A Little Snow, A Little Fun with Love in the Air

Snow is a rarity in my neck of the words. David predicted it.  He said with a hurricane comes snow for us. And he was right. December 8th snow and ice were predicted and the school districts took notice and closed. They closed for 2 days because of the snow and ice. Lilley wasn't afraid of the white but sure was confused by it and her frozen water bowl.

Okay my northern friends I know it's no big deal up there but we're not prepared for that kind of weather and the road hazards. And we sure don't want an in-experienced driver driving our school buses with precious cargo.
 A co-worker Margaret and I both plan on retiring and moving to our farms. She already has a home built on her pretty piece of property and as you know we're working on finding a builder. In fact her floor plan is one David and I found on-line and really liked it. My retirement is pending until we get a feel for the cost of building but my sweet friend up and retired in December. It wasn't announced until her last 7 days. At that time one of her co-workers in her department came to me asking if I could think of something they could give Margaret before she leaves. 
Maybe something quilty. Margaret is a quilter but way better than I. Oh boy 7 days to make something quilty. After talking I got an idea to make a signature block. 
Jamay reminded me that Margaret loved her birds and quilting.

So I asked my friend Donna Marie to help embroidery some little birds and some wording on the block and I did a scrappy block alternating with white for her department to sign on. Each little bird holds something quilty. I think it turned out okay on short notice. Margaret recently sent me a note for my part in her retirement present from her department. Her farm is about an hour away from my farm but we have a pending quilting date whenever I'm out her way. 
Recently I had a weekend filled with Wedding activities. My hair stylist/friend recently tied the knot with her true love. We started off with a couples party at Painting With A Twist in Tomball.  What!, we're doing sunflowers? Not at all what I expected from my Tim Burton movie loving friend.

Here's the happy couple. Love is in the air I tell you.  Brittany Bunch and Jordan Tunstal. Just a couple more days of the single life.  ;o)

           

 Joyce caught me taking pictures over her shoulder.  Nice start Joyce.

What a better way to spend my Friday evening. Painting, drinking wine, and laughing. Time went really fast and before we knew we were done. 

 Not bad for a "Bunch" of amateurs. After painting they headed to Molly's Pub just down the road for a few more adult drinks while I headed home. I needed to be able to drive home safely.   But I had fun.

Then it was time for a wedding on a Sunday evening in Katy at Multiplicity. It's a really cute venue. The wedding and reception was held outside. While the sun was up it was a little chilly but after the sun went down it got down right cold. There were fleece blankets in baskets and heaters to keep warm. I have to share pictures of the pretty bride, venue and decor. 

Everything was as beautiful and unique as Brittany. I was honored to be included on her special day. She's my hairstylist and friend. She's such a sweet young lady and deserves all the happiness that Jordan and life can give her.

 Her table themes reflect her love of Tim Burton movies.

 

This is the one on the Bride and Grooms Table. Too cute. 

 I even ran into an old friend from quilting bee. She went off and moved to Round Rock for a new job and be closer to family. Barbara T. looked great.

Pamela had to have a selfie with Brittany.
 
 Oh and guess who caught the bouquet?! Yep Pamela. Shortly after catching it Pamela hollers to Brittany...... "Where's the man, I thought it came with the man?"  LOL Only my kid.





This was a fun wedding. The bridal party were so cute.

Well that's it for now but I'll have more to share later. You know it. Well what can I say there's always something to do.

Until next blog.... New love in bloom now fills your life/ As you (Brittany and Jordan) become husband and wife

2017 went out with a Pop and 2018 arrived

I was able to be off the whole week of Christmas but it went too fast. Didn't really get a lot accomplished during that time but did spend time with my family. Poor David spent the time fighting a sinus infection or cold. Not sure which but it's still making him miserable. In fact he's still fighting it but not as bad. I've just been trying to stay away from everyone here at the office that was sick before Christmas and David at home. I don't want to be sick. NO NO NO. 

To end 2017, Saturday the 30th we had a date night and were able to take in a music event at Main Street Crossing in Tomball. 
One of my favorite Texas Rockabilly's Jesse Dayton was opening for a Reverend Horton Heat. We knew we wanted to see Jesse so we got tickets and in the process we found another artist we like. Reverend Horton and Jesse rocked those guitars. The Reverend Horton had some great stories and songs. Great evening.





Nice way to end the Music year.








For New Years Eve we went by the farm to make sure the water was turned off to the tanks and then on to Groesbeck, TX to hang with the Harper's.  It was freezing outside.

A balmy 27 with a wind chill factor around 15. 
I pulled out a hat that my sister Barb bought for David while she was on tour in Afghanistan. All the men there wore them. It kept my head nice and toasty as long as it didn't blow off with the strong winds.



