Back up and running.

Finally, I'm able to blog again.  My computer connection has been out for many weeks and I was not able to post or even go online.   We first thought  that it was my computer,  but found out quickly it was ok...figuring out the problem was hard.  My service guys finally figured out the problem and got it fixed. I won't bore you with the details but I'm glad I can get on and see what everyone is doing.  I could use my Iphone but it's not too much fun to see things on it so small.   I do have a few things to show you and I hope you didn't give up on me by not posting. 

The first thing I want to show you is my Christmas present quilt.  I love this.  I almost gave up on the border and just put a solid fabric and called it finished  but I'm so glad I didn't do that.  I used 2 1/2" squares and did a double border with them.  I want to quilt this one soon but it doesn't look like it will be ready for this Christmas...I have too many quilts on my quilting stack right now that have priority. 

 

Here's two quilts I quilted for a friend.  Yes, they look almost exactly alike...She made these for charity quilts and gave them to me to practice on. She was very pleased with them and they were fun to do too.  

 

I made this block for a friend of mine going through Chemo.  The girls in my tatting group all made blocks and the quilt is being put together by another friend of mine.  I'll be getting the quilt back tomorrow to quilt it so you will see the whole quilt soon.  The fabric in my block was Quilt for a Cure fabric from several years ago.  I was given a love quilt that had some of this fabric in it when I was going through my chemo years ago.  I made two quilts using this fabric and I had a small amount left over and just had to use it for my friend.  I know she will love this little love quilt. I can't wait to get it back. I've seen the blocks and they are wonderful but I haven't yet see the quilt together yet...

 

 I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and enjoying your family time. Last week, we went to Holiday in the Park one night and here's a picture of my son and his little family...The little person in the middle is why I'm not sewing as much as I used to!  I keep her on Friday nights and  Saturdays and she keeps me hopping! She's alot of fun and I really enjoy my time with her.  She loves fabric and colors and I hope she will be a future quilter!

 

Here they are again with my sweet husband. 

 

 

Yesterday was my youngest grandson's (Trent)  4th birthday!  Time sure goes quickly! I can't believe he is already 4...We went and celebrated his birthday. He had a soccer birthday party.  So much fun!

 

Ok, gotta get busy now.  I'll have more to show later in the week. Please come back and see me.  Until next time, happy quilting....

 

Some little finishes and my grandkids

Hey there, you thought I left, huh?  Well, no, I didn't!  I'm back and I have a few things to show you. Not many, but a few.  I haven't been too busy. I've been watching TV and watching grandkids between working so I just haven't blogged....And, you know when you haven't blogged for a while you just don't know where to start.  It's like a catch 22...What all do you say?  So, I'll just catch you up with the latest, how's that?

I finished a little wall hanging that has been around for awhile.  She is finally finished and up on the wall for so I can look at her. She'll come back out closer to Christmas but I had to put her up for a few days to talk to her and welcome her.

Then, I finished a little dolly for my oldest granddaughter. I  meant to do this one several months ago but time flies when you have plans!  Anyway, this one is now with her new friend, Alayna.  I gave her to her Thursday night. I think she liked her, she told her Mommy she knew she was getting her because she helped me make her.  She did too. She put some of the stuffing in the head and she also sat on my lap and sewed a little bit on the head too.  Her dolly is the middle one.  It's got Tinkerbell fabric on it.  They went to Disney World last year and she had to have something with Disney characters on it...I think she looks happy. :-)

My son and his little family came over Thursday night. Him and his wife watched the last two hours of House that I had recorded. (Their recording didn't work for some reason.) My DH and I played outside with the kids while they had some TV time.  This was the kids last day of school so they could stay longer.  I gave Brandon two movies he wanted for graduating from the second grade.  He had mentioned them several times in the past that he wanted them so I had to search for them. They are older movies and they were cheap.  I ordered one from Walmart and the other from Target.  I gave him Zathura and The Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers.  He was so excited, you would have thought I'd given him a million dollars.  I love kids, they get excited over the little things....

I gave Alanya the dolly I made for her and a new Barbie movie. She was also thrilled. She graduated from first grade. 

