Crazy Christmas Purse

I only signed up to take 2 half day classes this year.  I've found that I just loose my momentum after the lunch break with the all day classes.  Plus I always get frustrated because you are working in a small space and there are always the speedy gals who are already running their machines wide open while I'm just getting everything sorted out and that frustrates me.  The half day classes are perfect unless they dim the lights and try to do a Power Point presentation and then I go to sleep.  Boo!

Today's class was perfect, although after I started the project I thought it would be boring.  We made these little bags in the style of a crazy quilt, something I've admired but never thought to do.  It was fun, especially because most of it was done with glue!  Yeah, glue!  I exercised a little creativity with the project and it was fun to watch it emerge.  I still need to sew on the handle on one side and then it is ready to go.  I see some more future crazy quilt projects.  What a great way to use up all those scraps of fabric and trims that I just can't seem to make myself throw away.  It would also be easy to embellish with a few beads and embroidery stitches.

Here's a detail of some of the red quilts on display.

Lana, I appreciate your comment as there are a lot of times I just want to close my eyes and find myself where I need to be!  Houston's traffic can be wild, but I've found that my main problem is just not knowing where I'm going and what lane to be in at the right time! Although my sister has lived here since 1991 (her hubby is a local guy and knows where everything is) and I've been coming to the Festival for a number of years this is the first year I've felt comfortable with the driving.  I think part of my confidence has come from driving in San Antonio during the past few years - we have the worst traffic in the universe and I've learned to deal with it! Traffic - UGH!

Houston, I have landed.

It's here, it's here!  The one event I dream of all year - the International Quilt Festival - and once again, by the grace of God, I'm here! Woo-hoo!

This year the Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary - its Ruby Anniversary.  There are red and white quilts everywhere.  Although I never really cared for the plain red and white quilts by themselves, I am charmed by the collection together!  I love red (and most other colors, too) and it is giving a startling effect to the Festival this year.

One of my favorite thing to do while here is get downtown early, get a cup of coffee and go to one of the second floor patios of the convention center.  I have watched the skyline of Houston change over the years that I've been coming to the Festival.  I've watched buildings go up as well as the implementation of the Discovery Green just across the street.  The trees in the green are now well grown and provide cool shade and greenery to the downtown landscape. 

Hurricane Ike went through just weeks before the Festival in 2008, but the show would go on.  I remember sitting on the patio marveling at the broken windows and damaged buildings where work was already quickly underway to make repairs.  I've watched new hotels and condominiums be built.  This year a new Marriott is going up where years ago I remember older homes, maybe from the late 1800's, that were gently worn yet still elegant.  Now they are gone and newness continues.

Many years ago I worked just down the street for a week; I stayed in the hotel on the left.  Even then I was fascinated with downtown Houston; it continues today.  This morning while enjoying the morning realized what an old citySan Antonio is - the Europeans came in 1690 and the missions were established in the early 1700's.  We are a city of adobe buildings and many cultures.  Houston was formed in 1836, but today it is the city of newness, of oil and glass towers.  I love them both.

I always want to walk down toward Minute Maid Park and check out this church surrounded by a modern building.  It reminds me of St. Joseph's church in San Antonio that is surrounded by River Center Mall.  I think my feet will be too tired again this trip, but I'm thinking that maybe just a weekend trip when there is no Festival to keep me distracted from exploring would be most rewarding.

Monday Musings 10.27.2014

Scary Fellow!

Jaydon carved this Jack-O-Lantern on Saturday morning for use in Sunday afternoon's Harvest Festival at church.  He did it entirely on his own - the only thing I did was spread out the newspapers on the table and give him a trash bag.  He's done this every year and looks forward to it.  Good job!

Now for the musings. Some time ago I had the realization that I could either have
1) a beautifully decorated, immaculately clean, perfectly organized home,
2) a beautiful, well-landscaped yard that is perfectly maintained, or
3) I could pursue interests such as making quilts, knitting and other needlework, reading, writing, researching places and then travelling to them, grooming and training my dogs, preparing food for friends who are sick or bereaved, taking friends who need a bit of cheering to lunch, and other activities that bring me pleasure and are worthwhile endeavors.

But I cannot have all three.  I cannot have two; neither can I successfully balance all three.  Even though I know this fact I still attempt to try to balance the three because I cannot choose which one to pursue.  It will not work; I cannot have them all.  I know this to be a fact.

I had a Halloween wall hanging that I started early in the fall that I wanted to use for the Harvest Festival.  I managed to make myself work on it every night when I was home.  Each day I set a goal to piece a certain part, quilt a certain part, to get x amount done that night; I had reasonable goals and I met them.  Did I finish the wall hanging?  Almost, I basted the binding (no one ever knew) and I also plan to re-do some of the embellishments before next year. 

