I remember now...

I remember now, why I don't have anything new to show you, life starts getting busy about now - flowers to plant, yardwork to do, bushes to trim - and I don't even mow/edge the lawns, Mr. Handsome does all that!
I also try to get in some quick trips to visit family, I spent 5 days in California with my mom, sisters and Jeff for Mother's Day Weekend. I am headed to Missouri to see Brooke, Ben and the babies next week.
I am hoping to work on my star quilt tomorrow, hopefully I'll have something better to report!

Moving Along

Life is moving right along over here, I am making progress on this quilt that I am loving, although I am remembering now that medallion quilts are a challenge for me with my not so fussy quilting style - really I can't sew a quarter inch seam to save my life! I was taking a very scant quarter inch seam on this baby, then squaring up each star block to a perfect 4 1/2 inches, but, as you can see, as I sewed them together, I lost some points, and then some more points.  You would think, as this is my 85th quilt, I would be better! Actually I am better, just not as better as I'd like.

It's kind of like me - I am better than I used to be about a lot of things, some days I just think I'm doing great, then other days, I'm a raving lunatic and I realize I still have a lot more to learn and to be taught by this adventure called life!  I just try to keep practicing and being humble enough to ask for help (a very hard thing for me) and I'm hoping by the time I'm 90 or so, I'll be a somewhat fit human being - maybe even fit enough for heaven!  We'll see...
Hope your days are happy and your seams line up!

Bliss

Yesterday, at the quilt shop, I purchased some fabric for a new project.  I had purchased this pattern a couple of years ago and I was super excited to get started!  

Even though it is more work to traipse all around the store, hauling bolts of fabric hither and yon, it was fun! Here's what I bought, I will add goodies from my stash and may need to shop some more.

It seems like I haven't made a quilt "from scratch" lately.  I have sewn up a few kits,  made some from pre-cuts plus a couple of scrap quilts for my most recent projects. I forgot how much enjoyment I get out of that part of the process of quilting.  Last night (at family quilt night) I got the center done:

Granted, the center is probably the easiest, least time consuming part of this quilt, but I love seeing it on my design wall! I am owing this burst of creativity to going to Quilt Guild this week, where I saw lots of gorgeous quilts and it just made me start dreaming about quilting again. Life seems to get busy and stay busy, so I am glad I remember that I have to make time for this hobby that I love!

Thinking...

So, after finishing the first season of "Downton Abbey" on Netflix, I have come to the conclusion that my life would be a lot better if I had a staff of servants. Mr. Handsome and I spent part of the weekend washing part of our windows, curtains and blinds - that was a bit of work! We have the other half to look forward to doing in a couple of weeks (sigh). I know I need to be grateful that I have a wonderful husband to help me and do the heavy work and I have my health that I am able to do it, but still, watching that show several nights over the last week or two, makes me a wee bit envious.

I am finally showing the quilts I got quilted and bound last weekend - I am quite happy with how they turned out - it seems that even mediocre quilt tops look much better when quilted and bound. This one is going to be auctioned off at the family reunion this summer: (It is made from scraps)

I finished this one for sweet little Sydnee, and even though it is huge for a baby quilt, it turned out great and Amanda loves it - always important! Made from a kit.

I also finished this little baby for a shower gift:

(Every time I take pictures of my quilts on my family room floor I am reminded that I would really like to get new carpet sometime soon....)

I am off to stitch up some receiving blankets that I like to keep stocked up for quick baby gifts...

March is Winding Down (Thank goodness!)

Happy to say that March is almost over! I think I have learned a lesson about over scheduling! I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend of quilting little Sydnee Marie's second baby quilt and enjoying our church General Conference, which is televised, so I can watch AND quilt - yay!

March is National Quilting Month, which I feel like I celebrated within an inch of my life, with 3 quilt retreats this month. I have eaten too much junk food and sat on my heiney way too much. The weather is getting nice though, so I'm hoping April will find me outdoors, puttering around the flower beds.

