He's Happy Now

I just finished my son H's quilt this evening. I wanted to get pictures of it to post here, but he took it straight to bed with him. I'll have to post pictures later.

So, all 3 of my kids have a quilt of their own now, made by their Mama. My son C said he wouldn't sell his for $1000.00 because it's too special. H, on the other hand, is always figuring how to make some moolah! He wants to sell it for $1000.00, and split the money for me. Then, he says, I can make him another one. The wheels of thought are always turning, aren't they?

Check back for pictures.

Our Thanksgiving

I'm not getting on to moan about our Thanksgiving Day. I have plenty to be thankful for, and I am thankful for so many things.

Our thankfulness is overshadowed though with news of my husband's mother. She went in the hospital Wed. morning, and is still in tonight. She was not able to share Thanksgiving dinner with us and we missed her.

I just got off the phone with my father-in-law and he said she just got out of surgery. Hopefully, they were able to fix some leaking around a shunt near her liver. She's been bleeding internally and they haven't been able to figure out what the problem is. She is very ill this time. She is in desperate need of a liver transplant, but I fear she's too ill at this point to even get one.

I am frustrated with waiting. My FIL is a loner much of the time. He doesn't want to "put us out" to have us drive all the way in to the hospital with all 3 kids, only to find she's gone the whole time for procedures. We wouldn't mind going in, but he does seem to want to go through this in his own way. I feel so helpless just sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. So, I leave it up to my husband to make the decisions about when to go in to see her or not. It's hard for me to just wait.

I did call her on the phone today (finally got her, since she was out of her room most of the day.) She could hardly talk to me, and most of the time she was not even thinking clearly. Plus, she was simply too weak to speak.

So, I wait and I pray. And I wish I had given her quilt to her long before now. I was saving it for Christmas. Then, a week ago, I decided to give it to her for her birthday/Thanksgiving, since we aren't exchanging Christmas gifts this year. And now, I wonder if she's too sick to know when I give it to her. I made a custom personalized quilt label for it 2 nights ago, but I can't show the pic here since it's got personal names on it. (If you want to see the label, email me and I'll send it to you. It was an iron-on, colored in with crayons and set with a hot iron. It turned out really nice.)

So, I'm off to pray some more. And hope we get to see her tomorrow at the hospital, feeling better than she has for the last several days.

Quilted Tote Bag

Phew! It's finished. I've never done anything like it before. I got inspired by the "freebies" I won in the quilt shop drawings. I decided to make a quilted tote bag. It sounded so easy, but I can admit now that it was pretty hard, and much more time consuming than I ever imagined.






Now for some nitty-gritty. The body and inside are made of Moda Cranberry Wishes charm squares. They are pre-cut 5 inch squares of various coordinating fabrics. They're wonderful for people like me that have difficulty choosing fabrics that "go together" nicely. I had to cut all those squares down to 4 7/8 inches, so I don't know why I didn't find a pattern for straight 5 inch squares. I will next time!

The bag inside and out is quilt "as you go" patchwork. I used an internal stiff interfacing. I think the interfacing was a little too stiff. Next time, I'll choose one that's a little lighter.

All in all, I think I've learned a few things through this sewing process. (I've been denying that I've been sewing these past few months. Quilting is easier if you ask me!) My son H thinks that I should make these bags to sell. I don't think that's an option, given how long it took me to make it!

Something to Brighten My Day

I have been hit with a cold. It started Mon. night when I was at the quilting club, which I have attended for about 6 mos. now. It meets monthly, and works on various projects for charity. I should have skipped this month's meeting, coming down with a cold, but I so enjoy sewing for charity groups. I took my little girl with me this time, and she was an angel. The other ladies really enjoyed her, and were pleased to find her so well-behaved. They invited her back next time.

Anyway, I've been muddling through the last couple days with this cold, trying to maintain my sanity with all 3 kids underfoot, without as much direction/school activity from Mom to keep them busy, and it's hard. My other HS friends know what it's like. : ) Well, today I got notice that I won (2) drawings for quilt shop merchandise from a recent Shop Hop that I participated in. I am so excited, because I never win anything! I won $100.00 store credit to a local shop for anything I want. Second, I won a $75.00 gift basket to another local store. This surely brightened my day.