I couldn't leave Trent out, he's three and not in school but if the other kids got something, he had to have something too.  I got him a new soccer ball.  We played soccer for awhile with his new ball and then we rode bikes. Well, I didn't ride a bike. I have one but it needs new tires. My DH rode his bike with them and I worked in the garden...We had a great time.  Here's a picture of the bike riders...

Yeah!  School's out for Summer!  Time to play!

Well, I'll post more later. I have three more things to show you but I have to get busy while the baby is taking a nap.  Have a wonderful weekend.  Til next time, happy sewing!

Not a lot of sewing was done over the weekend. I had my oldest granddaughter Friday night and both of the granddaughters on Saturday.  We had a really good time and Alayna and I did a little sewing on her doll but we didn't get it finished.  We worked on it while Carmen was taking a nap but had to stop when she got up...I'll finish the doll this week.  I plan on giving this to Alayna for graduation from 1st grade along with a Barbie movie.  She likes those movies. I got her one on Friday night and we watched it Friday night and Saturday morning.  She took it home with her and I think she's watched it about three more times since Saturday!  Oh my, I'm glad she took it home!!! 

Here's my two sweet granddaughters. We all had fun together.

When they went home, I was able to put the border on my bird tablerunner, but that's all I got done! My husband decided we had to go shopping for him some pants!  I had planned on quilting the runner and finishing the doll but no, it didn't happen. It still hasn't happened either....Hopefully, I can get both done this week and I'll show you the finished projects. Here's the runner with my border on it.

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. I had a wonderful day.  My MIL fixed lunch for all of us and we had a nice visit.  I didn't get back to the sewing machine but that was ok too.  til next time, happy quilting!

Christmas Concert 2011

Last Saturday night, we went over to our church and listened to the Christmas concert.  Wonderful music for a wonderful Chistmas season....my two oldest grandkids were in a small part of the program and they were excited to participate.  I love that children want to praise God.

Decorating the tree and the grandkids

Well, so much for pictures. The grandkids came over and between the TV and the computer, they were too interested to decorate the tree.  My youngest grandson did help a little but I didn't get any good pictures.  I'll show you pics of them later in front of the tree at Christmas.  Here's my youngest granddaughter, Carmen,  playing with one of the decorations....

Here are the cookies my husband made for dessert. He decorated them himself...He did an A for Alayna, B for Brandon, T for Trent and trees and Merry Christmas too....He actually had fun doing them and the kids loved them.

This is the only picture I got of the other grandkids, as you can tell, they were running around and not decorating the tree!    Like I said, I'll have to get them around the tree later...

Here's what they really look like...not at my house but they were still enough to get a picture!

Grandkids

I didn't get to sew today. The grandkids came over and we watched two of their movies while their Dad worked on his project in our garage.  We watched How to Train Your Dragon and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I had already watched both of them but I love to be with the grandkids and this is what they wanted to do.  My youngest grandbaby took a nap and while he was asleep, my DIL curled my granddaughter's hair. It turned out really cute...She's so cute without her front teeth. Gotta love this kid!

Grandbabies and Brandon's birthday party

I took off work last Friday so I could watch my youngest grandbaby, Trent.  He is so much fun...He was climbing on the table and he knew he wasn't supposed to be doing that.  Cute baby but he has to be watched pretty closely cuz he's a climber!

My DIL was going on a field trip with my granddaughter and her class to the Dallas Zoo....This is Alayna, my beautiful and only granddaughter. She had fun with her Mom at the Zoo.

When they came back from the zoo, they went back to school and watched a movie and had popcorn!  What a treat!   We went to school and picked her up and my oldest grandson, Brandon...we came home and cleaned up the house a little bit so we could get ready for Brandon's birthday party.  He was having a Wii birthday party.  He invited several of this little friends to his party and asked them to bring their own controllers.  They did and their names were written on them and they played Wii games.  Then had pizza, cake and ice cream.  It was so much fun!  Brandon 's birthday isn't til the 29th but he had a big Halloween party to go to so he wanted his birthday early.  Here's the cute Wii cakes my
DIL made for him.

He loved these.  He likes fondant and asked his Mom to make his cakes with it.  She also mad cakes with regular icing too for the group that doesn't like fondant icing...

