MORE BLOCKS AND GRAPEFRUIT

 I have finished all the union blocks for my Gone to Texas quilt and plan to start sewing them together soon.

In the mean time, Lori at Humble Quilts has started a quilt along.  Anyone who wants to can follow along to make the replica of an antique quilt.  Here are the first 6 blocks.  It's a small quilt, so it won't take too long.  Thanks, Lori!  Since I didn't bring a lot of fabric along with me, I just barely had enough pink for these 6 blocks (which measure 5").  I think I'll go back to the quilt shop and get some more pink.

Some friends of my DS/DIL called to say they could go and pick grapefruit from their tree.  It was just loaded with them!

DS put a fish net on the end of his golf ball retriever and was able to reach grapefruit high up in the tree. It worked like a charm!

Here is some of what we picked.  I took some to the camper and squeezed several of them for juice.  I love grapefruit juice!!!  Delicious!!

Abigail is sitting on her new Dora couch playing with one of her dolls.  She doesn't like to pose for pictures, so these are candid shots.

Feeding her baby.

Not counting the cold night a couple nights ago, the weather has been beautiful.  It was around 70 degrees yesterday and it's supposed to be 67 today!  

CHANCE MEETING

Over the three years that I have been blogging I have followed many blogs, left comments and even emailed the bloggers.  Two of these bloggers are from the Pensacola, FL area and I believe they have even blogged about a certain quilt shop.  Yesterday, I went to this shop (A & E) with my DIL to pick out some fabric for a quilt I am making for her, and I spotted someone who I thought might be Karen from Nana Girl Quilts.  I had seen her picture on her blog and her hair is beautiful!  When I saw the hair (from the back), I had to go and find out if it was her.  (In fact, I did a walk by first so I could see her face).  So I asked her, "Are you Nana Girl?"  She said, "Yes, who are you?"  So I told her I was Country Log Cabin.  My name is Ruth - actually, I go by my middle name for my blog.  She was with Kim Brackett of Magnolia Bay Quilts, who I started following first.  Kim has published several quilting books.  What are the odds of meeting two other bloggers by chance?  Even if you know they live in this area and frequent this shop?  It made my day!!  Thanks for letting me take your picture on the spur of the moment!  It was great meeting both of you!

Back to reality now.  I have been working on my Gone to Texas quilt and I am going to make it bigger than the pattern in the book.  Click here to see the original post I did about it.  I have been working on it quite a while and have several posts about it.   I decided to add another row of the Union block, which will make it 10 1/2" wider.  I will probably also add more border to it to get it to the size I want.  

Here are some  blocks that I have just finished.  I had 4 that I needed to finish, and then with adding 6 more, I had a total of 10 make.  I'm just about finished with those 10 and I will move on to some of the border panels.

This is the table in our camper with my Featherweight set up to sew.

I'm working on HSTs and flying geese now for the last 2 Union blocks.  Since I get up early every morning, I have time to sew before we do anything else.

Today we're going out to eat for an early celebration of DH's 70th birthday because we won't be here for the actual day.

I decided today to tell you why I decided to use my middle name when I started my blog.  At the time I was working for a U. S. Magistrate Judge at the U. S. District Court.  I really didn't want anyone that might google my name to bring up the blog and learn more about my personal information.  I didn't know if anyone would google my name, but I did have someone in prison get a hold of my home phone number once and call me collect, and since I worked for a judge, some people might not be too happy about what happened in court, etc.  You get the picture.  I know when I reply to comments, my first name (Gladys) is sometimes on the email, so that is why.  

The night before last it was 24 degrees here in NW Florida.  At about 3:30 AM, our heater went off and we thought we were out of propane.  We put on extra sweat pants, sweat shirts, socks, etc., cuddled under the quilts and tried to sleep a few more hours.  When DH checked the tanks, one was empty and one was full!!  This is the second time this has happened and it seems there is a problem with the propane line,  so we need to get this fixed ASAP.  At least we know now what is happening.  BRRRRR!  

Happy quilting!  Thanks for visiting.

ABIGAIL'S TURN WITH GRANDMA & GRANDPA

Last Tuesday we arrived in Florida just in time for Abigail's 3rd birthday!  With her birthday so close to Christmas, it gets confusing for a little girl.  She's going to have to wait a long time for another birthday and Christmas.  Today she and her Daddy came to the camper for lunch so Mommy could take down their Christmas decorations without someone being upset.  :-)  

Here she is hiding under the table.

She's even cute with hair hanging in her face!  

I am spending a little time every day doing some sewing and I have a counter top in my kitchen that is perfect for cutting fabric and ironing blocks.

Below is a picture of the two wall hanging/stitcheries that I received from other bloggers.  The Texas shaped WH was received from Love recently and I blogged about it.  The one on the right, I received  over a year ago from Liri along with the block swap that I participated in.  They are perfect for the camper and both feature the state we are from.  Thanks, Love & Liri!!

