Author / Bethe

by Bethe

Blog Roll: Quilting Blogs

I’ve been blogging since blogging wasn’t cool (2005), and along the way I have discovered some really interesting people. I thought I would share the wealth.

Because I’m an organized person living in a disorganized person’s body, on a rare day when I had some free time I categorized my blog reader. It was either that, or wash my windows, and this was a lot more interesting.

My windows could still use a good cleaning.

I’d like to introduce my favorite blogs from my quilting category:

Cluck Cluck Sew
I love pretty pictures of quilts, and she always pics the greatest fabrics. Some of her quilts are simple enough for me to attempt, and have been added to my “to do” list on Pinterest.

Crazy Mom Quilts
This was the first quilting blog I started following, and it will probably always be my favorite. This quilt is the next one I’m going to tackle after my super secret surprise quilt is completed. This one is almost all applique, and may take me a day or two (or year) but every time I look at this picture, I gasp in delight, and it’ll be a fantastic way to use up my ever-growing scrap pile.

I’m a Ginger Monkey
I started following because of the name, but I stayed because these quilts are so unique. I’ll probably never be able to make anything like this, but I can still enjoy the pretty pictures… and dream.

Sew Take a Hike
This is what inspired my yo-yo quilt, although 200 yo-yo’s through I realized I was making them wrong (my centers are unfinished, but I choose to think that it makes mine soft and cuddly and unique… plus it’s too late to start over). I’m anxiously waiting for later this fall when she posts her tutorial of how to machine-stitch my 1,000 yo-yo’s together into a coverlet. I know that once I begin, my sewing room floor will be covered in yellow and gray yo-yo’s for quite some time so I don’t disturb my pattern.

Someone recently asked me how I started quilting – I simply bought an inexpensive Singer sewing machine on a whim at a trip to Target, invited a girlfriend over to teach me how to operate it, and from there, I just winged it. I’ve had no formal training, but following these blogs (along with YouTube videos – God’s gift to the “I have no idea how to do that” quilter) has taught me so all sorts of new tips. I’ve approached a few workers at quilting stores, but for the most part, I’ve found them to be a bit snobbish – it’s easier to learn from the comfort of my laptop.

by Bethe

Bicycles & Boys’ Night

We got a sneak peak of our photo session from this weekend… and I squealed when I saw it (thanks Mack & Chelsea!). Mr. Right and I love to ride these adorable vintage bikes around our neighborhood and along the Trinity Trail, and they’ve been a big part of some of my very favorite dates, so I’m thrilled that we were able to document these babies in some casual pictures.

In other news, last night was the first-ever Boys Night at our place. My little house has been home to dozens of girls’ nights – teaching an all-girls’ Sunday School class for so many years, along with living alone for part of that time and hankering for company, meant that my house has seen more Bachelor-watching parties, dinner parties, and wedding showers than you could possibly count. Heck, this year I even hosted a pre-royal wedding dinner party.

But whereas my parties usually involve chocolate, dainty finger foods and massive quantities of Diet Coke, guys’ night involved several pounds of bacon and sausage, along with 8 pounds of beef from a cow that used to live in my in-laws’ front yard–which I think is quite appropriate for a guy’s night, don’t you think? (insert grunting and scratching here)

I have no idea what these boys did all evening, but I do know that THEY DID THE DISHES. When I got home from spending the evening with my parents, there wasn’t a single dirty dish in our house. Everything had been put away. Even our countertops were sparkling.

Those boys can come back any time they want.

by Bethe

Good news, bad news

The good news: WE SOLD THE HOUSE!

Mr. Right and I are so pleased to report that the house sale finally went through on Friday! Hooray! We went out and celebrated in grand style Friday night at the world-famous Joe T. Garcia’s.

The bad news: I’m sick. Again.

I’ve been healthy since early May, but had my first relapse over the weekend. I spent much of Saturday in bed, and hope that resting all day today, along with an upped dose of antibiotics (I already take a daily antibiotic, but have now upped it to full-treatment mode) will help keep this bout short and sweet. We had our pictures made yesterday by our dear friends at McGowan Images, and hopefully with the help of photoshop you’ll never know that I was feeling kind of lousy and feverish. I can’t wait to see the pictures – even though it was 95 degrees outside, we dressed up in scarves and tall boots (well, I wore a scarf and tall boots… Mr. Right didn’t) and took pictures on our vintage bicycles and cuddling on Mr. Right’s great-great-grandmother’s homemade quilt. I’ll share the pics this week as soon as we get a sneak preview.

