is for sale. Message me if interested.

My next quilt will be a donation quilt for the Gause Vol. Fire Dept Auction I believe next month. Working on the binding this week to get it done. And I just finished a donation quilt for VTRA. The group David races with.

Pictures coming soon.

 

Monday (10/19) I went to exercise that morning then I went to my Bee group in Cameron.  Cynthia showed off her first donation quilt. Love it.  Front and back are great.

The next picture didn't turn out so good but every day I came home 2 weeks ago a

 different calf had found

 it's way into the hay ring each day. On Monday 

the 19th coming home from Bee there were 3 calves lounging in the hay ring. LOL

My sewing the 6 days after that was nil. I got sick Tuesday and stopped eating, had no energy and slept 90% of every day. Tuesday through Sunday I lived on a piece of string cheese and slowly drank my cold protein coffee drink. I had no appettite and did run some some fever.  David took me to the doctor Friday (10/23) but no covid or flu, numbers good and blood work good. So they called it a viral infection and my body just has to work through it.  Slow process. I'm over it.  I finally ate my first small meal on Sunday. And a small one today. Yahoo.

Well Tha Tha That's all Folks..

Until next blog...Do not run with scissors

Friend and Quilt shops

 Well Thursday Morning (10/1) was supposed to my first class with Emily.  LOL  Emily is in book club and exercise with me.  She wants me to teach her to quilt. I promise I will try to teach her all the good habits and not my bad habits.

But there was a glitch and it didn't happen. We will try again next week. LOL. 

But my friend Donna Lynn came and she tried to help organize a few things, bundle some fabric for another project or two, helped me figure out how to complete my Texas Quilt I found while I was cleaning out a cabinet, and we went shopping. First we headed into Bryan to go to a shop I knew she'd like because of the fabric they carry but I had to make a stop at Sew Vac City.  I wanted to share the quilt Donna just finished quilting for me. I've made friends with a few of the ladies there and two of them were showing another customer a cool quilt trick using stripped fabric. The stripes have to be of varying widths to work but here's mine. It's 1 1/4 yard of just one fabric to make a quilt with borders that measures 54x56". 

To make it bigger you'll need to get more 1 1/4 yard cuts. I have to put the binding on yet but the quilting by Donna's Lavender Nest really made the quilt pop. The border is the striped fabric I used to make this unique quilt at least it's unique to me.

We didn't leave the shop emptied handed. I'm collecting Tilda fabric slowly for a project I want to start on sometime soon. Along with some fall fabric and bluebonnet fabric.                                 Donna found something she couldn't live without too. LOL No picture to prove it though. 

Donna's Quilting Respite was our next stop. I  hadn't been in over a year. Wow what a difference a year can make.  It's still in an office building but she has more than tripled the amount of fabric she had before. She had a room of Liberty Hill and Tilda then a room of Christmas fabric and a room of novelty/children fabric and on and on. It was overwhelming. There was more fabric on a second level. She moved a wall that made it more open from last year but the store is packed with fabric. We stopped and talked with the Owner Donna and she told us she was moving. I'm ready to go check out her new 12,000 sq ft space in the next week or two. It should be great. 

 I think we both did good and didn't buy fabric but did buy a nifty seam ripper. Those are a quilters best friend.  aka Jack the Ripper..  Actually Donna bought it for me. This one has two functions... Take the cap off and rip away and the white rubber cap you run across the the left over threads to rub them off. 

I did find two silver Christmas fabrics that will work in a Christmas quilt I want to make but I have to wait until later to purchase.  Give me an excuse to go checkout the new shop location soon.

Our finally shop is Railroad Cotton Exchange. It's out in the country off Hwy 6 and 2549. Address is considered Bryan but it's between Bryan and Hearne. Cute shop and super nice ladies. You go down their driveway to the house and metal barn. The shop is behind the metal barn. You go down the path between the barn and the Barndo house. She has signs up pointing to the back. 