Little Girl B's Birthday Quilt Finished (Late Post)

You all may remember I was working on a quilt for B's birthday. I did actually finish it just a few days after her B/day, the 4th of July. I have been informed, however, that I never posted pictures of it! So, here it is. She is pleased with it, and it is on her bed to cover her every night when she's sleeping. She doesn't seem to pack it around the house as much as C does with his, but she still tells me thank you frequently for her birthday present.

Some specifics about the quilt: B picked out several fabric prints, and I had to find something "to go" with them to finish it with. It is narrower than C's quilt, but still pretty big. There are 5 applique blocks on the front, and each of them are different. I pieced the back of the quilt with all manner of leftovers I had from the front, so I didn't have to buy more fabric. It's a hodge podge back, but functional. I wish the pictures showed their true colors. They don't look near as nice in these pictures.

Son C's Quilt Finished

I made a pretty big quilt for our middle son. It has duck fabrics, feathers, etc. He's just thrilled with it. Of course he hasn't told me so, but his actions speak louder than words. In this picture, I laid it out on a double-bed, and it's hanging over all the sides. That will give you an idea how big it is. I am glad, because it needs to be big enough for a tall boy/teenager. These kids just keep growing, and C is bound to be our tallest child. I'm glad he can grow into it. Oh, he sleeps with it every night, and brings it downstairs every morning. He's not carrying it around like a blankie, or anything, but he's using it for our story time each day during school, and also snuggling with it when we watch TV or something. For those of you interested in such things, the pattern uses (5) 1 yard cuts of fabric for the front, with hardly any waste. Don't make a mistake cutting it out, or you'll probably be headed back to the fabric store for more fabric.

I'm working on H's quilt now. 2 kids down, 1 to go!

Mother in Law's Quilt Finished

Well, I am excited that I got my mother-in-law's quilt finished tonight. She has been very sick, and I want to have something to give her if she goes into the hospital again, or if and when she gets a liver transplant. The colors in the quilt will match their house nicely. The darker color is a dark rust, not red as it appears to be in the picture. And if you are wondering, the fabric is "Dandelion Girl" by Moda. You may also be wondering: "Yes, I am a lazy quilter." This quilt was entirely machine sewn, including the binding which was also machine finished. But at least I'm getting some quilts made. I know it wouldn't be happening if I had to hand sew them. : ) I've now finished 4 quilts in under 5 months. This quilt has been the smallest so far, and is a large lap size. Oddly enough, quilting doesn't seem to take up too much of my time. I actually think I am keeping up with housework better, because I have this fun outlet of something "just for me".


I am very UPSET right now, though, because I cannot get Blogger to upload any pictures. I seem to have "pop-up" blocker, and even if I turn it off, I am still not able to load any pictures. I cannot even get the "Help" menu page to display if I click on it. Where can I go for help if not on the help page?

Somebody, Please Help!! I'm begging now..... I am very visual, and I don't feel like blogging anything if I can't attach pictures of what I am talking about!

UPDATE--I was able to upload pictures using a different web browser. Hooray!!!!

Re-Vamping Daughter's Quilt

Subtitle: Sometimes it Pays to Procrastinate

(This is a similar block, "before" re-vamp.)

I don't think I can get B's quilt done in time for her 5th birthday now, since it's coming up soon (4th of July). I never did sandwich it, and therefore, it has been sitting, and sitting, and waiting for something more. I figured it out! I dove off the deep-end today, without much thought (which is not my normal style), and did my first applique' right onto her quilt! Now I have to do several more, but I think it will be well worth the extra effort. I just wasn't happy with the results of the quilt top before. I'm so glad I procrastinated this time. She LOVES the one block I have fixed up so far.

(After re-vamp. I also tried the "fussy-cut" technique. Can you tell?)

Me, Too!!!

Our 4-year old little sister wants her "quilting" sewing pictures on the blog too. She actually started sewing before her big brother, and was in fact his inspiration, but I never posted the pictures.

