Texas Wildlife - Adventure Awaits!

This year's TDA quilt block competition was eagerly awaited.  Several of my girlfriends and I have participated in years past.  This is the state of Texas Department of Agriculture's endeavor to involve quilting in depicting the varied aspects of Texas life, then and now.  This year's theme is about "wildlife," something I am well acquainted with as most of you know.

I chose the "bigmouth bass" and his habitat.  Also, my brother and I use to go fishing all the time when we were youngsters.  Mom never worried about where we were or if we were alright. We carried our German Shepard with us and my brother always had granddad's shotgun (some of you are familiar with it....right).  We'd spend hours sitting at the lake casting our lines, hooks wriggling with worms, watching snapping turtles sunning themselves as cottonmouth water moccasins slithered through the water.

Part 2 of A Big Adventure

I'm going at this story backwards because it's easier. This is a story that only a "wacky" woman or women could get herself/themselves into. Jerri and I wound up at a great quilt store in San Antonio. Memories by the Yard 8015 Mainland San Antonio, TX 7250 http://www.memoriesbytheyard.com/ The people there were very friendly as are most people in the quilting world. Jerri and I relieved them of some of their fabric......LOL The story behind these pics is that we had circled San Antonio at least twice the day before. Anyway, this quilt shop had great displays of their quilts, BOTM patters and examples of them and bolts of fabrics. They even had decor fabrics for furniture. Jerri and I spent about an hour shopping and laughing with everyone before getting on the road back home. We give "Memories by the Yard" 2 thumbs up! If you curiosity is piqued, I'll fill you in. Jerri & I decided to stop in Austin to grab a bite to eat before going the last leg of our trip home. We both agreed on Chinese food. Austin's a college town with loads of places to eat plus we had the GPS thingy to guide us. Piece of cake you would think. We programmed in our destination and drove to the voice of "Maddie's" voice.....Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you, we named the GPS Madeline, Maddie for short........Now where was I? When we arrived......no restaurant........Alrighty then.....maybe the place went out of business......next place all programmed in, & off we go with "Maddie" telling us turn by turn. We arrive near an iHop restaurant, but this time we are prepared. Jerri calls the phone number given and explains that we are lost and need extra directions. I'm listening from our end when Jerri says, "Yes, we're right beside the iHop," a pause, "the iHop," pause, "Yes, I said the iHop, iHop!" I'm now thinking Jerri is having a meltdown but hold my peace when she says, "Yes, we're at the iHop in Austin! Where are you?" pause...."Round Rock, well &^%&()!~!" We are now thinking that "Maddie" is out to get us. Long story short, after attempting 2 more places, we wound up somewhere hear I35 and by golly we had Chinese!