Here's the sweet birthday boy with his cakes.

Opening some cool gifts. 

This was a fun party.  8 little boys all running around inside and out.  I was a tired Grammy when I got home!

Happy Birthday, Brandon, Grammy loves you!

1st Day of School for my Grandkids

These are my sweet grandkids. It is the first day of school, Alayna is in kindergarten, Brandon in First Grade and Trent has a few more years to go.



Brandon and Alayna




Carrie (my DIL) and Alayna

Sunday Sewing and Grandkids

My guys were gone picking up an old pickup from a friend of ours. My older son has wanted this truck since he was 16 and he is now 28...He finally talked our friend into letting him buy it. This will be a project for my two sons and my husband to work on together. They were gone all day and I got some quality me time...

I worked on several things. I made up for lost time with no sewing machine Friday night. I put together all 8 strips of this Stacked Brick quilt. It is now ready for sashing and borders. This is the 3rd Stacked Brick quilt. One is finished, I just showed that one a few posts back. Number 2 and 3 are in the strip phase now. I think I'll use scraps for the sashing strips on these. I'll audition these and see which ones I like. These are all pressed and ready to be put together.






I put together two more rows for my Floating 4 Patch Quilt. It now has 10 rows and is a small square quilt. I'm going to put together more rows on this one. This one is just too small. It's so cute, I want it to be a full size quilt so I need more strips. This month is the last month for the exchange so I guess I'll put together as many as I can.





I also washed and pressed my little Nana's Flower Patch wallhanging. The pink marks came out just fine. I put the French Knots on it and some little red heart buttons. I will be putting some quilting around the hexagon and then I can frame it. The pattern called for an old looking frame but I don't want that. I know what I want, it's just finding it...If I can't find what I want, I'll get my husband to make me one. He is very talented with glass and picture framing.




Tonight, is a back to school party over at my son's house for my granddaughter and grandson. Alayna started kindergarten today and Brandon went to 1st grade. We'll be having dinner followed by cake and ice cream. Wow, where does the time go? Seems like just yesterday, they were little and crawling. Enjoy your grandkids while you can, cause they grow up too fast!

VBS with my grandson

This week is Vacation Bible School and I'm helping with the babies. Well, they really aren't babies anymore...My grandson is now 18 mos and Sam is 17 months and I had a little girl too named Kaitlin. She is only 13 months old and just starting to walk but with help... Trent and Sam liked to rock together. Aren't they cute?
Our church does not have VBS for kids this young. These are the worker's children I'm watching. This is alot of fun but three hours is a long time for babies to be in a room...Thank God for animal crackers! It's a long time for me too!

Trent and Sam (Trent is the one on the left smiling)


Miss Eva and Kaitlin


Kaitlin


Sam


Trent (my grandson)


Sam and Trent having a snack

Fun times with tatting friends and a good check up

Yesterday was Tatting Tuesday among other things...(I didn't tat at all but had fun at our tatting group anyway.)

The day started out with me going to my oncologist for a check up. It was a great visit with my doctor. I am doing great and don't have to go back to see her for a whole year. What a great way to start the day. She told me to start taking Vitamin D, work on losing weight and just be healthy. I can do that...I plan on getting back on Weight Watchers, walking more and exercising more and running after my grandbabies more...Life is good and I plan on being around a long time. After I left the doctor, I decided to take the day off and make it a girl day. I called one of my tatting buddies and arranged to have lunch with her. I had a little time to waste before I met her, so I went to Joann's and just took a leisurely stroll around the store and enjoyed not having to rush. I left Joann's and went to my friend's house. We visited for awhile and decided to go to Babe's Chicken and to a LQS in Carrollton that we had not been to in a long time. She had never gone to Babe's before and she loved it...We had a good lunch and then strolled over to the Old Craft Store. What a lovely store. I looked around and found several things I liked. I was a good girl and only bought a charm pack. (I recently bought the book, Schnibbles X 2 and wanted to make something out of it. I failed to look at the book before I went and now know that I should have bought 2 charm packs...Hmm, now this gives me an excuse to go back to the quilt shop.) We left the shop and strolled around the town and went into some of the shops and really enjoyed the afternoon. We decided we would go back soon and spend the day browsing the shops we didn't get to...Then, onto the tatting meeting. We didn't do any tatting last night. We all worked on making cards and it was so much fun. Our tatting group is made up of women that are very talented. We do all kinds of crafts besides tatting. The second Tuesday of each month, we focus on other crafts. This month was card making. You would have thought it was a craft show with all the card making supplies, stamps, inks, card stock, Sissix cutters and supplies, etc...One of our ladies makes and sells cards and she is wonderful. She is so talented. She is the go to girl on card making in our group. We laughed and laughed and made a few cards too. A great way to end a wonderful day.

