Happy Birthday Mom!

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Today would be my Mom’s birthday.  She died in 1990.  It’s so hard to believe that that she’s been gone for so long.  I was only 24 when she passed away.  She made such an impact on my life.

On Veteran’s Day I showed you a couple of my dad’s pictures from service.  A blog reader commented that my Dad was so handsome.  Oh my.  He was.


Actually my mom was a looker too.
She loved horses and was quite a talent with them.
My parents were an amazing looking couple.  In their dating years and early married years, the pictures of them look so glamorous to me.  Don’t you think? Continue reading →

The Photo Book

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After Kramer passed away I asked Kalissa to keep the photos we had all in one place.  I had it in the back of my mind that I would make a photo book for the Grandkids at some point.  I forgot about it.  In truth, I think I put it off.  Going through the photos, dealing with memories both good and bad was a little too painful at the moment.

Well fast forward to a couple weeks ago.  I messaged my kids who have children and asked for the Christmas idea.  UGH.  I got back from Buck, “Something that won’t end up of the floor and something I don’t have to pick up”.  He’s deep into kids that have lots of toys and are in the dumping phase.

Well that got me thinking…then Kelli came home and she said she thought about doing a photo book of Kramer for the grandkids too.  I told her I would just do it….so RIP….off came the bandaid and I jumped into the photos and the good and bad memories that came with it.

I thought I would show it to all of you….I do the photo books through Shutterfly.  I’ve worked with them before and have had a good experience.  I think the program is easy to work with too.

Keep in mind that these are photos taken of the computer so the pictures are actually sharper and nicer.  This is the cover and back page.  I put the #Kramerstrong logo on the back cover.


This is the inside first page.
We didn’t have a lot of pictures of Kramer.  He hated getting his picture taken.  Up until a few years ago, he didn’t let me.  Then I started ignoring his complaints.  Kalissa did too.  That’s why we have the few photos we have.

I did the best with what we had.  I tried to add a few things that the kids might remember and want to know later in life.  So starts the book with “A”… Continue reading →

Quilt Book Review: Zakka from the Heart

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C&T Publishing sent me books to review again.  I picked this one right away.  I have a book by the same author that has become one of the books I keep at my nightstand and page through.  This one, I can see me paging through night after night too.  This book is Kakka from the Heart by Minki Kim.

I tell you this all the time…and it’s true again.  The people in charge of promotions are doing a crappy job at picking photos to promote the book.

Here are the photos they have available….

I’m guessing nothing was very enticing that made you want to buy the book…right??  With 16 projects in the book, they only showed three and the front cover??

There was nothing in those pictures that made me say this is a book that’s more interesting than one I have at home.  But it actually is a pretty cool book.  Stay with me while I show you come of the pictures I took from the ebook copy they sent me to review.

Cute bags…and photography. Interesting to look at.  Wait, that looks like a sewing machine in the back of the photo.  Hmm.  Wonder if that’s a prop?


Remember that cute roll bag in the original pictures?  Oh, now I can see what it really looks like.  CUTE!!

By looking at the pictures I can see that there are good illustrated instructions….That makes me feel confident about buying the book.

Here’s what they looks like finished.  SO CUTE.

Check out this bag…. Continue reading →

Where We are Published: American Patchwork and Quilting

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Sometimes projects go in and out of here that I often forget what’s out or where it is.  That was the case of this quilt until someone told me it was hanging in American Patchwork and Quilting’s booth at the Houston Quilt Market.

First off…there is the magazine the quilt it in…December 2019 issue 161.


I had forgotten that it was in this issue until a blog reader contacted me and said, “Love your quilt in APQ magazine”.  Hmm, I thought.  Which one was that?

I went online and looked it up.  Yep.  Now I remembered.

Later I got a message from Carla the gal that does a lot of our longarming if the quilt is going in a magazine.  She said..Did you quilt the quilt that’s in the December issue of APQ?  I said yes….  She was surprised.  Typically I don’t do costume quilting and I don’t do anything like this.

Then Carla asked, “Did you use rulers?”  I said nope.  She was surprised again.

What happened was I had this top here that I adored but hadn’t quilted it.  I wanted some motivation so I snapped a couple pictures of it and sent it in to the magazine for consideration.  They said yes…can you have it here ASAP?  Oh great.  I wasn’t looking for that much motivation.  Although I know Carla would have dropped everything, I knew what I wanted on the quilt and thought I could pull it off and it would be “good enough”.  So I tried.

I did it free hand.  Look close.  You can see it’s free hand….I’m okay with it.  I can do something like this….it’s just point to point quilting.


I hate working with rulers so free hand was my option….and look.  It was good enough for magazine publication…and that’s proof that it’s okay to not be perfect and to just DO IT!

Well from there I was tagged in a Facebook post from Chris Wells on Quilted Twins’ page.  She said that she saw a picture of my quilt on Instagram from the Houston Quilt Market.  Oh my.  I didn’t even know it was going there.  Hmmm.  I’m flattered.  I hunted and tried to find a picture on line but didn’t see one.  Ahhh.  I figured it was all a myth and went on with life.

Then last week APS contacted me about sending back my quilt.  I asked if the quilt was at Quilt Market in Houston and asked if I could see a picture of it.  They sent this…. Continue reading →