Block #5

Here is my 5th block for the Pinwheel Party Quilt Along:

Pinwheel Party Bock #4

Here is my 4th block for the pinwheel party over at Twiddletails. It's not perfect, but I've ripped it out several times to try to get the point matched up better and I think it just wasn't meant to be.

Quilt Show

Well, we didn't actually get to the quilt show this year. The girls on my mom's side of the family always get together the weekend of the quilt show to go shopping at the local quilt shops and to lunch. Here are some pictures of the goodies I found...I went with a list, and am pretty please with myself, I was able to cross most of the list off.I Spy fabrics of course! I am participating in 2 different I spy Swaps right now, so I need lots of them! Let's see...there are mittens, sombreros, screws & bolts, planets, palm trees, pirate ships, kitty's, boots, chicks, and taxi cabs.

I made the quilt top on the right of the picture many years ago. I never got the backing...so another UFO. I finally got the piece to the left to go with the gold piece in the quilt for the back. So I am hoping to get the backing sewn together this week to get my next box of quilts that need to be quilted out to Kathleen.
At our monthly quilt guild meetings, we have a fantastic fat quarter thing, where they give you a color or theme to a fat quarter and you put them in a basket and a name is drawn to win them. I never win, but it's fun to try. I made out alright, I got my summertime stripes, Christmas red, turkey brown, leaves, gourd gold, and stars all around.

One of my new friends at the quilt guild gave me the cutest idea to make for my girls. She made a little board type thing (basically a little 12 1/2" fabric sandwich, with a pocket on the back to put the little clothes, shoes, and hats in). She gave me a link on Etsy of someone who made a little travel set. My 4 year old loves things like this, so I am excited to work on it. The littlest one, I don't think is quite ready for it, but while I am making them, I might as do hers too.

I also got the material to make the cute little guy above. We love doing a project while we are all together. So 3 of us set out to make this little bundle of preciousness. The other girls had theirs done before me, but I am thrilled to say, I completed my project this year before I left my aunt's house. I finally have something springy/Easter-y to put on my table as I never finished my project from last year. Oh well, I finished this one :)

Potholders

I finished my potholders for the Potholder Pass2. I hope my partner likes them as much as I do. She said she likes green and blue and from what I could tell on her blog she likes more modern things with bright colors. I hope this fits what she was thinking...

Quilt Retreat

Who knew a quilt retreat could be soooo much fun?!?!

My sister and I signed up several months ago to go to our Quilt Guild's Spring Retreat. We are new members to the guild so we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into to, but it sounded like fun. So finally, Friday morning we were on our way...without children or husbands...but with LOTS of fun stuff!


What a ball we had! My sister, Sara, was set to work on a fun pinwheel quilt...I love the colors in it. Don't ya know she got the top done! What a girl! She's trying to decide now if she wants to add a border or not. I forgot to get a picture of her quilt top. Maybe the next time I see her. Here is a picture of her at her sewing machine and the pinwheels getting ready to be sewn into rows...I was so excited to work on the project I had taken along. I have fallen in love with the whirligig pattern...so stinkin cute! Anyway, I had found some Moda Oh Cherry Oh charm packs online pretty cheap awhile ago and didn't know what to do with them except for it had to be for me as I love cherries! I was really doubting on Saturday, that I was going to get the top done, but by midnight Saturday night, I had all of the blocks done and started to sew the rows together. I LOVE it! All I have to do is fix a couple of "blubbers" and add the second border (which will be a mottled bright red). Oh, I forgot I got my name tag we are required to have for our guild meetings finally done too. That little bugger took longer than I thought it would. Oh well, it's done, that's all that matters!

(this is my pile of unfinished blocks Saturday morning)

Some of the highlights of the retreat? Well, let's see. Making friends was the best part of the weekend for sure! We have been apart of the guild for over a year now and have not really met anyone other than the girl that got us interested in being apart of it all. This was a GREAT time getting to know everyone. By the end of the weekend we finally knew everyone's name that was in our sewing room. Let me just tell you...some of those older ladies are little spit fires. What a hoot! The biggest highlight of the whole weekend, other than getting a quilt top for me almost finished...was gaining an adopted Grandma. When we were doing our show & tell time this morning most of the ladies had said that they made this for this grandchild or that for that grandchild..both of my grandmothers have passed away, so at the end I said does anyone want to be my grandma? One precious lady named Anne, said yes, of course. I was so excited she said yes because she was just too cute this weekend, everytime she walked passed by our table she told us how proud of us she was and patted our back.

