Change

My hearts are finished! woo hoo i made myself finish the last one before i could blog! lol. Its dark in here today so i will take a picture tomorrow. I did do a few more 4 patch squares last night... it was too dark to do the applique so i had to work on something while we watched a movie.

On the radio show front... we have to change platforms. We have been using a format that is designed for talk radio and now that we are playing mostly music... we have to change. I have known it was coming for a while... but they finally asked us to move yesterday. So... we dont have a show till i find a new home this weekend. Ralph and I are having one of those deep discussions about it. Right now it would be really easy to just walk away. there are things we dont like about doing the show, but we both know in our hearts that we would miss it way too much. So we are doing the "what we like/dont like" about doing the show so that we can do something that we both enjoy.

That has lead to the whole conversation of peace and joy in our lives. Ralph and i both view ourselves as entertainers. In the western music world there are dj's that see their role as promoting western music, or preserving history... we dont see that as one of our goals. We do the show purely to entertain. We happen to love western music... so that is what we like to entertain with... but the show is so much more than spinning tunes. The banter between them, the jokes and the interaction with the audience is our version of entertaining. Our shows this last month or two, they haven't been as entertaining as we would like. My theory on this is we have been streached so thin, have been stressed out so much... its hard to bring others joy when we arent feeling it ourselves.

We talked about what brings us peace. For me that is why i started quilting again right now. It brings peace to my heart, there is the joy of finding and touching the fabric and it doesn't matter how stressed out my day was, i can come home, pick up some fabric and let all of that go away.

For ralph it used to be the radio show. A little over a year ago his wife died of cancer, through that battle, there were two hours twice a week, that ralph could put that behind him and not be that man about to lose someone he loved. Me too... it really was therapy. Somehow the show turned into WORK for him though since. He hasn't been enjoying the work part of it and it shows... so... what ever we do... it cant be WORK (well unless we start selling advertising on the show and then a little work would be ok... but for it to be so much work with no pay... its just not fun!) But... the peace and joy conversation did sink into ralph and i think he will be looking for what brings him joy. Its been a hard couple months and he needs to find it again.

Anyways... the whole point is... im not going to get much quilting done this weekend because im going to be creating an online radio station. We are going to decide what we want, how were going to get there and im going to make it happen. Who knows what we will end up with... i just know we would both miss it too much if we didn't keep doing it. It is still 2 hours twice a week that we aren't stressed out, broke pizza joint owners!

OK... the sun came back out... heres a picture for ya!
My pretty little row of hearts... boy im glad that is done!

OK, one more picture. This is my two sisters and I in West Virginia in April. The first one is Becki, she is the oldest and it is her birthday today!!! The next is Sandy.... then me. We had so much fun that day exploring and playing and remembering our childhood. But... i hope becki has a wonderful birthday!

my new helper

we also live with wesley. He is sharons son... he was helping yesterday as i laid out what i have finished so far to take a look. Wow... i have alot to do yet! It seems like i have done more than that! lol.


Wesley is a good kid when its just him and I. He is sweet, interactive, affectionate and talkative. When his mom is around you would never know it. Most times when i say something to him when shes here, his response is to hit me. He doesn't show affection, his speech is worse (he has a speech problem) and he turns into a monster child. It makes living with them a challenge. ugh... i could go on and on here and it would turn into a rant so im not going to.

Ralph is off horseshoeing again. He has a really busy week this week with the horseshoeing. He hasn't worked as much as normal at the store because of it so Im working the lunch shift today to make up for some of that. Its normally my day off. This afternoon i should get some uniterrupted quilting time and im determined to finish the hearts today. I have 3 more to do!

black coffee

Ive had to drink my coffee black this morning because im out of creamer and there is not even any milk in the house... i really dont like my coffee black, but the alternative is no coffee and that is even less acceptable.

Sammie cat was helping me again this morning... ive decided he feels the same about applique as i do. I love how it looks, i love the finished product and i included quite a bit on the faith/harley quilts because i think it suits little girls... im just ambivalent about doing it! Its not the most exciting thing there is.

Having said that... its holding up my progress on the faith/harley quilt so I am determined to finish the row of hearts this week. I finished one this morning leaving 4 more to do.


I am going to have to work on my photo taking skills... the colors in this are not the best.

I had to make a deal with myself... i can go back to the little squares that im loving as soon as i finish the hearts!



