Allen Stampede Cattle Drive

I know this is old but I have been wanting to post pictures for some time. Actually, since October 27, 2010. Allen had their first stampede to start off the round of events for the rodeo to be held at the Allen Event Center. I skipped bible study to go and was so glad I did. It was one of the neatest things I have ever been to. I loved this picture of the policemen waiting to be escorts.

The "Queen" of the stampede (I am not sure of her title) was there with her court. I do wonder how you get this position.

The longhorns were so mild and we were able to get very close to them. I actually hid behind somebody because they kind of scared me.

The mayor got in on the act and was riding on top of a stage coach.

Definitely watch for this next Fall...it was one of the most exciting things I have done in a long time.

"Who Am I" Swap

I joined up with a small group from the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild and we decided a swap was something we all wanted to do. The theme was to make the quilt about ourselves which was way too hard for a first swap. We all seemed to struggle a bit with the idea of portraying ourselves somehow in the form of a small quilt. We drew numbers to see who got what quilt and once they were opened and explained we couldn't wait to decide on a new swap. The next one will be simply "Valentine".

Kristie made an applique quilt and her inspiration was Pat Campbell. I love Pat Campbell's designs as well and am still finishing Jacobean Christmas that I had started in Oct. 2009.

Daisies from Janet's wedding was her inspiration. She wanted Daisies and was told that they would be too ugly for a wedding but her mom put one in her bouquet.

Angie loves redwork, little girls and vintage fabric and she was able to incorporate all of these into this darling wall hanging. I know there were some other things she talked about but I can't remember what all represented her.

Sarah is all about hearts, funky and bright. She had so many things on her quilt that told who she was and was even able to find fabric that was printed with things she loves.

Susan designed the quilt that I received and it had triangles, english paper piecing, wonky log cabin and crazy quilting with scraps. She named it "Hoot Am I" since that is the name of the fabric line she used. I just love it and I happened to use the same fabric line for the quilt I made.

My inspiration was a rooster. I have always loved roosters because my grandmother collected them so that is what I remembered most about her. I used gray as the background since that has always been one of my favorite colors. I found fabric that had eggs on it which was so appropriate and quilted it using a hexagon to make it look like chicken wire. Kelleigh designed the layout and insisted it had to be 3D so the squares were actually made and quilted and then sewn onto the quilt. And I used scraps to piece the back.

We had such a great time swapping and are excited about the next one at the end of February.

Hiking in December

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather when we went hiking in Arkansas. Visiting Petit Jean State Park has been on my list for a long time and December was the only time we had as a family to go hiking. Planning a vacation around college kids is extremely difficult. We rented a cabin in the park which was very clean and comfortable. And hiked through some beautiful areas learning some neat history along the way.

These leaves were so huge and there were tons of them.

Here are my kids and husband who tolerated my hiking trip. Actually, they all pretty much like to hike just not all together. You know how teenagers are!

Grant and I took a little extra hike and were pleasantly surprised by this tree. I knew then that God did all of this "Just 4 Me". It was just a great hike.

After Petit Jean we hiked to the highpoint of Arkansas which is Mt. Magazine. This makes 7 highpoints for me and 8 for Charlie. Would love to accomplish all the highpoints but I am not holding my breath. Each high point has a survey marker which can sometimes be tricky to find.

I can't wait to plan our next hiking trip. Charlie and I spent a full week last summer hiking and now we need to think about where we should go this summer.