On Saturday my Mom was going to go to Raychel's so I decided I was going to go over and give her the quilt I made for her. She had an idea that I was making her one but it was still a surprise.  Out of everyone I have ever given a quilt to my Mom appreciates the time and love that has been put into one.  She is the one that got me sewing when I was big enough to get up to the sewing machine.  I think this is how so many woman my age got  sewing and I am so happy she did.  My Mom is not a quilter but does understand the obsession                  

The picture to the right is a quilt that I saw about a year ago on someones blog but never found out the name or the designer.  I printed out a picture of the quilt back then and every so often I would pull the picture out and try to see if I could figure out how to put this quilt together.  I would realize that it was not something I was not able to figure it out and would put it away.  As I was reading one of my favorite blogger, Megan, there the quilt was.  She was talking about how she had gone to the quilt shop her sister works at and had taken pictures of the quilts her sister had made.  There is was.  I thought I was going to piss my paints, I could not believe that her sister had made it and I was that close to knowing what the name of this quilt was.  I emailed Megan immediately and asked her to ask her sister the name of the quilt.  After doing so I clicked on the picture to see it closer and there was the tag with the name of the quilt.  I googled the name and was amazed that the first link was a quilt shop right here in Minneapolis.  Saturday morning I called the shop and found out the owner of the quilt shop was the designer of the quilt.  After going to Raychel's and giving my Mom her quilt I went to the quilt shop which is only a couple of miles away from Raychel's and there it was.  It was so funny now that I think about it, I went in the shop and found the pattern right away went up and paid for it and practically ran to my car and opened it up and started reading.  I think if anyone was with me they would think I was weird.  Well anyone that might be reading this blog is going to completely understand my excitement. I can't wait to start buying just the right fabric for this one.

 Here is the quilt that I am making for my nephew and his wife as of this coming Saturday.  Yesterday I went to the local fabric store to get the backing and they had their 108" backing on sale so I figured why not.  I really wanted to get it loaded last night so I could quilt it this morning.  I was pressing the backing and opened it up and there was a bunch of ink marks and worse of all a piece of material cut out in the size of 5" x 5".  I was so pissed off.  Of course it was late and the store was closed.  I am tempted to go back return it and go somewhere else to buy my backing.  I'm not sure why someone would put it back on the shelf like that.

What I have been quilting

When we left for vacation we were planning on being gone for 5 weeks but ended up coming home a week early. The week before we left Mike had taken Raychel in for a EEG so the Neurologist could figure out why her seizures were not being controlled with her medicine. Well the first Friday we were gone Raychel called to say that the dr had called and explained to her that since the first EEG 3 years prior there has been a lot of damage done to the front right lobe of her brain. This part of the brain I guess controls her short term memory (which has gotten so bad) and motor skills. The dr wanted to see her the next week to go over all of this and I was sick that I could not be there to hear what the dr said. The day came for Raychel to go and due to a snow storm the clinic canceled all appointments for the day. Raychel agreed that she would reschedule the appointment for when we got home. Mike and I decided to shorten our trip by 1 week and come home so we could both go to this appointment with her. The dr also wanted to put her in the hospital and take her off her seizure medicine and watch her have seizures. Raychel has grand mal seizures and after one she is in so much pain due to her body becomes rigid during the seizure. Well long story short Raychel decided that she did not want to hear any more negativity and she was not going. A friend of the family is telling us to just wait this out and for the first time in 4 years she finally has control over herself and what is going to happen to her. This is very hard to sit back and let happen as a parent but she is 30 and we can't make her do anything. So here we sit and wait for her to decide it is time to go.

In returning home a week early that gave me some extra time before going back to work on March 1st. The Thursday before returning to work my boss called and asked if I could be a little more flexible about returning to work. So this week I went back to work for 2 days and the rest of the month I will work 3 days a week, April 4 days a week and then May I will be back full time. As much as my financial budget is screaming get back to work I love being home and working part time. Mike is screaming we have spent enough time together go back to work (just kidding).

So I said that I would write about what I have been sewing since I have come home from our wonderful vacation. Before I left on vacation I had started on a quilt for my Mom's new bed which she got while I was gone. She said she never realized how bad her old bed was, she no longer wakes up with her shoulders and hips hurting. Well here it is:

I still need to get the binding sewn on and hoping I can get that done this week.

My sister in law came for a weekend of sewing and she was able to get 3 quilt tops loaded and quilted. This was her first time on the longarm and was amazed on how much easier it was from my Janome. This is what she worked on:

There was one more quilt that she did that I didn't get a picture of. The multi colored patch quilt her Mom had pieced about 5 years ago and Pat found it in her Mom's stash of fabric. I didn't like it at first but after she got it quilted I loved it. The other quilt is a kit she found at a garage sale and paid $5 for it, it will be a wall hanging I guess.

My nephew is getting married on Saturday and I am trying to finish a quilt that I am doing for him. Tomorrow I will have to stop and get the backing so I can get it loaded and quilted. Hopefully this will all get done before Saturday and can show pictures soon.

It has been a long time.

I know it has been a long time since a have posted and just not sure why. There has been so much going on in my life since Jan.


We have a HHR which is kind of like a small SUV. When we headed out on our vacation the car was full from the front to back. I was bring down fabric to AZ for the woman that make quilts for the homeless. My friends work at a kitchen that servers a lot of families that are either homeless or just don't have enough money to feed everyone. They mostly make quilts/blankets for the kids. I was figuring that after I unloaded all the fabric from the car we would have a lot more room but that was not the case, I forget that everyone wants to send stuff back to Minnesota for their families. Our car looked like this all the way home.

We stayed with some friends in Santa Fe and boy did we like it there and then it was off to Apache Junction AZ where we stayed for 1 week. When we left AZ we headed to Vegas where we had never been before. We originally were going to San Diego but we really wanted to see the show "Love" in Vegas so that is where we headed. We never got to see the show due to the fact that the tickets were $109 each. We just did not want to spend that kind of money on a show. We stayed at Bills Gambling Hall which was very nice. We got there on a Tuesday afternoon and left there on Friday morning.

When we left Vegas we headed to Santa Monica which was unbelievable. Mike and I have decided that we want to move there as long as we can live on the ocean. It does not need to be Santa Monica but anywhere along the southern west coast. We have already decided that we are going back there next year for 2 weeks and will be flying this time. This surprises me because Mike has only flown once and said he will never fly again but now he has changed his mind. We have never traveled until that last 3 years and up until then he did not understand the reason for it. Now that he has had a taste of it he wants to go all them time. What perfect timing now that our kids are grown and we can afford to travel with some serious saving. We stayed at my bosses place one block off the ocean. Could life be any better then this?

Went to Vince Beach on 2 different Sundays and absolutely loved it. Mike and I could live there. This guy will just stand there still for a long time and people will go up and get their pictures taken next to him and all of a sudden he will go into a Michael Jackson dance and scare everyone.

The next post will be all the quilting I have gotten done since being home.