A little stitchery finish.....

Some quick pictures of the stitchery I finished and where I put it.

And a close up.....

This was a freebie stitchery pattern from Robin at Bird in Hand Primitives.  I just love her work.  I changed it a little bit by putting shingles on the roof and stone on the chimney.  The frame was 99 cents from Goodwill.  Can't beat it!

I think I might make a sign to put up above the two framed pictures but haven't decided on what phrase or word yet. Maybe something tongue-in-cheek and bathroom appropriate!

Blessings, Cathi

Boone, NC .....

Dear Hubby and I went to the mountains of Western North Carolina (WNC) this past weekend.  We went last year around this same time.  You'd have thought we would remember to check the Appalachian State Univ. football schedule!  We didn't last year and we didn't this year.  Yup, home games. Traffic was nuts.  At least this year we checked the game time.  We ate sometime during the second quarter so there was no one in the restaurants.  We weren't so smart last year!

We stayed at the KOA in a Kamping Kabin which was great.......except for the 38 degree weather we woke up to.  Luckily, KOA had put little space heaters in each cabin and we did take sleeping bags and extra quilts.  Still.......getting up at 4:00 in the morning to run to the outhouse wasn't as much fun.  Ok, so it's not really an outhouse but it was a separate building with no heat and no shower.  Think of gas station bathroom.

We did a lot of sightseeing along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Most of the leaves had changed but it is still beautiful.

We stopped at an apple orchard somewhere along the way.....

 

And of course we had to eat breakfast at the Dan'l Boone Inn .....

some of the best country cookin' in the Carolinas!

We even did a little hiking!

 

All in all, a lovely relaxing weekend.....

Almost forgot......remember the vacation from he** ......when Dear Hubby decided to take me to Green Park Inn for my 50th birthday?  Well, they have closed and are in foreclosure. Imagine that?!  They closed in May, were up for auction in August and had a winning bid of $800,000 which didn't even meet the reserve.  Such a shame after 100 + years in business and visited by dignitaries like Margaret Mitchell and US Presidents.  You can read about it here.  What a grand lady she was back in the day!

Blessings, Cathi

Happy 4th of July.....Huh?

Well, this was supposed to be finished by the 4th of July!  It was a little kit that I have had for about 8 years.  Thought I'd whip it up in time for the holiday and I had even finished the top in time.  Quilted it all but the star part, then put it away........huh???  It must have gotten stuck in the middle of a pile somewhere.

I finished it this week.  I'm going to look at this as a glass half-full kind of thing.  I'm 8 months ahead of time for the next year's celebration!

Blessings, Cathi

My Christmas Wish.....

is to finish my Christmas quilts!

Here is the next one that is ready to finish.

 And the fabric that I am going to use to finish it.

No, I haven't finished the HoHoHo quilt yet :<(  Or the other three Christmas quilt tops I have. But I'm optimistic!

Blessings, Cathi

A Day in the Park.....

4 of my 5 kids (including the son-in-law) have birthdays within 6 weeks of each other.  We usually have a big picnic to celebrate them all.  We cook LOTS of food, decorate with lots of pumpkins and other fall decorations and invite a lot of their friends.  This year, with the new boys at the house, we thought it might be better to skip it this year and wait until Nelson has grown out of the puppy stage!

So instead, we decided to go to Kings Mountain State Park which is located on the opposite end of the county from where we live.  It was really miserable out as far as weather goes but we had a good time anyway.  We took a lot of pictures but here is the best of them all.

 

The Wild One, TurfBoy, Dear Hubby, me, Computer Geek, and The Married One

There are some other really good pictures that The Married One took but she hasn't emailed them to me yet. Her significant other took this picture.

Then after a quick trip to two different pumpkin patches, we headed back to the house and LOTS of food with some football thrown in.  We are a big football family so it killed them to leave the house and miss the 12:00 games.  But I made up for it with all the food I had cooked ahead of time!

Some more pictures of the day.....

 

 

 

And finally......... all my boys!

Blessings, Cathi

Charming Girl finish for this month.....

I had planned on posting this picture on Tuesday but I noticed after I downloaded the pictures that there was a smudge on the camera lense.  So I thought I would wait and take another picture.  But it has rained here everyday.  Lord knows we needed it so I'm not complaining.

This top was pieced about 8 years ago!  How embarrassing!  But it is finished now and I am KEEPING it!  Well, finished except for a label.  No label because no name.  It'll hit me when I least expect it.  I just have to be patient.

I did buy the backing for the HoHoHo quilt this past weekend at Pieceable Retreat.  One vendor had some bolts at $3.50 a yard!  Can't even get that price at MaryJo's! This weekend is our annual birthday party for 4 of the 5 kids.  Next weekend, Dear Hubby and I are planning a weekend getaway to Boone, NC. So I won't get to that quilt for another two weeks.  Don't think I will get that one done.  But hey, the month isn't over yet!

On a side note.......GO PHILLIES!

Blessings, Cathi

What a wonderful weekend.....

I spent this past weekend at the annual Quilters of South Carolina "Pieceable Retreat"......my 9th year in a row!  I didn't take any pictures this year so nothing to show you. 

I did finish my Pastel Log Cabin while I was there. I STILL need to come up with a better name.  Teresa thinks I need to name it "Teresa's Log Cabin since she thinks I am giving it to her!  I didn't get home until late yesterday afternoon so no time to take a picture and today is a dark, dreary, rainy day so I doubt I will get a picture today, either.

