It’s Not My Quilt…

 

It’s not MY quilt, but I sure would love to keep it!  These 20 hand-embroidered blocks belong to a customer.  My task was to turn them into a completed quilt.  

I have always heard that the back side of the embroidery should look as good as the front… these do!  So much so, that I turned one of the blocks wrong-side up, but thankfully discovered it as I was stitching the rows together.  They are absolutely BEAUTIFUL! 

       

I wanted them to have an old-fashioned look, so I went for 30s reproduction fabrics.  If you are a quilter, you will understand my dilemma…  it was impossible to find a sold fabric (or ANY type of small print) to match the background color of the outer border. 

The background was a very pinkish-lavender.  All fabrics I could find (shopping 5 different locations in the “Big City”) were either too dark purple or a very light lavender. 

I finally ordered something off the net listed as “Aunt Grace 30s Lavender, but it still did not match the background as well as I would have liked.  It looks fine, but it just did not match the picture in my head of what the sashing fabric should look like.  That “picture in my head” often causes MORE trouble when trying to find the right fabric!

All that is left to do is to hand-stitch the binding down, and that will be finished this week.  I’ll have just a few days to enjoy being in the presence of this lovely quilt, and then will pass it back to the owner.  I have really enjoyed working on this one, other than the fabric challenge.

Have a wonderfully blessed week!  I’ll see you on the blog next week with an update on a wonderful garage sale find.  What can you buy with $20?  You will be very surprised!

KAT

Meet the Knitwits

No, they are not crazy, they are a group of knitters who meet at the local library once a month to discuss the book we all read.  Of course, we KNIT while we discuss.  So maybe we ARE crazy… about knitting and reading!

  

Tonight was my first time to meet with them.  This is going to be WAAAAYYYYY fun!  We discussed the John Grisham book, The Confession.  I highly recommend it.  This was my first Grisham book (I usually go for light, easy reads) and I could not put it down.  I passed it on to DH, and he really enjoyed it, too.  (I also highly recommend, The Help.  Great book!)

I worked on trying to finish Mom’s pair of socks.  They are her birthday present.  I let her pick out the yarn, Felici, from KnitPicks.  I love these stripes!

So, I just thought I would post and let you know that I am still alive and doing well, but up to my eyeballs in quilts right now.  It seems I deliver 1 and pick up 3 or 4 more.  That is a good thing… I prayed for more business and the Lord is providing!

I’m also working hard because SOMEONE has a birthday soon, and SOMEONE wants to go back to south Louisiana to fish in the marshes again.  That means I really need to get some of these quilts out the door before I can go.  SIGH… I guess I will have to humor him since it is his birthday… Oh the sacrifices I make for him to be entertained.  Perhaps I’ll catch the biggest fish… AGAIN!!

Work hard, play hard.  Such is our life!

Be blessed in all you do today!

KAT

Bitten By The “Bug”

Guess where we went this weekend?  Here are a few picture clues…

It involved…      Marshes.

Kayaks.

Seashells.

The beach.  We made a trip to Lake Charles, LA.  Our main goal was to go marsh fishing in the kayaks.  We went just south of Hackberry, LA  to fish the marshes.

We caught a few speckled trout.  Guess who caught the BIG one?

It was 23” long, and weighed 4 lbs. 1 oz.  That is a REALLY nice spec!!  And then there is always the story of the “one that got away”… I lost another one just a little smaller than this one at the boat.  RATS!!  (Actually, I caught 4 of the 5 fish.  I love it when I manage to out-fish DH.)  It was too windy for fly fishing so we used casting rigs. 

After fishing we drove a few miles further to Holly Beach, LA.  This entire town was wiped out by hurricane Rita a few years ago.  NOTHING was left.  All buildings were completely leveled.

It is slowly being rebuilt.  There are now about 30 or so beach houses that have been restored.

Saturday we went to the Contraband Fly Casters Fly Fishing Expo in Moss Bluff.  I had an opportunity for some fly casting coaching.  We both bid on boxes of flies at a silent auction, and came home with 100 new flies to add to our collection. 

It was amazing to see the many different patterns the fly tiers could create! 

   

I’ve been bitten by the “bug”.  I think I see fly tying in my near future.  DH has all tools and supplies needed, so it will just be a matter of sitting down long enough to figure this out.  Realistically, this will be an after-Christmas-quilting-rush hobby.

