Weather Here.....

The poor cottonwood is naked and cold!!  We have had very heavy frosts since Sept. 9th and today was very foggy.....Fog didn't lift until about 10:30am.  Brrrrrrrr...makes a person want to stay inside and sew or bake cinnamon rolls!!
I have a follower from Australia and she posted some outdoor pictures and it looks beautiful there....so I thought I would show here what is going on here.  Beauty lies in the eye of the behold and I think the sun is beautiful, but the cold has a beauty of its own.  I love seeing and learning about others that follow my blog--I think we all have things to teach each other!  I am thankful to the ladies that post and give me a chance to learn from them.  Bless you !!!!!

Getting Ready for a show......

I am finding that getting ready for any type of show is a big mess.....I have things strewed from one end of the sewing room to the other and it overflows into the next two room.....I am anxious to get things done and get organized and cleaned!!! 

See everything is everywhere!!!  I find myself going in circles....but I know there is an end to the mess. 

I decided to start packing the finished projects into a suitcase, so they are all confined....it seems to be helping.  The show is only 2 weeks from today, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I had 1 issue with all the mess....my husband, sweet man that he is, calls at about 10:30am and says "Hey hun, are you able to have something ready for about 14 men by about 5:30 or 6:00pm. to eat?"...Of course, I am thinking to myself........"ARE YOU SERIOUS???,  I HAVE THINGS EVERYWHERE!!!".  You know, I got busy and put on a meal for a crew from the 6666 (Four 6's) Ranch from Texas.  Pulled it off with about an hour to spare....cleaned, baked and made green pork chile.  They are a great group of guys, ranging in age from 25 all the way to 82 and a very polite, thankful group of gentlemen!!!  I was honored to feed and meet the group.   God blessed us with a wonderful time of visiting, sharing and laughing with a great crew....they had started in the north(Montana) and ended in  our area before heading home.   They had 3 trailers with about 20 head of horses to brand all the cattle they have turned out due to the drought in Texas.  Remind you these men had only been away from home for about a week and got all the branding done.  Great Guys!!!!
Today will be back to the sewing room and work really hard on getting more done for the show and back to making big messes....strewing!!

Girl's retreat!!!

Over the weekend I got to spend time with 2 of my 3 younger sisters and our mom....we went to a Beth Moore Conference....WHAT A BLESSING the whole weekend was.  We decided to share a room instead of getting 2 rooms....4 girls to a motel room....we did pretty darn well, it only took the 4 of us an hour to get ready and we went down to have breakfast and to the conference with 15 minutes to spare!!!!

At the Event Center....we had a great time!!! Beth Moore is such an uplifting speaker and we shared this time together as women of God....AMAZING!  We are already planning our "girl's retreat" for next year....our prayer is that our baby sister and my daughter will be able to attend. 

Forgetful

I realized that I did not post a finished product "Pink".  I made this for one of our son's good buddies.....Cody and his girlfriend had a baby girl....after a difficult road with Leukemia.  The boys were seniors when Cody was diagnosed and had to go thru very radical treatment, he is in remission now, but they were really concerned about being able to have children....well, God has a plan for this young man and he is blessed!!!!  Our son wanted to have the colors Pink and White and nothing else, so that is when my mind started to flow.....with a wonderful trip to South Dakota with wise ole "E", fabric was collected.  Here is the finished project:

I added some Jumbo rickrack around the edge for texture....I thought it turned out really nice!

Back to the Sewing Room!

Well, I survived the canning season with one minor problem.....it is almost fixed!!
I am now getting ready to be a vendor at a craft show in a nearby town.  It is scheduled for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so I decided to jump in with both feet!!!  I am working on several smaller quilted projects to take and show and sell.  I am really hoping to do well, so I can purchase some more fabric and make some bigger quilts to sell.  I really don't have as big of a stash as I should for a quilter, needing to work on that.
I decided to get into my stash of Civil War reproductions and see what I could do.  I started with 2 1/2 inch strips and started sewing....this is a bit more color than I was going for but......you get what you get when you have no plan!!!

All the Civil War fabric I have collected.....I am putting it to use!!!

See, it is a bit busy, but I am not willing to tear all of it apart, so it is what it is.  CIVIL OR NOT!!!

 It would have been better with lighter color....cream, tan....instead of the rust, but this is what I had, so that is what I used.  Finding that most of my colors of fabrics go together....I usually collect Fall/Autumn colors with very few bright/vibrant colors...that is what makes me who I am and so this will grow on me when I add some borders and get it quilted.  I guess that's why I like having a plan, not just fly by the seat of my  pants.  It is still usable and will make someone very happy!!!

Busy Betty!!

So sorry I haven't posted in a while....I have been a busy little "Betty".  Betty homemaker, that is....I have been canning veggies, salsa, jellies....you name it I have been doing it. Lots of goodies for the winter as well as great gifts!!! 

This is just a sink full.......I had a wheel barrow, wagon and a large milk crate full of tomatoes.....lotssssss!!!!  Salsa, juice and last but not least- crushed and diced tomatoes.

lugs of peaches.....got 32 jars of jelly and lots of canned peaches....should be ok for the winter!!!

Chiles....coming out our ears.  They sure smell good when they are roasting in the oven!

Every canning season has to have a mishap, right??  Well, this year some of the jelly boiled over and hit the glass top burner....what a mess.

I really have had a busy year with a garden that we thought would not do much its first year.  We tilled a spot up that had never had anything except grass....besides having excellent crops we also raised a great crop of stickers....puncture and sand-burrs.  Really did not like that crop...hey, wonder if you can use them for anything???  Well, sure have missed sewing, but thought I should update you to what was going on in this part of the world.  Thanks for checking in!!

A day of fun!!!

Yesterday, I took the day off from quilting and spent it doing something a little different-- I learned to use a product called "texture magic"...what a fun product!!!

Paisley fabrics.....Love them!!

Wallet made with a checkbook area....plastic spot for the ID, zipper area for the coins, credit card or savings card area and plenty of hidden pockets.....only took about 4 hours to make.....and it turned out pretty neat!!!

Now back to all the quilting/sewing projects......have to pick garden veggies and get them taken care of, shuck and can the corn and in my spare time I really need to clean this house and do some laundry.  Lord, thank you for such a beautiful day............