From North Carolina

After 3 days on the road we arrived here at Camp Lejune late yesterday afternoon. We traveled from Ft. Worth to Memphis on the first day. We stayed at the Navy Lodge on Millington. It is just north of Memphis. We had a really nice room with two beds, a kitchen and bath. We went out to dinner at a quaint little restaurant called Oldtimers in old town Millington. We had the best food! I had chicken and dumplings and Bobby had chicken fried steak. We couldn't pass up the dessert. We took it back to the room and ate it there. We got a huge piece of carrot cake and another huge piece of double chocolate cake. Before the night was over both pieces were gone!

The next day we were on our way to Ashville. We had a pretty stressful day since it was raining buckets and Bobby was fighting for road space with big trucks. It rained all day except when we went through the Smokey Mountains. That was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen! The fall colors were so amazing. Every twist and turn of the road had another view of gorgeous colors! We finally made it to our hotel and got our room. We changed clothes real quick since Bobby was in shorts and I had spilled my orange drink all over the front of me. Then we went out to dinner at a restaurant called Stone Ridge Tavern. The food was great but we had too much of it. We were starving so we ordered an appetizer. The Stone Ridge nachos was what it was called. When they brought the plate it was huge and piled with everything nacho! Then our salads came and shortly there after came our dinners. We took the nachos and Bobby's spagetti back to the hotel and put it in the refridgerator with plans to put it in the cooler before we left the next morning. When we tried to put it in the cooler it was too big. I think that is the first time I've ever seen Bobby deserting spagetti! He almost cried! LOL


The next morning we took off for Gastonia. You know what is there don't you? Mary Jo's!!! I was told I had an hour and that was it. Can you imagine...one hour in one of the biggest fabric shops on the planet! I found four backings, some border fabric for my bullseye top and a 20 1/2" ruler for squaring up my applique blocks. The backings I got were perfect for quilts for Annie(cats), Bo (skeletons for his camaflauge quilt), Brian (baseball, of course)and Bobby(an Airforce print).

We drove all the backroads to Jacksonville. I have seen enough cotton fields, manufactured homes and farm equipment to last me awhile. It was beautiful country though. We got to the Camp and got settled into our room in the TLQ (temporary living quarters). We went to a buffet for supper which wasn't all that great but Bobby did find the spagetti and had a big plate. The second night we went to Ruby Tuesday.


Today Bobby went to the skeet range and had a good time. I basically just rested all day. We did go out in the afternoon to the Beruit Memorial. It is in the piney woods and is so peaceful and calm. The memorial is a curved wall with the names of the deceased and a bronze statue of a marine. Someone had put their dogtags around his neck. There were alot of flowers laying around since the ceremony for the 23rd year since the attack had just been days ago. On one of the paths we found a tribute to the WTC attack. One of the steel I beams was displayed. It was very moving.

Tomorrow is the big day! Bo will be back on American soil. He comes in about 4pm on a bus with the 1/9 Battalion. They have been in Iraq for 7 months. Right now he should be on a plane from Kuwait headed for Ireland where they will make a stop and then it is on to Maine and then to North Carolina. They have to take a bus from the airport which is several hours away. A lot of families will be there to welcome them home. I'm going to be the Momma with tears in her eyes and pride in her heart holding my arms open for the son returning from war.

Almost Home

On Thursday we leave for North Carolina! Our son is coming home from Iraq! We are going to meet him when he gets back to his base. We are driving from Texas so it will take a couple of days to get there. I've been checking out the quilt shops along the way. Of course we are going to stop at a few! I'd also like to go to Gastonia and see Mary Jo's!

Got cheese?

As Roseann Roseanna Danna used to say, "Nevermind...".

Yes? That's good because you are about to get a bit of "whine"! I'm totally frustrated with trying to post pictures on blogger. I've tried and tried. My first blog was on blogger and I moved it to My Quilt Blog simply because I couldn't master photo posting. It was easy on My Quilt Blog but I really wanted the exposure of Blogger so I came back. Ugh!!! Now I'm having second thoughts or maybe it's third thoughts. I have some great quilt pictures to show and lots of info to post! Ok, I'm done for now. I'll be back later...

My new toys.

Alright!!! I did it. THERE IS THE PICTURE!!!

Ok, there is no picture...yet. If there was a picture you would see my new Easy Cut Circle ruler by Sharen Hultgren that I found at Walmart! Also in the picture is a pair of Cutter Bee scissors found at Walmart too! There is a pile of Bullseye blocks made from 30's repros. That is what I have been having fun playing around with the past few days.

The ruler is so handy for drawing circles. The directions tell you what size square to cut for the size circle you need. Then simply fold the square in half (give it a little press)and place the ruler along the folded edge. Run the rotary cutter in the appropriate slot and you've created a perfect circle! Of course, my little rotary cutter has a dull blade since the last thing I cut with it was NOT fabric (think home repair) so I drew a line with a pencil and cut the circle out with my new scissors. Wow, they are sharp! I found them in the scrapbooking isle. They are so cute with thier black and yellow handles. The packaging notes how sharp they are in several places so I had to see for myself!

I've been wanting to try a Bullseye quilt for a long time. Actually on my list of quilts to do I have a few Bullseye quilts...thirties, patriotic, halloween, christmas to name a few. I was cleaning up my fabric drawers last weekend and happened to be folding a whole bunch of fat quarters to neaten up the 30's drawer and things just clicked! Before I knew it, I was cutting circles! Needless to say, the 30's drawer is looking bare.

Do any of you quilt bloggers out there have Bullseye quilts? I'd love to see them.

A few posts from a past blog.

Thank goodness for happy little wallhangings!

[ 05:13 PM ] [ Saturday, February 25, 2006 ]

I am having trouble posting my pictures with my entries. This is one of the quilts I sent to the longarm quilter.

[ 10:12 PM ] [ Tuesday, March 7, 2006 ] [ 0 Com

I haven't posted recently because I have been so busy playing with the babies! My Mother and Niece brought my three nephews to visit from Thursday till today. They live right outside New Orleans. One is 9, the middle one is 14 months and the little one is three months. We had so much fun! However, I must admit when they left this afternoon I was worn completly out! I didn't get any quilting done while they were here but we did put the baby on his quilt top and he loved it. I still have to send it to the quilter. The middle baby's is there now being quilted. Tonight while watching 24 I worked on one of my Cinnamon Stitches applique blocks. I only have this one and one more before I can put the blocks together into a top. Off to bed for me...

[ 10:16 PM ] [ Monday, March 6, 2006