My Last Post for November

This month seems to have flown by. Yet at the same time it took forever. Have you ever felt like that.

So this year I decided to do a small amount of fall decorating. My daughter is always decorating for fall and Christmas in some way so she inspired me. We went to Hobby Lobby and bought a few items and I placed them in plain view for all to see. That is everyone but my husband, the one who is always so observant but not this time. It took him 3 weeks and only after our daughter asked him if he liked the decorations. LOL. This table is right as you walk in the back door from the garage. Shouldn't be hard to miss, Right?
I was going to buy this flower pot that looked like a tractor that had pumpkins in it when it

dawned on me that I have a tractor from my childhood and a wagon that I have on a shelf in my office that I could use to fill with pumpkins. And that's just what I did. I think it looks pretty cute on the mantel with the other pumpkins.

I had a few pumpkins left over and I put them in the dish on my dining room table for color.  Maybe I'll add something else next year. Maybe.
Now I need to find a tub the right size to put these decorations in to store away in the attic until next year.  Now to pull out the Christmas decor.




David found someone to come in and clean up

our pond and reshape it. I mean it had a pretty crazy shape when we bought the place.  The original pond was a small oval but over time the next owner dug out several different canals going different directions. This is a picture of my computer screen from Google earth of how our pond did look until two weeks ago. Crazy huh? It had some big fish in it surprisingly. Of we lost most of them during the re-configuring of the pond darn it. Can't wait for Google Earth to take a new picture of how it looks now.  It kinda looks like a large crater where a meteor hit. Can't wait till it fills completely up with water and we can restock it. At the deepest part it is 15' deep.
And the water that is filling by itself is really clear. Not sure if they hit a spring or if the water
table is really high but the pond was filling itself up slowly. We're hoping for good rains to help it along.
Here's what it kinda looks like now from my ground view. Water when full will be to the top dirt ring and up to the truck.

Maybe I should hop on this caterpillar and dig another hole.  Makes me think of a Thomas Michael Riley song called "Dig a Hole"
The song is about a husband and wife who are each digging a hole to bury the other one in. If you click on the song title you can hear the song. I don't plan on digging one for David trust me. Can't speak for him though.... honey..that hole isn't for me is it?







Did everyone have a nice Thanksgiving? I hope so. We went to my Sister-in-Laws new home
with her new Husband.
They went and did it! They went and got married. Congratulations to the Happy Couple. Welcome to the Family Thomas, now you're stuck with this group.

Everything was so good. Glenda goes "you keep taking pictures of us when we were looking down". Hey you were busy making sure everything was just right for us. I'll try to catch them looking at the camera and smiling at Christmas.

Caught her again looking down. That's her oldest Phillip.

This is my sister-in law Lynn with her youngest Kendall. My brother in law is a fireman and was hard at work while we were relaxing. He actually had to go to a fire that someone started while frying a turkey.  My daughter Pamela also had to work on Thanksgiving day so these two missed all the yummy food. Being a Nurse and a Fireman they don't always get holidays off.  

We had a wonderful day and meal. 

Noooooo!!!

Okay I am so upset, mad, frustrated, mad crazy mad. GRRRRR. I know I did it. Yep me all by myself. I may just cry. I had in my mind what I wanted to write about and share but oh no that can't totally happen because between me and my memory card I've lost all my pictures from the show! All but a couple I had on my phone. And to top it off some of the pictures from this weekends 1st Birthday party are messed up. So it's time to get a new memory card obviously or a new me. I'm sure my husband is shaking his head going skip the memory card and get a new you. Thanks Honey.
This is a selfie I took to post on facebook when I got to the show.  

Photo by Suzanne Gilbride

I was so excited too because as a member of IQA I got in at 8:30am before the crowd and I was able to take pictures of the quilts without any issues. And the award winning Cynthia England was there and showing her quilt and talking to the few of us standing there admiring her quilt. It was so cool. On the back of her quilt she had pieced a school of fish. 
Not every one got to see that.  Her quilt is titled "Reflections of Cape Town" She said it took about a year to make and had about 8400 individual pattern pieces. WOW. It's hand appliqued and machine quilted. It's her original design from a photo she took.
So all the beautiful quilts are in my head and I can't share the quilt with 80,000 tiny pieces or the one with all the 3D fish that I thought interesting, or all the beautiful textures and colors. Whayyyyy. I can't even share my picture of Jenny Doan from Missouri Star that I got to meet and talk to. She was so nice and we had a good laugh over me not realizing she was only 30 miles down the road from my hometown. And it took my brother-in-law to point it out to me when I was home in Missouri visiting. And did y'all realize Jenny is 6 foot tall? She has all her furniture built taller. LOL. So she said when her short friends like Susan Daly (who was sitting next to her doing paper piecing in the Riley Blake Booth) their feet don't touch the floor and they laughed. 
I also got to meet Rob who is on her show often and I took a selfie with him. He's very fun and personable just like on TV. 
I guess I should have taken a selfie with Jenny then I would have still had her picture. At least I still have Rob's.  If you click on his name it will take you to his Holiday napkin tutorial.

photo by Suzanne Gilbride

 Another quick quilt picture I borrowed from my friend Suzanne was this one of all the pillows called "Silk Road Sampler" by Melissa Sobotka out of Richardson, Texas. They look real. I thought I was in Pier 1. This was also her original design using fused applique and machine quilting.

