New week

Hello to all of you. I wish I had something good to say, I have been doing ,since we last visited. I had a wonderful weekend with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins, then we came home very early Mon. morning. I cleaned up the kitchen after a nap and lunch, then I got busy working on the quilt I need to get finished. I had taken a break and planned to get on line and post here and check email... You know the things we end up doing on line. I got a call from my mom, she was in tears. My dad had been having, more trouble ,than usual breathing all day. He  was telling her he was probably gonna die and it was just fine with him. I closed up stuff on the computer and the house and went over there as soon as I could. I talked him into letting me take him to the hospital emergency room. All of this happened about 3:30 or so, and we got to the hospital about 4:30 PM. About 8 they told us they were going to keep him and it would be about an hour before they got him a room ready. He got into the room at just about 10. We stayed with him until he was all settled in and they had his vitals and such. Then I took mother home and I came home. I was so happy that my wonderful husband had a nice hot bath ready for me.
Today has been much better and my daddy is feeling better, although they are keeping him for at least another day. I tried all morning to finish up that quilt though and I spent so much time on the phone I could not get it done. All I really needed to finish it was about an hour. Try as I might I never had even 30 min. I will get back to it tomorrow before we go the the hospital.
While I was at my Aunts I saw some painted plates on the wall that my other Aunt painted for her. I had told you how grateful I was for the creativeness of my aunt so I took pictures of them to show you.

Here are some close ups.

I 

I took these pictures with lights on after dark, I didn't think they would come out at all and they kind of look interesting in the dark. I have lots of things in my house that she has painted for me. I learned to paint from her, however I found that fabric was my true passion. I love to manipulate the fabric more than I do the paints.
So until I have a chance to talk to you again, Have a very quilty week.
Tennye

Out and about and still Thankful

Well, I am visiting my Aunt and Uncle and all of her children live up here too, so I will see all of them as well. It has turned out to be a lovely cool day and the sun is shining. My hubby and I have been married for 29 years today, and even though I said in a general way I was thankful for my family, I am so gratreful to have met this man and had him in my life for about 35 years now. Yes, some days I think killing him is a better idea than living with him any longer, but what wife or husband doen't feel that way once in a while. LOL He is a wonderful man and has taken good care of me and our children over the years. I could not have found a better man to love if I had looked the world over. So I am thankful for my husband Charlie. I have coffee in bed and breakfast almost everyday that he makes.He only leaves me to fix my own breakfast when he has a job early. He has a fix it business that he works in the mornings and on weekends, and he is a full time employee of a major corp. as well. He had a son when we married and we had three lovely daughters, and then, my daughter that I put up for adoption, found us in 2005. Now we have five children and they are all loved by both of us. We also have two beautiful grand daughters .
So I hope you have a wonderful spouse too. Have a quilty weekend and I will be back on Mon.
Tennye

Thanksgiving Eve thankful

Well, I have to say I am thankful for the family I have, my hubby,and all five children I call mine. My parents, my home and the many friends I have in my life. I am grateful for facebook that I have been able to hook up with friends from high school and old churches that I would most likely never have gotten to hear from again.
My Aunt (my mom's sister) is the one who took care of me while my mom worked full time, and she did sewing for the public. I am grateful for her in my life. I think that sewing was her only outlet for her creativity when we were all young. She did however do some painting on the walls of her home. I know she drew portraits when she was younger, and then again after all the kids were grown and gone and the  ones she baby sat for over the years grew up too. She started to take classes and paint on plates, and cups, and then moved on to canvas. I have paintings she made for me and I have a lovely set of plates she made for my grandmother. For several years she did a series of Santa plates for each of her sisters and sisters-in-law, and mother and her children. When Grandmother died in 2002 she got the plates she made for her back, and then when her son died she also got his set back so last year she shared a set with me. I will post pictures of them when I get them out for Christmas.
I will most likely take the day off tomorrow from posting, but I will be back soon. I am going to Dallas for the weekend, leaving Friday afternoon. Until then you have a very happy thanksgiving and a very quilty time.
Tennye

Thank You!!

