"Out to see the Manatees"

The Morrows, Pat , Donnie and Mandy's Sissy Abby spent Thanksgiving here in Cross City with us for a few days.

One of the bitds along the Beautiful Suwannee River.

Our Little Mandy.  It was a little chilly so I loaned her my ear muffs.

I think she enjoyed wearing them.

Donnie and Pat all bundled up.  This was early it
 the morning, It did warm up later.

They all wanted to site see and left me at the helm, what were they thinking?

Not sure if Pat was singing or not, but Donnie and Abby seemed to be liking it.

Mandy and her blankie.

The girls taking care of business.

These two are sisters and are spoiled rotten.

Pat sitting in the Hilton Jr.

Pop, myself and our baby Mandy.

I love the way this pic turned out.

Notice how smooth the water is and the reflection is so beautiful.  Loving that Suwannee River.

Add caption

2 of my favorite girls...........

We launched the boat, went across the river into Fanning Springs and found these Manatees.  They are such gentle loving creatures.  I was at the back of the boat and this one came up to me.  I did not have any food to give it, sure wish I had some lettuce with me.

This is a great pic of the Manatee.  Although they live in the water, they are mamals and breath air.  This one has a couple of scars on his back. likely caused by boat motors cutting them.  As soon as we saw them we cut our motor.

As you can see, this one has come up for air.

Abby had fun on her ride, her mommy Pat is keeping her blankie on her.

There was a baby with this family but I could not get a picture of it for some reason. 

The water is so clear because we are in the Springs water.  It is also warm water, which is why the Manatees are here.  They cannot survive in cold water.

When the water starts getting cold, the Manatees begin to come into the Springs for the warmth of the water which never gets below a certain temp.

Another one up for air.

A Few of My Art Quilts...Love the art quilts............

This is one of my first quilts that I designed, made my own patterns, put together and quilted my self.  As you can see, I am an Alabama gal from the tip of my toes to the top of my head.  Made one of these lap quilts for each of our 5 grandchildren and our 2 children. plus, I did make a couple and sold them.

I design and make the patterns for all my art quilts and this one is no exception.  Our daughter developed a cancerous brain tumor called Gioblastoma, deadly, and no cure.  She was a fighter and fought so hard to overcome it.  I decided to do a quilt to honor her for her strength in her battle.  In this quilt, most everything has a meaning.  The dragon is the cancer which she daily fought down, the building is the chapel or church when she went to pray, the guardian angel above her which watched over her, the doves in the sky represents the peace she felt after her prayers, the flowers on the bushes is her passion for flowers all of her life.  Completed this before she went to heaven and she loved it, we lost her a couple of years ago and heaven gained an angel.  Name of quilt is "Lita Slaying her Dragon, Cancer"

This one I did NOT design nor make my own pattern.  I bought this pattern, which is one of a set of four animal quilts.  Some of my first Art quilting.  "Packy the Paciderm"  Our son in law, Mac named this one.

Wanted to try my hand at the stained glass look and this is the outcome.  Name is "Away in A Manger"  This one also helped to decorate our Capitol in Montgomery, AL. in 2012 Christmas.

A Challenge Quilt, this one also hung in the Capital in Montgomery to help decorate for Christmas by Alabama Quilters.  This picture was made there, if you look to your left, you can see my elephant quilt there also.  We were so proud they invited us to do this.  Name of this quilt is "Swing Down Sweet Chariot".

I asked our grandson what he wanted for his birthday and his reply was ' A Texaco Quilt'  

This one is not what I would call an Art Quilt, It is a King size quiltto fit our Daughter and son in laws bed.  Lita collected and loved Angels, so of course I designed and made this for them.  Both of them loved it so much.

"Brother Against Brother"  This one is my favorite.  Always enjoyed reading about the Civil War with wonderment and always thought the war was such a bad way to settle things.  This one won first place and a Blue Ribbon in the Pigeon Forge show, and third place and a yellow ribbon in the Philadelphia, Pa. Internatinal quilt show.  My intentions are to make a couple more of these on a smaller scale to hang on each side of this one as a grouping.  Love my soldier boys. 

"Tranquility" Made this pattern and the wall hanging, then taught a couple of classes on how to do this.  I do love to share a few of my techniques of my Art Quilts.  This is one of the ones I taught for Mississippi Quilters Assc. in Jackson, Ms and also a class in Vernon, Al. for the Wanna Bee Quilters Group.

This is just a silly small quilt that some of us in the Possum Town Quilters made.  It is a paper piece pattern off the web and was fun to do.  Her name is "Knotstina" 

Another me made pattern and also taught a class on this one.  I will need to find a better pic of this one and tell more about it later.

"Garden of Prayer"  This is a Hoffman Challenge.  It did not win any prizes nor ribbons, but was among the ones selected to be in a traveling Show touring over the world for a year and returning  back to me in October, 2015

"Safari"   one of the set of four.

"Eye of the Tiger"  Another in the set of four,  His eyes follow you around the room, at least I captured that.

"Stripes"  Another of the set of four.

Admiring my own quit and it's blue Ribbon at Pigeon Forge.

A tiny quilt called a"A Bird in Hand is worth Two in the Bush"

My contribution to the Columbus Arts Council and the Animal Shelter.  Was given a picture someone had made of a dog at the Animal Shelter and was supposed to make a 36 X 36 of something showing the animal.  Of course mine had to be a quilt.  They were to be sold and the money split between the two of them. Sure would like to know who got this one I made.

Made this one for the youth at our church to raffle, making money for the Relay for Life  Our local school Quilt

"Let Freedom Ring"  2014

Another National Championship quilt.

"A Storm is coming"  from a Tennessee Williams short play.

"Magnificient Magnolia"

Designed and made this, participating in an Ultimate Guild Challenge. It had to be a 36x36 give or take an inch and have a magnolia on it with the PossumTown Quilters Guild. I do love Art Quilts.
This one won 1st place and a shopping $500.00 shopping spree at a Quilt Show in Florida and I spent every cent of it.