Kids Pictures

The kids do some of the cutest things and I don't always have my big camera out, so I've taken a few on my phone. Mathew is almost always smiles in the morning, especially when I'm getting ready for a shower before work. He loves to sit in his tub and giggle and smile at me. This cute outfit is from Jody a former co-worker whose daughter is 6 weeks older than Mathew.

Mikaela fell in the mop pail one night and she was so funny trying to get out. She's been doing some of the funniest things this month.

Mathew loves to smile, the tub is great, as long as there is no water in it! This onesie is from Diane, a co-worker.

Kay gave Mathew this onesie. He was flapping his arms and moving all over the place. Such a cutie, especially in the morning. That's definately a trait he got from his daddy.

Mathew Paul - 5 months

Mathew Paul turned 5 months old on May 5th. He's become a very active little baby. He's learned to roll over and prop himself up. He's also smiling and giggling.









He's just so precious and such a handsome young man. He looks just like his daddy.



He's gotten some of the cutest outfits and just happens to have quilts to match. He loves to lay on a quilt on the new hardwood floor we put in the bedroom.



He's just started to eat a bit of rice cereal with his milk and so far he's liking it and sleeping better, so I'm one happy momma!
Mikaela is in the process of transitioning into her big girl bed. It's been a fight, but slowly she'll get used to it. Hopefully by the time we go camping.

Quilters are Crazy 2013 Retreat

This weekend was simply amazing! I went with six of the best friends a girl could ever ask for to Outlaw Ranch for quilt retreat. I knew it would be challenging to be away from my family, but I also knew how much I needed the friendship and support of my friends.
In preparing for quilt retreat, I made a bunch of kits up with blocks prepped and prepared to create tops. I find I don't like to make tops at home, so it was fun to get them ready to put together. I felt so productive actually having finished tops to take home.
I started Friday afternoon with these Dilly Dally 5" blocks and made this Easy as 4 pattern by Me & My Sister. I also have backing all prepped and a piece ready for binding. The backing is to the right. This one was for a friend, but she had a different theme, so I changed gears and now it is ready for the next baby girl I need a gift for. I finished this before supper on Friday.

This chevron is from a Max and Whiskers layer cake. I had other plans, but I ended up making this for a sample for a class I plan to teach next quarter. I love how it turned out and can't wait to quilt it. I need to get a backing for this one. I finished this late evening Friday.

This is the Unity quilt top I had mostly completed. I added the borders and got the backing ready. This was finished Sat. night.

Emilee worked on these plus blocks.

Nicole finished her 2nd quilt top, a plus quilt she designed herself.

Nicole, Cindy, Jenn, Emilee, Tammy, Gaila, and I Saturday night

Gaila made this table topper from Atkinson designs.

She also made this little wall hanging from a Moda candy pack. She sent it with me on Sat. and I found the border so she could finish it.

Friday night I laid out this Thangles BOM and started sewing it together while I pumped. Around 2AM I found my way to bed, but I was awake at 6 AM, so I sat and sewed it all together while I pumped. I had it into this top by breakfast at 8 AM. I have a border to put on, but had left it at home.

Saturday was spent on Scrappy Swoon. I spent all day on it and I'm just not loving it. I went to bed at 2 AM with the top done and left it on the design wall. When I got up at 7AM, I just kept looking at it and really not liking it. Well I have a couple squares out of place and I need to do some ripping. I just didn't want to spend any more time on it.

Here's a more true color picture of it. I used purple/green/black batiks. The colors were all the same value, so it just didn't set the star off enough. I'll still finish it and I think put a big bright purple border on it to make it big enough for our bed.

Gaila made these wall hangings for her mother and mother in law from a panel she got from me last summer.

We had a small forest of Aurifil trees which we finished. Mine was the pine beetle infested one!

Throughout the weekend I worked on this one. It's a scrappy chevron using 5" squares. I marked while I pumped, sewed while I pumped, cut while I pumped, and pressed while I pumped. As Nicol said, Keep calm and pump on. This will be another sample for my chevron class.


