My most recent fabric find

was at a little shop south of St. Clair, MI a couple weeks ago now. 

I have a window in our master bathroom that I have been looking for curtains for all summer.  It is a really odd size:  60"w x 40"tall.  I finally gave up and started looking for fabric to make my own, and I found this lovely leafy fabric.  Yummy :)  I also couldn't pass up the green leaves or the red plaid ($3/yd! What a steal!).  I'm hoping to make them sometime this month.

This weekend has been the first weekend home I have had in I don't even know how long.  I tell you, I almost kissed my kitchen floor Tuesday when we got back.  There has been so much I haven't done around here so I've been running around non-stop trying to get some things done.  I went outside to plant some flowers I've had for probably a month and I saw my morning glories went on steroids since I've been away! (They are hiding my rain barrel)

While I was gone Richard also bought me two sets of these!

 

I love glass tupperware.  Well, I guess it's not really tupperware, but you get the idea.  I don't like microwaving plastics and I've been trying to find leak proof alternatives for our lunches so when DH saw these on sale he bought them for me :)  He thought about giving them to me for XMas and I was soooo happy he didn't because they are so useful!  Then I had to reorganize my cabinets in my kitchen.  They were not pretty, but I really only have one and a half before pics.

Before

After

After- Tupperware Cabinet!

I love my lid buckets.  Before all of the lids were in a massive heap on the middle shelf.  We had many fall outs.

 

Last weekend we also went to Mackinac Island.  I've never been there before and it was a really good excuse to get away from family and attempt to spend time with Richard.  I'll post pics later- you need to see this hat I got!

 

Yesterday I started painting another spare room upstairs because my parents are stopping by today to drop off a bunk bed they don't want anymore.  I didn't get as far as I wanted to yesterday because Richard's mom came by to be entertained for a while, so that put me back a few hours.  I'm hoping next weekend we will finally be alone and maybe I'll get some sewing done!  My next goal is to border my sliced apples!

 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

I couldn't ask for a better getaway

I'm at the Thomas Edison Inn in Port Huron.  It is just lovely.  Technically, I am here for work, but I really couldn't ask for a better getaway right now. 

As some of you know, I'm a fisheries technician and I work on the Huron-Erie Corridor (corridor that connects the waters of Lake Huron and Lake Erie) for a restoration initiative.  Today I am shuttling important people around for a celebration and boat ride tour of the corridor and I got to stay here last night (into this morning).

Being close to the water and watching the sunrise from my balcony is bringing me and indescribable amount of comfort and at the same time it is so beautiful I want to weep for it.  I have to leave in about an hour and a half to meet up with the boat crew, but for now I'm basking in the early morning sun.

This afternoon I'm planning on hitting a quilt shop between my shuttle driver duties; River Place Quilt and Sew, north of Algonac.  I'm really excited about it and I'll show you what I take away.  There is a shop here near Port Huron but the hours are not conducive for a visit.  Maybe another time!

My Grandma A passed away this Saturday morning.  It was early and my aunt and I were sitting with her.  It was very difficult and even though she went very peacefully I was terrified and devastated.  I am extremely happy she didn't go alone.  On Sunday my cousin and sister made a photo board for her funeral.  It turned out really well- we had lots of old photos and lots of family photos to choose from.  She was a beautiful lady, even at 90 :)

At my wedding last year (this is my favorite!)

She was one special lady and I'm glad I was able to spend the time I had with her as my grandma.  Richard (DH) still has all of his grandparents and now I'm forcing him to visit more.  He invited his grandpa over this weekend while I was away to play cards and his grandpa said to him "That was fun, I really needed that."  He better keep it up :)  I wish that I was able to see my set more over the past year and a half and I regret not traveling home more often.  I am happy that I made her a priority visit though when I was home. 

Enough with the heavy! I'm off to enjoy my morning and relish the georgeous view.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

My Third Finish

I finished my third quilt yesterday in record time for my usual snails pace.  As you know, just over a month ago my Grandma A had a stroke that put her in the hospital and on a long road for recovery and I wanted to make her a quilt.  Unfortunately, the day before my Grandma was going to be released from rehab she had another stroke which she hasn't been able to recover from.

I was so disappointed and frustrated because I still needed to hand stitch the binding and since it was a surprise she didn't even know about it.  I am very happy with how it came out and I know she would have loved it.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet.  I may have a photo of us put on fabric and turn it into a label for the backing and hang it in my sewing room.