In the meantime, I’m lying in bed, catching up on Beth Moore sermons (almost finished with her Paul series) and sewing yo-yo’s. Tonight Mr. Right is hosting a testosterone-filled “man night” at our place, so I’ll be relocating to my parents’ couch… rumor has it there may be a home-cooked meal there when I arrive.

by Bethe

On a lighter note

After Monday’s mushy post, I thought I’d lighten things up a bit and talk about what Mr. Right and I have been up to lately.

These past few weekends we have relished being home–after a full summer of traveling–and have had a blast piddling around on our house. As we continue to unpack and discover furniture and decor that came with a wedding and combining two homes, we have loved getting to slowly decorate and “finish” our house, at the cost of almost nothing but a little spray paint and a lot of creativity.

Our latest addition is these shelves, which Mr. Right purchased from Ikea and used in his house to hold food since his cute little house–built in the 1950s– didn’t have a pantry. We finally found the time to cart these shelves from his garage, where they’ve sat lonely for several months, over to their permanent home. From there, I used this Pinterest inspiration to decorate our blank canvas with treasures we already had. Since we both love to entertain, we already had tons of white serving pieces (I already had a set of dishes that fed 15 people–a byproduct of hosting 20-30 people every year for Easter), and then added a few fun extras from our wedding registry. I’ve found that if I can’t easily reach (or see) something, I won’t use it, so we brought all of our favorite pieces out of storage, and it’s amazing how in only two weeks we’ve used so many items off of here. I already have big plans for decorating them for Christmas. Mr. Right, who despises seasonal decorations, is probably rolling his eyes as he reads this–but I love him anyway because he’s so darn cute.


I mentioned that I’m working on a top secret quilting project. Well, you know me, I can’t keep a secret to save my life. Just ask my family. I decided there’s no use in exploding from the excitement of not being able to share… so I’m sharing. I’m just not telling you who it’s for. But here’s a sneak preview – it’s an relaxed, neutral quilt in a brick pattern, and after I finish piecing everything I’m going to add a bit of flair – my first foray into applique, so I’m excited/nervous about what it will look like.

This where I can also mentioned that I asked a sales lady in the sewing machine section at my local JoAnn’s Fabrics store to help me with some applique questions and she responded with her hands on her hips and a “Don’t you know young people know ANYTHING about sewing?!” (boo hiss) Thankfully my crafty sister gave me an over-the-phone tutorial and I think I’m set.

In the meantime, last weekend we decided to explore the antique store right around the corner from our home. We had overcommitted maximized our social calendar for the weekend, so we made this morning trip our date for the week – it just so happened that they were having a giant sidewalk sale outside our antique store, and digging through all the junk goodies was so much fun! I picked up some vintage jars for my new sewing room shelf (note to self- post picture of the shelf Mr. Right built me – it’s adorable!) and Mr. right snagged a vintage cruiser bike to add to our ever-growing collection of bicycles. We also may or may not have picked up a top-secret gift – one that I really will keep a secret because it’s just that good. Totally worth it. You can’t break me, don’t even try.

This is a vintage quilt I snagged a photo of at the antique store that may become the inspiration of a future project. I love the combination of solids and patterns into squares, and I adore the bright colors.

 Saturday night we ran in a 5K race for my work. I was a bit worried since in all the craziness of life these past few weeks (hello, organizing the largest special event of my career) I didn’t make have time to train, other than a few short runs scattered here and there (mostly there). But, inspired by a pair of kickin’ new running shoes and feeling cute in my t-shirt (which I designed) I was able to RUN the entire race. Not that impressive since I’ve run a half marathon before, but impressive considering most of my working out lately has been in spin class or sitting at my quilting machine. Regardless, it was a total blast, and so fun to be able to do it with my man, who–for the record–ran it significantly faster than I did. What can I say, I’m a bit proud.

Time to find another one to sign up for…

by Bethe

For this man I have prayed…

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is of Hannah, a young woman who in total desperation after years of infertility pleaded to the Lord to give her a child.

And He gave her Samuel.

I can relate to Hannah. For so many years, I got on my knees and prayed that the Lord would bring me a partner that I could serve alongside.

And he answered my prayer.

It took Him what seemed like forever to answer my prayer. Years of what seemed like unanswered prayers, years of feeling like I was forgotten, like I missed my opportunity. Years of praying that I could find contentment in the now.  where so many that seemed to go unanswered, and at times (okay, most of the time) I was so impatient.

