Is Spring Sprung?

These are not my daffodils (our ground is still a marshland waiting for federal protection and a commercial by Morgan Freeman!), but I do have some peeking through my front flower bed.

Three days of above 50 degree weather.  Three days of consecutive sunshine (sometimes only peeking through, but it's there!).

People riding their motorcycles.

Kids wearing flip flops and short sleeve shirts.

Could it be?

Spring!

Thank you for all your kind words about my mom's and Ansje's quilts.  It was fun to go last night and get out of my cave home and drive to another town and fellowship with other ladies who are crafty.

We had quite a diverse group of ladies and it was neat to see what they were all working on.

I have pictures, but the camera is in the car, which is in the garage, which is across the kitchen and the den, and I don't have socks on and...well, you get the picture.  I'm too dang lazy!

Some of the ladies were crocheting and knitting and there were some who were just learning.  They were getting tips and hands on help from those who've been doing it all their lives.  I love this.  The passing on of a skill from one generation (or lady) to the next.

My sister was cross stitching and another lady was scrapbooking on line.

I took a laundry basket full of stuff, my cutting mat, cutters, scissors, big box of scraps, sewing machine, and my stuff to press whatever needed pressing.

I did get the binding for Ansje's mini made, but realized I had forgotten my pins.  Doht!  I had also found some squares to my string quilt while traversing cleaning the sunroom yesterday

and bought more tracing paper to work on it.  But forgot the strips of white flannel I'm using for the stripe and was only able to make two new blocks with what I had.

Another smack on the forehead!

This is why I'm not let out of the house often.  LOL

I would forget my head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders.

Sometimes I wonder how I've parented this long!

Sheesh.

Before I leave, I wanted to share some of my favorite pillows from the Pillow Talk 2 swap:

Sew, if you get a chance, head on over to the group's site and look at some of the beautiful and inspiring pillows that were made and sent!

Thanks for sharing your defy Groundhog Day stories.  I appreciate the moms who stayed home with sick kids, those who tried yoga, and watched classic movies!  Mine was the craft night out.  It's weird to share your stuff with others and have them ask questions.  I'm not used to that in person.  Usually it's just C-man and I sharing the day until the others get home.

I loved seeing what these women were doing and listening to their stories!

That was, for me, the most fun.  I love hearing about people's lives and experiences.  It's like a room full of mini novels and books just waiting to be written.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Challenge!

I challenge myself (and you) to do something today that you normally don't do.

Whatever it is, let me know!

I'd like to break out of the Groundhog Day Blues.

How about you?

My mom is a fighter.

Several years ago she was diagnosed with Stave IV Ovarian Cancer.

There is nothing like a crash course in oncology to make you appreciate those around you and the world you live in.

She's always had this appreciation (as far as I can remember anyway!) and I'm still learning it.

On the last go round of chemo, I made her a lap quilt to take to treatment.  She would get cold sometimes during the many hours she was there and I wanted to give her something from my heart to help keep her warm.

It's in all the hot, tropical colors to remind her of her snowbird home.

In the teal cancer ribbons, I free hand quilted words like "courage", "strength", "love", "hope", etc.

Her radiation and chemo treatments and surgery have been successful and we're so blessed she's doing so great!  She's a Goodwill shopper too and yesterday brought me a bag full of yummy vintage linens!  Thanks Mom, and we love you very much!

I joined the STUD (Swap Til You Drop) ladies again for March.  This month is an Alphabet themed one and I have the letter "E".  Yesterday, I sat down and pieced the back of Ansje's mini quilt.  I love the little black square in my mini, wonky Log Cabin block and the black fabric underneath will be the binding.  Something I've never done before in combining black with the pastel colors she likes.

It seems a lot of people are really into rough edge applique.  You can't see it here ('cause it would spoil the surprise!), but I used this technique in several places on the quilt.  The flower on the right is a spin off in that I cut out leafy shaped pieces of green fabrics, then petal shaped ones from purples and sewed them all down with a cute little, flower shaped button.

Today I'm packing up a laundry basket full of finished quilts and WIP's, my sewing machine and supplies and am heading to

the church where my sister attends with her family and is the church secretary for as well as co-coordinator/director of the church's daycare ministry.

I've been invited to come and share my "quiltiness" with ladies from their craft night group.  My mom will be teaching/helping women to crochet.  The doily that shows up in so many of my pictures is on our dining room table and is one she made for us.

Also tonight is Bean's intramural basketball game.  He played Tuesday and lost by 2 points.  His team is called the Mavericks and it's coached by a senior basketball team player who is Javi's friend and the son of friends of ours.  It's so much fun to see him playing with his friends and classmates!

Hope you all have an out of the ordinary, but in a good way, day!

Groundhog Day!

We have dubbed 2010 the Year of The Groundhog Day.

Quite simply, well, we're living the movie.