I will probably make another one like this sometime, but I can't decide if I need a break from quilting or not.  I really need to start again on the MSU quilt for my dad for XMas, but I am just so drained I'm not sure if I have the energy.  My Gma is being sent home from the hospital tomorrow or Tuesday and we will be doing hospice like care until her time comes, so until then you may not see or hear too much from me. 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Oh my goodness, where have I been?!

WOW.  I actually had to read my own blog to know what the last thing was I told you all.  That was interesting.  I have been crazy busy (since when are we not?) with my Grandma A, work, and getting together the latest quilt.  I have been busting my hump on my Gma A's quilt in attempts to get it to her but I'm not sure I will make it in time.  She was scheduled to be released from the rehab facility today (insurance ran out) but was readmitted into the Neuro ICU on Monday morning.  As of yesterday, she was lucid only very rarely.  It nearly killed me to hear it, especially since we just lost my Grandma H a couple of months ago.  I'm going to go up again tomorrow and hopefully it spurs some goodness.  Usually when I see her she gets very excited and does better.  I have no idea why, maybe the brain is sparked to work more?  I don't know, but it sure is a roller coaster.

This weekend I was able to make the quilt back, baste, quilt, and start binding the quilt. I don't have pictures of what it is at this point- but here are some from before I quilted it.

The quilt is about 46" wide and the fabric I picked was about 42" {for the direction I wanted} after selvage so I made a 4" HST block for the back to mirror the diamond in the front and added the 4" red strip.  I really like it.  When I was basting it I stuck a pin through the center of the diamond on the backing so I knew where to center the quilt.  It worked really well and it made me happy that I was clever enough to think of it, which then made me laugh because it isn't revolutionary at all :)

I thought that I had a close up pic of the birds but I can't seem to find it.  The fabric says things like "friends," "faith", "support", "love", "hope", "family", and "courage."  I bought it from creative quilt kits with the rest of the red and pink fabrics because it seems perfect for her situation.  We need her to get better!

In other news, I finally sent my friend her ugly cat coasters.  I sent them out on Saturday so hopefully she has them by now.  I think she may be out doing field work so she may not actually have seen them yet, but I hope she does soon!

I was going to baste and bind them with the cute pink fabric I bought for it but in the rush of things I knew it would never get done.  I just followed a simple coaster tut where you sewed all 3 layers together inside out, flipped them, and sewed again.  Simple, but took me forever!  I stopped in JAF the other day and found MORE ugly cat prints like this.  She may be getting more...

My garden has been severely suffering neglect lately, but I just don't have time for it.  My snapdragons are finally blooming though since the rabbit stopped eating them.  These are ones that I grew myself from seed indoors and I have never seen anything like them.  They grow in multiple colors on one plant!

Odd..

I also may have broken the lawn mower.  Richard was in TX for training all week and since it has been raining the lawn needed to be mowed.  Well, after I got through the front yard it started smoking.  And smelling funny.  I put it back in the garage hoping it would fix itself and told Richard last night when he got back from the airport.  He didn't seem thrilled, but at least the front was mowed :)

I hope you all have been having a lovely week!

To Border or Not to Border?

I've finally got my Gma A's quilt top together (like 5 minutes ago) and I am SO HAPPY with it!  The only question now is to border or not to border?  Here it is without the border.

love

I have dark red fabric that I was going to make a 2" border with, but now I'm not so sure.  What do you think?  I would be using the dark red as the binding...

And on the fifth day, there were trees.

Yep.  Sunday was a tree-tastic celebration at my house.  Two weeks ago we went to Lowes to buy a new dishwasher and we left with a dishwasher and 8, 6' arborvitae trees to plant on the lot line where the new neighbors built.  Then they sat on our porch in dishpans of water as I was desperate to keep them alive and it was 100 degrees outside.  I started planting last Wednesday evening when the weather broke (under 85..) and kept going until Sunday.  You really wouldn't think it would take that long but we have solid clay in our yard and a 22" x 18" hole is pretty large when you are digging up that kind of substrate and only have an hour a night to dedicate to it.  When I had three in the ground and went for my fourth, this is what I found:

A lovely sprinkler head that was buried in our yard.  With that I stopped digging because there had to be a water line running to it and I would more than likely break it if I didn't immediately inform Richard.  So on Saturday, DH found the line and started digging a new trench in our yard to move the sprinkler head.

This was just the first trench which located the line.  He is about to start the second trench.  It took him a good 3 hours to dig up our yard and put it back together so I could keep making my tree line. 

  By the end of the day on Saturday we were both wrecked and I still didn't have all of the trees in the yard.  Plus I got a call that Grandma A might have to have brain surgery to stop a bleed and she was back in the ICU.  My mom told me to just stay home until they knew what was going on so on Sunday I planted the rest of the trees and headed to Lansing for the rest of the day. 


