Obligatory list of excuses.....

Last month I had a pretty good list of why I hadn't finished my challenge projects for the Charming Girls Quilt Club but this month I think I have it topped!

And here they are.....


We got these two...uhhmm...cuties two weeks ago tomorrow with very short notice. As in 24 hours notice. A co-worker's wife's co-worker (are ya still with me?) had to downsize her home unexpectedly. I found out about them on a Monday, Dear Hubby and I decided YES on Monday evening and we had them in our possession by Tuesday evening.

I was hoping to get them that weekend so we would have time to prep the house but the owner was so upset about having to give them up, that she asked us to "rip the band-aid off" and take them right away.




This is Dear Hubby and Reagan. Reagan is the father of the other one and is on the right in the picture at the top. He is a registered Chocolate lab, 3 years old and pretty daggum lazy. He LOVES to have his head rubbed behind his ears. His second favorite hobby is eating......everything. We just don't let him so it's not a very productive hobby.




Dear Hubby and Nelson.....the son.... He isn't registered but he is a pure-bred. He is 11 months old and all puppy! He's taller than his daddy and much quicker. His favorite pasttime is eating his toys and tormenting the PIA cat, Tinker. They don't exactly get along yet. Tinker is pretty mad at us for letting her go from Queen of the castle to dog snack. She'll get over it, though. As soon as Nelson grows up....if he ever grows up.



The family they were living with had three pre-teens that apparently let the dogs do what they wanted when mom and dad weren't around. But "the boys" have come a long way in two weeks as far as discipline is concerned. They don't jump up anymore, they sit and wait for their leashes to be put on and pretty much pee and poop in the same place. (Didn't want to know that, did ya?!)

So please forgive me if I only have one of my two challenges finished for this month. I was working on a much larger commitment!

Blessings, Cathi

Halfway there.....

I finished the Hidden Stars top.....the first part of my two part challenge for Kelly.


The light is not real good in this picture. It was getting ready to rain (yayyyyy) and the sky was kind of weird. Another flimsy to add to the list.


So the only thing left is to quilt the log cabin quilt. I have until Monday at midnight.....no problem!

Blessings, Cathi

Carolina Girls, Best in the World.....

You gotta follow shag music to know where the title of this post came from. Brings me back to my college days....but General Johnson and the Chairman of the Board are still as popular now as they were all those years ago. And if you have ever been to Myrtle Beach, you know that every corner gift shop has a gazillion t-shirts with that saying all over it.


Picture stolen from the NY Times website without their permission. Just so you know.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to let you know that I have been "collecting" blogs from the Carolinas on my Blog List on the right.

I noticed a lot of my bloggy friends were from either North (where Dear Hubby's and my roots on my Mother's side are) or from the South (where we live and our children are from).

So I added an NC or SC after the blog name. More for my benefit than anything. But thought it might help some others out.

If you know of any quilty or prim blogs from the Carolinas that aren't listed, please let me know.

Blessings, Cathi

Happy Rudy Day to Me.....

If you have been following my blog for some time, you know I have a christmas blog called A Quilter's Christmas. I actually started that one first. I found out about blogging from the Magical Holiday Home Forum. Rudy Day is usually what us crazy Christmas nuts call the 25th of each month....a day spent getting ready for Christmas. Makes the holidays a little less stressful.

I don't post on that one very often. But I did enough to peak the interest of Mary at Quilt Hollow.

When I got home from work Friday afternoon, I found a box waiting for me from sweet Mary filled with Christmas goodies!



In it was 5 half yard pieces of Thimbleberries Christmas fabric, a leather star with a bell attached, candle pip berry rings, a Christmas wallhanging pattern, a metal NOEL door hanger, two Christmas panels and a sweet note that said,

"Happy Rudy Day!..............Oh....and surprise!"

Wasn't that just the nicest thing? She knew I would probably spend some time this weekend working on Christmas stuff. I am touched.

Blessings, Cathi

Mayberry, RFD.....Part 2.....

Sunday afternoon was the tourist thing with a visit to Andy Griffith's childhood home.....

