This. Is. War.

It’s Wednesday. We have company coming for the 4th celebration. I’m excited. Can’t wait to see everyone – some we only see a couple of times a year. But it’s Wednesday. So I load up my husband and we drive to Little Rock, an hour away, to shop at Sam’s. I shop, shop, shop. I need stuff – toilet paper, cereal, sugar, Tylenol PM, you know – stuff. I buy a Sam’s Apple Pie – huge, enormous, beautiful Apple Pie. If you haven’t tried Sam’s Apple Pie then stop what you’re doing right now and go buy one. You won’t be sorry. I buy Hershey’s Brownie Mix. If you haven’t tried Hershey’s Brownie Mix then stop what you’re doing right now and go buy one. You won’t be sorry. That’s the last time I’m gonna’ say that, promise. We load everything in the car and I say to husband, “Husband, I have to go to WalMart now.” I’m not sure I can describe the look he gave me. I just spent $$$ at Sam’s and I HAVE to go to WalMart to buy more. His reply, the sweet thing, “We have to go home and unload this stuff first because you can’t get any more stuff in this car.” Of course, he said it in a very low voice with his teeth tightly together. But he said it, and that counts. We unload and put away and we’re off to WalMart. Where I buy more stuff. Milk, bread, cheese, orange juice, garbage bags….stuff. We come home, unload and put away.



It’s Thursday. Company coming…..clean, clean, clean, cook, cook, cook. I make a double batch of brownies with pecans. Sinful. But then I think to myself, “Oh no, Son doesn’t like pecans and grandson is allergic to nuts!” So I make another double batch of brownies, plain. I make refrigerator Raisin Bran Muffin Mix and bake a dozen. I put the rest of the mix in the fridge to bake fresh the next couple of mornings. (Great recipe that keeps up to 6 weeks in the fridge and you can bake 1 or 2 or 20 when you want.)



I have stuff sitting everywhere – chips on the washer, bread on the bar, brownies on the cabinet. What to do. I have a brilliant idea! No one uses my front door so I get out a folding table and put it by that door. I cover it with this wonderful antique feed sack quilt top that I found for a bargain price and haven’t quilted yet. Cute, cute, cute. It will be ok because no one will be eating on it, there’s nothing to spill on it, and it will be safe. I load it up – the bread, the chips, the cinnamon rolls/honey buns/cheese Danish, the Apple Pie, both plates of brownies and the muffins. I’m so smart. And cute, don’t forget cute.




It’s Friday. We’re going up the lake today to some friends/family and I want to take a cake. In fact, I’m going to make 2 cakes – Nanny’s Orange Cake. Everyone loves it and they’ll love me for making it! I gather up all the ingredients when I remember those muffins. They start calling me by name and I do need to keep up my strength so I go to my cute, cute, cute table to get one. The whole table is covered with ants. Hundreds of ants. Millions of ants. Gazillions of ants. I scream. I grab a plate of brownies and run to the kitchen and put the brownies down the disposal. My husband grabs the other plate and puts it on the dining table. He starts bringing other stuff to the kitchen while I put that huge, enormous, beautiful Apple Pie down the disposal. I grab the second plate of brownies from the dining table, which is now covered with ants, and put them down the disposal. I yell at my husband to grab the quilt top, the really special I don’t know how old antique quilt top and take it outdoors. He says, “I can’t. It would scatter ants everywhere if I did that.” I finish stuffing everything down the disposal – did I say the brownies, the muffins, the pie all had to go down the disposal? – and head to the living room. Where I see my DH spraying the quilt top with ant spray. Stunned silence. I can’t breathe silence. I can’t move my feet silence. He’s efficient. He’s quick. The quilt top is soaked. He jumps over to the dining table and sprays it, including the red, white and blue Americana Table Runner that I made. Gasp. Before I can move he grabs the quilt top and the table runner, sticks them in the washer with some blue checked sheets I had stuffed in there earlier, adds laundry detergent and turns it on. The washer. Regular detergent. Normal cycle. Red, white, blue, feed sack quilt top. Together.



I’ve never liked ants. Insidious creatures. We’ve fought them in this house ever since we bought it. They want in. I want them gone. We spray and we sprinkle. I keep everything sealed so they can’t possible smell anything and be tempted to come in. Everything on that table was covered tightly with Glad Press ‘N Seal. I shall boycott Glad. And I am declaring War. Ants you better watch out ‘cause I am mad. And I am relentless. And I never forget.

Finished by Friday....Thank Goodness!

Before you read this you should hop over to Sharons because she's giving not one, but two really cute bags!

