RIP Dear Sister

Laura Jean Ackerson

April 30, 1984 - July 13, 2011

You will be missed little sister

We all love you very much

We will watch over your little boys for you

A Framing Happy Dance

I've managed to frame a piece I stitched over 5 years ago. It is Emie Bishop's Warm Christmas Wishes. I found the frame at Salvation Army for $3. It didn't have any glass, and I wouldn't have been able to fit it in the frame if it had. That's ok, this piece has beads on it, anyway, so glass would have just smooshed them.

I found some red vellum at Hobby Lobby when I picked up the foamcore and pasted that underneath the hardanger sections of the design. I wish I had found a better shade of red, as I think this is too bright....oh well, it coordinates with the highlights on the cranberries.

We had our oldest nephew over for the night a couple of weeks ago. He found the piano and just loved to sit at it and play and play and play...boy were we glad for the quiet when it was time for him to go home! LOL

Here is Kendrick and DH playing together. As you can tell, it was a very hot day, so he went around in is diaper for a while...Kendrick, not DH!

Oh yeah, you can see a bit of Pips in the picture, too....He's sneaking a peek at what might have been forgotten on the table....sneaky dog....

And to prove how hot it's been lately, here's Felix melting off the buffet. DH claims he stayed like that for an hour after he got up for work....very unusual, as Felix is normally following us around like Pips (he thinks he's a dog, you know).

It's My Birthday..

And I'm another year older. I'd like to think I'm a little bit wiser, too, but really, who knows? I don't dare ask DH - I don't know what he'd say in response. I'm not sure I want to know! LOL

It was a very nice birthday - as birthdays go. It started with a phone call from the out-laws...a very pleasant call it was, too. Then DH took me out to dinner at my favorite restaurant with my Sister, BiL and 2 nephews. We followed that up with a visit to my Mom's house for cake and ice cream...and visiting. At about 8:00 we decided to head home and I found lots of wonderful birthday wishes on facebook and in the mailbox.

Although I did find a rejection letter in the mailbox for my latest job interview....oh well.

I can definitely say this was one birthday I enjoyed. Thank you DH and family for making it such a nice one.

A Quick Update

We've been dealing with a lot of wind the last few days. The good news is we no longer have any leaves in our yard and our trees are leafless, so no more falling in the yard. The bad news is we had a couple of shingles fly off the kitchen roof yesterday. Thank God I have handy cousins that don't mind coming over to help us. DH and I are deathly afraid of heights. I swear if we ever buy another house, it will have to be a one story.

I've been working on the quilting of my Halloween quilt for the last couple of weeks. I don't think it will be finished with the binding on it by Sunday night, but I can at least hang it in the hallway for the day and finish it after the holiday. I'll show you how it looks when I get it done.

Everyone is coming over for trick or treating on Sunday. We're having a spaghetti dinner to give everyone the strength to make it through the evening. After dinner, DSis and DBiL are taking Nephew #1 out for his first real trick or treating excursion. Mom and Nephew #2 are staying with DH and I to hand out candy to the 300 kids we usually see each year. We go through a lot of candy!!! And there usually aren't any leftovers :( Not that I need to eat them - LOL

One last thing I want to share. I found this video on Deb's blog and fell in love! This kid is amazing!!! Enjoy :)

The Halloween Quilt

I got the borders on the Halloween Quilt yesterday! It's my first attempt at mitered borders, as well as a striped border. Other than that one corner, I think I did pretty well. I'm happy with it, at least :)

I went digging through my batting cubbyhole for a piece that would be big enough to get this basted together, figuring I would need to piece a couple of pieces together to get one large enough. Not only did I find a piece of poly batt that will be big enough, but I found a complete queen-sized wool batt in there! I swear I used the last complete batt on DNephew's quilt this summer....do you think they reproduce when we're not looking?

I got lucky at Goodwill this week and found another Mexican vase that I liked. It's got the same design on the front and the back, and is very bumpy in texture around the sides. I think it goes nicely with the other vase and the lamp I got at Shipshewana this summer.

