Tuesday, September 30, 2014



                                                 Retreat Finishes

    Well, I actually did get some sewing done this past weekend. I tried to lay off the booze until I was done sewing for the day- that worked out pretty well.  The weather could not have been more beautiful- the trees were at their prime! There was a little orange here and there-wow. I am so glad now our group will get this place every year on this weekend! We didn’t even need a jacket on our walks.




 

    The first project I worked on was the Boxy Pouch-there is one more in progress but I brought the wrong size zipper. I hope to finish that one this week.



 
     The next thing I worked on were these cherry quilts- the pattern is from Fig Tree- it is one of her mini patterns. These were very fun to make. I had one done and was pleased. The next day our friend Terry came to visit and when I showed it to her I noticed one of the leave/stem units was upside down! I had to tear that whole section out and un-do part of the border. What a dork! At least I noticed it before I gave it away! And, I did not do that with the 2nd one! Lesson learned!







     Saturday came and I made these stockings for my nephew’s family at his wife’s request. These were also very fun to make. The patterns came out of a Possibilities book that is now out of print. I am so glad I have them done so early- usually I would be mailing them December 15th or later LOL. I sent her pics of them and she loved them- success!!!



 

       The last thing I worked on were these mini totes that you attach to your key ring. I found the pattern on the internet. I could have made the corners boxy but by this time I was getting pooped and didn’t do it- I don’t really think they needed it.




     As usual it was a very nice weekend. We had great food as usual and of course everyone was fun to be around. It is so nice to hang out with others that share your addiction! Everyone has different methods to do things and are so willing to share- I always learn tons of stuff when I go on these things! I only have to wait 6 months until we go again-it will be colder this time but the camaraderie will be the same! Can’t wait! Is it too early to start packing?

Wednesday, September 24, 2014




          Catching Up on a Lovely Fall Weekend
   I had such a lovely weekend. On Saturday, I taught the Sew Together bag at my LQS. My students came from the other end of town- how cool is that? They each left the class with a finished bag, and they even finished an hour early! Here are their bags- Teresa used a Ricky Tims fabric and Gina used a print from the Ghastlies line. Great job girls!



 

   After class I needed to sew J so I whipped a few tissue holders out-boy did these go quickly!

 

        Saturday night I was parked in front of the tv watching this man- I will be so sad when the season ends.

 

  Then on Sunday I went on my usual early morning walk with my one quilting buddy. She is getting ready to move to the opposite end of town, so I am enjoying each minute of our walks together- oh I will miss those! 
   After our walk, my dear friend Sandy came and grabbed me and we headed to lunch- gyros- yum- and then we headed to a quilt shop to get this months’ Block of the Month.  It was so nice visiting with her! Of course we left the shop with a little more than just our quilt blocks- shocker I know. My son needed a new pillowcase so I found some appropriate fabric that I had to buy. I turned it into this-


 

  After hanging out with Sandy I became inspired to work on my Gardeners’ Alphabet block (We both have a love for all things hand embroidered).  I have been working on this small block wayyyy too long. I finally finished it up on Monday evening. I had it in the hoop so long I was amazed I could iron the hoop lines out- boy I love my spray starch!!



  I have an Ott light- thank goodness that also has a magnifier on it. I just had to start using that darn magnifier- boy these eyes are getting old! Of course George (my tortoise shell cat) needed attention the whole time I was hand stitching and then the dogs would take turns wanting some loving as well. Good lord it is amazing I ever get a damn thing done. But I love my critters!

 
  I am anticipating a productive weekend coming up- this is the quilt retreat. I have about 100 (only a slight exaggeration)  projects packed and ready to go. I will have to see how many I can get done. Now, if I can only stay away from Lexies’ beergaritas -

Sew on my dear friends!
 
 
WELCOME!
 
 
 
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To celebrate, we invite all of our friends, both foreign and domestic, to take advantage of our special Chip and Dale Designs discount for many classes from our friends at Craftsy.

 
 
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Be sure and check out my Luminous Lone Star Quilting Class!
 


