Christmas Crafts

I went to a special before Christmas crafting showcase last year and this is a sample of one of the things they made. These were the boots that my sister-in-law made and I think they turned out really neat. At the showcase we were taught how to take old thrift-store boots and repaint them into these and use them for gift giving. They had a bottle of wine in the one they showed at the showcase along with some tissue paper as an accent. My sister-in-law's boss wanted her to make a pair for her to wear this christmas but I don't think she ever got them made. I painted mine in blue and grey and they looked like a Dallas Cowboy boot.

I also participated in an embroidery tea towel swap with one of my other online yahoo groups and this is the towel I made for my partner. I still have not figured out hot to make the pictures go with each paragraph so the tea towil is above with the boots.

Finally I made a nativity wall hanging and it is also pictured in this post.

SNOWFALL IN THE PANHANDLE!!!

We woke up yesterday to grey skys and before we even had time to take my grandson to school the snow had started to fall. I love snow, I just don't like the results which are usually slick streets and cars stuck on the side of the road. By the end of the day we had only had about 1" in our area so it wasn't too bad.

We got out in the garage and pulled out the box with the christmas tree and set it up. I will have to go out tomorrow and try to find the lights, my christmas village and my sisters handmade Nativity set which is my special treasure. I don't think I have ever shared what happened between my siblings and I.

We were 5 kids in all. There were 4 girls and 1 boy ranging in ages from 16 mo - 6 yrs. My 2 sisters were adopted togather, my brother and the other sister were each adopted by 2 different families and I was never adopted due to health problems I think. I grew up in a Childrens Home in Seattle, Washington and I always remembered my brother and sisters. It was at Christmas time that I thought about them the most. All my life there was an empty space that I knew one day God would fill. I never doubted that he wouldn't let me meet them.

About 15 yrs ago I sent a letter to my father thru the Social Security department, mind you I am here in TX. Way across the country my sister had placed an ad in the newspaper looking for him on her end. It took almost a year and a half but out of the blue right after my husband and I were married I recieved a late nite call and the man on the other end told me he thought he was my father. It was wonderful to finally be in touch with him again and he filled me in some on my past. We were able to talk and get to know each other several times a week. About a month after we had found each other I got a call from him and he wanted to know if I would like to get to know my sisters. I was soooooooooooooooooooo excited. YES, YES, YES, I yelled. The next day I got a call from Charlotte and she arranged a 3-way call so I could talk to her and Amy. How cool was this, 3 people, one in Texas, one in Florida and one in Washington state were all talking trying to make up for lost time. With my first visit back home to Washington we went to the place where we were all seperated and with their help we were able to find the remaining 2. Now my life is complete and we meet as often as we can.

What I am trying to tell anyone out there is to never give up on your dreams and remember there is someone bigger than all of us and he is orchestrating all of our lives. I remember telling people who were doubters, he always answers our prayers just not always the way we want and it is in his time frame not ours.

Take care and I wish you all the best with your Christmas plans.

Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one post!

Boy, I have been bad with my posting. It has been a month to the day since my last post. I get on and go straight to my emails and from one of the emails I usually go off on a tangent and start surfing, staying up till the wee hours of the morning. I will than go to bed with not a post on here.

I am involved in two different Handmade Christmas ornament swaps, and have been busy making these little rosy cheeked ladies. They are supposed to be the Little Russian nesting dolls. I thought they turned out pretty cute.

Feeling very Patriotic these days!!

Well, with election day 2 days behind me I am sitting here having a chance to reflect on the process. I am ashamed to admit that this was the first election I have voted in for about the last 4 Presidency's. In the past I did not take the time to read up and know the candidates and because of that felt that I had no place in the voting process. In essence I would be going in and voting blindfolded, so I remained out of the voting process.

