Four fantastic shell-looking coasters arrived in the mail today. THANK YOU BEV! The batteries in my camera need to be replaced, so I'll have to describe them to you all. The tops are made of fabric with lots of shells in it, and the bottoms are sky blue with poofy clouds mixed in. They are all shaped like shells, and Bev quilted the shell lines into them. They are just too cool, and yes Bev, perfect! Now, how did you ever know I'm a beach addict? LOL! Either tomorrow or Saturday I'm going to have to go to the grocery store and pick up the ingredients so I can mix up some pineapple sunrises and use them! Thanks Again Bev!!!

Hello :D I am Marie and live in Wyoming (the only WY person on these forms I think LOL) I have 2 children: Son is 25 and is blessing me with my first Grandbaby in April :) and my daughter just turned 16. Besides quilting and other crafts, I am an avid FOOTBALL fan (my friends & family say it is more of an obsession) and love to fish. I attempted sewing on my Grandmothers antique trendle machine, yes the ones before electricity with a leather belt. It was great fun but didn't really accomplish anything per say, I still have it but it is just for looks now. I really didn't get interested in sewing until I was pregnate with my son. I made my first one out of 2 - 2yd pieces of blue/white plaid cotton and dark blue flannel for the back. I bought satin binding, hand sewed every thing on and hand tied it with plain white yarn, then made one similar for my son but with little boy print for the front. I still have them and use the blue one for watching movies with my daughter. My Mom's, mom gave me all of her counted cross stitch books and I did that for the most part with a little crocheting/knitting until 3 or 4 years ago. I decided to try making a quilt with blocks after checking out this site and have been hooked ever since. I enjoy being in the Quilt RR and BB Block exchange - learning something new all the time. I love to be outside and grow just about everything: veggies and all types of flowers in the summer (LOVE Daylilys & Iris) and have lots of house plants and will try any type of seed. I have 6 Avacodo's growing now - not sure what I am going to do with them all when they get to be TREE's but they are fun. Oh, a new one sprouted last week and has 3 sprouts from one seed! very cool IMO I really enjoy seeing what others are doing - gives me great idea's for new projects. I have 5 to 10 going at an given time to keep from getting bored. I decided to go back to school for Archaeology this fall, I'm enjoying myself but it sure does cut into my crafting/quilting time... So my goal for this weekend it to finish up the September BB's and also my RR row and center. Have a great weekend all! I am off to my daughters school - she is head cheerleader and homecoming is tonight. GO CYCLONES!!! Marie

I love your quilt. It makes you just want to grab it up and hug it, it looks so soft and cuddly. I love the design and I love it that you just started it and was clueless and then made it into THAT!!!!! This always puts me in mind of the story that if a bee knew it were aerodynamically impossible due to their body shape to fly, then they couldn't. But they didn't know, and they fly. My tumbling blocks quilt was started on an act of faith. I didn't know that was "supposed" to be a hard pattern. I didn't even use a pattern. I just figured it out on my own and cut my own templates. If I had known it was supposed to not be for people attempting their first real quilts, it would never have graced my mother's bed before she died. I have you beat for UFO's btw. I started an embroidered animal block quilt for my son in 1967 and finished it for my grandson in 1992. That's what......twenty five years? You did a beautiful job.

Sherry, I hear ya! I never want to kill anything, so I hope I'm never overrun again. This time I got lucky with the weasel. Oh, I believe you, bkay. Coyotes are determined hunters so who knows what it was after when it broke into the bus station, or if it was sick or why it did that. Jon, I was searching for a solution, but I never thought of LF for rats, so I'll file away those ideas in case I need them in the future. I have a good sense of smell so the putrefied egg might drive me from the property, lol. I'm relieved nature worked in my favor this time. LOL, Josephine, I read that wrong. That coyote must have been hunting in the scrub. :) I've never heard one close up like you did, but I have heard a rattle snake in some tall grass. That was enough to convince me to change directions FAST. gregbradley, what a small world. My old place where my cat was chased right up to my door was Upland! You sound like you're higher up than I was. I was below Baseline so it was only bad when we had a couple years of drought. The drought is much worse now than when I lived there so I can imagine they're coming down looking for food. We had a/an opposum in the yard once, but not all the other animals you have. My brother is in Valencia and a coyote killed his much loved cat :-( He would love that you got two of them with your baseball bat....which means they got very close to you. Be careful out there!