Thursday, February 26, 2009

They're Here! They're Here!

I am so excited!! Our new couches came today!! Our old couches were sent to the basement (last time I checked they were over 25 years old and in sad need of repair). They delivered these today (I am not good at waiting and 7 weeks was killing me!) and they were even early. (The pillows & the little blonde head did not come with them!) Can you tell I'm a little excited??? We'll see how long they stay clean (he he he). Thank goodness for the stain protection plan stuff.

I went and saw the little baby that I made the quilt for (last post). She was soooo tiny!! I've still got two more baby quilts to get done because they are already here. Got to get on the ball.

AJ has vball practice today. She did really good on her WASL prep test the other day. She was pretty excited.

AT's had a playgroup that he has been able to participate in. It's really good for him to get some socialization (and probably good for his mother too!). He's figuring out how to share with others and the cool thing is these are kids he will probably go to Preschool, Kinder, and all the way up through graduation with.

AD has been in kind of a bad mood lately. I'm going to blame it on the weather. I'm hoping she snaps out of it sometime soon.

T's done with jr high basketball and starts baseball on Mon. Hard to believe, I know. I'm looking forward to games outside and nice weather, but along with that comes tball & little league which means we will be extremely busy.

The weather's trying to get warmer (even as there are predictions of snow!). Be nice if it would get warm and stay warm, but I'm sure we haven't seen the end of cold weather quite yet. It's been too weird of a year for it to just end.

Enjoy your day!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

It's Done!

I haven't heard if this baby has come yet, but she was due any day. I'm kind of hoping that I managed to actually get a quilt done BEFORE the bundle of joy arrived. (I'm already behind on two!)

This quilt has the same material as the quilt I posted yesterday. The center block from yesterday's post is the same as these blocks. (It made 10 blocks, but I couldn't make 10 blocks fit in a baby quilt, so I was going to use the one for the back. However, the back got too fancy I decided and ended up turning it into a front. That's the quilt I posted yesterday.)



I love the stack & cut method that I used on this. I am not good with random. I like things to be orderly (except when it comes to my house & cleaning, ;-)) and every time I try to do a random quilt, it doesn't end up so random. This method makes random easy.
You can see I actually hand stippled this quilt really tight. It took me a while to do it, but when I pulled it out of the dryer, it was sooooo worth it. It looks old and loved, but it's brand new and really really soft. I know my friend will like it because she loves stippling.

It ended up measuring 32X32 (a little small) but I think for a baby quilt it will be just fine. My girls have turned their baby quilts into doll quilts eventually. That way even though they are too big for them, they still can use them. Plus small is fast! (I incorrectly said yesterday's quilt was 36X36, but it was really 31X31.)
Yesterday was so bright and sunny (although it was a bit cold when you actually got outside). Today is cloudy and bright (if that's possible). It's not dark and gloomy out, but with the cloudy sky it's not sunny. Oh for spring to come soon!
Well, I'm off to make cookies before the kids come home. It's not an everyday thing, but occasionally a hot baked choc chip cookie tastes just divine!
Enjoy your day!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last. I'd like to say nothing new has happened, but in all that time, something must have! (Right?) I think we've just been so busy the last few weeks that I haven't had time to sit down and keep everyone up to date.

The girls had cheer camp two Saturdays ago, but my pics of them turned out horrible. The gym lighting is hard to figure and my old camera doesn't do well in there. I got a new camera (after cheer camp) and I just now got it figured out to download pics. (Not that I couldn't do it, just took me a while TO do it, if you know what I mean?) Keep your fingers crossed that the new one will be better.

AJ finished a reading program of reading 600 minutes to earn a free ticket to an amusement park. She is a speed reader (like her mom and her gpa) and finished it in no time. AD is taking a little bit longer, but being she doesn't quite read yet, it's a little harder for her.

I've finished three more quilts. I have to put the finishing touches on one, but here are the other two. I call the one my cheater quilt because it was one of those already quilted panels and all you have to do is add the binding. However, I am not good at binding so at our retreat in Jan/Feb, I had one of the ladies show me how to do it. I didn't do great, but I didn't do bad.



