Fingers crossed

The mommy is taking over the blog for the evening post.
Charles and Maggie May

Thank you both for giving me this opportunity. I've been quilting for many years but most of my quilts are what I consider utility. Great quilts but not meant to be heirloom. Baby quilts are meant to be put on the ground to cushion a baby's play time, spit up on and washed until they fall apart.

My sister and her husband purchased property about an hour outside Nashville several years ago. This will become their retirement living area in a couple of years but for now, it's a vacation location and lots of work to keep the wild at bay. There are dry stone walls that mark the old property lines that date back to before the Civil War.
I went through a phase (it still pops up from time to time) where I enjoyed working with the reproduction Civil War era fabrics. My sister saw this quilt in the earliest stages and liked it. My sister appreciates my quilts but some of them aren't her taste, so this was a sign to me that this should be their quilt.

Last year, I took this quilt to be appraised for them. The appraiser encouraged me to consider entering some of my quilts in contests. I don't always see the beauty, only seeing the mistakes, so this is a huge leap of faith on my part. That said, today I sent off the application, complete with photos and the fee, to Quilt Expo, which is held in Madison, Wisconsin every September. This is a juried show, so the quilts are selected by committee, and the quilts that are selected are then judged before hanging in the show.
So, tonight, I'm saying a little prayer that this quilt gets juried into the show. I have no dreams of winning any of the prizes, just would like to make that first step and get it into the show.
The quilt is titled "Time Stands Still at the Farm", as my sister and her husband have named the property Southern Comfort Farm. I should know one way or the other by early August.
Thanks for keeping up with the cats and I. We appreciate you all.

Wow! where has time gone?

With apologies to all that we have missed in our absence, we wanted to post a short update.

Last September, Mommy got me a new sister. After the fiasco of Charlee, she was worried about how I would react but this new sister is young and (don't tell her!) fun. She likes to bounce on me when I'm sleeping and I get mad but not for long.
Mommy told me the people at the shelter named her Treebond (what sort of name is that?!!) but mommy decided she should be known as Maggie May. Maggie and I like to sleep and eat together, sometimes, but we are still independent cats and enjoy waking mommy up early every morning.

Another change since we last posted is that mommy retired from her job of 39 years last February. I enjoyed having her to myself until Maggie joined us last fall and now we enjoy having our personal servant with us 24/7. Mommy likes to sew and quilt and when she spends too much time doing that, I start tearing up paper and cardboard boxes. Mommy hates that and it's guaranteed to get her attention for a little while.

Mommy has managed to finish many quilts since she retired. Here are a few of those too (she insisted and since she is typing this for me, I'm letting her):

 Mommy says the last one isn't quilted yet but the others have been and two of them have been gifted.

So, that's all for now. If you have been waiting for us to post again, thanks for sticking with us. If you're new, welcome and stick around. I'm going to try and get Mommy to post more often.
Meows,
Charles