SSCS Gift

I am quite sure that my Secret Santa Christmas Swap partner has no idea who I am, so I am posting photos of what I sent her. I made her a bag and a little quilt using the Flutterby fabric line from Tula Pink. I also sent some eyelash yarn (I don't know much about yarn) and a Santa Claus Pez dispenser for her little girl. She is due to have a baby very soon now and I am hoping that the little quilt will be just perfect. I figured she could use it for the baby or her little girl. It is up to her. I sure hope she likes her gifts!! I can't wait to hear that she has received her package. I am also excited to see on Chookyblue's site that MY SSCS gift is on the sleigh and heading my way! Woo Hoo!!

Julie

Good News, Bad News

Good news!! The girls finally went home. I have the house back. Joy is exhausted and already asleep. John Owen is in his room playing. So nice to have a quiet house.

Bad news. The Iron Bowl is a total disaster for Auburn! For those of you who don't know, I graduated from Auburn University. We beat our major rival, the University of Alabama, for the last 6 years in a row in the Iron Bowl. The Iron Bowl is the name of the football game between these two rivals each year. Auburn has had a terrible season this year, and Alabama has been ranked #1 (and still is.) It is the 4th quarter and the score is 29 - 0 with about 11 minutes to go. Oh well.... We'll get 'em next year!!!

Julie

WAR EAGLE!!!!!

The Christmas Season is Upon Us!

I have finally recovered from all the food and fun of Thanksgiving. Wow, it was a lot of work. There is so much preparation work - my sister and I started 2 weeks beforehand getting things organized and ready. It is so nice around here now. However, I am getting stressed seeing all of my hard work undone by 8 twelve year old girls who are here for a sleepover. They are all my students and are friends with Joy. They are currently running up and down the stairs. Fun!! I can handle it - I just barely remember how I used to like to scream and run around and act silly at that age.

I decided to share some photos of my favorite Christmas quilt. This was a paper pieced BOM and was one of my very first quilts!! My kids LOVE it when I pull this thing out and hang it up. It is a sign that Santa soon will be here.

Thanksgiving 2008

Sorry, no time to talk!! Just some photos to share.

Award!

I am so honored that Rhonda at Ravelly1 gave me this award. It is for being a cool blog. Woohoo, my blog is cool! I am so excited to know that. :-D Thanks so much, Rhonda, for thinking of me. I love Rhonda's blog too. She is a really cool person and a prolific quilter. She is a Texan and I just love Texas. I have visited there a couple of times and the people are just so nice. A trip to the grocery store is interesting. I never thought there would be so many grocery items shaped like the state of Texas!! There were blocks of Texas-shaped cheese, pasta, well, anything that could be shaped was available in a Texas shape. Those folks are proud of their state and they should be. I love Texas ya'll!!!

Anyway, here are the rules for the award. The rules are that I (1) post about the award, (2) link back to Rhonda, (3) place the award on my sidebar and then choose 10 blogs that I think are really cool, link to them, contact each person and talk about why I think their blogs are cool. I can do this! Here are my ten choices:

1. Jo in Tas. Jo is the first Tassie blogger that I "met" and I count her as one of my friends. Her blog is so interesting. She works down the street from the Cadbury chocolate factory!! Her blog is about quilting and other things.

2. Razzy's Special Place. Roseanne is a lot of fun - you can tell by reading her blog. She is another Tassie blogger and another friend. She makes beautiful quilts and stitchery. She is a fantastic cook, and she has a sweet Patty Melon for a pet! I'll bet you don't know what a Patty Melon is!

3. Villa Kunterbunt. Marion posts frequently about her many projects. I love reading about the festivals that they celebrate in the German town where she lives.

4. Loose Threads. Luann has a lovely blog. I have really enjoyed reading her recent posts about the retreat she attended in Shipshewana, Indiana. She is a great quilter.

5. Patchwork Penguin. Nancy lives in Pennsylvania and makes lots of projects. She has recently started teaching, after receiving her degree in teaching 24 years ago! She seems to be a great teacher and she is certainly a great quilter.

6. Fiber Babble. T is so funny and likes to rant every now and then about things that get on her nerves. Oh, how I love to read those rants! LOL. She is usually annoyed by the same things that annoy me. And she is a knitter who used to be a quilter.

7. Highland Quilter. Catherine is another Tassie Blogger. I am amazed with her beautiful quilts and projects. I love reading her blog.

8. I Just Love to Stitch NO2. Isabella is yet another Tassie Blogger! I only recently "met" Isabella and I am enjoying getting to know her. She is a talented quilter and I love reading about her projects.

9. And Sometimes I Quilt. Katie is an Australian blogger who turned out to be my Stitching Angel. She sent me some absolutely beautiful gifts. She is also a teacher and so we have things in common. It has been fun getting to know her through her blog.

10. Itching for Stitching. Dawnie is another Australian blogger. How could I not add someone who recently had a "fish pedicure"? You just have to hop over to her blog to find out what I am talking about.

