A Halloween quilt?

Why you ask a Halloween quilt?  Good question.  I have no clue why I made it. I know I saw some Halloween embroidery I liked, and then it turned into how to use the blocks. 

I added a few paper pieced blocks, because you know me, that's my favorite!

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Here are the colored pencils I used. They come in different size sets. Both Hobby Lobby and Walmart sell them. 

There are all kinds of YouTube videos on the technique. It's fun to blend the colors. After all the coloring is finished you paint the textile extender on it and let dry. After pressing with a hot iron, you're ready to embroidery. 

 

I will now take it to Cindy Baker, who is a long arm quilter. She will work her magic with some Halloween designs. 

New, new, and new

We’ve had two nieces have babies recently. So let me show you what I got for them.

Campbell Pearl was born in December. Great aunt Patti bought for her, her first baby doll. Of course, the baby doll needed a quilt. I used fabric left over from the quilt I pieced for Campbell.

Here's baby Campbell, just a couple days old, and her mama showing off the X’s and O’s Quilt I made for her.

Miss Campbell is 5 weeks old here.
 

Baby Della also got her first baby doll and quilt.) I was tickled I beat the grandmas with buying their first baby doll).

Mom Melissa, also my godchild, shows for the quilt I made for Della at her baby shower!

Della is just 2 weeks old here.

Years ago, I bought this antique cabinet. As with most antiques it was well loved and worn.

I had my cabinet maker copy it and make for me a new and better functioning one, from some gorgeous oak wood. The drawers and doors have the magic closures. I love them.

The antique one now resides at my friend Lizzy’s house. 

Sometime ago, the blacksmith acquired an antique compressor similar to this one. Okay we didn’t think about taking a before picture, so I borrowed this picture from Ebay.

He took the compressor and motor off of the top, removed the tank, and was left with these unique legs and a metal tabletop.

He wired brush the legs and removed decades of paint, dirt, grease, and grime. He clear coated the legs and table. He then took leftover oak flooring from our floors and made a beautiful top for it.

It is an absolutely gorgeous table.  It would work for a coffee table, but we like it better as an end table.

Life is good!

 

 

 

LAMA Louisiana Metalsmith Association zconference

Road tripping is always fun . . . well at least the trip there. 

We stopped in Branson at the visitors center to use the bathroom. Instead, we used the Phillips 66 gas station across the parking lot. As we walked in, we saw a very small food counter and the special was homemade tamales, 3/$6.99 in pork, beef, or chicken. 

We were hungry and decided to go for it. We found a table up front and placed our order. 

They did not disappoint!!!!

We traveled to Alexandria, Louisiana the first night. It would be an hour and a half drive Friday morning. 

We arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana Friday mid-morning. 

We meet up with fellow Missourian Steve and drove over to our friend David's shop.  After hugs from the Minnesota guys several of us walked to the market close by to buy cracklins.  It is eating pretty high on the hog at $22.99 a pound.

These grand old homes were across from David's shop. So majestic!

We meet lots of old friends and some new friends for lunch at Schuck’s. 

This was Nathan's appetizers!  

Whereas BAM has a pot luck dinner to welcome everyone, we were invited to Terry and Ada's shop in New Iberia, LA. Wish I could have gotten a daylight picture of their beautiful home and shop on a bayou.

The main dish was pastalaya. For those of you who are like me, I was calling it spaghetti. Oh my, what a mistake. It is actually jambalaya made with a pasta instead of rice.  Again, my bad for not taking a picture as they had a huge kettle of it, simmering over a gas burner. 

It was a great time to get acquainted with old friends, and making new ones. 

Before we left, the guys did a special tribute to Phil Cox, sadly it was 4 years ago to the day that we lost the great blacksmith and friend. 

It was good to meet Miss Della in person, last year she was just a big bump in her momma's belly. She was the happiest baby, not afraid of any of the grubby ole blacksmiths and would go to anyone. To quote her mom, "Della had all the men acting like fools"!

Lunch on Saturday was piping hot Jambalaya, Cole slaw with pineapple and warm bread pudding, that I'm pretty sure had a whiskey sauce over it. 

. 

They had several big aluminum roasters of it!

There was always a group of guys in deep conversation. 

A knife holder for the auction. 

A beautiful piece which was to hold your hat, your keys and your pocket change. It mounts on the wall. Another auction item and Ada won it, lucky gal!

 

Nathan's hammer table. 

Bernie's tong table. I also had jewelry for the BAM boutique.

Alan Lee's bowl for the auction. It was absolutely beautiful, but I didn't win!

Suraiya Howerter was the demonstrator. She is from Texas but came prepared for the cold. 

It was 34 degrees on Saturday morning . .. and this is Louisiana??

Some of Suraiya's work. 

Conference was over Sunday, we left shortly after enjoying their grilled burgers. It was 698 miles home. Our plan was to drive 7 or 8 hours,  grab a room, and then hit the road early morning. But at 9 hours we were in Missouri and thought why not go all the way home.  When we got out of the truck in 11 hours 58 minutes our feet and butts could hardly move.

It was another wonderful conference where we enjoyed the company and food. Until next time . . . hammer on!

On this day. . . 54 years ago

 

Bread was $.21 for a loaf, mayonnaise was $.29 a jar, and three cantaloupes were $.89.  A Coke was .15 cents!

Catsup was 4 bottles for $1.00, a 12 pack of pampers were $.89.  Cotton work pants for men were $1.80 with a matching shirt at $1.00.

Portable dishwashers were $209. A clothes dryer was 99.00 with free delivery. Sealy Posturepedic mattress and box springs were $79.

A Ford Mustang was $2,707.

The average income was $7700 and minimum wage was $1.60.

Also, it was our first date, 54 years ago. Oh, the memories.

Here’s to many more!

Birthday and Valentine week

Birthday weekend and week was fantastic. Turning 70 isn't so bad after all.  I might even try it again!

For those that texted, called, visited and sent cards, THANKYOU!  I feel very special. Almost 400 texts on Facebook were amazing! I tried to thank everyone, but I sure I missed many. 

From Saturday to Monday, I was pretty much spoiled eating almost every meal out. Between the  Blacksmith conference and the kids I was treated well.  

It was also a day to remember it has been 3 years since my breast cancer on my birthday. God is good.

My family and friends spoiled me with gold earrings, Hobby Lobby gift cards, and one friend even sent me 70 packets of my favorite Trader Joe's coffee, one packet for every year. Then she also gave me a gift certificate to Rooster Creek Quilting store. Don't think I'll have a problem spending of the gifts. 

As for Valentine's Day, it's the end of an era. Insert sad face!  For many, many years, my Valentine tradition was to buy the blacksmith Maple nut goodies, as seen above and burnt sugar peanuts shown below. 

Production on the maple nut goodies was ended sometime last year. They were replaced with a maple coating over individual peanuts.  The candy is way too waxy.  

So, this year I just bought him a bigger bag of the Burnt sugar peanuts.

I received my traditional heart shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates. The best in my opinion!

 

Lori, my daughter in law, and Lizzie shared their sweet treats with us again. They are to die for chocolate covered strawberries, sugar cookies, and red velvet cookies. I am safe to say they didn't make it 24 hours here in the house. 

Life is Good!