Summertime...

We currently have our  Babygirl staying here for a month! We are down at the condo, where it is 104 degrees.  We are hiding out inside, about to start a Yahtzee game.  We took Austin to Zion's Park yesterday and did the Narrows.  She loved it, she swam all around in that somewhat muddy river (There had been rain the day before).  She looked like a little otter.  We had a picnic lunch, and just generally enjoyed ourselves.  We have been to the cool "Splash Pad" over here in Hurricane a few times too. We still have plenty of things left to do on our "list" for her visit (See Brave, Hit the Hobby Lobby, make good-smelling soap, etc.)
     I have decided that I am in love with air conditioning!  Between these hot flashes and the heat, it is my bestest friend!  At night, I keep a really wet washcloth in a bowl next to my bed and it is doing wonders for those middle of the night attacks! 
     Life just continues to get busier, so I thought to myself,  I have my laptop down here on vacation, even if the internet (from Mr. Handsome's hot spot) is a little sketchy. So - a post from my vacation - aren't you lucky! 

P.S. I did finish my star quilt AND it hangs straight - a miracle!

Great Idea!

Late last night, when I was awoken (again) with a hot flash, I had the most fantastic idea! I have this small set of projects that I have in my 'to do' pile, they are really cute little wall hangings, one for each season.  I bought them with wild abandon a year ago (okay, maybe 2 years ago), every time a kit came out at my local quilt shop, till I owned all 4 kits with plans on whipping them up and enjoying them.  Well, time has passed and I'm not really much on wall hangings anyway, and I have started to dread them, looking at me accusingly every time I wuffle around in my project pile for something to work on.  So - my fabulous idea is:  Put them in a cute basket and donate them to our July Quilt Fair next month! I am so excited, I just need to get some ribbon and 'fouff' it up a bit and voila! Guilt Free Me!

Now that we are back from our trips, and are staying home for a whole month, I am back to quilting away in my spare time!  I am planning on finishing the top on my star quilt this week!

I just need to make the 4 corner star blocks and sew it all together and done! The checkerboard block is just an 'extra' I made with the leftover checkerboard strips, I have two, not sure what to do with them, but they are cute! I have lots of projects I want to get cracking on, while hanging out in my cool basement!  I started having these hot flash things a couple of weeks ago and while the weather was cool - no problem, but now that it is 90-ish every day - not so fun and they do wake me up multiple times each night - bleck.  Oh well, what are you gonna do? Onward and upward!

Back from Missouri

We got back last night from visiting Brooke and her wonderful family in Missouri.  We had a great visit, with lots of snuggles and trips to the dollar store, among other things.  Babygirl had a big list and I think we got pretty much everything done on it.

Here is our sweet, oldest granddaughter, Austin Nicole, AKA "Babygirl", she made a list of things for us to do as soon as she heard we were coming - watch a movie with popcorn, dance party, new shoes, make something, color, go to the park, etc., she is coming to spend a month with us this summer and we are so excited! I am now making a list of things I want to do with her when she comes next month.

Here is Shaun, also known as "The Boy", he is the most active child around, always busy and jumping and leaping! He ate practically an entire plate of huge chocolate chip pancakes and then ran like a madman around the park for an hour immediately afterwards!

Here is Natalie, "Little Bear", she is a sweetie and just loves everything pink and girly. When we arrived, she was wearing her favorite 'sparkly shoes' - red glitter shoes about 2 sizes too small! She refused to wear anything else! She crammed her sweaty little feet in those shoes no matter what! We got her some sparkly pink shoes, in her size, and her mother was able to 'spirit away' the tiny ones.

 Everyone is coming out for a visit in August, so we were able to tear ourselves away without too much pain, but we miss them already!

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...