Fall is in the air

I planted these "little" mums last fall. They've gone crazy this year, much to my surprise and delight.Here's my handsome grandson Gabe.

And my handsome grandson Gabe, with his adorable little brother Timothy.

And the adorable little brother Timothy with his proud grandma, Mama T.

This is my favorite.

Blog Giveaway!!!!

I've been blogging for about a year now and thought it might be my turn to have a giveaway. I absolutely LOVE this line of fabric. It's called "Serendipity" by Piece 'O Cake. It came out in 2006 and I've made a few things with "some" of it. I've also hoarded "some" of it.

I've made a table mat and matching napkins.

Most recently I've made this lap quilt: I quilted it with daisy "loopidy loops". Right now it's at the Tulsa State Fair where it will undoubtedly win a blue ribbon! ha ha.

The first picture is my giveaway--6 fat quarters from this line of fabric. If my quilt DOES win a blue ribbon, I'll throw in a couple of extra fat quarters. So the drawing will be on Saturday, October 3. My husband is having hip replacement surgery next week, so while he's still under the influence of drugs, I will ask him to pick the winning number. I'll also sneak away to the fair to see if the quilt has won a ribbon.

Leave a comment for a chance to win. Mention me on your blog, then come back to tell me you've done so and you'll have another chance. Seems like a lot of trouble for a few fats, but hey, it's my first giveaway. I have to see if anyone really does read my blog. GOOD LUCK!

Iris wallhanging

I finally finished this little wall hanging that I started over a year ago. Lavena taught a class at the Cotton Patch which included some painting. I used paint sticks on the vase and acrylic paints to add details to the irises and the tiger lilies. That was the easy part. Then I took it home and machine appliqued all the little pieces. It took FOREVER! I added piping around the white background. The border is an iris print that I found in my stash. I was having a little bit of trouble with my sewing machine so I decided to have Carol Furgason quilt it for me. She did a good job. I'm very pleased with how it all came out. I'm entering it in the Tulsa State Fair so it goes away on Saturday. I won't see it again until after the fair starts on Oct. 1. It's our family tradition to go on opening night to see if any of my quilts won ribbons. This year Tim will be in the hospital recovering from hip replacement surgery on opening night. Any volunteers for Tim-sitting? (I'm just giving him material for his annual Christmas letter. He makes up stuff about me anyway, so I might as well leave him lying in the hospital while I go to the fair so he'll have something to write about, right?

Andrea

My daughter Andrea has a new blog. (Or maybe it's just been re-vamped). Anyway, it's better than it was before so you may want to see what she's doing in the photography world. Of course, I think she's amazingly talented. Some other people must think the same thing. Click on AndreaMurphyPhotography on my blog list.

My prize

Not a very good picture, but a very good prize! I got my prize in the mail yesterday. It's all flannel (a total of 9 yards) and the pattern was even included. Deb was very generous with her give-away.

Leslie's little quilt

Leslie made this lovely little quilt for her daugter's BFF's baby. So the little girl (Ellie) is like a grandbaby to Leslie. I quilted it for her.

Yeah for me!!!

Entering all those blog contest giveaways has paid off. I WON!!! I WON!!!! It's a major award. (Calista asked me if it was a flannel leg lamp). I won the giveaway from Deb at http://www.aquiltingjourney.blogspot.com/ It's a kit for a complete flannel quilt. She'll be mailing it to me tomorrow. I'll show a picture as soon as it comes.

Road Trip

Friday, Leslie and I decided to take a road trip. We left early and stopped first at Mila's Quilt Shop in Cushing, OK. This is NOT Mila's: For some reason, my pictures always post backwards from the way I enter them. The above picture is the last shop we stopped at (Reddick's Country Store) in Mannford, OK.



After Mila's we went to Guthrie (Oklahoma's FIRST capital) and visited a shop there.

The high point of the trip (besides being with Leslie all day) was meeting my new friend Ranette
She and I have been following each others blogs for a couple of months or so. She has been a real support for me during the passing of both my moms. So finally we got to meet in person at the Quilting Post in Stillwater, OK.

Ranette's daughter Kara came along, too. What a sweetie! And an OSU quilter (oh, and student). Kara and Ranette are also pictured with the new owner of the Quilting Post (I'm sorry, I forgot her name, but she was really nice) and the previous owner, Darlene. And of course, Leslie.

We also visited another shop in Stillwater, had some fabulous frozen custard and made our way home by way of Mannford. We visited 5 shops in all. It was a great day!

And yes, we bought a few pieces of fabric.

OSU--go POKES!

These pictures are old (Christmas 2006), but I thought I'd post them anyway in celebration of OSU winning their first game against the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday. Honestly, I don't care about football AT ALL, but I love quilts. I made this one for Aaron when he was a student there. Besides, a lot of our money has gone to OSU (Andrea is a graduate) so why not show a little orange? (you can also see my favorite little quilted Christmas pillow in the background). More about Stillwater soon...I just got back from a little road trip over there in Cowboy country.

Brittany's graduation quilt

I blogged about this quilt before it was quilted. But now that it's done I'd like to show the quilting. Unfortunately, (for me) I did a close up of one of the blocks that didn't quite match up where it was supposed to. My excuse: I used mostly 5" charms that were pre-cut and many of them were not pre-cut to the exact size they should have been. Then, I apparantly didn't take the time to square up everything. Oh well. It's done and on the whole, it looks good. I'm sure Brittany (my neice) will like it. In fact, I know she'll like it because she's already seen it. Kat LeFevre did the quilting and it looks great. I hope you can see the feathering she did with verigated thread.

Here I am showing the quilt at the August guild meeting (Green Country Quilters Guild, Tulsa, Oklahoma)

The pattern is called "Jewel Box". I started the quilt in a Pat Speth workshop in May 2008.