This election was a different matter. I took the time to read up and know the candidates and I knew that this would be one for the history books. Important for the blacks and women alike.
This time I went to the voting booth with trepidation and left with a feeling of pride in the process that we as American's are blessed with. I love this system that allows candidates to compete vigorously and disagree vehemently and than asks US to decide. Yes, we as American citizens choose who we want in that Big White House on Pennsylvania avenue. No matter what our backgrounds, each of us have one vote. The CEO of the big corporation has one vote. The single mom with her humble little house has one vote. The cashier at McDonalds has one vote. The President of the bank has one vote, and THEY ALL COUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!! How wonderful is that? And after it's all over, our nation has an awe-inspiring tradition of good sportsmanship, where the losing candidate swallows hard and yields graciously. This kind of system is not to be taken for granted and needs to be protected.

GOODIES FROM MY STITCHERS ANGEL!!!!!!

I am a very, very bad MORTAL!!! I recieved these lovely gifts a week ago and never posted them on my blog. My angel was a very sweet lady from Norway named Marit.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Marit!! I loved all my gifts and even though I did not want to share I broke the chocolate into pieces and shared with my husband and grandchildren. They said that that was the best chocolate ever.

This swap has really been alot of fun and I hope that you and I can keep in touch. I will have a special friend now in Belgium, Australia, and the United Kingdom .

Savannah in her Scarlett O'Hara costume

I can't resist a good garage sale and 2 fridays ago I came across a wonderful big sale and acquired several goodies including a Gone with the Wind type of costume for a little girl. It was only $3 and I couldn't believe what a find it was. I was sure that my granddaughter Savannah would want to wear it for Halloween. Unfortunately the lure of that little "Twit" Hannah Montanna is to strong. The only good thing about her choice is she wants to go as a DEAD Hannah Montanna. I at least got her to try the dress on and do a little modeling for me. I think she is sooooooooo pretty in it.

I have been busy trying to organize my material into bins where I can see everything that I have. I have 8 of the large plastic tubs full plus at least 5 cardboard boxes. I am trying to find a carpenter who can build me some open ended boxes to stack on top of each other on one wall. Man, I have so much material I could open a fabric store.

I also finished a baby quilt with some jelly roll strips I bought for half price at the quilt shop. It wasn't a full set but it came out pretty good I think.I plan to do a small inner border with the lime green and than do a white border and put some embroidered flowers on it. If any one has any other ideas please let me know.

Have a great week to all of you.

Savannahs got a brand new skirt

I spent the day whipping up this little beauty for my grand-daughter Savannah. It was in the Christmas print fabric and I had a hard time finding anything to go with it but I finally found a Debby Mum in a cranberry background with little bells on it and the ribbons are the same color of green. I plan to make the top over the weekend.

I have set myself a goal of making at least 1 outfit a week for Savannah and myself. I have so much material and really do need to reduce some of it before I bring in any more, but its kind of like this outfit. I had everything I needed to make the skirt but had to go looking for something to match to make the top.

The Wal-Mart by me has all their fabric 50% off so I had to buy some of that, I mean " It was on Sale!"
I did have to wait till hubby went to work to bring it in. I got some pinks to make another of these skirts. This pattern is on the Grand Revival blog. I added the second picture to the blog so you could see how cute the two materials go togather. That is all for tonite. I will post the blouse and skirt togather I hope by Sunday. Have a great weekend.

Savannah's French Market Apron

I found a pattern for a childs french market apron at, ( ihavetosay.typepad.com ) and yesterday I whipped up this little beauty for my granddaughter. I love the way these colors turned out. I have not had a chance to put it on her yet but will post a pic of her in it as soon as she gets home from school.

I have had so many projects going on but I think I finally have them finished up. I got word from my partner in the " Fall Apron Swap " over at My Byrd House. She got the apron and she says she 'Loves" it. I am really glad. This was my first swap with them and I wanted my apron to be up to their standards. Glad that you like it Nicki.

We went to the zoo after school this last week and here is a picture of the 2 grandkids on the giant turtle. I would like to be able to take them to a big zoo, this one in Amarillo is not very big. They enjoy it anyway.

That is all for this post but will get some pics of the kids to add to my next post.

