Sunday, June 26, 2011

Happy 1st Sunday of Summer

We just got back last night from a Haynes family reunion/ trout fishing trip. We got the suburban unpacked, most things put away, and the mail sorted. The laundry is started and the email has been skimmed through. I think that's enough for a Sunday. I took my camera but the batteries died after 1 picture. That's just ONE picture. That's what I got. Such as life. I took a couple on my cell phone so as soon as I figure out how to email them to me, I'll add them to this post.

Meanwhile, Kathy Shope sent this great picture of her mom with the Winter's Majesty quilt that Kathy made for her. She painstakingly spent three years working on. It's hand quilted and I think she did a beautiful job.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there. My dad passed away in 1977 but I still miss him sorely. He loved kids and I know he would so enjoy his five grand kids and great three grand kids. I'm the one in the middle of the picture with the skinned knees (1961). Notice the matching purple dresses.

We had another night of storms in the Midwest. We've had SOOO much rain- another 2" overnight alone. I wish we could shift it south to AZ, CO, OK, and TX where there are fires because of drought. This weather's a mess. I do think the excess rain has changed the Cicada noise situation though- they are all dead in heaps all over the ground now. I'm not sure if it was their time to go, they drowned, or just committed suicide due to excess rains, but they are much quieter these days.

I spent last night fine tuning a few quilts and today, after church and Father's Day festivities, I'm planning to piddle with quick fuse. Is piddle a word? LOL. I'm anxious to get the quilt tops done and see how they look. We're going fishing one of these days and I want to get set up to take some hand work with me for the down time. I still don't have any of my new fabric lines to use so I'll make these first quilts from stash.

I do know now that they are showing my two lines(#2 Fall and #3 Holiday) this Fall at the Intl. Quilt Market in Houston, so I should be able to post pictures by late summer/ Sept hopefully. Pretty exciting even though it seems to have taken forever from start to finish. The first line took about 2-1/2 years from start to sale. These two are taking 1-1/2 years. Shorter but still seems forever.

Winner? Do we have a winner? I had a lot of entries but can only pick one. The prize is a $50 gift certificate for patterns on my website. The winner is Colleen from New York. Congratulations Colleen. I'll do another drawing for a gift certificate soon.

I had a few comments on my daughter's jewelry- here's the latest that she added and here's link to her Etsy store. She is still donating 1/3 of every sale to the Joplin tornado cleanup through Operation Blessing. Her jewelry is beautiful.


Have a great day.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Another Week of Storms

Does it ever end? I think not. I lose so much sleep to thunder these days. I forgot to post a drawing on Sunday so here it is. I searched and searched for the perfect prize and came up empty. It's not that I have nothing to offer because I have a lot of things here. I just wanted something really special. So, I decide to do ANOTHER $50 gift certificate to my website- any patterns or charts plus the shipping will be free.

Email me at PGPeddler@aol.com by Saturday midnight, don't delay as there's not much time left. Put GIFT in the subject line. Add your name and mailing address to the body so I have it for the order when you win. Will it be you? You'll find out on Sunday -and don't forget it's Father's Day. If you haven't purchased your card yet, hurry, run, go get it.

I'll post the winner on Sunday.


My daughter has an Etsy Store where she sells beautiful hand made repurposed vintage jewelry. She donates 1/3 of her sales to the Ralpha House in Joplin, MO. Ralpha House provides a safe haven and programs for sexually abused and exploited children. She was there last week volunteering with a crew from Operation Blessing while they rebuild Joplin. There's a great story about them in the local news.


Saturday, June 11, 2011

Another Sleepless Stormy Night

Well, here I am again at 4 am. A thunderstorm came through about 2:30 and once I heard the thunder, I was wide awake. I know there are many people who sleep soundly through thunderstorms but I am not one of them. I think it came from my retriever Rusty when I was first married. He was deathly afraid of storms and moaned frantically through them and always kept me awake. Rusty, seen here with Sundance the beagle, has been gone since 1983 but I still think of him every time it storms. Amazing! He was such a beautiful and smart dog!

I have a pot of coffee, an amazing bottle of Cinnamon Vanilla Creamer and a net book on my lap. I guess life could be worse! In fact, I was just thinking about the tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri, about 4 hours south of me.

My daughter was in Joplin this week with the cleanup and she shared a lot of sad stories when she came back. She worked on a house with her team from Operation Blessing. In three days, they had it gutted down to the studs. The roof was partially destroyed and the windows had blown out during the tornado. After the high winds a additional rains, the house was covered in mold on the inside. Everything was lost and had to be removed.

The two homeowners had recently canceled their Homeowners Ins. due to loss of income. I'm sure there are sad stories all over Joplin similar to theirs. Operation Blessing went in and will have the house completely redone by the end of next week at no charge to the homeowners. The roof was already on and the wiring was in place by the time Sarah came home. 1/3 of the city is gone, demolished and it's not a little town, pop. 49,000. There were 8000 structures damaged or destroyed. 150 people died.
Here's a website that talks about Joplin, the city and the tornado damage.

