Happy NEW Year!!!!

We had a wonderful peaceful family holiday. Jill came home and brought Charli and Amber (dog and cat) and Leah took in a rescued Chihuahua/Jack Russell. He's not quite 6 pounds and they think 2 to 3 years old. He has a cataract over his left eye, but it isn't slowing him down. He loves to be held and "hunt cats"...this is hilarious, he runs around the basement looking for Twink and Merlin...they are usually sitting up on something about a foot above his head while he is frantically hunting for them.

Lilly is taking all of this in stride. She evens lets Tater bark at her when she eats her own food. Leah is planning on going back tomorrow so Tater can get into a routine and we can see if this will work.

I finished quilting Jill's Wizard of Oz Yellow brick road on Christmas Day and will post some pics when I get it bound.

I wish you all a blessed and happy new year!

Getting ready for Christmas

I've finished my first quilt on my new mid-arm machine. (well new to me anyway)...I got a Viking Mega-Quilter and Next Generation frame. I'm thrilled and this quilt was a learning experience. I can't wait to get the next quilt loaded.

Jill brought my "grand-dog" Charli by to visit. Leah and I found her a letter jacket at Ross Dress for Less and had to buy it for her. Jill took Charli in in Oct. She's 7 years old and had not been exercised or properly fed (she was just plain FAT)...so she's on diet food and getting a lot of energy back. She loves Amber (Jill's cat) and does well when she is at our house.

I made some blankets for Leah's friends in her pharmacy fraternity for Christmas gifts.

I hope that you all have a most blessed Christmas. I have had such a wonderful year and have so many things to be thankful for.

Finished another baby quilt!!! and the baby is here!!!

My great-niece McKenzie arrived and I actually got the quilt to her in her first week....they sent this picture of her yesterday. The carosel designs came from Charming Station. I just love using them on baby quilts.

Lots and lots of sewing help....

Everyone who owns a cats (or two or three) has lots of help with their sewing projects. I was working on a "Birdie Sling" last week and when I went to straighten up the sewing area you can see what I found.

Happy Cat!!!!

We use this bowl to pick up pears and apples for the deer. Mickey laid it on the porch and here is Orangejello (pronouned OR angelo) very content. She is one of the feral cats I feed.

Getting on with the election!!!

Working in the communication department at Wake Forest University definitely keeps me involved with current events. Dr. Allan Louden is one of our professors here and a family friend. You will see him commenting on national and international news shows and in newspapers all over the world this time of year. He specializes in campaign advertising, debate analysis, and now digital politics. He gets wrapped up in all that is happening second by second on the computer...if you call his house you may have to wrap your conversation up so he can take a call from Minnesota NPR or an Argentinian newspaper. The Wake students seem to be really into this election and we've been having "debate watch" parties on the big screen in our auditorium. The media has been really interested in these gatherings and last night we attracted Luke Russert to our auditorium to do a web spot for NBC news. Of course him being here was news as well. Jill came over after she finished her day at school to watch with the students, but maybe more to check out Luke. Here are pics of Allan and Luke, Jill and Luke, and of the auditorium before the debate.

Getting into fall routines!

Finally got the handwork done on not one, but two quilts. The pastel one I did last fall and it was quilted in the spring. The teal and orange quilt is a BQ2 pattern and I quilted it with embroidery designs.
This past weekend I helped with a spay clinic for the feral cats in Forsyth County. My job was to watch them until the sedation took effect, remove them from the traps, label them and pass them over to be prepped. Of course I wanted to take almost everyone home with me. I know that God gave me a husband so I wouldn't become a cat horder. The sweet kitty pictured here, is Aerial, our oldest kitty. She is primarily an inside cat. She's getting a little dotty in her old age, but is still very sweet.

Getting back in the groove!

Well tomorrow I will be here as my 15th freshman class arrives on campus. Can't believe how quick the time has flown and my kids have grown up. Jill is settled in her new apt in a 100 year old house in downtown Statesville. And because of that, (she took her bedroom furniture) I have a sewing room for the first time. I've been working on unfinished and unstarted-promised projects and have the first one finished. Cady was born in May, so it's a little late, but hope they like it.

School starts........

Well, the summer has flown by, Leah, Jill and I are all set for the start of our respective schools. Leah's white coat ceremony was held yesterday at Campbell and we went down for it. We got her settled in her house about a week ago. She started orientation today.

Jill starts work in her classroom on Friday. She is very lucky because the woman who retired left her alot of material for her room.

