Fanciful Quilts

Today marks the end of our trip to Shreveport, Louisiana. We fly out tomorrow and will soon settle in to a routine in Dayton late at night. It's been a roller coaster ride, coming back. Some disappointments- the greasy spoon where we ate on most Saturdays is no more - the Polynesian restaurant where Riley worked as a waiter is now a Mexican restaurant - and now there are cloverleaf interchanges along I-20. Some delights - the first house we lived in is still standing - the first "real" home we had, a garage apartment, is still standing - and has been improved tremendously with siding - Pancho's Mexican restaurant is still Pancho's and Marshall Texas courthouse is still standing. The biggest delight was driving to Marshall .... finding the courthouse .... and then actually seeing our names in "the book". A s soon as we went through the metal detector, we made our way to the records department. We asked a young lady if it was possible for her to look up...

This one has to be my all-time favorites....of all the roses Riley has had delivered weekly, this is THE one. Perhaps it is the fact that we're getting closer and closer to our magic date of 23 Feb 09 when we will meet in the Atlanta airport and then fly out to Cancun. Perhaps it's just the sheer beauty of this flower. The deep red is in the inside of the petal - and the creamy barely pink color is on the outside of the petal. The rose itself didn't last more than a couple of days, but the beauty of it will be forever in my heart. A mazingly enough, when the rose unfolded - it was truly beautiful. For two days it showed its glory without a wilt in sight. I dreamt of this rose several nights ago....as if there was a significant meaning to this particular rose. When I woke up, Robert Burns poem came to mind. Mind you, I'm not one to read poetry until the wee hours of the morning...or even while having a cup of coffee midday. I do confess to having written many poems in m...

Today's picture is my Tuesday's rose from my beloved Riley. Beautiful, is it not? And today is Wednesday. The morning started out wonderfully mundane. Woke up - did 2 loads of laundry - walked for 30 minutes while the laundry spun around merrily in the dryers (ah the joy of not owning a washer and dryer...NOT) - took a shower - planned out my day of errands and then promptly felt the most horrendous stomach cramps ever. Remember the 1979 movie "Alien" and the creature that popped out of the guy's stomach....? That movie should have never ever been released...it will haunt me to the end of my days. At any rate, I think you have a very graphic photo in your head by now....and I'm glad I could share it. The rest of the day was spent in bed - errands be darned - and ate nothing but toast and drank tea. Whatever it was is almost gone - but it has drained the life out of this body and has left behind a low grade headache that would really like its body to be able to...

"Project Unicorn" wasn't completed quite yet... Label on the back had to sewn on...and now it is done & waiting for name & address to mail the quilt. While sewing the label to the back of the quilt, I thought about what it takes to make a marriage. I suppose there's a connection there somewhere - but I don't question any more what the Holy Spirit lays on my heart. It's easy to go with the flow than to argue. And who can argue successfully with the Holy Spirit! On the 27th of July, Riley & I will celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary. We eloped on the 27th of July to Marshall, Texas - just over the Louisiana border - and told my parents that evening. Twenty-five years later, we renewed our vows in church. Bridesmaids, groomsmen, dad walking me down the aisle - the whole nine yards. And now on our 37th anniversary, we hope to renew our vows in our church. Riley emailed me the question I was not anticipating ... "what will you say?". I had ...

I'm quietly pleased - only a couple of days have passed since I mailed off the dinosaur quilt and I've started another. The young lady whom this quilt is for loves unicorns....Cinderella....Snow White. Unicorns was a little difficult to nail down but Cinderella and Snow White? Elusive beyond belief.... Searching through a couple online quilting stores is fun. Searching through hundreds of online quilting stores is not. It's downright painful, frustrating and the worst - an exercise in sheer will power not to order yards and yards of "oh I just have to have THAT now" fabric. I did find one Cinderella print but she looked downright scary. Whatever happened to that lovely Cinderella of my youth.... Okay - fabric arrives. Now - what do I do with it? I know this young lady also loves aqua .... but alas, no aqua in the fabric stash. So..... I come up with a few colors that might go well with the fabric..... Great - looks pretty good. Hmmm - 6 1/2" squares might cap...