Treasures On Thursday

Finally I'm back to my treasured quilts. When I think of quilts I think of many things, warmth, comfort,  beauty, and colors. When I think of  a quilt made by one of my family members, I think of love. These were made with love by my Mom for me.

This first quilt is called Colonial Ladies. Mom gave it to me in 2001. The blocks are hand appliqued and embroidered.

Each ladies dress is decorated with lace and she is holding something different in her hand, like a mirror, a fan, a book, a hankie, or a purse.

 Mom love to quilt by hand. She's spends so many hours on finishing each quilt. Hand quilting is definitely a labor of love! Here's an example of her quilting on the sashing.

This is what the back looks like. It's pretty neat the way you can see the outline of the ladies.

Mom made this one for me in 1997 because she knows I love bears. It's called Teddy Bear Fashion Parade. Each bear is hand-appliqued and then embellished with buttons, lace or little bits of clothing. It's also hand-quilted.

 I love this little train button. She added this because my son has always loved trains.

 This one wears a cute little denim vest.

 She backed this one with a cute bear fabric.

This Dutch Doll quilt is a treasure for two reasons, the Dutch Doll blocks were made by my Grandmother and then my Mom put the blocks together and quilted it. Most of the fabric in these blocks would have been from the 1950's.

Mom gave me this lap quilt in 2009. She has been working hard at using up her stash of scrap fabric. She made this string quilt with nothing but scraps. I love scrap quilts, there are so many delightful fabrics.

I will treasure my quilts and each time I look at one or use one, I will be reminded of the love of my Mother!

Easter Sunday 2011

Easter is one of my favorite days! The special day that we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. Our Sunday services were wonderful! The children's choirs sang, we had a violin special by a young girl and then the Penn family sang two beautiful songs. It was a wonderful song service that prepared us for the  message.

We took a few photos after church while everyone was still dressed up. Aaron looked so handsome in his Easter clothes!

Gramps, Gramma and Aaron

Aaron with Mommy (Aimee) and Daddy (Randy)

They came over in the afternoon for an egg hunt. This was really Aaron's first year to hunt eggs outside. He was sick last year and had to stay inside. I  must say he was very quick to find those eggs. He ran across the yard, "there's a blue one" or "there's an orange one." I think they should have been hidden a little harder!

 Some of the eggs had prizes in them. This one had a little car in it!

Checking out the eggs in his bucket. I think he needs a few more!

 I wonder if this orange egg has a prize in it.

I loved this photo. There's such a sparkle in his eyes and a beautiful look on his face. He's watching his Daddy open the orange egg to see if there is a prize in it! There was, some money!

We had a great time. I've missed seeing little ones hunt for Easter eggs. I love their joy and excitement as they find the eggs.

Hope your Easter was a great one. We enjoyed ours, even though we missed our other grandchildren. But, on the bright side, they'll be here this weekend and we'll have an egg hunt with them. I wonder if any of the eggs will have prizes in them.

Potting Shed Update

I thought you might like to see update pictures of the potting shed. They finished putting all the siding on.

Mr. H taught me how to use the miter saw, so I could cut the boards. While he stayed on the ladder I ran back and forth to the shed to cut the boards. That was pretty fun. I like the miter saw, but I really don't like the table saw. To me, your hands are just too close to the blades!

There he is on the ladder waiting on the boards. He was pretty patient as I took some pictures!

Yesterday, he was able to put some of the roofing on. Between the rain today he finished roofing the back side of the shed. He stayed on the roof and I climbed the ladder to take him shingles. How many times I climbed that ladder I don't know, but my legs are already stiff and sore. I'll be taking some advil tonight! We didn't start the roofing on the front side due to some bad storms coming our way.

Before the storms hit we worked on the porch rails and got the front ones on. We still need to do the ones on the sides of the porch, but the weather just wouldn't cooperate. Our tornado sirens kept going off and I would run into the house to see where the storms were. We were fortunate, the storms went north of us, but we did get some wind and heavy rain.

We're making a lot of progress considering the bad weather we've been having. It's looking pretty cute!

WeekEend Road Trip - Part III

I spent a lot of time roaming around Jefferson, TX with my camera. I wanted to show you a few of my favorite shots. These flowers were in front of an antique store. I don't know what they're called, the ball shapes are the buds that open into these gorgeous flowers.

 I just happened to catch a beautiful sun flare in the window of the museum.

Lately my eyes keep catching doors, windows and reflections. I worked hard to get this shot where the flag is reflected in the window and is unfurled. The wind was blowing very hard and I had to take a lot of shots before I got one I liked.

I thought this was such a pretty window with shutters and a window box.

Isn't this a pretty basket hung between these two doors. It makes me think of a May Basket.

Another thing I'm fascinated with is fences. Any kind of fences. I love the work in this wrought iron fence.

These fences were covered in beautiful roses. Old fashioned climbing roses.

Roses that smelled wonderful. A lot of the modern roses don't have a smell, but these smelled wonderful as I walked by.

Beautiful Roses!!!

 

Of course I had to sneak a shot in of my favorite house. The House of the Seasons. Read about it here.

I was cutting through one of the allies to get back to our group when I spotted this gate.

I got closer to have a look. It was a garden, a beautiful garden. I realized it was a behind one of the historic hotels. As I was looking in, a lady who worked at the hotel asked me if I would like for her to unlock the gate so I could go in. Of course, Yes, Please!!

 In the center was this lovely fountain. The post of the fountain has three women with they're water vessels.

It's quite large, there are gold fish and even a turtle in the water.

The walls of the garden were brick covered with ivy. There were small alcoves with statues and lovely wrought iron chairs, benches, and tables. These statues were of children.

 This view shows the back of the hotel! I would love to stay in one of the rooms over the garden!

 another fountain

I was so excited!! It felt like I had found my own Secret Garden. This is my third trip to Jefferson and I've never seen this gate before. You'll never know what you'll find when you walk a different path! Try it, go a different way or path this week and discover something new!!

Hope you enjoyed the trip to Jefferson with me!

A Joyous Easter To You

"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here; for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

Matthew 28:1-6

Weekend Road Trip - Part II

When you attend a car show, the first thing you have to do early in the morning is wash the truck!! Got to get those bugs and dust off before the show!

 The downtown streets are closed off  for the show. We had a great spot, the sun really shined on his truck all day!

 These are our friends vehicles, from the gray truck down to our red truck.

 Just a different view of our group. Notice the license plate on the front of our truck. It belonged to Mr. H's dad. Mr. H wanted to display it to honor his Dad who loved old trucks so much.

It's always fun watching the people come by looking at our truck. You know we are a little proud of it. And that bright red catches a lot of attention! I can't tell you how many times we've heard, "Wow, now that's a red truck!" or "you don't happen to like red, do you?" or "what color red is that?"

a shot of one of the streets

This is some of our group. (LtoR) Becky, Loretta, Vicki, Jack, Larry, Jimmy and Linda.  Standing is Jerry and Delbert. The last two people seated weren't in our group.

Here's the rest. Earlanna, Charlie, and Jerry. Standing is Lewis, who we bought our truck from, and Delbert again. Obviously Jerry and Delbert can't be still!

I had to show this guy. He came roaring down the street a couple of times. His motorcycle had a horn like a police siren. You have to look really close and see his mustache. Just to the left of his cigar you can see a long curled handlebar mustache. He really fit his part well!

And then it's time to gas up and head home. 

 Car shows are always such fun trips. Lots to see and lots of fun with friends!

I'm going to do one more post about Jefferson, because I found some delightful things I want to show you!