Mike and I are suppose to be leaving in 40 minutes for our 5 week vacation but guess who is still in bed? We really wanted to be on the road by 6am because I think it is almost a 10hr ride from Minneapolis to our 1st stop Wichita KS. We will be heading to Phoenix for a week and then off to Vegas for 3 days then Santa Monica for 3 days and then Pomona Ca for 1 week and then back to Phoenix for our last week of vacation.

My goal will be to try and find a quilt shop in every town that we stay in and am hoping that Mike will cooperate. I will not be doing any sewing for the whole 5 weeks but when we come home that Thursday my sister in law is coming to sew with me on that Friday for 2 days. She is anxious to try out the new long arm which I can't imagine life without it. This is why in the past years I have never wanted to try one at quilt shows because I knew at that point I would absolutely hate the setup I had.

I will try and post a few pictures now and then, would hate to bore others.

Till Later

My Mom's bed

My Mom is 83 years old and still works. She worked at the local hospital from 1966 till 2 years ago on the I.V. Team. She now works at Costco serving samples and she loves it. She is not one to sit home day after day. My Mom has always put everyone first no matter what. If she knew someone was going hungry she would feed them first before feeding herself. I truly believe that my Mom is one of the kindest woman I know. I found out recently that she has never had a new bed and the bed she does have she has been putting down blankets and foam to cover the springs coming through. My brothers and I put money together and got her a gift certificate to a local furniture store and to buy herself a new bed. She wanted to wait until spring so that the store would not have to deliver in the cold and snow. We told her that she does not need to worry about this since this is what they do for a job. I decided that this new bed was going to need a new quilt and blue being her favorite color I thought i would do something with half square triangles. After browsing around the blogs I follow for some kind of idea or inspiration I found this quilt made by Red Pepper Quilts which I love her work and the colors she uses. I think this quilt will look great in blues. I have started sewing them together and hopefully I can get it done soon and get it to her before I leave for 5 weeks.

Our friends Gene and Dawn are coming up from Ft Dodge IA today to spend the weekend with us. I am so excited to see them. In the summer of 2008 they were in a really bad motorcycle accident, nothing life threatening, but a bad one. Dawn broke both wrist and is still doing physical therapy. She also is battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from this accident. I wanted to make her something that she could take home with her that she could wrap herself up in when things are just really tough. I had 4 different charm packs and a lot of white fabric and made this. I was surprised how quickly I was able to get this made and quilted. This morning I have to get the binding hand sewn and that will be my down fall of getting it done before they get here. I'm thinking I am going to have to come up with and excuse why I am having to work on it while they are here.