They still need volunteers down there and will for a long time. If you have time to help or want to donate, contact Operation Blessing.
http://community.ob.org/site/PageServer

I took the opportunity to play on the Blog again tonight. I'm trying to be quiet for everyone else and the computer seems to be the safest place to be. Let me know what you think of the new font. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I need feedback!

It's been a few weeks since we had a drawing and I think it's time this week. I'll post it tomorrow so stay tuned!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Friday Update

It's coffee time! Yummm. As you can tell, I am up early. I decided to do some changes on the Blog- color, content positioning, I even added a search feature. What do you think?

I mowed the yard yesterday since my son wouldn't due to the Cicada dive bombers. I didn't actually mow ALL of the yard as we have 2 acres around the house but I did mow a LOT. I was aggressively attacked by the intruders in the yard at every turn. They are coming in clouds these days and every tree in the yard was covered. There are Cicada "shells" on the ground by the hundreds, you know, those little empty bodies they leave behind that little boys love to play with. We certainly have a bumper crop!

Found this little song about cicadas on YouTube http://youtu.be/OvJrEPEx27A

I am thrilled for Friday! Not only do I get to babysit the "boys" today but I have a lot of reading to do this weekend that I am so looking forward to! It's hot out, a good time for reading, maybe a movie! I might tinker with my new quilts but sometimes we (OK, I really mean ME) just need to step away.

I might go looking for a watermelon or some fun fruit for the weekend. I'm thinking summer now. I wonder what else I can whip up for the weekend? I need ideas....

What is your favorite thing to fix in the summer?

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Memphis, Floods, Cicadas

I just got back from Memphis after a visit with my mom. I expected to see a lot of flooding on the way down through Missouri as the news has been so bleak all month long. There was some flooding but it was mostly near West Memphis in the flood plain along the Mississippi River, an area that gets flooded each time the river is up. There was some flooding of crop fields near Cape Girardeau along a river that runs out to the Mighty Mississippi but all in all, I'd say it looked pretty good down there. The farmers were planting in the fields and that's a pretty good sign. It was HOT! 102 yesterday. My moms A/C was not working properly so we were hot. Hopefully they got it fixed for her today.

On the way home I was dive bombed by the cicadas. It was honestly like driving into a paint ball fight. They didn't leave a small mark, it was a huge splat on the windshield each time they unfortunately for them found me. WE stopped frequently to clean the windshield. I now notice the shrill sounds outside. All I can say is, I'm glad the A/C is on and the windows are closed! It's noisy out there. They are clung to the house and trees and cicada shells litter the ground. We were warned, this is their grand year! They sure are noisy little boogers!

On a bright note, my clematis is gorgeous! It is heavily blooming now, climbing up the light post which you can't see as it's so inclusive!
I am looking at a catalog to purchase another one, possibly pink next time.
I'd like to get a trellis and plant it in back. I just love clematis. This purple one is pretty old and well established thanks to the previous homeowner.

It's supposed to be in the 90's all week in Columbia so I think I'll stay in and get some work done. I am still playing with the applique but I'm leaning toward doing a few of the first quilts with quick fuse before I start the needle turn applique. Seems like I get to this point each time- it takes so long to start the needle turn that I get discouraged and jump into quick fuse which is, well, "quick"! Creature of habit I guess, good ones and bad ones.

Do you ever do needle turn applique? What is your favorite applique method and why?

I am cutting back on coffee these days, I haven't had creamer in 3 days. There is hope for tomorrow, I know!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Blooms Galore!


I hope you had a wonderful weekend with family. I didn't do much but work on quilts. I did take a tour around the yard, my clematis is starting to bloom. I get hundreds of blooms on it and it seems like it should pull down the lightpost that it grows around but it doesn't. They are so pretty!

I have these other hot pink flowers, perennials, and I think they are called Dianthus. Wow, they came back really well this year, even larger than last year. I'd like to get some more of them!


Well, I've spent the better part of a week drawing out little applique pieces on freezer paper and now I'm cutting the little things out. I have a gazillion quilts in the makings and can't seem to stop and work on one at a time. I know, that WOULD be a better system! I have fall market on my mind and my two new lines of fabric coming out. Now they say they'll release them at market this fall for January delivery. SOOO, I have a little more time for the quilts using that fabric. The last time I designed fabric it was delayed a whole year also. It seems to be routine.


Hope to get stitching on some applique soon. I may do the first quilts as quick fuse. It's just so fast! Hard not to like that!


Meanwhile, I have other quilt designs to finish for market. I normally do festival (the retail show following market), in fact I've done it for 19 years in Houston. I'm usually gone for 2 full weeks. Not that it isn't fun, I love to go to Houston, it's like my second home. My sister lives there and I get the spa treatment when I go. Houston offers the best restaurants, great museums and wonderful pedicures!


This year, I'm thinking about not staying for the second week. I guess I'm getting older and it's getting harder to do the retail show. I hate being gone for 2 weeks as I'm such a home body. It's getting harder to haul things in and out- I have bursitis in both shoulders from years of pulling dollies filled with heavy boxes through show floors for set up and tear down. I have the contract now and I have to decide if I'm going or not. Decisions, decisions!