And of course we ate good!  Fried oysters and shrimp, then sautéed speckled trout.  YUMMO!

It was so much fun, we plan on doing the marsh fishing again very soon.

KAT

Very Special People

Today was a wonderful celebration at Zwolle FBC.  A reception honoring the lives of James Q. & Verlyn Salter was held this morning.  They are very special people in my life and the lives of many others.  They will soon be moving to Virginia to be close to other family members.  How do you say “goodbye” to people that have been a part of your life for as long as you can remember?  It is not easy knowing that you probably will not get to see them again this side of Heaven!

When I was a child we lived right next door to the Salters.  We played in their yard with their children and visited their home (often having a snack of some kind given to us).  I loved for “wash” day to come around.  Mrs. Salter used a wringer washing machine… I had never seen that before.  We would spend lots of time watching her do laundry on that machine!  It was an amazing thing to watch.  I’m sure she wanted to tell us “Go home!”  but she never did.

When I was young  they moved an oil rig onto the land right behind our houses and drilled.  (Mr. Salter reminded me this morning that it was 1962 when the well was drilled.)  The Salter kids set up a soft drink stand and sold soft drinks to the workers and those coming to sight see at the well.  (Small town excitement… there was little else to entertain us in Zwolle! ) Actually, they probably got most of their business from my brothers and I!!  It seems we were always going over to get a soft drink for a dime.  Those were the days!  When the rig moved and school started, I really missed having a soft drink stand next door.

Looking back, we were always at their house it seemed, or their kids were over at our house, playing softball in the back yard.  The Salters always made us feel welcome at their house.  Right after I turned 7 years old, my family moved out of town.  I’m sure when we moved from that old house the Salters probably celebrated… no more pesky Rials kids bothering them! 

Mr. and Mrs. Salter both played a very integral part in my spiritual growth.  Both of them taught me in Sunday School at one time or another.  Mr. Salter was the choir director for many years, and I loved singing under his leadership.

In addition, they both were teachers in the school system.  I have been in classes under both of them.  When I went into high school, Mr. Salter was our principal.  When I began my teaching career at Zwolle Elementary, Mr. Salter was principal of that school.  I really enjoyed working under him.

So how do you say “Goodbye” to someone so special.  You don’t… you just say, “God speed, and I’ll see you in Heaven!  May the rest of your days be blessed, may each step of this move go smoothly, and may you really enjoy being close to your family!”   

Love to you both for all you have taught me through the years!

KAT

Change…

There’s a change in the air hair at my house.  Really, this was brought on by a monumental event happening next week… I turn 55, and the result of that event is that I will need to renew my driver’s license.  Because that means having a new picture taken, I decided it was time for a haircut.  After the haircut, I noticed that the gray now greatly outnumbers the brown hairs on my head. 

Because of that, I have been toying with the idea of dying my hair for the first time.  (We are not counting the event in the 80s when I did the home “streaking” kit, that turned the streaks in my dark brown hair a wonderful shade of ORANGE!)  Because of THAT fiasco, I have not even been tempted to color my hair.  As I aged I enjoyed the subtle gray areas, the distinguished (HAHA!) look of graying temples. 

The joy of graying hair is gone.  I knew there was now a quick fix for the gray that is bugging me more and more these days.

I looked at that box of hair color sitting on my cabinet for a week before I got brave enough to use it.  I even asked DH what he thought… he was not much help in the decision.  Today was the day!

The box says, “light brown with highlights”.  Upon further pondering I have figured out, what that means is your brown hair will still be brown, but the gray hair will appear as “highlights”.  I really should have thought about that a little more beforehand.  Let’s go back to one of my opening statements… “I noticed that the gray now greatly outnumbers the brown hairs on my head.”  SOOOOO…

I now have a little bit of brown with LOTS of HIGHLIGHTS (read that as REDISH-brown).  The box says, “permanent… lasts for 8 weeks”.  That is a mighty temporary definition of PERMANENT.  Truthfully, as fast as my hair grows and as short as I keep it cut, it will be a very temporary situation.  I still wonder who that is looking back at me in the mirror. 

I don’t necessarily dislike it, but I’m not sure I love it.  And the wonderful news is, even if I decide not to color it again after it grows out, I will get to look at myself like this for the next 4 years because I will HAVE to get my DL picture/renewal next week! 