Finally, on the fifth day...


Grandma A did another fantastic guilt trick on me again when we were leaving.  She does her cute "will I see you tomorrow?" and I had to say "No, gma, I have to go home and go to work, but I will be back next weekend."  Just about tears my heart out every time.  I have extended my stay twice so I could say "Yes, I will be here."


In crafty news, I'm still working on my miscount disaster for Gma A's quilt since the trees have been eating my life.  AND I'm going to participate in my first fabric swap!  It is of Heather Ross fabric and the one I am sending out is so cute I just want to squeal.  I'm hoping that it will work well in 9" squares, but you never know.  I'll show you when it arrives :)

Learning to count

So, tonight I learned to count.  I realized that I was apparently doing it wrong, which was sad because I thought I was busting a move on a quilt I started.  I'm making a quilt for my Grandma A from the Warm and Cool QAL by Jeni at In Color Order.  It's not currently running, but I love the design and I have wanted to make one for a long time.  I came home from helping with my Gma on Friday afternoon and set to work.  I stopped at Creative Quilt Kits on my way home and salivated for an hour or so.  She has recovered very well from her stroke considering she is almost 91 and is going to be moved to a live in rehabilitation center.  She loves her house toasty and in those places she is always super cold so I am hoping that this will keep her warm and her spirits up.  It is kind of like an emergency love quilt :)   Here's what I picked up:

My Grandma's favorite color is red so I'm going to do a red/pink diamond pattern since Pam's QAL taught me how to make those fantastic HST's.  Well, I couldn't find any precuts in the colors that I wanted so I just bought yardage.  I started cutting away and after thinking I had enough I devoted myself to my sewing machine.  Well, as it turns out, I only accounted for half.  I have no idea how I counted so wrong since I even drew it out and counted them up on my handy-dandy graph paper.  I'm pretty sure I'll have to grab some more fabric so I may have to swing through a quilt store in AA to pick some up.  I really, really want to get this done so I can give it to her.  I'm going to quilt it myself to save a bundle of time.

I also stopped at a quilt store in Haslett on my way home from the hospital.  It was a little store, but I managed to grab some fabrics while I was there.

I really like the blue one and the baby print was only $3/yd!  I bought the rest of the bolt :)

I also bought this:

And this:

I got the elephants at Creative Quilt Kits and the rest at Joann.  I thought the elephants would go well with the embroidered blocks I found in my Grandma H's belongings.  It was only a remnant so I hope that the little amount I have can fit in somewhere.  I haven't even began thinking about it!

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend!  Here is a (pretty bad) picture of my lovely kitty creeping on me to help envision what my weekend has entailed!

Family is a wonderful thing

I've had quite a busy weekend over in my world.  I was able to nearly finish sewing my rows together for the Sliced Apples QAL and it is a littler harder than I initially anticipated.  I have a couple of points that are not matching perfectly and I just don't have the heart or patience to rip them out and re sew the row, so that is how they will stay.  I've wondered many times if I will ever need a 100% perfect quilt.  Probably not :)  I also started on those coasters for my friend- they are fantastic!  I can't even hardly wait to send them!  All I have to do now if quilt them real quick and put them in an envelope.

Saturday one of my DH's cousins was married.  It was a very pretty wedding- and kind of eventful.  At the ceremony we were greeted by an unexpected guest:  a mouse started climbing the brick wall behind the happy couple!  It got the whole church stirring and they had no idea.  Too funny! 

Yesterday I was working on the Sliced Apples top and I got a call that my {other} grandma had a stroke and was in the ER in Lansing {where my side is from}.  Learning from a couple of months ago with this kind of thing I packed for a week, brought a book, and left.  My Grandma is going to be 91 in September and she is doing surprisingly well right now.  It has been pretty difficult because we just went through so much with my other Grandma and now we are going through these things again.  I am pretty close with this Grandma so the call itself was enough to send me into a panic.  When I got here she was in and out, but she lit up when I walked in.  It was so nice compared to what we just went through with my other side where we didn't even know if she knew us for so long.  Today she is doing even better than yesterday.  I walked in and she smiled so big and asked me when I had come into town- like I just happened to stop by on my way home :)  She is having a hard time saying things and she has been going in and out of recognition, but any recognition is fine by me. 