So much to see and do at the quilt show. I saw lots of people and so many beautiful quilts and lots of vendors with spiffy gadgets and do-dads to make a quilters easier and fun. Right? I bought a ruler to make snowball blocks that I think was easier than the accuquilt die cut because I didn't have to deal with the 2 1/2 half inch square triangles. There was all kinds of things just waiting to take my money...but not all if it.. LOL
By the time I got home it was after 7pm and I had to feed my pup, load my car, feed me, gas up my car and head to College Station. The next day was to be the 2nd Round Robin Hand Off. I can't show pictures of that until we're all done and that will be about a year away but I can say that everyone in the group did an awesome job getting that first border on everyone's medallion. 
What I can show you is the quilt that Denise just finished for her
 Mother who retired a few years back. It turned out just awesome. As you can see by the smile her Mother, Delores was thrilled. 

Denise did a great job. She had a few blocks left over and added them to the back which worked out great.

On that Sunday Pamela and I hit Messina Hof Winery which just happens to be literally right around the corner from her house to attend a small craft show and maybe check out some wine. We might have even bought a bottle or two. Then we had lunch and ran errands. We got a call from David saying the sky was looking pretty dark up at the farm and he was wondering what it was doing in Bryan. At that moment it was cloudy, but as we drove back to Pamela's house the sky's opened up. 
And then David sent us these pictures from the farm.  



The rain was just pouring off the Mini Mansion and 



you could hardly see across the property. Awesome now it starts raining. Now when David is going to have to start pumping out the pond to have it dug out and cleaned up. Figures.

This is one of those posts of a Little of this and a Little of That.  The gal that does my 
hair is very talented. Not only does she do hair but she can do awesome Halloween makeup. She loves Halloween. 

My Niece the Tiny Dance was crowned this past Saturday as the new Miss Pony Express Outstanding Teen. Her personal platform is anti-bullying. This girl is something else. She can interview with the best of them, has talent and she's kinda cute but then I could be biased. Couldn't be prouder. Her journey will take her to Mexico next year.


Well that's it for now unless I find a way to recover my quilt show pictures which I haven't yet.
Oh I almost forgot... the winner of my orphan snowball blocks is fellow blogger Karen of KAHolly. I'll be emailing her shortly for an address so I can mail her the blocks. Thanks everyone for participating via blog comments or email.  Keep watching I'll have another one. 
Until next blog...Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

Crossed off another UFO on my List & Orphan Block Give Away

So after the Vintage Market a couple of week ends ago and a little more shopping. I happened by this sweet shop called Little Eclectic house that I had been meaning to shop at for some time now. I'd love to live in the house and on the land. It's cute and has lots of goodies to check out from antique's to clothing and jewelry.  It's a fun place. If you get a chance go check it out.

I finished a quilt for my friend Sandy that she's been waiting on for a few years. It's for a memory quilt that she may could have forgotten it's been so long but I finally got it put together. Whew. Could never come up with the right design but while at quilt retreat I just started sewing and it went together. I got so excited when I sewed the last row on, held it up and said "Looky Looky I'm done". I was so excited until I looked down and the last row of people were looking at me. Oh crap! I got in such a hurry and didn't realize I sewed the last row on upside down. So I got to rip it apart. Grrrrr. And an hour later I was re-sewing it back on.

Taken at the Waller County Fair grounds while at the Vintage Market Days

back drop provided by Eclectic House on Mueschke Road

Quilting by my friend Donna @ Donna's Lavender Nest
She stitched in the ditch around the frame of the picture and then meandered the rest

The look on her fast was priceless. I couldn't get a head on shot because she had the quilt in her face. She couldn't believe some of the pictures I used.  She forgot she sent me some and others I had to stalk her facebook to get. She didn't send me enough originally to use.

It was so bright on the patio on the patio I had a hard time capture a good shot but I tried.
And I think you can see the smile.  I actually surprised her. She had no idea that's why I called her for a lunch date.
    I did good.

Crossing off another UFO.


Gonna do something new. I know I have a few quilter followers just not sure how many but I figure I'd have a small orphan block give away. I have at least 4 of ea design - 6" snowball blocks to give away. If you'd like to win just leave me a comment as such.  I'll announce the winner Friday after 6pm.

In my next post I'll tell you about the quilt show and my weekend fun.
Until then....A good friend is like a warm quilt wrapped around the heart