I cooked, I cleaned, I did laundry, I washed dishes, I shopped for groceries, I swept (but I didn't mop) and I still got something Finished By Friday! It's another Winter Wonderland block - this makes the third out of (I think) eight. It's going quickly, don't you think?

And, ta da! The electrician came! He came early, he stayed a long time, he stood in the hall between the sewing room and the bedroom and scratched his head, he climbed into the attic, he charged a lot of money, but.....he fixed it! I have light in the sewing room and I can actually turn on the ceiling fan in the living room without turning on the light in the sewing room. :) And when I could turn on the light I was able to find the counter top! I really did have a cutting mat under there!

So I was able to cut out this Checkers and Rails Quilt. Apologies for the picture but it's in a book that I couldn't get to lay right and I couldn't get the glare off. :( It's a very traditional pattern first documented in the early 1800s. I thought it was an appropriate pattern to choose for a young couple who have old fashioned traditional values. If you look closely you will see that the pattern is actually made from the sashing, rather than from a block.

Even though this young couple is very traditional in their views of family, they are very modern in their style. They've lived in Manhattan, worked at jobs most of us don't understand, hail taxis like the pros they are, and take museums and theater for granted. They are dot com kind of people and I adore them both. But muslin and navy just didn't feel right for their wedding quilt. So I chose these two fabrics. One is a beautiful light teal batik with swirls of a darker teal running through it. The other is a dark brown with the exact shade of teal polka dots as the batik. I know it doesn't look like it here, but my camera leaves a little to be desired.

I think the batik looks like the water at Cancun where they will be getting married next week. So Natalie and Josh, if you're reading this, I finished cutting out your quilt!! You can expect it to be mailed to you in a few weeks, strike that, months. :) Quilts take a while. I will be praying for each of you as I sew - praying that you will continue to love the Lord, to love each other, to have many years of joy with lots of babies.

Fourth = Flags, Firecrackers, Food, and Fun

Kari and Kijsa are having a party and I'm joining in!

At my house there are flags out by the lake, as you'll see if you look to the right....




and on the front door....











and on the back door....







and in the flower bed....






and on a table runner in the dining room.....









and even on our shirts!












We don't set off fireworks ourselves but we get to see them up and down the lake.....







We cook great stuff.....barbecued pork and corn on the cob and shrimp gumbo and chicken on the grill and baked beans and creamy slaw and garlic bread and apple pie and orange cake and brownies and.....the list goes on and on. And we gather as friends and family to celebrate that this is truly One Nation, Under God. And we thank Him for His great love for us, for the brave men and women who serve at home and in far away places, and for all those who have gone before us who worked and sacrificed so that we might have the unbelievable freedoms that we sometimes take for granted. God bless us every one!

Sweet Moments

Have you ever experienced a “sweet moment?” I know you have – your wedding day the moment you first looked into your new husband’s eyes, the birth of your children, the day your daughter first tells you she’s in love. These are obvious ones and there are so many more. But sometimes they appear unexpectedly and are almost like the quick flight of a hummingbird – here and then gone in the blink of an eye. I had one this week and it was one I’ve savored all day today and will for many days to come.

Last night my husband and I were sitting quietly watching NCIS, a favorite of ours even though it was a rerun, and I was working on one of the Winter Wonderland redwork blocks when my telephone rang. When I answered my son said, “Mom, your granddaughter wants to talk to you.” He was referring to the one who will be 7 years old this Friday; yes, she was born on the fourth of July and is truly a firecracker! When she got on the phone she immediately yelled, “Grandma, I got my ears pierced!” You could hear the excitement in her voice and you could almost see her bouncing up and down. I could definitely picture this little face with its mischievous grin, which is missing about four teeth now. Having one of your grandbabies call you because she wants to share some exciting news with you has to be one of the sweetest moments God gives us. She loves her Grandma and couldn’t wait to share this wonderful moment in her life.

And then there’s the other side of the story. I’ve been lamenting for some time now my inability to multitask any more. This aging process seems to have profoundly affected that – I used to cook supper, do laundry, wash dishes and talk on the phone all at once. No more. And I definitely won’t let my husband eat a burger and drive at the same time, and rarely let him even say hello on the cell phone if he’s driving. Our reflexes are not what they used to be. But last night I did two things at one time without missing a beat. I heard my voice saying things like….oh my goodness did it hurt?...what kind of earrings did you get?…do you love them?....how long will it be before you can change them?...how often do you have to clean them and turn them?….Mommy let you do that for your birthday, right?.... I could hear the joy, I could sense her pride, I could almost smell her sweet little girl scent and feel the baby softness of her skin. And I knew I couldn’t rain on her parade.

