So - Who's the oldest person you know?

She was born in 1900 so what ever year it is, you just add 100 to it. And here I thought it was pretty clever that I just have to add 30 years to how ever old Nora is to remember how old I am :P

I'm not gonna place these next two photos side by side so that = that way you can click on to enlarge each one and read the article... ;)

But take a closer look..... this story is not hot off the press! It was written and published TWO years ago in 2008!

Isn't that a heart warming article...? Well it's especially nice to my step mom b/c it's written about her mother! ;) Before my dad married Clara, I had never met her mom. I do remember my mom telling stories about Mrs. Williams. My mom and Clara grew up as best friends only 2 days apart in age.

My baby book was gifted to my mother by Clara's mother... and I know that because she wrote inside the cover of it a note to my mom. ;) However I don't ever remember meeting Mrs. Williams until 2006 the year that Clara and Daddy married. Since then I've been to visit her about twice a year - every time I'm home in KY! David, the kids and I stop in for a visit at least once during our visit to Ky - that is if we are not sick or coming down with anything.

Granny Williams loves to see my children and always hands Nora a big basket to choose bookmarks that she's made from crocheting. We usually bring home dozens of them as everyday "except Sunday" Granny Williams still enjoys crocheting! Isn't that amazing!

I looked at Wikipedia for a long time tonight and found our all sort of stuff! I'd love to get Mrs. Williams listed as the oldest person living in the state of Kentucky - but after 30 minutes of clicking around I can not figure out who to contact or HOW. :/

But one of the things I learned was - people called “SUPERCentarians” are people who live over the age of 110.

Whoo hooo my Step Mom's mother is a SUPERCentarian! :)

I'm so glad I just happened to uncover this newspaper that my step mom gave me a couple years ago while cleaning in my sewing room this week. I thought it'd be perfect to share with you in honor of her 110th Birthday tomorrow, February 9th!

Happy Birthday Granny Williams!

Love from Texas!

You just never know, now do you?

To the right you'll see a photo of my Crayola quilt posted at the very top of my sidebar - I'm going to plan and leave it there for several months to help spread the word about mine and my HGTV friends SUPER raffle that we are holding to help raise LOTS of $$$ for The Ronald McDonald House Charity.

But what I really wanted to share with you was the photos that Nora and I took today of my quilt. It's been super wet here for over a week now and I was just itching to get a better photo of my quilt now that it's 100% completed... so Friday after her "Grandparent's Day" program at school - she and I took it by Super Walmart b/c inside there is a McDonald's and no need to worry about getting my quilt dirty on the wet grass...

There were two shoppers parked by the dairy isle catching up and chatting with each other who I politely asked if they could help do me a favor and hold up my quilt in front of the golden arches. They were more than happy to help me and I think having Nora with me was my good luck charm, b/c they both complimented her more than they did my quilt ;)

And naturally I told them both all about why I made the quilt and how I was mailing it off to be in a raffle for raising money for RMH charity..... and yes, I also told them all about the crayons, and how we all got one in the mail...ect. :) you know me, never met a stranger... LOL :)

Well while folding it up this nice lady Mrs Trina, asked how could she buy a chance to win - so she and I sat down at one of the tables and she wrote out a check for some tickets. I was thinking that she would pay for 3 chances for $5 b/c she was talking and saying how this wasn't much and she wished she could do more... she asked me to fill in the "TO" place for her and I was happy to do so.

(All checks are to be made payable to Ronald McDonald House Charity)

Well imagine my excitement when she handed it to me and it was made out for $60!!! Just goes to show you, you just never know! Thank you Mrs. Trina!!! You made my day and weekend!

Last week, I also sent out quite a few emails to my friends and family with attached photos of my quilt and explaining how I'm helping to raise money for RMH charity. A dozen or so have already replied saying they will help me and are mailing me checks. So I'm excited to see what comes in the mailbox this week!

My personal goal is to sell chances to 100 people!

Yes, 100 - and that's just the natural sales person born into me... ;) Wouldn't you like to help me meet my goal? I think it would be awesome to be supported by my blog readers and followers! If by only $2! Every little bit adds up!

Chances are $2 each or 3 for $5.00

If you can help me, please email me at bminor (at) gt (dot) rr (dot) com and I'll send you the email :) Thanks!

