too young to go

There was another tragic accident to hit our town this weekend. It was the first weekend of Spring Break and five high school students died in a single car crash outside of town. You can read the article here. I think the saddest part of the whole thing is what one student said at the end of the article. She said “We’ve been through it, so we know how to help each other through it." (regarding wishing school was in session.)

I wrote this post two years ago about more local deaths, I know a lot more have happened between now and then. In fact, last year in late spring/early summer two boys were killed by a third downtown in a shooting. I think earlier in the year there was a car crash, if not then the year before a few youngsters died in a crash. The teens in this town have been to too many funerals, they know too much loss. The parents in this town have seen too many youngsters die, either their own, friend's children, or their children's friends. It's heartbreaking.

I don't know any of the family's, I might know the teens. They probably have come into my work. I try to connect to everyone who walks through the door, but if you do it more than once in a while I form a better connection. The best I can do at the moment is to play with my children (R's reading and told me "leave me 'lone!" and H is sleeping at the moment). To teach them to wear their seat belts, no exceptions! When they are older, make sure they learn to drive well, don't let them have passengers or be a passenger with a car that has more than one or two people. I'd rather fork over gas money for my child to drive by themselves than for them to get into a car with a rowdy group!

I know I can't protect my girls from everything, there's a lot of bad luck, decisions, people, etc out there but I can teach them to be responsible. I can love them. And I can keep the lines of communication open. My heart breaks for those family's, for the youth of our town, for those young lives lost and unable to live up to the potential they had. I do strongly believe that people are called Home when it is their time but it's so hard to believe that all five of those youngsters were done doing their life's purpose.

Go hug those who you can, tell the people you love that they mean something to you, and...I don't know, do whatever it is you can to help protect our youth! Every time something like this happens I am blown away!

more phd's crossed off the list!

I have crossed off a few more projects from my Projects Half Done list. You might have noticed I wrote "DONE" by a couple of them a bit ago, I just wanted to wait to have a big post about them. All I had to do was bindings on all of these.

First up is the wall hanging I made for Pat Sloan/Moda Bake Shops challenge "Gobble Gobble" All you had to do was make the top, somehow use those hourglass shapes and that top center pumpkin in any size. I made my hourglasses with various backgrounds and every one has a pumpkin print in it, then I found a few pumpkin patterns, made a few up, and came up with this:
I am planning on giving it to my brother's girlfriend (and him but in the horrible event that they break up, for the record, it's hers! Can you tell I like her?) I plan to make a few wall hangings and send them to her and eventually get her a curtain rod and clips to hang and rotate them about.

This is a small cuddle/car seat quilt I made from the ABC panel (it's a little dated but was given to me from someones stash). I was going to give it to a friend of mine but experimented with quilting...I used black thread and traced around the letters, not so easy on my basic pfaff. I am instead going to donate it to Katie's Comforters with a note saying it's use would be either for a child to cuddle with or perhaps for a younger sibling who is a little jealous. I think it's too small for an infant but they can decide that or not. If you want to join the guild, that blog has some information about it. My mom helped the lady get it going and come up with some of the basics of how to get a guild for Children's' Hospital going (if you don't remember my connection and passion for it, read here).

This is also for K (B's girlfriend). It's tree #3. Can you tell how easy and much I love this pattern? It's quilt as you go and if you want it you can find it here. It's easy, quilt as you go, and so easy to embellish. I might make K give it back to me for a little bit if I find buttons of presents like I saw once and said "oh I should get those" but didn't want to spend more than I brought in cash so passed up.

This last one is for my friend K (hmm...good peoples names start with K...among other letters). She and I had children within weeks of each other...her oldest was born after my R, she had a stillborn around the same time my angel who I miscarried in 07 would have been born, her youngest was born just before my H, and she's now pregnant...don't worry I am not joining her on this one....I am thinking one more in like 3-5 years if we are more stable then we are at the moment, or I am happy with these two beauties. Anywho, I made quilts for her two boys (have not finished one but the other is in a box ready to go) so I wanted to make HER one too.

