On the road again

The girlfriends and I will be on the road shortly - heading to Houston for the quilt festival!

'nuff said.

Have a great weekend!

Borders

Sunday, I finished the borders on the quilt top. Considering it is my first attempt, I'm happy with it. I'm anxious to try another one to see if I can correct my mistakes. For now this one is folded and put away until after the holidays when I will have time to decide what to do with it. I'm hoping there will be a machine quilting class early in the new year. (it appears I will be unemployed after Christmas - this is not necessarily a bad thing, other than that lack of money thing)

Tomorrow I'm heading to the Houston Quilt Festival with the girlfriends - for now, I'm heading to work. It is going to be a long day!

More attic treasures

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted! I hope I haven't lost all my readers with such a big gap between posts. I kept thinking I would post when I got caught up on blog reading - but I still haven't done that! Here are a couple more things I found in the attic while cleaning it out - again I have no idea why they were up there, but they have been washed and tucked into the cedar chest.

My great-grandmother made this hat and scarf for me - I'm guessing around 5th grade.

The sweaters and hat were hubby's.

I did get the borders on my quilt top. I got the top and bottom in class and finished it up yesterday. I'll show those pics in the next post - I'll try not to take so long between posts this time.

Houston Quilt Festival is this week! The girlfriends and I will be heading that way Thursday morning - I can't wait!

Quilt - so far

So, here is what my quilt looks like so far.

We are supposed to cut the borders in class tomorrow night. If I had taken a closer picture, you could see that my 'diamonds' are missing their tips - I know what I did wrong but at that point it was too late to go back (well - really not too late, I could have taken it all apart, but this is my first quilt and I can live with it) I'm using the same green with pink flowers for the borders. the backing is the same beige as the triangle pieces. This will be our last class - it was only a piecing class. Not sure exactly what I am going to do about quilting it yet. I know I want to do it myself but we will see. I'm thinking about getting more (different) fabric to try this pattern again and see if I can get it right.

I still have more attic treasure pictures to show - later.

Supposed to rain later today - right about the time I head out for stitch night. Oh well - it was raining last week and I survived, guess I can handle it again tonight! We won't be stitching next week as we will be packing for Houston! (quilt festival) I can't wait!!!

As done as it is going to get

So, this is as good as the attic is going to get. At least now you can walk from one end to the other. There is probably still stuff that needs to go but we made a lot of progress! Now we can at least move around enough to work on replacing the floor with plywood!
A lot of it was just plain trash. Stuff we should have thrown away a long time ago. Those crates on the left are full of Christmas decor. I did not go through those as I didn't think there was much in there that would have made it to the garage sale pile anyway and I'll just go through those when it is time to decorate for Christmas. I'm not sure how many boxes there are all together - next time I'm up there I'll take a pic of just the Christmas stuff.
I did find things I forgot I had, things I knew I had but didn't know where they were and things I knew I had and had no idea they were stored in the attic - or why. Here are a couple of things that were up there that should have been down here in the cedar chest. (they have been washed and that is where they are now!)

These baby pillowcases were mine. Mother does not remember who made them but I'm almost positive they were embroidered by the same person. I'm pretty sure they were made either by my grandmother or great-grandmother.

This is a crib-size bedspread. It was hubby's when he was a baby and it was used for my boys when they went from the crib to the toddler bed.
Yesterday I worked on my quilt top some then stitched - or rather unstitched - last night. Progress pictures to come later. I still have a few 'attic treasures' to share.
Hope you have a great Monday!

A pink tomato

No, I haven't disappeared into the black hole that is my attic - just been busy and haven't had time to post. We still have at least half the attic to go but I hope to finish it this weekend. There are a lot of other things that need to happen this weekend too so only time will tell.
I have found a few 'treasures' while cleaning the attic. Some I knew I had but didn't know where they were, some I forgot I had and some I didn't know I had.
I went to quilting class last night (not really 'quilting' but piecing, but quilting class sounds better than piecing class - or maybe it just sounds that way to me?) I've got the top row sewn together - 4 more to go!
Since I haven't downloaded any pictures from the camera (and taken very few) since my last post, I'll use this picture of the pink tomato pincushion I bought to keep Big Bertha company.

Hopefully it won't be so long until I make it back to post.

Have a great Friday!

floss tag

I have been wanting to try making one of the floss tags I've seen around blogland and decided that Sarah's b'day would be a good time to give it a try. I stitched this little fall design from Homespun Elegance.

I added our names and the year on the back.

Time to head back to the attic. It isn't starting out as cool here this morning as it has been the last few days. Bummer.

Enter at your own risk

This is where I started this morning. This is the door going into the attic. The attic is 11ft wide and I'm not sure how far it is to the end, 15-20ft maybe. I started on the right side of the door and worked until it started getting hot. I'm still hopeful I can pull it off in two weekends. Hubby can help some tomorrow. I do have a stack of boxes that can come down to be added to the garage sale pile so I've at least made a start.

I made Nola's hummingbird cake yesterday - yummy!









Sorry I didn't get a pic after the frosting was added - it was time to leave for stitch night!
For the recipe, go to Nola's blog



Autumn figured if she stayed in the kitchen (under my feet) the whole time I was cooking (she always does!) I was bound to drop something - she got a small bite of banana.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

'Blogkeeping' and a happy birthday

I am so far behind in saying thank you for a couple of awards, I'm embarrassed to even bring it up at this point.



Nola gave me the Smile award http://alamo-north.blogspot.com/




and Bo gave me the Super Commenter award.

I thank you both very much. As I have waited so long to respond to them, I won't pass them along, but I will proudly display them in my sidebar. I am still shocked that anyone reads my little blog. My life is so boring! Your comments and emails just make my day. I hope things will settle down here soon so I can get back to posting every day. (but like I said - so boring, what will I post about?)