I got 4 quilt tops finished this month and made 10 more blocks for my scrappy around the world quilt, I also worked a little on my "Eye Fooler Quilt", which is a big project for sure. I realized that looking at the rest of my projects I have to do, I don't WANT to do most of them, so I may be un-doing kits and kitting up my own projects with patterns I want to make and fabric from my stash - or, I know, I COULD GO SHOPPING OR SOMETHING!!! We'll see.

P.S. I don't know why those babies look so worried, they love me!

March Madness

March is a busy month around here - fun stuff, and lots of it! Just got back from our 13th annual Sister in Law retreat (My husband has 5 brothers and 1 sister), we went south for nicer weather and had a blast. We did a little shopping, a lot of visiting, very little sleeping, plenty of eating, and an amazing amount of laughing - probably aided by the lack of sleeping.
I finished a quilt top, which is good, but, of course, I had taken 3 quilts to work on and was somewhat disappointed that I only worked on one, I swear I have a "sweat shop" injury, my shoulder/neck is pretty stiff and sore.
There were 7 of us, including my great Mom-in-Law and we did various projects and ate various junk foods and enjoyed great meals cooked by each other as we do every year.
Denise brought a really cool lego set to put together (and, yes, she took it apart afterwards to take home!)
Jen dyed Denise's hair, it turned out great! (Don't ask about the mayonnaise, it is a joke having to do with killing lice and how it didn't work, but was super gross)
Rose took lots of pictures and brought fun glitter toes stuff. At first we worried how we looked in the pics that Rose took, but then she confessed that she rarely gets them developed and actually lost the disc from the last years pics, so then we stopped sucking in our stomaches and trying to get the chocolate out of out teeth every time she snapped a photo.
Deanna made 2 darling crocheted hats (I know her eyes are closed, it's the only picture I had and the hat still looks way cute)
Here is the other quilt top I finished when I was down at the condo a couple of weeks ago - and - if you're keeping count, I now have 4 (!!!) tops to get quilted.

I'm off and running to the next thing - toodles!

Post from a Slacker

Ack! It's been awhile since I've posted. Life has just been a little crazy - a little out of balance around here and it's no one's fault but mine! I guess I though when my kids were raised, I wouldn't ever get "too busy" again. But, I have a lot going this month and I got a little behind on my sleep - the result - feeling like I was never going to get through everything I had to get done - REALITY - it's all turning out just fine!

I went away last weekend with some girlfriends for a quilting weekend at the condo - it was beautiful weather, but we hardly set foot outside!! I got this little baby done:

(I got another one done, but haven't taken a picture yet, it's coming, I promise.) We managed to get a design wall put up - by pinning a cheap table cloth to a quilt I have hanging down there - it was a lifesaver for putting together our quilts. Now that I have a design wall at home, I practically can't quilt without one, so this is great! I am heading back down there in another week for the annual "Sister-In-Law Retreat", there will be 7 or 8 of us stuffed into that cozy condo, but I think we're going to have a blast! I will be quilting, of course.

Something has happened to me: when I started quilting a few years ago, Mr. Handsome bought me a light-weight sewing machine to haul to quilting bee each week and to retreats - it cost $200. I have 'inherited' an old Bernina that is HEAVY and doesn't like to come out of it's table in the basement, so this was perfect - BUT - I am afraid I have become a sewing 'snob' like my quilting friends! The stitch on the 'cheapie' isn't nearly as nice as the Bernina! When my friends used to talk about how they liked "the stitch" on this machine or that, I thought they were just talking crazy - well, now it's happened to me! So, today, when I went to my bee, I took hand-quilting, I didn't want to haul the old Bernina up and I don't think I can bear sewing on the ol' jalopy!

In other news, the grandchildren are still perfect and I am getting my 'fix' of the close-by ones at least, fairly regularly. Life IS good these days, especially when I get off work early and get enough sleep!