Last weekend, DH and I took my mother for a color tour to Cadillac. There wasn't as much color on the trees as we had hoped, but we had a good time. We had lunch in town, stopped at an Amish cheese shop, checked out Goodwill and Salvation Army and headed home. On the way home we spotted these in the distance, so we decided to travel a couple of dirt roads to get closer. DH snapped this picture to get an idea of the size of them - the wind turbine is in the field behind the house...I swear these things are like 500 feet tall. There were about 12 of them in a row through the fields. They made almost no noise, and were so peaceful....I don't understand why everyone around here is fighting having these things put in....It's like having a huge giant silently standing guard over you.....of course if you're paranoid about guarding giants, I guess I can understand...

Quilt Show 2010

The West Michigan Quilt Guild did their bi-annual show this weekend and DH and I were lucky enough to make it this year. It's a large guild of 400 members, and they usually put on a very good show.

This year there were about as many vendors as there were quilts - at least it felt that way. There were roughly 3 rows of quilts, and the vendors surrounded the quilt room, and there were a lot of them! I managed to find a few FQs that needed to come home with me. And I spent a lot of time in the booth the guild was using as their yard sale - FQ for $0.50!! I had a hard time keeping it reasonable, there were a lot of older gems in those bins. DH was incredibly patient with me - so much so that one of the other women in the booth with us commented on how well he was behaving! LOL

DH was also my photographer for the day. Basically, I got to wander the show and point to the quilt I wanted a picture of. He then fought the crowds to get the perfect shot. He was a real trooper yesterday :)

My favorite quilt of the show was this gorgeous red and green Dear Jane quilt. It was made by a woman named Jan, so she called it Dear Jan. I love how she changed the border triangles into applique, rather than doing the piecework.

There were a few Japanese quilts in this show, and you know those are always amazing to look at. This was my favorite of that group. It just looks so complicated! I don't recognize the block pattern she used, either.

This is a lovely Baltimore Album quilt. The colors were very bright - which caught my eye. It got a ribbon, too. Next to it is a star quilt that I really liked the center of - close-up in next pic.

This is the center of the star quilt in the above picture. I really like it. It looks familiar to me - maybe I've seen it in an Australian magazine somewhere??

I loved the border on this quilt. When I got closer to the quilt, I realized that each hexagon was quilted in a spiral pattern - neat! I asked DH to get close-ups of the quilting for me to reference later.

We had a very good time at the quilt show. We followed it with dinner out and then home. We spent a nice evening snuggling on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching The Blind Side. It is a very good movie - much better than I expected it to be.

Friday I got a flat tire on the car, and after taking it to the shop, realized I needed to replace not only the flat, but a second tire to keep things even - all my tires are very very bald. $200 later and it suddenly became apparent that I don't think we'll be able to make it down to my brother's for his wedding over New Year's :( I'm very bummed about this...But unless I'm able to find a job soon, I just don't see how we're going to be able to afford the trip.

A few projects to show you...

First of all, in the spirit of Kim and her Thrifty Thursday posts, I had to share with you a couple of finds I've had recently in our local Goodwilly.

The first find was this Ott Lite, complete with a magnifier attachment. The price tag on it was $3.99 - and it worked! I didn't even have to buy a light bulb for it!! Whoa....

My next find was this quilt rack. DH sanded it down and re-stained it for me, and it is now hanging in our entryway hall. It was only $2.99!

To say I was thrilled with these 2 finds is an understatement. I love finding things I know I will use for very little money...and things I can love, too - well, that's just icing on the cake :)

Now to share with you some things I've been working on lately. Below is a shot of my design wall today. I've got three quilts on it currently. Can you name them? LOL

The first one I'll show you is the Halloween quilt that has taken my fancy. I started this quilt on 9-25-10, and this is how far I've gotten so far. All of the blocks on the top row are embroidered...and I'm working on the second row. I'm averaging 2-3 blocks per day, so it shouldn't take me too long.

I think this is my favorite block of the quilt. I love the embroidery pattern and I really like the fabric. I wish I knew the manufacturer, but I only bought fat quarters and none of them have the info on the selvage.