But at the same time, in my head, I was screaming. Yes, I’m embarrassed to say, screaming. What in the world are you doing letting this baby pierce her ears? Shouldn’t she be 21 at least before she does that? Or maybe, sweet 16? Why couldn’t she wait on this terribly grown-up thing? Can’t we just keep her a baby for a little while longer? I wanted my babies to stay babies but they didn’t. I want my grandbabies to stay babies, and they won’t. One of them is already 20. I was married and had a baby by then and you know what that means don’t you? It means I could potentially some day soon be a great grandmother. Time doesn’t stop, and I wouldn’t want it to. But couldn’t it slow down just a little?

There are other sweet moments that I remember, moments that make me smile and some of them even generate a tear or two. I remember my oldest daughter, her red hair flying, running to me and crying when she was about 5 because she gave her roly poly bug a bath and he drowned. I remember my youngest daughter walking across the stage at her high school graduation as class valedictorian pausing to hug her Daddy who was Superintendent of Schools and who got to be on the stage with her. I remember the first time my all grown up son walked across the football field after coaching his first football game as a high school coach and kissing me right there in front of God and everybody.

And four years ago today I remember my mother opening her eyes and smiling the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen, greeting my father who had preceded her by four months and saying, “Where have you been? I’ve been ready for days! Where’s Jesus?” And off she went to rejoin her beloved husband and to meet Jesus face-to-face.

What are your sweet moments? Would you share them with us?

God's Gifts

"Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you...." John 17.7

"...God has given His gifts to you..." Romans 11.28

I believe God created quilt shops just for me. Well, maybe not only me, but I know He placed in me the desire to create and gave me the ability to learn and to use my knowledge to satisfy that desire. He gave that same desire to a lot of others and some of them got a double heaping helping of talent to go with it! He even supplied the materials we need to make our creations. For some of you the creations are paintings; for others it might be a beautifully decorated home. Some of you love to make flower arrangements or grow big, delicious vegetables. But whatever it is you love to create He put everything you need somewhere close to you, or in a place where you can find it. And He put quilt shops in lots of places I visit. Isn't that just like Him? He put one on the way to Sam's and He knows I have to shop at Sam's quite often. He put one near friends a few towns north of me. He put one just 10 miles from my son's house. He put a new one about 15 miles from me, right on the way to a couple of fellow guild members. And He put two in San Antonio! Well, actually He put more than two in San Antonio but that's the way He is - He overflowed my cup! I know that gluttony is a sin so I was careful; I only went to two. Wasn't I good?

The first shop I went to in San Antonio was Memories by the Yard, a large, bright & friendly place with a fabulous spot for husbands to sit and wait. The first thing I saw was a Christmas wallhanging. Now it's not like I don't have more Christmas wallhangings than I can hang in my house, and at least a half dozen Christmas wallhanging kits that I haven't yet made. But I love Christmas and this one was really cute...I know it's hard to see here but there are snowmen peeping over the first little sash, a sort of fence. And then a row of trees and a row of gingerbread men. Such a cute pattern how could I pass it up? I wandered around for a while, looked up, and there was the cutest baby quilt I ever saw. I have absolutely sworn I would not buy another applique pattern until I made several of the ones I have. But I have a new grandbaby coming. And this was so cute. So it came home with me too. It won't be hand appliqued since it's for a baby and needs to be sturdy so it should be pretty quick to make.

The second shop was Plain Jane's. This shop was difficult to find and was in a sort of industrial section. It didn't have a highly visible sign so we passed it by once. It was tiny, wasn't well lit, and had only one person working. There wasn't really room for many more people than my husband, me and the one person working. But friends, she had wonderful fabric, really fun patterns, and excellent prices. She had some cute samples and nice sale fabrics. I know she has a website and I think she may do a good bit of internet business. I bought a couple of yards of a fabric for the baby quilt from the pattern above :) and three patterns.

One is a Valentine wallhanging with both embroidery and applique. Another is a patriotic redwork pattern. And the third is also an embroidery - a family sampler.

I am thankful that God loves me so much and that He loves to give me the desires of my heart. I hope that the pieces I create are pleasing to Him.

What do you love to create and where did God put the stuff you need?

Satisfying Women's Curiosity

Have you ever noticed how curious women are? We want to know everything there is to know about other women without giving away very much of ourselves. For instance, if I dye my hair I might not volunteer that I keep Lady Clairol in my medicine cabinet but I'd love to know if you color yours and, being given the opportunity, might find it very hard not to take a peek the next time I'm in your bathroom. I'm not talking about myself you understand, but women in general. I would never look in your medicine cabinet. Never. Sort of. Well, maybe if we're really good friends. Or really bad friends. It's all Eve's fault, really. She was the first of our gender to demonstrate curiosity when she just couldn't leave that apple alone. It's all her fault.