Today is Sarah's birthday (one of my stitching buddies - no blog) and since tonight is stitch night, I'm going to make a b'day cake for her. Nola - I'm making the hummingbird cake!

Need to make a shopping list and get to the store so I can get to baking!
have a great day!

Sold, or not sold

Hubby's little green truck. Kinda sold. We went to have the tires changed from the truck to the mom-mobile (truck had better tires) and then we were going to clean up the truck and park it out front to sell, but the guy at the tire store bought it! (still have to transfer title so that is why I say 'kinda' sold).

(this was a picture taken during Ike - we haven't had any rain since then, though they tell us we will have some tonight)

The other project for the weekend was to put some kind of order here. Stuff has just been thrown in here for the last 2 years (can't tell you when the last time an automobile saw the inside of this garage, but I would bet money it was pre-Y2K) Note, I didn't say anything about cleaning - we were just going for sorting out where stuff was! At least now I have all Brian's things together and all baby boy and his bride's things together. (I do have stuff I'm going to have to figure out what to do with - not even good enough to save for a garbage sale - the trash man used to pick just about anything I left out there but they have been most picky lately. There is still a cardboard box out there that they have passed by for the last two weeks!) Most of it the garage is a little better and I now have a (small) space to put anything I can cull out of the attic over the next couple of weekends, but it still needs a real cleaning job - and we need a storage building!

I did stitch a little more on the embroidery over the weekend

and I got some of the corner pieces sewn onto my quilt squares. I think I have 5 more to get those two sides on, then I'll go back and do the other two sides. It is so much fun! (if I just had more time!) I just hope all my squares end up the same size. I understand it can be a problem if they aren't! LOL
Saturday we went to see baby boy in a play at SFA. It is hard to believe this is his last year there. Seems like just yesterday we were going to see his first play in high school! We are really going to miss them when they head north after graduation.
Times up - if I want a post for today I better hit publish post!

I have one

I need 19 more! We made one square in class last night and I have two weeks to get the other 19 made. (we don't have a class next week) I do have Bertha out of her traveling case and set up, but haven't had time to sew any yet today. Not a good headache day, plus errands - which included the pharmacy - and now I'm trying to get this post in while cooking dinner.

Once I get all the squares made, I have to decide which way I want them to go. What do you think? Red squares on each side,

or top and bottom? I may have to get a few more made and lay them out to decide. (it really is square - the picture makes it look like it isn't, but I've put a ruler to it - several times!)

I have to give it back

Hubby has to turn in his company vehicle today. You can see it in the back of this shot I took of the flowerbed back in the early summer.

He has to give it up because he got a promotion. I know, it sounds backwards but the Expedition is basically an office on wheels. He now has an office with 4 walls instead of 4 wheels. For the last few years his job has mostly been on the road. It wasn't uncommon for him to put 300-400 miles on it in a day. He not only gave up the mobile office/billboard (they make sure you don't drive it for pleasure!) The person who will be taking his old job now gets the office/billboard on wheels.

He gave up wearing a uniform. He has been wearing a uniform every day since 1983 when he went to work for the fire department. This was taken his last day in uniform. Sorry baby - it's kind of like the first day of school so I had to take a pic. This is his 'what are you doing?' look. (somewhere I have pics of his last day at the FD, but I'm too lazy to look for them) He is now a tie guy. I didn't get the 'first tie day' picture (I barely got the last uniform day) as the new job started the same week as Ike payed a visit so it was a very busy week for him.
On Saturday we got him a fresh set of wheels. (not new, but new to us) Since he was either at work or with me (in the mom-mobile) most of the time for the last few years, his old truck was barely out of the driveway. It is fine for puttering around town or hauling stuff, but not so good for the commute to work he now makes everyday. Since he still had the Expedition this week, I've been driving this

but my days are over. Tomorrow it is back to the mom-mobile. This weekend he will clean out the truck and park it in the front yard with a for sale sign. The neighbor has had his truck out front for sale the past week. Lots of people have stopped to look at it, but it is still there. The competition should be a good thing, no? Ours is much older (read cheaper) than the neighbors!
See that pile of brush in the background? There is another one like it in the front yard. That is debris from Ike. They are actually (finally) picking it up as I type.
Off to do errands, then I have my quilt class tonight. We are supposed to start actually sewing our blocks tonight so I hope to have a picture tomorrow. (if it looks terrible, I'll show a pic of something else!)
Have a great Thursday!

Red Thread Update

I did actually finish the September block in September!

I've even stretched on into October so hopefully I will be able to keep up this month.
I've also been working on this

Seasons of Baskets by Plumcute Designs. I thought I should at least work on something that came home from the quilt show last year before I head back this year. 4 weeks from tomorrow! We are going to have so much fun!

I did manage to not lose my mind over the weekend (but it was tough). My van is home from the carspital after some minor surgery. (did you know carspital is not recognized by spell check?) Hopefully it will not have to go back anytime soon. I need it to last at least another couple of years and I really wouldn't care if it was longer than that. I like it, I haul whatever I want in it without worrying if it will get dirty, I park it anywhere I want. There are a lot of advantages to driving an older vehicle! Hubby got a new (to him) ride over the weekend so we will have something newer to take when we go out of town and mine will mostly just putter around town and make the occasional trip to Tyler. (he still has the company vehicle until tomorrow so I'm driving his until then!)
Stitch night tonight and quilt class tomorrow night. I've got all my pieces cut out. Bertha is still in her case since I knew I wouldn't have time to sew anything this week I didn't see any reason to set her back up only to have to pack her again tomorrow!
Hope you have a great day. I'm having hot flashes (I know - TMI, but it is what it is!) so if I make it without a major headache before the end of the day it will be a miracle.