The next quilt I'm showing you is the Deflt Tile quilt. It's hard to see in this photo, but these are the blocks I've traced the pattern onto and basted to the green fabric behind the muslin. Looks like I'm at 11 blocks so far (I didn't know until I counted the blocks in the picture - LOL).

The last quilt I've been fiddling with lately is a log cabin quilt I started for my brother's first wedding - about 6 years ago. I have a total of 7 blocks done. I think I need 25 for the size quilt I want - queen-sized. Well, now my brother has divorced his first wife and is now planning a January 1 wedding with his fiance. Maybe I'll get it done for that? I don't know. If I do, I won't be telling them when I started it!!

This shot is the far left side of my design wall. I like to keep things that inspire me or make me smile within sight and my stitching chair is right next to this section of the wall. I've got a lot of things on here....The paper fan I got from my grandmother when she died - she bought it in Hawaii the only time her and grandpa went there. The first 2 cross stitch items I ever stitched and gave to my grandma - again got back when she died. A handkerchief from grandma. A scarf my mom crocheted for DH and he decided he didn't want it anymore, so I tacked it on the design wall. Two blocks I hand pieced from the Quilted Diamonds book - they aren't the same size, so I'm ruminating about what to do with them. My calendar, a couple of applique pieces waiting to be incorporated into a quilt label, a shot DH took of my stitching, a broach from my grandma, a twilled sunflower I like (but didn't make), and a note from my kitty that DH helped him write and put in my lunchbox one day last winter.

The photo at the very bottom is one of my favorites. It's from 1994 and it's of my mom and me working on our projects. She's nearly finished with an afghan she's crocheting and I'm working on some cross-stitch project....I have no idea which one. I don't know why Mom's not smiling, maybe she didn't want her photo taken? Anyway, it reminds me of happy times spent with my family.

Some Work in Progress.

I figured it was time to show you a couple of projects I've been spending my time on this week. The first one is my tiny hexagon quilt. Again, the quilt isn't tiny, the hexagons are. The quilt will be queen-sized when I'm finished with it. The photo below shows the entire bottom border and the full width of the quilt.

As you can see, it will be a nice large quilt. Here is a close-up shot of the fabrics I'm using in the border.

I added this picture so you could see the scale of the piece. The scissors are Ginghers with the large finger holes. Everytime I show this project to someone new they call me crazy. You don't think I'm crazy, do you?

Here's what it looks like next to my chair in the living room right now. The basket holds everything nice and tidy. I'm using a pencil case to hold all the loose hexagons. The freezer paper forms go into the Altoids tin when I pull them out. That just leaves my pincushion, thimble and thread. It's a very portable project.

I'm working the quilt in rows right now. I've got the design I'm following all drawn out on graph paper, and it's basically just follow the chart to get the pattern to work out. It's very mindless, relaxing work, which is just the thing sometimes.

The other project I've been spending most of my time on this week has been Teresa Wentzler's Unicorn. I've gotten more than 1/4 of the design finished and I started it on 8/23/10. This is amazingly fast for me. If you look closely, you can see the shadow of the unicorn standing between the trees.

And just so you don't think I'm getting lonely while I stitch away at my unicorn, here's a picture of the new futon we got this week. I threw an old quilt over it so we could allow the animals to sleep on it. The plan is this futon will be where the nephews sleep when they get old enough to spend the night at our house. But since Kendrick has really bad allergies to our animals, we have to protect the mattress from the dander or he might have an allergy attack when he sleeps on it. Anyway, the quilt fit the bill perfectly. Mom found this at a yard sale a couple of years ago and decided she didn't like it anymore - I snatched it up very quickly when I heard that!

That's Felix on the left, Boots in the center, and that ball of black on the right? That's Nika. They work very hard at keeping me company all day while DH is working :)

Big Boy Quilt was a Success!