Of the 4 sorority sisters that were always together 

during college it was just me and Sheryl that night. 
Gigi and Tim were out of town and Kathy and Mark had to take care of their animals because of the freezing temps. So the wine was all ours. Okay so maybe we shared some with Sheryl's daughter in law and future daughter in law.

This was a new wine from Fiesta that came in mine and Pamela's wine club shipment. Pretty tasty.  Didn't take long to polish it off.

David and I didn't stay till midnight since we weren't sure what the roads would be like. It was sleeting on us on the way up and we wanted to take it slow and easy on the way back home which was about a 2 1/2 hour drive. Thankfully the Road Gods were with us and the roads were dry. 

Some how we ended up in stair step order for our picture. Thanks to Richard Sheryl's son for taking. Ross and Sheryl on the outside with David and I in the middle.
Great friends and conversation to end the year.







Pamela was going to come up with us to

Groesbeck but we were gonna get back to late so she stayed home to feed the dogs and then went to her long time friends house to bring in the New year. 
She was a smart girl and stayed the night at Marlaina and Josh's instead of being on the roads after midnight with all the other drunks. To be honest she might have had her share of adult beverage and didn't need to be driving.

My nephew Zachariah recently sent a picture on snapchat commenting on the weather in my hometown Trenton, Missouri. Wow! That's not gray in his beard, that's frost.
I don't miss that kind of cold at all. 


David headed to the farm last Saturday 1/5 and said "Why don't you go hang out with Pam for the day" mmm maybe, well okay.. Of Course I didn't remembered that there was a reunion luncheon  for WTS, the company I worked for many moons ago. Didn't cross my mind until I saw a post of all my former co-workers. Geez. But I did go up to hang out with Pamela. We drove up to the farm and took David some lunch and on our way up we texted my friend Sheryl to see if maybe she'd want to meet us at a new winery we found called the Dancing Bee.

Love that name. 

Unfortunately Sheryl couldn't make it so after hanging out with David for a while and checking out where we think we'll build the house Pamela I headed out to find the Dancing Bee Winery on our own. It's part of the Walker Honey Farm. It's located on 190 between Rodgers and Temple. They have a patio to sit on and enjoy your wine but it was a little too chilly to sit outside that day and if you're hungry they have a food truck to order from. They said their pizza was awesome.  Maybe next time we'll have some wine and pizza..  After the wine tasting Pamela got a glass of their sangria. I abstained and just looked around the shop. It was very tasty.  Can you see the dancing bee on the glass?

Well we definitely liked the place and our hostess was 
awesome. 
Dang it I forgot her name.She was funny, informative and cute. 
Maybe it was Kara. 
Something 
with a K I think. Anyway the other gals there were really nice too. 
Pamela posted on FB about us being at the winery and my brother-in-law came back with "I think you girls have a drinking problem"
to which I reply something to this effect.
People say I got a drinkin' problem
But I got no problem drinkin' at all from Midland Country song
We have no problem we just enjoy our wine when we can.
We hated to live but it was time to head back to Pam's and meet David for dinner.

He hadn't left the farm as we came back by so we stopped and we decided to meet at Sodolak's in Bryan on Hwy 21 for dinner.  Can you say Yummy? I ordered Fried Pork Chops. I haven't had fried pork chops since I was a kid and that was a long time ago. Holy cow they were huge plus with 2 sides. I should have taken a picture but I was hungry and the idea of taking a picture went bye bye. I ate one chop and took the other one home along with part of my loaded mashed taters. I finished off my okra though. Then the worst part was when I left Pamela's Sunday morning I forgot my left overs. Uggh so Pamela had a nice lunch or dinner on me.  
This week started off with me feeling bad. It wasn't a cold or the flu but I definitely was in a funk. I set me up a doctors appointment for Friday but now I'm feeling better. Oh well may go anyway just to make sure.
So this is it for now. I'll be on more adventures this coming weekend.

Until next Blog... 

Happy New Year Friends and Family

2017 Quilting UFO's review

2017 UFO recap 

I'm definitely doing better than I used too.  I was lucky to finish even 1 project Prior to 2015 I did a lot of buying but had very little to show for it. But not anymore. YAY!
Trying a new way of identifying the status of my projects. Stole this method from fellow blogger Bea at Beaquilter.  Trying to make it easier to keep up with and read.

• If in red I've worked on recently
• If crossed thru it's complete! 

• need 1 more handmade item from a FB post. Finished 4 of 5  -- it's called procrastination Sorry Lauren Rose. She has long forgotten by now that I even owe her something but that's okay.

