Time to Catch up

Wow I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. I think we're finally getting settled into the new house. The garage is still a mess and we need to make another cardboard recycling run. Let's see what else is new:

Brad is moving this weekend. His back continues to heal from the surgery. He can't do much lifting yet so he's going to need help moving his bedroom things. I guess we're going to try to help him a bit and of course his brother is helping.

Tim is still working and says he's going to start getting more hours/days a week of work soon. I guess because so many of the servers were college students and they are graduating and moving on.

Vanessa will be starting school for stenographer in the 1st part of July. She's looking forward to it. She's getting bored staying home.

Mia has her arm in a cast! She has a hairline fracture...poor baby. Her little cousin was helping her roll over and her arm didn't roll right. Here's a picture...

Brianna is doing fine...growing like a weed! She has decided she likes the pool and her water wings. She's even getting used to us not holding her in the water. Here's a picture of her w/daddy in the pool last week...

Hunny Bunny is still working hard and out of town most of the week.

Me-well, I've been busy (as usual). I'm trying to learn to machine top quilt. I've made 1 placemat, and top quilted 3 Binky Patrol baby quilts the past few weeks. I've almost got all the fabric cut for 2 fall quilts as well. One will be a raffle prize and the other is for Brad. Between the 2 of them I'll have cut over 800 2 1/2 x 6 1/2" pieces when I'm done! It will be like my fall quilt in an earlier post but w/different fabrics.

I guess I'd better run!

Stop and Smell the Roses

Hi,

We've been sooo busy the past few weeks that I think now is the time to stop and smell the roses. Here is a picture of a rose off one of our new rosebushes in the front yard. It smells more wonderful than it looks!

Hi,

Just have a second to make a quick post. We're slowly getting more settled. I had whatever stomach virus, that's currently living in our house, on Sunday evening and Monday...managed to muddle through work with it since I've been off soooo much lately between the cold virus and then moving. Life was good again on Tuesday. I still haven't taken any pictures of the house with our stuff in it yet...for 2 reasons-1) the house is still in a bit of a mess and 2) I don't know where the camera is. I think Andy probably packed it in some of his office things but keep forgetting to ask him about it.

I'm going to have a fun evening. My ex's sister just called. She's visiting from out of town and she, another sister, and their mom want to come over to see everybody tonight. I was married to her brother for over 20 yrs (I was 18 when we married and 40 when we split) so they are very much still my family. I don't get to see them as much as when we were still officially family since I don't want to step on ex's new wife's toes or make Andy feel too uncomfortable but we still manage to keep in touch. I call myself an outlaw now instead of an inlaw. I still call their mom "mom" since she was that for soooo many years. She's a quilter too so we talk quilting once in a while and when I get my room all set up I'm going to start inviting her over more to quilt with me. Anyway it'll be a good visit. My son has to work tonight but I suggested we go visit him at Applebee's for dessert. Don't you think that was a good idea?

We're in the house!

Hi! We made it...we're in the new house. Of course we're not all the way out of the old house yet but almost! Tim got the flu from Vanessa on the Saturday before the move and didn't feel better until last Friday (3 days into the move). Needless to say, hubby was a little put out by this....then he got the flu on Thursday and let's just say he understood son's illness a whole lot better I think! Hubby is still not feeling well but flew out today for work and won't be home until Thursday evening. Hopefully he'll get to go to bed early each night while he's gone and come home well again. I thought I might be coming down w/it this morning but the noodle Cup-o-soup seems to be working out well. Now back to the new house...the furniture is all there but our refrigerator is still in the garage...along w/a bunch of boxes and "stuff" we're sure we need but don't know where to put it all. The pool fence is still being worked on by my oldest son and father-in-law...thanks guys! Hubby had wonderful plans just more plans than time and then the bug didn't help! The dogs spent the 1st night in the new house last night and of course got into the neighbors yard this morning. Ruby (Chihuahua) was raising such a fuss I was sure she was either stuck someplace or hit by a car when I couldn't find her in the yard. They had dug a little hole and crawled through and then I guess they weren't smart enough to find it to get back.

Brianna has been a cutie during the move. She saw her mommy's wedding dress and told her daddy that her mommy was Cinderella (or as she says Cineryaya)! I told them that was 1 for her baby book. Brianna's world revolves around Cinderella right now and her mom did the girl's new room in Disney princess. She really outdid herself! I'll get a picture to post as soon as I can find the camera! Bri has almost always slept w/her mom and dad and they are trying to work on getting her into her own bed. Before the move they had her up to falling asleep someplace else and then putting her into her bed for the night. Since the move she's actually fallen asleep in her bed (watching Cinderella on her new tv of course). Yesterday I asked her if she'd slept in her bed like a big girl...and her answer was...ya pretty much (she got up around 7 and crawled into mom and dad's bed). She is such a hoot for a 2 yr old!

