About Texas Quilt Gal

“When all t'world goes one road, I go t'other.”

― James Herriot, quote from All Creatures Great and Small

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

― Robert Frost, quote from The Road Not Taken

Those two quotes are pretty much me in a nutshell! I was born in northeastern Oklahoma, lived on a farm most of my young life, and now live in far north Texas, seven miles from the Oklahoma/Texas border! I married my childhood sweetheart in 1969, had a wonderful son and beautiful daughter, and now we are grandparents to 3 granddaughters and 2 grandsons. We have lived in either Oklahoma or Texas all of our lives.

Our wedding day in 1969 and our 50th anniversary

Texas Quilt Gal is a continuation of My Sew-Called Quilts and I write about quilting, needlework, recipes, and gardening. I learned to quilt in 2010 when my sweet Mom, who lived with us for 8 years, passed away at age 98, and I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. I own quilts from both my grandmothers, and I wish I had been smart enough to learn from them when I was younger. My favorite quilts are traditional, scrappy, and gradation. I taught myself embroidery and crochet in my 20s and still love the hand-work, and I really enjoy cross stitch.

This is how I pictured retirement but it's a bit busier than that!

We are both retired and now spend our days renovating our new home and spoiling our five cats and two dogs - all rescues. My husband likes to "makes things", and I like to quilt in my sewing room and enable my fabric addiction. Gardening and weather watching occupy the warm weather months, and I love to bake year-round.

Some random facts about me:

• I am a Christian, and United Methodist is my denomination. I have either attended or worked in churches all my life until we retired. We have not attended a church in recent years, but my beliefs and faith have not faltered.
• I had our first child in May of our senior year of college and walked across the stage to receive a degree in mathematics two weeks later.
• I intended to use my degree in mathematics to teach junior high math. The town where we moved after graduation had a position available, but only if I was a football coach in addition to math teacher! I got a job as a secretary instead and never renewed my teacher certification. I wore many office "hats" from administrative to data input to management. My later years of employment were in churches.
• In 2007 I said good-bye to working for someone else and started my own catering company, For Goodness Sake. I catered for a local coffee shop, my church, wedding showers and weddings, corporate clients, and individuals until 2013. It was my best job ever!
• During our life together we have moved from Oklahoma to north Texas, to south Texas, back to Oklahoma, then again to south Texas. Those moves were all job-related. In October 2020 after four years of retirement, we moved back to far north Texas, 7 miles from the Red River, which divides Oklahoma and Texas, and only 55 miles from our daughter, hubby, and their two Littles.
• We have seven rescued animals - four kitties - Katy, Jack, Rosie, Toby, and Gus, and two dogs - Boomer, a black lab mix, and Baker, a 3 year old Red Heeler mix, Our kids say that our animals have become our children, and they are right!
• I have advanced training as a storm spotter for the National Weather Service and have a lifelong fascination with and love for thunderstorms and towering supercells, so that officially makes me a weather geek.
• I have my Conceal Carry license and own a Puma 1873-22 revolver - a cowboy gun!
• I love all things UK. I recently did the Ancestry.com DNA test and found my ethnicity is 71% England and Wales and 29% Ireland and Scotland, so that explains that.

For any of you who care to know, I am a conservative and a proud patriot. I believe in  our constitution and am thankful for our freedoms. It is disheartening and frustrating to be categorized as a "threat" by the President simply because I vote as a Republican. And the midst of soaring inflation, violence and crime (in which criminals are categorized as victims), degrading moral values, humiliation of and threats to those who choose not to be vaccinated, and the treatment of  children as sexual adults. I pray that God will save our country from itself.

I realize that my political views probably differ from most of the kind folks who comment on my blog. There have been times when I have felt uncomfortable and unwelcome while reading some blogs whose authors express negative feelings about conservatives. I was actually scolded by one blogger for simply stating that my beliefs differed from hers. I am determined that no one ever feels that way while reading my blog. You have a right to feel the way you do just as much as I do.

If you've stuck with me this far, thanks for reading!