Look what followed me home...

I love estate sales. Sometimes they are like a treasure hunt because you never know what you're going to find. This particular sale was advertised, so I knew what to be looking for...I went armed with cash!


The quilt I bought was made in the late 1930's by a woman in Western Oklahoma. No, it's not labeled but it will be soon. I am lucky enough to be friends with the previous owner, and she gave me the details of my purchase. It's in wonderful condition and was stored so it has no damage for the age of the quilt. Hard to believe that it's almost 80 years old! AND...it's now hanging in MY living room!

I also purchased the couple's hand-made kitchen table. I'd never seen a table made quite like this and much thanks needs to go to Troy and his buddy JD for helping me get it home.

The top of this table is made from 2x4's turned on their side. The pictures do not do it justice, nor can give you an idea about how heavy the darn thing is. Okay..yes, the boyz called it a few other things. You can also see that it's NOT in my house just yet...it's in the garage. Have yet figured out how I'm going to get the thing into my house. It had to go thru a sliding glass door, and around a fence to even get it out of the previous owner's home. I do have plans for it but you'll have to wait to see what those are.

Probably a good thing that there are only a few estate sales in my area at a time....Dh has already told my boss that I'm not allowed to take off work early again this month!

First Day of School

Yesterday was the beginning of Troy's Sophmore year. Since I leave before he does and he gets home before me, I didn't have the honor of taking the milestone picture. Will get him later.


I did drag this old picture out. Man...were the boyz ever that little?

Troy is the youngest
Trent w/yellow shirt and
Travis holding Troy.

Glad I had them while I was young--what was I thinking? I know other Moms who had children closer in age, but thank goodness God didn't see that in my plan. I never would've survived....they're lucky that THEY survived! They'll probably be in therapy some day 'cause of their Mom! I always told them that thread was bio-degradable. I heard Troy tell one of his friends that he was allergic to white (they were talking about clothes). Heck, it worked...never had to buy white shoes or white t-shirts.

We've been blessed with rain the past week. Now (don't think I'm griping) the mosquitoes are thick! I was out chasing somebody's bottle calves last night because another somebody left the gate open. Grass about 8" tall can hide a lot of mosquitoes. I'm still itchy today.

Been sewing like a mad woman and my house shows it. I gotta stop and get caught up someday....someday will come eventually.

I've saved this picture because I keep thinking that this would make a good landscape/portrait picture in a quilt. Anybody make one? I have a book--but not ready to tackle it yet. ...someday!

A day of Ribbons

One thing I can say is that we're not an overly-competitive family. We like to participate, but being "the best" is not why we go. I try to stress the getting-there is what's the most fun.

We have a local fair that is always fun. It's advertised as one of the oldest free-fairs in the state and it's always been a safe place for cheap entertainment for our boys. My Uncle has always been fair-president (until recently) so family members are always coerced into participating!

First entry of the year: The Sunflower Quilt
I entered it in the Baby-Applique and since I was the only entry, they moved me to the category of Baby-Pieced. You have to remember...small-town country fair. I did ask the judge (i've known her for 28 years) how she picked a Grand-Champion quilt and she said that it comes down to hand-quilting. She said it was a preference for her and if she has two that she's down to, the hand-quilting will win. Well...since there's too many quilts out there that needs to be made, I won't win with my hand-quilting! The blue ribbon is my prize (and a $5 bill to go with it).


Second ribbon of the day:
I don't know who's the bigger Goober....The one I'm married to or my youngest son! Troy won Breed-Champion with his Hampshire pig. Took three pigs to the pig show and it was the day for the black/white one to shine. He won a third and fourth with the other two.
If you've never been to a pig-show, it's an experience in itself. Sometimes it's organized-chaos..well most of the time it is, but they manage to get it done. Like I said, we go to have fun. Yes, it's a lot of work but it's also fun seeing all of the kids work together and learn to help each other.
This picture is also deceiving, because Troy is as tall as his Dad.