Tonight, I went to my son's and had supper. I played with my grandkids for a little while, got my hair cut and came home. I was going to sew but decided I needed to clean up and organize a little tonight. I put my tatting patterns together, cut up some fabric for scraps, cleaned up my sewing area and got ready for some sewing time tomorrow. I had a great night and now I'm ready to finish some things...til next time....

Dick Jane and Sally Look Quilt and my sweet sister

Here's what I worked on Friday night and finished up Saturday. This little quilt was very easy and fun to make. I made this for my friend, Judy. I'm making another little quilt for her too but will probably be this next week. I'm also finishing up some hand quilting for one of her students. The quilt was started by her grandmother that passed away. It only has one or two more blocks to finish quilting, then some quilting on the border...I'll probably bind it for her too. I gotta get busy. She's doing some quilting for me and I'm doing these for her. Here's the little quilt, I hope you like it. I think it is really cute. She's had this little kit around for a while. I'm glad to bring it to life.



I watched my grandkids last night and didn't get to sew as long as I wanted. I was going to sew again today but got an upsetting phone call from my brother-in-law this morning. He had to take my sister to the hospital with a possible stroke. My husband and I left the house and drove to the hospital to check on her. Luckily, it was not diagnosed as a stroke but they are not sure what exactly is going on with her. They are keeping her overnight for observation and more tests...We are keeping our fingers crossed and sending up prayers that it's nothing serious. I'll try to let you know what's going on...

Happy Easter and visiting with the grandkids

I spent Good Friday through today with the grandkids. We had a great time. We colored Easter eggs, went to an Easter Egg Hunt and hunted eggs at the house today. It was fun but I am so tired. My arms are sore and my upper body is tired from lifting the youngest baby all these days. I stayed at their house and have not had a chance to do any sewing this weekend. I missed my sewing time but I'd trade it any day for time with my grandbabies. Here's some pics of the grands...I hope everyone had a blessed Easter.

I never noticed it but Brandon looks like a litle frog in this picture, his legs look so long with shorts on! I guess I should call him, the Frog Prince!


My husband, my youngest son and the grandkids


This is my youngest grandbaby. He is such a happy baby and so much fun to be with. This was the other day at Walmart, but I just had to share this sweet picture.

Busy week and weekend with the grandkids

Last week was so busy for me I did not get to even sit at the computer let alone post anything.

I went to tatting on Tuesday and one of the girls brought a cross to show us. I borrowed it and am tatting it now and trying to work out the pattern. It's a fairly simple cross and I want to make several, so as soon as I work out the pattern I'll show it.

Wednesday night I made 5 basket blocks for my Civil War block exchange group. I was going to take pictures but I had misplaced my camera.

I finally found my camera...it was by my computer that I didn't have time for all week!

I kept my grandkids all weekend. I stayed at their house and wasn't even near a computer. Well, I was but it wasn't accessible so I didn't even bother. I will be keeping my grandkids again this next weekend too. They'll be with me on Good Friday too. Woo, I love them but they give me a workout. They are 1, 5 and 6 years old and keep very busy. The 1 year old takes a nap but the other two do not and there is no real down time for them until bedtime. They fight that too and it was almost 9:30 before I threatened them to go to sleep...You can tell they are scared of me, right? I was too tired to do any sewing or anything. I did take some hand work with me but I wasn't in the mood for that. I just wanted to sit and vegetate in front of the TV. Of course, there was nothing on that I wanted to watch so I just took a bath and headed to bed.
My son and DIL went to Africa and will be gone for 14 days. My DIL's sister is watching the kids through the week and taking them to school and Mother's Day Out...I have Grammy duty on the weekends. So, I'm going to try to cram alot of sewing in the next 4 days cuz I won't be near s sewing machine the whole 3 days coming up. It will be three different Easter Egg hunts, church and Sunday dinner. Quilting will take second place this weekend....So far, the kids are doing great with Mom and Dad being gone but as the days progress, they'll be missing Mom and Dad more. I hope this coming up weekend goes as well as this past weekend.