Mia is finally starting to feel better. She's such a happy baby...unless mommy puts her down at naptime. She's only 5 months old and had a terrible cold twice already so she's very used to being held while she sleeps to keep her from coughing and choking so now she wants the same treatment...and it pretty much has to be mommy. I think I'm glad I work outside the home for when she gets broken from that habit cuz I can't stand to hear her cry.

Great news! Hubby has the keys to the new house in his hand! He's got the trailer loaded with garage items and probably unloading it already! I can hardly wait to have everything in and start getting settled! I'm very anxious to get the sewing room set up and have some time to create again...probably won't happen for a week or two though. I'll try to get a few pics posted soon!

Here's a picture of the fall quilt all finished with the binding and everything...I finished the binding on it when I was off work with that nasty cold a couple of weeks ago. I still need to work on making my corners more square...either that or start making them rounded...haha.

I know, I know it's been 2 weeks since I last posted. I've had that "bug" that's been going around...you know the one...coughing up a lung and the head sooo stuffed up you'd think you'd never breathe through your nose again...yep that one. After about 10 days my nose is now clear and I'm only coughing bad at night and about every other day through the daytime. I'm thinking this is a good case of the old fashioned cold that we never call a cold anymore...always say we have the flu or a virus...I never hear anyone say, "I have/had a cold" anymore! The house is only 3 days away from being ours (and the bank's)! I can hardly wait!!! We're going shopping this weekend for a few things we'll need when we move in. Oh course the kiddos will be moving in w/us. Vanessa has been busy buying things to decorate the girl's room and their room too. Andy is taking the week off and I'm taking the last part of next week off to do this. I've got to run for now. I'm going to take some quilt photos this weekend to post...

Almost Thursday

Hi, I know I haven't been on lately but I have a really really good excuse...we're buying a house! Life is getting crazier but the day around here. It's a beautiful home w/4 bedrooms, a lr and fr, 2 bathrooms, kitchen (of course) and are you ready for this???? A built in pool! We have to get it fenced in before we move in w/the kiddos though (yes they are moving w/us). All in all it's going to be perfect for us now and when the kids get on their feet as well. For now DH is going to put is office in the smallest bedroom and I'm going to use the "formal" living room as a sewing room. We'll have a couch and tv in it as well since that seems to be where me and DDIL gravitate in the evenings along w/DGD. We're supposed to close escrow on April 8th...really soon! We want to have a garage sale next weekend so I've got to get busy and sort through stuff. I don't know how we managed to collect so much in such a short amount of time but we did! DDIL is starting school that day too so we really have alot going on right now. I've got a bit of quilting done but all the pics are in Snapfish right now. I'll have to save some to my computer and post them next time...until then.....

Happy lunch time! I just have a few minutes to post about my long weekend. I got lots of sewing time on Sunday evening since hubby left for out of town early. Here is a picture of my scrappy Valentine quilt. The white squares will have applique hearts on them and there will be white ricrac around each square. These are kind of fun to make and definitely use up scraps!

I'm going to start doing donation quilts for a group called Binky Patrol. A very nice lady named Kathleen started a chapter here in Fresno the end of last December. She came over yesterday and brought me some flyers and showed me some of what the group has been doing. After she left I whipped up a little top to see if my idea for doing some would work. I think it turned out nicely so spent a few minutes before work this morning picking out some more fabric to make a few more. Here's a picture of my first Binky Patrol quilt top size 36xz36.

Any handmade blankets are accepted including knitted, crocheted, quilted or fleece. We are making them for a local hospital that has over 100 births a month to mostly migrant workers...anyone want to help us? She said they've already donated to a nearby women's prison. They give 1 fleece blanket to any inmate that has a baby. It has to be a single layer so they decided fleece would work best. She also makes burial blankets for stillborns...they were being wrapped in newspaper. Isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard???

I better wrap this up for today since it's back to work time!

Here it is the middle of February and I haven't updated this blog for days! I have been busy to say the least. I finished the top to my fall quilt and am attaching a picture of it. I got the back sewn together and it's at my friend Tammy's to be quilted. She got a beautiful Gammill a few months ago and is starting a quilting business so this one will be good practice for her since it's a full-size. I'm pretty sure I'm going to give this one to Brad since he needs one not only for his bed but also when he goes back to work he likes to take his own blanket to the different posts. I was thinking about keeping it for myself but decided that I don't need a full-size one and will probably make us another one only smaller for next fall.

I found a cute pattern for a baby doll bag that has a matching blanket and pillow for the doll that I'm going to make for the girls for Christmas next year. I'll have to make 6 or 7 total so I guess I need to get busy on them soon! I'm also thinking about making them aprons for Christmas.

