Life is good!

It was a fantastic weekend.  The weather finally turned, and on Sunday we went up to Sean and Barb's to celebrate Grace and Colin's first communions.  It was wonderful - the kids all got to play outside, and the adults got to play with them. :)  My Dad loves to play ball, and he was having a blast teaching the young ones the fundamentals of how to swing a bat.  I will admit my dear daughter is not the most naturally athletically inclined kid!  And we have been remiss in getting her outside to just teach her how to play catch. I did a much better job of getting outside after work this week, too.  I need to do it more often - who cares if I don't feed the kids till 7?  We're outside, having fun, exercising, getting fresh air.   Other random notes - some self portraits in my attempt to make sure that there are actually pictures of me with my kids. I put up curtains in my craft room.  I used the ties from Jelly Rolls for...

Making more progress!!  Recent Completions: Supersize Shoefly Pinwheels for Pop WIPs: Farmer's Wife (LONG term project!) Fat Quarter Shop BOM (eight of twelve completed) Hugs and Kisses Ruby, Pearl and Opal (waiting for my bee blocks) Top Completed, waiting for quilting Swoon Summer Breeze Jewels Waiting for Binding: Reunion Stacks of Color Planning: Heart of Mine 2 Simply Woven Salad I will say that I did not sew the outer border on either Swoon or Summer Breeze.  I have yet to decide if I am going to.  I think it's pretty likely I'll leave it off of Summer Breeze, but I will probably eventually put it on Swoon, I shall have to see!  They'll probably be in the top completed category for a while.  Neither is the size I'm comfortable machine quilting, and I need to save up to get them sent out.  Swoon, especially, I'd like something more than an all over pattern, so we'll see what happens there. That really on...

This finish is for my Grandfather.  We are celebrating his 90th birthday this weekend, and this is my contribution. My grandfather is a remarkable individual.  A WWII veteran and POW, and farmer and entrepreneur.  He made, and lost, several fortunes over his lifetime.  He was all too often a man ahead of his time, thinking great big picture before his contemporaries were ready.  My grandmother died when I was only 10, and I can't say he was the most involved of grandfathers after that, but I still admire many things about him and love him very much.  He's actually become much more involved recently.  He dotes on his great-grandchildren, and gets the biggest kick out of Isadora running up to give him hugs.   This is made from a kit from the Fat Quarter Shop, that I've had for quite some time.  When he saw the quilt I made for Grandma and Grandpa asked where his was, this was the obvious choice.  I love the regal, masculine...

Making some progress on my projects, but nothing drastic.  I got a good portion of the top of Summer Breeze sewn together last night, one more evening should have that top completed.  I'm putting off sewing together Hugs and Kisses, mainly because I KNOW it's not going to go together well.  There will be many chopped off points, I'm sorry to say.  I can only say it's my fault, I think I was just not precise enough in cutting, and since I was sewing along two cut bias edges, I had a lot more stretching than there should have been.  I'll just have to chalk it up to lessons learned. Recent Completions: Easter Dress for Isadora Pillow cover for Kelley's fundraiser Supersize Shoefly Pinwheels for Pop WIPs: Swoon (nine of nine blocks done!) Farmer's Wife (LONG term project!) Fat Quarter Shop BOM (eight of twelve completed) Summer Breeze Jewels Hugs and Kisses Ruby, Pearl and Opal (waiting for my bee blocks) Waiting for Binding: Reu...

Why does it seem the weekends just fly by??  This past one was good.  Isadora went to a playdate at a friends, and they had a wonderful time.  In a bit of really good news, it turns out that her friend's family is building a house very close to ours.  They will definitely be able to just bike over to see each other.  What a treat! I spent most of Saturday in my craft room, but it was more of a purging/cleaning/organizing kind of day than one where much sewing got done.  It was much needed, although I still have a ton left to do!  A lot of it is just where it ended up when I unpacked boxes, so there hasn't been a lot of thought put into making it organized, or what I really need.  For example, I've pretty much accepted that I'm never going to really do much scrapbooking, so why do I still have all those supplies?  And what do I do with the big pieces of leftover home decor fabric?  I'm not going to use it, and it doesn't really work in ...

This is my Supersize Shoefly.  I think it turned out pretty well.  It was a relatively quick one, one of those total impulse makes after seeing the pattern.  I am going to try and sell it this weekend at a craft fair (thanks for letting me in your booth, Mom!) so I snapped a couple of pictures in the house last night. It's big, easily big enough for a twin bed.  After a bit of research, I have found that there is absolutely no consensus out there in blogland about how to price a quilt, so I'm just going to take a stab at it and see what happens.    I did a fun pieced back, too.  Used up quite a bit of the rest of the fabric, and gave it a little punch.  I also had the long arm quilter do a bit of custom quilting, so it was fun coming up with that. But in what I think of as slightly more exciting news, I FINISHED THE 9TH SWOON BLOCK!!!  I did a happy dance when I got them all up on the wall.  I love them!  I used some ...

