Cold rainy day but warm thoughts

I'm glad that I went to the Quilt show yesterday.  Today is a chilly rainy day and I don't want to be out in it.  I'm glad that I stayed home.  I cooked up some biscuits and sausage gravy.  That is always a nice filling dish to keep you warm throughout the day.  It is also filling so lunch was a mixture of spinach, mushrooms, ground turkey,

That was very good and got me thinking on what else I wanted to make.  I think I'll cook some potatoes in the crock pot for later in the week.  Well I will probably munch on them tomorrow since it is hard for me to resist potatoes.  We'll see.  

I haven't worked on quilting things for a bit because I have been sidetracked.  I cleaned up a closet (oh boy....that is taking FOREVER) and going through everything.  I got rid of 7 bags of clothes that are too big for me and I have a big plastic tub of things that need to be shredded.  Like Tony's social security card and tax records, etc.  I also did find something that is very interesting.  I found the guest book for my grandpa's funeral and also the one for Uncle Russ.  Uncle Russ' guest book also had newspaper articles about how he died!  After making copies, I will send them to my cousin in Alaska.  Another great discovery was more journals from mother while she was a sorority house mother.  The years I'm currently reading are from 1979-1981.  I thought I put everything in MY journals...she out writes me.  This was when she was the house mother for Alpha Delta Pi House at Illinois State University in Normal IL  The first page (October 20, 1979) is so depressing but by page two it certainly picks up.  What a difference getting a letter or phone call from one of her kids made!

I did manage to get a great picture of one of the lawn decorations a couple of blocks from me.  It is the best one I have seen so far I think.

There is another one on the other side so they are facing each other.  

Another picture that I found was in my work email.  It seems that the office dressed up as Dean Bond (my boss).  Here is a picture that was taken.  LOL.  Dr. Bond (Brad) is the man sitting down.

I am so glad that I work with people who have a sense of humor.  Dress like Brad day is just one example of it.  

Everybody stay warm and safe.  Have a great day.

Harvest of Quilts - warning - picture heavy post

It seems appropriate  for this time of year doesn't it?  It is the name of our local quilt guilds quilt show and I went to check it out.  I remember when it was used to be held at the old high school and had tons of vendors and quilts to look at.  Today was a little disappointment since it was barely there.  Still I found a lot of good deals (spent around $40) at the bazaar (people donated things for sale).  It was held at a small church and they displayed most of the quilts in the chapel area.  I tried to get a picture of it but the lighting wasn't letting me nor was how they displayed the quilts.  I did manage to get an overall picture.

I'm getting ahead of myself though.  First I had to check in.  The price for this?  $3 unless you had one of their bookmarks that they gave out at local establishments.  Then it only cost $2 and you just had to show it to them and you got to keep it.  I had it so it was worth it.

After checking in I went to the raffle ticket table.  I paid $5 for six chances to win this quilt.  I believe it is 90" x 90".

I doubt I will win but I didn't mind donating the $5. 

Off to one side was a section showing pictures of past shows and some challenge quilts. 

They were fun to look at and then I went into the bazaar section.  Danger zone for BonBon!!!  I managed to get out of there with only spending $40.  The prices were ridiculous.  So here the pictures of what I bought and listed by price categories. 

Twenty five cent purchases

This is a pattern - all patterns were $.25

$1 purchases

                                      

$2-$2.50 purchases

See this?  $2.  

the back of this kit (see above picture) says original price was $20

$3 purchases

$5 purchases

All of the crazy quilt blocks were in one package for $5

This is a needlepoint kit that is around 90% finished.  The kit still had thread in it so I need to see if it is enough to finish.

I think that I did pretty good.  The ladies were nice enough to keep my purchases at the check out table so that I could look at things further. 

I am glad that they did this memorial to members of the guild who have passed one.  Their names are in the black dresden plates.  I liked that but was sad to see that one of the names was the mother of a friend of mine.  I had heard she passed on (a number of years ago) but I was also happy to see her honored like that.

That is when I went to look at the chapel.  Too bad that those pictures didn't turn out but you get an idea of what it looked like.

That is all I have this time.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I also hope you have a great weekend.  It is NIU's homecoming weekend in DeKalb.  GO HUSKIES!

Until next time, happy stitching - happy life.

BonBon

Progress! What a wonderful word.

Hello everybody!

It's a good day today because I made progress on Fleur.  Remember that?  Here it is.

It wasn't until I started to work on block be that I even saw how it was suppose to be. The center is composed of block A and block B.  I have finally finished block A and have block B fused down but not stitched.

Block A finished

the back of block A - hand stitched

Block B - fused but not stitched

I had forgotten that the block were to be on point.  For non quilters that means instead of looking straight on like a square, it would be seen on point or like a diamond shape. 

I still didn't see the pattern like it was supposed to be until I looked back at the picture. The dark leafy lines separating block A is are actually block B!  Hopefully it will look good when I'm done with it.  I'm taking my time (yeah, that's it...I'll use that excuse) with this one since I really REALLY like it.  Hopefully it will go together nicely when I get to put the blocks together.

I did run into a snag.  I ran out of plain black fabric!  I'm not sure how that happened but I needed it so off to Hobby Lobby (HL) I go.  It helps, or at least doesn't hurt, that fabric was 30% off at HL.  It took me a bit to find my black.  Finally I saw the Kona Fabrics section and got my black fabric from that.  The other black fabric was a little thinner than what I wanted.

While I was at HL, I looked at their sale bin.  I found this cute pumpkin fabric.

I also saw this interesting fabric.  I like the pictures from years ago but I don't know yet what I will do with it.  Watch out ladies from "Our Time To Quilt"!  You might find it in a give away if nothing else.  LOL.

It is time for me to get back to work.  Everybody have a wonderful day!