B is just practicing at this point, on real pieces of scrap fabric, but doing more "free-style" than anything else. She wants to start a quilt now, but I told her she needs a bit more practice first. She can, however, start a new piece of fabric while holding the strings so they don't get pulled underneath. She can be sewing, leave the needle down, and pivot the fabric to make a sharp corner. And she can finish a piece of fabric by clipping the threads with some snips. I will assure you, she is very careful and cautious with all of this. I was more willing to let her sew (as far as safety measures go) than I was the boys.

In one of the pictures below, notice how I had to raise up the foot pedal so she could reach it. I've got silicone hot pads underneath the phone book, as well as on top of it, so things don't slide around.

After All These Years

It took me a long time, about 17 years in fact, but it's finally finished. Here is my college quilt that I started, entirely forgot about, and discovered it in the closet, with about 10 % of the quilt top sewn together already, when I started my butterfly quilt a couple months ago. The colors are so dated, in country blue and mauve! I am pleased it turned out better than I thought it would. It was difficult because I made some mistakes on it (17 yrs. ago) and tried my best to fix things this time around. I didn't want to waste all that fabric by throwing the whole thing away! It amazes me that I cut out the entire thing with regular scissors, not the time-saving, highly accurate gadgets of today: the rotary cutter and mat. Without further introduction, here it is.

Don't you think it will make a nice picnic quilt for the park, or even a snuggle-under throw for our school room, for our family story times? Our school room gets a little chilly sometimes.

Boys Can Quilt Too

Our 8 yr. old son has been sewing the last few weeks, but it has all been for practice. (The picture of him above is from a month ago.) Yesterday was different. I put him on a real project, and he is just thrilled. He has started a quilt. I got some inexpensive fabric, and made a bunch of charms out of them. Charms are usually pre-cut 5 inch squares. These are homemade charms. He's gotten (20) 2-patches sewn up, and he will need (48) 2-patches for his lap quilt. We're doing something a little interesting. He is not pinning anything together. He's using Elmer's glue dabs instead. It's working wonderfully.

Incidentally, I looked into a sewing class for the boys. For just a few hours of class time, a local shop wanted $125.00 plus materials costs, for each boy!! I may not be a fabulous seamstress, but I can certainly teach them enough to get started for that price!

He is so excited and proud of his progress. I'm excited too. Anything that catches his interest, and helps him to keep busy, will keep him from aggravating the rest of us. He has a lot of energy that he sometimes doesn't know what to do with.

I was nervous that my husband would think I was trying to feminize him. But no worries. He thinks it's great. I also mentioned the fact that at the big quilting show/competition in Paducah recently, I heard the top 3 quilts were all made by men.

Daughter's Quilt: Ready to Sandwich

I've got my little girl's quilt ready to go to the next level. Pinning the layers is my least favorite part of quilting, but it must be done. Here is the front of it.

I believe the colors look much nicer in person, but here it is. She loves it, which is what counts anyway! In fact, she picked much of the fabric, and then I had to find a few to go with it all. That's why it's a little corny. I will be trying to get this finished within the next couple weeks before her 5th birthday. She knows I'm working on it, so it won't be a surprise, but it would still be nice to have it ready by then. I did something different on the back. I pieced fabrics together from the leftovers, rather than buy new fabric for it. I even had several blocks extra, so they are on the back also. I guess I didn't get a picture of the back.

Mother's Day in Review

I had a lovely Mother's Day. My family remembered! That's major progress, I can assure you. They got me a huge greeting card, and a red rose.

But that's not all. Hubby blessed me with a brand new sewing machine, of which I don't know how I was even quilting without it. I had to do my own legwork to find the machine I wanted, which took a couple weeks, but it was all worth it.

You local ladies are welcome to come over and take a gander at it. You know the invitation's open!

"Did You Miss Me?" My Daughter's Answer....

Well, it's been a while, I know. Busy? Yes. Planting blueberries? Yes. Quilting? Yes. Bit of the blues? Yes, again. (Stuff I can talk about? No. I guess that's why I haven't been blogging.)

