seriously slow stitching

I love this quilt.

I think it's really going to be somethin'!

But I gotta tell you - I am done with it.

I am so ready to move on to bigger and better different things.

When I started starching my fabric on Jan 12th

I really thought it was going to be plenty of time.

And it is.

I mean - I'm pretty sure I'll get it finished in time for their May 1st wedding.

But what I didn't account for,

was that I might need a break from it every now and then....

a peek at the back

Tonight - I'll spend another 42 minutes sweating under it hand-quilting

while we watch an episode of Bones,

and tomorrow,

ugh,

I'll wrestle with it at the machine for a few hours.

Linking up with paper-piecing Lee and other creative gals slogging through their projects

sharing their progressing works.

mia, and Lily laughs

Master thinks that 2 weeks without a post 

is entirely too long.

I haven't purposely stayed away,

it's just that life is full right now,

and until I get that darn amazing quilt finished,

I feel pressure to work on it 

every spare moment I have.

(or avoid working on it, by doing some other necessary and long-neglected task)

~

Lily has a sense of humor similar to TJ's,

and when she finds something funny, she laughs long and hard.

She also is a bit on the blonde side,

so jokes with her are a little iffy.

If she gets them right off, she laughs, 

but if she doesn't,

she has to analyze

and then explain to everyone why they are funny.

Of course, sometimes, she doesn't ever get why they should be funny.

The kids have been on a 'tell us a story from  ____________' kick lately.

So the other night, 

we told them about the time we accidentally annoyed the baby sitter:

We'd hurriedly changed 6 or 7 month old TJ, using a diaper from the diaper bag

right before walking out the door to drop him off with 'Gramma'.

(our friend Jodi's mom was living with them in Germany)

When we went back to pick him up,

Gramma mentioned, obviously a little miffed, "I found the nickel."

Mhmmm.

"In his diaper..." she added.

It seems that the coin had fallen into the diaper while in the diaper bag

and got trapped by the leg elastic,

and we hadn't seen it when we put the diaper on him in a rush.

When she found it stuck to his little cheek a few hours later,

she'd thought we put the nickel in the diaper as a test - to see if she changed him.

We assured her it was purely accidental

and we all had a good laugh about it.

When we finished telling the story to the kids,

Tyler added, "It just goes to show you that everyone needs a little change sometimes."

Lily threw back her head

and roared.

How I love that girl!

Nella goes to college

Talk about being a sucker for the story;

this story is beyond awesome.

I just smiled with tears in my eyes as I read.

Admittedly,

I'd have a difficult time letting a young adult with DS go off to college

(of course, I also had a difficult time letting my completely able-bodied married son

go off to the Marines...)

but I am so thrilled that people are asking questions

and seeking solutions

that will allow people who have DS live to their full potential.

Seriously,

if you read nothing else today,

read Kelle's post.

(I trust you all understand I am not using 'sucker' in a negative way at all....)

sucker for the story

Back when we all decided to 'Run for God',

multiple trips were made to Academy to furnish the family with proper running shoes.

You know, so we didn't hurt ourselves.(ha!)

(For me, who has never aspired to be a runner,

and isn't entirely convinced that women actually ought to run,

it was more of a 'Run to God", than run for Him.

I was finally coming out of my long, horrible season of depression

and was truly desperate for God.

If I had to run to be with Him, so be it.)

(Sadly, the Bible study part of the program sucked)

(so did the running part ;-) and my heel has never healed completely)

After trying on every. single, pair. of running shoes at Academy,

I settled on a pair of Brooks.

Brooks shoes happen to come in a box

printed with one of those 'you made a good choice' stories on it.

Tyler and I love those.

I mean, 

you've already made the purchase - they could have given you a plain old box,

but instead, they try to up your satisfaction by telling you how smart you are

and why.

Great marketing.

So, as I was driving home, I thought how tickled Tyler would be

with my selection of shoes

and my 'bonus box'.

Turns out, he'd bought Brooks, too!

~

Anna Maria Horner.

Love her fabric.

(At least, I love the feel of her fabrics, and the saturated colors,

and the way her fabrics work together.

I don't always love her fabrics individually....)

I also just really like her.

At  least the her I know through her blog...

When Pretty Potent came out,

I liked the collection as a whole,

and there were a few fabrics that I really liked,

but I didn't order any.

Then I read all about the design process for that line,

and I was all, 

"I want all the Anna Maria fabrics in the whole world"

(I did order some Pretty Potent when I found some on sale, but only my very favorites.)

~

While I love an explosion of color and the kaleidoscope style of Jenean Morrison,

I also am really drawn to many of the simple, low volume fabrics of Carolyn Friedlander,

especially the Architextures line.

And then I discovered 

that before she became a fabric designer,

Carolyn was an architect.

And that just makes me love and appreciate her fabrics more.

