First Day of School!!!

I love to compare the girls' school pictures to see how they've grown each year.

This was last year....


Last day of school in June...

And today! Look at how tall Abbie has gotten!!!

I walked the girls to school this morning -- I would have anyway, even if we still had bus service. Can't let a year go by without pictures of the girls with their teachers on the first day of school!

We are so incredibly blessed for Abbie to have Mrs. Evans again this year. I can't tell you how glad I am she's in Liz's class.


And Kait has Mrs. Book. We've never had Mrs. Book for a teacher before, but I'm thrilled Kait gets to spend the year with her. And what a sweet class this is going to be! So many of my favorite friends from Kinder are going to be in Kait's class. It's going to be a great year!

9,999 Hits on the Wall, 9,999 Hits....

When I stopped by my blog this morning, the "counter" read 9,999 hits. How cool is that? I don't know what all four of my readers have been doing over the last couple of years, but you sure stop by often!

If I'd installed a counter when Mom first got sick, rather than a year later, I'm sure it would have been a lot more. But it's still cool.

This has been a super-busy week, trying to cram in as much fun as possible before school starts. The girls have had play-dates and lots of sleepovers. We went to the Blue Bell pool on Wednesday and Splashtown yesterday. Today we're going to Meet the Teacher and the Children's Museum. Tonight we're watching Rice vs. Baylor in soccer, and then headed to the Creek.

I'll come up for air on Monday after I drop the kids off!

At a Crossroads.....

I'm pausing for a bit in the making of that 25-patch quilt.

Here's my dilemma. Fifty blocks are what I would need to make a twin-sized quilt. A great thing to have on the back of the couch, or hanging on the wall or whatever.

And that's what I thought I wanted to do.

But.....

As I look at it, I think it would look much better as a queen-sized quilt. For that, I need 108 blocks. One more week of work on just blocks before I go further.

You've seen what the blocks look like. What do you think? Twin or Queen??

My Grandad's Name was Bill

My Grandad Herring's name was Bill, and he was tough. He rode and roped and ranched and farmed and raised three kids in a not-so-easy era.

Another Bill is out there right now, and it's looking pretty tough, too. Hurricane Bill is churning up the Atlantic, and we'd all better pray it stays out there. It's got to thread the needle between Bermuda and the East Coast -- and hopefully will do just that.

Hurricanes fascinate me. This 5-week Texas Hurricane season gets me all giddy. It's not that I want one to come here. Not at all. I like my air-conditioning, and our new generator isn't big enough to run it.

It's just all the wondering. With a wave coming off of Africa every few days, it's so interesting to hear all the speculation, to wonder what will come to fruition, where it will go.

This past weekend Claudette was an urgent reminder that we don't always get as much warning as we did with Ike. When we went to bed Saturday night, Claudette was just a puff of clouds off the coast of Florida. By Sunday afternoon, it was a tropical storm hitting Florida.

What a great reminder that storms can come up out of "nowhere" in the Gulf! And seemingly overnight. AND on a weekend when everyone has their guard down! YIKES!

If you live on the Gulf Coast and don't have your hurricane supplies together, you'd better get them ready. The GOM is a bathtub right now. Bill has gotten to a monster of a Category 4 storm without hitting any "warm" water. If anything gets into the Gulf, it's gonna be scary.

On Pins & Needles....

All right... Now that you have all your little strips cut, it's time to put them together. You want to sew 200 of your strips together -- by twos. Like Noah's Ark. I worked very hard to make sure I didn't sew two identical strips together. I'm not perfect, so I may not have totally succeeded in reaching that goal, but it was a goal.

It's very important that you do your best to match up your seams. I love it that the Amish say there is only one "perfect one" -- and that is God. The Amish actually make a point of having at least one "mistake" or Humble Square in each quilt.

I'm far from perfect, so I have lots of humble squares.

When you match up your seams, you want to squish them together so that they butt up against each other. Then, put the pin down through the seam on one side, and up through the seam on the other. And then hold your breath and stick your tongue out the side of your mouth and clench your jaw and pray that that's how the come out once they're sewn together.

Once you've got all your "twos" sewn together, marry them with other each other to make "fours." Once you're done with that, add the fifth row.

When you're done with all that, you should have 50 squares that look something like this:

Remember to press them. Back first, then front.

The backs will look something like this:

Now use your rotary cutter and tools to even up the outside edges. You can't sew a straight seam if you don't have straight edges.

Once they're trimmed, ideally you're outer rows will be 1 1/4 " deep. And ideally, all your inside pieces will be 1-inch square.