I've been searching high and low for some quilting buddies. I went to a quilting club meeting for the first time, in a neighboring town. I had no idea what to expect. It was somewhat disorganized, and definitely intimidating to be around such experts, but totally fun. It is probably good for me to step out of my comfort zone now and then. I showed them all my completed Spring Quilt and they loved it. (We were going to reveal our Spring Quilts to the homeschool lady's quilting group on June 1st, but I think it's been postponed for a while. I guess there won't be any pictures posted until then. :)

Anyway, I got back home, and there I found my 3 kids, all gathered around me, asking me lots of questions about what I did, what I saw, and where I went. They have never been so interested in me! I guess I should go off on my own more often. It felt real nice to come back to such a nice welcome home. I tried to dole out the hugs, each of them wanting more than I could humanly give in just a few minutes. I'm not an octopus.

I asked my 4 yr. old if she missed me. "Yep. I missed you SO much I thought about missing you the WHOLE time! My brain was just filled up with missing you real bad." (emphasis was hers.) I had to write it down really fast, so I wouldn't forget what she said. It brought tears to my eyes.

Food, Quilting, and More

I have GOT to get us out of our little food rut. I have not been doing good enough providing a wider variety of GFCF meals for my family. We eat the same things over and over again. Fresh blueberries are ready, so I made blueberry muffins, TWICE. First batch very dry and lumpy. We ate them anyway. But I thought I could do better, so on the second time, more liquid. They puffed up nicely, but fell when I took them out, even though they were cooked throughout. We ate them too, and they were better, but I felt really let down. A friend of mine and I were chatting about this briefly at the park. Part of the reason I don't try much GFCF baking (as I have more success with cooking than baking) is because it's so deflating to my ego when it doesn't go well. I am a perfectionist by nature, and it doesn't sit well with me to fail time and time again with anything. But the only way I can experience baking success is to try, so I am *trying* to try more things. That is my wimpy pledge. I will hereby experiment more often with my baking. I guess I should pledge a certain frequency, but alas, I can't bring myself to go that far, yet! (Wink, wink....) Can you see in this picture how much the muffins shrank once they had cooled? It's because they rose so high and then shrank about 40%. I might try again with less baking powder.

Along the experimenting theme, I got stuff to make Chinese food at home tonight. I made it alright, and boy! I really tip my hat to any so-so Chinese chef, let alone a great one. It's hard to co-ordinate the different dishes and keep everything going all at once. It felt like a three-ring circus, even without the kids' help tonight! I think that a large part of the problem was that I wasn't using any recipes. I cook a lot just by "winging it" and can do it pretty well (I know, just not the baking!) I guess that's not going to work very well for me with Chinese food. But it was so cute. C and H were eating their supper tonight, and they both relayed to me that the egg foo yong was very good, but the other "dish" wasn't my best. But...."I'm sure you'll do better next time. This was a learning experience for you tonight that you can learn from." If there's one thing the GFCF business has done for my kids other than the out-and-out healing of symptoms, they are getting very flexible with what they'll eat. They've been so patient with it all.

I've been meaning to do it, and finally did. I started our juice keifer up again today. It wasn't hard; why did I put it off? We haven't been making it since I broke my keifer jar about a year ago. This jar is still pretty small, and I have to get a bigger one. I know we felt better when we were drinking it on a regular basis.

C seems to have a much better appetite lately, and I believe it's due to the 5HTP he's started. Whatever the reason, it's wonderful. He's actually starting to gain some weight on his skinny little bod. He surprised us all today when not too long after dinner, he vomited up what seemed to be his entire supper. No sooner was he done bringing it up, he asked for something to eat because he was really hungry. He had no symptoms whatsoever, and neither do the rest of us. Just so you don't go blaming his trouble on my Chinese cooking, I recalled that he had a massively large glass of water with his meal. I think it was all just too much volume for him.

I found a full-grown green tree frog sitting on the window sill of our master bathroom this evening. I have no idea how he got in there, but it must not have been too long ago because he was quite moist. (Come on. We've all found dried frogs or lizards in our Florida homes, haven't we?) Our windows have not been open and the bathroom's not near any doors that open to the outside. I quickly rescued him and put him outside where he can find more bugs and water.

We had to feed the snakes today. The mice the pet shop sold us must have been bigger than usual. Both the snakes took much longer to swallow them than usual. This fascinated the kids. Sorry to be so graphic, but that was part of our day.

