Rose Rosette Conference

Incredible turnout for Rose Rosette Management Conference at TAMU Dallas this morning.  Nearly 500 people from municipalities, landscape and horticulture industry here today. 

Rose Rosette Disease is affecting all roses in North Texas. Here is an article from the Dallas Morning News.  and another article at HGTV

 This is what Rose Rosette Disease looks like.

You can read more about it at the Collin County Rose Society website or watch this video on You Tube of the presentations.  

Departure is around the corner...

It's been a hectic ten days since my last post.  Our exchange student is headed back to Spain in a few days.  We tried to take her to a few more places before her departure.

The Fort Worth Stockyards...

She rode a longhorn.

We went to the Fort Worth Water Gardens.

The Stadium where Dallas Cowboys play...  Close up of the Margret Hunt Hill bridge in Dallas

The Continental Avenue Bridge along the Trinity River Corridor provides a great view of downtown Dallas and a closeup of the new Margaret a Hunt Hill Bridge.  

The whole day was fast and furious but I am glad we got to take her a few more places. 

My First Sew Together Bag

Great patterns & teachers make a world of difference in a sewing class.  Spent the Saturday, the day after my birthday at Stitched With Love (one of our LQS) making this "Sew Together Bag" (pattern by Sew Demented).  

Teacher was Sara H who's president of McKinney Modern Quilt Guild.  Bag has 4 zippers & 4 pockets and what seems like miles of binding.  This was a big step for me because normally I don't follow patterns. 

Here is a picture of the back of the bag....

Here is a close up front, the side ends and the inside with all the pockets and zippers.  

Some of these fabrics probably look familiar, I have been hoarding some of these fabrics for a while, so happy they will live forever in this bag!  The bag was not overly complicated but had many many steps.  Sometime when I have 8+ hours of spare time - I will make another one.  Thankful I finished before leaving the building.   Feeling accomplished, now I am inspired to make more complicated bags in 2015.  Thanks for stopping by!  

Traveling Handmade

Headed to a class at Stitched With Love...

This is the trunk of my car.  Love traveling handmade with my Janome machine and three bags of stuff...  These are all bags I have received in swaps... from left to right... McKMQG swap, second from my friend Jane in Australia through the sweep pouch swap in 2014 and lastly from my Quiltcon buddy Ruthie.  I think I need a couple more larger bags... will add that to my to do list for 2015.  Hope you are having a great day!

Collin County Justice Center

Had a full day at the Collin County Justice Center today with Leadership McKinney.  We spent the day learning about the Sheriff's Department's role, touring the jail, Homeland Security Command Center and even meeting with Judge Roach from the 296th District court and observing a trial.  

The top picture is all of the class in one of the jail pods.    It was an amazing day....

Happy 2015

Happy New Year from The Fipps.