Let's play catch up!

Since I've not been able to blog the many goings-on in my life, I thought I'd just get it all in at one time. Or try to anyway.
Let's start with cute. Or ugly. Either way. A miniature horse newborn that looks like a donkey. Sweet little thing has no idea just how ugly she is. 

Momma and baby doing fine
within minutes of birth.

Two days later and she looks
even more like a donkey.

I've managed a little sewing.

A couple of burp cloths for baby Ryder due in January

And a couple of bibs. The veggie fabric
came from Mom's stash.

Monday was our Cotton Quilters' Guild Christmas party. 

Such fun. And food. And games. And gifts. And friends. 

I made centerpieces using flowers from other events: a magnolia, a sprig of white baby's breath, burgundy ribbon, and greenery created a little candle wreath. They did double duty as door prizes, a big hit since so many people liked them. Just as nice, every bit came from my studio. Even the new, unopened white candles (not shown) were ones we ended up not using at a wedding.

centerpieces / door prizes.

Monday was also the Baton Rouge MQG Christmas party. (I ate all day!) I took one picture the entire night, and it was of this beautiful quilt top that Belinda wanted opinions on. Love it!

Coming Saturday! My friend Leta and I are having a Mommy and Me paint class. I'm getting excited about teaching, even if it's not literature. 

And how about ending with a couple of pictures of some real cuteness and another horse? Check out Miss Milly on her rocking horse that Poppa made. She absolutely loves Horsey and jumps on him as soon as she arrives. 

A socialite riding her Thoroughbred.

Giving her babies a ride.

 And there we are. A busy week or was it two? 

MQG entries ~~ photographed, entered, paid ~~ finished!

This is a quick post to update you on my entries for QuiltCon, which will be held in Nashville in February. I have every intention of going if possible. It's just nine hours of driving from here. (Said like nine hours of driving is typical.) But there's a ploy in play: Richard wants to go to the Ark Encounter, which is only three hours from Nashville. I'm thinking, let's do both!

Dropcloth

We'll see how that pans out. In the meantime, I'm hedging my bets by entering a few quilts into the show. Hopefully they'll get juried in. That will definitely help my cause. :)

Faith

I asked my sister, Laura, who is a much better photographer, to photograph them when our family got together before Thanksgiving. She emailed them to me the same day! Talk about good customer service, and I'd paid her with my love. 

Tranquility

I did have a bit of trouble with the online application. Apparently there's no one-time entry, one invoice, one payment system. It's possible to enter all of the quilts at one time (which I did) but paying for more than one quilt requires going back to the beginning and making three (in my case) separate payments. 

I wondered which quilt would be entered if I'd simply misread the instructions and paid only once. That's a real possibility for anyone but especially for those who have limited or no English. I sent an email just to make sure that I hadn't missed a step. I'm definitely keeping all of the paperwork showing that I registered the quilts and that I paid. 

Otherwise, all is well on the quilt front. I'm excited for the guild Christmas parties on Monday. Is your guild doing anything special for the holidays? I'd gladly take a few suggestions for our party, so tell us what your guild does to make the holiday gathering extra fun.

Pin It Weekly #251

Celebration pins

More about this to come...

What people say...

doesn't always translate into what, exactly, they mean. Ha! What do people mean when they say, "We can make a quilt for so and so's birthday!" Ahh, does that mean you'll make the blocks and I'll do the quilting? No? Oh, would you prefer to do the quilting? No? Hmm, who do you mean by we?

Mostly they mean me. Me. The person frantically typing on this laptop because it's quite late. And it's quite late because we have been making blocks. Alone. 

Yes, I fell into that pit knowing it was there. I may have even thrown my clumsy self into the pit. Funny how I can't miss even the huge gaping holes that I see are ahead. I just walk up to the edge, look down and think I'm done. Then nosedive. Right in. 

Are you wondering how this happened? Fast. I attended a meeting for our church's 90th anniversary celebration, which will occur in the fall, about a month after our church fair. 

Someone mentioned that our priest will celebrate his 50th birthday right after the celebration. So we have three important events tied to our church that happen about a month apart from each other. Boom, boom, boom. Three big events. 

Father's birthday, we all nodded in agreement, needed to be extra nice. 50 years, after all. In two shakes of lamb's tail, I was making a quilt. That easy. That fast. 