And then Mr. Right came, and I didn’t have to do a single thing. He was such an answer to prayer.

Maybe that’s why I get so overwhelmed when I hear him preach. For this man I prayed so many years. I hoped and hoped that I would someday find a man of God who could lead our family, encourage me in my ministry, and set an example of love. So yesterday, when Mr. Right preached to a group of seniors, and I could see his love pouring out for these widows and people forgotten, I felt a welling of emotion. It was a special opportunity to hear my man preach, and to know that his words were authentic, lived out in private as much as they are in public.

I wonder if I will ever get used to hearing him preach.

I hope I never do.

by Bethe

Prayer & dance parties

They pushed the closing of our house back a few more days. Which means we have to pay another month’s mortgage. Which wouldn’t be a huge deal, except that I thought we were done. I thought we were finished paying unexpected expenses.

We’ve already paid to fix the foundation. We paid to fix the air conditioner that was vandalized during the break-in. We paid to rewire most of the house. Paid for some miscellaneous minor repairs. Paid someone to water our grass for four months. Paid to repaint the whole interior. Paid to replace a set of doors. Paid two mortgages for five months. And we still have to repay our tax credit to Obama.

My first response to this latest news wasn’t rejoicing. I cried. A lot. And then we prayed together, reminding ourselves that we will continue to trust in the Lord even in the midst of bad news. We will choose to give thanks in all circumstances, even when it’s not easy. Or fun.

And then Mr. Right and I threw a dance party in our living room to cheer ourselves up.  Dancing silly hip-hop moves I learned in middle school to Sir Mix A Lot made us laugh until our sides hurt. And then we slow-danced to George Straight, right there, barefoot in our living room.

We decided to choose joy.

Fast forward to today… Mr. Right called me this afternoon with wonderful news. He called our bank and explained our situation, and we don’t have to pay our mortgage this month after all! The banker was so kind and offered a solution that works great for everybody… and we found out we get $300 more back on our escrowed taxes than we originally thought. So, we actually “made” some money today! (which is all theoretical since we’re still taking a loss… but less than I thought we would be losing as of this morning)

There will be some rejoicing going on tonight in the Wright household…

We continue to choose joy. And I may celebrate with ice cream.

by Bethe

I know what you did last summer: summer bucket list update

Summer 2011 is officially over. Not only was it the hottest summer of my lifetime (68 days of 100 degree temperatures… holy cow!) but it was my first summer as a newlywed, and it was full of adventures.

Remember our summer bucket list? Here’s how we did…

1. Swim

2. Watch fireworks


3. Take a picnic




This may have been our most romantic date yet – Mr. Right packed us the most amazing picnic (with homemade potato salad and chocolate chip cookies… swoon), and we rode our bikes down to Trinity Trail in Fort Worth. We sat on our picnic blanket for hours and watched the sun go down and talked about life, our first eight months of marriage, and what we want to do this fall. It was maybe my favorite date ever.


4. Go on a bike ride

5. Watch a sunset


6. Go to the lake


7. Eat a leisurely dinner on a restaurant patio (too darn hot)


8. Host our cousins for a visit (we went and visited them in OKC instead)


9. Go to Will’s mall (We didn’t make it there, but Will’s grad school is doing a cover story in their school newspaper about his evangelism efforts at this particular mall which has an international flair… I’m so proud of my man, and can’t wait to go with him there soon).


10. Ride the train to Dallas

We decided to switch out the train ride for a day in Dallas at the Dallas World Aquarium and dinner at Iron Cactus… I highly recommend both! It’s not on the train route… so we drove.

11. Eat dinner on our back porch  We substituted breakfast, and Labor Day morning was the first cool opportunity ALL SUMMER to do this… but we snuck it in just under the wire. I had waffles. It was glorious.

12. Discover a new restaurant – My favorites were Cafe Medi and Twisted Root and Lili’s Bistro. We were also treated to a very nice dinner at Del Frisco’s, which counts since it was Mr. Right’s first time to eat there.

13. Cook a brisket – Mr. Right rocked this in our crock pot. He was so cute… I bet he checked it 87 times because he was brimming with excitement. I happily ate the product of his laborious toil.


14. Watch the newest Harry Potter


15. Lose 15 pounds – FAIL. I lost 4…


16. Eat at Cowboy Chow – just never made it over there… but this rolls over to our Fall Bucket List.


17. Cheer on the Rangers – twice… I’d post a picture but I was having a terrible hair day. Both times. I’m growing out my bangs… so this is a frequent occurrence.