One more trip to town this morning to pick up my quilt and my prize. There's another fair next month that I'm thinking about entering two quilts in it. Figure as long as we have pigs that go, I can enter some of my quilts too.

Finally, some sewing

I haven't been able to post in almost two weeks and now two in a row....miracles.

Anyway....I've been reading JudyL's theory of sewing at least an hour a day. Sounds good...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I still have three that are good at stating "come and help me for a minute"....yea..like it's only a minute!

Since we've been blessed with a drink outside, things have slowed down somewhat. When the fields are dry again, I'll get more peace and quiet because they'll be busy outside.

But...yesterday was one of the days that I got to sew for about THREE hours! Well....there was laundry done, supper cooked and clothes folded inbetween, but I DID get some sewing done.
I bought these 2 1/2 x 6 1/2 strips at our guild's flea-market night. A gallon ziploc bag full for .25cents. I've been looking thru Bonnie's site and found this bricks and stones pattern that I thought would work perfect for these. My collection of homespuns grew(still haven't figured this out) after my bullseye and figure it would be a good way to use some of the smaller pieces. Small is right...the checkerboard (stones) are 1.5" strips! BUT...using Bonnie's techniques of strip piecing, I managed to make about 50 of the 4-patch blocks and sewn to bricks! Yes, this is definitely going to be a fast and easy project. Getting it quilted (like the bullseye) may be the problem, but making the blocks is the fun part, right?

And the Thunder Rolls...

Western Oklahoma has been without rain for many weeks. So, when these dark clouds formed we all got excited. Yes the radar said strong winds and small hail, but rain is the magic word.

When the storms passed we went out and check everybody (this is our animal head-count) to make everybody is alright. Much to our dismay we couldn't find one of Troy's bottle calves (which are now weaned).

The pictures may not show the black streak, but lightening hit this tree that Troy is standing next to. We had never seen bark stripped off of a tree like this. Some of the bark was 5 feet away. Usually when a streak of lightening hits, the tree is split in two but this one was different. Just so happened that one of his calves was laying next to it thinking it would give some shelter from the pounding rain.

This last tree-picture shows where the lightening went clear-thru the tree and exited out. This is where the calf was laying when we found her. No, she didn't make it thru the storm and had a big black mark where she was struck by the lightening bolt. I've preached and preached to everybody that lightening is like fire--you gotta respect it. Stay out of it's way! Also sad that one of God's creatures was taken and also (sad to admit) that the monetary loss is also there...raising bottles calves is Troy's way of gaining an allowance on the farm. He does the work and receives the check when the calves are sold in the spring.

This picture is of Dean and one of our neighbors and also shows just how close this tree is to our house. The lightening could've hit our house just as easy.
Dark clouds rolled in again last night and we received another drink. We'll now have enough moisture to plant this fall's wheat crop. When you farm with the elements and know you can't control them, you just do what you have with what you have.

My Quilting Partner

This is my sewing buddy. She never objects if my points don't match or if the colors aren't just right. She never says that it's crooked or that it's ugly.

Her name is Trudi and yes, if you've known me for awhile...I borrowed her name for some postings. She's a 14 yr old Sheltie. Ten years ago, the vet said that she'd probably live to be 12 and she's proved him wrong with her arthritis, her blindness and her lack of hearing. But she's also had the a/c and a pretty good diet to keep her going.

But....she loves it when I lay a project out and she thinks it a new cushion to test out. She also never complains if there's thread pieces on her fur or if a flower-head pin gets stuck to her. Trudi has never been injured by pins or a fallen rotary cutter, but has been stepped on numberous times because her favorite spot to sleep is right beside my rolling chair.

Laurie Ann showed us her Roogrr and how he helps, so here's my hair-shedder in action! It's an on-going joke at our house as to who sheds worse--her or me.

The project she's laying on is my bullseye and I'll show another picture of it when I get it a little further along. It's almost ready to be quilted and I like how it's turning out.