the blocks I made for a community service quilt which will be presented to a family living with HIV/AIDS on World AIDS Week in December.

a little something to pass the time while I am at Gymnastics class....excuse any mess on the blog..I am learning to blog from my cell phone!

a little something to pass the time while my son is at gymnastics class...

Back to the blogosphere

Hello! Oh my...I never expected my blogging break to be so long. I'm not even going to get into all the stuff about why I haven't blogged for so long. Let's just say too much real life and too much farmville! I've barely quilted or stitched for all these months. I have worked a lot of hours at the group home, and because that really hasn't been working out great for my family, I've recently switched from a regularly scheduled position at the group home to a per diem subbing position! YAY.

My daughter started high school last week, and that is a HUGE change of pace for her and for the rest of us as well. After years of homeschooling, we are definitely not used to the rigid school calendar and waking up at 6am! So far she is doing well and quite happy. My son is still being homeschooled this year.

As to the crafty stuff, I haven't done all that much. I am working on another Downey Quilt for Quilts for Kids. It just needs a binding and then I can mail it off to them. This is the second one of them I have done. Downey Fabric Softener Company will send you ALL the fabric for a lap size quilt in a four patch pattern if you agree to make the quilt and send it back to them. They also ask that you send at least one additional quilt along with it. I did one back around March/April and am ready to send this one hopefully next week.

I've done some stitching. I finally finished a set of teddy bear blocks that I've been working on sporadically for about 5 years. I've done several parts of other projects, but no real finishes.

This weekend I need to go into my UFO pile and find a largish top to quilt and bind quickly for a childhood friend who is in a very low spot in her life right now. I need to get her a quilt FAST. When I talked to her on Facebook the other day I asked if there is anything I can do to help her, and she asked me if I could find her a stuffed animal or a doll so she had someone to hug at night. It nearly broke my heart, and all I could think was that she needs a quilt. So I need to work on that immediately.

I'm sorry that this post is pictureless. I am on a different laptop that has no memory card slot and I can't get pictures onto it without hubby's help. And as usual, he is working himself to death and doesn't have time. I am hoping to figure it out soon. I'm trying to figure out if I can get pictures here another way out of my phone (I need to experiment, but I think I can email the picture to myself from my phone and then upload it, but I"m not positive).

To get myself back in the blogging and crafting groove, I've signed up for two swaps. First I signed up for Donna's Christmas Swap and a 3-2-1 Totebag Swap hosted by Paula. I've got a few ideas for each brewing in my head and should be going with it soon.

I promise I'll post regularly now!

Happy Sewing!

SSCS Swap

My package from my Secret Santa in Chookyblue's swap is sitting under my tree. I received my gift from Miriam in Australia. My gorgeous ornaments are on my tree
Miriam also included this beautiful cross stitched card
My other gifts are under the tree, waiting for Christmas morning. I hope I can wait that long...its sooo tempting to open them early! Thank you Miriam!!
I sent to Valerie. I hope she likes what I sent to her as much as I liked it! I think I'm going to need to make one of what I made her for myself!

a few projects

I haven't finished much of anything in a long time, but I have been making little bits and pieces of progress on lots of progress. One of these days its going to all fall into place at once and I'll have a big pile of finishes. I don't know when that will be, but someday! LOL. Part of my lack of recent posts is being away from home and my internet connection a lot lately, and the other part is an extreme facebook addiction when I have been near my internet connection. I am thinking about blogging, but it just hasn't been happening. LOL

I've been working on Bea's fairy tale blocks. Blocks 1-4 are completed, and the other 4 are traced and waiting to be stitched. They still need the embellishments, but I'm not adding those until the top is quilted.






More tomorrow, hopefully.

Two Christmas in July Swaps - Sent

I participated in two Christmas in July Swaps.

The First was hosted by Linda I sent my package to Bec This is what I sent to her:


I already posted the picture of what I received from Jeanette here

The second, was hosted by Karen. The partner I sent to was Kimberly. In this swap, we had a specific list of things to send to our partner. Among things that Kimberly said she liked were Scotty Dogs, fuschia and candy, so I tried to acommodate her preferences in what I sent her. This is her pile of goodies:



Kimberly made me a beautiful stitchery (awesome job for her first stitchery!) which I love (I told her I love the retro-ish christmas stuff, and love snowmen, so this is perfect), she sent a great fabric and buttons that I love, a yummy scented candle and a fabulous papercrafted banner that will look great on my mantel at Christmastime. She also included a great magazine that I didn't have (which I forgot to put in the picture). The other things on the list are still under constructions, and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the rest of my goodies. Will update you all when they arrive

