100 th Post and Gratefulness.......

No pictures...but real musings. I have had a wonderful blessed life, a great spouse, wonderful children and grandchildren. Fabulous mom and mom in law, sisters and brothers and in laws. My son in law is home from Iraq and we are all thrilled. The professor is almost finished with the first semester of studying for his doctorate, I have a wonderful longarm machine,"Rosie ( for hardworking Rosie the riviter...) and my business is starting to grow. How fortunate in difficult times I feel. We have our health and I have a nice warm roof over my head, enough to eat and a place to rest these old bones. God has certainly blessed me and my family. We have fond memories of friends overseas and people we don't see everyday. There really isn't much more than that that anyone could want. I wish the same for each of you. Have a wonderful holiday. I will be posting pics of the good holiday times..... so stay tuned.

More UFO's....Longarm practice and the Kitchen redo is done!

When the professor and I bought our home this past summer....we decided two things we had to do, was put in additional kitchen cabinetry as kitchen was cute but lacking... and a deck onto the back of the house.Well, we found a very talented in law family member who could take my measurements.... ( which could have turned out very badly) but because of his talent...he made a custom cabinet for our kitchen... giving us about 70 % more cabinets and room in the kitchen area! Can you believe the first time he saw my kitchen was yesterday when he brought the cabinet to my home to be installed. And he only did the figures about 6 weeks ago. I took photos of the existing cabinets...and requested that they be painted to match the other ones. Just not going to have all new cabinets put inot a temporary dwelling. They turned out fabulous. I am so lucky...it is a delight to be in that kitchen. So happy it is here before Christmas when 2/3 of our family will be with us. I haven't decided where to hang a little quilt or two yet in there...but I am thinking about it. The quilt on the counter...is a little practice Harvest topper...done when practicing doing the free form flowers...for a customer quilt. Think I will do the same thing for a Christmas topper. Libby showed off her special bowl...so I had to include a photo of my favorite mixing bowl...quite the antique.... and one of the first things completed for the holidays is the Chex mix we always have to eat .... perfectly mixed in that big old bowl. I also finished up another UFO, which was begun while still living in South Africa, it is quilted, and finished binding it as well. I used some of the new techniques I learned in my longarm class. This was done free hand..... with minimal marking. I had to show the front and back...as I did it in a bright lime green.... and it is pretty fun on the back too! Lots of fun to do. I think it turned out pretty well. This dear little picture of the wee one...sitting amongst the pumpkins.... loved it. Hope you all have a lovely holiday...I will try to post again before we leave for the Thanksgiving holiday. Enjoy your families.... I have so much to be thankful for this year. I will probably have to include a tic list of all my gratefulness.

My ship has come in!!!!! and more UFO's .... semi completed,SSCS SWAP

First a wonderfully mysterious Parcel arrived....sometime whilst I was away last weekend. Hmmmmmm I resisted the temptation to open it...but am looking forward to it with anticipation! I am about to send my own Swap out.... for Chooky Blue's SSCS swap. I have not divulged any of the contents.... Also, the delivery of my Ship items took place on Saturday while I was in Atlanta learning lots of fun things to do on the longarm. I have gone through it all, it seems to be all there..... a few damaged items which are the South Africa branch of the moving company...so won't hold my breath about getting any of the damage reimbursed for. But at least it is here...and I am now planning where to hang paintings, and other decor items. It felt like Christmas opening up all of the boxes...and of course brought back wonderful memories of where we purchased much of it! In fact, I was so nostalgic that I immediately called a few SA friends to hear their wonderful accents! Will post more about that stuff as it gets put out! Now about my wonderful longarm class....I learned a lot. Not mastered it yet...but wonderful class. Well worth the long drive over. The Teacher

at Pat's Calico Cottage is part of a group of longarmers...several award winners, and they did this wonderful quilt. I adored it. I also loved the batik 9 patch.... it was so well done. I really learned quite a bit. My machine seems to be humming perfectly at the moment...thanks to her husband... who sorted the few problems I have been having. I have to share a little photo of the leaders and enders quilt in progress...I am about out of red and white fabric bits...from my African quilts..but had enough to do this one. Now how to make it just a wee bit bigger...to a full bed size???? I already bought a Baptist fan template to quilt it with.... just have to make it a bit bigger. I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I am going to finish up a few things, I am binding two charity quilts to donate to the Sheriff's Dept. for our quilt guild...and have binding on a little Thanksgiving table topper to sew on this evening, whilst watching tv. Keep warm. It is getting colder here tomorrow...and we have wood being delivered tomorrow for the fire box in our Family room. Enjoy your weekend.I so am going to!

We have a winner...... Halloween fun, and other things....

There is a giveaway over at Once Upon A time

to celebrate her blogiversary. So check it out, Here are a few of our Family Halloween Photos,

Homer and little skelly,

Jenga fett, of Star Wars fame, along with the "mum" teenager

Lovely Hermione is our Elisie Pie, with her Nimbus 2000, and the lovely little princess as a Penguin.

DD as 1/5 of the Village People, all the ladies dressed up as Village People for work! How fun is that?

I have done little besides travel the past week, Arkansas, then Tennessee, in on Monday...out to Atlanta tomorrow...for my first longarm class! Woo Hoo. Hoping I learn more quickly than the pantographs took me. Now had to share these divine pics of the lovely grandbabies/kids ( sorry to the older ones) and family members. Those who know us...know that the oldest children live far, far away and their parents got into the act.... Dad as Homer ( of course this could have been the Professor...sometimes I think I AM married to Homer! And DD in law was a High school Girl, not all that far removed from those days it seems. DD and the wee one, gave out candy. Wee One and I passed out the goodies, sitting out on the porch, he had to have his horse costume on of course. Now, I have been doing a bit of hand applique...while traveling, but DD gave me her UFO quilt blocks.... and I pieced the camo looking quilt together for her. I wonder can I count the UFO as an unfinished thing for me, since it isn't mine , but I will be finishing that up????May have to ask our Judge, Finn, to get her take on that question? It will be quilted next week, and she also passed on to me her other UFO.... quilt, with incomplete borders. I will piece those on....and "get her done" next week. Want to return them for Thanksgiving.... can't wait to see 2/3 of the family. Then we will have another 2/3 for Christmas. I am so looking forward to that. I may have to post photos of the Professor and I putting my longarm into my car...to make the trip to Atlanta. That should be an interesting drive?? Now concerning the longarm, I loved several names...so may have to do one with middle names too! But I did draw for a winner. Jackie was the lucky winner. Congratulations Jackie, please email me your details...and I will be back next week. Y'all have a great one! How could I not...with learning new and better tricks on my machine. Good times ahead!