The weekend was truly amazing and I can't believe how much fun we had. I was so thankful to have such understanding friends and be away from home. Paul and his mom had a great weekend with the kids as well. I can't wait for the next one.

Mathew Paul 4 months

Mathew turned 4 months old on April 5th. He then proceeded to spend the rest of the month sick. He caught the same bug Mikaela had and then shared it back and forth with mommy & Mikaela all month. We stayed home a couple days from work, from church, and even had a few snow days to help us recouperate, but even those didn't help. We were all sick! Luckily daddy stayed healthy and could make us soup and get us juice. At his 4 month appointment on April 29th. He weighed 14lbs. 6oz. and was 25.25" tall.
 Mathew is on the afghan he got from Dad and Ann for his baptism. Ann's sister Marti made it and the amazing thing is she's almost blind and yet she can knit to no end. She does beautiful work. The outfit is one of my favorites of Mikaela's. It's from my co-worker Kay and she picks some awesome outfits.



Mathew is just starting to smile more.



He can finally be perched up and hold his head up.



Mikaela is starting to learn to color, however she colors on everything. Thank goodness for Mr. Clearn magic erasers! We didn't have any coloring books, so she colored on junk mail with the crayons from Famous Daves. She's now got several coloring books, crayons, and she's discovered stickers.



Mathew is also setting up and loves to sit while we make supper and even sits at the table while we eat.

He's definately got the drooling going on.

Quilt Retreat Prep

April has been filled with some interesting sewing, no quilting, and a lot of piecing. At the end of March, beginning of April I made 16 glasses cases out of fleece for my brothers 4-H gun club. I used the leftover fabric from a fleece blanket I made for Mathew, so they were hunter orange and camo colored.

I finished Ahhhh #1 this week. I ordered all of the Ahhhh's and joined the gotta have them all club, so I have quite a few to get caught up on, but I have 7 completed so far.

I also made these 1 1/2" needle book hexies to be made into needle books.


On Sat. the 6th, I made notebook covers with the Autism awareness fabric. They are going to a friend and her nephew. I love how quick and easy they were to put together. I used 1 half yard, plus a fat quarter to make both, so not a lot of fabric.  I also made a couple pairs of PJ pants, one for me and one for Mikaela. Hers fit great, mine, not so much. They were too tight for my liking, so I'll give them to Ann.

I've slowly been working away at my winding ways blocks. I did the two light blocks a couple weeks ago and wasn't happy with how my centers were turning out, so I changed my quarter inch and the two dark ones turned out much better. I actually really enjoy sewing these, so I think I'll be cutting out more to take to retreat to sew.

Sat. night my friends and I got together for a PJ pants making party. I taught a couple how to make them and we all finished with cool pants we can wear at retreat. Gaila, Jenn, and I all made sewing themed ones. Now I just have to get the shirts embroidered, which I hope to do this weekend.

I've been working on the blocks for my scrappy swoon. This is the center block.

These are the blocks for steps 2-4. It's going to be very dark, but that's the look I was hoping for since I want to use it on our bed and I hate real light colored quilts on the bed since stuff, cats, dog, etc get on the bed.

This is what I have so far. I'm hoping to get all the blocks sewn in the next three weeks, so I can put it together at retreat.



















I also finished all the setting blocks for my Thangles BOM quilt. I hope to put it together with the sashing at retreat. I've been slowly putting stuff together and I now have about 6 quilt tops I want to make. I'll need to re-evaluate as I get closer and see if that is enough to keep me busy. I'm thinking I may cut out a Happy Hour Snapshots quilt to make since it is simple and easy and mindless sewing with not a lot of seams.
I still have a bunch of little things I want to make for our trade, so I hope to get those done this week. I'm feeling very creative. I need to get it all done by next Friday as we're going to be replacing the flooring in our bedroom/ my sewing area. I won't be able to sew the weekend before retreat as we do that, so I want to be packed and ready next week, so in the move I don't misplace things I need.