Making my acquaintance

Sounds like a plan.

I'm ready to hop on a plane..... oops! I don't fly.



MaryNel, love the avatar.

Love that quilt Marynel. I really like the alternating greens.

The computer is in the dining room with the Singer I'm using to zigzag join the blocks. Just have to scoot the office chair from table to desk. DH went back to sleep after my brother called. I'm used to being up hours before anyone else.

It would hurt my heart to see tomatoes being thrown. Then again, if I had an acre of them.......

Yahoo from Montana :horseyourode:

I have horses and quilt...pretty much my life nowadays. I do like to tell you all about my adventures with the horses, wildlife and sometimes with my quilts too

Go to the gallery page and look at the posted pictures of the members... that will let you know what sort of things we do around here...some great stuff

Glad to see you have jumped in with posting and letting us get to know you a little.

Gimpy tomatoes aren't the only fights I grew up with. Crabapples hurt like heck! And if anyone throws a road apple I always hope it's a dried one. (For those not in the know, a road apple it a horse patootie). Dried road apples hit and turn to dust. Achooo! but fresh ones can really stink. O I think a sibling got smacked in the face with a rotten turtle head once too, but that truly was an accident. Gimme a tomato fight any day!!

Now my summers are spent eating supper on the back porch with a small shotgun to shoot the critters out of my garden. Darn little beasties. They look so pretty munching on the green lawn, then when you're not looking they swipe strawberries, tomatoes, squash, green beans . . . .Yep a trip to Tasmania is starting to sound good. I'll bring my old clothes. LOL

Hot dog! I have never heard anyone else call them "road apples". We're gonna get along great.

Hi sewn3w, nice to meet cha!
I've been quiilting for 4.5 years so I'm a bit of beginner but am just in love with everything quilty. I'm in SE Michigan, married, grown children. Look forward to you joining in our discussions.

Hello Calico Chris
I have a son in the Coast Guard stationed on Lake St. Claire for a few more weeks. We have visited, drove around a bit. Lovely state. Don't think we were in Ann Arbor, but St. Claire Shores certainly has some impressive homes.
Love your avatar. I am trying to work my way around the board and figure out how to post some pics and an avatar to my profile. Maybe in a week or 3.
Everyone here has been so warm and welcoming. Even if a few tomaotes were flying! Makes me feel like I am home.

Memaw....not flying WOULD be a problem....a VERY long boat ride lol. I'll hold your hand....it's only 13-14 hour flight from LA to mainland AUS and then hop another short one to Taz! LOL

If you have a money tree that crops like my tomatoes, can I get some seeds please??!!! If you do a night flight you sleep most of it anyway then once in Melb its just a 40min flight across to tassie and an hours drive through rolling green countryside from the airport to our place!

sewn3w I have 15 crab apples planted here, mostly one type that doesnt reallly fruit much but at least 4 of a type that gets beautiful deep reddish-purple apples on them. As kids we didnt fight with 'road apples' (never heard that term thats for sure) but we did fight with cow pats and they were very often dry ones. Used to go to a water hole with a rope we hung out all the time, never thought about it till now but it was a waterhole in Crystal Creek, didnt stay crystal clear for long, minute you swung out on the rope people lobbed the wet ones at you and yeah, it stank. Was always my older brothers idea of fun of course and he wondered why I preferred going there without him!

Oh Gimpy, are our families related? roflmao!!!!

One of my summertime favorite things to do was to take a city kid to a cow pasture, show them how a cow pie fell into dust if you stepped into it barefoot. You could make little dust clouds. Then pick out a pie that was dry on top only and tell them that was the perfect pie to make into dust. Then I ran. Then I got yelled at by my mother. But gosh it was worth it.

LOL - ah yeah, might have been guilty of pulling that trick on someone from time to time myself, luckily mum didnt know Mind you, mum was a country kid and got up to all kinds of mischief too, we lived in the suburbs for a while when I was in primary school but then thankfully hit the road and went back rural. City living just isnt for me although Ive done my time and kept my nose to the grindstone trapped in the concrete jungle

Memaw.....my DH works for ExxonMobil as a drilling engineer. He "rotated" to Melbourne for several years....actually working on a project in Papua New Guniea. Rotating means he was 21 on 21 off.....was in Melbourne for 21 days straight and then flew back home to Texas for his off days. He had to fly on his off days, so he was actually gone 23 home 18. He got to keep all his air miles and hotel points from the hotel he stayed in, so I was able to go with him several times, since I have the most wonderful parents in the world who would come and stay with my sons. (This was years ago when they were small.

Eventually he got enough airmiles and hotel points for our entire family of 5 to go for a three week trip to Aus.....we stayed in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and Cairns...snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef....it was the trip of a lifetime....my boys will never forget it. We never would have been able to pay for a trip like that for them...but the hotel stays and overseas plane tickets all came from the miles and points. We only had to pay for food and the flights within Australia. He was gone a lot during those rotating years, so that was some recompense for my family....to get to see such a wonderful country.