I didn't take any classes this year as I was a vendor for YLI Threads.  They are located here in Rock Hill.  Whenever they have a conflict with another larger show, they ask me to run their booth for them.  This year Market happened to be the same weekend.  I'd say that is a LARGER show.  I'm still trying to talk them into letting me go with them to Market!

I have mentioned on this blog before about the Quilters of SC (QSC) challenge presented to us last year called the Artful Bras.  Well, it has surpassed all of our expectations.  And now we are published!!

Kansas City Star QUILTS was so impressed by what QSC had done that they offered to publish a book of all the bras with a personal description by the bra maker of each one.  All the royalties will go to the Best Chance Network.  The bras have become national travelers.  They have traveled all over the United States.  I'm not sure where they are now but I know they will headed to DesMoines soon.  They were to be auctioned off this month but due to the unexpected, wonderful response, the auction has been postponed to an unspecified date.  In other words.......who knows when. I guess when groups across the country stop asking if they can come visit them!

If you would like to see pictures of all the bras, please click on this link.  Better yet, buy the book!

Blessings, Cathi

Why didn't someone warn me about contractors?.....

Let me preface by saying that Dear Hubby and I are great DIYers...... except that we aren't really great finishers (is there a theme here?)

We had never hired a contractor before to remodel any of our house but when it came time to do the full bathrooms, we bit the bullet and hired one. After all, this was a bathroom that needed to be gutted and we really NEEDED this one to be finished in a timely fashion.  So far the project that the contractor said would take 3 weeks is on week 8. Found out from a co-worker that this is normal!

But the results so far are fantastic! Thanks to Grammy Linda at Behind My Red Door and Janae at CozyCoops Corner (and the dozen of other prim bathrooms I have found on the web) for their inspiration.  Unbeknownst to them, I checked out every detail of their bathroom pictures they had on blogs or picture trails to get what I wanted.

Here is how it turned out.........

BEFORE                                         AFTER

This bathroom was last remodeled 20 years ago and has suffered through 4 kids (2 of them boys and you know what kind of damage boys can do to a bathroom floor!) The mirror in the AFTER picture I found at a yard sale for $5.00 about 8 years ago. I knew I was saving it for something!  The tile on the counter is the same as the tile on the floor.  The light fixture came from The Country Store of Geneva. But you could also get it at The Country House.

BEFORE                                  AFTER

Don't you just love the old wallpaper?  It was very in and Colonial 20 years ago.  The wrought iron towel rack as well as the toilet paper holder, the hand towel star hanger, the shower curtain, the shower curtain hooks and the window valance all came from The Country Porch.  I have an old RC Cola wooden box that is red to hang over the towel rack as soon as I can get Dear Hubby to hang it.

BEFORE                                          AFTER

The old bathroom was so bad that when we replaced the windows in the house, I didn't even bother to paint the sash!  Dear Hubby made the heart shaped toilet paper holder all those years ago.  How 1980's is that? You can see the beadboard ceiling and crownmolding in the AFTER picture.  The bathroom had the lovely, always popular popcorn ceiling.  YUK!

The picture on the left is to show the wrought iron bath fixtures I picked out from MOEN.  I just love them.

The picture on the right is a better view of the vanity.  Our contractor made a custom built cabinet because he knew we would want to finish it ourselves.  I stained it with Early American Minwax stain, followed by two coats of latex paint and two coats of Bri-wax.  Just love the finish on it.

I still have to add the decorating touches.  I know what I want, just have to make them.  They are mostly Prim makeovers that I have been hoarding old frames for.

I would like to publicly apologize to my children and anyone that has spent the night at my house for having to suffer through living with a bathroom that was in such disrepair.  I wish we could have afforded to get it done much sooner. 

And now on to the Master Bath.  Contractor said 4 weeks ............ any bets?

Blessings, Cathi

Witches Night Out.....

Friday Night I headed south to one of my LQS called The Quilted Pearl.  They had their First Annual Witches Night Out and let me tell ya, what a great time we had! 

They fed us dinner, complete with little biscuits in the shape of  "B O O".

They had a complete table runner kit ready for us.  Here is the almost complete table runner.  The witches still needed eyes and one nose is missing but you get the idea.  I finished my two witches and the spiderweb and even got the sashing on.  I turned my witches sideways so that I could make a horizontal wallhanging.  I still have the piano border to do and, of course, the quilting and some embellishment.

And they even asked us to dress up! 

You can barely see me in the center back with the pointy hat.......so since you can't see me so well, here is a better picture of me.

Be gentle with me.....this was after a full day of work, a quick trip to the house to pick up my machine, an hour plus drive to Columbia and 4 hours of quilting! Then I still had to drive the hour back to the house after that.  A very long day but worth it.  I had a blast!

And, oh yea, not exactly a flattering outfit, either.

Can't wait until next year!

Blessings, Cathi

Did ya notice what's missing?.....

I didn't post this past month's Charming Girls Quilt Challenge finish!  Because I didn't!  I didn't even work on it.  There must be some Freudian/subconscious reason for me not wanting to finish that quilt.  Or I need to just pick a better WIP to finish.  Does this mean I don't have to come up with the usual list of excuses why I didn't finish?  I could 'cause believe me, I have them!

So for this month, I will try again to quilt the Pastel Log Cabin (need a better name than that....any ideas?) that I didn't do back in August.....

And try to quilt the HoHoHo quilt that I made in July.....

Seriously, Cathi, it's not like this is rocket science.  Git 'ir done!

And don't forget, today is the first Friday in the month and time for Kaaren's First Friday Freebie.

It's a great one.  I've already downloaded and printed it out.

Blessings, Cathi