Cameron Days

For those of you that live locally, you probably know that this is the weekend for Cameron Days.  I look forward to going to Cameron at least twice a year, usually for the two Cameron Days events.  Cameron is such a sweet, quaint town and when all the antique vendors show up for Cameron Days, it takes on a whole new life.  This is the first year that the show was open on Friday so Evette and I decided to go to Cameron a day earlier than normal and see what we could find. 

I just love this little potting shed.  I keep telling my husband that I need one in the backyard so I took a couple pictures of this one to give him an idea of what I'm talking about.  Maybe a little bigger, but I love this look.  Happened to get Evette shopping in the picture too.

Back view of the shed.  Love the old window in the back!!

Look at all the beautiful potted plants just waiting to go home with someone.  They were so much prettier in person.

I thought a got a picture of the adorable child's desk that these books were sitting on, but it disappeared.  Oh well, still love this vingnette with the fabric covered books and old coin purses.  This was in Barb's booth from Cabin in the Woods. 

Speaking of Barb, here she is with her best friend.  They look like such good friends.  Barb has some super cool stuff in her booth so be sure to check it all out. 

Saw these keys on a board in the back of a truck.  I asked if I could take a picture.  This guy had every kind of old key you could imagine.  There were just as many on the back side of the display.  He said he had 6000 keys on this board.  Amazing and very cool.

Isn't this just the coolest potting bench you've ever seen.  I sure thought it was and Philip is the very talented and creative person that made the potting bench.  Guess what, it's coming to my house soon!!!

Just loved this little display in the Old Hardware Store.

Another fun display at the Old Hardware Store.  Could have taken a hundred pictures of all the cool stuff in their shop.  Always fun to visit.

Jenny from Just Country.  Even though her allergies were bothering her, she still had a smile on her face.  Always fun to visit with Jenny and hubby Herb.  Their booth looked great as always!

Herb sure looked cute holding that little spring time doll.  He's such a great guy!

Caught Evette offguard trying to decorate her new blue rack.  She thinks she wants to embroider, or find, fun vintage days of the week towels to hang on the new rack.  This would look great in her kitchen once she gets it figured out!

We walked, we looked, we visited, we bought, we thought, we saw lots of friends, got lots of hugs, got tired, hungry and hot, but had a wonderful day together in Cameron.  Happy weekend.

We had the last Christmas Tree Runner class last night.  Everyone had fun and went home with lots of homework stitching to do.  I know they'll get these runners done in plenty of time for Christmas.

 Linda got busy right away getting things cut out while Betsy was just as busy choosing wool to use for her trees and presents.

Laura had already taken the class so she was a little ahead of the other ladies.  I was glad to see Barbara again who came down from Pennsylvania to visit her sister Betsy.  Whenever Barbara is in town, she stops in for a class.  She's a very talented stitcher! 

Sandy was working diligently on picking out wools and getting all the pieces cut out.  It takes a bit of time for any project just to get the pieces all in order and laid out properly. 

Finally, time to sit and stitch.  Don't the ladies look so productive.

What a great setting.  So peaceful and calm.  The perfect way to end a busy day! 

It's time to do the drawing for the bunny giveaway.  I had lots of names in the box to choose from.  In order for the drawing to be fair and unbiased, we asked Laura's husband, Chris, to do the honors.  He was just so excited to be involved in our little drawing.  Drumroll.................. 

Oh the suspense is killing us...........I think Chris is milking his photo op!! 

Please, just pick a name already!! 

And the winner is....................... 

Who??? 

CONNIE DEETER, congratulations Connie.  The ladies wanted to throw your name back in the box and do it all again...........just kidding..........well, not really!  Anyway, your little Velveteen Rabbit awaits you. 

And just to keep things exciting, we had Chris draw another name for the baby bunny which I originally wasn't going to give away.  And the winner of the baby bunny is.................... 

PAT GALLO........congratulations Pat.  You can pick your bunny up anytime.  And they wanted to throw your name back in the box too, for what it's worth.  But then they knew I would feel badly and go home and make more bunnies or something like that.........so the group decided you could have the bunny since your name was drawn fair and square.  Nice ladies. 

And a special thanks to Chris for his help in drawing the names and keeping us on the edge of our seats. 

Also forgot to mention that Debbie Powell of Henderson won the drawing for the mouse pincushion.  She said she was so excited and couldn't believe she had won.  She hadn't won anything since the hamster that she won when she was 8 years old that her mother made her trade in for a goldfish.  So contratulations Debbie.  No trading in this mouse!!

The May and June classes are getting ready to start next week.  Hard to believe how quickly April went by.  I'm ready for some strawberries and tomatoes.  Come join us when you can.

ANOTHER DAY AT THE BALLFIELD

Another game for Reagan, beautiful weather, perfect for playing a little T-ball.................

BATTER UP!

OK, NOW REMEMBER TO RUN TO SECOND

This was one of Reagan's little teammates with big sister giving her some advice....I couldn't resist snapping the picture.  They were so cute and so serious and it made me think of how Raleigh and Reagan might be in a few years.

OH COACH DADDY, I LOVE YOU!

A super close play at first.  Reagan made a great catch and then ran right to the base.  I believe the runner was safe but still a super play.

And, of course, Raleigh was there.  She informed me that she didn't want to play T-ball next year when she was old enough because it was boring! 

Happy Tuesday!

What a difference a few days make.  All those piles from the previous post are gone.  Orders were completed and mailed, patterns were put together and filed away, things got accomplished.  Now the tables are covered with piles of wool because I'm working on some new designs.  That's a lot more fun than earlier in the week.  This type of work is really play work!!

