I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE UNDER MY FEET!!!

Wow, the earth really did move this morning. We had an earth quake that measured 5.4 on the scale. It was around 4:35, I was sleeping and I felt my bed shake and heard a crackle noise. My daughter came in scared to death. You can imagine how it shook to wake a 18 year old up.

Of course one of my friends already said that my bed hasn't shook like that for years, how funny!

I won first place for the Presidents Challenge Tuesday evening at guild. There were different categories and in my section my table cloth won first. The President for last year chose anything Christmas for the challenge. This is my table cloth I put in, I pieced it and Amy from MN quilted it for me. She does a wonderful job.

This weekend I really don't think I will get much sewing done, I have to CLEAN. I use to clean all the time, but anymore it just isn't as important to me. I would rather spend time with my friends and family. But this weekend, I don't really have anything planned, so watch out dust bunnies.

Next Thursday I am going with my friends to Paducah, KY to the quilt show. I am sure we will have a great time. I think this is the 5th year I have gone. We live about 3 hrs away from Paducah. The Quilted Garden charters a bus and we just go for the day. We stayed for a few days in years past, but it is so hard to get a room. We leave around 6 in the AM and return around 11:30 PM. It is a long day. The next day I am going to take off from work too and have a few girls over for show and tell and a day of quilting.

I do have a silly picture of my friend Kay at our retreat. She is laying on the quilt she did at retreat, how beautiful is this quilt! I was so busy sewing that I really didn't take any pictures. I am not use to taking pictures so often for my blog. I will try to take pictures at Paducah. I don't know if any of the booths will let me, but I know I can take them of the quilts.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, I will let you know how the dreaded cleaning goes.

Beth

I AM BACK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Well it has been a while since I have posted again. My son was home from college, and I spent alot of quality time with him. He stayed when I went to my retreat.


I am really glad he stayed,he is going to babysit my 18 year old daughter. We only have a few weeks left of high school. I just want her to graduate and then decide what she is going to do. Needless to say she gives me a run for my money. Does anyone out there have a problem with their 18 year old daughter? I think I would rather raise 10 boys instead of another girl. She has always been very dramatic and self centered. I really don't know where she gets it from, her brother and I are not that way.

It seems like I have had more problems with her since her dad left. He will be gone 3 years on May 1st. He just left, we had no idea that there was a problem. Since I am feeling sorry for myself right now, I am going to go on so I don't have to talk about this anymore. Maybe it will make me feel better. Like I said, he left on May 1st 3 years ago. One week later he served me divorce papers. What a slap in the face. I had to sell my beautiful house, move to an apartment. David my son left that August for college. When he left I really started having problems with my daughter. Then the divorce was final last March 20th. In April my husband married a 27 year old woman.

Then in May last year I had to put my little dog to sleep. He got sick one day and two days later I had to let him go. I had to move again, cheaper rent. Then Easter Sunday the kids came home and told me that they are going to have a new brother or sister in November. Mind you my ex-husband is 46. I know it shouldn't bother me, but that really hurts. He doesn't even help his own kids. Well enough of this long story, I just need to move on, but that is easier said than done. We were married 22 years.

Since we have talked last I went on a shop hop in IL and MO. It was alot of fun, I didn't like many of the shops in MO. Not alot of quality things to look at. This last weekend I went with my friend Ilene to Champaign, IL to the U of I. It was mothers weekend. This is the 3rd year I have gone with her. My daughter stayed with a friend, so I didn't have to worry about that.

I also had surgery two weeks ago today. I had to have some cysts removed from inside my uterus and then they did a dusting and cleaning. I was off that whole week. Also, my computer crashed at home. I will have to install my camera disk at work so I can share pictures. Thanks for listening to my tale of woe's. I will write soon and share some pictures of what I have been doing.

Is anyone going to Paducah quilt show? I am going on Thursday April 24th. Can't wait.

Until next time Beth

Crazy Week

Hi Girls,

I cannot believe it has been so long that I have written in my blog. Time does go by fast. Last weekend "White Lighting" Kays SUV, took us to three quilt shows. We had so much fun, I cannot believe the talent that is out there. I took a few pictures of my favorite quilts. At one of the shows they had a bed turning, that was really neat. It was with all old quilts.

Sorry, put this quilt on side ways and cannot delete it or turn it. How do you do that?

On Sunday I went to my friend Ilenes house. I worked on my binding for my Fatty Fatty quilt. I did get it done. I don't know if I am crazy about the colors. When I was at MN last year someone told Ilene that you are better off getting your own fabric rather than ordering a kit. Maybe she is right. I had the Fatty Fatty quilt quilted by Amy Albrecht, in MN. She does such a great job. Also done, is this top that I am sending to Amy, it was the club project for Thimbleberries last year. I didn't add all the borders, since I have a double size bed.

