Happy 2013!!

Well.......

Hi!  I'm here!!  I'm still alive and kicking.........

I just took a gander at my blog and I am so ashamed of myself!  I did a whole whoppin 13 posts in 2012!! 

I'm so sorry! 

Anyway...........

New day!  New Year!!

Let me summarize 2012.....

Not the best year...................   Not the worst year..............  Parts were GREAT!  Parts really sucked........... 

At the end of March, Grandma Ruthie passed away.  She was 93 years old.  She had a stroke and never recovered.......  She was the absolute sweetest, most gracious person I have ever known.  I miss her and her giggles............ 

We've been going through her house and out buildings.  I've found wonderful treasures!!  Like 6 or 7 OLD quilts. I don't think she make them.  I think they were either gifts to her, or perhaps relatives made them while they stayed with her.  She and Grandpa ran a small town mom & pop 'resort'.  They had a small motel right across the road from a huge lake and in the summer guest would come to fish and in the winter, they'd come to duck and goose hunt.  The quilts were never washed and never used.  Well I was a little scared at first, but I went ahead and washed one and it came out beautifully.  So I washed them all and divided them out in the family.  I also found some crock bowls and wooden boxes and an old aluminum water cooler, 3 old suitcases, and some fabric.  The fabric still had the price on it.  One and half yards for $.42.  Yep -- that's forty-two cents....... 

Or how about 4 yards for $.28 (TWENTY-EIGHT CENTS)!!  It looks like the popular 1930's reproduction fabric you can buy today, but.......... its the REAL thing!!

I brought home flowers from her service home to make ornaments with.  They were beautiful.  Roses.  Lillies.  Carnations.  All kinds..........

My cat, Bubby, decided to taste eat them...........  Lillies are highly toxic to cats..........  I know that now.  He went into renal failure and we had to put him down.  That was at the end of June. He wasn't even 5 yet.


Two weeks later, friends of ours had 2 kittens that were brothers that needed a home.  I really didn't want to do it.  I wasn't ready and neither was Mr. Inspiring....... 

But how the heck could you say no to that cute little pink nose??

The black and white kitty is Purrcy and the gray kitty is Grady.  It is so much fun to watch them.  They fight and play and love each other.  They don't know a day without each other.  They aren't Bubby, but they each have a couple of his traits.  They are so sweet.

And they thoroughly enjoyed Christmas.  They thought the tree was just for them.  Through out most of the holiday season, my tree leaned....... badly...........

This is why........

 

Yep, that's Purrcy.......... laying down in the top of my tree.  I usually don't take down my tree until this weekend....   It was down the day after Christmas. 

I've been working on a few projects.  Miss Inspiring has made a big life decision and she and her boyfriend are remodeling a house to live in.  She not exactly crafty, but she sure is coming up with a lot of ideas for me to work on.  Isn't that the way it goes?  That's perfectly fine with me!!

Happy New Year, Everyone!  I've missed you and I plan on posting more regularly!!

Hugs ~~

Suz

I Love Autumn!!

First.........  it's been a long time since I posted and I am truly sorry for that!!  But I am still alive and I've been doing projects............ Like these:

These are a couple blocks from The Fatquarter Shop's Mystery Block of the Month.  I signed myself up when I signed my mother-in-law up!! 

Camo Bear Paw quilt I made for my boss when he turned 50.....

He loved it.   Mr. Inspiring asked if I HAD to give it to Mr. Boss.  Guess that means Mr. Inspiring is next.

And this weekend, I've been working on this:

Crock Pot Apple Butter

We've had this wonderful apple tree in our back yard and never really did much with it.  It only bears fruit every couple of years.  Last time, our neighbor made some absolutely delicious apple butter.  So this year, when apples started showing up, I decided that I was going to make apple butter.

mmmmmmmmmmm   The house smells wonderful!!

I'm happy to share my recipe - - Just let me know!!!


Happy Fall, Ya'll!!

Hugs ~~ Suz

Spring '12 Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's time!!  And I'm excited!!  Here is my entry to the Spring 2012 Blogger's Quilt Festival!

This is my very first quilt that I made.  And..... I donated it.... To our local Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Dinner and Auction.

I used any fabric I could find that had an association with breast cancer awareness.  I also added some filler fabrics to get it balanced out.

The picture above is the quilt - done!!  The picture below is right before I put the border on it.  I guess I didn't take a picture of the full quilt when it was done, just shots of it laying on chairs.  What was I thinking?

So I need to share some things with you.  The reason I made it?  Well, my dad and my brother both passed away from Multiple Myeloma, three years apart.  I figure if I can help raise money for cancer treatment and cure, for any kind of cancer, that might help lead to treatment and cure for other cancer, like Multiple Myeloma ~ right? 

The thing that I feared most about doing this quilt was quilting it.  The thought of hand quilting just...... scared me.  It would take me forever, right?  Nope, it actually went very quickly and hand quilting it was my favorite part!!  I just stitched around every square and rectangle about 1/4" from the seam.  I loved doing it!!



I love the back, too!!

Ok - - one BIG thing I learned was TAKE TONS OF PICTURES!!  And just when you think you have enough - - take more!!!

You can go see all the entries to the festival here, at Amy's Creative Side!

Happy Quilting!

Hugs ~~ Suz