My family back home is wonderful and I am so thankful that I have them.  I am staying at my Aunt's house this week and will probably be going back to work and coming back to Lansing to visit my Gma and sleep.  Yesterday night we were told that my Gma needed rest so we were kicked out of the ICU and sent on our way.  We went back to my Aunt's house and played badminton and wild rummy.  It was so nice to laugh and have a support system during all of this.  I just don't think I could handle another rough patch without them.  Tonight {I think} I'm going home to drop off my DH so he can return to work and then coming back tomorrow morning.  I am going to bring my sliced apples top with me and see if I can get any more finished- but that assumes my aunt will calm down on the badminton front {she's kind of a maniac}.

Until next time!

Holy Cats!

O My Gosh, you guys!  Look what I found at Joann in the remnants bin:

Words can't even describe this

 I laughed out loud when I saw it and had to have it.  I have a friend in NC who loves cats and may potentially become a crazy cat lady in the future.  Instantly, I thought of her.  And the fantastic kitten coasters I will be making her.  I can't even hardly stand it- I want to see her face when she opens them. 

This will be the binding

I have an intense desire to make them right now, but I have other things I need to accomplish.  OK Stacey, deep breath, you can make them next weekend.

Last time I went to quilting with Pam she taught me the art of laying out a quilt.  I didn't know this existed... at all... because you're suppose to follow a pattern, right?  No.  There are quilts with no finite patterns and you have to actually be creative.  Apparently the Sliced Apples QAL is like this and I was SO intensely happy that she taught me this and some tricks to help out along the way.  Like taking a picture of it when you lay it out to see color groupings!  What a smart lady :)

I layed all of my HST's for the QAL out this week each night after work and I started sewing them together today.  I'm about half done with my rows and now I'm sweating.  I know I need to power through since my goal was to have them all sewn up this weekend.  I have a wedding starting at 1pm tomorrow to go to so today is my best window.  I also have to make a valance for the in-laws for their basement.  I'm avoiding that one, though I need to have it done by Sunday.

.... But those kittens are calling ....

My Second Finish!

YAY!

I am so happy that I am finally done with my Christmas Tree Quilt!  We were vacationing in "up north" Michigan from Wednesday to Sunday and I actually got some tasks done!  The first few days were just too hot to move so we spent plenty of time in the water and on the jet skiis, but Friday morning and Saturday I was on the move!  Well, on the move so to speak :)  Richard was playing volleyball with all of our cove neighbors while I sat back, watched, and kept binding!

This is a pretty terrible picture, but I could barely get Richard to stand still for it

I can't get this one right in blogger so you'll just have to turn your head :)

  

Pretty snowflakes from the long arm!

When we got back Sunday evening I went outside to check the bird feeders and water my flowers and this guy decided to hitch a ride on my leg.  Just about gave me a heart attack!  I was about to go inside and I felt a prickle.  Naturally assuming it was a mosquito I went to bash it's head in and holy cow!  Green Monster! 

It's like it can see my soul

There was a lot of screaming as I attempted to knock it off without killing it.  Those things have a grip, I tell you what.  I also have no idea how I used to catch them as a child since they creep me out so badly now!  Consequently, I dreamed about spiders last night :-/

I got all my HST for Sliced Apples all trimmed up and ready to be layed out.  I really, really wanted to do it last night but I just didn't have the time.  I dread the night back from vacation because it is just so exhausting for me with all the cleaning and unpacking.  I need a day after the vacation to recoup!  Good news is that I actually won something for participating in the QAL!  I couldn't even believe it because I never win anything!  Mr. Random must have known that I haven't gotten any fabric in a while :)  Thanks Pam and Cori-  I can't wait for the next one!

I hope you had a lovely holiday!

Sliced Apples has begun!

For me anyway :)

I have seriously missed the boat on this QAL due to recent events and I am very happy to be getting on with it!  I've never done this kind of block before and I really enjoy learning new things, so although it is simple I am getting a lot of pleasure from it.  They also come together super quick, which is amazing!  I started this weekend making the blocks and I'm already trimming them up.  I'd like to lay them out next weekend to sew together, but that may be ambitious since we are going on vacation tomorrow and Sunday evening will be spent doing all the laundry and unpacking.   We will see.

Super cute!

This past weekend I went home to Lansing to visit my family.  I spent some time with my Grandma Anne and showed her my XMas quilt (which I am binding- I can't wait to show you!).  She was so excited by it!  It made me so happy to see how proud she was of me.  I really want to make her a quilt now.  She is 90 so I think she will be my top priority.  I may or may not give this Sliced Apples quilt to her, though I would love to make a quilt using these blocks forming a diamond which extends.  I don't know if that makes sense or not, but I love the look of the radiating diamond!  I'm guessing it would come together just as quickly.  I'm going to draw it out this week and see if I should buy some fabric :)  You can never have too much you know!  If I end up making that design, I think I found a place that I'm happy with to donate to, but that is for a later time!

