Last Day Of This Year

The Santa wreath is down and put away,

not to be seen for another 11 months.Where did this year go? The older

I get the faster time seems to speed by.

Where's The Cat

Well I didn't see the cat, wondered if she had shot out the door when

I opened it. She is good at that if you don't watch her.Then Joe pointed out the lump in the rugs where we put

the wood at night......there was the cat.

When I said her name she peeked out.

Goldie keeps us entertained.

Here we are on the next to the last day of the year

and we let the fire burn out last night.

It is just after noon and the temperature is

up to 66 degrees. We won't be putting

any wood on the rugs tonight but I do

think we will soon as it is supposed to

drop down to below 20 degrees tomorrow night.

Turning 4

My favorite youngest grand daughter had her 4th

birthday today. It does not seem like she should be that old. Her dad is trying to get her

to wear the big hat, that she wanted no part of

when the waiter staff came to sing Happy Birthday

to her.

Here she is with her cousins, brother and sister at her party this evening. This is all my grand kids plus this years foreign exchange grand kid from Japan. I can tell by the look on my grand daughter's face (far left) that her older brother (top left) is pestering her....the look on his face tells the story. Being the older brother of two younger sisters.....we see that look on his face quite often. She is not my baby grand daughter any more but she still likes gramma to rock her and read to her. I could be such a better grandma if I did not have this Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This disease has cheated me from being the kind of grandparent that I had planned on being but I am thankful for the happy times I am able to share with them.

Design Wall Monday

I added 16 more 3 1/2 inch blocks to the wall this week.

Ok, that is 24 down and 246 to go to get to the

270 I need, to set on point, for

this pattern that makes a finished quilt that

is 75 1/2 by 92!!It is getting easier to make the small nine patches

but they are harder to do than the 6 1/2 ones I usually

have as an ongoing project.

If any of you have the McCall's America Loves Scrap Quilts magazine ...Winter 2010/2011....this quilt I want

to do is on page 42.

It is called Nine Patch Fondant.

Foto Finish....Tis The Season

When the title was announced for the next Foto Finish and

it was, "Tis The Season".....I knew where I was going to

get my idea for this post. It goes back to when my oldest boy

was just starting his early school years.When my oldest son was in 1st grade the kids

were doing a lesson on listing the holidays.

We got a note from the teacher about his list.

I think she thought it was pretty unique.

On his list in between Halloween and Thanksgiving

was.........DEER SEASON!! The boys always

got to miss a day or two of school at the

first of deer season to join their dad and family

at deer camp. So in his little mind it was

a holiday.

This is a picture taken on my red head daughter in law's

cell phone of two of the deer shot during this years deer season.

I believe they were getting ready to process them

and put the meat in the freezer.

My family does not hunt for the sport of it, these deer

will help feed the family and at the same time

keep the grocery budget down. You know you are

a Southern Missourian when your garage turns

into a butcher shop the end of November!

Here is a link to Barbara's Blog.... Cat Patches...Foto Finish

http://catpatches.blogspot.com/2010/12/foto-finish-tis-season.html

Grandma of a Teenager

This week my favorite oldest grand daughter

turned 13 on her birthday. We took her to

eat at the local Mexican restaurant. They brought her a fried ice cream desert,

slapped the sombrero on her head and

sang Happy Birthday to her.

It was fun. It is hard to believe

she is this old and I am now a

gramma of a teenager!

Design Wall Monday

If you want to see what my design wall looks like

today just pull up last Monday and that's it!

I decided just to take a picture of the quilt

I have hanging on the wall instead.

I hang this every year the day after Thanksgiving and

usually leave it up till February.

I took it down the last day of February this year

but I guess I should have left it up as we

had a big snow on the 2oth of March. MERRY CHRISTMAS design wall Monday posters!

Peppermint Shoes ...Foto Finish ...RED

Here you see peppermint shoes that I found

last December for my youngest granddaughter!!

When I first saw these shoes at the store I thought,

I would have loved wearing those when I was a little

girl. OK, that means they need to end

up on the feet of one of my granddaughters!

They only had small sizes so the other 3 girls

didn't get peppermint shoes. My oldest granddaughter,

12 years old, was probably relieved!

We had to get red fingernail polish to match

the shoes. She loves her nails polished.

Red is my favorite nail polish color even if

I don't wear it often.

Wearing peppermint shoes and red nail polish can make a little girl feel great. Her birthday is 2 days after Christmas and she is growing up too fast! I wish I could find peppermint shoes to fit her again this year.....I think gramma had more fun with the peppermint shoes than anyone. Ladies don't you wish you could have had a pair of peppermint shoes when you were a little girl?

Warm Wood Heat

The fireplace it up and running.