You remember the movie's premise:

TV meteorologist Phil Connors, his producer Rita, and cameraman Larry from the fictional Pittsburgh television station WPBH-TV9 travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (which, in real life, as in the movie, holds a major celebration for Groundhog Day) to cover the annual festivities with Punxsutawney Phil.

After the celebration concludes, a blizzard develops that Connors had predicted would miss them, closing the roads and shutting down long-distance phone service, forcing the team to return to Punxsutawney. Connors awakens the next morning, however, to find it is again February 2, and his day unfolds in exactly the same way. He is aware of the repetition, but everyone else seems to be living February 2 exactly the same way and for the first time. This recursion repeats the following morning as well, over and over again. For Connors, Groundhog Day begins each morning at 6:00 A.M., with his waking up to the same song, Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe", on his alarm clock radio, but with his memories of the "previous" day intact, trapped in a seemingly endless "time loop" to repeat the same day in the same small town. 

This is a great description of our life.

Up at 5-6 am every morning.

Hubby does his exact same thing as he gets ready for work.

Javi does the exact same thing as he gets ready for school.

I wake up Bean, breakfast, lunch packed, clothes changed and the same questions every day.

"Did you change your clothes?  Where are your dirty clothes?  Did you brush your teeth?  Where are your shoes?"

Hubby goes off to work doing the same thing over and over.

Javi and Bean drive off to school for a day very much like the day before.

I grouse C-man out of bed.

We do school.

Laundry.

Sweeping.

Mopping.

Cleaning.

Lunch.

School.

Drive C-man to his class.

Pick him up.

The doorbell rings.  Every day at the exact same time.  It's Bean.  Who thinks it's very funny and fully knows his older brother has a key and is right behind him.

Snack.

Homework.

Dinner.

Dishes.

Family hanging out together.

Bed.

Our rut is so deep, I think I saw sunshine last Tuesday.

We need a two month vacation here:

Where I promise, we would never do the same thing day, after day, after day.

We would go and have adventures every morning and eat somewhere new every night.

Do you live Groundhog Day?

Tuesday Ramblings

Lesly aka Shadrach Meshach & Abednego over at Pickledish asked

"Here's a question for you - what measurements did you use? Did you add a little extra over the dimensions of the pillow, or did you try to make it the exact size of the pillow? I've even seen some instructions that say to make the pillow casing one inch smaller than the dimensions of the pillow, but that seems odd to me."

Lesly, the flat out truth is...

I really didn't measure!

LOL

I'm sure I've committed a sewing faux pas, but I just pieced the front until I was happy with the look, pieced the back, squared them both up to match, went and bought stuffing and stuffed until I thought it was a comfy poof of a pillow.  Not so much stuffing your head slid off and not so little, you felt you we laying on an old, yucky pillow (which I have and it is not pleasant, nor did it smell good because the dog's been using it for her naps!)

And that, my friend, is the scientific method of pillow making!

Jen over at Little Scraps of Happiness is a peach!  She is smart, funny, pretty, creative, a Navy wife and the mom of two cute little pumpkins of the pinkest kind!

Last week she had a giftaway for

to lucky number 20.  Which was me! 

Sew, thank you so much Jen!  These little beauties will be so much fun to listen to and hopefully things will slow down and I can have more time to sew.

I'm secretly thinking of selling a kid or two, or three if the price and buyer are right to sort of ease my burden here at home.  I mean, really.

If I did at least two, that would cut my laundry by 2/5.  Little Caesar's would probably have to close their new store they just opened though.  Think of all the toilet paper I would save and I might just actually be able to reach into the pantry, pull out a cereal box and--gasp--have some cereal in there for me for breakfast.  Even the fiber filled, shredded stuff!

Oh, oh.  Off the food and onto the time I would save!  Homework, taxiing all over the green earth, refereeing, etc.  I could then use that time to sew to my little heart's content.

Only, my little heart would be very lonely.  I would miss my sweet little tater tots and french fries (tater tots who grow taller and have longer legs).  Who would cuddle with me in the morning?  Who would share their day with me and bring me treasures like rocks, shells, broken eggs and frogs?

Okay, I'll find time for sewing somewhere else and keep the kids.

Just Your Typical Monday!

Not!

Hee Hee.

Our ground is as wet as a Luzianna bayoo!  Our doggie has been doing business as usual in unusual spots to keep her little tooshy off the cold, cold snow.  I let her out back to practice "free range" pottying.  Well, that chicken done tried to fly the coop!

And in chasing her I stepped in...

yeah.

I hate dogs.

I hate wet, icky, mucky, cold, squishy, slimy ground.

I hate squirrels who point fingers and laugh.

Birds who turn their heads and twitter oh so condescendingly behind their wings.

I hate poop!

Time is Eternity

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity."

