Hope you had a good Memorial Day

Yesterday, my sister Nancy and I went and put flowers on the graves of our Mom, Nancy's son Matthew and our sister Susan.

My dad's grave is too far away so I always put flowers on his memorial in the garden. Pep's brother Keith always takes care of his parents.

My grandson Brian asked today why so many people had flags out. I told him that Memorial Day started as "Decoration Day" - a day to honor the veterans who had died keeping out country free. We now have Veterans Day - a day to honor all of the people, alive or passed on who have served our country. So Memorial Day has become a day to honor not only them but all of the people that we loved who are further along on the journey.

A way to say thank you to our ancestors and our heritage.

Barbara Brackman has a really good history on her Civil War Blog. Thanks, Barbara.

You all are probably going to get really sick of pictures of Spike but, oh - well. Max was in Oklahoma this weekend at an event so Spike's cousin Nero came for a visit. Spike loves Nero and follows him everywhere. Nero is really very patient with the little guy. Maybe because even though he's a lot bigger, large dogs mature more slowly and he's still pretty much a puppy himself. They're really pretty funny together.

I'll announce the winner of the recipe cards tomorrow. Forgot Monday was Memorial Day.

Hope you had a good one.

Stitching for Joplin & potty training

Kelley, a neat lady that belong to the same Prim group that I do commented today about the situation in Joplin: "Am wondering if there is a way to get hand piecing kits to the quilters missing their stashes...for me the comfort of stitching gets me through stressful times..."

I thought that was a great idea and volunteered to send some kits. I know I would be lost without something to stitch. It truly is one of the ways we take care of ourselves. Our group moderator, Nancy, another neat lady got right on it and found out where to send them. I thought I'd send a Basket Patch and maybe Lilly's Hearts or Stars, something pretty easy and soothing, not frustrating.

If it sounds like a good idea to you too, here's where to send them:

This company is distributing the items thru the local churches who have set up donation sites for the people of Joplin.

Ackfeld will take quilts, kits for quilts and toys, the address
Skip & Peggy Ackfeld
Ackfeld Manufacturing
One patch at a time
360 Emerson Road
Reeds Spring, MO 65737

Thanks Kelley and Nancy.

Spike is settling in and Bully is learning to tolerate him. They bicker a bit still but if Bully falls asleep, Spike will cuddle up next to him.

This is my potty training chair. I used to just go and sit on the top step until the puppy had played around and decided to go potty. But with Spike, I've gotten a little old for that. My joints don't bend as well as they used to. So I got a spare chair and set up a little "potty training station". Now I can sit in comfort, drink my coffee or water and even stitch if I want to. One can't hurry mother nature, you know.

Don't forget to post your comment to enter the drawing for the recipe cards and Together scrap bag. I'll draw a name Monday.

Have a good weekend.

Pray for the People of Joplin

A great ride home - and Spike!

I've been trying to find time to blog ever since we got home. Market ended at 4:00 on Sunday and we were on the road by six. We drove (well, Pep drove, I sat and hooked - I'm making coasters out of homespuns for the 4th of July) for 3 hours and then stopped for the night.

It's a 16 hour drive from Salt Lake City to Cameron so that left us 13 hours on Monday. The trip through Wyoming was awesome. This is part of a windfarm that stretched across the horizon.

And of course, there were the mountains in the distance.

Nebraska, not to be outdone, had a dinosaur. This was a full size T-Rex beside the highway. Pep pulled off at the exit so we could take a picture. By the time we realized what it was we were past it and this was as close as we could get.

Back at home I unpacked, rested and started laundry on Tuesday.

Then on Wednesday I drove to Kansas City to meet Spike's breeder and pick him up. If you're in the Market for a bulldog, I highly recommend Nicole and Spring Valley Bulldogs. Along with his papers, she brought along a booklet of tips for training, vitamins he'd been taking and a small package of the food he'd been eating.

A healthy, happy, bouncy bulldog puppy is now part of the family. As you can see,

Bully is not exactly thrilled with the addition. I'm making sure that Bully gets lots of attention - more really than he required before Spike joined us. His attitude still is "so - when is he going back home?" I must say, it doesn't help things any when Spike tries to nurse. :)

Instead of showing lots of booth pictures (I'll show you mine as soon as I can find it) I thought I'd show the group picture Camille took for Moda. I did like the picture Sandy Gervais had on her blog of all of our feet - (Bruce couldn't get the camera to work) but this one is a little better.

Moda had a Schoolhouse at Market. Lissa had all of us design a 12" block and give her a recipe and a quilting tip. Then they had all of the blocks printed up on Recipe cards for us to have in our booths. Shops went to all of the designer's booths and picked up the recipe cards. I did too - I have a collection of 14 recipe cards (14 blocks) in all - - a sampler quilt. And I have a collection of the cards for you along with a scrap bag of strips from Together, the newest Brannock/Patek line that will ship to stores in August.