They're shop is cozy right now and also a trailer of fabric and both packed with lots of pretty fabric. By mid next year she hopes to be in her newly built shop on the front of her property. They now have a big sign where the shop will be. Can't wait.  I borrowed their picture to post here. That's Christine on the left and Tina on the right. I'm excited for them.  

Anyway Donna and I did make a couple of purchases here. Go Figure. I would share but I was bad and didn't take pictures. And I need to find one of them soon so I can add to a project I'm working on now.  Oops

New calf on the Rock'n K.  It's a British White. I love their traits. Black nose and inside of their ears and the rest of their body is primarily white.  I have seen a few that are spotted.  

I'm naming this one Lizzy. All the prior calves have moved on to new homes so now I have new ones to name. LOL 

Tuesday (10/6) Got my stitches out from the removal of the basil cell carcinoma.  I was expecting some pinching when they came out but some how she took out all 8 stitches with 3 snips.  Impressed and only one little pinch.  It looks good. Just a small battle scar.

Wednesday (10/7) I gave my first quilting class to my friend Emily. Not sure how good of a teacher I am but I'll try to get her started. Of course we go busy and I forgot to take pictures but I'll try to get some next week. Our first lesson consisted of her learning to use the ruler and a rotary cutter. She's never sewn before so this is all new to her.  I gave a few starter items and gave her homework to continue cutting the scraps of fabric and when she felt confident enough to start cutting 5" squares to make her first quilt top.  I might of had some fabric on hand from my stash that she could make a quilt out of. 

Thursday (10/8) A few of the book club gals went to Bryan to see the movie Verity.  It was good.  Josh Hartnett was the main male character. I remember him from other movies when he was younger. He's all grown up.  LOL  Ann Hathaway and Dakota Johnson are the female leads. It wasn't scary but sometimes maybe intense. And the ending!  There's got to be a sequel.  They said it was to be a erotic thriller.  Not so much.  It had slow spots but overall we liked it. Okay so I saw the ratings where 31% said it was Rotten Tomatoes and they thought it was boring.  Well us girls liked it. What can I say...

From the movies we headed to Caldwell for a book club meeting to discuss our latest read... Twice by Mitch Albom.

This book was really good. It's about 2nd chances.  Alfie didn't just learn from his mistakes he was literally getting to go back and have a re-do. Only he couldn't change fate. If it was your time it was your time to go. Now I kinda forgot to take pictures of the group. There was only 6 of us this time but we had fun.

Well that's it for now..

Until next blog...“Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.” — John Evelyn

 

A Little Creativity, a Celebration, and a Parade.

 Well I got ambitious and made me a tumbler Aggie purse. It came out bigger than I expected but the next purse I'll know to cut a few inches off the bottom. But it came out pretty cute and I added pockets on the inside.  

I used the buttonhole foot for the first time. Works pretty good once you figure out how it works.  It would take to stitches and stop. Then a message would come up telling me to lower the buttonhole lever down. I had no clue where or what it was talking about. I pulled out the manual and it said the same thing but where the heck is it....! Finally I saw a piece near my needle up higher on the shank and pulled down and viola. But have to make sure you don't block the light that reads that it was pulled down with your hand. The practice hole went smoothly once I got the lever down so I was ready for the real thing... 

Well damn! I pulled the lever down but apparently my fingers got in the way because no matter what I did the machine wouldn't go.  Finally turned the machine off, reattached the buttonholer foot and pulled down the lever by kinda twisting my hand to the back and yahoo it worked. Geez shouldn't have been so hard. Right?

Thursday (9/17) Teri, a long time friend of Sheri and Ina's organized a birthday party at Cadillac Ranch Bar & Grill on Lake Bryan for them.  A good time was had by all. The food was good and the friends were great. Here's the birthday girls. Ina (9/16)on the left and Sheri (9/17) on the right.  And that's Teri with the big pretty smile in the next picture.  She did a good job getting us all together.