I'll take pictures of all the stuff going on and share sometime this week. I have Amy's BOM to do and I still have my UFO to work on. I'm afraid I am behind on that one. I haven't even touched it the last two weeks. I only need 4 more blocks for that one (Dear Blanche-it's on my design wall) then I can put it together. I want to get this one finished soon so I will be working on it. It won't be a UFO much longer. One thing I like about these challenges, they have motivated me to finish my UFO's and not create anymore UFO's.

Gotta go for now, I'll show some pics soon. Stay tuned....

Yeah it's Friday!

This has been a LONG week. I haven't been able to sew but one night this week. I went to tatting on Tueday and Wednesday night I sewed. The rest of the week was either house cleaning or errands. I will have to do some major sewing tonight cuz I'm keeping the grans all weekend. I'll have all three of them this weekend and I'll be watching them at their house. My son and DIL are headed to Africa and they'll be gone for 14 days...

Tractor and Train quilts

I made this quilt for my grandson, Brandon, Christmas 2007. Another blogger wanted to make a John Deer tractor quilt and was looking for suggestions. I discovered that I had never taken a picture of it so this past week, when I was over visiting, he let me take a picture. So, here's his tractor quilt...This is his first big boy quilt...







>

Back of quilt:


I also took this picture. I don't remember when I made this one. I think it was Christmas 2006. (I always date my quilts when I sign them but I didn't look when I took this picture.) I made this for Brandon too. He liked trains, so I made this one. At the time, train fabric was hard to find...

My granddaughter and her Heart Pillowcase

Ok, my DIL sent me this picture. I made my sweet GD a heart/love pillowcase for her birthday. I thought this was pretty funny and had to share it. At least it's keeping her feet warm!

Christmas parties, Decorating and Survival

Woo hoo, today was so busy! I got up this morning and wrapped my gift to take to my Quilt Guild meeting. I decided to not bake and just buy some different breads at Costco. I was not disappointed. It was three different loaves, Pound Cake, Banana Nut Bread and Cinnamon Streudal. All were very good and it sure helped me not to have to take my time to bake. I went and picked up my BOM at the quilt store and listened to the monthly talk about the block then headed out for my Christmas party. We had a great lunch. Boy, do we have some good cooks in our guild! I think all quilters must know how to cook. Is it the nurturing gene or what? One of our guild members and her husband and friend entertained us with Christmas music while we ate. Thanks Donna and Mike. They wrote a very cute Christmas quilting song and we sang it to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas...I'll see if it's ok to tell you their lyrics and if so, I'll write them out for you...I had a great time with good food, good friends and lots of laughter. This is why the holidays mean so much to me! I love the fellowship of friends.

Today was my fourth anniversary of being a Breast Cancer survivor. I'm doing great and had a great check up last week. I'm thankful for my health this season!

Today was also the anniversary of my sweet Mother's death many years ago. My Mom has been gone now 40 years today. Some days it seems like just yesterday. I sure miss you Mom and I now know how truly wise you really were.

After the party today, my grandkids came over and helped me decorate our tree. Finally! I have been after my husband since Thanksgiving to get our tree down so I could decorate. Now, it feels like Christmas! My grandkids are so cute too. They so enjoyed going through my box of Christmas ornaments and saying, Grammy, I like this one. Did you make this one? Can you make me one like this? Grammy, who's this? Is it really my Daddy in this picture? Ah, sweet, fun times. I love this. For all my friends out there, I wish you sweet times with your families this holiday season. Remember, Jesus is the reason for the season...Share him with someone you love.

First day of school

Ah, I feel really old now. My oldest grandson started kindergarten today. He's so sweet...just look at this handsome boy....







This one's my favorite. Him and his no teeth smile! I love you my big handsome boy and I'm so proud of you!