But there's a chore involved. A funny one. Awhile ago I sent a video to Lissa Alexander, if you watch it, you'll know why I sent it. I don'tknow how to put videos on the blog but she does. Go to her blog and watch it and make a comment, any old comment will do. Or you can comment about Spike. Or if you can't comment on the blog, email Byron at janpatekquilts@yahoo.com.

I'll draw a name from the comments, next Monday.

And I will end this with a contented sigh - It was lots of fun but it's good to be home.

Neighbors & Old Friends

I don't know what it is about Market that is so tiring - I usually sit and stitch and talk to quilters. But at the end of the day, I'm bushed. So tonight, I thought I'd just tell you who my neighbors are. I'm on a corner.


Across the aisle one way are Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts and her husband Micheal. We're old friends. They are thoroughly delightful people. I love her quilts, always have. And she and Pep share a Slavic background. Pep's is a lot more removed than hers is but he recognized the influence in her quilts.

Across the other aisle is Sweetwater. This is the first time we've really had a booth close to theirs and we've been getting to know them. Awesome ladies personally as well as great designers. One of the things I have always liked about Moda is the sense of family and these "sweet" ladies certainly have it.

And it was so great to see my friends from France again. I hope they like the pictures but I'll lay you odds they don't - they didn't like the last ones I posted. But then I never like the pictures of me either. They are Marie - Caroline Courtier and Carol Veillon of Quiltmania - awesome ladies all. I really can't tell you how much I enjoyed being in France and working with them. And my book they did is so really neat. I can't thank them enough.

Market is over tomorrow and we'll be packing up and heading for home. The whirlwind of France and Salt Lake City is almost over. When I get home I'll show you the rest of the booths - if I can figure out how to attach the jpgs to an email and get them to my home computer. Well, I'm a little tired here. Pep just reminded me that even if I can't, the laptop will be at home with me. Duh!! :)
Back to my garden and dogs and grandkids. I am so blessed to have the best of both worlds.

Day 1 -

It's been a fun day - but long. Too tired to post all of the pictures. Will try to do more tomorrow. But here's the theme for Moda. We all got Country Fair Flag banners out of our fabric lines for our booths.

See you tomorrow - I hope.

2 days later - We're here!

I'm somewhat tired of riding in things but I prefer cars to airplanes. If things start bouncing around in the wind in a car, I can ask Pep to pull over for awhile. We heard that it was really hot at home but it was in the 50's in Wyoming. And right after we passed the Continental Divide (elevation 7,000 ft), it started snowing. Then it stopped again as we went down.
These were taken at the Welcome Center just in Utah.



And here's a picture of the little critters that live here. They're not tame but they are enough used to people being around that you can get a picture with a zoom lens.

The little green speck walking towards Pep i

The little green speck walking towards Pep is me. He didn't know about the zoom lens :).


It was really neat once we got to Salt Lake to look up at the very tall mountains and watch it snow on the top. We were moving on the Freeway so I couldn't get pictures but I'll try to stop somewhere today if it does it again. Right now I'm off to the convention Ce

A new little brother & Together Scrap Bags

This is Bully and Sniff last December in the garden. Sniff was a Welsh Corgi. He and Bully were the same age within a couple of months and they were great pals. Actually he was Jake's Welsh Corgi. When Kelly and the kids moved to Cameron from Lexington they rented a duplex. It didn't have a fenced in yard so Sniff had to be put on a lead whenever he went outside. Since Corgis are herding dogs, Kelly would bring him out to the farm whenever they came so that he could run. After awhile he started hiding when he saw signs of leaving. He would go under beds, in closets, behind the barn - whereever he could think of - and he wouldn't come out until they had left.

Kelly and Jake finally gave up and said he could stay here - Jake is out here all of the time anyway.

He died the day after I left for France. We don't know why - he hadn't been sick like Bully had - showed no symptoms. He had been off is feed a little and I had told Pep that after Market I was going to take him down to my brother's for a check-up. My very nice husband didn't tell me until I got home so as not to make me sad on my trip.

Corgis are awesome dogs. We miss him a lot. And Bully doesn't like being an only dog.

I had been going to get Bully a little brother this summer anyway so we decided to look.

I'm pretty sure that we're going to get this one. I put a deposit down on him. He's the one Pep likes.

But nothing is every simple. I just love this one too. Decisions, decisions. I've kind of decided that we'll put the deposit on the white one (Spike) but if the 2nd one hasn't been bought by the time I get back, I'll see if I can meet them and see which one fits best. From the personality description, I'm still pretty sure it will be Spike - but you never know.

Back to the other part of my life. These are scrap bags full of the Together fabrics sent by Moda. I'm taking one box full of them to Market.

I'm keeping another box full for a Freebie Friday when I get home. No time before I leave so be watching for the give-away. I just love getting fabric! Isn't it neat!

Back to packing.

Osama Bin Laden is dead!

I hesitate to celebrate, or even approve, the death of a fellow human being. But there are some people who cannot be allowed to live among decent folk.

Justice is served.

Praise for our heroes in the military who strive to keep us safe.

God bless us - of every race, creed & color - Americans all.