Well, the next group of people I want to say thank you to is you. Without readers my blog would be an on line journal. I know sometimes I repeat myself and sometime I even say I am going to do things that for what ever reason I never get the chance to do. Therefore  saying Thank you to each one of you readers is a very important part of my week of being thankful. To that end I will do my best not to say I am going to do something that I never get around to doing. I will even start in the next few weeks to finish doing the things I have told you I would do in the past. I will be re-reading my past blogs and doing each thing as quickly as I can after I find it.
I also want to thank each one of the blog writers whose blogs I follow. I enjoy reading so many of your blogs and the ideas you offer as well as the lovely photos, you share of the things you are making and the ideas you have. Your creativity is a blessing for me.
So thanks for hanging with me and coming back to visit. Now while I am making gingerbread I hope you will be having a very quilty day,
Tennye

More Thanks

I am so Thankful to have had a wonderful grandmother who taught me to crochet. My moms mother was Grandmother,  and I spent a lot of time with her all of my life. I even lived with her while I was going to college and working full time. We were great friends and she was a great encourager. She taught me to crochet when I was in 7th grade. I made my first baby afghan that year for a friend having her first baby. In the late 70's we got a pattern for a crocheted sweater and since none of us knitted we had never gotten to make sweaters. We took that pattern and we wore it out. Between her, my mom, my cousin and I we probably made 50 or more of those sweaters. My mom hates to crochet so the two or three sweaters she made were odd to see. I think my grandmother even sold some to friends of my Aunt and cousins. I have no idea where that pattern is and I doubt I could make another one now.
Such is the nature of being Thankful, we learn things and we grow together. I am so lucky to have had my Grandparents for most of my life. They both passed in 2002, about four months apart. Papa was 96, and Grandmother died on her 91st birthday. They were a part of my life that I will always be grateful for.
Until next time, have a very quilty day.
Tennye

Being Thankful

Well, we are just a short few days before the American Thanksgiving Day celebration. I decided that this would be the week I would try to start posting daily. In that I want to say what I am Thankful for, in my life. Maybe you would like to tell us what you are thankful for too.
You see, I have much to be thankful for, as I have a history of a Godly family. My great-grandmother who I called Granny was a strong woman, and a Godly one. She was always busy with some form of hand work. I have some things she made for me when I was a child, and some things that I was given as an adult from my own grandmother, that granny  made. This great-grandmother was my Papa's mother and she came to visit often. We also went to Alexandria, LA to visit her. Papa's sister, Aunt May lived there and Granny lived with her most of the time. She would go to California and stay with her son there for six weeks or six months, and then she would come to Texas and stay with Papa and grandmother for the same length of times. Always going home in between and staying for a while. She carried her work with her. I never saw her doing any quilting or embroidery, she mostly would do Crochet when she was here. I have a gorgeous embroidered block she made though and I cherish it. I have not put it in a quilt, and I am not sure what I will do with it, but I take care that it is always safe, until I figure out what to do with it. So my first thing of being thankful is that I have a great-grandmother memory. She loved me and I was 22 when she was taken home to be with her Lord and Savior.
Well, tomorrow Charlie and I are going to church and then in the afternoon we are going to take a drive in country with friends. I think the general idea is to go to a local winery along the way. I will try to post when we get home, and give you another thing I am thankful for. So until I see you again, have a most quilty day,
Tennye

Show is Over

Well, I am happy to say I survived the craft show and it is over. I am not sure I can say it was a success or not, but I didn't do worse than last year. I didn't do better than I did last year either. I again learned more this year than I did last year. I sold a completely different set of things last year than I did this year. I am beginning to wonder if I have any idea what people like. Things I think are cute or pretty, and useful, I make them and put them out there to sell and turn around and bring them home again. I made the cutest tree ornaments that I thought might be my best sellers. I have shown them to you before, my mom did some decorating on them.
I have added photos of several of the wall hangings I made for this show, and I think they turned out very nice. Here are the trees;

Chenille

Again I do not know how to turn this photo the right way. In my file it is turned the right way.

