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

Crazy WEATHER and it's Time to renew the Contract...

 I don't know what it's like in the rest of the world but it's been hot as hades around here in Texas. 100-106 actually temp and the index is higher. Well Thursday (27th) the morning started off really nice. We actually had a very very tiny rain and then David snapped these pictures.  He did good

That evening we had a quick hard rain and then a light shower for maybe 40 or so minutes. Well Friday was a total shocker and crazy. I'm in my sewing room and I hear the wind getting heavy and loud. I was sure it was a trick until all hell broke loose.

And that night I walked out to snap a couple pictures of the partial moon eclipse (8/27) Not very good but I am sharing anyway. 

Then the next day we had a sudden storm kick up and tear a bunch of shingles rip off our roof. Awesome since they were predicting that the storm coming into the Gulf was going to give us lots of rain. You can click on the highlighted word storm to see the storm since the video link seems to only work sporadically. 

If you click on the highlight word storm you'll see what blew in. I could hear the shingles flapping in the wind so I knew what I'd find when I was able to go outside. Not much on the front. The roof line got the biggest hit

 
The peak is ripped up but it's harder to see in the picture.

As far a storm from the Gulf and rain in our area never happened but Thankfully we have a neighbor who's owns a roofing company (Done Right Roofing) that could get us taken care of if it had. Thank God for Bill. Thanks Bill. And that's how August ended.

September arrived and before we knew it, it's been 48 years of freakin marital bliss. David loves that saying.  I just like that I've been annoying him that long and will continue to do so since we decided to take another trip around the sun together. oH HOW we've changed.

 

And annoying each other for another year.

For our anniversary we drove to Bastrop to eat at the Pine Creek Chop House. Our steaks were delivered without steak knives again. And again you could cut them with a butter knife. They were that tender and sooo tasty.

 

David snapped a picture of me but we forgot to snap a picture of us before leaving.  I managed to leave my phone in the car console so I was anxious to get back to the car when we left.  Bad me.

It was a lovely evening and awesome food.

Friday (9/4) We had a date with our friends Mark and Kathy 

at the Kenney Store for dinner some great music by Max and Heather Stallings. David and I have followed them since at least 2013.  Kathy and I had the Bowl. LOL it consisted of rice, black beans, corn, shredded cheese, beef fajita, pico, and avocado with Rita's green sauce. It was really good. David had chicken tenders and I've forgotten what Mark had but all of us had happy tummies. The opening act was Kevin Black from Katy and yes related to Clint Black. Great music by him and then there's Max and Heather. Now tonight he told a story I hadn't heard before about the one legged cricket. And yep he had a song. click on the highlight and you'll see/hear a short clip.

It was a great evening.
 On Saturday (9/5) David is off to the races at Little River Academy for the day.  He entered two classes to race in, one was Street and the other Mod ET. He lost in Street class before he got into the rounds to make money but he got 2nd in the Mod ET. Yahoo!  He came home with some money. The photographer Faith Santoyo caught David at the starting line. Nice photo

 

Way to go!

This book club meeting was a big adventure. Our neighbor let us borrow a van that could easily hold 10 and might be able to squeeze a couple more in to go to 36 North Winery to start our meeting. This is a great venue. The have wine, craft been and excellent desserts and some food to snack on.  Kelli and I are the only two that have been to wineries and do tastings, the rest were wine virgins. LOL  

There was 9 of us that made it out to discuss our book Hot Flash of Homicide by Dawn Dugle. We all really liked the book and want to read the next one in the series. The Main Character Wysdom turns 40, no one acknowledges her birthday, the doctor diagnosis her with perimenopause, her advancement in police force is being blocked and then she meets the God Among Men.  Fun book and It was so much fun discussing at the winery. The owner Tracy and her husband took great care of us. I did warn her we were coming and she had us a table saved inside. The ladies who don't normally drink wine enjoyed the experience and found that they even might like wine more than they thought they did.  After the discussion we headed to Joe's Italian Restaurant in Caldwell for dinner. Oh and Sheri was our designated driver. It was gonna be me or her.  Anyway thanks Linda for asking Bill your sweet son in law if we could borrow the van and thanks to Sheri for driving. 

and I'll end this blog with a bit of exercise. Sheri's super stars doing our final exercise.... Stretch and strengthen those calve muscles. Oooww ouch.

Sheri's giving me a look and telling me to quit stalling.  I would never..

 Well maybe.

Until next post..  “A one-hour workout is 4% of your day. No excuses.”