That's a total of 7 down, 3 to go! I am almost done with the quilting on Aunt J's quilt, but ran out of thread (notice a trend here? I think I need to start buying more than I think I will need) and my local stores don't carry the brand she bought for me to use, so she and my Aunt MA had to go out to MA's stores and mailed it to me....more on what ELSE they sent me next time!!

some give aways for you to enter

super fast before I go to bed tonight (R is still playing quietly in bed so I am waiting on her really and playing around online so I don't fall asleep on the couch....again) there are some amazing give aways out there that I just couldn't NOT tell you about.

First up:
http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/2010/03/giveaway.html

Secondly:
http://ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/
they are having a MONTH of giveaways so pick and choose what you are interested in, or enter them all. Each give away is posted on it's own day, but the chances are all open until the end! how sweet is that?

I guess I am going to work on my counted cross stitch while waiting for R to fall asleep. Nothing to bind at the moment, nothing ready to hand applique....and I can't use the sewing machine since it's along the same wall she is sleeping behind. I need to finish those FB sig swap blocks. I have 50/100 DONE, then 25 1/2 way done, and 25 yet to sew. Thanks for the advice on the tool, I am going to keep my eyes open for it!!

March's Friday Night Sew In

I didn't get everything I wanted to done, but have to call it a night anyways. I work at 8 tomorrow and I ran out of my favorite neutral thread. In addition to that, H isn't feeling well, R is asking for attention....I did have about an hour after they went to bed finally. I did manage to fold a little laundry (all the girls stuff) before bed time. Eh....

So here's what I got to tonight for my Friday Night Sew In.:
This is H's Dora quilt to sort of match R's. I can't wait to get them both quilted and show you them in all their glory. This is an over sized toddler quilt, and R's is an over sized twin.Here are some blocks ready for cutting (but got too tired to cut) for next months APQ swap....I still haven't decided if I am going to keep the "twins" or not...I am leaning towards not.
These are the Facebook Friends Signature Swap blocks (and their left-overs) that I got to sewing before I ran out of thread...25 complete, 25 half way there and:

25 cut and marked (except for those top five light leafy batiks) and 25 cut. I need to finish marking tomorrow when I have more patience and then sew them up. I don't think it will take too long once things are marked. The line down the back to get triangles is my least favorite part!

How did the night go for you all?

Don't forget tomorrow (sat) is National Quilting Day!!

no news

nothing to report here, just wanted to say hi.

We bought a kitchen table last weekend. It will be about 5-7 more weeks until we have it, enough time to get the house ready and everything. I am so glad we made the purchase even though my heart was beating out of my chest writing the check. we actually got a really good deal on it, 25% off and we got the table (butterfly pub height) and four chairs, and will get 2 more latter. We also found a bedroom set that we LOVE (OK I LOVE LOVE LOVE! and A likes a lot) that we are saving up tip money for. We are going to wait for another sale once we get the money saved up and hopefully get the most bang for our buck. I need to go back to the store and write down what all we want and how much it is, and then hopefully save that much up and use whats left for some new sheets and maybe fabric for a quilt?

Friday is the Friday Night Sew In! I wasn't able to find a sitter so hopefully I can send R to daycare during the day for a little bit and clean and clean and clean (or maybe just one of those) and she can get worn out so she goes down early, maybe H will go down nicely too! I know I am dreaming here but hey, what else can I do? I am still looking for a sitter for Sat so I can go to Mass without the kid and out to dinner with a friend after, but that's not looking promising either. I like sharing my faith and traditions with the girls, but man is it challenging by myself there. It's also been a long time since I've been to a meal without the kids! I could use some girlfriend time!!

That's about all she wrote for the day, check back this weekend for my Friday and Saturday adventures. Nothing cute to even show you! How Sad!! Eh next time!

lots and lots of pictures

Any guesses who's feeling better? Hint, it's not the under four foot club in my house. Thank you Zicam. We have "Boogie Wipes" for the girls, if you have a chance go look them up, they are available in the baby aisle at Walgreen's for sure. they are like damp saline infused tissues so that lovely coat of crusties you (and more applicably kids) get is so easy to clean off and helps it last longer between wipes/blows AND they are moist so no tears/dry noses. Both girls mind them about as much if not a touch less than regular tissues! SWEET!!!