~

When I clicked on a Finish it up Friday link over at Amanda's,

I found this quilt

 and a lovely post to go along with it.

Then I went back a few weeks later and found another great quilt

with an equally great story

and I decided I simply must add pieladyquilts to my blog list.

If you, too, are a sucker for the story,

I highly recommend you do the same!

Jill 

(who doesn't know me from Eve)

 intertwines memories and life and making

in a beautiful and down to earth way.

(On the subject of 'new blogs',

I should also mention my friend's new blog.

You may remember me mentioning Sarah B recently,

she's the one who got married in February :-)

She's also the only daughter of the one I made this quilt for,

my dear, dear amazing friend, Eva.)

 

Tim used to tell me, when I'd recount some happening or another,

way back in the days of 'lunch bunch',

"Just give me the Reader's Digest version"

but I never could.

I think all the little details are important,

because

at heart,

I'm a sucker for the story.

one week in

So,

for the past week,

as I've found the time,

I've been working on getting Ties That Bind quilted.

Slow and tedious best describes my progress.

You can see I have a ton left to do...

I begin by marking all points and valleys and both the inside and outside of the blades.

so I know when I need to stop and turn 

as I machine quilt around the outer blade.

I may or may not mark the full inside of the plate.

Depends if I've decided exactly what to do with it or not ;-)

After I've gone around the plate with the walking foot, 

I mark my hand quilting row 3/8 of an inch away from the machine quilting.

After that's quilted,

a row 3/4" away for another round of machine

then a row an inch away for more hand-quilting.

and so on

and so forth.

so. much. marking. and turning.

I try to always stay a few plates ahead of myself with the marking, 

so I can work on whichever type of quilting I feel like at the moment.

I still need to figure out what I need to do with the blades themselves.

For the smaller dresdens, it's enough to stitch in the ditch,

but the larger blades need more quilting

or they'll puff instead of crinkle once it's washed.

I'm really hoping I can come up with a suitable FMQ design that I am capable of pulling off decently,

(and doesn't mess up the look of the dresdens!)

because,

have I mentioned?

The turning...

It's good that I allowed myself 2 months for the quilting;

I think I'm going to need it!

I missed linking up with Lee yesterday. Too gloomy for photos.
So
today, for the first time, I'm joining the gals linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation :-)

today is a DEAR day

Drop

Everything

And

Read

!

~

We've been wanting to go for weeks, 

but I've been waiting for the perfect weather (and time. and hair day...) to go the library.

Yesterday was misty, and there was a chance of rain all day,

but today's forecast, yesterday, called for sunny skies all morning,

then snow at noon

for the remainder of the day.

Perfect!

We'd go in the morning.

Only,

the weatherpeople got it wrong.

Today's rain was far worse than yesterday's!

But I really didn't want another snow (or ice)

without a library trip.

(although, at this point, I'm not so sure the snow is really coming, as it's past 2, and still no snow...)

So we went.

In the pouring rain.

(I didn't even bother to fix my hair!)

Usually we put Josiah, Lily and Lexi's books on one card,

And Jeremiah, mine and Brandon's on another.

It's just easier to keep up with - even if I don't remember exactly what's on who's card,

at least everyone remembers how many books they checked out,

and we can round up any strays 

if need be.

(Usually we are pretty good about keeping them in the library basket,

but every once in a while we have a book go rouge)

It got tricky this time, since Jeremiah and Josiah are sharing lots of their books, 

so I think in the future, we'll just put girls on one card, and boys on the other.

That'd be good.

taking the whole DEAR thing seriously....

I have 200 books on my library reading list.
All of them I heard (or read) about somewhere, but there is no way to make notes,
so, most of them, I can't remember who recommended the book, and why.
That 200 doesn't count the books I've pinned, or have on my wishlist at Amazon - which, as it relates to books,
isn't always a 'wish to own' list, but a 'wish to read' list. so I really should transfer those to pinterest.

I love that everyone took a turn reading to Lexi. I know that's hard to do when you have a stack of fresh books calling!

Brandon was resting in Jeremiah's bed, so he snuggled up in the girls' to read (Warriors series, book 2. Josiah is reading bk 1)

Bran's books. TJ got him started on Clive Cussler books, but he didn't get any of those today. Perhaps he's read them all??)

Yep;

today is a good day to DEAR.

I think I'll do that myself.

(which one do I choose??)

balm for my soul

Friday,

Lexi climbed into my lap while I was folding laundry

and slipped one arm around my neck.

(weird that I was sitting and folding; I usually stand....)

"Momma," she said, "I can't wait to have kids."

"Why is that?" 

I asked.

"Because, I know how much you love me," 

she replied,

"and how much you do for me,

and how much I've learned from you,

and I just think it will be really nice to get to do that for kids of my own."

Ah, Baby Girl.

I do love you!