Love my little girls. I've had them a couple days this week. While Reagan was here we worked on a BEE project for a science fair coming up at her school. She was so proud this morning when we added the finishing touches.  She worked super hard coloring all the pictures and getting everything cut out and mounted on the posterboard.

A quick picture of sweet Raleigh before she got out of the car to to go school this morning.  She looked so sweet and summery.

Well, maybe one more picture!

Reagan was posing for pictures outside and I caught this picture of her off guard.  Love that angelic face!

And this picture is Reagan's reaction as I was explaining to her where our dead Dalmation was "buried".  I was snapping her picture as I was explaining to her the process of cremation.  Loved it as her expression changed with each snap of the camera.  She was pretty amazed that Ralphie "lived" in our laundry room!

Happy weekend everyone.  Enjoy the days.......

Feeling Overwhelmed......

Do you ever have one of those days when there are not enough hours to get everything done?  Well, I'm having one of those days with no end in sight it seems.  I guess that's not entirely true since most of these things need to be finished today, but  if I look around my work room it's a bit overwhelming.  There's not an empty table in the room!  Let me show you.

Off and on today working on the May recipe card.......thinking Mexican theme........some mind blocks.......bright and colorful paper every where!  So this table top is covered.

Trying to pull embroidery floss for a new embroidery design to coordinate with the May recipe card class.  Lots of beautiful floss colors to choose from.  Another table top covered!

Working on Calendar Girl patterns, taping the pictures to the fronts of the patterns.  Again, another table top covered with a project in progress.

A quilting project waiting to happen.  It just garners a small corner of a table top.

A pattern order getting ready to be shipped out.  Ooops, no more table tops, had to start using the floor.

Wools and other fun materials crated up for tomorrow evening's mouse pincushion class.  This will soon be loaded in the back of my car so that will free up a little space!

So do you see what I mean, a bit overwhelmed with projects and no space to put them all.  This doesn't include all the projects tucked away in bags, totes, and who knows where else they might be hiding.  These are just the things I needed to accomplish today!  HELP!

To Quilt or Not to Quilt................

I am taking a beginning quilt class in a few weeks.  Not sure how or why I'm doing this, but I am.  I used to do some hand piecing and hand quilting 20 years ago, but that was another lifetime.  I'm looking forward to learning something new and playing with fabric and friends, but finding the time to take on another challenge is going to be difficult.  I'm just looking at it as another adventure.

So in order to prepare for this quilt class, Evette, Laura and I made a trip to our favorite quilt shop in Fayetteville, Quilts 'n Tiques to visit Gail and Naomi and find some wonderful fabrics we could use for our class project.  Of course, we spent several hours there and didn't leave unhappy.  They are so friendly and supportive and just plain fun people!  Well worth the drive.  Everyone had a different idea for their projects, so we all headed different directions in the shop.  I ended up planning a Christmas fabric quilt, using some fabrics I already had, along with some new to blend it all together.  I think it will be a lot of fun working with Christmas fabrics in May!!

While we were there two of our best friends Jennifer and Janet came in and surprised us.  Jennifer about tackled us from behind she was so excited to see us.  That was a fun surprise visit.  And of course, they didn't leave empty handed either.  I'm hoping at some point we can get together with Janet to do some more quilting lessons.  She is one talented lady with lots of quilting information in her brain to share!!!  And of course, Jennifer also has all that knowledge stored away.  It's amazing how much talent is in our area.

So on Saturday I decided to tackle a red, white and blue project that I was hoping could be a future class.  It's a nine patch block that you cut a couple of different ways to end up with different pattern layouts.  This was something Debbie Busby showed me last summer and I just fell in love with the whole concept and have put together several different quilt tops.  However, unbeknownst to me (and maybe Debbie too) we weren't doing them exactly the right way.  I was just cutting my squares, piecing them together, and then sewing the rows together.  Sometimes, well most times, my corners or points didn't match.  Evette has been real sweet and complimentary of my past projects but I knew she was being very tolerant of my mismatched squares and really wanted to tell me I needed to match my points better.  Well, now she's told me and so my simple little project turned into a major event with Evette coming over with twelve rulers and cutters and showing me how to properly cut out and piece a square.  Oh my goodness, don't think I was doing it right after all!!! 

Evette helped me get the blocks cut out, worked on my sewing machine with me to get it in tune, and sewed some of the blocks together to show me how they should look.  Needless to say, my other pieces don't quite look the same anymore!  After she went home, I finished sewing the blocks together and made sure everything matched up as best I could. 

This is how the points are supposed to meet.  Of course, I knew this..........that just doesn't mean that's what mine did!!!

I'm trying really hard to make everything line up properly.  I love quilts, but I think I love quilts that other people make!!!  Especially hundred year old quilts!!!!!

I stopped sewing long enough to run to Joann Fabrics for some rulers, a new cutting pad and rotary cutter threads and who knows what else.  These were all apparently necessary things to own if you're going to be a REAL quilter.  So now I have some of the tools of the trade (I won't say all because there's too much out there) and I am ready to get back to my quilt pieces.

After I got home, I started sewing the rows together.  Now, here's where it gets a little tricky gals.  Your seams have to match the other seams.  Imagine that!!!  I did manage to get a few blocks put together before I threw in the towel for the evening.  Fresh eyes in the morning are always better................

So here's to happy stitching, sewing, quilting days for us all.