The important things in life. What a great day.

My brother called, he,my sister in law and my other sister from Ky. are all coming down to spend the 4th holiday with us. Now, Cliff's not able to do many things now a days, but I know he enjoys going to Stone Mountain. So, I'm going online to purchase all the tickets, I think it will be a great day. Me and my family haven't all got together in over 30 years. My mother died suddenly when I was in middle school.. It was so devastating to all of us. I was totally traumatized. It affected every aspect of my life. My dad was in the Army for 21 yrs. so we all ended up in many different places , and became distant for many years. I've always visited my brother and sister, but this is the first time any of them have come to visit me here in Ga. I'm am so, so excited. My family means the world to me and I know first hand the importance of letting them know how much I do love them. Life is so uncertain and we should take every opportunity to show the ones we love how we feel. I will be posting pics of this great event, it has always been a dream of mine. God has been so good to me this year, I owe all to him.

At my daughters

Every Sat.,Sun.,Mon., and Tues I'm at one of my daughters house. Sometimes one, sometimes the other. I keep all my grandbabies while they work. Up until about amonth ago, I would sit with them 7 days a week, but my youngest daughter who is a nurse at the local hospital took the weekend shift, to spend more time with her son. She doesn't have to work as many days as before but gets paid for the full shift she was working. It has really worked out well for me too. I was hardly ever home before now I do get 2 to 3 days a week to keep up with my home life and my passion (quilting). Any way here is my grandbabies, I have one that's not in the pic, because he loves to be outside playing all the time.

Hancocks fabric sale

Our Hancocks is under construction so they were having a huge sale. Well I've always loved Batiks but only had a few because they were 10$ and up in price. Which I thought was alittle steep. But I got most of these for 4$ a yd, and the jouney collection has always been pricey but I always admired it too. It has never been on sale , still isn't but I had a coupon and I gave Cliff a coupon and we both got yds. of it. The ribbons and lace are for some CQ blocks we will be making for our HGTV swap. And the clear vinyl is for a bag I plan to make someone on the board. You put binding around the edges and put on the bag like a pocket and they can show off pics of their grandkids or children(etc.) I told Cliff I will probably not use these yet because I love to look at them. I have another fabric that I haven't been able to bring myself to cut it. I love it that much. Call me crazy, but you just know when it's right . Where ever it goes in might just be the one quilt I keep. Anyway here they are.

Yard work

My yard is so large I can barely maintain it. I usually have to mow on side at a time. Well, I had got behind, so the bush and shrub took over, So, yesterday Cliff went and bought me a field trimmer, boy did I go to town cutting down everthing, even some rose bushes and flowers I didn't men to cut. But anyway I'm so pleased that I got the whole thing cut in 3 1/2 hours. So I had to takke pics of how good it looked. Seems it was getting smaller and smaller because the woods was taking over but not anymore. I fought back and won. Oh, and there is green tomatoes already. I had to take it's pic too.

17th Century rope bed

I went to this second hand store right down the road looking for a table I could cut a hole in for my sewing machine, to make machine quilting a bit easier. Well, I did not find a table but I did find this 200 year old bed. Now, I love old things, and had a empty bedroom where My daughter had bought a house and moved out back in January. So, I had to have it. Well turns out they are not your average size bed. So, yesterday I had to go online a place a order for a special size mattress to fit it. Guess that means I'll have to alter all the sheet sets too. I finally got the bed put up last month. My brother called yesterday to say they were coming down for the 4th holiday. Now I couldn't have him sleeping on ropes now could I? I put a rush order on it and the manufacturer told me he'd do his best to have it by then, so I praying it will be. Cliff wanted to just buy a whole new bed set, but I couldn't see doing that, and having to turn around and get a mattress for this also. And then I would have been stuck with a bed I had no use for.

ONE DAY AT A TIME,

My work in progress, I'm working very hard to turn a dirt hill in to something beautiful.
I had a very ugly hill near the house, which was over grown and hard to maintain so I started a rock garden since basically there is only a very small amount of dirt there because of the erosion so I decided to put a rock garden in and try to build up the steep drop off enough to plant something. I just started last year and it's coming along pretty good. I carried each and every stone by hand. I had to go gather them from all around the property. Then I carried dirt which I dug from out back from a spot I wanted to level out . So I killed 2 birds with on stone. I got the back level and the sides built up to prepare for a planting. Here's how it looks this year, I will be adding more plants and doing work on getting the other parts fill up and ready for plants also. I know it doesn't look perfect but you have to start somewhere. I look back at how it use to be so barren and am pleased. I will continue to work on this until I have my oasis.These are pics of my garden in differnt states of being built. I have a goal in mind and just have to keeping doing it one day at a time until I reach it. I hope this inspires someone that thinks that have an unreachable goal. You have to start somewhere and just keep at it. This also the view out my sewing room, kitchen and dining room windows.

Working on right now

I have many projects going on right now, because I get some many ideas in my head, I can't seem to keep up with my thoughts. I woke up this morning with a whole new plan. I read a blog of a special someone from the HGTV board last night and read that they liked turtles. Well it was the first thing I thought of this morning. So, I got right up and went to the sewing room, to make her a gift. I know she is a crazy quilter and likes turtles. I had make these crazy blocks I made months ago (don't know why) but just had to try. I ended up using 4 of them on a pincushion for a swap I was in, but still have quite a few left. They are made with very cheery fabric. I had also made a hugh long row of prairie points with the same fabric for another quilt but ended up not using it, because my Cliff wanted the quilt after he seen it put together, and I though prairie points were kinda girly. Okay, so I have all these crazy blocks and matching prairie points. I pictured a tote with these blocks and a turtle on the front of the bag with some thread painting on it and the prairie points on the top edge of the bag. I also thought I could machine embroider her name on the front also.Just as soon as finish this I'm going to post a pic of it. I have also been working on some dotee dolls for another HGTv swap. Here are some of them. Other things I'm working on daily are my Demise of SBS and Sam blocks, I am handquilting a quilt for the QWL(quilt with love). There is a sweet lady on the HGTV board that goes by the screen name MedeMo, she put this hugh effort together to make quilts for our troops that are over seas. She takes in quilts, blocks, and tops. I have also cut my fabric for Bonnie Hunters "Rocky mountain stars" quilt, this will be for one of my sisters. This quilt goes with her sorta primitive/country/cabin look she has going on in her house. I have fabric washed and ready to go for my brothers scottie dog quilt, and a ton of muted earth tones for my other sisters quilt. I think it will look good with many different fabric, to give it that scrappy look.