I have to get busy readying things for Thanksgiving now. I will notify these ladies later of their awards, so if you happen upon my blog and see your name here and wonder why I didn't tell you about it - well, I just haven't gotten around to it yet!

Thank you all who have sent me kind words about my brother and his thumb. He is doing much better now although the thumb looks terrible. It could have been so much worse. I have a coworker whose fiance cut off his hand at about the same time, which makes the thumb injury seem so insignificant. Also, the company did an investigation on the grinder and there was something wrong with the machine, which is why the accident happened. It somehow feels better to know that the injury was not from him doing something that was not safe. After all, we were raised around machines because my dad owned a Tool & Die business. My brother was working in the shop since he was a young teenager. He is 53 now so that is a lot of injury-free years. :-D
Julie

Ouchie, OUCH! Ouchie!!

Please say a prayer for my brother who is in the ER right now. He ground the end off his thumb with a grinder at work. Down to the bone! The doctors are going to have to pull the remaining skin up over the bone and sew it up. I can imagine that the nerve damage will be an issue.

Cleaning Day

With Thanksgiving only a week away I had to get busy with my house. My sister came over and we worked all day long on decluttering my house. We have a lady coming in to clean Monday and I had to make it so that she could actually get to the surfaces to dust and mop. I dread it every year but it feels so good to get things clean. I am always amazed at how much sewing stuff has migrated upstairs.
The menu is planned and the turkey has been purchased. It is in the freezer right now. Of course, I have lots of other groceries to buy to get ready. I look forward to the cooking part, it is the cleaning part that is not so fun. I hope to update you as I go along. Sorry no pictures for this post, I just wanted to post to make up for my lack of posts last week. :-D
Julie

Ancestry.com Obsession

Just a quick post to let you all know that I am still alive. I have been quite obsessed with Ancestry.com. I am doing the 2 free weeks and trying to do as much as possible in that time. It seems that most of my ancestors are from Somerset, England. Has anyone ever heard of Barwick Manor in Somerset? I don't think it is there anymore.

I even did more research on my great-grandfather who was a prison escapee. It turns out that he was serving a life sentence for murdering his neighbor. He was on a chain gang in Georgia and escaped. He went to Oklahoma where his wife and TEN children joined him. Soon some of his daughters started writing home to friends in Georgia. He became alarmed that he would be found out and so he abandoned that family and fled to Texas. In Texas, he remarried and had six more children. He changed his name and was a "prosperous farmer." He was arrested on a drunkenness charge and confessed to the police who he really was. So, after 26 years of freedom he was sent back to Georgia and put back on the chain gang at 66 years of age. I thought that was incredibly interesting. My sister and I have decided that this is a branch of the family tree that we would like to prune off! LOL

I am very far behind on reading blogs and responding to emails. Things should get back to sort-of normal in a week or so. I have to get Thanksgiving behind me first. Everyone comes here. Ahhhh!!!

Julie

Sixth Grade Beauty

Here is my good news. My daughter, Joy, won Sixth Grade Beauty in the Vallerata pageant yesterday! I was so happy for her. She enjoyed herself and didn't get nervous at all. She just had fun. I don't believe that is my baby girl. Is it? She seems so grown up!

What is Vallerata, you might ask? It is a pageant held every year by our school, Valley High School. Joy was in the Junior Miss Vallerata Pageant, which is for the middle school girls. The sixth graders are the youngest group. Here she is with a sweet girl who is in one of my classes. Don't they look pretty together?

I just love this shot of John Owen looking at his sister. Some of my fellow teachers are peaking out from behind the column in the background. Here is my sister, Jo Ellen. She had a lot to do with Joy's success. Jo Ellen took Joy to have her hair and makeup done. She also bought Joy's shoes and some other necessities. Thanks, Mama Jo, for all your help!
Here is Joy with one of my friends and fellow teachers. She is such a fun person to be around and makes the job fun!!

Thanks for reading.

Julie

My Angel Package Has Arrived! Also, My Angel Gift has Shipped!

I was thrilled to find a package from Australia in my mailbox a few days ago. It was from Katie at And Sometimes I Quilt. I had suspected that she was my angel but I was playing dumb just in case I was wrong. I was pretty sure when I saw that she said her angel was a teacher like her! How cute! Well, look at the fantastic stuff she sent me! A super cute bag and her stitchery is fantastic. I just love the little birds in their nests on the bag. I wanted to do this one myself but I just never got around to it. Aren't the colors fantastic? I can't wait to take this to my guild meeting to show off.Here is everything all spread out. She wrote me a very sweet letter which I will always treasure. I have a lovely tablerunner pattern - you can see it peeking out there.

These pieces match my stitchery bag. A couch caddy and matching pincushion. I am sorry my flash sort of washed out the pincushion. I just never seem to be able to make really good pictures. Trust me, it is precious.

