It's all about them quilts, them quilts

Warning Quilt retreat overload.
So after the birthday shenanigans I spent the following week prepping and packing for my quilt retreat plus other house bound jobs. You know the fun stuff... housework.

When I organize the quilt retreats I always hope to make everyone something but while I was working it never seemed to work out. I would pack at the last minute and get door prizes ready but never succeeded in making anything. But this retreat I succeeded and made each retreater row pins.

I could have used these things about year and a half ago. My friend Donna Marie and I were making a co-worker a quilt for her baby.

We had the quilt all laid out on the design wall but had to take it down before we were done. We tried labeling each row but things still got messed up. The rows were hard to figure out but Donna Marie took it upon herself to sort out the crazy rows. So I keep saying we need some row pins like the ones Margie let me use at the retreat when making Pamela's T-shirt quilt. 

Well I finally found the simple supplies required
and began making a set for all 13 of my
retreaters and a set for me.  Nothing fancy but very useful!

 We hung out on the porch one evening before I had to leave for quilt retreat. The weather was pleasant and I needed a glass of wine.

I grabbed a glass of Ruth from Mendelbaum Winery in my new glass that my friend Sheryl made for me. It's a Rock'n K. Love it. Thank you Sheryl!

Felt a little light headed after finishing this glass. I looked at the bottle and saw it was 14% alcohol. No wonder.  Lilley is always happy to spend time on the porch when her family is with her. She's so pretty. David  would only give me a little smile. He's so ornery when I take pictures of him.

Nice way to end the evening.

And before I knew it it was morning and time to pack my last minute items, load the car and I'm off..

Before the ladies go to the retreat house we meet at Las Fuentas in La Grange for an early dinner and maybe a margarita. That time gives everyone time to get acquainted and or catch up then we all head out to RR Retreats by Margie together and start setting up our machines and projects.

While I'm setting up my machine and table at the retreat David texts me asking "When did the new calf arrive?" Huh what?! There wasn't a calf when we were sitting on the porch last night.... So apparently Ms Betty gave birth to a calf that night. Surprise!  Crazy we knew 2 cows were pregnant and maybe a 3rd but not a 4th. So since we bought our 9 cows the family has grown by 4. September, November, February and March  Too exciting. 

    Donna Karen found a quilt project she had started a year or so ago and decided it was time to finish it up. It's called bow tie. She got right to work on it after she got set up. 

Diana was the first to put something 90% done on the design wall. A Texans fleece blanket. All she had left to do was tie it off.Go Texans!
My friend Jane gave me a book that I had mentioned about wanting and couldn't find. It's a tongue twister and goofy. Of course the video of the British women reading it to her grand child made me want it even more. She couldn't read it without laughing.  Thank you so much Jane.  I love it!

Our friend Donna Marie made a cute gift bag for everyone.
There was some candy, a scarf and this cute mug rug. Each one was different color. The bag was adorable too.  Thank you so much Donna Marie. So Thoughtful.

This is the bag I believe Sandy got with a different colored mug rug and she remembered to put the scarf in her picture.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Everyone was really productive at retreat. We had lots of fun and laughter where lots of pretty things were created.  I finally finish a pocketed bed-skirt for my friend Pam's mom. The pattern I found on Pinterest wasn't as easy to work with as I expected but then it may have just been my understanding. She can't look close or she'll she lots mistakes

I made a quick quilted mail-able birthday card for my cousin in Missouri's mom. He had a card party for her. I got word she loved and was impressed that I made it just for her.. This one was very simple. Didn't want to take way from the postcard like fabric.

Denise worked on and finished a quilt for her family reunion. I think it's for an auction.

Mary Jane worked on a disappearing 4 patch and small pillow case. I have yet to be brave enough to make a disappearing 4 patch. One day.

Cute cute pillow case for a grandson I believe. Bad Memory .. I forgot who its for.

Sandy and Mary Jane are looking at the 4 patch layout while standing in front of Elly's mermaid panel that she did finish.

She made a bunch of pinwheels for that border. Love these colors.
Here's another finish by Elly..

Sandy had some binding projects like this cute Christmas mitten quilt and was working on scrappy log cabin quilt top. I'm going to try to make a scrappy log cabin. Hope it turns out as cute as this one.
The scraps were different widths and she didn't care. And she used different reds for the center. Love it. She always gets several quilt tops done. She's my over achiever. Just kidding. She's usually very organized and ready when she comes to retreat.
 

Joanne made some doll dresses for Donna Lynn's vintage doll she has at home. Of course they're done in lavender. Joanne's niece


Joy made Joanne and her sister Cindy sewing machine covers that look like an RV and bought buttons to decorate with. Like dogs, pink flamingos, flowers etc.

 Joanne really got into her project of sewing the decorative buttons on her cover. 



These covers are sew cute.    

Donna Karen finished her bow-tie quilt top. Onward to her next project


You may have noticed by now that I had three ladies at retreat named Donna. It made it fun. I finally added middle names when I called one of them. If you'd call "Donna" they'd go "Which one?" 

 Her sister Jane finished this top and had another top in red and watermelons almost finished before we left. I had a bunch of busy ladies working and having fun.

 
We had a couple of beautiful sunsets while at retreat. 
And of course there might have been a couple nights that required a glass of wine or two. No quilts were harmed. I promised

Diana finished her quilt panel with borders.                                                                                                                            Her cousin Connie joined us at this retreat and she was working on a project that she too had in a closet and she decided it was time to finish it up if I remember right. 