18. Compete in a triathlon (Will) – I watched. And cheered. And drank coffee while my cute man swam in spandex shorts.



19. Date night on Trinity Trail (see #3)


20. Spontaneous ice cream date – there were spontaneous ice cream dates, spontaneous snow cone dates, and spontaneous fro-yo dates, which is why I failed at #15.


21. Use our crock pot – there’s a brisket somewhere under all those goodies… Mr. Right has been on a kick with the briskets. I don’t mind.





22. Eat Argentine food – My own personal chef (husband) made us homemade empanadas inspired by his summer living in Argentina. He used pizza dough… super easy. You should try it.


23. Eat Colombian food – This is rolling over to our Fall Bucket List


24. Eat Indian food


We completed 18 of 24 items… not bad for a crazy summer! We did much more than what this list covers… we took a trip to Florida, two trips to Oklahoma (Mr. Right made three), two trips to Midland, two weekends hosting an out-of-town guest, one week of house sitting… and we flipped and sold a house. I discovered spin class (and even – gasp – wore spandex), finished a quilt, sewed hundreds of yo-yo’s, went through ESL training, assured a dozen people that I am NOT pregnant, and had many fun dinners with friends. And only had two pedicures (look at me roughing it… I’m such a girl scout).


It was a very good summer indeed.

The cold front that hit over the weekend (thank you Jesus!) has inspired me to start brainstorming ideas for fall, which will definitely include a lot of quilting, finishing a Pinterest-inspired wreath, and lot’s of snuggling with Mr. Right in front of the fire. 


Ciao summer… bring on the fall and its tall boots, colorful scarves, fire logs and hot chocolate. 
by Bethe

Do you burn more calories when you heart is racing?

It’s T-minus 12 days until a little party I’m throwing for 1,000 people.
Yep. A thousand.
To get ready for this little shindig, I had to produce a 10-minute video. Hire a cake decorator from The Food Network. Work with the White House, the Governor’s office, and every elected official our hospital is connected to on the city, state, and national level. And ship some custom-made chocolates across the United States in a refrigerated truck.
You might say I’m a little stressed. But I’m also so excited I can barely stand it.
In other news:
-I am now belting all of my flowy shirts so that pestering P-question goes away.
-I finished my Pink Lady quilt… I’m so pleased, even though I learned a difficult lesson in binding the quilt… I stink at it. But it’s finished and next time, I’ll be hand-finishing that binding.
-I’ve already started on my next quilt… this one is a gift. I haven’t decided if I will go ahead and spill the beans early, or hold out and surprise my sweet friend who will be receiving it, and then just blog about it later. We’ll see if I can keep a secret (doubtful).
-I’m taking Mr. Right on a surprise date this Saturday. He plans so many of these for me, and I’ve never planned one for him. I’m so excited, and I LOVE getting to tease him and watch him squirm – he wants to know SO BADLY what we’re going to do. Just between you and me – it’s going to be so. much. fun.
-Next week I start teaching English as a Second Language classes at my church, just one evening a week. My life-long dream of being an English teacher is about to be fulfilled in a very unexpected way. God is so cool like that. I can’t wait to meet the women from all over the world who will be in my class. They don’t know this, but I’ve been praying for them for months.
-We did a major house decorating update Saturday, for total cost of a can of spray paint. People keep donating the coolest furniture to us (thanks to our parents on both sides), and Saturday we finally put almost everything in its place, painted a mirror, hung pictures, and Mr. Right even built me a shelf from scrap wood he had in our garage. I am so pleased with the finished result, which includes a craft room for me! I now have a fantastic set-up for sewing and crafting in our back spare bedroom, including a dresser I’m using to organize all my supplies. Pictures coming soon. And Mr. Right has an even better-looking office with a vintage-lookig mirror he painted and stained. We realize that once we fill our home with children, my sewing room and his study will probably be relegated to our closet, so we plan to thoroughly enjoy the space while we have it.
During the house decorating, Mr. Right hung up our wedding thumb print tree (we used this in place of a guest book at our wedding and showers… you can buy it off of Etsy) in our living room, and I was so happy to see it up that I cried. I know – I’m a bit sentimental, but seeing the signatures of all of our favorite people absolutely made my day.
It’ll probably hang in our house until we’re old and gray, and then it will follow us to the nursing home. The verse on there is from 2 Thessalonians 3:5 – the scripture Will began secretly praying over me after our first date.
Swoon.
by Bethe

