March Update

Well our birthday month is coming to a close. I turned 47, dad 75, Kaelea 12, Derrick 16, and Ashlyn 21. When did I become so old. :P

I have been busy with my quilt construction. I have 3 at the machine quilter and another almost finished. I have finish my sister's purple quilt, Aunt Betty Jane one in earth tones, and still waiting on the blue/brown quilt. Will be happy when I have them all. Paying for the quilting is $ but so worth when you see how they turned out.

I am working on a pale yellow and blue floral quilt. I changed my mind and this is the one for my friend Ros. The Best Friend quilt were just now her colors and would have stuck out in her living room. So this new quilt will be better suited for her living room and personality.

Darian's quilt is also at a different quilt maker, I just couldn't figure out how to make a t-shirt quilt with 3 t-shirts. So a friend offered to make the top and Cheri will do the machine quilting. He graduates on May 14th so will have to hurry them up a bit. I hope he likes it.

I actually spent Saturday down in the scrap room. I joined a page swap for Inspired in May. So I had to create two different layouts then multiply it 9 times for a toatl of 18 pages. I completed them and Timonthy mailed them yesterday for me. I had everythin I needed at home. Amazing used my stash, I did look over some other pages from a different swap to get some Inspiration from, it worked.

We just finished our spring break, bad thing for Derrick and I as we were sick 3 days from a stomach bug. We had to cancel our trip to see Ros and Will. I was so sick I couln't eat all of the chocolate covered strawberries sent to me from a commander in Iraq. I sent over a whole bunch of cards, store bought and homemade, plus a box of cookies. She sent the strawberries were a thank you. I was so surprised, never expected that wonderful gesture.

Jean, Mom and I are off to Mom's weekend at Ashlyn's sorority in Kirksville. We will leave on Friday after work. Mom has a room so we won't be crowded in Ashyn's appt. Plus she says we snore to much! Imagine that. This is the first year I have attended. Grandpa goes on Dad's weekend and really enjoys himself. There will be a silent auction too. We all three love those.

Quilt progress

I've been busy with Derrick and his school work. He is trying to maintain a B average so he can get his license this summer.

I've also been working on creating some quilts. A quilt called "Girlfriends" has been created and quilted, I pick it up tomorrow. I made it for my best friend from college, Roslyn O'Connor. She doesn't know so it will be a surprise when I visit her this weekend.

I made my sister a simple quilt made out of florals and lavender dots. Her entire room is lavender so it should match nicely in her room. I put purple minky on the back so it will be great as a snuggle quilt.

I have created two for my home. One is bright pinks and hydrangeas and quilted with a beautiful flower paragraph. It is my snuggle quilt on my bed. But I must share it with Tinkerbelle and Scooby. They like to sit on it and look out the window in the search of birds. With the bright pink minky on the back it is quite warm and snugly.

The other is a blue brown hourglass quilt with minky on the back as well. It will be my snuggle quilt on the couch. I imagine I will be sharing it with Toby and he loves to curl up on the couch and take naps.

Finally, I made a brown tones quilt for my Aunt Betty Jane. I didn't want her to feel slighted as I made quilts for two of her daughters and 2 of her grandchildren. It was a simple 5 in blocks sewn together with 2 borders. I''m getting better at matching seams, my friend Susan who owns a local quilt shop told me she couldn't see any mistakes unless she looked very closely. What a nice pat on the back. She and Cheri have taught me most of the information about being a topper quilter. That is a person who makes the quilt top. Cheri is a long arm quilter, she actually sews the three layers together into a usable quilt. Then someone must bind the edges. Cheri has done many of mine, but with Aunt Betty Jane's I will do myself. I have to practice as it is expensive to have Cheri do it for me..

I am on track to make more than last year of 13. My sister Karen's quilt is in the process of being made. It started out as a block swap. So I picked a wonky square as the block. These blocks are not straight on purpose. My kind of quilt. You don't have to worry about matching blocks or each piece being straight. Well I'm on the way to making her a lap like everyone else. She decides she wants a KING size. The biggest I've ever made. I told her she would have it by Thanksgiving as I get tired of working on one project for that long. I have to work on others. As you have learned I like easy quilts. So this quilt will have to be done by early Sept. to be ready for that deadline. Karen always does have to be different!

The men in the family don't really want quilts, but I am going to make one for Derrick anyway. They don't know what they are missing.

Well I had a lovely b-day, I got to see Derrick, Ashlyn and Timonthy all on my bday. Ashlyn was passing through on her way to Fl for spring break. They had so much stuff they had to leave some at our house so they could get their stuff into Mary's trunk. You can imagine how much stuff 4 girls had to have for the trip.