I think she enjoyed herself, What do you think? Look at that big smile. And finished her quilt top too. So pretty.                                                                                                                                Donna Marie  finished up her Dressed to the Nines dress quilt top. It's sew adorable. I've got to make one. I've started tracing the dress pattern on the wonder under.

 And here she is finishing up tote bag kit she had bought.


  I have several games and drawings for prizes. Nothing really big generally but my awesome friend Donna Lynn from Donna's Lavender Nest made 5 gift bags and a very generous gift certificate.  I had a few bags in additions but Donna Lynn as usual went above and beyond. Can't thank her enough. .

We'll I could go on but I'll save the rest of the retreat fun for another post. 
Until next post....A Lifetime’s not too long to live as friends and a quilt is not too small to sew them in!

It's Birthday Time

So it's that time of year where Pamela and I celebrate our birthdays together. Friday March 1st we drove to Tomball to get our hair cut and colored. It's an hour and half drive for me and an hour for Pamela but we love our stylist Brittany @ Trendsetters.  We also dropped her car off at the repair shop we trust and have gone to for years for a break job. 

So we wouldn't have to drive home and then back again on Saturday we stayed the night @with Marlaina and Josh's house.
We picked up her car in late afternoon before going to dinner with Marlaina, Josh and their son Thomas. We went to eat at an Italian restaurant called Marvino's. It was really good.

We were entertained by their adorable 3 year. If you show him a dinosaur he'll tell you what kind it is. The boy knows his dinosaurs.
  He loves his Aunty Pam and she him.






Then back at the house they decided a shot of Fireball was needed  to start the celebrations. 
Yum.
They also gave me a bottle of wine for my birthday.
Perfect since I went off and forgot my wine to take to our Painting with a Twist gathering on Saturday.



They gave Pamela some wine glasses you chill in the freezer and this very appropriate key chain.  Pamela loves her puppies.
LOL





Got up on Saturday, got dressed, and went to lunch at James Conley Island. Then we had to run to Sam's to get a fruit tray and some yummy brownies to share at Painting with a Twist with our friends.

Saturday the 2nd was Pamela's birthday. She looked beautiful as usual.





Love this girl to pieces.  This girl is our pride and joy.  She's smart, funny and beautiful.

This is Nancy and Michelle former co-workers, Miss them but not enough to go back to work or leave the farm. I'll just have to go visit when I can and they will need to come to the farm. So happy they were able to come celebrate with Pamela and I.









Even my boss came out to paint with us. These guys were my office family and we all became friends.  And my long time friend and sorority sister Gigi made it out.  Now that I'm looking at my pictures I can't believe I don't have one of my other long time friend and sorority sister Sheryl. I'm bad.  

But yeah Pamela got a picture of her cute cookies she made to share with everyone. She started a cookie business called Country Cottage. You can click on the name to see her other cookies.
They're pretty darn tasty too.

This is Marlaina with us. 

And this is our awesome hair stylist Brittany.
And this is some more crazy friends. Samara and Susie
 Here's the whole gang and the finished product. Even after drinking wine everyone did a great job. Can't thank Marlaina enough for her hospitality and this gang of friends for coming out to help Pamela and I celebrate our birthday. It means a lot to us.

The painting is over and time to run a couple more errands.
Marlaina was at our mercy since she was riding with us. We went to R-tic on 290 since they were having a 40% off sale.  My money stayed in my pocket. LOL

Next stop was to drop off the quilt I made for my great nephew Oliver.  This is the quilt I posted in my last blog with our donkey photo bombing.  My niece wasn't home but her mom and dad took the quilt to hang on to for her.

I hope Oliver gets a lot of use out of it.

After this I drove the girls back to Marlaina's where Pamela was going to stay another night to celebrate with her friends and I drove back to the farm to spend time with the hubby before he went back to work on Monday.






I can't forget the other female in our family had a
birthday too. Lilley's birthday was March 4th.

She got a pig's ear for her birthday. LOL
She's our pretty fur ball of joy.

Check out this cute birthday card that my friend Margie made for me.
She's very talented. She's the retreat owner for RR Retreats by Margie in LaGrange. In fact I'm going there on the 10th. Can't wait!
On Tuesday the 5th I celebrated my birthday.  I got up and picked Pamela up for breakfast at First Watch then we drove to my Mom and Joe's in Montgomery, TX. I've always spent my birthday with my Mom. We visited with them for a couple of hours then we headed to Houston to meet David for dinner at our favorite restaurant to celebrate special occasions...

The Taste of Texas.  The food there is so good. We all always over eat at the salad bar but then that's okay because that means I'll have left over steak for lunch later. So delicious. David treated us very well. After dinner David went to his luxury accommodations near his office While Pamela and I drove back to College Station. I was thinking I'd spend the night but we got back early enough I decided to drive back to the farm. It was just another 30 minutes further. I grabbed my Lilley girl and we drove home.

We got free desserts for our birthday and then we shared them with David. Pamela got the apple cinnamon dumpling with cinnamon ice cream and I got the key lime cheese cake with an apricot drizzle. More left overs for me. They took a bite of the cheese cake and ate the apple dumpling and I brought home most of my cheese cake. Worked for me.

Thursday afternoon the weather was awesome so Lilley and I went outside to hang and enjoy the weather. While out Jerry decided he needed love and attention.

 
LOL I'm like a new mother with all the baby pictures. Oops sorry.

 I finally had my camera ready but my lens still wasn't long enough to be able catch a great shot but at least this time you can see the vibrate blue color on this guy. 

Life is good on the farm.

Well I better go finish packing for quilt retreat.  By the time this posts I'll be sewing away.
Until next blog....Retirement, a time to enjoy all the things you never had time to do when you worked. — ...