I've started machine quilting dad's "Gone Fishing" quilt that we're giving him for his birthday...shhhh he doesn't know about it! I also started a Valentine's scrappy quilt...I know I'm behind on the holidays but am trying to get caught up-I've actually bought some patriotic fabric for the 4th already!

I'm also trying to learn how to hand quilt. I'm using a technique created by a lady that goes by the name "Thimblelady". She's from Australia and I bought her book and DVD. She's going to be teaching a class in CA this summer that I'm seriously thinking about taking.

On a different note: Vanessa, Melissa (Vanessa's sister) and I took Brianna, Bella (Melissa's daughter, and Clarissa (Vanessa and Melissa's little sister) to see Disney on Ice last Sunday. We had a blast...and spent lots of money of course. I'll have to upload the picture when I get home.

Well it's cold outside! While it's not as cold as the midwest it IS cold for here!

I'm adding a few pictures taken in the past week or so. This is a picture taken at the movie theatre last week. It was Bri's 1st movie date w/Nana. Doesn't she have a beautiful profile...even if she is sticking out her tongue!

Here is a picture of the girls watching Baby Einstein last night. Mia prefers the "Santa" one. Maybe it's all the bright reds in it. Brianna loves to sit in Mia's bouncy chair so sissy had to sit in her boppy instead. Vanessa said that Mia especially loves it whenever Bri pays attention to her.

Here's the last picture I'm adding today. It's my very 1st quilting quilt project. I made these 2 quilts for the twins for their birthday. When they opened them they started laying on them immediately. I sure hope they continue to like and use them.

Hi,

No new pictures today. Andy is out of town with work and will be home on Thursday. He sounded blue today. I'm sure he's gearing up for his business review coming up. Brad said his dr. recommends back surgery to remove several discs. He's bummed about it since he'll be off work 3 more months if they do it.

I've been trying to learn to hand quilt. There are a variety of ways to do it and it's not as easy as it looks. I guess that's what makes it worth while huh? I tried using an "Aunt Becky" and am now trying the Thimblelady technique. I think that is the one I will end up using. She is having a workshop up near Sacramento in July that I'll probably try to attend.

I guess I should get to work! I'll try to post some more pics tomorrow.

D

Hi,

I've been very bad about posting lately. I think I'm about caught up with life though. We still need to put the Christmas stuff up in the garage but at least it's IN the garage. We've had a lot going on lately. Mia is getting bigger and more beautiful every day. Her hair is starting to get fuzzy and stand up on top. I keep teasing Vanessa that she's going to be the one to get the Indian baby hair doo. Here's a pretty recent picture of her. She's starting to coo and smile. She's even managed to almost laugh a few times. The kids got a new puppy and named her Ruby. She's a cute little brown and tan Chahuahua. She's very smart and already knows how to go out the doggie door. Too bad she doesn't use it to go potty! She's a whiner and thinks she needs to be held all the time unless she's playing but overall I think she'll be a great dog. Brianna is starting to cough. I fear she's coming down with a cold. I was off work yesterday and took her to her 1st movie at a theatre. She liked it fine and only got a little restless. She got to play in the play area right outside the theatre and really loved that! We'll have to take her again when it's warmer. We went to Modesto for the twins birthday party on Sunday. Their mom wanted to do a Princess theme but the would have nothing of it...they wanted Nemo. They sure are cuties. I wish they lived closer so we could see them more often. We gave them the quilts I made for them and I think they liked them.

I've been working on a few projects. I started a rag quilt for Brad, a quilt for my father-in-law's birthday in April, embroidery squares for a girls quilt, and almost cut out all the fabric for a scrap fall quilt. I'm going to learn how to hand quilt tonight at church. I can hardly wait.

I guess I better get busy and be productive. I'll try to post some more quilt pictures soon...

Hi,

I haven't been updating this on a regular basis. Life around the holidays...what else do I need to say. Here is a picture of Bri helping cook for Thanksgiving. She's such a delight! I managed to get her carry around quilt finished over the past weekend. I found several errors in it. They all had to do with laying it out before putting it together. I need better access to my pattern board I guess. It's over my cutting table and hard to reach plus the blocks kept falling off. Oh well, Bri likes it so that's all that matters I guess. I'll take a picture and post it. See if you can find the errors too! I'm going to try to take a new picture of Mia tonight and will post it tomorrow. We'll see if she's in a cooperating mood. We think her eyes are going to stay a dark blue. She sure is a cutie!

Hi,



It's been very busy for the past few days...ok weeks. Mia is settling in. Bri is settling down. She only has trouble sleeping now since she's always slept in mommy and daddy's bed and now daddy is sleeping w/her on an air mattress until mommy gets Mia on some kind of schedule.