• baby quilt for Heathers Baby - at the quilter ready for binding 
  
  I had hoped to be done with this earlier and put in the mail but instead I nursed a cold but Heather finally got Logan's quilt on 2/7. My first finish for 2017

• make a valence for guest room   actually I just resized the valence from the Glenway for the Lake Stone house. Won't be putting a valence up at the rent house.
• curtains for Mini Mansion @ the Rockin K  temporary simple burlap that I had in my stash

• Round Robin medallion 5 rounds in total  

•  round robin begins  this was the hand off of the medal to the person who will sew on the first border  
• 11/3/16 round 1 complete can't show pictures for this until the final hand off when I get my completed quilt top back. Off to a good start  Total of 5 rounds. 6th will be getting our tops back.
• 2/1/17 round 2 Yahoo finished my border for handoff with 48 hours to spare. Hand off 2/5 and now to start border for next handoff  Wish I could show all the pictures of the medallions so far. I'm impressed with what everyone has done. I'm dying to see what mine looks like but like the rest of the group I have to wait until all boards are on for the final reveal.
• 3/13/17 Round 3 finished 4 days before handoff but it wasn't without frustration.
• 7/8/17 Round 4 finish and on the road to the final hand off and reveal. Can't wait
• 09-24-17  THE BIG REVEALL !!! OMG  My
  
  medallion is a quilt top now. The medallion left my hands in September 2016 and until today 9/24/17 I had no idea what it looked like.
• Now all I need to do is add a couple more borders to make it fit a queen size bed and get it quilted.
• LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! Thanks to Mary Jane, Margie, Denise, Donna Marie and Mildred The Reluctant Round Robin chicks.

• baby quilt for Brenda Willey/Ashley Sparks  I think I succeeded in making Brenda happy. Made for her first grandbaby.. Olivia Kate.
• baby quilt for my step Father's great grandbaby Penelope 
  
• This was made from left over fabric plus a couple new fabrics. Lola joined in the photo fun. Hope she enjoys it.

• baby quilt for Dava D. this one is slow going. Donna Marie and I are working on it ... between our work and life. 11/12/17 working on the binding and label.  All done and Dava Loved it. She wanted to keep it for herself instead of the baby. That's okay. She can do whatever she likes but maybe she'll share with baby Dean. LOL. Quilted by Donna Moore @ Donna's Lavender Nest.  

Can you see the star quilted in the state of Texas quilting?

 A new star wars fan was born in Texas.

• 
  
• *Texas Flag quilt for myself- red and white section ready, work on blue blocks for me! Finished blue section while at retreat in September but I need to get the star made and appliqued on. It's not completely finished but it is quilted. I just need to finish the binding.

• Nickies Tshirt quilt   hope to work on this one too during retreat. didn't happen. want to finish this one before 2018 is over.
• Added another project but finished it. I was asked to make
  
  something for a friend/co-worker who was retiring. So I made a signature block.... She loves birds and is a great quilter....  She can make it a pillow or a wall hanging.

Quilt retreat was in September and I already knew what I wanted to work on but that didn't go totally as planned with the moving, one sick retreater who I got really worried about and called an ambulance for. Spent a couple hours at the hospital until her husband could get there. All ended well. She had a bad case of vertigo. Crazy thing there is another of my retreaters couldn't make it because she had spent time in the hospital a week before for vertigo and the ladies are school hood friends. What are the odds.  Plus I only stayed for 3 days instead of the whole week but that's okay. Things happen.

• Sheryl's Crown Royal quilt
• Mom's flannel quilt - pieced, just need to add applique
•  Mom's western fleece quilt
• Allan's quilt - fabric bought
• Phi Mu auction quilt for 2018 - fabric bought
• Hobo Quilt - picking out fabric
• Bible Quilt - fabric bought, 1 block made
• Special Quilt for a special grandma (JLK)

Pamela's projects for me

·    #1 t-shirt quilt - my first and I'll work on more at retreat - 3/31 95% done completed June 2017  

• still need to get a good picture of this quilt. Hoping that I can go to A&M and take one on Campus  Didn't make it to the campus but did get a better picture. and check out the quilting by Betty at TShirt Quilts of Texas 

#2 black/white/teal quilt

•  #3 kit we bought in Missouri a several years ago  

• Open a pattern I bought and and make it  I keep trying to do this but I get side tracked and find something else to make.  I used my Boomerang Pattern by Jaybird for Dava's quilt.  Maybe I can open another one before the year is out or sometime in 2018.

Goal for 2018 - sew up lots of my stash and clear out some quilting magazines. I don't care to move them to our final destination at the Rockin K.  Whoever told me as a quilter you needed a stash obviously never had to move all that stash. I know my movers will greatly appreciate me if I do.

Ongoing projects

•  postcards
• bookmarks
•  mug rugs

I have a new format for my 2018 UFO's that I'll share in 2018.

Until then .... Quilting is a scrap of happiness