I haven't blogged in awhile. We had a tragedy in our family. On May 14th my wonderful 19 yr old stepson passed away. For whatever reason he decided that living was harder than dying and so took his life. He left no note. We miss him terribly. We take comfort in knowing he was saved and so is with our Heavenly Father. If you feel led, please pray for the family. His sister and brother-in-law as well as his parents are devistated.

Well, I survived the weekend! It was great! I was down 1.8 at weigh in at Weight Watchers...woohoo! So was Sugar Bear which is good because if he doesn't loose then he becomes Grumpy Bear! I got 2 BOM's done so at least I'm caught up through May now. I really like doing them so I'm not quite sure why I put them off all the time. I'm now trying to decide how to do a puppy panel quilt for lady at work that's having a boy and doing his room in puppies. The blocks are cute but there are 6 of them and 3 different sizes so it's kind of hard to lay them out. Maybe it's because I haven't had much experience at creative designing yet. Oh well, I have them on the design wall and will be spending time studying the situation. Speaking of design walls, I made 2 portable ones out of presentation boards and a big vinyl/felt tablecloth cut in half. I made them early Sunday morning for the little girls before they got up. Bri loves putting fabric on mine and Mia is starting to mimic her. I can't really move around when they are behind me plus Mia loves pulling the thumbtacks out of the wall and I'm afraid she'll poke herself. Bri absolutely loves her design board. Of course Mia wanted Bri's so after Mia tore all the fabric Bri had put on the board off, Bri quickly put it back on then hurriedly shut the board and put it away so Mia couldn't destroy it again. She's one smart cookie!



I'm going to have to run but will leave you with this picture: this was found by my mom's cousin in my mom's trash heap when she moved. I don't know who made it but think it may have come from my stepdad's side of the family. It's both machine and hand pieced onto strips of muslin. It is unfinished and has no binding. I'm not sure of it's age but would like to think it was made by my stepdad's mother before she passed away when he was a year old. If anyone knows anything about findingout the age of the fabric or design please let me know! The strips are not the same width. It's really odd! I have it on the back of a chair in my bedroom and once in a while Bri and I take a nap under it and we talk about how old it is and how careful we must be when we use it. A good lesson for her to start learning now don't you think?

Hurray for weekends! I'm so glad it's Friday! If I lived in a perfect world I'd be a stay at home Nanna that's for sure! But since it's not quite perfect yet I'll have to be content with staying home on the weekends (and the occasional holiday). This weekend will unfortunately be as busy as most other ones. DS#1 has invited us over for dinner tonight as well as let the little girls ride on the horse w/DGF so that's our evening plan. Sugar Bear and I recently rejoined Weight Watchers and we go to the 6:00 a.m. meeting on Saturdays. That's right...6:00 a.m. Afterwards we stop by WalMart for any weekly stuff we need then maybe hit up a few yard sales IF I can talk him into stopping at them that is. Of course there is the usuall laundry and cleaning of the castle to do. SB has insisted I hire a friend's teenage daughter to come every other week and help me clean so that's a BIG help. Somewhere in there I'd also like to get some quilting time in. Oh and I told my DMIL they were invited over for dinner tomorrow night.

Do you have Mother's Day plans? We will be going to church and taking the girls with us. I told the guys and SB that if they want to get me something they can have the family over for a meal and plan, buy and serve it...then clean it up afterwards. In other words...I don't want to be the one doing the work! We'll see what happens.

Hi again,

Can you believe I'm writing again so soon? I took a few pics of my quilting area last night and thought I'd share them with you.


This is command central. ..this is where it all happens...this is the place to be! I love love love my long table that Sugar Bear had built for me when I first decided I wanted to learn to quilt. For about 3 months I used a long folding table until this one was done and to my liking. At first it was too tall. I'm thinking about making a skirt around the outside bottom of it.

Here is my wall of "stuff". I like having my "stuff" nearby but don't like having it out so the little drawers work out great. I also keep my scissors and rotary cutter there and little eyes/hands don't see/grab them! The shelves were already in place when
we bought the house so I decided they were a good place to put
my scrap boxes and rulers. I recently put up the thread spool holder on the wall and under it is a small bedside table that I have a little ironing board on. Under it, on the shelf I have my Rowenta iron base. It's one of those big industrial irons that sits on a base that holds lots of water (it's also from Sugar Bear). I love it!




This is my design wall (it's really just a vinyl tablecloth w/the felted backing but don't tell anyone). I like having it close but the girls like to design on it too and we get a bit cramped for space so I get a bit crabby. I'm going to make them each a portable design wall out of a folding presentation board...maybe this weekend. I'm in a BOM w/some of my online Weight Watcher friends and that's what's currently on the design wall. I just finished up April last night...yea I know I'm behind. The little quilt on the table next to my machine is Bri's baby doll quilt she is making. She's 3 1/2 yrs old and loves her baby dolls. I let her pick out 12-6" squares and put them on the design wall then rearrange them to her liking. She sat on my lap and put her hands on mine and helped me sew the squares together. Afterwards, we decided it was still a bit too small for her bigger babies so she picked out 2 borders. When we were in Joann's she fell in love w/some butterfly fabric so I bought her a yard of it for the backing. We have enough left over that I will probably make her baby a bib or pillow to match. All we have left to do to the little quilt is use the machine to embroidery little hearts on it. I'll let her pick out places she wants to place the hearts and mark the spots w/little pen marks then she can sit on my lap again and help me hold the fabric while the machine does the work!