Wednesday, September 17, 2014


                                                            CREEPY CRAWLIES

   How many of you are snake fans? Spider fans??  Not me- and now it seems the older I get the worse it gets. When I was a kid, I played outside- A LOT. I remember one time finding strings and strings of what looked like yarn with slimy little balls in them in a pond. I went home, found a bucket and went back to the pond. I scooped up as much of the crap as I could and took it home. Days later, I looked in the bucket and lo and behold- tadpoles! Millions of ‘em!  I watched them grow for a few more days, sprout some legs, then eventually  released them back into the pond. Boy was that cool! So see- I used to not be bothered by slimy things!
   My mother, on the other hand, was a different story. On our way to my uncles’ home in New York we would drive through the Poconos. On this particular trip I was probably 10 years old or so. There was a snake farm that I begged to go into every. fricking .time. Finally my dad stopped. He probably was sick of my whining. As we are getting out of the car, my mother tells us she is staying in the car, rolls up her car window and locks the doors. This killed us- are the damn snakes smart enough to unlock car doors?  (This was long before Snakes on a Plane- boy that would have freaked her ass right out! ) We gave that poor woman grief about that forever. Well, the snake farm was as cool as I thought it would be- and I loved it.
 

   Back in the day my mother did all of our laundry. Washed it, hung it out on the line then actually put it away for us. Yes, we were spoiled. My brother had a little habit of putting his plastic snakes in various drawers so my mother would find a surprise when she put his clothes away. What a bastard. Why my mother did not proceed to tell him to put his own damn clothes away I have no idea. I would have tossed his clothes into the room and shut the door. And never did his laundry again.
   My dad, on the other hand was terrified of spiders.  My Saturday afternoons would often be spent  watching Creature Feature on tv- which sometimes involved giant creatures- and occasionally huge spiders took over little towns. This did not thrill my dad. When the spiders made an appearance he would make some lame excuse to leave the room- if he was lucky someone came in the barbershop to have their hair cut, or he needed to get a beer, make us dagwood sandwiches, etc. I never really noticed this was what he was doing- dads are not supposed to be afraid of anything, right?



   Fast forward a few years later. He was working construction and felt something on his shoulder. He brushed it off and kept working. A half an hour later he was violently ill and ended up going to the hospital. As the doctor was working on him, he said “I didn’t know there were poisonous spiders in the area”. He said it was a good damn thing he was laying down cause he would have passed out.  Poor guy.
 
   I was at a dear friends’ house several years ago and she told me one of her hubbys’ pet snakes had gotten out of its’ cage. How she could calmly sit there and not be totally freaking out amazed me. And it had been missing for days! There is no way I could have slept knowing that snake was on the loose.  She went downstairs into her sons’ room to put away laundry-(he is not an ass like my brother and did not hide fake snakes for her to find)and guess what was in there? The missing  snake! She went upstairs, grabbed a broom and a pillowcase and off she went. In utter amazement, I watched as she picked up the snake with the broom handle, then carefully placed the snake in the pillowcase. She then took the bag upstairs and dumped the snake back into its’ happy home. She was so brave- there is no way in hell I could have ever done that. You rock Di!

 

    A few years ago, a housing development was being built to the north of our house. This seemed to piss off the local snake population, and they started to migrate south. I really do not remember having an ALL SNAKES ARE WELCOME HERE sign up but the bastards came over anyway. One nice, fall day we decided to clean up the grape arbor to the south of our house and do some back yard maintenance.  We found several snakes in the backyard- off with their heads! Every time I saw one I would scream- which led me to be made fun of by my dorky teenage son. As we worked our way to the arbor, our son joined in the fun. And guess who screamed and ran like a 6 year old girl when he spotted his first snake?  Yep-Mr. “ I am too cool to yell at a snake like my dorky mother”.  He ran so fast he looked like the Flash! We found 4 more that day –which is now known in our home as the great snake massacre on Franklin Street.

 
   This leads me to yesterdays’ story from hubby. He said he was in the bathroom and guess what crawled out of a roll of toilet paper? A spider! I had just opened a new pack of paper, so this little guy must have had quite the trip. Bob said there was even a web inside the roll! I am glad it was Bob that saw him and not me!
 

   Now, all these years later, I hate all slimy creepy crawlies. Yes, I know they have their purpose, and that snakes are not slimy, spiders are good(mostly), blah , blah, blah. So. I guess not only have I turned into my mother but my father as well. In some ways this is not a bad thing-

   Party on my friends! And you are welcome for the nightmares :)

Thursday, September 11, 2014




                                          Quilt Retreat Here I Come----

Have any of you ever been on a quilt retreat? If not, I highly recommend it! I come back refreshed, sewed out (almost) and usually a tad hungover.