What a fun time! Can't wait for next year! I can't wait til the next guild meeting either to say hi to my new friends!

Adoption Day!

Today we had the privilege of adopting our foster daughter that we've had since she was 5 days old. It was so exciting! I was thinking to myself this morning when I was getting ready that it really doesn't get old...every time is just as exciting as the last time. We are done adopting now...we have 3 beautiful children, and I am so thankful for each of them. The crazy world of foster care isn't an easy one, these poor children have had to go through some tough times in their little lives...but I am so thankful that each of them have put in our lives for some reason.

So...introducing our newest official addition to the family...

Aleah Faith

(known here on out as the "little one")

Busy projecting...

I was busy tonight! I got the tops to my potholders done for the Potholder Pass 2 swap. I just have to sandwich them together and figure out how I want to quilt them and if I want to bind them or not. I was told that my girl likes green and blue so I used 2 pieces of fabric I can't seem to get enough of. I am absolutely in LOVE with the whirligig block pattern right now, so I was glad to combine my two favorites. I hope she enjoys them as much as I do.

I was also excited to get the directions for block #3 for the Pinwheel Party Quilt Along. I actually had no problem getting this block together, which is unusual, but I'm glad. I should have waited until I got my stuff done for the quilt retreat my sister and I are going on this weekend, but I just couldn't.

I love fun mail...

...today I got my I Spy blocks back all the way from Wendy in Australia. It has been so fun looking through the different 200 blocks. Everytime I sit down to go through them I find something I didn't see the last time. These quilts are going to be so fun to make! I hope the kids like them as much as as I do!

Pinwheel Party Block #2

Here is my second block for the Pinwheel Block Party...I am not in love, it has some issues. It is done for now unless I decide to try to fix it. We'll see..

Pinwheel Party Block #1

The Pinwheel Party started over on Twiddletails blog this week. With everything that has been going on, I haven't had a chance to sit down and make my block so I finally took the time this afternoon. I think it turned out ok...I am excited for the next block to add some of my red fabric in...

The Last Couple of Days...

...have been crazy in so many different ways over the last couple of days.

My husband's biological dad passed away last Wednesday. My husband was raised in foster care from the time he was 5 years old. He never knew his biological dad until, I believe, he was 10 or 11 years old. From the age of 5-8 or so he was taken in and out of his home, finally at the age of 8 he was placed with a family at a farm. From that point on he stayed with that family. He was treated as one of the family, never adopted because his foster family wanted his biological family to still have contact with him. Anyway...his foster family quickly became the family he considered his true family. However, his dad was always welcome in the foster family home...they often times had him over for birthdays, Christmas, and other times. His biological dad was thankful that they were able to provide for his son in ways he could not. I say all of this to say, that even though he considered his foster family his family, he still to this day holds a special place in his heart for his dad. Since my husband is an only child to his dad, he took care of the arrangements and things. We had a short memorial service on Monday with family and friends. It was a nice time. My husband is just glad his dad is not suffering more. He had lung cancer that had spread to his bones.

Monday after the service we had to head to my sister's house to pick up the kids. As we were pulling into the driveway, apparently our daughter thought shoving something into her ear would be a brilliant idea. My sister feels terrible, even now, but really, as I continually tell her, as much as I wonder why she did it, I am not surprised at all that it was her to do something like that. We decided going to the ER would be a better option then to try to dig out whatever was in her ear. We got to the ER and I said to my husband uh oh...this doesn't look good. The waiting room was packed at 6 p.m. on a Monday. But what were we to do? We had to get it out! So, we went in. Mind you, my children had not had supper and had a busy day of playing. Finally 4 hours later we had the 2 minute procedure done...what was it you ask? What was in her ear? Well, honestly to this day we aren't 100% sure...it looks like it could be part of a snap...part of a toy...anything really. Why did she do this you wonder? Because it looked like an earring of course...and the most logical thing to do with it would be to shove it in your ear! I'm telling you...this girl is going to keep us on our toes! The kids did so good for being fed vending machine snacks and up way past their bedtime!

PS...the nurse told us that a Monday night is not a good time to shove something into your ear...good to know for future reference!