A picture of Andy, Opie, Dear Hubby and me.....


And a picture of Gomer's old stomping ground before he joined the Marines.....




On the way home, we stopped at antique malls in Jonesville, Mt. Airy and Statesville. Among other things, I found three more enamel pots to add to the collection.

The big pot is huge. It's over 12" tall where the rest of them average only about 7"-8". The one in the middle is a creamer. Not a coffee pot but Dear Hubby thought it ought to go with the collection as well as the little cup. He said, "What's a coffee pot collection without the coffee cup?". Go figure.

I think I may have to move the Clorox bottle and add the enamel pots to the top shelf!

Blessings, Cathi

Mayberry, RFD

After reading about Carrie P.'s trip to Pilot Mountain, Dear Hubby and I decided that was where we needed to go for our last weekend off before high school football started with a vengence. We had a great time. We didn't actually go to Pilot Mountain State Park but we did hit a lot of their shops in just the cutest little downtown.

The first place we went was Pilot Mountain Peddlars. What a great prim shop!






Dear Hubby took a picture of Tammy and me ..... Tammy looked great, me not so much ....so I left it off. Hey, it's my blog. Here is a picture of what I bought at Tammy's instead.


Pilot Mountain had three antique shops, a country store, and several restaurants all on one street. What a great way to spend the afternoon. We ate lunch at Sopper's Restaurant. Excellent, excellent food but service was a little slow. They are fairly new and don't think they anticipated enough servers or cooks.


After hanging out in Pilot Mountain for several hours, we went up to Mt. Airy, about a 10 minute drive north. Mt. Airy is also known as Mayberry, home of Andy Griffith. A good portion of the show was based on this town. We went to their downtown which had a lot of cute shops, also. They had a primitive shop called Mayberry Primitives, Opie's Candy Store, Floyd's Barber Shop, the Bluebird Cafe (we went in and got Rootbeer Floats and a Malt) plenty of gift shops with Mayberry-touristy stuff.

After settling in at our hotel, we wandered way down the road to Cody Creek for dinner. It's just below the town of Dobson. It was a good 20 minute drive away but what a place. Here is the entrance drive. You have to go through this to get there.


They have a wedding chapel.....


A beautiful gazebo.....


A general store.....


And a great restaurant.


These pictures were taken the next day. We drove back down just to take pictures but it was worth it. We really couldn't see anything the night before. The food was excellent and you couldn't beat the atmosphere. Inside the restaurant was even nicer. Very laid back and casual dining. Inside they had a diarama with a waterfall, black bear, deer, etc. They had a separate smoking area no where close to the non-smoking area (I don't get that sometimes but that's for another day.). The smoking area was decorated like a wine cellar. They had a LARGE dining room that had a floor to ceiling stone fireplace. On either side of the fireplace, they had about 6' diameter wagon wheels that were windows. Wish I had taken a picture of that. The room was banquet style and probably could hold 200-300 people. At the other end was a HUGE projection screen tv. Easily 15 feet long.


After writing this post, I found it was much too long. I cut it in half and wrote another one to be posted on Friday morning. So ya'll come back now, ya hear? Sorry, that was the Beverly Hillbillies.

Blessings, Cathi

Eight down, one to go.....

Only one more Gail Pan, Christmas Wish stitchery to go. I can't wait to see this one finished! I can't imagine what the next word will be (except maybe IMAGINE!)

So here they are in no particular order.....

Blessings, Cathi

Parade of the Flimsies.....

Did you ever have something nagging at you in the back of your brain, but it was always out of sight - out of mind? That's how I feel about my stash of flimsies. Most of them have been finished for 4 or more years but since I had them folded and put away in a box or drawer, I just didn't think about them. Well, I did every once in a while.....like when I started a new top. So I thought I would take them out of hiding and take pictures.

The first two are Buggy Barn patterns.....Crazy Hearts and Crazy Baskets.




This next one is a Thimbleberries pattern but I don't remember the name. It's supposed to have some applique aroung the border. Guess I need to find the pattern and see what it's supposed to be!