Today I am going to work with all of my projects, and try to get them in some kind of order. As I said, my goal is to get alot done this year and not buy another project to do until these are done. Has anyone ever started a challenge for getting your projects done? I know it isn't a race, but I really need to get alot done and maybe a challenge would be motivating. I don't know if anyone else does this, but when I get home I do dinner then sit my fat ___ down and watch TV. I am in a horrible rut. Then around 9 I start eating. Yesterday I was ashamed of myself. I sat down in the afternoon around 2 and didn't do anything else but watch TV. There is no reason for this. I don't even do hand work, I just sit there and stare at that stupid box!

The TV is not going on today. I am not going to sit and watch anything till 8 tonight. This is why I do think a challenge would be a good thing. If anyone has done this before or can help me set something up, please let me know. I think it would help me out and maybe others out there in blog land. I am sure when I go thru my things today, I will be adding more to my list of to do's.

Today I also need to get ready for my Dinner and Quilt night Friday at the Quilted Garden. I will pull some things out to work on. Then the next weekend I will be gone for 3 days to a retreat. There will be 8 of us going and we are all going to work on our own projects. I can't decide if I should take 1 big thing to work on, or a lot of little things to work on and finish. Any ideas?

Well I better go and get busy, I will post a picture of my projects when I get them together. Don't forget to let me know if anyone has done a challenge or is interested in doing one with me. I do think it would be fun.

I created my name on a site where it should come up every time I post. I am hoping this works, all I can see before I post is the HTML code. Keep your fingers crossed.

Until next time,

signatures.mylivesignature.com/54486/99/9FE99B029C0800F94725B132AF9891F9.pn

Great Weekend

I just can't believe this weather. Sunday it was 79 degrees here and yesterday look what happened. Go figure!

I really got alot accomplished this weekend. I put binding on my Pumpkin Blossom wall hanging and my Party Pumpkins wall hanging. I am making labels for both before I put them away for fall. I am behind, can you tell? Or should I say I am ahead. I have a few more fall projects that I am working on too. I hope you can see some of the beautiful quilting Amy did.

I also finished putting the top together for my basket quilt. I am sending this and my Thimbleberries club quilt from last year to Amy in MN to be quilted. She does such a wonderful job. She does the quilting for Lynette Jensen (Thimbleberries). She is so nice to work with, I just send the project to her and she sends it back. Amy is located in Hutchinson, MN across the street from Main Street Cotton Shop and Lynette's studio.

I am putting the finishing touches on the retreat. I am making cards with the information on them telling the girls what to bring, times, etc. And I am also cutting the retreat project that we are going to do. As soon as I get these done I will take pictures so you all can see them.

I also traced my first block for A Quilters Journey. Did I mention that I hate to trace!!!!!! I am happy that is done, now I can start stitching.

Is anyone going to participate in the Quiltathon? It is over at Patchwork Times. I signed up and did get alot done, but couldn't figure out how to post on the Quiltathon site. I pulled everything, off the site that I needed to figure out how to put my projects on, so I can do it the next time. Lets all join and see what we can get done. It really motivates me to do something instead of sitting there watching TV.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a wonderful day!

Another Good Day

Another good day, how much can one person take. I went home from work and had my first gift from blogland. I won a drawing over at Carole's at Quilting Adventures. She sent me a great calendar from Thimbleberries, a beautiful quilting log book and a package of buttons. I was so tickled. Also she had a really neat card with it. Thank you so much Carole, you made my day.

Last night was another guild meeting. This guild is called Violet Threads, it is mainly stitching. We met first at a restaurant for dinner, then went to our meeting. Someone at the guild found some original jacks. Needless to say, guess what some of the girls did. How fun.

Tonight I am going to work on finishing the piecing of a quilt that is laying out on my living room floor. I am getting tired of stepping over it. This is what it looks like on the floor. I will show you the finished top when I complete it, which will hopefully be by Friday.

Saturday Fun

What a fun day I had on Saturday. My sewing friends Ilene, Kaye and I went to a quilt shop called Helen's Hen House. This shop is located in Florissant, MO. We left in the morning all piling into Kaye's SUV. We call the SUV "White Lightening". White Lightening is the vehicle we like to take on our field trips. You never know what you might find to buy that you need the extra room.

At Helen's Hen House they have a lot of wool, yarn and really neat displays of Civil War books and fabric. I thought I would share some pictures for those who are interested in the Civil War Quilts.

We ate in the barn which is behind the Hen House. They were fixing BBQ Pork Steaks - WOW they were great. We all really enjoyed ourselves. We did have a mission for the day, it was to go and find wool for our retreat project.

I am the #1 planner for a retreat the last weekend of March. There will only be around 6 of us for the weekend. When I get our retreat project together I will show you. I need to get busy and do some more sewing. I almost have a top together from 2004! Enjoy the rest of your day, I hope you will come back and visit my blog.

Pictures

Hi all I finally got my pictures to post. The first three pictures are of the inside of the Quilted Garden, the quilt shop I go to in town.

This is a picture of Ilene, my best friend.

These are some of the girls that were at the dinner and sew.

I have to go to my guild meeting, enjoy the pictures.

Beth