​Second day of an ice storm.  We lost power early Sunday and thankfully had it back on before noon on Monday.  We were lucky, I know of many who have a wait time of two weeks or more to be up and operating again.  Life suddenly takes a turn when something like this happens, one realizes that we are not in charge of our destiny as we might have thought.  Mother nature really is a feisty gal and she will take you for a ride whether you want to go or not. 
I am afraid my husband could not keep out of the cold, breaking ice in the water tanks, hauling four bales of hay with long spikes that stick out of the back of his truck.  Each bale taking a load so back and forth he goes, getting it close to the pasture where the cattle are.  He knows it will soon become a muddy mess when the thaw comes and he won't be able to get in the pasture again until it dries up.  Off again he goes out to give the cows some grain.  He comes back with good news, the first calf has come in the middle of a snow storm.  Talk about bad timing, can you imagine being in that warm belly only to land in frozen ice and a terrible wind, all in one sudden jolt? 
Jerry is getting my car ready for me to go to work in the morning, it had two inches of ice on it.  Why do we have four out buildings and not enough room for my car?  Ironically my oldest sister, Virginia gave me an electric ice scraper but I hadn't gotten gifts out of my car yet so it was frozen in the back of my car.   My husband is a sweetheart for sure.  As Tennessee Ernie Ford would say "Bless his little pea pickin' heart".

I recently spent two weekends with some of my grandchildren, one was on a train trip to Dallas to see the play Peter Pan and the Dallas Aquarium.  The second weekend was much different.  We stayed on the farm and part of the time we helped my husband, Jerry, clean up limbs that had fallen from the ice storm.  It was a huge job, he spent two days using the chain saw to get the wood ready to move.  Once it was all cut the children loaded the limbs on the flat bed trailer, drove it to the pasture and unloaded it. Our oldest grandson Kris, drove the big truck with the trailer on it.  He is not yet 13 but driving at this age on the farm is not unusual. 

Kailee, the seven year old, was not at all interested in this job and protested loudly "Why do we even have these trees?  If we didn't have trees we wouldn't have to pick up sticks!"  She picked up sticks with a tiara on the entire time. 

Sometimes when we are together we aren't having much fun, but the importance is that we are together.  They learned what to save for firewood, what went on the trailer to go to the burn pile and how to stack it properly.  We learn that a job may be daunting, but if we all work together we can accomplish almost anything. 

​When being together, whether it is working or having fun, we create a camaraderie between us.  The definition of camaraderie is a mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together.  I see this happen all the time at our retreats.  Some people come with folks they already have a bond with, others just show up and before the end of the third day a bond has been created.  They go home feeling a love, a knowing of others.  I hope you find a group to sew with, play cards with or just hang out together to create a belonging of your own.  Find a group to that inspires you, people to love, whether related or not.  This is my wish for you in the new year of 2016.  Go make this year count!

​Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than seeing a sample that they cannot get the pattern or fabric for.  When a fabric or pattern is no longer available, we remove the sample from the shop floor.  Many of these quilts are donated to charities for auctions.  For the rest, we have a sample sale and sell them for less than it costs to make them.  It is a smart business move, we are not a museum and don't need to keep these quilts - logically.  But sometimes logic clashes with the heart.  

Although I have plenty of beautiful Christmas quilts at my home, I have a hard time giving up this paper pieced star quilt that I made several years ago.  It is lovely, not only the quilt pattern, but even the quilting.    But I can't take them all home - can I?  So we offer these beauties to make someone a very happy recipient of a quilt made with love.  I hope the recipient enjoys this quilt as much as I enjoyed making it.

I have enjoyed making miniature quilts lately.  This one was made over the Thanksgiving weekend when I really should have been getting the Christmas decorations down rather than hanging out in my sewing room.  It is wrinkled but I can't iron it until I embroidery the vine.  The blocks are 1/2" finished and the center is 18" x 20".  I had so much fun making the center.

As you can see it needs ironed but of course I can't do that until I embroidery the vine to connect the flowers.  Otherwise the pretty vine I drew would magically disappear.  

My quandary is that the book I used says to do the applique with just a raw edge as shown.  I personally do not care for that.  I am not against the machine applique itself, but I think it needs to be done with a blanket stitch or blind stitch with nylon thread.  I certainly don't want to hand embroidery the vine only to decide later that I am going to take off the borders and start all over.  
​So I ask you, what would you do? Leave it as is or start over on the borders?

Have you heard of CHERYL SLEBODA?  She is a blogger and teacher in the sewing industry.  She has challenged some of us who do blogs to posting 31 blogs in 31 days.  What a crazy idea, to write everyday on my blog in the busiest time of the year!  But I love a challenge and this sounds like a fun one.  So I invite you to go to her website and check out some of the other bloggers who are participating.  You might find something that makes your creative heart fly.
http://muppin.com/wordpress/index.php/the-31-day-blog-writing-challenge/