During my break yesterday i was reading quilting blogs. I have really enjoyed this... it is keeping me motivated and inspired as im making progress on my work. But... poor little waylon was just screaming in the next room (he is about 6 weeks old) I finally had to go see what the problem was, momma was giving him his medicine for thrush and it did not make him a happy camper. When she finished i picked him up and he settled down, so i brought him out to the computer with me... he enjoyed the quilting blogs too, there were lots of pretty colors for him to look at. I had the camera and this was the best shot i could get of myself holding the little fella. He is a little cutie and im loving having a baby in the house. (im loving the grandmother status too... i get to love him and coo at him and think aww how cute... but i dont have to get up at 3 am and feed him or change his diapers!)

Yesterday we did a catering job for the Chamber of Commerce Meeting. We did a 6 foot sub! I cannot believe i forgot to take a picture for ralph. We had come up with the idea together but he couldn't be there since he was horseshoeing. But the sub went over well and hopefully we reminded the business community that we have great lunch food. Our lunch crowd has become mainly oil and gas people in town and i dont see alot of locals. I did end up working from about 9-2 during the day and then from 5-10:30 last night. Last night was really slow and caty and i got alot of cleaning jobs done... but then a half an hour before we closed it made up for the slow night... we got BUSY... i was happy but i hate when it happens right before we close.

We dont have alot of catering experience... i definately learned some lessons yesterday for the next time. I did have too much food but i will learn what i need as i do more of the jobs. I would rather have too much than run out!

the oil and gas business is still booming in san augustine. Its been amazing. We drove the back roads home the other night and you can see 6 rigs when you go home that way, going home the highway last night i saw one that must have just went up in the last couple days. We of course love that they are getting closer to our house and cant wait till they put one on our property! (sorry if your an environmentalist... but if you owned 100 acres and stood to make a quarter of what they bring out of the ground... you would be excited too) But for now the increase in business at the store has been great. Right now we normally slow down but were not, it keeps growing and i would say that the oil workers are now about 40 percent of our business. they are predicting that the drilling will go on for at least another 6 years and are saying that eventually there will be a well every 40 acres in east texas. I say bring it on... i like the business and the economy in this little town has never been this good!

ok... back to hearts... i might be able to finish one more this morning!!!

where to begin

I really believe that i have time in my life to quilt now... i dont know if i actually have the time but i feel like i do! lol.

It is something i have always loved but due to lack of space, money and time... something i rarely did. But... i have determined... space, money and time be darned... im gonna actually DO what i want to do and that is make beautiful quilts.


Last night and this morning i spent hours (i really think about 5 hours) looking thru quilting blogs. Wow... there are some creative and talented women out there. How the heck do they get such precise blocks... im so impressed. My blocks dont look like that!!! lol. There are also women who spend way more than i can at the moment on fabric! lol.

But in looking thru blogs and reading hints on building a fabric stash... where im at in my process. I have made some decisions. I am definitely a scrap quilter. I see beauty in those peices put together that aren't a part of a fabric collection. I mean those collections are beautiful but both my current financial situation... i cant afford 130.00 of fabric for one quilt from a collection. So i am going to continue to build my stash of discount remnants and clearance fabric... so that i can create beautiful quilts!!

Oh but there is also a great blog from a woman in Tasmania who makes such beautiful quilts combining embroidery and quilting... i think that is something that im going to have to do. I am also attracted to applique quilts... hmmm.. never made one but now im going to have to try!

after my hours of looking for inspiration in both "organizing a small quilting area" and ideas about future quilts, (there is nothing more motivating to finish a project than looking for the next project you want to work on) I spent some time organizing my fabrics and current projects.

The denim scrap quilts: I now have 92 squares for each quilt (im making 6 of them for the sons and son in laws) I need 100 more squares. Today i have about 8 pair of jeans to cut up... but im going to need more so its time to bug more people for old jeans... or look for them at yardsales. I have 100 blue flannel squares and only 14 red. (im making the back a texas flag) so i also need to think about buying more flannel to finish them. With the budget... i have to buy a yard or two at a time... so I will start hitting hobby lobby with my change (that is my quilting budget... the change i manage to collect) on my trips to lufkin for restaurant stuff! but... the dogs had gotten into my piles of squares, so i reorganized them and moved them to a higher shelf!!

Faith and Harley: Im making them matching quilts from scraps. I ordered a bunch of tone on tone fabric for that yesterday. I have enough for about 15 blocks cut out. After i cut the denim i have i may try getting the sewing machine working again and work on blocks for this.

My stash: I "folded" all of my fabric stash so far. Not counting the tone on tone fabrics i have i have one tote (its one size bigger than a shoe box) of stash! I am going to be using most of these fabrics in the harley and faith quilts.

One other started project is my quilt. A few winters ago i hand peiced 16 blocks from a sampler book. I need to think about putting that together... but it is now in a shoebox with the background fabric... the dogs had that drug out and all over the floor too!

here are some pictures of the blocks for that: