Victoria over at Bumble Beans was looking for people to quilt some quilt tops she had for the Basics fundraiser.  I figure it would give me more time on the longarm and I do need it.  I love doing things for people that are working on such a good cause.  She sent me 2 quilt tops and I'm glad that I am able to help.





These 2 pictures are the first quilt I did and is such a nice quilt.  Last night I got the next one loaded and will get it done and shipped out by Monday morning.

Last weekend Mike, Taylor and I went camping.  Taylor is so much fun to have around.  Her Mom and the 2 babies came and also Justin brought his girlfriend, Sarah and Raychel came for dinner and a bonfire.

I think we biked about 20 miles over the 2 days and Taylor could not believe that Grandpa Mike could be so far ahead of us at his age (56).  Funny how old that is to a 12 year old and is not old when you are 56.  I remember when I was in my 20's and thinking how old 40 was and here I am 51.

We came across this tank and of course Taylor had to get up on it and get her picture taken for Mom.

Mike and Taylor absolutely love each other.  The both are very funny and make each other laugh.  She really does keep us going.

This is the very first picture I have ever posted of myself but I promised her that I would post a picture of her and I.

I have been so self conscience since putting on so much weight.  I have been struggling with my thyroid for quite a few years and finally my doctor told me on Monday no more white flour, sugar, starches and bad carbs.  He guarantees me that I will lose at least 2 pounds a week by just doing that.  I hope so.










Mike and Taylor being goofy.  She hates wearing her helmet but she wears it.  Mike was trying to show how great you can look like with the helmet on or should I say how old (just kidding Mike).















In Minnesota this time of the year is perfect time for camping.  Warm enough during the day and cool enough at night for the bonfires.  We were suppose to go this weekend but we figured we better take advantage of beautiful weather and get the yard cleaned up before the snow flies.  I heard that it is going to be a very hard winter




This is the most recent picture of my daughter, Raychel.  For anyone that does not know she had been very ill for 4-1/2 years.  1-1/2 years ago she weight 80 pounds and at 5'8" that was such a scary time.  She just found out that she has to have another surgery and I am so thankful that she has finally put weight on.  When she needed surgeries before it was always so life threatening so this time won't be that way.  She also has epilepsy which we found out about 3 years ago and because she was always so ill the seizures had always been on the back burner.  Last January she went in for a EEG and the dr called and wanted her to come in right away to discuss the results.  Mike and I had just left for our 5 week trip and I was going to fly home for it and she refused to go.  She promised me that we would go see the dr when I got back home.  Well guess what she finally went last week, yes 7 months later.  The dr gave us horrifying news, Raychel had 20 seizures over the 24 hour period that she had the EEG wires connected.  Raychel started crying and it took everything I had to be strong for her.  She did have a bad seizure during that time and we knew that but the other ones are smaller seizures and were lasting from 1-2 minutes.  Well she is on more meds and hope that they work, unfortunately it takes 3 months of slowly increasing the dose to get to the right amount.  She thought all this time that she was having anxiety attacks and taking meds for that to find out they were seizures.  She is amazing to deal with everything that she has been faced with the last 4-1/2 years.

Been a long long time.

It has been so long since I have wrote anything but have been very busy with work and also having fun.  

This summer we decide we would get all the girls in the family together for a girls night.  Everyone had so much fun just hanging out and talking and bringing everyone up to date with what is going on in every ones life.  My two nieces in the back side of the picture are sisters and one lives in Denver and the other lives in Duluth Minnesota.  The niece in the blue dress announced that she will be getting married next year.  Her fiance is from Ames Iowa and they are going to get married on the family farm and have a barn dance.  What a great idea.  Can't wait.

This is Charlee and Jaxson our adopted grandkids.  Our friends that are the true grandparents live in AZ so we have become the extra grandma and grandpa.  I'm not complaining since Raychel will probably never have children and not sure about Justin's thoughts on the whole parenting thing.  It's ok he is only 27 and a man so will wait and see.

Charlee is 2 years old and she was diagnosed back in May with Rhett's Syndrome.  Mom and Dad are still trying to adjust to this horrible diagnoses but it is what it is and we love her no matter what she has.  She will never walk or talk and that makes it hard sometimes when she is frustrated and cannot explain what is wrong.  Because she can't walk and is getting so big it is getting harder to pick her up off the floor.  They will be coming over tomorrow to spend the night while Mom and Dad go to the new Twin's Stadium for a game.

Jaxson is so precious and love having him come and spend time with us.  He always cries when it is time to go home and that breaks my heart but also makes me feel so loved.  He has his cars and trains here so he comes and can play for hours with them.

This quilt is one that I am making for my boss's little girls which she adopted from Russia.  She is such a sweet little girl and know she will love it.  I do have the material for the backing but and still trying to decide how I am going to quilt it.  I'm thinking a meander would be to much but a stitch in the ditch around the triangles might just be what will finish it off.

This quilt is one I decided to do a couple of weeks ago.  It is hard to tell the wonderful colors in the quilt with the color of my walls.   That is Tera cotta color but really does look rose like.  I'm thankful my walls really don't look like that.

Our friends, Pegeen and Roger, have season tickets to the MN Twins and they took us with them to a game.  We had a blast and how wonderful to sit outside and watch baseball.  All Minnesota needs now is a outdoor stadium for the Vikings.

The Minneapolis skyline is what we saw from our seats.  I love downtown Minneapolis and would love to live down there.  Mike is trying to figure out where we would put all our stuff and where we would park our 32 ft motor home.  The things he worries about.

