Happy Halloween!

Look at the colors of fall in this photo - from the browns of the cornstalks to the oranges of the pumpkins and the beautiful mums. Fall is here!

My Mom surprised me by taking a bus to Des Moines for the quilt show with members of the Mississippi Valley Quilt Guild. She didn't even tell Karen that she was coming on the bus because she was afraid Karen would tell. I was surprised when she tapped me on the shoulder in the hallway - and my reaction was, "what are you doing here?" Then I gave her a big hug. She loves it when she gets to put one over on me.

And here we are standing in front of the Best of Show quilt (black & pink one).
L to R: Karen, Mom, Bonnie, Bonnabelle Rayner


You can make any of the photos larger by clicking on them.


 After the AQS Quilt Show in Des Moines, Wayne and I spent a few extra days in Iowa to visit some of our family. It's always a whirlwind but fun to see everyone. We said we visited from meal to meal with our sisters, mothers, and friends.

We had barely arrived at Karen's home in Durant when some of the high school students were out doing a fundraiser for school. This one was very clever. They had a goat in a wagon and all of the kids were riding in the wagon around town. They stopped in front of Karen's driveway and unloaded Mike the goat (this wasn't Karen's son Mike - grin) and the kids made us an offer. Mike was going to live here until we paid up - $10 and he would go away, but for $15 you could buy insurance that he would never return again. What fun they were having.

And here's MIKE the GOAT just before we paid up and they trotted Mike on down the street to gather more funds.

One of Karen's farmer friends always decorates their hay bales for different holidays. For Halloween they had a black cat, a pumpkin, and a giant spider.

Karen, Wayne and I spent one day in Kalona, Iowa. The first stop is always the Cheese Factory - have to get some fresh cheese curds, and then it was off to the Willow Creek Quilt Shop - and I found some fabric I needed for a quilt I'm working on. Kalona is working on the downtown streets. Then they will be working on the sidewalks. They are going to insert some quilt blocks in the sidewalks when they do them. That will look really nice.

We had a nice lunch with Mom and Stanley, and stopped to see our friends Connie and John Bohling on the way back to Muscatine.

One evening we had dinner with my youngest sister Marcia and her husband Don. Here we are sitting on the hay bales outside The Machine Shed.







Marcia and Don's granddaughter, Brienna, was able to have dinner with us too. She is growning up too fast.






Marcia and Brienna had to jump up on the John Deere tractor outside the restaurant. We always have fun when we get together...



Next we had lunch with Wayne's Mom, Maxine and Buster, and his sister Kathi.

Now anyone could tell these two are brother and sister. Buster and Maxine at the Farmer's Restaurant.

Phew...that was a busy week. After two weeks of being away, it was back to Paducah and working on the Paducah show. Tuffy was really glad to see us after spending two weeks at Kitty Camp aka boarding with our vet.

Our next show is in Lancaster, PA, March 16 - 19, 2011, and then the Paducah show is April 27 - 30 (the week after Easter - it's really late in 2011). If you are looking for a summer quilt show, our show in Knoxville, TN, is July 13 - 16, 2011.

Mark your calendar for next year's Des Moines show - it is September 28 - October 1, 2011 at the Iowa Events Center. Don't miss it!

Beautiful Fall Weekend in Paducah

Fall housecleaning...me, well sort of. On Friday we had more new windows installed in our home. That meant moving a lot of furniture so they could work on the windows. And after they were installed, there were curtains and blinds to wash...all done now. And then we washed the new windows. It is so wonderful to have sashes that fold down inside to wash the outside of the windows. We purchased composite windows from THV (True Home Value) and so far they have lived up to their sales pitch. The windows are wood grain on the inside and almond on the outside with aluminum trim so we don't have to paint anything. The mullions are between the panes of glass so you are just washing one pane of glass to clean them. Yeah!

The first group was replaced in the living room and kitchen - the thermostat sits on a wall between these two rooms. Our air conditioner runs half as much as it did. Now we have put new windows in the computer room, the family room and the hall bathroom. Still have two bedrooms to go but we couldn't move everything at once so they are working at our speed.

The hummingbirds are eating like crazy right now. There can be about 20 birds fighting over the 8 spots on our two feeders. And you always have one that guards the feeder. This hummer decided it would sit on the whirligig that my sister Karen gave us - just happens to have a hummingbird in the center of it.

That rascal Tuffy decided to be a night prowler last night...didn't come in until 2:30 a.m. Earlier in the evening I snapped a couple of new photos of him - he hates the camera though and always avoids me if he can. I was faster than he was.

Is he saying: "Okay, so you snapped my photo but I don't have to like it?"

Would you believe that he has already figured out how to open the new screen door on the new sliding glass door to the back porch?




I had some fun on eBay last night. I've been watching some quilts there and the auction closed last night. I was able to be the final bidder on four quilt tops. Two can be used in my next book. And some lucky people may get the other two after they are quilted. Now I have to get my name on my machine quilter's list to get them all quilted. I'll shoot some photos after they arrive so you can see how beautiful they are.

Speaking of quilts, have you made your plans to go to the AQS Quilt Show in Des Moines? It's getting close, October 6 - 9. There will be nearly 1,000 quilts on exhibit. You can click here to register. We're going to have fun with Eleanor Burns on Wednesday, Joe Cunningham on Thursday, and Jim Shore (maker of those Heartwood Creek Collectibles with quilt designs on them) on Friday, and brunch with Flavin Glover on Saturday. Hope we will see you there!