Seeing Red: RSC 14

I’ve found something quiet I can do!

I’ve been up since 3:00 a.m. Of course I went to bed at 8:00 p.m. because of a migraine…ouch! Sleeping did its magical work, along with migraine meds and I’m a functioning person again!

And now I am here in the quilting room trying to find something quiet to do so I won’t wake up hubby. He’s a very light sleeper. The last time I tried to be quiet in here I ended up having boxes fall out of both my quilt closets. I don’t do quiet very well.

It’s Saturday and Rainbow Scrap Challenge! This month the color is red and I’ve been able to pick out some great fabrics from my stash!

Some stripes. Isn't that second fabric cool? And of course plaid!
I wrote a post on what fabrics I want in each color for RSC.

The first fabric has gold glitter. My novelty fabric, thanks to friend! I love the dishes in the fourth one.
See my post about my recent fabric finds, including the little red hen!

What am I to do? My cat, Kaiju, is so darn cute, even when she's helping in the quilting room!
The second fabric reminds me of spools. The third fabric: duck's feet or leaves. And for informational purposes,
the fourth fabric really isn't plaid, it's checked. Who wants to be that picky?

 You can see lots of creative ways that other quilters are making their RSC red blocks by clicking on the badge on the left bar.

And to leave you with some insight into how much I love reading...

See my Reading List (from Goodreads) below!

Fabric-palooza!

Whimsical Animal Mailboxes

In the past couple of weeks I’ve gotten some squishy wonderfulness in my mailbox. Heaven!

I do have a goal to not buy anymore fabric…uhmmm…and I excuse myself by saying that I only buy fabric on sale and usually is older fabric. When I buy older fabric I can call it scraps. I’ve been writing my own dictionary and I looked up scraps. It says 1. “Old or extra fabric, whether leftover from a project or bought.  2. Old fabric, that when bought, does not count as buying fabric.”

Since I am a honest person, I must say that this delicious fabric does not count as scrap:

This lovely fabric is called “Wee Wander.” by Sarah Jane. You can see her blog about her fabric here. I rarely go nuts over a fabric line, but in this instance I had to buy both colorways! I bought mine from Hawthorne Threads, which is a lovely online shop. What I really like is that if you like a fabric and they’re out of stock, they will email you when it is back in their store again.

That being said, let me share my windfalls:

My hubby and I were on a rare trip to Napa, which is about an hour away from where we live. As we drove around I saw a Hancocks fabric store. We don’t have any around us, so my sweet hubby pulled in for me to pet fabric. First thing I saw was a big sale! Fabric for sale at 50%-75% off. I started looking and filling my cart with bolts.

Hubby was perusing the store and when he came back to where I was, he looked at my cart in dismay.

“Are you going to buy all that fabric?”

“Yes! It’s on sale!”

“But how much does each one cost? That’s going to be a lot of money!”

I realized where he was coming from, he thought I was buying the entire bolt. Poor guy, he doesn’t venture into quilt stores much. Once I assured him I was only buying a little off each bolt, he was much happier.

I bought fabrics to pump up weak areas in my stash. And plaid! You can never have too much plaid!

Next was a sweet treat from my bloggy friend, T. She writes the blog QuiltNCards. She is a paper-piecing maniac and makes wonderful quilts too. I had mentioned in a previous post that I had very little novelty fabric. A few days later I got this in the mail!

T made a gorgeous, fun quilt with squares of novelty fabric which you can see on her home page using the link above. T had given me a square of fabric left over from that project. What a sweetie! I had the most fun looking through each piece. I won’t have to worry about novelty fabric for a long time.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

There is also a local online quilt store in my area. It is a very sneaky place because I keep going back and buying more. Unfortunately for me, Cottage Quilts is closing in September. Waaahhhh! She has some terrific sales going on now and you should take advantage! She has layer cakes, charm squares, jelly rolls, yardage, kits, and patterns.

One of my favorite items in her shop was her scrap bags. You would choose a color or theme and would get a wonderful selection of scraps! She still has green, red and Christmas scrap bags.

Here’s what I got from Cottage Quilts. The green is from the scrap bag I ordered.

I’m doing the extra happy dance in my piles of fabric and planning what I can do with them. Lucky me!

I’m hooking up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday. Her badge is on the right bar.

Happy weekend!

Pass the Peanuts, Please #4

I feel a little like Pig-Pen today. My house needs serious picking up. I’ve made my daily list of what room to do each day. Today is the quilt room, of course, the highest priority!

I love the early Charlie Brown comics. It’s fun to see the characters as they were originally drawn.

And through the years:

A few days ago my hubby and I were at Costco. (Wait, this is relevant!) We hit the back wall and there he was standing in front of the ice cream case….no good could be done here! He could not resist their siren call and bought a BIG box of Drumsticks.

They were quite the hit at our house of two. We gobbled them up in two days! We did give a couple to our daughter, Noel Heart.

Last night, after a busy and tiring day of helping Noel Heart and Chief move, Hubby and I were getting to watch the (disheartening) SF Giants game. Hubby mentioned Drumsticks; I drooled.