Looks like it should be a baby quilt for a baby born on the 4th of July, don't ya think?


This last one turned out pretty good. I love the colors and it's surprising because I wouldn't have thought they would look good together. I have another quilt with these same fabrics that I just have to bind. I have yet one more that I can make out of this same fabrics, too. It's amazing what scrap fabrics can do when they are put together.


Front (above) & Back (below)

I hand quilted this one and I believe it's about 36X36. I pieced the back (something I'd been seeing others do). However, I think piecing the back looks better when the main fabric is a solid. I'm not sure mine looks right even though the pieced portion is the same as the fabric from the front. Still a nice looking quilt and I was pleased with it.
Well, I'll try to do a little better job of keeping up-to-date. Counting the days until spring & baseball starts. AJ has volleyball starting this next week. They decided to do 4th-6th grade vball in the spring when no one was using the gym. Not a bad idea, however, we will go right from vball into little league and all of T's games. T should have a really good team this year. It will be fun to watch them.
I'm looking outside as I type and the sun is shining and it's making me wish it was spring already. Even though the robins have shown up, I don't think Mother Nature has gotten the memo that we are all ready for spring to come and winter to go away. I'm already thinking summer, too! What silly thoughts when it's a sunny day, huh?
Enjoy your day!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Home with the Kids

Well, I did end up subbing yesterday. They called and I have such a hard time saying no. However, when they called AGAIN last night for today I found my voice and turned them down. Phew! I'd like to say my family can't handle me working full time yet, but I think it's more I'm not ready yet. Hats off to those who do it! You have my full respect because you have so much to juggle on your plate and you do it wonderfully. I'm sure I'll get there eventually, but right now the working part-time is enough for me.

I have two kids home today. The slap-cheek or Fifth's Disease that AD had has now reached the other two. AJ decided to stay home today (although she went to school yesterday). The problem with this virus is that once the rash shows up you are no longer contagious. (You don't look real good, but you are no longer contagious.) There wasn't even any symptoms in any of the kids before the rash showed up so there's no way to know they have it. Nice, huh? That's one smart virus if you ask me.

Well, off to finish some things I didn't get to yesterday. Enjoy your day!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

what a great weekend

We had such a blast this weekend. Mom and I accomplished a lot! Poor mom, though. She doesn't like seam ripping or ironing and guess what she got stuck doing? The facility was nice and we were able to sew, shop, and eat. What more can you want from a weekend? Here are some of our accomplishments from this weekend.

This will be a baby quilt for a friend. I happened to pick up the green prints at JoAnn's as fat quarters for $.50! We had bought the pink for another project and I won the blue fat quarter as a doorprize this weekend. It was like it was meant to be! I was able to make two quilt tops out of this pattern.
Our goal this weekend was to complete a quilt. Check that; we did! We finished this baby quilt. Mom did the sewing around the hearts (I try to avoid all curve sewing; straight stitch only, with a little dabble in zig zag). I just love the way it came out. Although I have been doing a lot of hand quilting, Mom thought we should just tie it and leave it fluffy. She was right. It turned out really cute. (I don't think I'm too eager to work with directional fabric again anytime soon, though!)

In addition to these, I worked on some more hand quilting (I have 3 tops (babysize) in the works) and I received a photo mug as a doorprize. I had seen on someone's blog about making it a quilt mug instead of putting photos in there. So I did that this weekend, as well. A very successful, relaxing, and fun weekend for sure.
Mom flew out yesterday to go home. I wish she could have stayed longer, but I'm sure she was ready to go home and Dad was probably ready for her to be back. T seemed to have a good weekend with the kids. Only a few phone calls to check on things, but nothing major.
Back to work this week. I'm subbing Thurs & Fri, T has games this week, the girls have cheer camp this weekend, and our church sausage feed is Wed. Eek! Good thing I relaxed last weekend ;-)
Enjoy your day!