Just a few months ago, I updated a post here — right!  “Few” months may need to be defined.  Can’t begin to fill in the blanks between Dec. 2012 and now.  Know that we’re a thankful family for good health and many blessings!

Today is Betty’s birthday — my quilting, antiquing, buddy and a great friend!  Tomorrow would be another friend’s 71st birthday — wish I could give her a call and a H.B. wish, but Carol passed away in 2011 after a long battle with cancer.

And 2014 will be rolling into 2015 before too long!  As dear “Aunt Pink” used to say — “Life is like a roll of toilet paper . . . the closer to the end, the faster it goes.”  So, so true!  And it seems to get harder each year to stay up-to-date on “how to unroll” that tp.  Just visited the Apple Store today to check out getting one of their computers.  Their newest iphone version was introduced today — iphone 6!  The computer I looked at has 1 terabyte of storage.  When shopping for my first IBM computer, I was torn between a 40 or 60 kb storage and was discouraged from going with the larger one — “why that would be large enough to hold several city phone books worth of data–you’d never need that much.”  Ha!

First drop in temps since February greeted us last night — sure makes it seem more like Christmas time to have the A/C “off.”  After giving myself a good talking to, I decided to put up our big tree and most of our decorations.  Since our grandkids moved to CO in 2008, it’s been tough getting into the mood w/o them here.  But, it’s time to get past that!  Good to see some “old friends” again that have been stored in our shed all these years.  However, I also decided it was time to part with quite a bit, too — took a bunch to Goodwill and will try to sell some in our antique booth.  Not that our stuff is really antique, but some of it has been around a long time!  Expect to have about 6 tubs worth for storage when it’s time to put back into the shed — at least 50% less than a week ago!

Terry and Kelby were wonderful to work with me and get our tree decorated!  I also hung my quilted wreath wall hanging for the first time.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 

  This was a blue-ribbon winner at the Houston International Quilt Festival this past weekend.  The photographs never do justice to the beautiful work and detail that is put into these works of art.  Look at all of the winning quilts at this gallery — http://www.quilts.org/winners.html

This is only my third time to attend this show, and it still takes my breath away to see such beautiful exhibits.  Quilts are brought in from many other countries, and some of their techniques are so inspiring!  My friend, Betty, and I were there from 11:30 until 5:00 and left worn out!  Lots of walking, looking, and picture taking!  We also get to shop at hundreds of booths — 20 rows of vendors.  Rows that go on, and on, and on!  I would say the entire show is equivalent (area-wise) to at least four Home Depots! 

There were so many fabrics, embellishments, tools, machines — it was hard to pass up so much, but I only came home with 4 items and a small dent in the wallet. 

A nice surprise — one of my former students from Austin HS recognized me and we visited for a good while!   1982 was a long time ago, but I remember Debbie very well and was very pleased to see her again and to catch up a bit!

   Hard to believe that it’s been almost 4 years since I started this challenging quilt!  Dear Jane has a center area made up of 169 square blocks that finish at 4.5″.  I have 131 of these blocks finished — here are 39 of them (each row has 13 blocks).   Soon, I’ll have six more rows put together, but it will be a while before the last 4 rows appear here (maybe next summer).  The borders around the center squares are made up of 52 pieced triangles and 52 one-piece triangles and 4 kite corners.    I’ve learned a lot doing this project — mostly to measure, measure, measure — and try, try, try to sew straight!  Sometimes I wonder if maybe machine stitching is more difficult than hand stitching . . . but I’m not willing to give that premise a try just now!