There's a storm comin'

First of all...if I haven't mentioned it before..I HATE SNOW! I'm not a cold weather person at all. If it weren't for the cattle, I'd pack up and move FAR south. I'm sure the gov't agency I work for would hold my job open for me until I got warm.


Snow and Ice Storm Timeline
by Tim Ballisty , on Jan 27, 2010 8:27 am ET
Yesterday - we set the stage for the approaching southern winter storm with an explanation of the weather factors involved.
Today, let's give you a timeline of events.First off, winter storm watches and warnings and heavy snow warnings are posted from the Four Corners eastward to western Tennessee and western Kentucky.
The storm is already in progress over the Four Corners with heaping amounts of mountain snow just beginning to fall over the various mountains of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.
The action, however, doesn't really begin until Wednesday night.Snow will really begin to come down over the northern and central mountains of New Mexico.A mix of sleet and freezing rain will then spread east into eastern New Mexico and the panhadles of Texas and Oklahoma late tonight.
By Thursday morning, that mix will then begin to changeover to all snow as subfreezing air saturates all levels of the atmosphere.

Significant accumulations of snow are anticipated in this area.

If you live in an area that gets snow all the time..I'M SORRY. I didn't grow up with the white stuff and Okies get real stupid when the roads get slick. My car has a monitor on it for temperature and road conditions, and I swear it says "stupid go home" when the roads are slick. Of course nobody but me sees it, but I do what it says!

Everybody be careful...and if you live east of me..this is a warning that it's comin' your way. If it's the least bit slick, I'm keeping my hiney at home and in the sewing room. I'm just hoping that we don't lose power. They're predicting 2" of ice...and the electricity won't stay on with that kind of weight on the lines.

Design Wall

Judy wants us to show what's up on our design wall at the start of each week. Sometimes the design wall has the same thing for weeks at a time, but thought I'd show what's currently up there.

I'm still debating if this spiderweb needs a black border before the red one or not. I gave up on the blue border, so that's no longer up there. The red is actually a small red plaid. I had plans on making more spiders, but the red/black stars is actually some (very) old Christmas fabric and this is as far as I could stretch it.

I've worked on this one long enough. It needs to be finished, so I can go onto my Kaye Wood blocks.

Me and Kaye Wood

First I must say...Kaye is so sweet. She's one of those to-the-point talkers...she tells you what to do and this is the way to do it...I'm kinda that way and like other's who are too.

She told me several times tht I was so very tall, and I told her that she was just vertically challenged. She reminded me of my Mom..she raised 5 of her own..and you could tell in the way she gave directions that she ran a good house.

I also met the sweetest gal who sat next to me. We shared fabric, lunch and stories. She lives in the same town as my oldest, and has a longarm. We've already planned getting together again. I actually found somebody else who can sew and talk as fast as me!

The star on the left is one that I made (it needs pressing and trimming) and the one on the right is Kerry's (the other gal's). It gave a good picture of how fabric really makes a difference in the pattern. I have enough fabric to finish mine into a small quilt and this is definitely one I'll make several of. There are a couple of her patterns that I can teach now..and already have two classes lined up.

The other class I took was a bobbin embroidery class with Cindy Losekamp. She's in the picture on the very left. The class was from 5 to 8pm, and it took every bit of that time to finish the little bags we're holding. I love this technique and have always wanted somebody to show me how to do it. Cindy was very patient in helping us with the machines.

Here is my finished bag. Some put handles on theirs, but I left them off to make it more of a clutch to fit in my over-sized purse. it's a technique that I know I'll do more of.

The quilt show..where the quilts actually were showed..was a bit of a disappointment to me. The show itself was put on by an outside company so a lot of local quilters didn't want to enter. I do have some pictures that I'll post later.

Milo harvest is calling my name!

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow at this time, I'll be up to my eyeballs in instructions during the Kay Wood Certification Class at the OKCity Winter Quilt show. We usually have a coating of ice this time of year, so I'm thankfull that the weather is cooperating.

I'm also taking a Bobbin Embroidery class which is very hard to explain, but for some reason my warped mind gets it.

Since I've been spending my quilty time finishing up some projects, I'll be all set to start something new.

Wish me luck...I think it'll be fun to get out and do something that isn't cow or work related.

Difference in a Year

Last year Rachel spent her first Christmas in an incubator where it's a perfect temperature. This year she had a roomfull of people lovin' all over her and a pile of presents to open.

Yes, we are truly blessed with this feisty little girl. (more Birthday and Christmas pics to come)

Two quilts

Yes, she sews! I have actually been very busy this past few months making and giving away quilts. Since these two were suppose to be graduation (as in last May) gifts....guess I'm behind with everything.



I have no idea what the pattern is for this one, but it was made during a snow storm...maybe a year or two ago, but was never finished.