Here's some fabric I won from Amy/Park City Girl's weekly give away a few weeks ago. I know it'll be a children's quilt, but what it will look like, that has yet to be determined. These are all FQ's!

Here's Feb's Calender Quilt block. Pinks and reds, surprise surprise!

The start of March, I have been using this as a leaders/enders and sewing the strips together every few days. Not bad!

I am a part of the APQ block swap that Ann and others started for all of us who were devoted AllPeopleQuilt.com bloggers and readers but when they made some changes, we no longer had out home base for blogs. We are all trying to stay connected (and I realise like 85% of you are those friends I am talking about) but the place that was just a fountain of ideas, inspiration, assistance, and friendship is gone! Anyways we are (mostly) all doing a block swap, and this months recipients are myself, and Katie. Here are the first two blocks, we each are getting one. Here are the other two, we each again will get one of these. I am half tempted to keep the "twins" every time to myself and make a big quilt with them, but we will see what transpires next month. we are to send two blocks to each recipient each month.

I am involved in another swap too, this months theme is "Home" my persons color preference was green, and I struggled to come up with a block idea that would fit the color, the theme, and the size requirements without too much math (10 " unfinished!) so I made a log cabin (home). Some of my fondest memories from childhood were at a family friends' cabin on Lake Cushman on the Olympic Peninsula/in the Washington State Rain Forest (not to be confused with the TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS like A thought I meant!) I don't know if was a log cabin, but I remember the warmth, the lack of worries and distractions. I had things to explore, adventures to have, books to read, those loop pot holders to make. I remember the cabin was always warm even when it was cool, never chilly even if it was outside but never overwhelmingly stuffy even if it was humid as a hat outside. I hope she likes the block. I hope it's "home" enough.

This is the block I received! This block is called "hearth and home" and I was very very VERY tempted to steal the idea and send it on in different colors.

This is what I have been working on when I can't sew for one reason or another, maybe one of the girls is asleep in the living room (exhausted from all that playing I make them do both together and separately) or R is not quite down and if I were to make any noise she'd come investigate. I once chose one hobby because I was into everything! Quilting is what my heart said I would love the most, but counted cross stitch keeps popping up, even though I am working on hand bindings and hand applique. Oh Well! While I was putting the binding on one of my quilts, R decided she needed to do some sewing. She got to pick a scrap from my scrap bag, and some thread, of course she chose orange and orange so you can't see what her "sewing" looks like but it's a good attempt for three. I want to somehow keep this, its too sweet to toss. I am thinking of somehow mounting and framing, but you really can't SEE what she did. Any ideas?

And lastly, look what H has been working on even though she doesn't feel too good!

Take care everyone, and I will try to share some girl stories and more pics of them with you soon!

country song

I have so much I want to share with you, the great things about R, the new things H has been doing, latest sewing's, some surprises etc but I am tired and have been fighting off that cold that a few of you have mentioned having. I made A pull out the bed from the couch and I have all sorts of pillows and blankets on there to snuggle under. I think I am going to go put on life time or Oxygen and veg. Someone has R for the afternoon, she'll be back in about 2 hours, H is taking a nap, A is dropping off rent (out of town by about 40 minutes down a long dirt road) so I have time to clean, cook, sew, read, or nap. Hmmmmmm.

I feel like my life could be a really pathetic country song right now:
my cars running but making funny sounds
my dryer wont realise the doors shut so it wont run
I keep running out of hot water whenever I go to take a shower (and can only blame A for this one!)
the dishes wont unload themselves and are piling up in the kitchen
my key battery died (what DID people with small children do before keyless entry?)
all I want to do is clean and sew
all I can do is veg
and the Earth keeps shaking and breaking my heart!

actually most of it is more comical than really sad, but still, add a whinny guitar and a fiddle and you've got yourself a country song.

post with pics and stories and projects to come I promise!! Maybe tomorrow, I have tomorrow off!!