Quilt show Friday

Friday was a fun day.  A few of my quilting buddies and I met at my house and we all got in my van and we went to New Braunfels to the semi-annual Quilt Show.  The show is big enough to fill a day, but small enough keep from being overwhelming.  My biggest purchase I will not pick up until September. I paid a deposit on a quilt kit that is themed on the Quilt Across Texas a statewide shop hop.  Now anyone that could get their card stamped at all of the 90 shops would accomplish quite a feat.  I would not even begin to think about trying it, but one of the shops involved is local for me and they have put together a quilt that looks awesome.  They cannot release the kit until September when the QAT ends.  I will be anxiously awaiting.

I have been to this show in New Braunfels before, and I have a favorite restaurant just down the street, so I lured my friends to lunch at the Huisache Grill and we all had a delicious lunch in an awesome atmosphere. This is probably one of my favorite restaurants and I know all the food is good, but I always order the same thing so I can have my "shrimp Louis" salad.  I have posted about the Huisache before.

The next show that I will be attending with my quilting friends is in Houston in November.  It is the BIG one.  I have limited stamina for being on my feet, so even though it is a mind-boggling experience... one day is just fine for me.  We are going on a bus that has been chartered by a local quilt shop.  There are seven in our group and this is the second time we will be doing this.  There are a couple different ladies going this time, so I had to get some more bags labeled with their names.  These backpacks help us to be hands-free as we walk the floor of the show, and the yellow color helps us to stand out in the crowd so we can spot each other at a distance.  There are literally thousands of people at this show, so anything to help find a comrade is helpful.  We did it last time and it worked nicely.

July, where did it go?

The weather outside surely lets you know that we are in the middle of summer.  We have been trying to get out to Colorado to our cabin for several weeks now.  The cool temperatures that we find at 10,000 feet is quite refreshing after you have experienced all the heat that we have here.  We potentially will head out there this week... we shall see if we make it this time.

It's been a while since I posted here, but sometimes things get busy, and before you know it a couple weeks have gone by.  We had company with us on our last Friday "lunch out day".  We have friends that had heard about the Huisache Grill in New Braunfels, but they had never been there.  The atmosphere and food is great, so any excuse to go back was welcome.  This picture is the garden path that leads to the back entrance to Huisache.

I have finished my first I-Spy quilt, but that was more than a week ago, so I thought it was time to put something new out there for those who might visit now and then to see if anything new is going on.  I bought the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book and have started at block one and I am working my way through.  I already have 15 done... that is 15 that count as real blocks.  I made one using the wrong size HST so I had to add several more to make it come out to the right size.  I actually like it more than the real one.  The other block is from the book Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.  All of the blocks are the same size, and I am not going to enter any competition with it, so I am going to forge ahead and keep the strays that wander in.

 

I'm using all scrap fabric... somehow at this rate I can't see my stash going down very quickly.  I'm not being fussy about the colors, just trying to stay away from "too bright".  The two on the left are the orphans.

I will likely not have a new post here for a couple weeks... the connection at the cabin is super slow at best. Have a good week, and stay cool.

It's a beautiful Friday

It's been a while since there has been anything new here.  The last week or so it has been very eventful.  Last week at this time I was getting ready to leave for a ladies retreat where I was going to be a facilitator for the craft event that would follow the speaker for the evening session.  I'm not a jewelry maker, but I can string a few beads without a problem.  I have lots of beads and ribbon and I think you can come up with some pretty neat creations with beads and ribbons. It was strictly the "fun factor" that was most important. The event went over pretty well with lots of variations in the completed "necklaces".  Of course another reason that I was elected to go was to drive the church bus.  I get that honor bestowed upon me often when it's a ladies' event... being the only "lady driver" of the bus.

When I was on the way home from the church on Saturday, I got a call from my sister to let me know that my brother had a stroke.  Now this is a younger brother, and it totally took me by surprise.  I thought he was a pretty healthy, strong individual.  Saturday night while at the hospital, he had a heart attack... and my sister calls me again on Sunday morning to advise me I should call to speak to him before he went in to surgery for the brain aneurysm.  He was in a lot of pain and was not able to talk a lot, but he was able to let me know "God is in control".  Well his surgery was successful, it was determined that he definitely had a heart attack, but here it is Friday and last I heard he was able to pick up a fork and feed himself.  Praise the Lord!  I won't go into the ups and downs that he has gone through this week, but he is still not out of the woods, and he still needs lots of prayers, so if you are reading this please add my brother Tim to your prayer list.

The whole week has been very busy.  I made a decision on the binding color for my apple quilt, and I will post a picture when I get the wall hanging quilted and have the binding complete.  I decided on a red AND green binding.  Thanks for all your votes.

I belong to a smaller quilting group that meets on Thursdays twice a month in a little cottage in a rural setting. It is a really neat place with quilts all over the walls, and antiques all around.  I got a call on Wednesday that the creek was up and it would not be good for a normal car to try to drive through, so I was asked to have the girls come to my house for quilting.  So yesterday I had 7 ladies here quilting.  We had sewing machines all over the place.  I think it was a pretty productive day for everyone.  It somehow seems that meeting in a different place adds to the fun.  We did a lot of laughing and story telling... and did I say that no one went away hungry didn't I?  Of course I had to show everyone my "mini" garden before I would let them come into the house.

Now Fridays are good days.  Ron and I used to go to dinner on Friday evenings.  That was what we did every Friday... kind of like date night.  A few months back we decided it might be fun to make a few changes.  We changed the time.  Instead of going out to supper, we go out to lunch... and we changed the place... actually every week is different, usually anyhow.  We head to San Antonio and beyond sometimes.  Because we are going to San Antonio, we wait until Friday instead of making a special run to Lowe's or Joann's or the big WalMart or anything else we might need up that way.  Doesn't mean we can't go other times, but if we know we are going on Friday anyhow, we can typically wait.  Instead of repeating the minimal selection of restaurants they have in our little town, we try to pick something new and/or exciting.  We've been to Chili's a few times because we love those "burger bites", and their desserts are wonderful, and there is this really neat Italian restaurant way up on the NW side of SA.  I found out that IHOP had cheesecake pancakes... if you have not had these and you like cheesecake... you need to try them.  We sometimes target an area for the restaurant and then find some place interesting or fun to shop, or at times we have something particular we need to shop for so we shop then look for some place that looks like a good place to eat.

Now it wouldn't be the same without a picture, so here is a clip of the restaurant we visited today. I have to tell you about this little restaurant I remembered visiting with some friends a couple years ago when we went to a quilt show in New Braunfels.  The name of the place is Huisache Grill, and if you don't know where it is, you could drive in circles trying to find it.  I guess if you are from New Braunfels you would know about it, but you cross the railroad tracks and there is one block of buildings then an alley.... you have to know it is down the alley cause there is no sign.  Boy what a neat place.  I convinced my husband that I could find it and it would be worth finding... so we ate there today, and lunch was wonderful.... and he agreed.

The sun is out and it is quite beautiful, so we drove home with the top down on the Miata.