Henry Van Dyke 

Another week marked off the calendar.  Monday saw Bean with double ear infections.  Tuesday received word from two people I love that things in their part of the world were not well.  Tuesday and Wednesday time spent with people I love.  Thursday was catch up day.

And it's Friday.

Thursday also brought this

in the mail.  Isn't that a beautiful bow and happy, green grassy paper!

Julie is participating in the Pillow Talk 2 also and this is what she made!  Words can't even describe the way the colors and fabric remind me of the sunrise or sunset!  It's just gorgeous!

I may not use it as a pillow it's so awesome as a wall hanging.  I'm totally rethinking the family room now!

The back is just as cool as the front.

In the Swap, we could either send stuffed, or not.  The closing on the pillow is so cool!  The stitching on these little half circles, as well as on the front, is just too much fun!

Also in the package was this:

 

And we all know I was missing my own tape measure!  How cool is this?  (mine is not on the turtle, and the dog is sans measureing tape, so not sure where mine is)

Thanks Julie!  I couldn't be happier!

I've been so inspired by the Incredible Shrinking Quilters' Bee ladies last month that I decided to continue making New York Beauty blocks for a quilt for hubby sweetness and I.

My first four sewn together.  I know I should've waited to sew rows together, but then again, I'm not your conventional quilter!  LOL

I'm hoping the colors and patterns sort of migrate their way around the quilt.

Work continues on the hexes, my pillow for Pillow Talk 2 is done, I haven't received March's block for the ISQB and I've signed up for STUD (Swap Til You Drop) for March.  I was paired with Ansje.

We arranged a private swap on the side last year before Christmas and this is what she sent me.

Simply beautiful!

Sew, you can see why I'm excited to be paired up with her this month!  We have an alpahbet theme and my letter is "E".  "Everyone who signs up for this theme will be randomly assigned a letter of the alphabet by me, and then you will make a quiltie representing that letter. Example: if you were giving the letter Q, then your mini could be a queen under a quilt."

Sew, I have some research and work to do!  No rest for the wicked!

Don't forget to visit Amy for Friday Finish!  Last week's finishes were just over the top cool!  There are sew many talented women out there and you see some of the most beautiful and clever things!  So make sure you stop by today!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

How Crazy is That?

Bloom and Blossom is another one of those blogs that's just a pleasure to read and look at.

Last fall, as we were battening down the hatches for a nasty, cold and long winter, Australia (where Bloom lives) was just heading into spring.  How jealous I was of her being there, and me being here.

Now, each morning, it's a little bit lighter out earlier and I can hear the Robins, Cardinals and Blue Jays in the yard twittering at the squirrels to "Look out!"

We still have a lot of white stuff on the ground, but I'm actually sitting here in my bare feet.  Now mind you, that doesn't sound big, but I'm feeling warm enough not to have two pairs of socks on and that's saying a lot!  LOL

The other day, a lot of you asked for information on the blue bird fabric.

I found it at Joann's and it's from Legacy Studio.

The selvage reads Fresh Fusion "Blue Birds".

Earlier, my machine was giving me fits because the feed dogs wouldn't lift.

KT read my blog, felt my pain and called me immediately!

Seems she's had the same problem.  On the newer machines, the motor has to actually be engaged before the feed dogs will lift.  Problem solved!  Thanks KT!

I was able to finish up my Pillow Talk pillow.

I can't find my measuring tape (which means the boys have either tied the dog up again or leashed the turtle for a walk), but it's roughly 15"x15".  I decided on a Courthouse Steps Block surrounding the lovebirds.  Keeping the green and polka dot fabrics top and bottom and the blue and floral patterns on the side.  I like the way it breaks up the boldness (which was overwhelmingly purpliness).  I just put my walking foot on and quilted about a 1/4" from the seam lines and some corners overlap, some don't.  I really liked the way it turned out.

Thank you to those of you who suggested keeping the back simple.  I used one of the blue butterflies from the lovebirds fabric and surrounded it with the floral.  Pieced more of this lucious polka dot (must find out what it is and where to get more of it!).  Sashed it in the blue/purple/periwinkle fabric and quilted it with a random line quilting pattern.  I used a cool, variagated green thread for the front and back quilting.  The boys don't want it to move somewhere else.  Javi is sounding more and more like his dad everyday, "Why are you doing this?"

The pillow looks like it has deformed feet, not sure why, but it's a nicely, cushily stuffed fluff ready for shipping.

Snowbirds came home this weekend.  I had my mom on a secret mission to find as much vintage linen as she could tolerate.  I have a whole, huge box of sheets, shams and pillowcases she found as well as fabric she found dirt cheap.

My MIL helps makes quilts for orphans all around the world through a local church group.  Some of the fabric my mom found will be cut into squares and sewn into quilts to warm, comfort and cuddle kids all over the globe.  That is cool!

Thanks Moms!