Next week our grad students will be here and the freshmen will move in and we will start another year at Wake Forest. Drop me a line and let me know what you are up to....b

Upside down and fixed in less than a week...

When last we saw our heroine, Leah, she was happily planning on attending school in August at Wingate School of Pharmacy, near Charlotte. Little did we know what lurked around the bend.....(insert melodramatic music here)...Campbell University School of Pharmacy called last Tuesday offering her the last spot in their class. She would have loved to return to Campbell, but we had made the deposit and planned on preceding to WUSOP. Then Campbell called back and Leah was awarded a $7500 academic scholarship, which would really help for the year. Within 8 hours she answered an email looking for a 4th roommate at Campbell and it all fell into place...and finally I was at peace. Wingate itself looked terrific, but the housing options were less than desirable and we had not been able to make a commitment to housing because everything we found had at least one major drawback (too far, too old, etc)....so this worked itself out, she will be closer to Katy at Carolina (they visit back and forth during the year) and her friends are ecstatic that she is returning. We went to sign the lease yesterday and met one of the new roommates, measured the room and spent time with her friend Robert. Pics attached.

Now you say, this is a sewing blog, where is the sewing? Here it is....on Saturday I went to my favorite haunt (Sewingly Yours) and took a class from Debra Bohn on stabilizers...I sure learned tons. Talk to you all soon, love,b

My wonderful Mother's Day present!!!

We got up at 5am on Saturday to travel to Boone, so Jill could graduate from Appalachian State University. It was really exciting!

My Girls!

JILL GOT A JOB!!! Jill was hired last Thursday to teach 7th grade social studies at North Iredell Middle School. She felt right at home with the principal and the teaching team and will start in August.
This past weekend Leah came home and stayed for 2 days. During that time we did some shopping for her "professional clothes" that are required for pharmacy school and she went out to dinner with Jill and Rebecca. I stole these 2 pics off of Becca's facebook. Thought some of you might like to see how they have turned out.

FINISHING PROJECTS!!!!!!

Yes, I'm excited, I finished two projects today. Molly's quilt. Molly was born on 3/26 to Leslie (one of Mickey's cousins) and her husband. Don't know that I have ever seen a baby whose hair had to be parted on their first day!!! But she sure is beautiful

So the pink blanket is for her and the other one is for Leah. I love the Felicity Miller fabrics in it and didn't want to cut them up any smaller so that is why the blocks are so big.

Back to normal, well as normal as things usually are...

Jill is cruising along with her student teaching now and actively looking for a job. She goes to App on Monday and they are having a job fair for all the education majors attended by all the school systems. She would really like to get into an alternative school, she likes the smaller classes and helping the students improve themselves.

Leah was accepted to Wingate School of Pharmacy for August. This is a real accomplishment. She has only finished two years of college (with a 4.0, she's worked really hard) and the pharmacy school are starting to let in only people with a BS already. Another Campbell soph is also going so they are talking about being roommates. They will have to live off campus in an apt., the school doesn't have room for grad students. But it is a beautiful campus.

Leah did two Miss NC prelims this year and it just wasn't in the cards for her to go back this year. She was 1st rup at Miss Johnston County and 2nd at Miss Fayetteville, but won talent there. You can see her talent and swimsuit here http://blogs.fayobserver.com/missfayetteville
They spelled her name wrong in 2 places.

Lilly is a mess. She has so much energy. She comes in every night to watch tv with us. She loves grapes. Silly dog.

So now about quilting....took a BQ2 class with Julia and that was fun. It's pinned and ready to quilt. Still muddeling around on my old testament redwork quilt, and I've had fun with the $10 quilt from Sewingly Yours. It's in batiks and I've even made the alternate blocks. I still have to finish hand sewing the binding down on Leah's quilt. I'll get some pics up next.

into the new year!

While most people think the new year starts on January 1, for me it starts at the beginning of each semester and getting the students into the classes they need and making sure each class has the correct type and size of classroom. There was snow last Thursday here (not enough to hardly notice), but it sends everyone here into a dither and school was cancelled, so yesterday I finally got my Tuesday/Thursday classes settled.

Leah is back at school and Jill is living at home while she does her student teaching. She's been going and observing for 2 weeks, but will finally start teaching some in the morning.

I'm taking a BQ2 class at my LQS along with Julia and have the top together, need to add the borders. I'm going to start a "bug" quilt tomorrow night.

On Saturday night we will all be sitting in front of the tv watching Hannah Kiefer compete for Miss America. Hannah is Miss Virginia and would be a great choice for this title. This is a pic of Hannah (on the left) when she came to root for Leah last year at Miss NC.