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 organizing our "stuff" 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 since the age of 8. I have either attended or worked in churches most of my life until we retired.
• I gave birth to 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 19 times between Oklahoma and Texas since our first tiny apartment in Tahlequah, Oklahoma! Those moves were all job-related except for the last one. In October 2020 after 6 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, her hubby, and our two youngest grands.
• We have seven rescued animals - five kitties - Katy, Jack, Rosie, Toby, and Gus - and two dogs - Boomer, a black lab mix, and Baker, a 3 year old Red Heeler mix.
• 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 don't actually storm chase, but I would if we had a chase vehicle!
• I have my Conceal Carry license and own a Puma 1873-22 revolver - a cowboy gun!
• I love all things UK. My Ancestry.com DNA test revealed my ethnicity is 71% England and Wales and 29% Ireland and Scotland, so that explains that.

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Donald Trump and JD Vance

I try to keep politics our of my posts, but this is my page. So for any of you who care to know, I am proud to call myself a Republican and a proud patriot. I believe in  our constitution and am thankful for our freedoms. I am still walking on air and thanking God after the results of the 2024 election. I look forward to a reign of peace, prosperity, and sanity again in our great nation under the leadership of President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance.

It has been a long, depressing four years since 2020, but I am hopeful again and feeling relief! I look forward to an end to being accused of racism, misogyny, gender bias, and bigotry. I have none of those characteristics and no one has the right to tell me I do, simply for not agreeing with their leftist views. In fact liberals are the ones who constantly point out skin color, sexual preference, and gender preference and berate us if we fail to notice those things. I do not notice those things until you point them out to me, and those things are not important to me. I care about who you are and what is in your heart, not about the color of your skin or who you prefer to love or what gender you prefer to be.

I am very hopeful that we will see an end to wokeism, censorship, elite sanctimony, and war.

If you have made it this far, thank you for visiting!