This is a table runner I have shown you before.

These lovely wall hangings were also a part of my inventory for this show. I have shown them before also.

This one is hard to get the whole thing in, but I am especially pleased with how it turned out. I didn't have a pattern to go by . I just tried to make what I had seen from one like it a friend made. Well, that was a good and a bad thing. I made it way too big and it is almost 5 ft. long, which seemed a little long to me. I heard many people say " That is beautiful" then just walk on, I guess no one wanted something that was beautiful LOL I am not taking it personal, I just find it odd that so many loved the way it looks, and didn't want it.

This little cutie went home with someone, so I guess they thought it was as cute as I did.







I don't know if you all have seen the lovely boots I made, but they sold very well. I have only the prototype left and I didn't like it so I was not surprised it was the only one left. I had other things that I made last year for the show and some of my coffee sleeves. I actually sold more of those this year than I did last year.
I think it is time for me to get serious about making a living, so that means I am going to do what it takes to get my ETSY.com store open this week, and get those patterns I have started completed and ready to sell. As I go forward with that I will also be doing a weekly posting about how we can all get those scraps under control and usable.
I want to take a min. here to say thank you to everyone who left me a message about getting our scraps under control, and other things recently. I also thank you for staying with me during these few weeks that I have been busy and ill. I hate to say I am still not well, I don't like being sick and this is killing me. I am excited about the next step in the journey. If anyone of you has encouragement or suggestions please leave me a message. Until I am back please have a very quilty time.
Tennye

New month

Well, welcome to November. I am still busy working on the things for the craft show, but today I got four wall hangings almost ready to be quilted, they are lovely trees and I look forward to getting them complete so I can take pictures and show them to you. I made one last year in browns and golds and it sold the first day of the show. I tried to make another one in golds tones, but I made some mistakes and one side is perfect and the other one is ....well lets just say not perfect. I have some ideas as to how I might use it anyway. The reality is I have 8 days at the best to make everything I am going to get made. Then three days of hard work and nervousness. Wondering if I am selling anything or if I made more stuff to have hang around for another year. LOL
On to other things, how have you been spending your time lately? Are you thinking about Christmas yet??? Will you be making things for friends and family for Christmas this year? I will be making gifts this year , but not like I have in the past. The family has decided to draw names and then everyone will add to the stockings. The limit will be 20$ for the gifts, and items for the stocking can not cost more than 10$. Now I have always had a limit of 5$ on what I buy for the stockings and I spend a lot on them. I have a friend who told me several years ago that she didn't do stockings because her children didn't like to have junk like you can put in a stocking. I was very offended, because I search for things that are useful and necessary or helpful. I admit we have a family tradition of playing cards being the best souvenir for each other when we travel and we give them in stockings. So my children have a lot of playing cards. This came in handy when we learned a card game a few years ago called Hand and Foot, that takes 6 decks of cards or one more deck than you have people playing, and it is best that you have an even number of people playing. We love the game and play it often, so ,many decks of cards, is a good thing. We are talking about taking a family vacation next year instead of giving gifts. It will be my 30th anniversary, and we always said we would take a cruise for that anniversary, so why not make it a family vacation. This way we have a year and a month or so to save our money so we can make it the best vacation ever.
Well, after this craft show is over we will get those scraps in order and start making small quilts and large ones, but mostly getting them under control. Making them into something we can use easily and readily and store in an orderly fashion. Until I have a chance to stop back in and write, yall have a very quilty time. Think about being thankful this month, and letting someone you are thankful for know how you feel.
Tennye