WINNER OF MY PATRIOTIC QUILT AUCTION!!!!!

Jill Miller is the winner of my Patriotic Quilt and I am proud to say that with her help we were able to raise $100 towards the Stephanie and Christian Niellson recovery fund. I say "WE" because without her I could not have raised that.

Jill if you will contact me at ryork6@suddenlink.net I will give you instructions how to pay at paypal and than once I have a receipt that they have recieved it I will get your quilt in the mail.

Once again, thanks again for that bid you made.

Barbara

AUCTION for Christian & Nie Nie!

Over a week ago a young couple was in a private plane flying home. Their plane crashed killing their pilot and the young man, Christian, recieved burns over 30% of his body. His wife Stephanie is burned over 80% of her body. She is a fellow blogger and many in the blogging community have come togather to all do auctions to help raise money for the families medical care and childrens daily care. The couple has 3 young children that are now living with Stephanies sister.

I am proud to say that I too will be Auctioning something off. I have made a nice Turning Twelve Patriotic lap quilt. My auction will begin at 9am and run thru the following tuesday Sept 2. The quilt is above.

All bids should be in whole dollar amounts. I hope I will get lots of visitors to this site so I can have a good auction for them.

Barbara

Fancy Field Frock Silent Auction for NieNie

Fancy Field Frock Silent Auction for NieNie this is a silent auction for some other blogger who with her husband was in a plane crash and is in critical condition in a burn unit. Her sister and some other Australian bloggers are encouraging other bloggers to create silent auctions of their own and send the money to be used for their medical bills. I will start tonite on something and hope to be able to auction it off by next week.
My prayers go with this couple as they begin the fight of their life.

Apple Orchard Overalls GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Apple Orchard Overalls GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

This is a cute little overalls giveaway handmade for either a boy or girl. This lady does bi-weekly giveawys so visit often.

ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!

Well I have been busy trying to get several UFO's finished the last few days. I got online during the weekend and found another lovely blog doing a GIVEAWAY! She has opened a new shop and is giving something away all week. One is a very lovely pattern for " Dancing Flowers."

I hope that anyone reading my blog will mosy her way and check it out.

syverkkstan-helena.blogspot.com

Grandkids started school today and were very excited to be back. The preemie is finally at home with her mama but she is not eating well so had to have a feeding tube put in her stomach. Doctors are saying that there is a good chance she will either have cerabel palsey or mental retardation. I am keeping her in my nightly prayers that our Heavenly Father will watch out for her and she will grow up without the disability but either was she will be thorougly loved by all of her family. I have not seen her since leaving the hospital but will try to post a picture as soon as I do. I need to get to work on a quilt for her now.

This last weekend we were busy getting our bikes ready to ride and with PaPa's help we finally got on the road. Here is a picture of my first family bike ride with the grandkids. PaPa is to lazy to go.

I'VE BEEN BITTEN BY THE KNITTING BUG!!!!!

The compulsion to knit has caught me in it's grasp. It started with scarves, I think I have made a fuzzy one of those for everyone in my family. I am now working on a T-Shirt type sweater for myself. It's going pretty good so far but I can't believe I have forgotten so much. I used to knit alot when I was younger but I have really lost alot of what I knew. One of my goals is that before the end of the year I want to learn how to knit socks.

I found this picture of the two kitties on the internet, I call it " Best Friends". I love cats, I don't know what I would do If I came home and there wasn't a soft furry thing here to greet me. As soon as I come in the door she jumps in my lap, she is my Calico and here name is Miss Kitty. I also have Bonnie that is a grey tabby and she is my quilt inspector as you can see in my photo. She will lay on every quilt I make and if there is one in the hoop she sits in the hoop as she is doing in the picture. I will have to get a pictue of Miss Kitty so there is one of her on here also or she will feel left out.

We have had off and on rain for the last three days and I think we will get another round tonite. It definately cools it off some after but makes it very humid before we get it. School will be starting soon and I am looking forward to having my days to myself again. I may leave the 12-hr shifts to go to work at a Drs office. The work will be easier on my knees and a lot less stressful.

