We Made It!

I've tried since last night to upload a picture of Merle sitting on the dash of my car - I left the hatch up while loading the car yesterday morning and came back out and had a big orange dash ornament! I laughed pretty hard at that one!

It's been raining here a lot in Houston and I had to drive through more high water than I wanted to - apparently the flooding of surface streets is quite common here.

There have been a couple comments with questions regarding Quilt Market. It is held in the same convention space as the International Quilt Festival. The Festival quilts are hung, but they've not been judged yet (or if they have, the ribbons have not been attached). If there's time, we have the opportunity to look at the quilts. I will not be returning next weekend for Festival - primarily because I have so many employees going to Festival that someone has to stay and work! But also because I have a 6th grader and Dad has been good enough to take vacation this week so that I can come to Market. I just can't logistically manage it.

Someday I would like to return for Festival - if only to look at the booths and see what is selling.

We went to 3 quilt shops yesterday and I was very good. I bought a handful of fat quarters (at $1.50 each - and they have a purpose) and a pattern. After going crazy in Minneapolis in May and not even finding a home for all the crap I bought then, I am being more careful!

Gotta go - it's my turn for the shower!

Susan

Off to Market, Jiggity-Jig

Well, I leave this morning to head to Houston for Quilt Market. The anticipation of the "hunt" always gets my juices flowing. What will I find? What will I learn? Hope there's something GOOD!

Audrey got braces yesterday and I'm leaving her to whine with her daddy. But I will be back in time to Trick-or Treat!

Later,
Susan

A Day at the Texas State Fair

Howdy, folks (said in a deep baritone voice). This is Big Tex welcoming you to the Texas State Fair. Today was the last day of the fair and we finally got around to going.


After eating the requisite corny dog upon arrival, we wandered to the new car exhibits. I don't know why - we're not in the market for a new car. At the Jeep area, there was a climbing wall for kids. Audrey LOVES climbing walls. When it was her turn, I took out my camera and she scampered up the wall so fast I couldn't keep the camera focused! This was the best of the bunch - but she looks like she's headless!

We stumbled across this photo op - Audrey refused to play, so I handed her my camera and Russ and I stepped in. I thought it was kind of fitting since my husband works for a dairy!


Here's a shot of Elsie the Cow. Yes, she works for the competitor (Borden's). But she's so cute I had to take her picture. But we never did figure out why she has a chain and a lock wrapped around her head.....


The biggest draw at the petting zoo was this red kangaroo with a baby joey sticking out of her pocket. Kinda cool, yet kinda creepy, too.

After wandering all over the midway looking for the fried Twinkies (Russ' idea - not mine), Audrey begged to ride a ride. At $5 a pop, I try to discourage it. But, it is the state fair, so I agreed to one ride. Big problem - she won't ride alone. Since I was the one who HADN'T just eaten the fried Twinkie, I was elected. As they strapped us in, I leaned over to Audrey and whispered in her ear....."Does this not show you how much I love you?". The ride was okay with a minimum of motion sickness. Thank goodness she settled for one ride.

Here's a shot of the world's largest pig - over 1100 pounds. I guess he ate too many fried Twinkies.

Oh, and by the way. I quilted next month's Strip Club quilt this morning.
All in all, it was a pretty productive day.

A Week's Worth of Work

I have not even opened the door on my sewing room this week. I've been working with Quiltropolis to move my web site and begin setting up my web mall. That led me to realize that I also should get a better photo editor than Microsoft Picture Organizer. So, I went out and bought Photoshop Elements. MANY hours were spent making this little montage button. It doesn't look like much, but I'm pretty proud of it. You see, I have taught myself "creativity" in quilting, but I'm still so left-brained that it is ridiculous. Being creative is still hard work for me.

The mall thing is coming along, but it's going to take some time because the rest of my life and job won't wait on the back burner. I have a strip club sample to make and maybe I'll get started on that today.

It's supposed to rain all day which is fine with me. It's a great excuse to just hang out at the house!

I'm a Quiltin' Fool

I've been a quilting fool...I've longarm quilted 4 quilts since Friday night! And I bound 2 of them!

Here's the quilt I pieced in the last week - it's from Bonnie's quitville.com site and the pattern is Scrappy Bargello. And it was all pieced from the stash - even the back.

This is Audrey's quilt. I signed her up for our beginning quilting class at the store and for the last 4 weeks she has pieced this quilt. I quilted and bound it this afternoon. Pretty good for an eleven-year-old, huh? However, she did have a little difficulty holding it still for the photo!


This is a fun quilt by Sarah, who works at the store. She made it for her brother-in-law whose birthday happens to be on Halloween. I don't usually quilt for other people any more, but Sarah's done a lot for me, and since it wasn't that big of a quilt, I quilted it for her so that she can get it in the mail on time. The pattern is "BQ" by Maple Island Quilts.

This final quilt is a sample for the store using Marti Michell's new Log Cabin ruler.

I'll probably spend the majority of the next week working on my website -I'm moving it over to Quiltropolis and there's technical stuff that I don't know how to do...I'll probably be scratching my head quite a lot....But I'm determined to get it done. Hopefully I'll also make enough progress so that my designer can complete my "updated" look. It's very daunting to me to jump head first into something that I really know nothing about and I tend to procrastinate. But no more - I must get it done!

Have a great week,

Susan

Good Intentions

It appears that I have the best intentions regarding blogging - but it's only happening about once a week.

Last Sunday I attended the Plano Balloon Fest with Russ - he's on the "Moo Crew" and we help out each year. The festival was pretty much a complete bust - the temperature was great, but the wind was too much to fly. We did decide at the last minute (once the winds died down a little) to inflate the small balloon on the field for the crowd. We have a giant cow balloon (otherwise known as the "big" balloon), but there's no way we could have held her down with the winds.



On one of my many trips to the post office this week, Audrey and I saw this hawk on the field next to the PO. A guy in his truck said he saw it zoom in over the freeway and zero in on a mouse in the grass. We watched the hawk play with it for a minute or two, but traffic was backing up behind us and we had to go. It was surreal to see a predator bird do his work at 6:00 in the evening!


I took a couple of days off this week (burnout is certainly knocking on MY door!) and after I did a few chores, I began playing with my 2-1/2" strip bin. Before I knew it, I had a complete quilt. It's Bonnie's Strip Twist pattern! And it all came from my stash.

I'm now playing with her Scrappy Bargello pattern. I have 2 and a half panels done....It's great to sew for fun again. I know it won't last, but I'll enjoy it while I can.

Have a great week,
Susan