Ok back to the tour...this is where all my fabric and some of my projects are stored. On the far side of the cabinet, behind the fabric curtain, is some of my leftover battings. I have a nice oak shelving unit in my bedroom that we are going to put here (soon) and then the curtain may come down. We got the cabinet from my DBIL. He had it custom made and it didn't fit into his new house when he moved. Lucky me!

This is the corner across from my sewing table. I love this little corner. I got the book cabinet at a yardsale for $5. It was missing the middle of the door so I brought it home, cleaned it up, got some cardboard, fabric and a lace panel and wala! The little dress hanging on it is a clothespin holder. I've seen them new online but this one was very yellowed and I think it's probably an original old one...also bought at a yardsale.


I was trying to get a picture of Sophie and this is the best I could do by myself. This is her favorite place to be when I'm quilting. She has to share it w/Bri and Mia though cuz they like it under the table too. Can you see where Bri decorated my table leg for me? Aren't I the most blessed person you know?


This is the couch in my quilting studio. We got it at an estate sale for $140! Both sides of the couch recline. Can you see my Lucee kitty beside it on the endtable? She likes to inspect ALL my work almost as much as the girls do. Beside her on the table is the quilt I recently finished for DS#1 and blogged about yesterday and all the scraps from said quilt. Next to that is my cutting table folded up w/my very old stuffed horsey I had as a little girl.

How do you like my antique rocking chair? I found it at a yard sale for $100. The lady had it custom recovered and had a matching curtain top made as well. Of course I bought that and the curtain rod from her too. This chair is very comfortable and gets moved from here to the living room alot!

This is my kind of new entertainment center. A gentleman from work gave it away. It's very big and kind of "80's" but I like it. If you look real close you can see my little storage unit that holds my 30's fat quarters on the left hand side. The girls love to open and close the doors so you will probably see lots of little fingerprints too. Oh and the tv was my Christmas gift from Sugar Bear...that man sure does spoil me!

There you have it. My quilting studio. Hope you liked the tour!

Good news

Hi, I'm baaack! And boy do I have exciting news... I recently finished my 1st Crazy Shortcut Quilt. It's queen-size and about killed me (just kidding it's really not hard at all). I had emailed the author of the book with a question regarding the sashing and since then we've been emailing back and forth. Well, I sent her a picture of my finished quilt and she posted it on her blog...now HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! She also mentioned that I should have a blog...hello I have one...just not real good at updating it. I'm going to get better though...I promise! Here's a picture of the quilt. I made it for Brad. He sure likes it (and so does his new girlfriend-they live together now).

I guess I should update you on the family:

Brad is now living with his girlfriend. He is currently unemployed...DUI and being an EMT don't mix...need I say more? Live and learn-man it's hard to be a mom and keep your mouth shut sometimes. I didn't do a very good job of it when he got pulled over. Sugarbear had to tell me to stop verbally beating the boy up since he was doing a pretty good job of beating himself up. Anyway, he's looking for a job...any job...got a job that needs to be filled? He recently got a beautiful white German Shephard named Kiah (I think that's how they spelled it). His girlfriend has a horse and lives in the country. They will be moving within a month or so.

Tim's divorce is still in the works. He got sole custody of the girls with supervised visitation with their mom. This is a good thing for now. Perhaps later that will change but this is for the best for now. They are still all living with us. This too is a good thing for the girls and Tim right now. They need the stability of living in the only home they have known. Bri still asks for her mom sometimes but is content with calling her on the phone most of the time. Mia is too young to realize what's going on and doesn't seem to miss her mom. In fact, I've been told she ignores her when they are together. Brad's girlfriend is Bri's new "best friend" especially since said girlfriend has the horse! We are still having trouble getting Bri to go to sleep at night. She sure fights it. Mia on the other hand goes in her bed and goes right to sleep. They are both adorable and have big chunks of my heart in their own way.

Sugarbear is doing fine. Ok, so not fine but ok. He goes in for a "procedure" on Thursday. He probably wouldn't want me to put it out in blogland but let's just say he has to drink a gallon of nasty stuff the night before the "procedure". Enough said.

On the quilting front...I got a midarm quilting machine! It's a Ken Quilt (KC622). It is 22 yrs old but had been stored for 3 yrs in box in a garage. The lady had bought it used and never put it up. Seems the table was 1 ft too long for the intended room it was going to go in. I got the table and machine for $700 and love it! Of course I'm still very much in the learning phase. I've done 3 baby quilts on it so far. It lives in our garage and I've named her KayCee. I'm behind on my BOM that I do with my WeightWatcher friends by 1 month so that's my "this weekend" project. I'd like to get a couple of months ahead as well, if I can that is.

I better run and see if I can remember how to add a picture so you can see Brad's new quilt. I promise I'll be back soon!