Guess that is all for now. Hope everyone has a great day.

Having a busy summer!

I can't believe it is over a month and a half since my last post. I thought I had best try to post a little something even though I know no one reads this but me.

I've had a pretty busy summer so far, what with working and watching the grandkids. I have been busy with my quilting also. My sister and her husband have their 6th anniversry this weekend and I have had signed quilt squares for 6 years now that I was supposed to put into a quilt. Well I was on vacation the last two weeks and have worked daily on this and finally have one row and two borders left to go. I think is turning out very nicely, I sure hope they like it. I want to add a little embroidery to it since I am late now anyway. I am going to add a picture here so I have it to show off. I am about to go to bed so will close for now.

Bob and Char, if you happen to check my blog you will see that it is no longer quilt squares in a box. It is actually shapeing up to something very pretty. Wish you both a very happy Anniversery.

Barbara

Summertime kids!

Well the heat of summer is officially here and the kids are out of school, at least Jake is. Savannah has to take 6 wks of summer school in order to pass the 1st grade. I got a good picture of them on Jakes bike the other day.

They left last friday to head to California with their dad. They called the other night and were all excited about seeing Knotts Berry Farm and wednsday they went to Disneyland. When we called last nite they were headed to Las Vegas and taking a slow trip home. I take care of them pretty much every day so when they are gone they are sure missed.

I am also including a picture of what the place I work at sits next to. We can walk down the end of the halls and look out the windows and the lake is what we see. If I haven't had to bad a day I will stop and walk around it. I think it is my favorite place in Amarillo. It has been so windy here, yesterday it was up to 60 mi an hr. My husband was the pallberer at a funeral yesterday. When we went to the gravesite after the service, there was one man on each of the poles holding up the tent covering the site. Hubby said that Morris was getting a good panhandle send off. After the funeral we went and saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was a very good movie.

I am busy cleaning my sewing corner this afternoon and trying to pull out some fabric for a couple of dresses.

I am so disgusted with my weight and the fact that most of my clothes are to small. Well I took the big leap and joined weight watchers today. My goal for this next week is to lose at least 3 lbs. Lets see how good I do.

Babs

Amarillo Breaks Old Record!

Well yesterday Amarillo borke a record with a new temperature of 106 degrees. I was inside all day working but I did notice how hot it was in the building. I was completely shocked when I came out at 7pm and heard at that time it was 97 degrees. I am really worried about the type of summer we are going to have when already temps are getting up that high. We use a water cooler and it doesnt cool well if the humidity is high, thankfully yesterday there was no humidity.

Good news on our premie. She still has the central line but no longer being fed thru it. They allow her mom to hold her once a day and feed her. She is now up to 4 lbs and things are looking good. She will probablly be in the NICU at least 3 - 4 more weeks but I am glad that she has made a turn on her progress. I have been buying up premie clothes but she may be too big for them when she comes out.

I have been busy sewing and finished another baby quilt for a co-worker. This one is the split 9-patch and I am really liking how these turn out. I used my favorite material which are the reproduction fabrics. The lady holding the quilt is the new grandma. I am now using all my scraps to make a chinese coin for my bed so it will be colorful this weekend.

Take care to everyone and hope I post again sooner.

Babs in Amarillo

Our Angel Baby needs your prayers!

I just wanted to post a quick note about my latest grandchild. She was born a week ago wednsday and mom was about 6 1/2 months. She weighed in a 2.9 lbs and is now in the Pedi ICU. She is not doing very well. They were tube feeding her untill tuesday when they tried to up her feedings by an oz. She had blood in her diaper the next morning. They shut off the feedings and did some X-rays and discovered she had an infection in her stomach. She is now on TPN for feeding, that is a high concentrated IV feeding. Her veins kept blowing so last night they put in a central line IV that is going into one of the main arteries of the heart. She has become listless and we are waiting patiently for her to pull through this. In the last 3 days she has had 2 blood transfusions.

