A New Year!!

Well here we are in the new year of 2016. I don't know about you, but 2015 went by very fast. This past year was a rather stressful and sad one for me. I had a hip replacement in June, which went very well, but nun the less a bit stressful leading up to the surgery. I have been very blessed with good health up to the time my hip started bothering me. By the time I had my surgery, it had become very painful, making it rather difficult to take care of my horses and well just about everything!  But, with Gods help I was able to carry on until time for the surgery. Then in Oct I lost my only brother very expectantly and suddenly to cancer. The holiday's were a bit sad for me, I miss him very much!! It was only the two of us so we were pretty close. I am really having to call on my faith to get thru losing him.

I am looking forward to this new year. I have several quilts in mind that I want to make. The first one that I am going to start on is a BOM from Keepsake Quilts that I am going to make for my youngest granddaughters new room. It is very different from anything I have ever made before. It is piecing and applique, it should be fun and a challenge.  My love for working with wool has grown, so I am going to definitely be working with wool this year. I am looking into starting a mini wool  project of the month club at my studio. If anybody out there has ever done anything like this, I would love to hear your input on how to do this. Thanks!

I am also going to be more diligent about trying to get some more UFO's done!!! Who knows, this might be the year that I actually get close to getting caught up. My goal is to be more disciplined about wanting to do all the new things that come along.

Wishing all out there a very Happy New Year, full of love, friendships, good health and lots of time to sew.

Blessings to All

A Short Look Back to the First Thanksgiving

Here we are, getting ready to celebrate our annual holiday, Thanksgiving, again. This has always been one of my favorite holidays and I am so sad that it is almost overlooked today. As a child we did all kinds of art projects and had plays about the first Thanksgiving at school, while at home we would plan our wonderful turkey day meal and start baking all kinds of goodies day's before so we would be ready for the fantastic feast to come. There were a few times that we opened our home to someone that would not have had a Thanksgiving otherwise. It was a time of gratitude and thankfulness. Today, it seems like it almost gets lost in all of the early Christmas hype! To me this is very sad. My prayer is that this wonderful holiday will not be lost completely. My hats off to National Geographic for the new TV Miniseries, Documentary retelling the pilgrim story, "Saints & Strangers". Please check your local listings for this show.

 

 

Here is a brief history of the First Thanksgiving:

 

The history of the first Thanksgiving as a holiday goes back to 1620. Late that year, the Mayflower, a small ship for ocean crossings, left England with over 100 passengers on board. Some of them sought religious freedom in the new world and others simply were drawn by stories of the prosperity one could achieve in America. The journey to the new world lasted over two months. When they arrived, they found themselves well off course, near the tip of Cape Cod. They had been navigating for the Hudson River. They setup the colony at Plymouth on the other side of the bay over a month later. The settlers were ill prepared for the harsh New England winter and by the time spring came, they were down to about half of their original compliment.

 

 

That spring they met a Native American who spoke English. He introduced them to Squanto; the famous English speaking Indian who helped the settlers stay alive. He showed the otherwise hopeless settlers how to fish and hunt as well as how to grow corn and tell edible plants from poisonous ones. Squanto introduced the settlers to a friendly local tribe called the Wampanoag. With the help of the Native Americans the settlers prospered and later that year, in November of 1621 the settlers were ready to celebrate the successful harvest of their first crop of corn. The settlers invited many of their Indian allies to the party. The celebration of that 1st harvest lasted 3 days, with many of the dishes from both the settlers as well as the Native American cuisine.

 

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A Sad Time

Sorry, it has been a long time since I have posted. In October I got a call from my brother that he had not been feeling very well. He had gone to the Dr and was told that he had a bacterial sinus infection and given an antibiotic. He took all of the script but was not getting better! Long story, short, he ended up being referred to an ENT Dr. He was having a lot of trouble breathing so she suggested a tracheotomy. This came as a shock to him so he refused, only to end up 2 days later having to have an emergency tracheotomy. My husband and I left right away for AR. Unknown to us at the time, this was the beginning of the end. My brother ended up staying in the hospital for almost 4 weeks and found out that he had stage 4 cancer of the throat! His vocal chords were paralyzed so he had to have a stomach feeding tube to keep his food from going into his lungs. It was all so fast and horrific! My husband and I had gone back home to take care of some things for him and a few things at home. During this time they decided to send him to a hospice house. They transferred him on  a Sunday and he passed away early Monday morning. I was shocked and devastated that I was not there with him. I feel that he thought that I had a banded him and this breaks my heart!!! My brother was always there for me and I wasn't there for him the last minutes of his life. This I don't think that I will ever get over. It has been really hard to process all of this, but I am really leaning on my faith. I know that God will see me thru this.