And you'll have lots of beautiful squares that look something like this:

Now.... You're caught up with me! We'll have the next installment in a couple of days! Hang in there!

Ready for the Next Step??

Okay. Now... If you really are following this, you've got a bunch strips sewn together in 5-strip sets.

Now, it's time to cut those up. You want to cut them into 1 1/2" strips. Use your rotary cutter and line it up and get to work. When you're done, you'll hopefully have (around) 250 of these strips.

A Pressing Issue....

Okay. Pressing seams is of HUGE importance. You should always press as you go. If you're doing a simple pattern, you always want to press your seams to the dark side. However, for this little thing we're doing, we're just going to press them all in the same directions. Press both sides of your strips. Back first, to get the seams headed in the same direction, then the front to really smooth it all out.

How I Do That Thing I Do

Okay. I've been thinking I should put up a few "how to" blog entries to show you what goes on around here. So.... I've spent this week preparing a few glimpses into the fine art of quiltmaking.

First step: Choose your fabric. I'm pretty picky about my fabrics -- it comes from having a Momma who was a stellar seamstress. I think if you're going to put this much time into making something, you should make it last for generations to come. If you need a lesson in choosing fabric, call me -- it's really a hands-on activity.

Once I get my fabric, I wash it, dry it and iron it. I only use 100% cotton, and it needs to be pre-shrunk before I start working with it. Some people wait and wash their fabrics after making their quilts to get a "puckered" look. You can do it either way.

Now.... The fun part. I could spend a week just showing you how to use a rotary cutter, but instead I'm going to send you to this YouTube link. You can find instructions for just about anything on YouTube. I'm pretty sure how to build the Space Shuttle is somewhere on there.

For this project, I used a 1 1/2" strips. I have a rather substantial collection of Christmas fabrics that have been acquired over time. Now... I will say that there are a few that I purchased early on that really aren't the quality I like to use. But for the most part, it's a collection of great fabric.

I can't tell you how many strips to cut because that depends on how many blocks you want to make. I will tell you that my quilt is going to have 50 blocks in it. I'm designing this as I go, so it's not an exact science. You're just going to have to enjoy the ride.

If you're using new fabric, I would suggest you cut at least 125 strips. Now.... You all know I can't do math, but as near as I can figure, that's what I'd go with.

My goal for this was to have as little repetition as possible. I'm really trying to make sure each block that I make is made up of 25 different squares. Hang with me here.

Once you have 125 strips of fabric cut, you can stitch them together like this. Use a 1/4" seam allowance. On my project, I tried to keep from repeating the same pattern of strips.

I also used a LOT of scraps from my scrap bucket. So some of my strips looked like this when sewn together.

I know this is clear as mud. It's going to be like that for a couple of days. Hopefully the picture will clear up soon.

Ooops.

Fell in love with this the second I put it on my dining room table. Until then, I was okay with it being a gift. Now.... I'm going to have to visit my friend a LOT during Christmas.

The Back:

Dude.... It doesn't get any cuter than that.

Re-Boot

After all that's gone on the last few weeks, I need a re-boot. So....

Giving up the Big Five -- Again.

1. No caffeine
2. No sugar
3. No alcohol
4. Nothing from a restaurant with a drive-up window
5. Nothing obviously unhealthy from a restaurant (i.e. pizza).
6. Peanut butter after 10:00 a.m.

Okay. I've changed it to the Big Six.

Anyone want to join me??

They're Hitched!!!

The girls and I went out to West Texas last weekend for Micah Hensley's wedding. Before we could party, though, we stopped in at Aunt Carla's for a sleepover.

And some windmill pix.

Kaitlyn, being of the huggy sort, had to hug Micah about a million times. And have her picture made with her.

This is what happens when your 8-year-old is your photographer. She needs to grow about 2 feet, or I'm destined to have 6 chins for forever.

A

It was good to see the Jarretts. And the McMeans. And Mrs. Lewis. I have pictures of all of them, but they're a bit blurry. And, to be honest, Mrs. Lewis' picture just isn't that flattering of either one of us. I have a very strict policy against posting pictures of myself that I don't like.

Granny Nelva with the "Begats."

It sure was good to see Sky. He and Bonnie are in Nashville these days. I think he misses Home. As always, he was very entertaining!

I love this picture of three strong, beautiful women!

Uncle Bill Willard played football at Rice "back in the day," so I snapped this one of girls sharing their Rice Owl spirit with him!

Carla and her girls... They're pretty much grown up!! Sarey's off to college this fall. Wow.

Kaitlyn the red-nosed cutie.

With Paw-Paw.