We rode into Bryan with the other Kennedy's John and Kelli. I just notice the boys both wore a greenish shirt and Kelli and I wore pink.  We didn't plan that. LOL

 

We left before the sunset but several of the girls stuck around after we left. Got a group pic and Peggy snapped a good picture of the sunset.  Such a fun group of ladies.  

It was a fun evening.

 

Sunday (9/20) was wine pick up day. Kaleb, Pamela and the boys came up and followed us and the other Kennedy's to Rising Sun Vineyards. We had lunch and some wine and then the guys had beer. 

Instead of the boys going and playing out in the yard at the winery they learned to play poker. Too funny because Killian got the hang of it and beat Kaleb on several hands. Then Gpa (David) went to their end of the table and played poker with them. Braxton won a few hands but I think David won the last 3 or 4 hands. The boys thought that was too cool.  Beware they may become cards sharks. John, Kelli, Pamela and I hung out on the other end of the table chatting and watching them play poker.

Monday (9/21) was time for Bee and that usually means there's a show n tell and lots of projects being worked on.  I have to split my time between exercise that morning and arriving at Bee around 12-12:30. But that gives me 2 1/2 hours to socialize with my quilty friends, do a little of my own sewing and taking pictures of what they're working on. 

Colleen is working on a butterfly applique and her friend Leslie is using a special her embroidery machine to stitch down the applique. So cool!

Connie made a beautiful panel quilt top. And Sarah is making herself a USA Happy Birthday Quilt. Too cute.

 

Judy made a Texas quilt based on the Texas Shop Hop pattern

So September was Gause's Founders Day On 9/25 Friday the book club gals got together to make preparations for the parade on Saturday. We had a float in the parade. We're bookworms.  Kelli had procured some books from the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Project to hand out to the kids at Founder's Day.       

Our newest book club member Summer took on an active part and included her son and daughter. They made balloon shapes. Dog, Sword and a Giraffe. The little kids loved getting a balloon. Those went faster than the books and bookmarks. LOL

This is how Saturday Morning started. This should be a good sign don't you think.  Thanks to Teri, Peggy and Kelli who snapped a picture of the sunrise. Gorgeous.

Definitely a great start.

Mattie was our bookworm rider. Emily and Debra are ready to throw candy and ride in the parade.

One of our painted bookworms. Sheri and I are ready too.

One of our bookworms was a cyclops. One eye only. LOL.  The ladies got creative on the worm heads with ears, eyebrows or whatever.  Ina held up Mr Cyclops so I get a decent picture of his face. 

Jamie was getting down with the music. We loaded and ready to roll.

We got a surprise.... We won the float category. Kelli accepted our prize. Kelli coordinated and led us gals. She even found a song that she played on repeat..

"I wanna read 500 books and I wanna read 500 more and when I read 1000 books I wanna read 1000 more" Click on the the highlighted words to hear the song and let get stuck in your head. LOL  We had that song in our head the rest of the day and some of us even on Sunday. LOL

It was a fun day. I never ventured off to check out all the vendors that had set but maybe next year. The pie and cake auctions went off nicely. Dang it David nor I won the raffle ticket drawing. The fire department and ladies auxiliary cooked and served catfish and fries for donations. It was good day.

Monday (9/28) I got to go have fun and have a basil cell carcinoma removed on the left side of my face. They need to find a way to deaden the area before they give the shots to deaden the area. LOL.  Holy crap those hurt. After everything was numb and fine.  They got everything on the first pass so they didn't have to cut any wider or deeper.  Surprisenly there was no pain afterwards. Maybe a little discomfort from all the numbing shots otherwise good.  I go back soon to get the 8 stitches out. Not looking forward to that either. Oh well it is what it is.

Have been looking forward to my friend Donna Lynn coming out to the house Thursday (10/1) for a couple of days while David was supposed to be racing but the threat of rain and flooding the race was cancelled. So he had to put up with us. LOL

Welp That's it for now.

Until next blog post.....When life gives you scraps make quilts