My quilt guild meets once a month in a local Senior Citizens Center after the "old folks" leave for the day. It's a wonderful big room with access to water and bathrooms and a sound system. We meet in the evening beginning at 5:30 with a workshop and then a "snack" and our business meeting/program/show and tell starts about 6:45 or so. We have 120 members but only average 60-65 at our evening meeting. In addition once a month (First Wednesday) we meet for a potluck and sit-and-sew at someone's home. Since many of our members work we only have about 20 there for First Wednesday. One of the best parts of that day is getting to see our friends sewing rooms. Needless to say we all clean and organize our "stuff" before everyone comes but it's so fun to see how others store things, what tools they have out and use the most, and even some of their work on the walls. That's where the curiosity comes in. Since I love looking at other women's sewing rooms I thought it only fair that I show you mine. When we moved into this house 5 years ago I took the small third bedroom as my studio (I use that term loosely!) It has evolved over time as I added and took away but this is what it looks like today.

As you walk into the room my sewing table is on the wall facing you in front of the only two windows. I keep my embroidery thread sorted and in bins under the left side of the table. The stack of "stuff"on the table is a conglomeration of wallhangings, etc. ready to be quilted. The small plastic drawers to the right hold Pigma pens, chalk pencils, etc. in the first two drawers, scissors and rotary cutters in the third, and hmmmm can't remember what's in that bottom one! There's a thread holder on the wall to the left of the table for my quilting thread, and the drawer on the table holds my sewing machine attachments and bobbins and that sort of stuff.

Just to the right of the sewing area is my ironing center. I keep a small Ott light there because that corner is a little dark. The baskets on the wall hold starch, a spray bottle of water, iron cleaner, glue, spray adhesive, Magic Sizing, and a lint roller. I also hang my applique ironing sheet there. My husband put a television shelf above it so that I can glance at it from the sewing machine. I use a Maytag cordless iron with a titanium plate that I dearly love. I bought it 4 years ago for $130 (on sale at the time) and would do it again.

The wall to the right of the ironing board is my design wall. I used a piece of foam insulation from the hardware store and covered it with flannel, stapling it to the back. Then my husband nailed it to the wall. In the corner to the right of it I have UFOs - nicely organized don't you think? I even labeled each one....mystery quilt, yellow spring quilt, sampler, etc. The basket is the fabric for my Botanika applique quilt, also a UFO. Then I sit this quilt rack in front of those in a failed attempt to hide them. On it are finished tops ready to be sandwiched. Some are quilts, some wallhangings.

On the wall opposite the sewing machine I put cabinets where I store all kinds of stuff from quilt kits to notions. If I hadn't dumped everything I've had out for the last week on top of the cabinet you could see my cutting area. This is the real deal, girls....it's a mess right now. In my defense I would remind you that I can't get in there right now because of the electrical problems. :) Above the cabinets are these shelves. I use old wire gym baskets salvaged from the junk pile at a local school as well as antique blue canning jars and baskets to store my patterns, redwork books, tea towels, applique patterns, buttons, embroidery floss, etc. If you look closely in the picture on the left you will see that when the electricity blew I was cutting strips from my leftover fabrics and hanging them over a hanger. Also there on the wall I have pictures of friends from quilt guild.

The door where you enter my sewing room is a cheap hollow core door which needed to be replaced when we moved in. Instead I use push pins to hang my square and odd shaped rulers. It's great because they're easy to get to, I can see exactly what I have, and they are right at my fingertips. The long rulers are in one of those wooden holders on the cabinet.

That wall is to the left of the sewing cabinet and has two closets but I absolutely, positively refuse to open those doors for you right now. You could be hurt. Seriously hurt. I have a couple of quilt blocks pinned to the doors of one closet and a leftover piece of the foam insulation on the other. My husband put shelves above then so I would have more storage. Wonder what's up there....let's see, there are some red hand towels waiting for Christmas or Valentine's Day, my iron cover, a big box of colors and coloring books for children's travel bags that I make, a lap hoop and even a couple of old irons - you know the kind you keep "just in case." One of them my Dad bought for me at a garage sale and it's not a steam iron. I love it - no holes in the bottom and gets really, really hot.

So, there you have it. I spend a lot of time in this room - even more than I spend in my bedroom at my desk. :) If I had room I'd just move my desk in there so I'd have my computer with me when I sew. I'm really jealous of Ivory Spring and the wonderful setup she has.

Now, when are you gonna' show me your medicine cabinet?