Love from Texas!

3rd Times a Charm right?

Nora and I made a trip to the town next door today... guess where we stopped???

Joann's... Can you believe this makes the 3rd Saturday in a row that we've been. I think I'm done going for a while. 3rd Times a Charm right? ;)

These will be cut up tomorrow into 2" strips, so that I can get started on making I-Spy quilts for Olivia & Paul Thomas. My goal is to have them completed by their birthday in June.. if both I-Spy Quilts are not completed by then, then my backup plan will be to give them to them for Christmas.

I know David is gonna flip when I tell him I spent $66 on fabric... but how can I get started on framing all 200 of those "I-Spy" blocks until I went and bought what I need to get started!??! OK?

O.K. ;) Happy Weekend everyone!

Love from Texas!

If you were to peek into my window...

This is what you'd see if you were to look into my kitchen from the bay window that is infront of our kitchen table... Can you guess what I'm doing inside today on this dreary, messy, yuck, miserable rainy day???

Yep, pinning my binding onto my Round Robin that arrived from Quiltaholic in North Carolina on Monday of this week. At this rate I may have it bound and washed before the weekend!

and look at this!!! WOW a binding that isn't 100" inches too long! Write it down my friends! This is a first time for me!!! And I didn't even plan it!

"Hook 'em horns!"

LOL, actually I have to chime in here and say I am not a horns fan... I'm not ANY fan... I just happen to live in Texas... actually it's the first time I've ever written those words.

I wasn't' even thinking that when I took the photo but was showing you how much overlap there is to join these two ends... :P but after I saw it in my blog post I noticed that I was doing the same thing with my hand that Texas fans do... LOL :P

Silly Bonnie!

Love from Texas!

Stripes is almost a top

This is as far as I'm gonna get on this quilt for a while... after my post about not thinking that the red floral would look so hot as a border several agreed with that decision and one friend of mine actually asked if I'd mail her one of the blocks so that she could use it to match up with something in her stash!

Sorta like a pay it forward - or stash busting depending on how you want to look at it ;)

I emailed her with a photo and wrote:

Hi Lisa, Take a look at what I finished putting together today while the twins napped... it's all together!!! Well all except that last block, and it is packaged up and ready to mailto you as soon as I buy a stamp...

Actually, I'm hoping to walk up to a car and borrow one from a mom friend in the carpool line today so I don't have to go to the PO - am I lazy or what?

Thanks again IowaLisa for offering to send me some fabric to use as a border if you have something in your stash that will work. I promise to repay the favor to someone else one day. ;)

Love from Texas!

My Round Robin Quilt arrived yesterday! 2/1/10

The twins helped me open it up and immediately started playing with it here in the kitchen floor! ;) Olivia is hogging both the box and the quilt! "Mine! Share Paul-Ta, MINE!" :P

*more photos of the whole quilt top coming soon*

Love from Texas!

Design wall Monday

Sunday after we got home from church and had lunch, I put the twins down for nap time and worked on this PhD. It was my in between project to work on while I waited for the quilting to be done on the Crayola Quilt recently and so after the Crayola quilt arrived home these blocks got pushed to the back burner.

Now that I have all of the blocks made and joined into large patches (4 blocks) it will go pretty quick to getting the top complete today while the twins nap again. :)

However, now that I see it laying by the border fabrics I purchased... they are not speaking to me. :(

Actually they are speaking to me - rather shouting - "we do not look good together! Don't use the floral as a border but save it for the back instead!"

So after looking at the quilt that inspired me over at patchwork possy again... I think I will put this on hold until I can find something that reads as a solid for the outside border... and shopping for fabric is not in the budget at this time... so doesn't' look like I'll get to finish it up before summer. Bummer.

But looking on the bright side, this means you should see something completely different on next week's Design Wall Monday hosted by JudyL's Mr. Linky! Swing on by and share your link to your report :) and also browse to see what others have been working on. ;)


Love from Texas!

