It all started with a simple phone call

It all started with a simple phone call last Friday afternoon. Here's an excerpt from the conversation:

Marilyn: Hi Vicky! I've got another box/bag of scraps for you! Would you like them?

Me: YES MA'AM!!! When would you like me to come & get them?

Marilyn: Tomorrorw around 1pm ok?

Me: Yuppers!

Now Marilyn is the one that I talk about in my presentations. She is the one that gave me the microwave box full of scraps. Well she didn't disappoint this time either. She filled a contractors trash bag & 2 smaller bags full. 

She lives about 45 min to the east of me & I made it to her house on time. Chatted for a few minutes, loaded the car & I was off. Well I was supposed to meet some friends who were in from out of town for an early dinner around 5 or so South of Kansas City. I thought why go all the way back home from here to turn around & come back the same direction? Why not go another 45 min to the east & go to Missouri Star in Hamilton MO? I thought it was a spectacular idea! Every time I go there they are always changing things up. I'm not a yardage girl, I'm a scrapper but there are some things that I will buy yardage of & that is my Kona Black (because I've used up the majority of my black scraps) & anything that has the Eiffel Tower on it. I have loved the Tower for as long as I can remember & have been collecting fabrics for some quilty project down the road. I found this yardage! It was new & some of it needed to come home with me.

I had a great time & was able to meet my friends on time & had a great dinner catching up. It wasn't long enough, it never is though.

Yesterday was filled with church & taxes. Today well I'm hoping that today will be filled with some sewing. I've got a deadline on this string quilt & it needs to get finished! I've made more progress since this picture was taken but here's a glimpse of how it's turning out.

My dear husband is home this week. He's taking a week of vacation so that he can get some things done on the farm that require his practiular set of skills. I'm hoping that he'll be able to cross lots of things off of his to do list. I might be learning how to build fence & stretch wire this week. All good skills to have.

I hope that y'all are having a great first week of spring. It looks to be a beautiful day here. I'm off to do more laundry & SEW!!!! Have a good day! More later on,

Vicky

Strings, strings & more strings

I've been a stinging fool here lately. This year as the VP with my local guild I choose string quilts for our guild challenge. Well the challenge went out a while ago & well it occurred to me a few weeks ago that our guild challenge quilts needed to be finished & brought to the April meeting. Oh good gravy am I behind. No one to blame but myself. I knew that I wanted to do a string design that I had never done before. So I hum hauled & finally came up with what I wanted to do. I wanted to make a Broken Star qullt using strings. Well there's been somewhat of a learning process along the way but progress has been made! Here's what the center star will look like

 I've got to make 3 more of the larger stars & then I can start to put this thing together. Unfortunately my hopes of using up the large amount of strings that I have has not happened. I seriously think that they multiply when I'm not around. It's incredible how many units you can make with a small amount of strings. If you've never done string piecing I highly reccomend it. It'll become addictive & you won't be able to stop with just one string quilt.

Yesterday was an early & long day. We were up before the sun loading steers to take to the sale. It was a beautiful morning. This was my view of the sunrise. My job during loading is that I'm the gate keeper.

I'm holding gates & swinging them to my husband when needed. The kiddo got his first taste of being in the barn with dad while loading. There were a few bumps in the road while loading but they did just fine. We got to the sale barn early, dropped of the steers & then went back into town for breakfast. As we were leaving the restaurant there was a monk walking down the road & getting ready to cross the street.

He was the whole package,the brown robe, sandals, rope belt & the shaved head with the ring of hair.

I was in shock, I couldn't help but laugh I took as many pictures as I could. A monk crossing the road in a small town in north central Kansas is not what I was expecting to see. I didn't realize that the Catholic Church still had monks. Last night after we got home I talked with a friend who is Catholic & she informed me on all things regarding monks. Low & behold there's a Benedictine college 30 minutes north of where I am that has lots of monks living there. I really need to get out more & explore my surroundings & learn more about the area where I live.

This morning will be a busy one. I'm looking forward to this afternoon when I get back home & can attack my stringy diamonds! I hope that y'all are doing well. More later on,

Vicky