I was successful with this project by focusing on it to get it done.  I think this approach works good sometimes; however, the trade off is that I now have a nice layer of dust on the furniture (no, I can't blame not dusting on the weekend trip to see my sister), there are animal fur samples in corners and on the back of the sofa, and the yard looks just about like it did before the sewing project fired up.  Books are still stacked up, waiting to be read.  Pictures and notes await creation into blog posts.  I have only sporadically walked the dogs (and myself). I have managed to keep groceries stocked and feed myself.  Basically, life will go on.  But the musings of this blog post will end because I think, dear readers, you know what I'm saying - you can't have it all!

Wednesday 10.22.2014

Covered Bridge
Woodstock, Vermont

A Little Visit to the King Ranch

When I wrote the post on Cowboy Church I mentioned that I was on a trip to the King Ranch.  I've decided that I would be remiss if I didn't mention this trip and the King Ranch in a post.  It was an enjoyable day and I am planning to visit again and do some historical sleuthing in Kingsville while there. 

Visitors are not allowed to drive onto the ranch since it is a working ranch; all tours are either on one of their busses or a group motor coach. They tour you through a small area of the ranch, but you do get to see several buildings including the Big House and the large covered pavilion where horse auctions were once held.

I didn't get too many pictures from the tour as making pictures through the window of a motor coach has its serious faults.  At the visitor center 2 longhorns were in a adjacent field, and as our tour guide told us, their longhorn cattle is on another part of the ranch so they have these there because non-Texas visitors always expect to see a longhorn while visiting the ranch!

In preparation for the trip I had started reading Petra's Legacy. Petra Vela Kenedy was the wife of Mifflin Kenedy who was a business partner and close friend of Richard King.  While it is not an actual biography of her life, it is a compilation of the events that would have involved her and her family.  Little is actually known about her, but through letters, court documents and newspaper articles the authors compiled a book that offers a glimpse into the struggles that these early ranchers and their families encountered as they tried to tame the Wild Horse Dessert.  Many years ago, in what now seems like another life, I had spent time in South Texas and was familiar with the harshness of this land.  As I read the book I could understand the trials that they went through to exist and to establish these ranches.  Life was not easy and often they were dealing with human threats in addition to the unpredictably of natural events.





This area had had several inches of rain the week before our visit; they were over-joyed and everything was very green.  The last few years have been very dry for South Texas.

 

Our tour guide was ecstatic that there was water in this creek!  It had been dry until the rain came.  I don't remember the name of the creek, but the guide told us that Richard King had camped along this creek when he first came to the ranch, known then as the Santa Gertrudis Ranch, and had fallen in love with this rough country.

 

The King Ranch web site offers a good summary of the ranch and its history:

 

The Ranch now covers 825,000 acres—more land than the state of Rhode Island. Over the course of 150 years, King Ranch has led some of the first cattle drives, developed the Santa Gertrudis and Santa Cruz breeds of cattle, bred the finest quarter horses, and produced champion thoroughbreds—all under its iconic Running W® brand.

Today’s King Ranch has diversified into a major agribusiness with interests in cattle ranching and feedlot operations, farming (citrus, cotton, grain, sugar cane, and turfgrass), pecan processing and sales, commodity marketing and processing, luxury retail goods, and recreational hunting.

 

I was surprised to learn that the King Ranch had been a key player in developing the American Quarter horse.  At one time the ranch had several thousand horses, today they only have a few and they are used exclusively on the ranch and are only bred to replenish their stock.  The horses we saw were fine looking horses and we even got to see a foal at the brood mare barn! The Triple Crown winner in 1946 was Assault, bred and born right here on the King Ranch.

 



The Santa Gertrudis and Santa Cruz breeds of cattle were developed on the ranch.  Our guide was quick to point out which was which as we passed different pastures, but I can't remember for sure in this picture.  I think the lighter cow on the left is a Santa Cruz. The tags in the ear have codes that trace the lineage of each animal as well as information about the marbling to be found in their meat.

 

 

Our final stop before heading home was the King Ranch Saddle Shop.  I enjoyed browsing in the beautiful store, but was more taken with the building and this entryway tile! 

 



Happy 60th Anniversary!

Just married!

 

This almost slipped my mind, but today would have been my parents' 60th wedding anniversary.  Earlier I had been reminiscing about their 50th anniversary celebration and wondered why it had popped into my thoughts; finally, the date connected with me and I realized that this was their 60th.

The wedding was simple, held in my grandparents' home.  A friend played the piano and sang and the refreshments were cake and punch.  I remember my mother saying that after paying for everything for the wedding she had twenty-cents in her wallet when she and Daddy pulled out of the driveway to leave for their new life together!

Wednesday, 10.08.2014

Fall tomatoes

 

I had such good luck with cherry tomatoes in this pot during the spring and summer that I decided to try it again for the fall.  I think this is one of the nicest tomato plants I've ever had and was surprised when it quickly began to bloom and set fruit! If I can just keep it watered enough I'm hoping to have a nice supply of cherry tomatoes for a few months. I also bought a lettuce plant and was delighted to discover that an empty pot now has little green onions popping up!  All I need now is cilantro and another parsley plant to replace the one that didn't survive the summer heat.

Wednesday 10.01.2014

 prickly pear cactus blossom