The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

Check this out!  But, remember that I want this for my granddaughter.

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

Quilt-Along Progress

I apologize for these pictures.  I forgot to bring my camera download cord on my Colorado vacation.  So, I've had to get pictures of my fabrics off the store website.

Yesterday's post showed a picture of Confetti Mult Stripes that will, of course, be used for the striped fabric in Judy's (Patchwork Times) example of Bears in a Farmhouse (Not the first photo, Silly.  That's sushi!).

    Kona Cotton Mustard will be used in place of ecru

and 

  

Confetti Multi Squares will be used in place of the yellow.  

The remaining fabric requirements will be taken from my and my sister's stashes at home in OK.  I should be back early next week.

Lazy Sunday

I have been visiting my son in Denver for a few days and will return to Colorado Springs this afternoon for my last week of vacation.  My 16-year-old granddaughter has shared her bedroom with me for the past 2 nights and we whispered and giggled together until 1 AM.  So, I slept later than is my usual habit.  Still, I was up by 7 AM and it is now 9 AM and the house is as quiet as a mouse.  These city-dwellers have missed a lovely sunrise and wasted a lot of work-time!  At home, farm animals would have been fed, breakfast prepared and eaten, house picked up, and preparations for Sunday worship completed by 9AM! After two weeks here, I have yet to find a compelling reason to sell the farm and move to the city.  

My son's treat for me today is a Japanese restaurant and an introduction to sushi.  I'm not overly enthusiastic about this adventure.  Granted I love very rare beef, and any seafo

od or fresh fish, but I have always felt raw fish to be a bit too fresh.

                                     

But, as I am always telling my 78 year-old mother, learning something new builds new brain cells.  I have my fingers crossed that this new learning experience doesn't also exercise the gag reflex.

Hope to find a Hancock Fabrics on the way

 to Colorado Springs (providing my stomach is behaving).  I'm looking for this fabric that I found on their website.

I would like to use it for the basis of a wall hanging that I will be doing with Judy's Quilt Along.

For all of the reading clubs out there (or for gifting), here is a Give Away for you.  

Have a blessed Sunday.

Super Sister or Poor Patty?

Do you know that I am spending three weeks in Colorado Springs CO?  My husband went back to work part-time for Northrop Grumman Corporation and this entails traveling all over the world on three-week assignments.  I rarely accompany him, but this assignment is at Ft. Carson, CO.  Our two grandchildren live about eight miles from Ft. Carson, so there was no way he was going to leave me back on the farm.  

The only obstacle to my going with him was the question of who we could get to stay with all the animals and keep them and the house from freezing.  Did you know my sister can leap tall buildings?  AND, she is taking care of all my animals, plants, house, etc -- for three weeks!  She is even sleeping in my house on sub-freezing nights in order to bring all my dogs and cats inside.  I once made the mistake of leaving my oldest Border Collie in the laundry room during a severe thunderstorm and she destroyed the lower half of the door trying to get out, so we know she needs extra attention during weather extremes.

I have taken short vacations of five or six days at a time (never in the winter) and Patty has always checked on everything for me.  Invariably something has either died, been born, or broken while she was on watch. The water lines have broken;cows have been born; cats have died (One cat died behind the houseplants that I had put out on the front porch and Patty had watered the dead cat along with the plants for several days before she realized it.  Poor Patty!).  So far, she has only had to sleep over three nights with the dogs and cats, and it doesn't look like the heifer is even pregnant - we may be having RainLily hamburgers, if something doesn't happen soon.  

The rain gutter fell down and the water pipes in the well house broke during the ice storm two weeks ago and I broke the window the day before we left, so Patty can't feel responsible for any of that.  

So far on her watch, only the electricity to the barn has gone out, which means: the light in the chicken house is out, the heater in the cows' water trough is off and  the electric fence for the two heifers and little bull calf is not working.  No electricity means fewer eggs being laid;  if the water trough freezes, water must be hauled from the house;  we have our fingers crossed that the cattle are not smart enough to realize they are no longer penned.  

After this trip, I think I'll make Patty an honorary farmer as well as my most-loved sister.  I have a really great gift for her in thanks for what she is doing, but I can't tell you, yet -- it's a surprise.

Sisters image by Denise Van Patten

Stashbusting Report

I spent 24 years following my husband from US Army postings all over the world - 22 moves in 24 years, so my fabric stashes were constantly being purged.  Now I have been in OK for almost 11 years raising crops and animals, so have had little time for quilting.  But there is a shining star in every adversity.  My Lupus has worsened, so we are downsizing the farm work and I am upsizing the quilting projects -- hooray!  

Check my comment in Liz's stashbusting report to see my present projects.  I read all the reports weekly to keep my stashbuilding impulses in check.  Thanks for your help.

Pay It Forward

I am in Colorado Springs, CO for the next three weeks for a much-needed rest and even more-needed visit with my grandchildren.  But I wanted to quickly tell everyone that I have joined Patty at Osage Bluff Quilter in a Pay It Forward passing game.  And since it is time for me to use the hotel exercise room, I will copy Patty's post ( who copied Marlene's ).  So, click on Patty's post  read the rules and join me.