Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt

One more day before we begin. I've found a few more fabrics I'm considering. I won't know till I start cutting which ones I am going to use. 

After a little more digging, I  found these darker colors, a wine, gold and dark rich blue with a light gray tone on tone for my background.  That's the picture on the top

I also found a dark background for the rust, green and turquoise, hoping it would make the colors pop a little more

Another light background  with a little more life to it, not so white white. 

This was my original choice. 

Let the mystery begin. 

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving.

Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt

Bonnie Hunter is doing another great mystery starting the day after Thanksgiving. Those of us who aren't brave enough to face 'Black Friday' shoppers will have another project to keep us busy. 

So far these are the colors I've chosen, but they are subject to change. We still have a week before we start.  I'm making it easy on myself this time. I'm sticking to three main colors and one or more cream tone on tone background. 

Now we are off to Home Depot to get paint for the kitchen. With a little luck, the new bathroom and kitchen cupboards will be up and running before Thanksgiving. It will be nice to have a complete bathroom again. 

IT HAS ARRIVED!!

My 6600 was delivered late Friday night in the pouring rain. I was upstairs didn't hear the driver, one of the contractors saw him drop it at the back door, grabbed the box and brought it in the house. It was covered with a big plastic bag, but I can't imagine it being left outside for any length of time in all that rain. 

With the contractors working here, I had to put away all of my sewing stuff. No room till they are finished. All the stuff from the rooms they are working on is shoved in the other rooms.  Miss Mouse left her mark and let the contractors know what she thought of the mess they made. Too bad she couldn't sign her name. She walked right through it just as Jeff finished mudding the floor. 

Hopefully I will have a working shower by the end of this week. I had no idea a new bathroom would take so long and end up being just the beginning. New dinning room floor too. The 'new' old floor was all cracked, chipping and tiles were coming up off the floor. 

As you can see, Lois loves the printer. She thinks the paper needs her help to come out.  She's such a character. On Thursday, she made her TV debut on our local news with my vet. She does a segment on the noon news every Thursday. This week it was how to give a cat medicine. Lois thought everyone was there to see her. Her video is here under Pet Peeves. The video will load if you wait a few seconds. 

http://www.wzzm13.com/life/animals/default.aspx

Houston

We are back from Houston. My first and probably last time. What a blast! So many vendors, anything you want at your fingertips; fabric, notions, comfy shoes, machines, cabinets, more fabric, pain relief for anywhere on your body. (I could have used that after the first day) Walking on cement for 3 days is quite painful.  Wore my Crocs, my feet were very comfy, but the rest of the body, not so much. 

There were a lot of quilts, but not quite what I expected. Many were art quilts, some which were painted.  Some were Ohhhhhhhhh AAAAAHHHHHHH and some were "what is it and why is it here?"  I'm not really the artsy type. They had some of the Hoffman Challenge quilts. The quilts done with thread only were beautiful. Optical Illusions are fascinating to me. 

I purchased a new Janome 6600 and the Martelli cutting matt and rotary cutter with its rulers. All of that stuff is yet to arrive as it will be shipped in several weeks or so. I kept the stuff I brought home to a minimum. Some FQs,  some batiks, a couple half yard pieces, a few patterns and a few notions.  Everything fit into my carry on.  Even the delicious fudge. 

It was a great time but as always, it was great to be home and in my own bed last night. 

 

Back to Quilting New Family Member

Puppies are all in their new homes and we also have a new family member. Her name is Lois. She's a Devon Rex. It's been a long time since I've had a kitten and boy is she busy!!!!!!!! 

I'm also catching up on my BOM's and exchanges. These are my Bento Box blocks for an exchange. 

A Happy Ending

To make this sorta quilt related I have to go back to spring cleaning. I decided to move all of my boxed fabric into my huge garage and put it all on shelves.  In order to do that I had to clean out a section in the garage. 

We found lots and lots of treasures I didn't know were there, a leaf blower, mig welder, two chain saws, compressor,  numerous riding lawn mowers, walk behind mowers and lawn mowers in pieces. 

 This lawn mower was purchased at the end of the season (5 or 6 yrs ago) for a little more than pocket change as 'new in the box' . I got it home and something was missing. I always intended to take it back to the store, but it never happened. 

Needless to say, it was also used for piece parts.  A friend was helping clean up the garage and move boxed fabric out to the garage wanted the mower if I was done using it for parts.  Off it went to another friend along with many other small engine machines for an overhaul. 

She told me she was going wash and wax it after she used it. Here it is, all put back together washed and waxed and it runs like a top!  Enjoy it, Liz!

Hot Humid Summer Days

Already the end of June! Wow, time flies. It's been a tough week here with temps and humidity way above normal, breaking records.  The Bloomin Bunch are growing and  Travels with Dick and Jane are doing great! 

Bunnies make wonderful pillows for a snooze. 

The potted flowers are loving the humid weather, unlike the humans and 4 footed critters that live here.  It's been so hot and humid, the puppies have had to stay inside to play.  The water in their kiddie pools is like bath water within an hour.   That's very unnatural here.  

 

Moving Day

WOW!!! Look at all the room we've got now!

The Bloomin Bunch moved from the puppy room today.   Spot's puppies needed our room, so we moved out to get more room for us to play.  We can see everything from our new digs, we're the middle of the universe, everybody is here to see us.  Maybe tomorrow we will see more of it, for now a few zzzzzzz's

I told you mine was bigger than yours. 

