Crossed Eyes

Grandaughters who cross their eyes when Grandma wants a picture!

That's much better!

Past Wall Hangings and Quilts

Amber Waves of Grain Wall Hanging 1997
I found this pattern in one of my quilting books  and enlarged it in three steps to the size I wanted. Most of the fabrics in this one came from my friend Mitsuko in Japan. I made a matching one for her as well. I entered this one at the Permian Basin Fair in Odessa Texas and awarded a red ribbon for it.

 
 
Faraway Fabrics Signature Quilt 1997

This wall hanging was made of fabrics from around the world. When my HD was traveling, he would bring fabric from whatever country he was visiting. I embroidered the name of the country in each block that fabric came from. I started this after he had been traveling for awhile so I didn’t get some from every country where he went. Included is fabric from England (from my friend Maureen), Taiwan, India,  Germany, Singapore, Japan and the USA.


Trip Around the World 1995
This one was made for my daughter and son-in-law.  I also made a Welcome Wall Hanging to match the colors of the quilt.

Flower Basket Quilt 1995
This one was made for my son and daughter-on-law for Christmas.

Family Calendar Cover Pages

It's that time of year again. Time of year for what has become a family tradition. It involves the whole family now -  Mom and siblings families, my HD's Dad and brother's families, and our children and theirs. In the beginning, I just made the calendars for Mom and my siblings but expanded over the years.

The Early Years

I started making family calendars with all birthdays and anniversaries. I am not positive the first year I began but the earliest dated one that I found shows 1993.

 1993

Some years I put in a little extra, like baby or early pictures of everyone or memories of growing up.

The first few years were difficult since I did not have a program and had to not only input birthdays and anniversaries every year but also had to manually change  the calendars dates.

Then I found a calendar program that kept all my information from year to year. All I have to do now is make additions or changes. That is the easy part now, even with this large family. Last count of individuals was just over eighty, then add in the anniversaries equals a pretty large number.

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

I make fifteen copies for my Mom to distribute, three for my HD's Dad, two to DD, one each to two DS's and one each to a couple of grandsons. Each family group has a little different information and titles on them.

A few years ago my brother, Robert, began sending generous checks to help with the expenses for the calendars. His donation pays for the paper, ink cartridges, making copies and for the postage to mail them.  His help is very much appreciated, not just by me, but by all recipients of the calendars.

The hardest job is to come up with a new cover page each year. I try to make them interesting, unique and memorable and most family members save all of them.

Since the cover page is a surprise each year, I will post this year's calendars at a later time.

I HATE sand burrs!

I hope tomorrow starts out a better day. This one started at 2:00 am for my HD with a crying dog in the back yard with sand burrs in him. He got me up about a half hour later to help get a sand burr out of his bloodied mouth.

We finally had to wrap him in a blanket, wedge his mouth open with a paintbrush handle (to keep from getting bit) and get the burr out of his tongue with tweezers with him fighting the whole time. He knows we are trying to help him but is really showing his age and doesn't like to be messed with.

Anyone want to buy a large house in a small town on four lots?? Taxes are cheap but sand burrs are plentiful!

He is feeling better now.

Mom's Flowers

 
My Mom has a green thumb and has always had flowers and plants. She has such a pretty yard with all her flowers.


 


The front and side yards have lilac bushes, mums, pampas grass, roses , what she calls a cabbage plant and morning glories. Her neighbor has a rose bush that she would love to haul over the fence and take care of.  

 

 

The back yard has a variety of different flowers and containers from an old wringer washer to large cut tires. She has roses, hens and chicken plants, and many other varieties. The most impressive is the Century Plant that bloomed this year and has been in the back yard for years. It grew to about 18 feet high and a new one is now growing beside it. Once it starts growing, it grows very fast.

My sister June took the pictures of the Century Plant as it grew and bloomed.  Now that it has finished, they will probably need a chainsaw to take it down. It is starting to lean over but still very solid.

 Over the years Mom has given us plants and starts off hers. I tell everyone she sends a get well or sympathy card with them 'cause she knows I will kill them. It's not ALWAYS been my fault – some just won't grow here.

Family Visit

We had a great trip to Amarillo this last week.  We did have a bit of wind against us but that big Ford diesel got pretty good mileage pulling our 5th wheel.

It was so nice to see Mom and everyone. Mom is doing well for her 85 years. My father-in-law is a few months younger and said he will call on her for advice when needed. :)




We visited with all four of my brothers, Robert (who drove in from New Mexico); Joe Pat; Tom and his wife DeeDee and grandson O'Neal and Harold and his wife, Pat. Unfortunately, I forgot about my camera and did not get pictures of Robert or Joe Pat. Maybe next time!


Also saw four of my six sisters: Faith, and her husband Fred; Barbara, and her husband John; June and Teresa. Missed getting a picture of Faith and Fred as well this trip.

While in Amarillo. we decided to get shingles vaccinations.  I have been around people who have had shingles and know they are extremely painful. My older brother had them and said a vaccination is well worth WHATEVER you have to pay for it.  So Mom, my HD and I all got one. Their arms did not get sore, swollen, red, itchy or warm. Mine was all the above - but is clearing up just in time to get a flu shot.  Hopefully it will only be a bit sore as in past years.

I hope we can visit more often with everyone. We have always lived a distance from everyone and missed out on many family gatherings.

Quilt Tops in Progress

These are a few tops I have started and will post more when I get back to working on them. I think I have too many irons in the fire right now.

Ebay Embroidered Quilt

I found some embroidered blocks on
ebay to make a quilt. They were stitched together so I had to separate them for my needs. It was a bit difficult since the machine stitch used was very fine but I got all twelve apart and put sashing between them, using brown strips and yellow sparkle corners. The colors used in the embroidery are very bright and colorful with orange and yellow flowers, trimmed with brown and green. I don't usually use those colors so finding fabric in my stash to go with them was a challenge but I used solid orange and yellow for two borders with a white floral between them.  I have a large stash so I don't want to purchase anything until I reduce it considerably.

Pastel Baskets and Dresden Quilt

This one is a preprinted fabric that was begun by someone else and given to me. There were a couple of bad places around the edges that looked like the quilt may have had a fight with the dryer and lost. With some coordinating fabric, I cut out the bad places and replaced them. Not only did I get the quilt top but the coordinated backing fabric was there as well.


Pastel Dresden Large and Small

This fabric had large and small dresden plates in the same basic fabric colors as the Pastel Baskets quilt top. I cut them out and appliquéd them to the included quilt top fabric alternating the large and small plates. I found a pastel soft stripe fabric in my stash that went well for the wide border.

Sunny Purple Quilt
 This one began using school colors and was to be a twin size but I decided to enlarge it with borders for a larger quilt. It will have a purple border, a yellow one and a black one.

 USA / Texas Bandanna Quilt

I have always wanted to make a quilt using bandannas. These were perfect for this project. I used the following designed bandannas: Texas, USA and Confederate. I plan to make borders using navy and maroon with a patriotic print fabric between the two.

Country Quilter

I love the panel that is the center design for this quilt. It was an apron but since I don't do aprons, I cut the bib off, reusing the borders from it at the top. I think the ooordination blocks of brown and gold really set the center off and the teal border just finishes it off.