This last weekend it really turned off

super cold. Down in the lower teens at night.

I am thankful that we have this wood heat as

it helps to keep the Empire Gas bill down.

Usually close to the fire is where the cats at. Right now she is laying on that cushion in the rocker all nice and toasty.

A Quilt for a Friend

In the fall of 2005 a good friend of mine, from

way back in Jr High, lost her husband.

She did not live close by and I wanted to do

something to brighten her world.....and this is it.

I started out with the middle block. I traced

and colored with crayons and ironed it in between

a brown paper bag to set the color.

I had an older lady (88 yrs old) that had done a little quilting

for me before, do the quilting on this and

she went right over the top of my applique!!

Oh well, it turned out OK. No biggy and

last summer the older quilting lady passed

and I am glad I have some of her work she

did on that ancient old machine she used.

I guess you could say it is just a huge wonky

log cabin quilt. It was a fun quilt to make and pretty fast

for me as I had only been doing this for a

little over 2 years.

Last summer my friend had gone to spend some time with

her daughter and family in Arkansas and they

had a house fire that destroyed most all they owned.

When I got the call about the fire the first thing her

daughter told me after saying they were all OK was

that her mother had not brought the quilt with her!!

I was relieved to hear that but more relieved to know

they all got out of the house OK that night.

Design Wall Monday

The month was October, the year was 2005, when

I saw a finished sample of this Christmas table runner hanging

outside of the quilt shop advertising a sewing class to

make one for yourself.

I went in and signed up and here is the table runner

I made.....crooked, missed points, mistakes and all.!!

I decided to dig it out last week and try to get

it finished. I am going to leave it with

all the imperfections and enjoy it the way it turned out.

I bought some green to back it with and at the class she

gave us some of the red for the binding.

I am so glad I took that class, it was

fun and it got me hooked on quilting!!

Remember those black and white Buck a Blocks I

posted last Monday? Here is a pic of a few of

them in the quilt on display at the shop. I think

when I finish my blocks I am going to put

white on the outside of the red star points to

make it less busy looking.

Christmas Tree

In my husband's home town the city puts up an old fashioned cedar

tree each year for Christmas. When I first saw these trees

they were placed in the middle of the main street in down

town. Since then, for safety purposes, they have been

set up in a small park next to an old train car.The tree is nothing fancy, just tall with big lights.

When I was growing up we always went out to the

pasture and cut a cedar tree for Christmas and

when I see this big tree every year that is one

of the happy memories that comes to mind.

Something else I remember is when this truck driver asked

me to go for coffee with him. It was in December on the 11th

13 years ago....today. We worked in the same place and I

thought...yes, I'll go. We actually went for pizza and started

dating after that night. It would be the next week

when I went up to his hometown that I saw the

big lit up cedar tree in the middle of down town.

The truck driver and I have been married for

12 years now and I am glad I said yes to coffee!! So, when I see the big Christmas tree each year I think

of that first date we went on and how meeting

him has made my life better all the way around.

Another thing I will share is after we started

dating I was really worried about telling him I had

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I didn't know if

he would turn and run as my previous husband did

because of it or would he give us a chance?

I remember after telling him I had CFS and explaining

a little about it his first question was...is it catchy???

I told him I did not think so but was not really sure in

the long run. He said it was ok and didn't bother

him and we continued to date. Sometimes

now we laugh about the catchy part.....

Bright Modern Quilt

I really like how the owner of the quilt shop

put these Beatitude strips together.She has made it a bright modern quilt that

is as uplifting as the scriptures that are

sewed into it!

Binding Done and Wavy!!!

Last night I finally got the binding on this quilt

stitched down on the back.

I decided to try machine sewing it down

and it didn't go too bad.

Hope the quilt inspector never comes by here!

It is washed and ready to snuggle. See those wavy edges?

Design Wall Monday

A little of this and that is what is on my wall this week.

I made a few more squares for the Whirley Gig Blocks

and started making 3 1/2 inch nine patches.

Those little nine patches are harder to make than

the 6 1/2 inch. I saw a beautiful nine patch quilt, set on point,

in the America Loves Scrap Quilts Magazine put

out by MaCall's Quilting, called Nine Patch Fondant.

It takes 270 -3 1/2 inch nine patches. It will take me

some time but I am going to try and make that many.The black and white 6 1/2 inch blocks are for a

Buck A Block quilt that I signed up for at the quilt shop.

They are made with the Thangles. They have the little

baggy with the pattern and the precut strips

to make 2 blocks each month for a total of

24 blocks. I am not sure how I like these

Thangles yet.....have to do more to find out.

I thought for a $1 a month for 2 blocks and the patterns I would give it a try!!