Perhaps I should have used good reasoning and WAITED a little longer?  Sorry, no hair pictures to go with this post.  Just check my DL the next time you see me.  Oh, and now that the deed is done, DH is VERY vocal about his opinion… wouldn’t you know it!

Good night.  I’m off to shampoo my hair 5 times and see if this changes anything.  Grow, hair, grow!!!

KAT

I Had Forgotten…

I had forgotten…  the smell of rain in the air.

I had forgotten…  the wonderful sound of rain hitting the roof.

I had forgotten… the almost instantaneous perking up of the plants outside.

I had forgotten… the quick coolness (from 100 down to 75 degrees in about 15 minutes) brought on by rain-cooled air.

I had forgotten… the lift in your spirit, just knowing that we finally have enough rain to actually measure in the rain gauge.  Well, we COULD measure it IF I had remembered to buy a new rain gauge like DH asked me to. 

I had forgotten… what a blessing rain is because we’ve not had measureable rainfall in MONTHS at my house.  Others around us have received small showers, but we only got “4-foot rains”, as my hubby calls them… 1 drop every 4-feet. 

I had forgotten… but I now remember, because it has been raining steadily for the last hour.  I am totally guessing, but I think perhaps at least an inch of rain has fallen, and the weather service says more is headed our way.

Our “brave” puppy PJ is curled up on the couch, shivering and tucking her tail each time she hears a clap of thunder.  She will battle with snakes, but can’t stand the sound of thunder.  Go figure!  I guess we each choose where to display our courage.

I had forgotten… but I now remember to sing praises to the One who sends the blessing of rain to us.

Thank YOU, Lord, for the refreshing rain!  What a blessing it is to hear “…the sound of abundance of rain” again!   (1 Kings 18:41 )

KAT

Way To Go, PJ!!

She doesn’t look it in this picture, but PJ, our “rescued” dog,  is one very helpful pet!   Not only does she keep good watch over DH as he works around the place, she also does not like any animal intruders and is quick to alert us when something encroaches on our yard (except for people… she doesn’t even bark at people!). 

A few days ago we were visiting with friends in Natchez, MS and they were telling us about their dog, Hunter, being such a good watchdog.  This summer Hunter has alerted them to the presence of 6 snakes in their yard.  The first 4 were harmless, but the last 2 were rattlesnakes.  They told us that Hunter has a special bark he uses when he spots a snake.  They can tell from the sound of his bark that he has found another one.

This morning I was in my bedroom and PJ was right outside the window.  She started barking strangely.  After the story from my friends this really caught my attention… I usually just ignore PJ when she barks.  She was staring at a spot on the ground and going around it in circles, but not getting close.  She was barking and growling.  I quickly went outside to see what was the problem.  Because our grass is mostly brown from the drought, it took a while to spot it… there in the grass close to the steps was a 14” long snake.  It was very hard to see, but I could see enough to tell it was a poisonous snake (stocky body, triangular head).  DH had just left to go to a funeral.  I could not let the snake get away… he might later bite one of my pets or one of us.

I looked and found a sharp-shooter shovel.  The snake is now history.  This is my first poisonous snake kill, and I hope I don’t have to do it again any time soon.  Upon investigation, the snake was a water moccasin  copperhead. (I have also discovered that I need a class in snake identification.  Because he was in the process of molting, the coloration was not easily identifiable as a copperhead, but more the color of a moccasin!  DH helped with the identification when he got home.)  I hope he doesn’t have any relatives that come calling!!   I will for SURE be paying more attention to where I am walking in the yard!

ATTA GIRL, PJ!!  You have earned yourself an extra treat today.  Right now, she is laying on her quilt on the couch in the COOL(after I spent a while dusting her off) .  Tonight we will ignore the vet’s suggestion that she is to be on a stricter diet to lose weight and give her some sort of food treat.

Add one more thing to my list of country-living skills…

Kathy Ellzey ---  SNAKE SLAYER!!!

Have a blessed day, with no slithery reptiles!

KAT 

A New “Twist” On Painted Fabric

I LOVE to paint my own fabric!  Cindy Roth at Longarm University has a video on how she does this… very different than the methods I have used.  Check it out HERE.  Really neat technique!!

Here are examples of what mine have looked like in the past.  I think it may be time for ME to grab the paints and “play” again!!

   

Speaking of which, I really must find a project that will actually USE some of this painted fabric… right now it is just sitting on the shelf.

Be blessed, and USE the creativity the Creator has given you!  We all have it in some area of our life!

KAT