Life is good at Paula's lake house

The Wannabee retreat at Paula's lake house was great fun! Lots of sewing, eating and laughing like most retreats. I made progress on a couple of projects and now I'm inspired to finish them. Paula's enlarged sewing room was wonderful - plenty of room for six of us to spread out our toys.

Here's Paula giving me pointers on bug-sucking - who let the bugs in, who, who. Me, of course, so I got to clean them up.

Some of us saw one or two beautiful sunrises and a crocodile or alligator. OK, Mel, it's really a log but it looked like an alligator at first glance! Thanks, Paula & Mel, for sharing your piece of paradise with us. Wannabees

Mother's Day gifts

Thanks for reminding me, Amy, that I haven't posted in a while! I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend and wanted to share my gifts. Jennifer gave me the Sally Collins quilt book I had strongly hinted about, as in sending an email to her which had the link to a place where she could purchase it. Amy gave me the family picture I had requested. A surprise gift was from my granddaughter, Kenna. A quilt...made of chocolate coin candy wrappers and masking tape - sew creative! Can't leave out the slimy, slippery alien from Camden. Cullen graciously shared his birthday party day with me. I'm still chuckling over the squirrel card - thanks, Pierce five.

A project finished!

I actually finished a project this week that was purchased at http://www.fabriccafe.com/ when they presented a program at TVQG two weeks ago. That's a record for me - I usually let new purchases marinate for several months, sometimes years, before making them. Their chenille by the inch is easy to work with and was a fun, quick project. Does it need some bling??? Maybe a few crystals??? Love those Texas bluebonnets!

What does 48 yards of fabric look like?

Here's a pic of the addition to my stash from the Will Work for Fabric project. More than 48 yds., 65 fat quarters, 1 Halloween kit, and 1 patriotic panel. I've enjoyed washing and folding all this fabric this week and trying to find a home for it in my sewing room. Fabric fondling is a wonderful way to pass the time.

Argyle Acres

Ron and I drove up to Argyle Acres to view the irises yesterday. It was a cloudy day but the flowers were gorgeous. The yellow one is called Love The Sun. I think the purple is Titan's Glory. I hope I can convince my yardman that we need some of these in our yard.

"Will work for fabric" quilt is DONE!

Finally finished the turquoise & brown quilt for Kimberly Crafton on Saturday! Now to put away all of her fabric and start using it.

But first, sewing room is in desperate need of re-organization. Anybody want to come help me? Maybe I'll post a picture when it's done - too embarrassing to photograph now!

On retreat with Sally Collins

I spent four days last week at a retreat at The Compass Centre in Mt. Calm, TX. Sally Collins taught a class on Precision Machine Piecing and it was excellent - it was the best quilting class I've taken in the 12 years since I started quilting. Read more about Sally at http://www.sallycollins.org/index.html. The Compass Centre is a wonderful place for a retreat. Melissa and her staff really know how to spoil us. Got home on Thursday and I'm still waiting for the Texas-shaped dinner bell to ring, calling me to eat.