The next three are all from Thimbleberries Club from around 2002 or 2003. The red and green one is supposed to be a Christmas tree skirt but I think I might use it as a table skirt at Christmas.






Back in the day, I belonged to a Thimbleberries Club. When we stopped doing the "official" club, we kept meeting. For the next two years we held Round Robins together (that were not really round). The first one is a Row quilt and the second was done in a grid pattern. That one really stretched our imagination. The only requirements for both were that we could only use Thimbleberries fabric. And we all had plenty!




This is the result of a mystery quilt in our state guild newsletter in 2005. Looks a little boring to me now that I look at a picture of it. Maybe some applique on this one, too.


At our state guild retreat in the fall and the spring business meetings, I have had the same roommate since 2004. She taught this class at the retreat a couple of years ago. I just love how it turned out and the fabrics that I used. And the log cabin pattern has always been one of my favorites. I have already planned the border applique for this one.


Looks familiar, huh? This one was made EASILY over 10 years ago. I think I just winged it after watching Eleanor Burns on PBS one morning. The fabrics are so old on this one. I'm going to finish it anyway.


I'm pretty sure this is an Indygo Junction pattern but I don't remember which designer or the name.




So there you go.......12 flimsies......patiently waiting to come out of their box and become quilts. I think they have waited long enough, don't you?

On a side note, I think there is another box of flimsies.....ssssshhhhh.

Blessings, Cathi

A little prim makeover.....

Back in June, I headed up north and a week later Dear Hubby and I went to Texas. I had posted all the goodies that we had bought at the many antique malls along the way. Thought I would show what I did with them.


First is a picture of what the cabinet looked like before. I didn't take a before picture but I did have one from Christmas of the cabinet.




And this is after.....


I painted the beadboard red so the coffee pots would "pop". I have plenty of Clorox bottles up there now. As you can see, I need one more coffee pot. I have found a bunch on ebay but Dear Hubby and I are going junkin' next weekend. Like I said before, the hunt is half the fun. I love the enamel pans and the flour sifters. One of them was my Sweet Granny's that I still use. I still have to paint the base cabinet. That's an all day project because it still needs scraping. I don't seem to have a whole day to take it on yet. I know, excuses, excuses.

Blessings, Cathi

How to win a giveaway.....

First the disclaimer......this hardly ever works but it worked for me!

First you email Mary at Quilt Hollow and whine that you haven't won ANYTHING in a really long time so you don't even want to bother entering anymore 'cause it's so depressing. Some people seem to win ALL the time. You know who you are!

Next, you enter anyway because Mary gives you this pep talk filled with cheesy cliches.

And you win!

I won what I thought was a quilt pattern from Paula the Quilter. Turns out it was more than a pattern, it was a big BOM that she had made for someone. All the templates were in there that Paula had lovingly made from cardboard. The 1/4" intersections were all hole punched for easy marking, too. What a sweetie!


Of course, I will have to use a lot of plaids ('cause that's what I do). I may leave out the angels and put a row of sashing in-between each row to "define" them a little better. It will definitely be a project for next Christmas. And if I start now and treat it like a BOM for me, I'll be finished with the flimsy by next summer.

Thank you, Paula, for sharing!

Blessings, Cathi

And on to August.....

I didn't win Kelly's challenge drawing but I still feel like a winner by how much I accomplished!

My first pick this month is to finally finish the Hidden Stars quilt that I tried to finish last month. That pieced border has quite a way to go.




And the second MUST DO is to quilt this cute little log cabin quilt.

If you click on the picture, you will see that it is already pinned and ready for quilting. This has been pinned since January! I've had it draped over the railing on our upstairs landing since I took down the Christmas decorations!! How pathetic is that? I already have the binding fabric (Gee, I hope I can find it or that I didn't use it for something else!)

After last month's big challenge to myself to finish an entire quilt from scratch, this will seem like a cake walk. I say that now. Stay tuned for August 31st as I post again near midnight!

Blessings, Cathi