 
It all started about 8 years ago. I kept hearing about quilters who would go on these weekend sewing benders at retreat centers.  A whole weekend of quilting, eating and drinking??? How do I get involved? So, after being rejected by several respectable retreat groups,  I started to look for places to hold one of my own. This was not an easy task. After a bit of searching, I sounded out my old job.
In between my sophomore and what would have been my junior year at college I found a job at a dude ranch south of Denver. Now, as you may recall I grew up in coal country, not in the country. I showed up at the ranch with my sister’s old cowboy boots and a great attitude. Thank god for the attitude! I had the most wonderful summer- met some amazing people and I have never worked harder.




 
 So, I got a hold of my ex boss, and lo and behold she would host all of us! I did not have to have a minimum number of participants, we all got our very own rooms and they cooked for us all weekend.


 

  We were in! So, I gathered up 15 friends and off we went. Now, the main lodge where we sew is not ideal for sewing- bad chairs, not so great lighting, etc. but we got used to it. After a few gallons of wine we didn’t really give a crap anyway. This has gone on for 8 years. We go in the fall, and if you have ever seen the beautiful aspens in the fall here in Colorado you know what a great time of year it is. The lodge sits on the river- and it could not be a more beautiful setting.  For a mere 7.7 million bucks it could be yours-
http://www.farmandranch.com/property/north-fork-ranch

Well, the owners decided last year to sell the ranch so they are not going to be able to host us any longer. Darn! So one of the other quilters took over the “finding of a new venue” role.  Thank you Roxanne! And boy did she do good!!! I blogged about this location in the spring-


By some miracle there was a cancellation this fall so we grabbed that weekend, too! So, now we can go 2 times a year for what we paid for once a year!  Of course here we each have to cook a meal- no big deal - and we have to share rooms-no big deal there, either. 


 

These weekends mean the world to me- these ladies are like my family. We laugh together, sometimes cry together (that weekend kind of sucked for me but margaritas at 10am didn’t hurt) and of course sew together.  I will post pictures of all of us and our projects after I get back- if I am not too drunk to work my camera/phone. Boy, this post makes me sound like a I need a weekend at AA instead of a retreat- J

Happy Sewing!

Thursday, September 4, 2014




PACADOODLES

Recently, a number of my husband’s Facebook friends had engaged in a lively discussion on the pros and cons of breeding designer dogs. Now while I don’t want to get into a big discussion or debate on the ethics or science of the breeding of designer dogs in particular, I must say that these discussions have caused me to wonder.

 

Several months ago, while visiting our friends Laurie and Fred at their G-Spot Ranch in Southern Colorado, I brought up the subject of designer dogs. This led into a discussion on designer animals in general. After many beers hours of discussion, we came to several conclusions on the subject.

First, the designer animal needed to be self-supporting. For example, a cow or goat gives milk, a chicken lays eggs, and a person can get wool from a llama, alpaca or sheep. In other words, the animal should produce something that can be sold or exchanged in order for the animal to be self-sustaining.

Second, the breeding process should be natural, not something contrived in a test tube or laboratory. Therefore, the two designer parents must be somewhat compatible in order for this to happen au natural, so to speak. For the sake of the children, if nothing else.

Fred pointed out that he had a female alpaca right there on the G-Spot Ranch. Her friend and mate had passed away several years ago and she hasn’t been laid ever since. So Fred thought she might be up to some non-species lovin’. This would be a good place to start.

Laurie recalled a little boy, upon seeing the alpaca, had said that it was the biggest poodle that he had ever seen.   We all agreed that poodles do look somewhat like alpacas and as anyone who has ever been around a poodle knows, they will hump anything. So with that in mind, we formulated a plan for the first pairing of a totally natural designer animal.
 
Here is the happy couple:





Now, several months later, The G-Spot Ranch is the home of the first successful natural attempt to interbreed species and create a new designer animal – the Pacadoodle!
 
 
The wool of this lovely little creature makes it self- sustaining. It has the friendliness and hunting capabilities of a poodle. And Bob says that it has all the functionality of a sheep, whatever that means.

All in all, I would say our first attempt at creating a designer animal was a huge success.