I would like for anyone who reads my blog to please say prayers for her. She is so tiny and is fighting so hard to live.

Barbara

A Stormy Week!

Well this week started out with a bang. Lots of wind and some rain on Mon, than tuesday rolls in with some more wind and rain. Finally on wed, the day of our big BBQ at work in comes the really nasty black clouds and lots of rain. Here are a few shots I took of the weather. These were some pretty nasty black clouds and out of these come tornados, I have posted a pic of one of those also. This was taken by one of the news storm chasers last year. When you get up close and personal with one of these it does get pretty scarey.

Spent the day with the grandkids today, I sure do have fun with them. We took them to the local dollar store and gave them each $5. Savannah bought a package of the tiny snickers bars, a red model wig that had a comb with a bow attached, a bunch of flowers to give her mom on mothers day and I can't remember the other. I am proud of her that she remembered her mom with that money. Jakob got a circus clown on a Unicycle that he promptly stepped on and broke, a little parachute guy, ball to knock over bottles with, a puzzle that he spilled water on and a water gun. Unfortunately he did not think of his mama.

I took them both to my friend who cuts my hair and she cut all of our hair. We all look quite nice in our new hairdos. Oh, I almost forgot. I gave the cowboy quilt to my friend at work who is really into cowboy stuff. Well one of the other therapists made her a little pair of crocheted cowboy boots. I think these are the cutest things I have ever seen and I had to post a pic on here. REMEMBER, I DID NOT MAKE THESE. SHE DID!!!!

Well that is all for now. There may not be any posts in the next three days. I am working sat, sun and mon on my 12-hr shifts. Hope all the mothers out there have a wonderful Mothers Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barbara

Savannah Sews

Well I spent the day vegging out. I ordered the movie PS I Love You on pay per view and sat and sewed and cried. This is such a good movie for anyone who hasn't seen it. One of the neat things about sewing is that when you are doing it sometimes those around you want to get into the act. Who am I to deny my beautiful granddaughter a lesson at my favorite sewing machine. We used a bandanna and made a pillow for her great-grandma.

I love my children and I never thought I would be able to love another child as much as I had loved them, but becoming a grandmother changed that. The love I have for these 2 children is so much different and so much more precious. It is a chance to try again at changing a part of their lives for the better. My grandson is a special needs child and I think his kisses and hugs are so much sweeter than others. He is a joy to be around as is my granddaughter.

Sewing on Wednsday!

I have always had a problem with spelling and I think I spelled wednsday wrong, but oh well I tried. I was off yesterday but because I had a positive TB test at work I had to spend about 3 hrs at the place they use for chest X-rays. It turned out OK as I knew it would but it definately put a crimp in my sewing time. Today I have devoted to clearing off my sewing space and getting down to work. I have collected a bunch of green and pinks and I think I will put them togather into a turning 20 but I do it with 25 and it fits much better on our water bed. I am finishing up another baby quilt, this one is the split nine patch done in Repos.

My cats are my official quilt testers and Bonnie is the worst, geeze, you'd think she wanted to do the quilting herself. No matter what I am working on, if I lay it around she sits on it as soon as I do. I left my quilt hoop unattended and you see what happens. It's funny cause I always have to warn the people who get my quilts that they need to wash them before using. I like to give a nice pretty quilt before it is washed.

I came across a picture on the web of our famous bluebonnets and wanted to add them to a post so I will add it here. I wish I knew how to add it to the top under my title. I love bluebonnets.

Guess that is all for now. Hope everyone has a great day!

Barbara

Newest Baby quilt

One of the occupational therapists at work is pregnant and they had her baby shower today. She is a real Texas Cowgirl and I wanted her little boy to have a cowboy quilt when he gets her so I put this little cowboy quilt togather for him. I have been making so many quilts lately that I did

not have the money to have it quilted so I tied it and made him a nice warm comforter. I made sure that all the prints were cowboy related. I tried to include a close up so you could see all the cute materials I chose.

