Poodles and Quilts

There was an unusual visitor to Uvalde Texas this winter. A Rufous-back Robin. Usually seen in CA. and AZ in the winter months. It is native to Mexico. With Tilly doing better we took a few days and drove to Ulvade. It is a little south west of San Antonio. Unfortunately Galen could only get his picture looking into the morning sun. But he got to see it and it is a new life bird for him. It was a beautiful spot along the Nueces River.  I can imagine the people who live on that particular dirt road are wondering why there is so much traffic! But when there is an unusual sighting of a bird you are never alone!!! There was a couple from Fl who happened to be on a birding trip as well as a couple from Kansas. While we were a way we had someone redo our deck. The Texas sun is brutal and the previous stain and sealer was in bad shape. So now it is stained and not sealed. Will be much easier to stain again in a couple of years. That's it for January 2019! ...

It has been a little while since I posted. Early December was my last entry! December was a busy month, getting ready for the holidays, trying to get some sewing in and then we took off between Christmas and New Years. We went to Rockport for a few days hunting the Whooping Cranes and other migratory birds. Galen left for 8 days 10-18. He and Greg Lasley took off for the Texas Panhandle, into Oklahoma for a few miles and covered a lot of territory in New Mexico searching for birds. Somewhere along the Texas/Oklahoma border is Galen's cell phone. First order of business when he got home. Get a new phone. A few pictures of the inside ready for Christmas. My Snowmen go on the fireplace mantel Our tree. Every year I say I need to make a new tree skirt. This one is probably 45 years old from  McCalls pattern Decided this year to put a piece I bought in Thailand on the dining room table. We rarely eat there anyway! My Santas go on the top of a cabinet in t...

Not sure what happened to the month of August. It flew by! Dad always said the older we get the time seems to go by faster. He was sure right there!                                        We made progress and got the quilts hung.                                                               My perfect Union                  Hand pieced by me and machine quilted by Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville) Looking down from the second floor landing Have this one on the railing. The insert finally came for my machine and the Koala cabinet Sewing the binding on my Kaffe scrap quilt (Blue Bricks pattern) And now a finished quilt This is the wide backing. Not ...

I managed to get a lot of sewing done in November!  Felt good too! Put together 3 quilt tops and dug out an unfinished project or UFO! Had worked on it during one of remodels. Easy to work on blocks while in a motel. Made the last 15 blocks. No pictures yet, have not laid it out  on the design wall. Can only show one today and that is the Barn Dance quilt top. It is now at the quilters. The top is large, 98 x 98 and yes I am keeping this one! Will be great on our guest bed! The pattern is from    justquiltin with Denise                                                                       Barn Dance In between sewing I froze 12 more containers of pureed pumpkin for pies. Did up several containers of squash. And yesterday got started on making sauerkraut. The small crock is full ...

Not much in the way of sewing last week. I did however pick up my Desert Sky quilt from my quilting friend Osie.  These are a few quick pictures I took then. Now I am sewing the binding and then will hang it on the wall in the family room. Have the perfect place for it! Will take more pictures when completely finished. It was a fun class and I really like how Osie quilted it for me.  Looking at driveway work is not the most exciting thing!   Over to small quilts  On Friday they started work on our drive way. We had the privilege of listening jack hammers Friday and part of Saturday. Felt bad for our neighbors especially on Saturday morning. But with temperatures in the high 90's and heat index in the triple digits they needed to get to work early. We kept a cooler with ice, water and Gatorade for them. Thin wire for reinforcement was probably code when the driveway was put in in 1995.  There was very little base if any in...

Thus past Friday the sod arrived along with the guys shortly after 7 AM. The guys got busy with the rototiller tilling up some of the hard clay we call soil! They finished about noon. Good thing as it also got to 102 degrees for the high! This is the area they were tilling in the earlier picture. Now fully sodded. They cut the sod and placed it around the new flagstone walk in the back We had them remove part of a limestone that was just under the surface when they were here earlier in the project. That spot is now grass as well.  Our job now besides getting some plants in the ground is keeping the new sod watered. Mother Nature  helped us out this morning by raining for about an hour. Hopefully we will get some more over the next few days.