Fun work day with Jonas and Isaiah

Thursday, Jonas drove up with Isaiah to spend the afternoon with me at work. We visited with Coach Fulmer and then Max took us on a tour of the football facility and the training center. It was a lot of fun. Isaiah was an angel all day.

This is him hanging out with Elizabeth.

February 2018's trip to Athens and Sweetwater

My day trip for February began in Athens at the Living History Museum. It was a nice museum. Small, but nice. They do a quilt show in the fall and I'll try to get back for that. We were going to visit the stores on the square downtown, but there were no real stores to visit. We did find a store call Junktique. We liked it. Nice junk store located in an old house. We found some great buys. Then we took the back road to Athens and visited the antiques stores. Those were expensive. We had lunch at Hunters Cafe to finish up the day.

Curling

Marian and I went to the Ice Chalet and took a class on curling. It was so much fun. They paired us up with this sweet couple Ian and Christina. They were so patient with us old people. We divided up into groups of four with each of us having a teacher. We started out holding on to two of the stones (which weigh 45 pounds) and pushing off a starting block. You push off with your right foot and glide on your left. You are in a lunge position. Then we held on to a support made up of pipes. Marian and I did okay. Yes, we fell over, but we never fell down from a standing position. The sweeping part was the hardest in my opinion. Trying to stay in front of the stone was hard in tennis shoes. They have special shoes you can buy for a couple hundred dollars. The right foot has a gripper on it and the left is teflon. Super slick. Afterward we learned, we played a short game. Our team lost, but still fun. Very mannerly sport...you start and end the game with handshakes and saying "Good Curling" Afterwards they gave out door prizes and offered us food and adult beverages. I won a pin which I gave to Marian.

SMQ 2018 Challenge

The Challenge for the guild this year was "The Elements" - earth, wind, fire, water. I was excited about the challenge because I liked the theme. I had this great idea, but it ended up getting modified somewhat due to difficulties I ran into while putting it together. I'm happy with the results, however.

We turn them in tonight at the meeting. I sure hope we have several turned in. We struggle to have members join in. It is frustrating for me as President. I want to make the guild a fun place to be.
I'll take some pictures tonight and post them so you can see how everyone else interpreted the theme.

Brenda Novak book buddy

I decided to join the Brenda Novak Facebook page which includes several opportunities to join in. She has a reading challenge and book buddies. I decided to do the both of those. My book buddy is Lori Bordeaux Beam who lives in Elizabethon. I am amazed at how well they match up people. We both quilt, crochet and read the same authors. Book buddies send each other a package each month, for three months. The amount you spend depends on what you sign up for. I have gotten two boxes so far. They are both great, full of lots of goodies. It has been so much fun getting to know Lori. I hope our friendship continues forever.

This is the February box.

This is the March box.

Weekend with Taylor

The first weekend in February, I went and spent the weekend with Taylor. Josh was off playing army so it was just the two of us. We played games Friday night with her friends Jamie and Brett. While we were waiting for them to come over, we played a couple of rounds of Clue. It was so much fun! Granny might have hated playing that with my kids, but I can't wait to play with Isaiah. Then we played Ticket to Ride and a card game that was like Phase One. It was a lot of fun. Saturday, we painted pottery and then went to the Preds game. Loved the game! Such a rowdy fan base. Lots of dancing and music and screaming. They won the game so that was nice. Had several fights.

My finished pottery. I love how it turned out.

things i made in 2018

This page will show things I have completed in 2018:

I might have actually finished this in 2017, but I hadn't posted it (I don't think). I found the kit and fell in love with it since it combined cross stitch and quilting. I think I will add some quilt blocks around it and make a wall hanging.\

This is a baby blanket made from unused yarn

I had from other projects. I will probably put it in the boutique at the quilt show in June.

This is a scarf I made for Marian. She picked the pattern and the thread. I think it turned out nice.

I am taking a basket class at Pellissippi every Monday in March. Here is my first basket.

This was class 2 - a divided wine basket with a braided handle. 

This was class 3. The bottom was a bear. We started with 8 spokes, twined around those until we had space to add 8 more spokes. I love the way it finished, but it took the whole class. I was actually the only person who finished. One more class. I will miss it. It has been so much fun.

This is a crochet class Marian and I took. I bought the bamboo yarn from the shop after the class. I actually had purchased a ball several years ago and I always wanted to make something with it. I love the way this turned out.

This is the basket I made in my final class. I had to redo it twice. I kept making it too small. I weave tight.

These are from a wet felting class I took from Tone. We were making bags. I took it with Nancy and Marian.

This was my challenge quilt for the guild. We have to make a quilt that showed the four elements - earth, wind, water, and fire. Each quadrant represents one of the elements. I added some embroidery to it. I like how it turned out and will enter it into the quilt show this year.

This is a wall hanging Karen Pharr made and I quilted for her.

I made this for Keri for her birthday.

This table runner was for Mom. I serged it in a class Karen Pharr was teaching in Novi, Michigan. Finished it at home and gave it to Mom at Thanksgiving.

I made 11 of the travel cases above. They turned out so cute.

I made three of these zippered bags. Gave them to Keri. I plan to make a lot more.