DH and I also played in a golf scramble with my Mom and Dad.  We came in last!  I played varsity all 4 years of HS but I have lost so much of it in the last 7 years.  I tend to only get out 2-3 times a year now so I tend to have just as many bad shots as good ones!  It was fun anyways and it made my Dad super happy to be able to spend some times with us :)

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

My quilt is back!

I went to quilting for the first time Wednesday in what has to be nearly two months.  I'm so out of the swing of things, but Mama Spark brought my Christmas tree quilt for me back from the quilter!  It's so cute I can hardly stand it.  It needs to be washed badly since it is nearly all white and has picked up dirt along the way so I'd really like to start binding it this weekend!

I had snowflakes put on it!  There are 5 or 6 different kinds.  So cute!  Mama spark cut my binding strips on the bias for me on Wednesday and I have those all sewed together and pressed, ready to be put on :)


Last weekend we went up north to DH's Grandpa's cabin and spent the weekend all by ourselves.  It was fantastic and just what we needed.  We hauled our jet ski's up with us and along the drive Richard says "That jet ski doesn't look like it's riding right."  Well he's not the boat person really in our relationship so I nearly climbed on top of him to look through the side mirror.  No, it was not riding correctly.  "You can pull over and we can look at it, or at least slow down so it's not bouncing so much."  "No, lets just keep going."  OK- my stomach is not so sure about this but whatever, they are his toys anyways.  We get there two hours after we have this conversation and what do we find?  One of the boards holding up the oddly writing jet ski completely snapped in half.  Crap.

The next morning we went to the hardware store in town and bought supplies to replace the broken one and by my insistence, his friend.  Luckily it was a fast fix since we really just had to carpet 2x4's and re-bolt them to the trailer AND we did it without any hostility.  Though I might have thrown in a "I told you not to drive so fast" when we got to the cabin the night before.. No biggie..

We are off to have a date night this evening!  I hope you all had a lovely week!

I've been gone for so long!

{Warning: this is photo intense!}

Life is finally calming down for me again.  It was a super busy, crazy, stressful time and I am happy that it has finally come to a close for me {or at least the end is in sight}.  The last few weeks I have been organizing and attending memorial/funeral services for my Grandma and helping my family go through her belongings and sell them.  There was a memorial where she was living and then the following week we had the funeral in Lansing with her family and where she requested to be buried.  We made food for a luncheon afterwards and when I went to use the ladies room, this was in the first stall:

No joke ya'll

It was very interesting and humorous in light of the situation.  I went to the next stall and it was a normal toilet. Thank goodness. 

Afterwards we began the long process of sorting and cleaning and sorting and moving and sorting and selling.  There was a LOT of sorting.  We found quite a few neat things and I never knew that she liked to sew so much.  This is the first thing I found and fell head over heels in love with:

My precious.

I couldn't even get over this darling sugar and creamer set.  I still want to squeeze it because it is so cute.  Ugh, it is just a cuteness overload.  Next we sorted through a box of my Grandma's crystal.  This decanter was in it and surprisingly I got it.  I think it's because our house still has relatively nothing in it since we have moved in so there is lots of room for it.

There was very little furniture but this came along with us.  It was apparently her WIP chest.  I found a few embroidery blocks that I am going to turn into baby quilts for my sister and I when the time comes.  My favorite it the hippo :)  First I need to finish a couple of the blocks, so I will need to learn how to do it better.



 I picked up last night where my Grandma left off on the clown patterns and I found that it was strangely relaxing.  I have been really enjoying it though I am awful at it.

Richard also had his exam last month so I finally have a husband again.  It has been marvelous this past weekend {this is the first weekend that I have been home since my Grandma was in the hospital}. The garden bed in our front yard had paver bricks lining it which was super annoying.  Any time you got remotely close to the stack, the bricks would fall over into the grass because they knew it would make me angry.  I conned DH into buying 2/3 of a pallet of landscaping bricks and we did this yesterday morning!

Finished front yard

WIP back garden bed

 Replacing the bricks in the front took about 3 hours with both of us working on it.  We stopped at noon because it was getting really hot outside.  This morning I started working on the garden bed in the back yard.  No joke, this took me an hour.  I had to pull out one of those black edging things, cut away grass, and then refill and level each hole.  I only got 6 done until I retreated inside.  Later on we are going to go out on Lake St Clair and ride the jet skiis.  Richard has been waiting for it for a while now :)

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.  Stay cool!