Thanks, everyone for your sweet comment on my past posts.  I haven't been able to respond to everyone, but want you all to know that I really appreciate your visit.  I hope you all have a very Happy New Year!

Christmas Day and Cute Grandsons

On Christmas Eve, DS and I made lefse, a Norwegian potato pancake, which is a Christmas tradition for us.  I rolled them out and he cooked them.  Yum Yum!!

The stockings are filled and presents ready under the tree.

Eli's shirt says he's been a good boy all year!

 Christmas breakfast before opening presents.

Eli in the shirt I made for him.  It's kind of big for him, but that's OK.

Eli and me.  What a sweetie!

Jonah is passing out the gifts.

How many new toys can a boy play with???

Jonah wearing the pilot's hat from his uncle and the shirt I made for him.

We had a wonderful time and we'll be sad to go.  DS will be deployed in about 2 weeks.  Today we move on to Florida so we can be with Abigail for her birthday!  More excitement!

JONAH APPROVES OF NEW CAMPER!

Civil War Block from Saturday.

Eli playing with toys from the toy box in the new camper (5th wheel).  There's a cabinet under the refrigerator where a box fits perfectly.  I filled it with some books and toys for the grandkids.

Jonah was very happy with our new camper!  The cabinets above the table are filled with my sewing supplies and fabric.

He wanted me to take his picture, but then he would hide his face!

I'm using my little HST quilt on my bedside table in the camper.  I'm going to make one for DH's side too, but I think it will be 1" squares.

This counter top is perfect for doing my rotary cutting and ironing seams.

We have a little Christmas tree by the kitchen sink.

We can't believe there is so much storage.  Even with all the Christmas presents we packed, there is still more room.

Thanks for everyone's nice comments.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

ALMOST READY

Almost ready for Christmas!  All shopping is done, presents are mailed or ready to take with us and most baking is finished.  I still need to make spritz cookies - the favorites.  

Here is Jonah's shirt.  Since his Mommy and Daddy are both pilots, he needs a shirt with airplanes on it.  We'll be with them for several days before and for Christmas day and then will go to DS#2/DIL's for Abigail's 3rd birthday and to spend some time with them.  

I quilted the little HST quilt with clamshells.  I found it very hard to stay on the lines!  I think that's one big reason why I like free motion quilting best.  I originally saw this little quilt here and it was made by and sent to her from Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts.

You can see the quilting lines better on this one.

Don't work too hard getting ready for Christmas!  

ALMOST LOST IT!

Thursday morning, I was checking a few blogs and when I went to leave a comment on someone's blog, all of a sudden a message came up saying that my blog had been disabled due to a perceived violation!  I was shocked !!  I looked at their terms of service and didn't see that I had done anything wrong.  I was really upset, especially since I had not printed out any of it (and I knew someone would say, "I told you so!" - you know who you are - Hee Hee).  So I sent them an email and hoped I would get a response.  Well, I never did get a response, but on Friday morning I went to try to open it and .....  it opened!  I was so relieved!

It's not just that I lost my blog, but all the blogs that I have saved in google reader were gone and I would miss out on a lot of them, because I wouldn't be able to remember all of the names.  I thought, well, maybe I should just quit - it takes up a lot of my time, etc.  But, I really didn't want to do that.  I have learned so much from other bloggers and gotten so much inspiration.  So, I think I will start printing out my blog (unless I decided to get a book from Blog2print).  

I finished the donation string quilt for a teenage boy!  Yea!  I'll turn it in to my guild tomorrow night at our Christmas pot luck.

Here are the last four civil war blocks.  I'm all up to date on these and only three more to go.  I'm glad I stuck with it all year.  The hard part will figuring out how I want to set the blocks and finishing it.

We are just about ready for Christmas and looking forward to spending it with DS/DIL and of course, Eli and Jonah!  I hope you are just about ready too!

ELI'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Over the weekend we went to Eli's first birthday party!  I helped my DIL make the giraffe cupcakes (see picture below).  He is such a little cutie and he enjoyed his party.  He's taking a few steps at a time now and seems real pleased with himself!

These are some of the giraffe cupcakes!  Quite a production to make, but they tasted very good.

DH had some quality time with Jonah.  He is getting so grown up now - 3 1/2 years old!

Last week I finished a couple more outfits for Abigail's doll.  Here she is in her play outfit - overalls and a shirt.

I put the ladybug buttons that I won on her overalls.

Here she is ready for bed in her new nightgown.

It was so much fun making the doll clothes.  And our short trip for Eli's party was wonderful!  It rained all day on Sunday, but didn't dampen our spirits.  That evening we put ornaments on their Christmas tree.  We'll be going back there for Christmas, but are home now for a couple weeks.  I need to do a little more shopping and get some packages in the mail.  Plus bake some cookies, etc. etc.