Thursday, March 21, 2019

everyone, meet Lucy.


I'm not a big wanter,
but when I want things,
they're big.


It's no secret that I've hoped for a longarm
for years.
And Tyler has wanted one for me
for even longer.

But - longarms cost lots of money
(and take up lots of space)
so I was fine with the knowledge
that it was going to be quite some time
before I got one.

Even so,
for well over a year now,
I've regularly popped in on sites that sell used longarms
and occasionally do a 'quilting' search
in Facebook sales groups
and Craigslist.

Which is how,
2 weeks ago tomorrow,
I came to be the owner 
of a 28-year-old
no frills
Gammill 24" longarm quilting machine
on a 14-foot steel frame.


Everyone,
meet Lucy:



I can still hardly believe she's mine.
Thanks, Love!

Sunday, March 3, 2019

all of February


Wow.
That went by in a whoosh, didn't it?!

I ordered this from Charlie and Ella, and it arrived on Valentines Day. I love it so much!!

Let's see.

There was Groundhog Day.


Brandon joined us for the festivities :-)

~

And the Super Bowl.

(Which for us really just means 
snacks.)


~
Some friends gave us tickets
- enough for all of us! - 
to go to a Razorback basketball game.


That was fun,
but I realized I should explained 
some of the rules of the game to them beforehand.

~

I worked my fingers to the bone
trying to finish
so I could enter it in the upcoming NWA quilt show.


When I still had about 50 hrs of work left
and only 2 weeks to do it in,
I knew I had to give up.

It's kinda bummy,
because
if Instagram is any indication,
it would have been really well received,
and I feel like my chance at a ribbon was pretty good.


Ah well.

Speaking of Instagram,
I hit 500 followers a few weeks ago.


It's humbling that that many people 
feel like I have something to offer in this crafty community.

It sure isn't my glamorous, well-styled photography 😆

~

Tyler has continued work on the porch railings
as he's had time
and the weather's been cooperative.

It looks so nice when I drive up!
(It'll really look nice when we paint / stain them!)

~

The girls went to SuperStart


and we babysat kidsat for some friends.



~

The biggest news of the month
is
I went to Quilt Con!!


Long story short,
about a week and half before the trip,
one of my good blogging friends
messaged me to say that
God told her husband 
that he was supposed to send us to Quilt Con.

It was rather humbling to be on the receiving end 
of  such an extravagant gift,
but who am I to get in the way of someone obeying God??

We met in Nashville -
her coming from Arizona, and me from Arkansas.

She was exactly what I expected 
and we pretty much talked non-stop the whole weekend.

We saw hundreds of quilts,

this was my favorite -  made by Wendy Hill

and met a few other quilters.


I tried out some longarms.

We had icecream for dinner.
(yum)

I wish I'd have been more 'myself'
because I feel like I wasn't really much fun.
All in all though, it was a very nice trip
and I'm so grateful for her and her husband's generosity,
and that my man was willing to let me go off 
for a weekend with a 'stranger'.

And I'm grateful that God uses technology
to bring people together.