The good news is that when people say, "But I don't know anything about quilting," it translates into "you make the decisions as well as the quilt." At least that's how I translated it. 

And that means I can make all design decisions. Ha! There's the silver lining. I'd be making all the decisions. Boom. 

I asked Father what his favorite liturgical season is--so I could choose colors. Since he quickly answered Easter and those times of the year when we anticipate the coming of Christ, I decided that white and red would be great colors. It turns out that he loves the color red. What is better than a red/white quilt?

I worked up a quick quilt in EQ8 and finally decided to create something of this order. The white will be used for signatures, and the red will be frames. There are no other options: this is what I'm willing to do. 

I pulled almost every red from my stash and started cutting 2½ x 8½" strips of red and 4½ x 8½" strips of white. Sew. Sew. Sew. Boom, tonight 132 blocks are ready to be signed and sewn. That will give us a 88" X 96" queen-size quilt. Two weeks later, we're here. All the blocks sewn and ready for the next step. 

I'm not sure that this quilt really fits into the improvisational definition, but since I pulled fabrics to cut as I went along, and I still don't know how this is going to work with what others have in mind, I'll say it's iffy enough to go into Kaja and Ann's AHIQ #32. The first link goes to Kaja's blog, this one goes to Ann's. (You really should visit both.)

When have you heard those words, "Let's make a quilt." If you have a way of avoiding those "requests" please share: I have nothing but a deep pit. 

More Link Up Love!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!) 

Tea Party!

One of my best friends calls me her sister friend. (Isn't that just a loving endearment?) Leta's daughter is getting married in less than a month. Today was one of her bridal showers. Since Jules (her nickname) loved to play tea party when she was a little girl--her late grandmother was a true Southern Lady--Leta decided to have a tea party theme. 

The ladies of her church prepared a variety of tea party foods, I loaned a few of my rose decorated dishes, and a couple of other friends pitched in to decorate and prepare. 

Leta (mom) and Jules (bride to be)

The beautiful decorations created a lovely, fun party atmosphere for a bridal shower. Having it right after Easter means that there were lots of fresh "yard" flowers in bloom to create bouquets for the tables. However, the weather was downright cranky: cold and windy, then cold and wet, then miserable. 

Still, we had a wonderful, cozy time dressed in summery dresses and sandals with light sweaters. So very perfect for a spring tea party. Packing the dishes and linens to the truck proved that getup to be a little skimpy in the rain and wind, but I survived. 

Oh, one more thing: remember the bunting that I made a couple of weeks ago? That little project for this party.

I love having friends who are there for each other. Leta and I have been through many years of laughter, fun, tears, heartache, and friendship. I know I can always count on her. And I am committed to being there for her anytime she needs. Happily most of her calls are for help with a fun project, but I love her no matter what she calls for.

Who is the friend that you can call no matter the circumstance?

Retired! the cake (pt 1)

I'm really not as excited as the picture card says. I'm supposed to be, I guess, but it's just not happening. Of course, on my very last day I worked until four o'clock. It's alright, I don't need to go back.  I hope.

A couple of my sisters and I planned to meet for supper to celebrate. They began inviting a few more family members and ended up with 26 or so people! That's how we do things in this family...start small and let it grow.


Everybody jumps on the fun train. Sisters and brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews, sons and daughters-in-law, grandies and great-grandie. Just a big mix of family...which is why it was perfect.

Well, almost everything was perfect.  Angie declined making a cake because her house is being remodeled. So Sid ordered one. She went to the place, wrote down what she wanted and got this in return. "Ahhhh, Retirement Congrat Mary"

Sid's explanation for the error is that there's one less teacher in the world. The outcome is that people can't spell and certainly don't know grammar. She was quite embarrassed, but I think it's adorable and a great story.  

Sid could be an English teacher herself. She held several jobs during her husband's military career, most of those involved writing, planning, proofreading and such. She's got a touch of perfectionism in her veins, so the drive to the restaurant must have been pure torture. 

It's entirely possible that they (Angie felt a bit ashamed having declined earlier) were more obsessed by the blunder than I would be. That's one reason I'm still tickled by the whole event--to work so hard and have to face (of all people) a retired English teacher with a mispelled cake. Not "ahhh" but "arggg."

What have you done when you've discovered a grammatical error in a place of business?