Several years ago he went again for a six month assignment....all there in Melbourne. Exxon paid for me to visit him. He took a week off and we traveled to Tasmania and drove from one end to the other....lovely car trip! We also did some traveling around Melbourne. At one point, we thought we were going to be transferred to Melbourne for 3 years....I was HEARTBROKEN when it did not work out. It's a beautiful country and the people are the friendliest folks you will ever meet!

He also rotated to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for several years. Once again, my boys were able to go to Singapore and to Kuala Lumpur on the mile/points deal. They realize now how lucky the are to have had the travel opportunities they have had. We lived in London for four years, but they were so small (8mo. 2 and 5 when we moved there) that only the oldest has any real memories of our time there.

TMM, sounds like some great times and some lonely ones.

"Road apples" is the term used around here too. I never used them for that purpose as there would have been evidence left behind. Throwing any food, however, would have been a very serious crime to my depression era adults.

When I was a mean little kid, I used a sling shot with ice cubes. Come to think of it, I am VERY glad my parents never heard about that one. Dad would have been really angry about that one. Come to think of it, that might have been a week or so before I was ganged up on by the kids from another block on my way home from school. Somehow, the Principal objected to being told by 23 sets of parents that I had beaten up their kids on the way home the day before, even though she obviously knew that there was more to the story than she'd been told.

Our family didn't have much money, but we had an aunt and uncle who lived in Paradise, allowing us to escape from flatlander town life on a regular basis. Paradise (original name Pair 'O Dice) was a very small foothill town, much like Nevada City (another one of our escapes) at that time.

Hey everyone celebrate for me, I finally got the avatar to save. I used a gallery avatar. Saved it. Backed out. Went back in, and redid the avatar chosing the one I really wanted from my quilt folder, saved it and it stuck!!
Persistance pays off.

Hi sewn3w, I have been mostly out of pocket this weekend, doing lots of driving around the Hill Country area of TX to a wedding, so missed your posts til now.

I have been on the forum since Nov. and already have over 200 posts. I am quite verbose in person and on here, but I come by that naturally. I am another Texan (although not a native) but have been here since 8 years old, so have considered myself a Texan for many years. I know about road apples, too. I recently met txmusicmom in person, and now I need to meet the other Texans, at least. I hope I can soon.

I have been sewing since age 11 or 12, learned in 4H, although I think they don't sew in 4H anymore. If that's not correct, let me know. I would love to be wrong. I loved 4H and I love sewing. I have been quilting for almost 40 years, although I took a long break between children 3 and 4. I'm not sure when I started back up because I didn't know to label things back then.

I know you will enjoy it here and it is wonderful that you have gotten to quilting however late, and glad it is helping your recovery for your hand. That is very important. I am a retired nurse, by the way and have 4 children and 3 grandchildren and another on the way.

By the way Gimpy, my husband is the gardener here and he has tomatoes planted. I can't wait for some to get ripe but it will be awhile. Usually ours all get ripe here at the same time, so we just give a lot of them to neighbors. I do sometimes freeze them and then I put them under hot water until the peels just slide off and then they are perfect for making spaghetti sauce. They just kinda crumble apart with a knife to put in the pan.

I told you I was wordy. Nice to have you Sewn, and you will love it, everyone is really nice.

SS, I just checked the Extension Office website for Ohio and "clothing" was listed in several clubs. My mother first taught me to sew, but then I started 4-H when I was 10. My DGS who is 6, is in Cloverbuds in his second year of 4-H. I thought it was a great experience.

There was a large 4H quilt exhibit at the Houston Quilt Festival this year I think....I think I remember looking at them.

4-H is big in my area. A lot of farms, mostly rural area. But sewing is still a part of the yearly county fair. And a quilt show and competition has become big thru the local extension office and into the fair. Last year's competition theme was Purlple Heart quilts. Then they were donated to veterans.

At the risk of sounding silly - what is 4-H?? I have heard it mentioned a couple of times, but am not sure what it is?

Not silly at all. 4-H is an organization thru State and county extension offices for youth programs. It was originally developed to teach/train young people life skills such as animal husbandry, home care, sewing, leadership and whatever current needs were in the market place. Kind of a Girl Scout program, but with a more rural population in mind. The 4 H's are (Okay hope I remember this right)
Heart
Hand
Head
Health

Anyone want to correct that?

Sounds good to me, I actually can't remember, but that sounds about right. That was a very nice description, Sewn. I loved 4H, but mostly I hear now of animal projects by them, raising rabbits, etc. I always am happy when I meet someone who was in 4H. I have noticed several other people on Etsy who said they learned to sew in 4H. I'm pleased to hear that they may still be including clothing, etc.

I had an aunt who was a great seamstress and she taught me a lot, too. I miss her a lot, but I have such great memories of her helping me with my sewing. My mother did some quilting too, but only before I was born so I have some quilts that she made, but she didn't sew as much as my aunt. So, I guess I credit my mother for my love of quilts and my aunt for helping me learn basic sewing skills.

TxMary was running a 4H chapter Im sure, she was very involved with her daughter Cassie. Sounds like a great group/idea with more to offer than scouts/guides