I've done some sewing but not as much as I'd like. I finished my flannel baby blanket for Mia last night and they already used it on her. I also made her several burp cloths out of scrap flannel. These are getting alot of use. I think I'm going to make up several of the baby blankets and matching burp cloths to have on hand for baby shower gifts. I cut the fabric and drew the words for my Santa pillows this morning. I got the binding cut and ironed for the twin's quilts last night. One quilt is tied and ready to have the binding put on. I'd like to sew it on tonight or tomorrow so I can hand sew the back of the binding on over the weekend. I'm slowly getting my projects completed! I still haven't finished the other twin quilt or Bri's. I also want to get back to working on the one I'm making for Brad. Oh and then there's the Valentine's one I want to start. So many ideas...so little time! Too bad I have to sleep at night!

Mia's Here

Hi,

Mia made her enterance into the world last Friday evening at 5:15 or so. She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 in. long. I think she looks a lot like her mommy! She's a beautiful baby. Brianna just adores her and wants to hold her all the time. We have to really watch her right now! She's going to make a great big sister though. We have been truly blessed.

The picture above was taken yesterday and the one on the right is of me, Bri and Mia on Sunday before church. Bri went w/me and Pappa and Mia stayed home w/mommy and daddy.

It's almost Bri's 2nd birthday. She'll be 2 on Sunday. Doesn't seem possible but it is. I went to Costco yesterday to order her cake. It'll have a sun and flowers w/happy faces on them. The plates have flowers and butterflys on them. I think we're doing pizza and cake to make it easier this year. Of course she'll have a pinata too! Oh goodie...more candy!!! The party will be on this coming Saturday afternoon. I think mommy invited about 50 people. Did I mention that I'm tired???

No new pictures today. I was at the quilt class until 9:30 last night. We learned how to put on borders. I got the 1st one done and have 2 more borders to go before next week. I also need to make my practice piece to practice top quilting. I think Vanessa and I are going to work on the girl's quilts tonight. She has them almost done. We just need to do the borders. I also need to blind hem the bumper pad for Miss Mia's crib. She'll be in her new bassinett for a few months so I have time to get it done w/o stressing toooo much. I've started cutting out a fun quilt for Bri. Brad asked me where his quilt is so I guess I'll probably give him the fall one I'm starting. I'm glad everyone is liking my finished products!

Bri and mommy and daddy came by to see me today. Of course Bri refused to talk once she got here. She wore her new pink and black sunglasses. She loves sunglasses! She says it's bright out when she doesn't have them on.

Monday Morning

Well, I managed to finish the twin boy quilts this weekend inbetween the baby shower on Saturday and church and a 1 yr old birthday party on Sunday! I'm very happy with the way the quilts turned out. I learned alot from making them and will probably do some more for showers and/or donations. Here's a picture of the 2 of them together. The mom likes frogs so that became the theme.

The baby didn't make her appearance this weekend but will be here soon I'm sure. Mom is very uncomfortable so I've been trying to keep Bri occupied as much as possible while dad is at work. She sure is a busy little girl. She "helped" me pass out donuts at church yesterday. She loves to go and stand on the stepstool and watch whatever is going on. She gets very quiets and such a serious look on her face.

Hi again,

I wanted to add a few pictures of quilts to my blog. This is my first completed quilt. It's a flannel baby quilt that I gave to a good friend for her son that is expected early November. I finished it last Friday evening. It has airplanes on it since daddy is a pilot and they did baby's room in airplanes. It's hard to find flannel material with only airplanes on it so I had to settle for war planes! Mommy said that was fine because that's what is in baby's room too. I'm glad it worked out so well!!

This is my first finished quilted project ever! I got the pattern and some of the fabric for it about 4 years ago from a friend at work for my birthday. Thanks Patricia! She's a quilter and between her and my friend Tammy I've learned alot. I gave this pillow to a dear friend from church. I've since made a pink one that will be a Christmas present-but I can't say to who yet!

Next week I'll add a couple of pictures of quilts from the past. Until then...

Another beautiful day here. I got my binding cut for the twin baby quilts before running out the door for work this morning. I'm anxious to get these quilts done! I want to be working on Brianna's quilt. Depending on when I get it done it will either be one of her birthday or Christmas presents. Speaking of her birthday-I can't believe she'll be two soon! She's such a delight. Here's a picture of her at the pumpkin patch recently. She wasn't in a good mood until we took her to the pumpkins she could pick up. Then she was all smiles. We ended up getting her 3-2 small ones and 1 that daddy could cut for her. She's played with the small ones so much that we had to throw one away already cuz she kept dropping it and it got a bad spot! She also loves to help mommy and me when we sew. We got her plastic scissors and she thinks she's cutting fabric too!

We're having Mia's babyshower on Saturday. She'll be here soon. Mommy is definitely ready for her to be born and so are we. Any day now!

Hi,

This is my first ever blog! I'm very excited to get it started. I'm not sure what it will be used for yet. I know I'll want to put pictures of my crafting. Perhaps talk about my family and add some of their pictures as well...