Guild Charity Quilt

This is a quilt that the guild I belong to made

for an auction. We each were given a baggy full of

the pieces for blocks. Mine were those tall

skinny hearts in the middle top.

It was the first time I had ever made yo yo's! This quilt was fun and money raised went for a good

cause. I would have liked to have been the

winning bidder on this quilt.....it would

have looked great hanging on my bedroom wall!!

Comfort Food Special

This is a comfort food that we like to have at our house.

My kids can probably remember eating this when

they were growing up.

Hamburger Gravy and biscuits....out of a can

(for shame)....but we like them.

We buy Grands and they are pretty good.My favorite fork and patchwork plate.

I wonder does everyone have a favorite fork?

Wish I could just snap my fingers and have

this ready for supper tonight.

Birthday Party

Last night we went and had cake for my oldest son's birthday.

It was his 36th birthday.

That does make me feel old.

Here he is with all his and his brother's kids and

our extra foreign exchange grand kid for the school year.

The kids had fixed him up with homemade birthday

cards and I believed he might have enjoyed

that more than anything at his party.

First Snowflakes

I looked out the window this morning around 10am and

I saw our first snowflakes of the season!!

Here is what it looked like on Christmas night

2009.......hope we have another

snowy Christmas this year.Isn't there an old saying about the date the first

snow falls on is how many snows you will

have that winter?? Today is the 30th....

so maybe 30 snows!!!

"More Than Ever" By Russ Taff & The Isaacs

This is a song I listen to and I find that it calms my spirit as I travel this journey called life, while living daily with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. There are times that the valleys get very low and the hills are like mountains that I can't seem to climb. When those days hit me, it is at the foot of the cross I turn to, as nothing else can replace what I find there in Christ JESUS.

Design Wall Monday

This last week I was not in front of the sewing

machine much only to work on a binding, so here

is a picture of a project I have started and

plan to work on after the first of the year.These are blocks made from Judy Laquidara's

star block of the month pattern.

Oh To Live a Cats Life, Free of CFS and Worry

This is how I feel.....I'd like to just stick my tongue out

at illness.Look it straight in the face.....without fear.

Crawl in my box....in the sun. Turn my back on the worries and stress.

But, can't do that, must go forward.

I've lost almost a whole week bending to the

demands of illness.

Missed Thanksgiving with family.

Missed the laughter of my grand kids....and

their squabbling.

Missed eating things I love.

But, I will go forward one day at a time and

CFS and illness may be in my life but

it does not own my life.

Design Wall Monday

My 6 1/2" nine patches are an ongoing

project for me. I thought I would

show some of them by the Beatitudes that

are actually what I have on my wall.I am sure there is a way I could work them into

a top with the 9 patches, but the example I saw

at the shop had them placed within a

3 strip rail fence block.

This is how I set my last batch of 9 patches. If you want you can look back on my post and see the whole 9 Patch Scrappy Quilt.

(Link below this picture....not really sure

how to do all this blog stuff yet!!!)

http://thenappingquilter.blogspot.com/2010/09/nine-patch-scrappy-quilt.html

Cousins

This is another of my favorite pictures.

My two middle granddaughters.

They are cousins, now in kindergarten and

first grade, born 8 months apart.

Their homes are around the corner from

each other and their back yards attach.I hope they grow up to be close.

Right now they are either fussing with

each other or they are best friends.

I think it is because they both want

to be the boss. This day, a few years back, they were

best friends playing after church one Sunday.

The View From the Kitchen Window

This is a very common sight when looking out

the kitchen window. The cat begging!!Gladys gets fed twice a day. She does not think

that twice a day is enough. So this happens often.

We almost always give in and take her out some

treats to the back porch.

As soon as she hears the back door open,

she tears down the railing that she is perched on

and heads to her food dish!!

I thought I would post this while it was on

my mind. I got up from an afternoon

nap and am sitting with my lap top

at the kitchen table.....and what do

I see out the window......little black ears!!!

Design Wall Monday

I have a box of red white and blue odds

and ends blocks and decided to get them

out and see what I had.I guess they are like orphan blocks.....except that they

didn't have a destination in the first place. I starting making these earlier this year and

plan to make more R/W/B blocks until I

have enough of ones I like to put together

a quilt top.

This Pineapple Block was one of my first paper pieced attempts. I would really like to pull it from the others and make a whole quilt out of these. Not sure if that will happen......if it does it will take me quite a while to accomplish. This heart was also paper pieced and now I need to get it appliqued to a white background and square it up.

Same Quilt, Different Colors

I saw these two quilts at

the guild meeting I went

to last month.I bought the pattern and it includes

the panel with the scripture blocks.

Comfort of Psalms One Fabric Too! Pattern by Jeanne Cloverdale for Block Party Studios, Inc.