The long and short of it was that I went and got a couple of boxes of Drumsticks from the local grocery store! The SF Giants lost but we feel we were winners as we each snarfed down 2 Drumsticks!

Which brings me up to the appropriately themed Charlie Brown statue.

 Summer Treat Charlie Brown

I'm ready to go! It's been 12 hours since my last drumstick...scoop me up some pistachio ice cream Charlie! I'll be right there!

Todays Peanuts question:

Name the minor Peanuts characters!

Mish Mosh Monday #2: Giddy-Up Cowboy!

As Colonel Sherman Potter in Mash said, “It’s got the three things that make a movie great: Horses, cowboys and horses!”

I love a good cowboy movie. Good Guy vs. Bad Guy. The Hero who saves the day. The Gunslinger. Eating grub. Sleeping on bedrolls. The Showdown. The Card Shark. The Good-Hearted Woman.

I’m in heaven when I’m watching a good cowboy flick. I have a list as long as your arm of cowboy movies on Netflix and Amazon.

The Early Years

I was inducted into cowboy-don when I was a wee child. My mom was raised listening to cowboy songs on her dad’s 78 records. She knew a lot of them: Cowboy Jack, When the Work's All Done This Fall, I've Got No Use for the Women, The Wreck of the Old Number 9, and on and on. 

My family says (frequently) that my Mom never sang a happy song. Just because a cowboy died at the end of nearly every song doesn't mean that... okay, I'll just move on along here.

The family favorite: Cowboy Jack. Yes, unfortunately Jack dies in the end.

"He was just a lonesome cowboy,
With a heart so brave and true,
And he learned to love a maiden,
With eyes of heaven's own blue."

You can't miss this! Here is a good video of a woman singing Cowboy Jack.

Then there were those cowboy sayings of Mom:

“I feel like I’ve been rode hard and put away wet.”

“He’s hell bent for leather.”

Getting Hooked

What really got me hooked though was a 1985 cowboy revival movie:

Cowboy Movie Themes

After that, I was hooked! I’ve found that there just a few themes in all cowboys movies:

1.  Mean person/s is running the town and wants to get rid of the farmers or ranchers. An unwitting cowboy comes to town and gets involved and saves the town.

2.  A member of a family needs to be avenged because the bad guy wants their land or has taken their land.

3. A cowboy helps a woman because someone wants to take her land. They fall in love and get married or cowboy rides into the sunset.

4. Buddy cowboy movies where the duo does good for town or people or bad duo who rob or kill.

5. A military theme. Soldier/ex-soldier in conflict with or helps military with Indian attacks/bad guys. Or group of people need military.

6. A stagecoach movie where riders get caught up in a bad situation. 




7. Reforming a person, usually a drunk, but sometimes a gunfighter. 


Almost all cowboy movies end up with the good guy winning and justice being done. And that, I think, is why I love them so!

My Favorite Cowboy Movies

My three favorite old-time movies are Destry Rides Again (1939), Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949). How can I choose just one?

A very young Jimmy Stewart who refuses
to use a gun. (Forget the picture!)

It had teenage heartthrob
Ricky Nelson and Dean
Martin. This one is a kick!

Dueling soldiers for
the love of a pretty woman

I can't help myself...there are lots of John Wayne movies in my list. We all remember this John Wayne: 

But do we remember this one?

Taken when he was 23 years old. He
was quite the hunk! You have to
remember that John Wayne was born
 in 1907. He was 72 when he died.

My favorite “newer” movie is, hands down, Silverado. My family is always teasing me about how many times I’ve watched the movie! 

And what about Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig? 

Forget Indiana Jones and James Bond! There's Cowboys and Aliens. Somebody shure knew how to make a cowboy film!

(Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my chin!)

My favorite John Wayne movies:

The Cowboys (1972)

Rio Bravo (1959) (picture above)

She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) (picture above)
True Grit (1969)

Nobody does it better than the Duke!

And don’t forget these:

Others I want to mention because they are so cool!

I saw "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" as a double feature in 1969. The other movie was "They Kill Horses, Don't They?" What a combo!

"True Grit" & "Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid" were released the same year!

Shane is a classic cowboy movie. It was actually shown when I was in school. I was taking American Lit. It was about the archetype of the savior/hero in literature.

1953

Man Without A Star (1955) (picture above)

The Man from Laramie (1955)
Jimmy Stewart, a top-of-the-list favorite of mine made some top-drawer westerns.

The Proud Rebel (1958) is one I just recently saw. I liked the plot about a man who is willing to go to no ends to find a doctor to cure his son's inability to speak.

Seven Samurai (1954)—the movie that inspired an American re-make, The Magnificent Seven. I like Seven Samurai much better!

3:10 To Yuma (1957). This is the original that follows the verity of "you cannot remake a classic!"

I think I've given you enough cowboy movies to last a month! Get the popcorn! Get a soda! Put up your feet and enjoy some very fine movies!

Tell me! What is your favorite(s) cowboy movie?

And now, it’s time I got on my horse and bid you farewell. Happy Trails to You!