This is a Bonnie

pattern and was very easy to make. It is a HUGE quilt...floor to 8' ceiling....and was very hard to give away. But, it was given to a boy that will love it and that is what I make quilts for. Why is it that I never take good pictures of the quilts that I give away?

We interrupt the silence....

Has it really been 3 months since I've posted? Don't think I've left the county too many times in that amount of time either. Life has just been busy--just like everybody else and this blog takes a backseat. There are a few out there that have kept up with me, so we'll see how many actually notice that I'm back!

We had quite a blizzard on Christmas Eve.

Rusty spent most of the time inside the house after he took a tromp out thru the snow. He is good at holding the rug down in my kitchen. The cats are all begging for breakfast Christmas morning.

If you've followed me very long, you've seen lots of pictures of this windmill and barn. It's still a great way to show the seasons.

We had a record low last night, and I'm sure it's colder north of here. You can keep it 'cause this warm-weather lover is ready for summer.

I definitely have lots of pictures to catch up, so hope you see you again sooner next time.

Here Kitty-Kitty

We're such a lovey kitty.

Planting Season

It's that time of year. It's turning cooler and it's time to get wheat seed in the ground that will grow all winter and we'll harvest next June (hopefully).

Have you ever gotten behind something like this and were in a hurry? Believe me...the guy driving (and sometimes it's me)...DOESN'T CARE that you're in a hurry...he just doesn't want you to hit him cause the repair to a piece of machinery is usually more $$ than your car.

Seeds go in here....

...and here.

Two tractors, with two sets of drills each ready to go to work.

The first tractor starts off....
He makes the corner...

and keeps going around the field. Then, the second tractor comes up to make the corner....

comes right up to where I'm at ready to make the second corner (this is a small 19 acre field)

...he gets right up to make the second corner and can't steer! Hoses with hydraulic fluid broke and it went everywhere!

Makes a yucky, dirty mess that will keep anything from growing there this season.

It wasn't a horrible non-fixable breakdown, but it did put a damper on getting that field done this evening.

...want more farm pics? I have been sewing ...the cooler weather runs me inside, so hopfully I'll get some more sewing posts up too.

New Car

Have I said I got a new car? My Dodge Stratus had about 120K miles and it and it was in the shop more than in my garage.

As you can see, my car goes to the field too. It's a Chevy Malibu and I really like the gas mileage it gets. They forgot to put a trunk on it, but it does drive nice.

Have some planting-season pictures to post later today.

Spiderweb

Is anybody else's house full of spiders this time of year? I swear between the spiders and the crickets, I'm ready for a freeze. Guess they want to come in since it's getting cooler outside.

Speakin' of spiders, I started a new project. Don't know if I'll work on this full time, or be something that I do inbetween other blocks. They are fun to make and yes, the pattern came from Bonnie.

The red fabric for the centers is actually Christmas fabric. It had a border running along one edge and is laying over -----> there on the floor in my scrap bin. Anybody working on a Christmas quilt they need a border for?...guess I need to post a picture. There won't be enough red fabric to make as many blocks as I'd like, so the extra/odd blocks will probably be black or gold. There is one light blue star that I was determined to make the blocks with, but after making just one, it just didn't work for me. As my good friend CindyB says...Red always looks good in quilts! The blocks are pinned to my flannel-wall, and they still have the paper on them so they're a little floppy looking.If you look close, there is some pink JohnDeere flannel fabric and some real old stuff too. I still have some homespun plaids...does one ever get rid of that stuff?It's raining and cool here this morning. Wish I could just stay home and sew.

Time Flies

I had promised myself that I was going to be a better blogger. Well, that was before my front-loading washer quit, planting (wheat) season started, haying sessions started, fall break came around and now it's turning cool. Things just happen don't they?

I have actually been sewing. I started two major projects this spring and the tops are actually finished and need to go to the quilter. Graduation projects that will probably be Christmas presents.

I promise..there are pictures on my camera. I'll see what I can do.

Trip away from Home

Once in awhile, the job allows me to travel. Well, I do travel several days a week but I'm talking about TRAVEL..like GOING somewhere. This time we got to visit the neat place of St. Louis.

The other three girls I were with would NOT go up in this monsterious arch thingy. I think it's amazing and would've gone up, but they said they wouldn't allow me to go alone....so, I stayed on the ground and got a crick in my neck from looking up.

Of course we got to go to a ballgame. Just watching the people is hilarious.

Above is the picture before the zoom, and below is after zooming in. We actually had pretty good seats and we really enjoyed going.

Coming from western Oklahoma, it's just not every day that we get to see anything Major League of any kind.

How do they get the grass to do that anyway? Would that work in my yard?

I took all of my extra furs to the exchange building.And trees! This gal didn't know God created so many TREES!


Guess who did most of the driving? It's 10 hours to St. Louis and we did have to make a few pit-stops in the thankfully provided gov't suburban.
I want to go back to St. Louis sometime. But, I want to go in my own vehicle and not when I have to set in boring meetings most of the day.