I was excited to find a praying mantis on the ceiling of our garage today. I told the kids about it, but they had already seen it too. Tif--what can we house him in if we capture him for another pet? He's bigger than a baby, but no where near as big as an adult.

And my last prominent recollection from today: I finally received the walking foot in the mail today that I ordered before we left for our trip. My sewing machine is about 18 yrs. old, and it was very inexpensive (or should I say cheap??) The quilting phase of my quilts were not going very well and I was told that a walking foot would feed the top layer through the machine like the feed dogs feed the bottom layer through. So I tried it out tonight. It was like learning to sew all over again!! I think I need an adjustment or two on the machine. The presser foot does not want to lift off the floor of the machine now. Maybe because the walking foot is heavier than the other presser foot? Anybody know of a local sewing machine repair shop? I'm sure it's just a minor adjustment that is required.

Sneak Peak

This is my "spring quilt", using fall colors. The top has been finished for almost 2 weeks now. I just need somebody to help me figure out how to "sandwich" it the right way. When is our next quilting get-together? I love how the colors and fabrics look together, so I don't want to ruin it!! This is a "lap/bunk" size. I think it will be nice for snuggling in on the couch.

This is the "old" fabric I had for my first quilt ever, that I realized I had started on very briefly 17 years ago but never finished. I have been working on it along with my "nice" one, but a couple steps ahead of it, so I can hopefully make all my mistakes on it and not the pretty one. It is in it's half-quilted state already (sandwiched with it's layers). No, my rails don't match up with each other because I realized too late in sewing the blocks together that I must have been using different seams when I sewed about 10% of it so long ago. This makes quilting it very difficult. I don't quite know what to do with it now, either, but it's getting close to needing binding to finish it off. It is a "twin" size, but seems big? This picture seems fuzzy to me, but I am holding the thing up as high as I can while standing on a stool, and a kid snapped the picture for me.

All Systems Go?

I got my fabric today, all 6 pieces. I don't think this picture does them justice; they look much better in person I think. (Click on the picture to blow it up some.) So now I just need to put the quilt together! The butterfly print is the largest block and also the outer border. The countryside fields scene is for the back of the quilt. This is the pattern I will use.

I've Caught Another Bug

I am hoping that this bug is more fun than the last one I caught. I've been struck by the quilting bug (obsession!). I think I am going to join some ladies from our homeschool group, and try my hand at quilting. I have never made a quilt before. Once in high school (or was it college?) a friend of mine and I were going to make our first quilt each. I even bought fabric for it, but you know what happened: I was too busy with classes, and working constantly to pay my school bill. That quilt never got made. (I found out recently that she never made her quilt either!) I still have the fabric for it. I am afraid that the colors are totally outdated, though, so I want to start fresh with something more in touch with my taste now, some 18 or so years later. Anybody have a need for some mauve and country blue fabric?

I have been pouring over quilting websites online for ideas. My head is spinning with visions of beautiful quilts. I have to catch hold of myself, though. Bringing myself back down to earth, I am reminded that I better not get too carried away with something too difficult. I am a perfectionist by nature, and may even get discouraged if it gets too difficult. So I will be starting with something fairly easy. I haven't even had my sewing machine out since 11 yrs. ago when I was pregnant with our firstborn. I was teaching myself to sew then, and never got to the expert or even proficient stage.

I found this lady's quilting blog when I was searching. She's got a "quilt-a-long" and other tutorials. She does some really nice work. Some of you quilting fanatics may find her site interesting. Here's another of her amazing quilts that I'm drooling over. Okay, pulling myself back down to earth, I'll probably start with something like this, or even like this. Maybe even something like this one! Do you see what I mean? It's too hard to decide!!! Any recommendations from you expert quilters out there? Please feel free to chime in with any pointers for this floundering novice. I have already had one recommendation for a log cabin quilt because of it's simplicity. But I have to decide soon because the first quilt meeting is in less than 2 weeks. I don't think I'll have time to mail-order any fabric. I'll have to drive to a quilt shop somewhere and find something.

Here's another question for you: Did I really have that many quilt websites I just HAD to show you, or am I just showing off that I finally figured out how to do the embedded hyperlinks? I guess some of us (little 'ole me!) are just a little slower than others to get the hang of computer stuff.