I think this is one of the cutest I have made so far. I currently have two others I am working on and than I hope to be able to start some summer clothes for the grandkids and myself. Here is the other picture I took of the quilt. I guess I had best close out and go to bed. Hope everyone reading this has a great weekend.

Mothers Day Giveaway

I don't know about the rest of you, but I love to cook. I love the feel of dirty fingers when I am breading chicken, flour on my hands when I am making bread and best of licking the beaters or the spoon when making cookies or cakes. The one thing I wish I had was an apron. I remember my Grandma in the kitchen when she cooked and she always wore an apron. Now mind you, I don't want an ugly apron. I want to look good in that kitchen and that is why I am going to tell you about this website I just found. Her name is Jan Carrell (I am pretty sure I have spelled that wrong) I she makes the prettiest aprons I have ever seen.

She is having a Mothers Day Giveaway and she is giving away one of her beautiful aprons, along with a teapot and teacosy and some cookie cutters. Her is the link but you had best hurry over because she is going to draw the name tomorrow around noon. I really hope I have posted this in time to be in the name generator. If I don't win, I am going to have to break down and buy one. The ones I liked were Taffy or Sweety but they are out of stock at the moment.

Here is the website maplelane-jan.blogspot.com/2008/04/mothers-day-giveaway.html

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy in my little sewing corner!

Well I have been busy in my little corner of the living room the last few weeks. Working the 12-hr shifts that I do, I am blessed to have my 4 day stretches off and I have been busy this week.

The weather has been pretty hot already so wednsday night hubby came home and togather we got the water cooler up and running. It was such a nice evening compared to the several warm days before. Well, wouldn't you know it, I guess we jinxed it because yesterday came in cold and raining most of the day. Had to tape the cover back up over the front of the cooler to keep the cold wind out. It is warming up today so off the cover comes again. It has been seen that some days you can see all 4 seasons in one day and I believe it.

I have been working on a patriotic turning 12 and got it all finished. Here are a few pictures of

I haven't posted on here since early Febuary and it is almost the end of March. Guess I had better start doing better. I have been busy at work but than I go home and sew, sew, and sew. I have finished 2 baby quilts, 1 soldier quilt and a string quilt. As soon as I find my digital camera I will put them up and post the pictures. I am also busy trying to sew up alot of my fabric into tops for the summer.

The weather here in the panhandle has been cold, warm, cold and warm. It really doesn't know what it wants to do. I for one am tired of the cold. The daffodils are up and the blooms are on all the trees so I hope theat winter is finally over.

I will finish my post here and do another tomorrow or in a few days.

Barbara in Amarillo

Looking forward to Valentines Day!

I just went and visited Garden Goose's blog and she has a Valentines give away going on. It is a very pretty pink vintage looking pillow. One of the requirements for me to be included in the give away is to post a like to her give away so here it is:

gardengoose.blogspot.com/2008/02/victorian-valentine

I want to win but I wish anyone who goes there from here good luck.

Barbara,Amarillo/TX

Winter Wonderland

Today I woke up to a totally white wonderland and as quick as it came it was gone. We have had such wierd wheather here in the Texas panhandle this year. This makes our 3rd snowfall that has come and been gone in 24 hrs. The morning was 19 degrees with wind chill of -1 degrees and by this afternoon we were at 59 and most of snow had melted off. I meant to take a picture of the snow this morning and this afternoon but forgot. I had to go in and work for 7 hrs today, sure was nice to be leaving early. Not sure if I have any blogging friends yet but if you are out there hope you have a great day.

First time blog post.

Well this is my first visit into the blog world and hopefully this will be the first of many posts. I am a 56 years young Nurse who loves to quilt and sew. I also like to do scrapbooking but at the moment everything is crammed into one room due to my daughter and her family living with me.

I have been to several of the quilting blogs on this blogging site and decided I had to make me one. My blog is still in the process of being completed so please bear with me. I live in the Panhandle of Texas, and I love and collect everything I can find having to do with Sunbonnet Sue, hence my title.

I will have alot of quilts to post once I figure out how to do this.