I can't wait for the long weekend to begin.  We are starting the weekend off by going to the new MN Twins stadium for the first time.  Mike and I are not big baseball fans but we will watch if we are home and they are on tv.  It is all about going to the new outdoor stadium and experiencing the whole American sport plus have a hot dog.  We are also going to take the new light rail train down so we will be able to avoid parking and trying to get out of there at the end of the night.  Saturday morning we are waking up and driving to Council Bluffs.  Mike is doing a Neil Diamond tribute band at a outdoor show at Harrah's casino.  I heard it is going to be a very hot weekend.  I'm ok if it is just hot but in the Midwest we don't just get real hot we get real humid with it.  That I hate.  I am trying to get my brown quilt quilted so I can get the binding on so I have hand sewing to do while sitting around.

I don't know if anyone has ever gotten the bug to do applique but I really have become very interested in it.  I'm not sure why but some of the quilts I have seen are so beautiful.  I think what got me hooked was this:
I found this over at "Don't look now" blog.  

Isn't this just beautiful?  This is why I want to learn to applique.  I going to stop by the library tomorrow and see if I can find some books on different tips.










I hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend.

Quilt Show

I am so excited for tomorrow to be here.  I am meeting Pat in St Cloud for the big quilt show at the civic center. Every year they have it somewhere new.  The last few years it has been 2 or more hours away and St Cloud is only 1 hour away.  It is also 1 hour away for Pat so it will be a perfect day.  After the show Pat and I will go 2 hours east to our great nephew's graduation party and then I am off to Rice Lake WI to meet up with Mike.  He is working an outdoor show on the lake so it will be a nice way to end my day.

I am going to join in with the Summer Star Sampler quilt.  I love this quilt but don't have the funds to buy all new Moda fabric so I am hoping to use what I have.  I think this is going to be a challenge to figure out.

Here are the blocks I am working on for the quilt I am making for my bosses little girl that is coming from Russia.  Shari has always wanted a little girl and now she will finally have one.  The quilt calls for 45 blocks and I have 14 done.  Mike is not home tonight so I am hoping I can put a dent in the pile.

 








 
So look closely at these two pictures.   Why in the world would someone or company think that anyone would want to follow a toilet company on Twitter?  I just thought this was so funny.



 






I love traveling thru Iowa every so often you come across these barns with quilt blocks on them.  I would love to put one on my garage but I don't think that will happen.

I would SO love to win one of these.  The time saved for more time piecing and quilting which means more quilts.  Go check out Amy's blog.

So I saw that a lot of quilters were making this Wonky quilt block and I had to try it out.  I did not read the directions like I should have and after cutting all the fabric I notice that my both sides of fabric were to be facing the same way.  Needless to say I have only enough to do 2 smaller lap quilts instead of 1 large quilt.  Boy this makes me mad but no one to blame but myself.  I will have 2 very cute lap quilts to give as baby present and my niece who just had a baby will get the first one.

This quilt I saw a picture of back on this site and I feel in love with it and had to make one of my own.  I'm not sure why I wanted to make such a dark quilt but it really did get my interest. 

Here is a quilt I started 4 years ago one weekend I was at my sister in laws house for a weekend sewing retreat. I finally decided that I would finish it for my boss who is adopting a 6 year old from Russia.  I have a total of 63 blocks to make.  These are the ones I made 4 years ago.  I am about 3/4 of the way thru making the other 60 and it will be so nice to have this quilt made and in the hands of someone that will love it. 

 

Wednesday weigh in

So last week I joined the Wednesday weigh in over at Stephanie's blog.  I started back at the gym last week after a month off and I have to lose weight.  If I am going to spend time on my butt sewing then I have to spend time on the treadmill.  So here it is

I weighed in this morning and gained 7oz.  This really sucks.  I have been walking on the treadmill everyday for 2 miles in 30 minutes and to gain?  It has to be water.  I have to really start watching my intake because I know that is what it is.  I told Mike nothing but salads and chicken or pork chops for dinner.  I also signed up at the everydayhealth.com website and hopefully by journaling what I eat and my exercise I will see what I am doing wrong.

Blogs

I was wondering how many blogs others follow?  I have so many blogs in my list on Google Reader and I enjoy them all and every so often I add a new one on.  Well what happens to me is I will be at work reading thru the blogs I follow and at least every day I print out a picture of a quilt that I have falling in love with and want to some day try and make.  I now have 4 3-ring binders full of all these pieces of papers of quilt pictures.  Am I the only one that does this?  I think if I bring home one more picture and put in on the dining room table when I walk in Mike is going to take all my pieces of paper and shred them.  My sister in law laughs at all my papers when she comes over to hang out.  I know there is no way I will ever make all the quilts I want to but I sure am going to try.

What a sad day

Anthony passed away today this is also the day my Dad died 5 years ago.  My Dads long time friend, John, died 2 years ago today.  This seems so odd to me but like Kris my sister in law said this almost is comforting to have them pass away on the same day to know that Dad is there guiding Anthony thru his next journey.  I had to work today because Shari, my boss, is in Russia adopting a little girl and what else is really weird 5 years ago today Shari was in the Ukraine adopting her son, Tom.  I think April 27th from now on should be skipped in the future.  I have decided that my niece, Abby, who is 14 is probably the most heart felt little girl I have ever known.  When my Dad died Abby crawled up into Grandpa's bed laid her head on his chest and said good bye and told him that she loved him.  This morning Abby laid her head on Anthony's shoulder and said goodbye to him and said the time he died.  If she is this way as a child I can't imagine what a wonderful adult she will be.