So, time to update on my crazy life. Last time I posted, my Dad was undergoing pherisis for TTP, and the doctors were trying to figure out what was going on with him. Long story short, on May 22nd, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, of unknown origin (they couldn't pinpoint the source because it was so advanced). He went home on oxygen for a couple of weeks and had chemo as an outpatient. Then he got sick with pneumonia, spent a few days in the hospital and then went home on June 18th, with the intention of Hospice at home startign the next day. But on the morning of June 19th, with Mom, my nephew, and a friend of my nephew's at home with him, Dad passed away. The weeks since then have been busy, with my brothers and I helping Mom as much as possible, and trying to just get over our grief. The good thing about it all was that Dad passed away without suffering from pain, it went quickly, and he was at home (like he wanted.

During this time, I've also been working quite a bit, and finding that I am loving this job.

At home, Thing One is at day camp this week (and I'm enjoying that break!), and Thing Two is happy to have me to himself for a while. I'm working on sorting out some of my scrap bins...I've been cutting strips into various widths and sticking them in ziploc bags according to Bonnie's system. I've also been working on some block of the month stitchery projects that I'm behind on. No pictures of those yet. I've completed projects for two Christmas in July Swaps, both of which were mailed last week. I'll share pictures of those once they arrive at their destinations (one here in the US, the other far far away).

I did complete this tote bag back in early June. I like it a lot, but it is a little on the small side for me to use as my everyday bag. I also made myself a lunch bag for work. I'll get pictures of that to share tomorrow.

Linda's Christmas in July Swap

Last night when I got home from work, I had a fat package waiting for me from Finland! Lucky me, my swap partner in Linda's Christmas in July Swap was
Jeanette In my package were all these wonderful goodies: An adorable Santa gift bag, two beautiful crocheted potholders and a hook to hang them on. a set of purse handles, two spools of thread, a measuring tape in an adorable little tin (perfect for in my purse!), a new pair of scissors and a small needlecase (perfect for in my little bag of stitching that comes to work with me!). Thank you so much, Jeanette! And thanks to Linda and Stephanie for organizing this swap!!


I can hardly believe that it is has been two months since I last blogged. So much has happened to keep me away, but now I hope to be back on a more regular basis. I'll tell you all about it in the next few days. At them moment, I'm having some computer troubles...my laptop's space bar sticks which makes it impossible to type anything, but I've got a new keyboard waiting to be installed (fingers crossed).

Test

Test

Retreat Weekend

Two weekends ago was my quilting groups annual retreat. We had lots of fun, and as you will see, we did a lot of sewing!
We all did a pattern called Contra Dance, which was fun. Basically you sew a four patch quilt like this:



Then you cut it apart on the diagonals, like this:



You rearrange it like this:




And then you sew it back together, and add borders. Then it looks like you pieced it on the diagonal. Pretty cool, huh?


This one is my Mom's:

Sharon's:

MaryAnn's:

Mia's:

Mine:

Debbie's (hers isn't done because she made king size!):

Marissa's:


There were four other ones as well, but somehow I didn't get pictures of them. Too bad, because Marilyn's was made of all purple batkis and was to die for!!

Slow but steady...

I have in fact been working on a number of projects, just in small increments, and without much posting. I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel though, so all this craziness here is about to slow down (I hope). I haven't had many actual finishes, but I am working on block of the month projects, secret swaps, a project for Thing Two and a few other things. Hopefully I'll have lots of COMPLETED things to share very soon.

Dad is still in the hospital, he is on his 19th day of plasma pherisis, and he is improving a bit, but not as much as I've been hoping for. Today I went and donated blood for the first time since I was in high school. I do plan to keep doing that.

The quilt pictured above is the one I finished for the neighbor girl a few weeks ago. I got a lovely thank you note from her Dad...apparently she is very happy with it, and so I am pleased.

I've been at a lot of training classes for work, and I've also been away from home a bit in between. Last weekend (okay, two weekends ago now, the 1-2-3 of May) I was at a quilting retreat in Vermont...I'll be sharing pictures from that in my next post just as soon as I can get myself a little bit organized.

a giveaway

Lyn is having a Blogiversary Giveaway on her blog for this lovely little wallhanging. If you run over to her blog by the 15th, you can have a chance of winning this lovely little quilt. Or don't, so I have a better chance of winning it! LOL. Isn't it cute?

Finished Projects.

Last weekend I worked on a few projects, and actually finished 3 of them (2 UFOs, one started and finished last weekend).

