ANTIQUING IN THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY

Early last month, Sweetie and I went antiquing/junking on a short trip to part of the beautiful Texas Hill Country.  The wild flowers were blooming like crazy, including the prickly pear.  Did we stop to take pictures?  No!!!!



This is a “public domain” photo I found on the Internet.  That’s how they looked.

We stayed overnight in Burnet, Texas and spent a lot of time antique/junk shopping.  Here are a few of the interesting things we saw at the Burnet Antique Mall.  This is one of my favorite antique malls of all time!

                                 Vintage Quilts

Antique Spool Cabinets

Doll Bunk Beds

Hoosier-Style Kitchen Cabinet with Side Extension

There were lots of other good things, but we didn’t bring anything home from there.

I’ll write more about this trip in my next blog post.  Until then, put the peddle to the metal and keep on sewing.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

February and Early March Happenings

I’ve been missing in action from my blog the last month or so so I’ll try to catch up.  On February 24th, the day before Mom’s 80th birthday, we celebrated with a surprise birthday party at my niece Kayce’s house..  Here she is blowing out her 8-0 candles watched by granddaughter Summer and great granddaughter Trinity.



All the kids, grand kids and great-grand kids were there, a total of twelve of us.  This is the newest great grand kid, Emma in her high chair waiting for ice cream.



It’s always wonderful to get together with family.  Thanks Kayce and Josh for hosting the dinner.  All the traditional favorite family foods were featured:  BBQ chicken and ribs, potato salad, broccoli salad, cake and ice cream.  Yummmm!

Earlier this week, I received this packet from Andover Fabrics containing beautiful charms of Chateau Chambray.  [click on that fabric name to see the full line on the Andover web page.]



A big thanks to Kathy Tracey who sponsored the give-away in her blog,  Sentimental Quilter.  Kathy made a some cute small quilt projects using this line of fabric that you can see by visiting her blog.

Spring is in the air here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with 86 degree temperature earlier this week and lots of  blooming stuff.  These pictures are from my own front yard.

Oh, and with blooming things comes allergies!  Achoo!

Until next time, may your bobbin always be full,

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FALL IS A MOSAIC

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all."   -   Stanley Horowitz

My Souvenir de la Malmaison rose bush is blooming like crazy, it’s last hurrah for the year I am sure.



The fragrance is amazing.  A truly fragrant rose that hasn’t had that part bred out of it.  Wish the internet had “smell-a-vision” so I could share it with you.



A delicate pale pink with tons of petals, I’ve got the best smelling front porch in town.  My mail man says so!

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MORE CAROLYN MILLER PENNSYLVANIA QUILTS

Dawn a/k/a Collector with a Needle posted additional photos on her blog of Carolyn Miller’s 19th century quilts recently displayed at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.  Click HERE and HERE to see them.



I just realized today that the next group of Just Takes 2 blocks will be posted in a couple of days on August 1st.  And I haven’t work on any of the blocks this past week.  Yikes.  Better fire up my rotary cutter and sewing machine in those couple of days to attempt to catch up.

The other day Sweetie and I went to the big city, Fort Worth, for  little outing which included a visit to the Botanical Gardens where the roses were in bloom but fading somewhat.  Would love to have seen it a few weeks ago when they were in full bloom.

Rose Garden overlook from the bottom of the garden

Overlook of rose garden

Cinco de Mayo Rose

Then after looking at the roses we went on down to the Montgomery Street Antique Mall for lunch at the tea room and a little browsing.  I found this interesting quilt as we were leaving but stopped to take a picture.





It was made out of some kind of rayon or nylon fabric, it felt almost like satin but wasn’t.  Love the flowers inside the stars.  It was a nice flowery day all the way around.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Fabric, Binding, and Roses

Cherrywood hand dyed fabrics are a huge favorite of mine and I was fortunate enough to win a pack of 16 charm squares from their Minnesota line.  How did I win you ask?  Just by pinning photos from their web page to the Pin to Win Cherrywood folder in Pinterest.



If you haven’t looked at the Pinterest page and gone through some of the “boards” you don’t know what you are missing.  I have five boards where I pin photos of things that appeal to me – Quilting Bear Gal, Mama Used to Sew, Cherrywood Fabric, Antique Quilts I Love, and Quotes & Inspirations.  It’s lots of fun to look at all the pretty pictures on everyone else's Boards which unfortunately causes one to lose track of time easily.

Have you ever done this?  This is my first.  I started sewing the binding on my niece’s baby quilt and I stitched on the folded edge of the binding strip instead of the raw edge.  I didn’t get very far.  I discovered it when I start to turn the first corner.



It was late at night and I hadn’t felt too great all day so I just ripped it out then set it aside to work on it the next day.  When I flub up like that, it's time for a break.

You may be sick of photos of my beautiful pink, fragrant roses from the front flowerbed, but more buds opened up and it is just glorious right now.



When I step out the front door to get my mail, it smells like I just walked into a perfume factory. 

Well it’s time for me to get back to my Ancestry.com research.  The highly anticipated 1940 federal census is being uploaded on their website.  I’ve already located the pages for my parents and both sets of grandparents.  Fortunately they lived in small towns and in rural areas near small towns so I didn’t have that many pages to scroll through.  The names for the 1940 census are not indexed yet so it’s just a matter of knowing where to look.

Bye for now,

SIGNS OF SPRING

After all the wonderful Dallas Quilt Show pictures, it’s kind of a let down when life gets back to “normal.” 
I do have a couple of weird photos to show you of a quilt I saw recently at the Montgomery Street Antique Mall in Fort Worth, Texas.  I don’t know the name of this applique pattern.  I have never seen it before so it really caught my eye.


It’s some kind of bird on a limb thing.  My guess it’s from the 1970s or thereabouts. 

One of the first signs of Spring is the blooms of the Souvenir de la Malmaison rose bush in my front flowerbed.  Purchased many years ago at the Antique Rose Emporium in Independence, Texas, this rose bush has been a constant source of fragrant, elegant blooms for several years now.


The pale pink blooms smell the way roses are supposed to smell – all sweet and rosy!

The bonus is they are repeat bloomers so I will get to enjoy them again and again through summer into early fall.

Take note:



So until next time,


the Non-Runner