I’m going to be rich

If I had a dollar for every time some well-meaning person asked me if I was pregnant…
I’d be a dollar richer. Again…
That’s right… it happened again. Is this normal, people? I was at a non-profit fundraiser over the weekend, and a well-meaning friend who has known me since I was in college, came up to me, put her arm around me, and said…
Her: So, I hear you have some BIG NEWS for me!
Me: Huh?
Her: I hear you have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
Me: uh???
Her: So are you…
And then I knew what she was talking about. The P-word. She never said it out-right, but she didn’t have to, I knew what she was referring to. I quickly assured her that I am most definitely NOT pregnant. And then I did my best attempt at laughing it off.
But it still hurt my feelings.
I realize that every time someone asks me (probably about 10 times since January), it’s a well-meaning person who knows me and who is probably super excited that I’m finally married, and they probably assume that the next logical step is to immediately make a baby. I keep telling myself that they are not suggesting that I have a baby bump, although I have retired several shirts that may have given that impression.
I know my blog buddies (most of whom have had babies) are much more sensitive than that. But to the rest of the world… please don’t ask. Ever.
I promise that when the time comes for a big announcement (and trust me, there are no plans for anything like that for awhile), I will shout it from the rooftops. You know I can’t keep a secret. But don’t hold your breath – after spending the first four months of our marriage sick in bed, I’ve got a few adventures to experience before we start expanding our little family.
Speaking of which… for all of my sweet blog friends who prayed so fervently for me earlier this year, I’m happy to report that I have been healthy four straight months! Praise Jesus.
In other news – the “are you pregnant” question didn’t do too much to damper our evening. The fundraiser was a big BINGO game, and Mr. Right won one of the largest packages! He won us tickets to the Fort Worth Symphony at Bass Hall, the Dallas Symphony, tickets to several movie theaters, tickets to a live theater production of Scrooge, tickets to the Omni theater, plus some misc. other date nights. We are beyond thrilled.
by Bethe

More quilts

Do you know why I love quilting?
Because of this quilt lying on my bed. A quilt made by Mr. Right’s great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother out of the scraps of his grandmother’s childhood clothes, and those of her seven brothers and sisters.
It’s such a piece of history. What other heirlooms tell that kind of story while looking fantastic in your house? It was a small added bonus that this quilt happens to look like something you’d pick up today from Anthropologie, and it brings a pop of color to our otherwise neutral bedroom.
I just adore it.
That’s what I think about as I make my own quilts to give away as gifts. My sister has one of the few I’ve finished. Okay, I admit… I’ve only finished two. But I’ve started three more.

Just for kicks, here’s the first quilt I ever made… finished in September 2008. If you ever think about dipping your toe into quilting… a strip quilt is a great first project because they’re super fast and super easy.
Tonight I hope to finish my next prized quilt, which I started in the fall of 2008 and took me over a month to piece together. It was a bit aggressive for only my second quilt ever (I started this one before I made Sarah her Ethan Allen scrap quilt), and it was my first exposure to the meticulous measurement (and math!) that quilting requires. For the record, my math is atrocious, but it was worth it.
Originally I started quilting this by hand, and then lost interest about half-way through. (Who me? A.D.D.? Never.) Then a few weeks ago at our family reunion, one of Mr. Right’s relatives, who teaches quilting classes (score!) gave me tips on how to quilt on my teeny-tiny sewing machine. I didn’t think it was possible to quilt on this $200 Singer I picked up on a whim at Target back in the summer of 2008… but alas, it’s totally doable!
In case you’re wondering, the secret is to roll the edge of your quilt up, which helps it to fit between the machine and the needle. I had tried just bunching it before, which takes up more space.
It took me several hours to rip out all of my old hand-stitching and then about four hours to quilt everything on my machine, which I did while listening to a book on tape and sipping ice tea. Those four hours of sewing would have taken me about six months by hand, and I’m absolutely giddy about the results. My stitches may be a bit crooked in places, but I think it adds to the home-made quality of the quilt. If you want perfection, go to a department store. If you want personality and a few flaws and lot’s of love built into your quilt, then you can have one of mine.
Tonight I’ve got to bind it. I’m trying a different technique this time, which I’m a little nervous about, but I’m determined to conquer it. Once I do, I’m going to celebrate by purchasing fabric for my next project… it’s taking every ounce of will power I have not to go before I finish this one.
And not to worry, the yo-yo’s continue… I’m about 150-200 yo-yo’s in, with about 800 more to go. I mostly work on that in the car, at the hair salon, or while watching movies with Mr. Right.
Happy quilting!