First, I finished this UFO. I'm embarrassed to say that I posted a picture of this quilt, only lacking a binding on Sept. 6, 2007. Yes, it took me more than a year and half to get the binding on it. But it is now finished, and donated to my guild's community service project.

Then I finished this UFO, someone gave me the panel, then I found matching backing fabric when a local shop was going out of buinsess, and on another trip to another store, I found the ruffled binding. I quilted it a while ago, but finishing the end of that ruffled binding perplexed me. Last weekend I decided to just do it, and technically, the close of the two binding edges is not right, but it IS finished. This one went to the NICU at UConn Health Center.

Finally, I did my crayon challenge for guild. The two colors of crayons that I had were cerulean blue and sepia. We were able to add one color (I interpreted as one fabric, some people used multiple fabrics in the third color family, but whatever). I used the split nine patch pattern that I've seen all over blogland for a while, and I made this:


Tomorrow, I go to my quilters weekend in Vermont with my non-guild group. Woo Hoo!
We get to stay in the shop as late as we want to sew, then we get yummy meals at the restaurant in the inn next door, a nice bed to sleep in and lots of laughs with our friends! Just perfect! I need to toss some clothes in a bag, choose some projects to work on and head out to Vermont after my Med Certification class tomorrow morning.
Have a great weekend everyone, I'm probably bringing my laptop, so I might share whats going on during my weekend of peace away from DH and the kids, if I'm not too busy sewing like a madwoman!!

Please go donate some blood!

I've not gotten too much sewing done lately because my dad has been in the hospital for the last 10 days. It took them a while, but they finally determined that he has an enzyme deficiency which is relatively uncommon. To treat him, he has to have a 1-8 week long treatment of plasma pherisis, where all the plasma in his blood is exchanged for donor plasma. Anyway, this daily treatment uses 16 or 17 pints of blood plasma every day (plus he's still having a pint tranfused nearly every day). He's getting much better, but not well enough to go home yet. The sheer amount of blood that is required for this treatment is just astounding to me...so today I am going to ask each and every one of you to please consider donating a pint of blood if at all possible. It has been years since I donated blood, but now I am planning to start doing so on a regular basis (the next bloodmobile here in town is next week, and DH and I will both be there) I am so grateful to everyone who has donated blood so that my father can have this treatment which will hopefully be life-saving for him that I now feel I need to return the favor. If you have never donated blood, or if it has been a while, please consider it. If for some reason you can't donate, please consider asking your loved ones to do so. And if you do donate blood, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Here is a link for the American Red Cross if you need to find out the guidelines for becoming a blood donor, or to locate a bloodmobile in your area.

Spring Swap

May Kristin sent me an email yesterday that the Spring Swap package I sent to her has arrived! She hasn't posted on her blog yet, probably because she is about to go on a trip, but thats okay, I can finally share what I made for her!! I sent a tote bag, a little wall quilt, a pincushion and some sugary goodness: Peeps and Pez.



This little wall quilt pattern was in the most recent Australian Homespun Magazine (those of you in Australia probably have had a couple of issues since this one, because we seem to get them with a delay). I decided not to use the little alphabet border that was part of the pattern.


This pincushion was from a tutorial that I saw on a blog somewhere a while ago (sorry, I don't remember where) and I used a DVD as the template for the circle.



And the totebag was one of those patterns that I recently ordered from Australia. The pattern is from the Rivendale collection. This was VERY hard to give away, I really wanted to keep it for myself!!

Spring Swap

Yesterday while I was at work, my DH sent me a picture of the pile of mail! Why in the world did he do that? I wondered to myself, until I realized that he was showing me that my Spring Swap package had arrived! I was so happy. Well, that was at about 1PM, and after work I had to go directly to my daughters dance recital dress rehearsal, so I didn't get home to see my goodies until almost 10 PM!

My package came from Marit in Norway. Inside, there were several adorable springy things:


This is a little birdhouse and bird on a stick. I'm going to stick this in the soil of a plant on my dining room table. That sounds like a good excuse to go and get a hyacinth of daffodil plant for myself, right?



Next is this beautiful bucket/bag has a gorgeous stitchery design on the front and an adorable springy fabric on the inside. Marit did such a nice job on the stitchery! Maybe I'll put a vase of flowers inside of it?


And then there is the chicken! Is this knitted chicken not the cutest thing ever? This is one of those things that I am going to sit on my shelf in my sewing room and smile every time I see it. It looks to me like Marit knitted it and then felted it because it has that fuzzy felted look. So cute.

Marit also included a beautiful postcard and some yummy chocolates, which I have already eaten! Thank you so much for the wonderful goodies, Marit! I love them all.