She also gave me some windmill and water tank fabric. She said that these reminded her of her childhood sneaking around to swim in the water tower. That sounds terrifying to me! I am not afraid of water but swimming in a tank sounds very dangerous. She is very brave, I think!! Do you see the wooden stick? It is not a stick!! It is a pen made from Australian wood. I am going to keep this one in my checkbook. No one else can use it!!!! Thank you so much, Katie. You really made me feel special. I am so lucky to have gotten a really good swap partner!!!

Now for the package I sent. I know that Kris at Life at Rosemary Hill got her package so I can post photos now. She had said that pink and green were her favorite colors so I used some Kaffe Fassett fabric with those colors in it. I made a matching pincushion, but it looks more like a small pillow, it is so large!! I also sent her a scissor keeper with a pair of scissors inside. I hope Kris enjoys these. I also included some other goodies, but I don't remember what all I sent right now. LOL - a sign of getting old I guess.

Here is a little better shot of the couch caddy I sent.

I just love the kitty on this scissor keeper. So cute. I want to make one of these for myself.

I also sent Kris a chicken pincushion earlier in the swap. I guess now she doesn't have to worry about running out of places to stick her pins!!

Thanks so much to the designers who made fantastic free patterns for us to use in the swap.

Helen Stubbings of Hugs and Kisses

Lynette Anderson

May Britt of Norway

Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches

Karen Gass of Cotton Spice

Tracy of Plumcute Designs

Sue Daley of Patchwork with Busy Fingers

Also a HUGE thank you to Helen at Hugs and Kisses who hosted the swap.

Until next time - when I shall tell you some exciting news about my daughter!!

Julie

I VOTED

I went to the polling place and voted today after work. I was anticipating a several hour wait but I was in and out in about 15 minutes. Not bad at all. If you are an American then I hope you voted too. I cannot imagine not voting - but there are some people who don't. Everyone I talked to today had either already voted or was going to vote immediately after work. It will be very interesting to see who wins.

Mini Shop Hop

Seven of us went on a mini shop hop Saturday. We went to 1910 House Quilt Shop in Hogansville, Georgia. It is such a nice shop and the owner is really nice. She gave us each a 10% discount and a goodie bag. No one told me about that until after I made my purchase or I would have bought more there. LOL. I didn't take any pictures there because I blogged about it before in this post.

Next, we headed out to Newnan. This is where I took all of my pictures. This shop is called Heritage Quilts and is located on the historic town square. My first photo is of the courthouse. It is beautiful with copper roofing which has a nice green patina.

This next photo is a view of some of the other buildings on the square. I am standing outside of the quilt shop here.

Oh, look! There goes Marliese. She is leaving the quilt shop for the little cafe next door.

I had a chicken salad sandwich on sourdough bread.

But this is what I really wanted to show you. Isn't this petit four the cutest thing? Most of us bought one of these and they were really delicious. Almost too pretty to eat. I said ALMOST.
When we left Newnan we went to Columbus for Sew Much Fun quilt shop. This is a nice store although the space is way too chopped up for my taste. There are lots of tiny rooms filled with fabric. It is hard to figure out which rooms you have been in and which you have not. It is still a nice shop and they do have TONS of fabric. The owner, Lain, even has her own fabric line.

After this we went to JoAnn's, but I am totally underwhelmed with that store so I won't waste any blogging space on that one.

Overall we had the best time and laughed and talked a lot. I hope we get to do it again soon!

Julie

It's November! Congratulations, John Owen!!

Happy November to you. Here is the corresponding block from my Sunbonnet Sue Through the Year quilt. Isn't she cute?This is what I am really blogging about. My son, John Owen, had a pencil drawing entered in the local art show here at our local Community Center. We went over to see the show and found that he had won two ribbons!Here is the artist displaying his artwork and ribbons. I think he is very good. There is another art show in the spring and he is going to enter more artwork then. Here is a better photo of the artwork and ribbons. He is interested in architecture and likes to draw pictures of buildings or towns that he makes up. He also draws actual buildings that he has seen. He recently did his first commissioned artwork. His school asked him to draw a picture of their school and they are going to frame it and hang it in the school. What an honor!

Package from Karol Ann

I received a fabulous package from Karol Ann! It was filled with goodies and I couldn't wait to open it. Here is what the package looked like when I opened it. What a cute bunny card.

Well, of course my kids immediately claimed these super cute gummy candies. They declared them delicious and ate them right up.

Genuine English tea! I have never made hot tea before. We Southerners like iced, sweet tea and we make it by the gallon. In fact, I am drinking a glass of it right now! I am planning to have this tea with my sister and kids soon. We will have a tea party!

Yes, some delicious tea biscuits to go with the hot tea. I am having a hard time keeping my husband from opening these and eating them. He knows better though.

Cabilito doesn't miss anything - he is right there checking everything out. What is this he is looking at so closely?

Oh my, it is Liberty of London fabric!!!! Cabalito knows to go straight for the fabric.

The fabric is all beautiful, but my absolute favorite is this one. I just love, love, love the colors and the birds!

Thank you so much, Karol Ann. You really made my day - heck, you made my year!! I never dreamed I would own some Liberty of London fabric!

Julie