 

 

I Love You

Rest in Peace Dear Brother



Charlee, My Special Companion

Let me introduce you to my Charlee. She is a Welsh Pembroke Corgi, one of the best dog breeds there is. I got her when she was 13 months old and she has been my constant companion for 12 years now. We have traveled to many states together. She really isn't that fond of traveling, but does fine as long as she is wearing her doggie seat belt. I had seen pictures of the Corgi breed with Queen Elizabeth for many years and thought how cute they were. You really didn't hear much about this breed here in the US until not too many years ago. I really became infatuated with them when I became a follower of Tasha Tudor. If you don't know who she was, she was a children's book illustrator and she was also known for her way of living and gardening. There is a lot of information about her on Google. Her family also has a lovely website you can visit, just go to tashatudorandamily.com

Here is a picture of Tasha and her corgyn

 





And here are a couple of pictures of her artwork with corgi's:

There are three color's of the Pembroke Corgi, sable (Charlee is a sable), red and tri color, which is black, red and white. These little guy's are very smart and fun to have around. If you look at them straight on they look like they are smiling, I love that!!

Charlee, my husband and myself are getting ready to make a trip back to Arkansas to see my brother, who is in the hospital and just found out that he has cancer. I am asking for prayers for him. Thank you!!

Until next time.....
Blessings to All

Catching Up

Hi, well it has been a very long time since I have written anything here! My how the time fly's!! 
To begin with, we did get our place in the country and are loving it!! There was a lot to do when we bought this place, and we have gotten some major things done, but still have more to do. We had a bad storm with high winds and hail a few weeks ago, so we had our roof inspected and sure enough we have damage. So, we are getting a new roof! We had talked about wanting a metal roof and now we are going to get one. We have chosen the dark green color, should look really nice.
Next, I had a hip replacement in June of this year. It had gotten to the point that I wasn't able to get much done, so decided to go ahead with the surgery. I am so thankful that I did! Doing really good now.

Here it is Fall already! This is my favorite time of the year. I love the nice cool and crisp mornings and evenings. Halloween is just around the corner, time to start decorating.

I need to go down to the barn and bring up all of my decorations. I did get a door hanging up that I made several years ago. It is one of the patterns I designed when I had my pattern co.

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This brings me to what I am doing now, along with making quilts for clients. I have had an Etsy shop for a few years, I started it out with offering Tea Cozy's. I haven't offered anything new for quite sometime, so I have decided to open it back up and add some more items for sale. I just listed a really cute Halloween Wall Hanging, it is a 'Halloween Countdown Calendar' that has 13 pockets for candy. Of course it would only count 13 days before Trick or Treat day.

I invite you to go on over to my little shop and check it out. fabraholic4.etsy.com  My mom left me a lot of fabric, mostly calico's from the 70' and 80's, in all different colors. I will be offering some of these fabrics in my shop soon. They are all in like new condition, she had them packed away very nicely.

I am looking forward to getting back to blogging again and hopefully making some new friends.

Have a blessed day!

New Quilt Top

Yesterday I made my first Turning 20 quilt top. They go really fast and are fun to make. These were popular a few years back, however I just never got around to trying one. I needed a quick gift so in my search for patterns I came across the Turning 20 quilt book. Perfect!! I did have to get more fat quarters to make it look right. When they say 20 different fabrics or fat quarters take it to heart because it really works much better that way. I tried to double up on a few fabrics and it really didn't look quite right. Here is a picture of the top.

 

 

 

My day quilt guild is meeting on Thursday so plan on taking it to a quilter then. I need it ready to give as a gift on May 18th! Wish me luck!!

 

I have decided to offer sewing space for quilters to come sew at my studio. I am located in a small town only 20 to 30 minutes away. I have had some ladies ask about doing this, so am going to give it a try. Sometimes it is easier to get much more accomplished away from all of the distractions of home.

 

Spring has finally sprung here. The flowering trees & tulips have been beautiful!!

 

 

 

My granddaughter took the above picture of these beautiful pink and white tulips. I love tulips, sure wished they lasted longer. Another favorite flower of mine is the Iris, they are putting out buds now, so it won't be long now before they will be blooming.

 

Blessings to All,

Jan

 







A Place in the Country??

Good Morning,  My dream for years has been to have a small place in the country where I could have my horses, chickens and goats. A lovely flower and vegetable garden and to live a peaceful, simple life.  Well, my husband and I have finally found the perfect place! We have made an offer and are now in the waiting process to see if we will get it or not. I want to get excited, but am controlling myself until we know for sure. The waiting is terrible!! Hopefully we will know this week for sure. We have been saying prayers and keeping our fingers and toes crossed. :-) If we are fortunate enough to get 'our place' we will be the happiest two people around! It will be a dream come true to be able to have my horses right there with me and too finally have my own chickens. BTW two chickens come with the place.

Would love your prayers. Hopefully I will have some pictures to come of our new home.

Blessings to All,
Jan