Father's Day on Saturday

Good Morning Everyone,

 I was reading a book the other day that said when you have to write something but are not sure what to write, just sit down and start typing and the words will come to you. So here I am typing.
 Last weekend was Father's Day so on Saturday I went to visit my parents. We went to Muscatine, Iowa and ate lunch at the Button Factory. The food was really good and it was so interesting to read about the history of the Button Factory and how the restaurant came to be in this building.

 After our delicious lunch, Mom and I went to look in the yarn shop, which was across the street from the restaurant and the quilt shops in town. There are 2 quilt shops in Muscatine. One has over 3000 bolts of fabric and does sewing machine repair. They have been in business for 60 years and I had really wanted to talk to the owners on how they got started but that didn't seem to be an option.

 I hit pay dirt at The Little Red Hen. The owner has been in business for 15 years and was a wealth of information on starting a quilt shop. This really was a trip to research how to start up a quilt shop as I would really love to run my own shop here in M-town and have been working on a plan for over a year now.

 The LRH has a really nice selection of homespuns, civil war, 1800's  and a little 1930's too. There are lots of samples all around the shop to look at and maybe buy. :) There is also a long arm sewing machine right in the shop and one of her employees was stitching away on it. The owners name is Kathy and if you are ever in Muscatine Iowa stop in and say Hi.
I hadn't really planned on buying anything but she was soo helpful that I decided to buy a book.
The book has an adorable pin cushion pattern and since I need to get some pincushions made for our local county fair, well I just couldn't pass it up.
I should say a little about the yarn shop too though neither mom nor I knit. We do both love to crochet but it is usually afgans. There was a nice display of yarn with various knitted projects to look at.
We had a nice Father's day, (I think my dad did too :)).
 I made Dad a neck pillow. They are really nice for watching t.v., and I also got him this really neat hook that you hang on the wall. It has a deer head on it and I thought he could use it  to hang his hat or coveralls on. He seemed to enjoy his presents and I sure enjoyed my time with both of them.

I left my parents house around 5 o'clock and headed into Cedar Rapids to visit a very dear friend of mine. Her mother has cancer and she went into hospice last Thursday which was very distressing for my friend.
 Her mother was very happy to see me and we had a really nice visit.
Lots of tears were shed, prayers said and I left them around 9 o'clock to head back home.
It was quite a day. A very emotional, happy and sad day.

I am thankful to God for my parents.
I am thankful for my friend, who even though her very best friend will be leaving her soon they both know it won't be forever.
I am thankful to you out there in blogland who take the time to read my rambling posts and
I am thankful to Jesus, for everything.

Thanks for stopping by,

Pictures

Hi Everyone,

Here are a few pictures that I promised.
This is a picture of the donation quilt that I quilted for the Long Arm Quilters Guild in Des Moines.

The binding is on it and the quilt was delivered to the guild last month at the monthly meeting. A few comments on the quilting.... That was a hard one because I quilted each pieced block different. All of the plain blocks had the same pattern which I quilted using my laser light. The hard part was figuring out what I was going to do in each of the pieced blocks. It turned out great though and I was happy to participate.

This is my daughter, Kelley, and I at the quilt guilds April sew-in. We are pin basting this cute baby quilt that Kelley pieced for her nieces new baby that was born in May. Kelley was going to quilt it on her machine and did try to at the sew-in but the back is a minky fabric and was stretching and rippling on the back. I took this adorable quilt home, took the stitches out and put it on the long arm to quilt it. It turned out really nice and Kelley has it back to put the binding on it.






That is all I have for today.
Thanks for stopping by.

I'm BACK!!

 Hi Dear Friends,
Sorry for not keeping in touch. My computer has been broke down since April. The video card went out of it and I was trying to save up for a new computer but to no avail. I had decided to buy a used one today, took my lap top over to the person I was going to purchase this used computer from, he hooked my computer up to a monitor to try and transfer my documents to the used computer and realized that all I really needed was a monitor hooked to my lap top and I could still use my ole computer. YAY!!!! It only cost me $60 for a flat screen monitor and now I am back in business.
Blogging does take time and I tried the library computers but just didn't have a lot of time to spend getting pictures down loaded , checking my blogs, writing my blog, checking my email and doing my banking. Whew! You don't realize what all you use a computer for until you have to go without. Needless to say I am happy to be back in the swing of things online here at home.
Let me catch you up with what I have been up to these last three months.
March, I didn't get a lot of sewing done because I just felt lousy the whole month. We did have a new addition to the family that month. Judah Jesse was born on March 4th. He is a healthy baby boy and doing very well.
 April got a whole lot better except that I lost my computer screen. I finished up both Quilt for Kids quilts and the charity quilt for the long arm group in Des Moines.
May , I had my first customer quilt for my long arm machine. I was really pleased with the quilting and my customer was too. That was very exciting.
The Paper Piecing group that I belong too decided on a summer project that could be a table topper or a quilt, (I still have a lot left to do on my BOM quilt yet) so I started on that in June.
That kind of catches up to now. I still have my nieces quilt that is almost finished and 2 others that are on the flannel board.

This month kicked off the second year for our new quilt guild that started up last year. How exciting is that....
And the list goes on and on. I am sure there is much that I am missing but that is all I can remember for now.
I am not taking too much time to edit this because I wanted to get this posted and will work on getting some pictures up tomorrow or the next day.
I just wanted to give a quick update and let you all know that I am still here and thinking of you out there in blog land. I hope your doing well.
Drop me a line or two and say Hi. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by.