Time to Feed the Flowers

The blooms are beginning to flower.   Their eyes are open, they can hear and are learning to walk. But mostly they still sleep. 

Jack in the Pulpit found mom's food dish tonight and dove right in, sharing with mom. 

Spring Flowers, Bloomin Bunch News and Dick and Jane

My Spring flowers waiting to be planted.  It's been too cold at night to plant young flowers. So they've been out during the day and into the garage at night.   I missed taking them in one night when we had a frost warning.  They looked pretty bad the next day, but I think they will survive. Hopefully I can get them planted this weekend. 

The Bloomin Bunch is 2 weeks old today.

 We have a few peepers.  They are getting so big. 

The Dick and Jane litter are growing but look so small next to the Bloomin Bunch. 

May Flower Updates

A week old today.   As you can see, they are growing like weeds. 

"Witch Hazel" is going to be a lot like her mom, "Wicked Wanda" 

Sweet William, so cuddly. 

Bachelor Button

And the rest of the Bloomin Bunch:    Snapdragon,  Coral Bell,  Jack in the Pulpit, Trillium and Holly Hock

The May Flowers Crew

Well, not this photo.  Trixie was our whelping box tester. Scribbles is usually in the box with the puppies, but we needed a stand in to be sure it would be perfect for Wanda and her May Flowers. 

It was a long sleepless night, but we have 8 very healthy, pretty puppies. Yes, Marco, there's one in there for you! 

Mom with the crew. More pictures hopefully tomorrow. 

Water Water Everywhere

These pictures were taken yesterday from the car as we were driving by. This is one of the creeks nearby that usually has a nice slow moving body of water through it. But as you can see, it's way over it's banks. 

There is usually a little island in the middle of the first picture, but it's nowhere to be seen.   I'm hoping for sunny, windy, dry days for the next few weeks so things can dry out and the flooding will stop. 

This is the other side of the road the creek flows under.  If this would have been a normal day, you would barely be able to see the water from the road and it would be so clear you could see the bottom, but with so much rain, it's pretty high and is quite muddy.   

Portuguese Water Dog Mania

WOW! It's been a busy few days here with the arrival of the new member of the White House. The phones haven't stopped and the emails are still being answered.

While these dogs may look like cute little cuddly teddy bears, they can be a handful as the new owners of "BO" are finding out. 

A few things  you should know about Portuguese Water Dogs if you are considering one for your family.  They love paper, paper towels are a favorite. Nothing is safe on counters. They bring a whole new meaning to 'cleaning off the counter top.  Mr. Big, as little as he is, is a prime example of counter shopping (table in this case). 

They require training, grooming (hair cuts every 6-8 weeks), a lot of interaction with people and dogs as young dogs and adults, brushing and lots of exercise. They are also notorious chewers. Anything at their level is fair game, shoes, table or chair legs, that antique buffet you got from your great grandmother, clothes, Barbies, Kens, other dolls, toy trucks, steering wheels, couch cushions, whatever it is, they will try to chew it.  They will also help with the landscaping.  Don't like what you have? Tell them, they will rearrange things for you. They are great at removal. Maybe not exactly what you would consider, but it's satisfactory to them.  Need a post hole? Just tell  them where to dig, they're the best in the business! 

Yes, I love my dogs, but my yard, which at one time had lovely flowers inside the fence and around the house has turned into dog heaven. The flowers are gone, the holes have appeared and the grass is nice and green these days.................... where it survives!  Life goes on, the dogs are happy and don't complain about the dirt. 

The good things about the breed outweigh the bad, but they are not a breed for everyone. You need a lot of love, energy, patience and most of all... a great sense of humor for this breed.  Several of the dogs you see here are in show coats, the others are in their everyday wear. 

Just think how much I save on fertilizer!  It's been a long few days for the group, Birdie says it's time for a nap! 

Wanda Strikes Again

For those who know Wanda, know  she is Isea's daughter and should have been named "Murphy".  Isea absolutely refused to stay in the yard. She looked for any weakness in the fence and used it to her advantage. She is the reason we have patio blocks buried under the fence line. When Isea went to live with a friend in California I thought my problems were over.  

Not long after she left, her daughter, Wanda, took up where she left off. Not so much trying to leave the yard, but in ways you would never suspect.  She almost lost one of her rear legs when she was about a year old. I found her tangled up in bailing wire one day in the back yard. She couldn't get up. It took two of us to get that off of her. One to hold her still, the other to cut the wire off her leg.  We don't use bailing wire around here. She has also gone through a window in the middle of the winter on a Sat. night. No damage there except to my wallet. She was fine. 

Her latest is an encounter with the upright freezer.  Things were fine when I went to bed around 1 am.  Some time during the night Wanda's coat got caught in the door handle of the freezer. 

Not only did she loose a huge hunk of hair to the freezer door handle, but she managed to open the door and bend it just enough out of whack that it would no longer shut. Notice the duct tape on the door!  

Only Wanda!!!!!! That freezer has been around longer than Wanda.  It was full of frozen dog food, she never touched a thing. New freezer has been ordered, duct tape is still holding.  

My neighbor came over to help me remove some doors and Scribbles was giving him advise on which method to use.