I decided at the last minute to enter this wallhanging in the "Other" category at last weekend's quilt show.  Leslie and I took the workshop from Candace Kenyon last year.  So I suggested she enter hers, too. 

Guess what!   She got the blue ribbon and I got the red!  I was so happy for her (and for me, too)!

Best of Show

I really don't know what's wrong with my blog. I've try to post several times and can't get anywhere. So tonight I pull it up again and see that the picture of my quilt has posted. As you can see, I won "Best of Show" at the Quilt Tulsa 2012 Show. I am still floating on the clouds. But not too high.... As soon as the show was over I had one day to prepare for Tim's hip replacement surgery. It took place yesterday and I've been at the hospital most of the time. I spent the night last night, but decided I really needed to rest tonight so I came home. He's doing very well. He has experience since this is his second (different hips). He's strong and determined so I know he'll be well soon. He was up walking twice today with the physical therapist. The lady in the picture with me in the previous post is Donna Titsworth. She did the quilting. And what a fine job she did! Hopefully, I'll figure out how to correct the problem and be back soon. (probably when I have my son-in-law come over and show me what I'm doing wrong.

Vacation, etc.

After what seemed like an eternity of sickness this past winter/spring, Tim and I managed to sneak in a 10 day vacation.  We decided to take it in the spring in anticipation of his hip replacement surgery coming up in a few days.  We knew he'd be down for a few weeks and wanted to spend some pleasant times together before the ordeal.  And a pleasant time it was!  We didn't have much of a plan and basically "flew by the seat of our pants" ( in his Dodge Challenger!--don't worry we didn't get any tickets).  We started out in Hot Springs, Arkansas with a mineral bath and massages.  From there we headed to Tennessee and enjoyed our time in the Smokey Mountain National Park.  We met up with old friends and went to "Dollywood" then headed to Ashville and toured the Biltmore Mansion (pictured above).  We ended with a school/family/church reunion in Missouri.

Then.....came home and promptly came down with bronchitis.  BOTH OF US!  I coughed so hard I cracked a rib and am still feeling the pain from that.

In the meantime, I'm getting ready for the "Quilt Tulsa 2012" show coming up next weekend, June 8 and 9.  I have all 4  entries ready except for a hanging sleeve on one.  I'll post pictures when I have someone to hold the quilts up for me.  Or maybe I'll just wait and take pictures when they're hanging in the show.
Come and join us if you're in the area.  It will be at the Tulsa Fairgrounds.  For more info go to :  http://www.greencountryquiltersguild.com/

Wish me luck!  I'm hoping for some ribbons.  Hope to see some of you there!

Road Trip and more

My stitch group took a little road trip "shop hop" a couple of weeks ago.  We met at Coleen's for coffee and yummies, then loaded up and headed for Beggs, OK.  Only a half an hour away but there is a shop there that most of us had not been to before.  Grannie Annie's.  It was cute and chocked full of fabric.

Here are the 6 of us who got to go:  Emma, Leslie, Coleen, June, ME, and Donna



I liked this flannel quilt (hand quilted with big stitches).  It was SOOO soft.

We made a stop in Winchester where my oldest daughter lives so the group could see the property.  Wesley was happy to have company and modeled one of the hats his mother was making.


Calista has been very busy using up her yarn scraps:

This is part of the huge patch of irises on the property.  Unfortunately, you can't see very many of them.  Every time Calista visits she brings me a boquet.

We had lunch near Keifer, OK and then went to Leonard, Ok where we visited the Log Cabin Quilt Shop.  Dianna always has lots of new stuff for us to see there.





Donna had to leave for a doctor's appointment so we continued without her (we're not mean, we just have to shop!)
The last stop was Quilt Styles in Glenpool, OK (the place that made Tulsa famous) and then back to Coleen's.  It was a great day!



Look what I found growing in my little iris patch.  It's a Wesley!


And just so you'll know that I've been busy, I finished this:



It's 17.5" square.



Close-up of the quilting.  The background around the leaves and vine is finely stippled.  I plan to enter this in my guild's upcoming show June 8 and 9. 



Until next time....

I'm Back!

The last two months have not been the most fun of my life.  I've been quite ill with a colon infection that just won't seem to go away.  I'm in the middle of my 4th round of antibiotics (3 of those were 14 day regimins).  I'm so tired of taking pills around the clock.  But enough of that.....

On the days that I was not too weak to pick up a needle, I managed to finish my hand applique project.  I had made out a schedule back in December that I had to stick to in order to get it done in time to have it quilted and entered in my Green Country Quilters Guild "Quilt Tulsa" in early June.  (see:  http://www.greencountryquiltersguild.com/)   

This is what my cutting table looked like at one point:



These are the one inch (finished) squares that make up the sashing.  (note the beautiful red sciccors my bff gave me for my birthday last fall)

 And since my design wall is full of all kinds of stuff (mostly UFO's) I hung the sections of the quilt top on the closet curtain.

Before I forget it--this is a Kim McLean design.  I didn't care for the top and bottom border of her pattern so I designed my own using some of her flowers.  I also "tweeked" the side borders a bit.  So here it is in all it's "Glorious Color":



Not a great picture.  I took the top to my favorite quilter, Donna, a few days ago.  I can hardly wait to see what she does with it.  (thank you oldest daughter and son-in-law for holding it up while I took the pictures)

 I had a few (well, maybe a lot) of one inch squares left over from the sashing.  I plan to make them into something for our guild's Small Quilt Auction at the show.  So stay tuned.

Gabe's birthday

Twelve years ago today we were blessed with our first grandson.  Twelve years!  How can that be?  He should still be a little baby.  Well, at least a baby!  He never was little.  He weighed almost 10 pounds when he was born and was the cutest chubby toddler.  Now he's skinny as a rail and in the 6th grade.  Did I mention that he's the reason I have the name Mama T?  All because he couldn't say Mama Teresa which is what I wanted him to call me.  And Papa Tim became Popple.  The rest, as they say, is history.

He has his own room now (no more sharing with brother Timothy).  So he has the bunk beds and only one bunk bed quilt.  His mom and I decided we should fix that problem.  His other quilt has a "space" theme so we used the scraps from it and added some more to make this:

Baby brother sneaked into this picture with Gabe.

Here's Gabe with the brother with whom he no longer shares a room.





Quilts and cats don't mix.  Neither do kids with shoes.  But this one is so cute he gets by with it.  The cat.....not so much.