I delivered Kendrick's Big Boy Quilt to him yesterday just before naptime. He loved it! After he had given me my welcoming hugs and kisses and sweet smiles, sat on my lap and told me his stories for the day, I told him he had a present from me. I sat him down on the couch next to his mommy and held up the quilt. His eyes lit up and he grinned from ear to ear. He pointed at it and said "my blankie". Enough to make an aunt's heart melt, I tell you :)

I showed him the label, which I had traced a dragon onto the bottom of, and after I told him what it was, he turned to his mommy and said "dis is MY dragon!" LOL

He carried it around with him for the rest of the time we were there. I do believe this quilt gift was a big success :)

It's Been a While..

Hey everyone. I know, it's been almost 2 months since I've been here, I'm sorry about that. I didn't intend to be gone so long, it's been a busy summer.

You all know I got a new nephew in June that was born 8 weeks early. I've been helping my sister anytime she needs help, which was a lot in the beginning. She's getting used to things now, so my help isn't needed nearly as much. But I'm still at her house about once a week, which is a lot less than the 3-4 times a week that I was over there when they first came home. Greyson is doing great :) He's a healthy little boy that is now over 8 pounds. He still doesn't have that chubby look that new babies have, but he's definitely a cutey. He got our grandpa's big ears - I hope he grows into them soon. He got off his lung/heart monitor a couple of weeks ago. He only had one true alarm after they brought him home, so after being on it for 4 weeks (I think), the doctors decided it was time for him to be off it. This makes things much easier for my sister.

We also got fleas this summer. We've had animals since the first month we moved in together over 15 years ago, and this is the first time we've ever had fleas. I blame the fact that I'm still jobless and we let Pips' flea regime lag a bit this summer. It was a stupid thing to let slide, as now we have to spend the money to get rid of the things. Flea treatments and flea shampoo isn't cheap. So, this week, I'll be buying all the goodies and all the cats get a flee shampoo - I'm sure they'll just love it - NOT!

I have been getting some things done in the quilting/stitching front. Unfortunately, I don't know where DH put the camera cord, so I can't share pictures right now. I will post some as soon as he tells me where he put it.

I managed to get Kendrick's Big Boy Quilt finished this summer. I machine quilted it (first time for me). I can't say as I enjoy machine quilting - I had to force myself to sit down at the machine each day and do at least one line of stitching before I'd let myself do anything else. It eventually got finished - but I realize now that I am a hand quilter, through and through. I decided this quilt needed machine quilting, though, as it's going to a 2 year old - and it'll be through the washer/dryer more times than I care to imagine. At least it'll last a bit longer this way. I just need to get the label sewn on the back and get it delivered before any more time passes...

I also started work on a new project. I've designed a new layout for the Delft Tile Quilt that calls for 388 applique blocks - so I spent some time this summer getting all the muslin blocks cut out. I'm slowly cutting out the green fabrics that I will be appliqueing the muslin to. As well as getting the designs traced onto the muslin. I haven't actually started the applique yet, but it's getting there.

I also pulled out my tiny hexagon quilt. The quilt isn't tiny, the hexagons are. It's still at the stage where it's a good travel project, so I've been taking it with my when I go out and about this summer. Everywhere I go, I get people telling me I'm crazy for making it. But I love it and I'm sure I'll be working on it for a long time yet.

I also started Teresa Wentzler's Unicorn this past week. I had all the supplies kitted already, as well as having the fabric gridded. All I needed were working copies of the pattern and I was good to go. It's been going pretty quickly so far, but then again, I've been able to work on it about 8 hours a day for a week now. I guess anything would move fairly quickly with that much time put into it.

Ok, I think I'll wrap things up for this post. I promise pictures next time.

Happy Day!!

I have a new nephew today!! Here is Grayson and he was 6 weeks early. Momma had preeclampsia and for everyone's safety, it was decided to take the baby early. He came in at 4 lbs. 1 oz and is 16 1/2 inches long. He's doing just fine. Momma is suffering from not being able to hold him yet, as she is still not allowed to sit up. Just a couple more days...

Also - Felix came home tonight! After galivanting for the last 8 days and 4 thunderstorms, he finally decided to come home. He promptly got a bath, as he no longer had any white parts - they were all different shades of gray! Let me just say he did not enjoy this homecoming at all! But, it appears as though there are no ear mites, no fleas and no new wounds from cat fights...all very good!