My Quilting Calendar

For as long as I've can remember I have loved keeping a calendar. Even in Jr. High I kept one where I'd make important notes of rememberable happenings and visits from Aunt Flow and other exciting things of a young girl.... you know "so&so" sat by me at lunch, clogging tonight, I love you know who... :P

When I was working in Apartment management, I went to a training and was given the expensive Franklin Covey planner. I loved it - but then discovered that www.daytimer.com was exactly the same at a fraction of the price! No matter what type of jobs I've had, Furniture Sales, Apartments, Monsanto, Mommy - YES even as a stay at home Mom! I've loved keeping a calendar! :)

I think it's the nerd in me that loves to see a list of checked off things that I've accomplished...

And last year I picked up a cheap-o book at Walmart and designated it strictly for quilting! It has a wire bound spine and is the size of a magazine - I love it!

A place to plan what I'm working on or want to accomplish... here is the one I started for this year.

I tape things in the book so they are easy to find again later - doodles of designs or fabric swatches... guess what's coming up for February????

Mmm-hmm - Starting 2/6, email invites to past years FQ Bingo players.... eek! It's almost time! :D I can't wait!

And another thing, I love the to do list on the right side. Area for my goals! ;) I don't turn out lots of quilts like all of my famous blogging friends but this planner helps me to do most that I can. (maybe you noticed in an above photo my recent completed projects - only 5 quilts for 2009. That is really good for little ole me! ;)

Here is a look at this coming week.... not much besides Camp Sloanie on Friday ... but I'm sure that will all change soon. :) Those that know me, know that I don't like a lot of white space! LOL :P

OH did you see her post on the block that she is planning to work on at camp??? You can use it or any other of your choice - the point is just to make a lot of blocks over the weekend. I've still not decided what I'm doing.

I also have a different type of calendar in the kitchen for all of our family things - I prefer the Fly Lady Wall Calendar - simply b/c it has lots of room to write things!

So do you have a separate planner for your quilting - no? what are you waiting for!? You will be amazed at how much it helps you to stay on task and get things done.


Love from Texas!

In a Bind..

Boy am I a binding fool or what? or rather - I will be.... see last year in Apil when I went on my quilting retreat with my HGTV Quilter friends to Manchester, NH - I took my Round Robin quilt with me to hand off to Quiltaholic to take back home with her to NC to quilt it as a part of the hurricane Ike Relief fundraiser.

She just blogged about taking it "Off the Frame" here and it looks like it will be making it's journey back home to me this week! ;) Whoooo HOooo!

I love the bunny pano that she choose for it. ;) perfect! Click on over to see a sneak peak!

Love from Texas!

Photos of my stripes for Karen in KY

This post is for my friend Karen in Kentucky.. :0) We talked on the phone this afternoon but sometimes you just need to show someone ;) ya know? At first I was going to just email her then I thought why not share it here with you all encase anyone else had the same question.

She asked me how big did I cut my squares. Mine are all cut 4.5" before making HSTs but you can use any size you like. I measured the part of the strips that was left over from cutting my 4.5" squares and ended up with a piece left over that was 3.25" on each strip... so if that sounds like a lot of waste to you - you might choose to make your squares 5" cut instead... This never occured to me until Karen asked me... :)

She also asked if I had any tips - and the only tip I have is to press everything the same direction as you go... meaning... after I joined all the HSTs into pairs... as I pressed I opened them up so that they looked like the bottom half of the finished block and pressed to the left (I'm right handed so this is the most natural way for me)

oh and pressing the HSTs came first but I forgot to take a photo before joining.. but same applies.

I had them all open up the same direction and pressed them all in the direction that I'm pointing in the photo below.

Now, back to joining the blocks... I found it very helpful that they are all pressed the same b/c when I go to join rows it is gonna be a breeze when they all nessel up and join together...

see I'll show you.... instead of pressing the WHOLE block the same direction - only press the bottom half to the left... then flip it around (pick up the two blocks and rotate them around so the side you just pressed is on top and then repeat for the bottom half - pressing to the left)

This is what the back side looks like.

see all those half blocks... yep all pressed the same direction ;)

so again... see my finger - pointing that all the seams on the bottom go one direction...

while all the seams on top go the opposite...

I didn't press open although you could.... but...

instead I did this little trick that I learned from this video I saw a while back from About.com

CLICK HERE to watch How to sew and Press Patchwork Quilt Seams

since learning this trick = everything nests perfectly for me now! ;)

Hope this helps! ;)

Love from Texas!