Moving things into the completed list!  I finished TWO quilts last night, finally getting around to binding several that are in the heap in the corner.  I used the technique here on one of them - a new one for me.  I do like how it looked, but my walking foot didn't like the process.  The needle moving back and forth seemed to cause the foot to making 'chunking' noises that made me nervous.  And the blanket stitch wasn't quite a blanket stitch.  I have a 35 year old Elna that I love, but I had to resort to a cam for the stitch.  Still, it was something new! I do love sewing on those labels! The dark one is for my Grandfather's 90th birthday.  I'm not sure where the other one is going.  It's my supersize shoefly, and really too big for Linus Quilts.  We shall see! Recent Completions: Easter Dress for Isadora Pillow cover for Kelley's fundraiser Supersize Shoefly Pinwheels for Pop WIPs: Swoon (seven of nine blocks don...

A much calmer weekend than the last one!  No frantic trips to the ER, thankfully.  We did get some errands run.  Had a short side stop on the way back, and the kids got to play for a few minutes.  Always wonderful when the weather finally turns!  Isadora is very warm blooded, so she was running around in shorts and sandals while the rest of us were in sweatshirts.  I am trying to remind myself to let her have some freedom in this.  "I'm cold, go put on a sweatshirt" doesn't really do much for me trying to convince her to take some responsibility.  If she's cold, she should learn to do it herself. My Gunner enjoyed being outside this weekend, too.  He loves to follow his big sister around, and had a great time throwing leaves up in the air.  I wish I would have had my camera so I could have caught some of his delighted squeals, but it was wonderful to hear them regardless.  He's such a happy kid.

A couple of things finished this week!  I don't yet have pictures of my daughter's Easter Dress, but I do of the pillow I made for my sister.  It's done with a charm pack of Good Morning, and about a half yard of coordinating solid.  It was really fun to put together.  Part of me would love to submit it to Moda Bake Shop, but the more rational part of me figures that might not be the best use of my time.  Who knows?  I figure the worst that can happen is they say no, and if they laugh hysterically, well, I'm not there to see it. :) I love the way it turned out, and I hope my sister does, too!  I'm mailing it to her, so I told her to get the pillow form, hence I don't get the full effect. I just love the back, too.  I found the perfect buttons at JoAnn's, and used up most (but not all) of the rest of the charm pack.  One more item off my WIP list!

I am so very glad that I grew up in the country.  I learned an incredible amount growing up on a farm, and am forever grateful to my parents for it.  I sometimes am incredibly sad that my kids won't have the same, but every once in a while there are glimmers. Dad stil farms, and currently does custom feeding.  Recently a batch of open heifers (meaning they're not pregnant) had one that turned out to be not-so-open, and this little guy was born last week. His mama, for some reason, decided she didn't really want to be a mama, and refused to let him nurse.  So Dad brought him up to the house to bottle feed and nurse back to health. Brought back so many memories of taking care of sick calves as kids.  I remember Dad bringing them into the house in the winter, trying to keep them from freezing during a bad storm.  And Butthead, the calf we bottled raised after his mama rejected him, too.  He followed my sisters and me around like a puppydog for ...

Making progress! Recent Completions: Easter Dress for Isadora Pillow cover for Kelley's fundraiser WIPs: Swoon (seven of nine blocks done) Farmer's Wife (LONG term project!) Fat Quarter Shop BOM (eight of twelve completed) Summer Breeze Jewels Hugs and Kisses Ruby, Pearl and Opal (waiting for my bee blocks, got one more back this week!) Waiting for Binding: Reunion Stacks of Color Supersize Shoefly Pinwheels for Pop Planning: Heart of Mine 2 Simply Woven Salad

A tough Easter for my little Gunner-man.  He managed to find some grout sealer at Grandma's house while upstairs for a nap (and no one is quite sure how, since it's been over 25 years since Mom has grouted anything), open the child-proof cap, and take a nice drink.  One trip to the ER later, complete with police escort after getting pulled over for speeding, and some chest X-rays, and he was feeling better. He was his usual cuddly self for most of the day, even if obviously worn out (and without clean clothes, since he threw up the grout sealer, and this happened to be the one day that I didn't have a spare outfit, and Grandma didn't have one in her grandkids cabinet).   We did get to sing Happy Birthday to him, even if he didn't feel like eating any cake. Other than that, it turned out to be a wonderful day.  I thank God for the day, and that my little man was all right.