Wednesday's Walk

Another quilt to share for my Wednesday's Walk.

This was such a fun quilt to make! This was a quilt I made for Josh when he was two. He calls it his ducky quilt. He still sleeps with it. Josh has always had a soft spot for any type of creature. I saw this duck applique quilt in a quilt magazine and just had to make it for him. I love how the five little ducklings are following behind the mamma duck. Josh was my fifth born and I felt a lot like that momma duck with my five little ones waddling behind me. For some reason the applique on this quilt stayed intact unlike my Sunbonnet Sue I showed last week. Not sure what I did differently.

I Am Still Around!

I set aside my quilting for a bit to tackle a little down sizing and organization of my many sewing supplies! I have been up in the attic the past few evenings!

By the way, our attic is really an attic but it so cute with lots of personality! We use it more like a third floor rather than an attic. There are three small rooms and a little loft. Elena uses one of the attic rooms as her bedroom. Grant and Alan share the second attic room for their bedroom. My sewing stuff is in the third attic room. I have many kids who secretly wish I did not have so much sewing stuff to store in that third attic room because they would like an attic bedroom along with Elena, Grant, and Alan.

Nolan, Josh, Elena and I went through bin after bin yesterday sorting out my fabric into different bins based on size and usage. What a job but we finished it. We had a lot of fun looking through all the scraps remembering what quilts they were from. This evening I sorted through the mess you see in these pictures with the help of Anya,Nolan,and Josh.

I found so many forgoten projects that will keep me sewing for a LONG time! I will post some over these next few days.





Joel helped,too!

A Few More Done!

I finished up two more quilts today! The quilts have been turning out so well. Seven down, just four more to finish. Maybe I will get them done by this next weekend. I was actually starting to get tired of quilting today. I was getting pretty antsy. I really have no purpose to keep pushing myself like I do but now that I do not have many left to quilt I have a second quilting wind. I have other quilt tops waiting for batting and backing as well as ideas swimming in my head so I'm motivated!

What's Lily Up To?

Hm...I'm guessing she was just here...



Now she is here.



A few more quilts finished today.

Keeping Busy!

I worked on a few quilts this evening. The top two are completely finished and washed. The bottom bunny one is quilted but just needs the binding and to be washed.

I hope to get a few more quilts finished this weekend.

A Little Laugh

A laugh to start the day!

Blue Skies!

Today brought with it blue skies. Well, not at first. Today started out pretty much like yesterday ended. Not very good but after a nice talk with a dear friend who gave me a different perspective on things things were looking better. Thank you my dear sweet,friend! I took what she said and pondered it. The day started to turn around. Alas blue skies!

What did I do? I apologised to a child I wronged. I spent time actually fully paying attention to things like bugs found, projects made, pictures colored. I let myself get just as caught up in childhood dreams as the child who was dreaming, overlooked a few harsh words directed towards me and others. I took extra time to make a good dinner. Just tried to love more. It was hard at first,needing lots of God's grace but by the end of the day life around here was very different.

What did I see when the gloomy skies started to break? I saw children concerned when another child fell, bigger kids letting the younger children win or catch the ball. I saw six children intently watching another sibling build a diorama for the local fair and saying things like "this is really good" , "I bet it will win a ribbon" with genuine sincerity. The home run was when I overheard this from two sibling who had been sparing all week "I am proud that you are my brother. I would pick you for my brother even if I had a choice of brothers"." Ya,I like you too.I suppose I would pick you as a sister,too..." (I ignored the "...but you are kind of bothersome" part of the quote.)

On to my projects.

After supper I started quilting one of those quilts I have waiting. I was having quilting machine troubles but a little oil, a little lint cleaning, and a change of the bobbin did the trick for now. The machine is still not sounding right. I really should get my machine serviced but I hate the idea of it being gone for so long.

I thought I would use a wine thread for this quilt. I will add the binding in a few days.



I am now a little ways into quilting this quilt. I hope to finish this one up tomorrow evening.



Elena is the greatest popcorn maker! She adds the perfect amount of butter and salt. This tasty bowl of popcorn was the secret key used in my quilting abandonment for the night!

Wednesday's Walk

For today's Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane I chose my Let's Fly a Kite Sunbonnet Sue! quilt. This was my first attempt at making a Sunbonnet Sue quilt. I made this a few years ago intending to give it to an acquaintance who just had a baby girl. I thought it turned out very pretty but when I washed it quite a few of the Sunbonnet Sue appliques pulled away from the background. Argg!! I could have given it as a gift anyway, but my intention was to make an usable quilt not one she would be afraid to use. I made another quilt to give instead. I decided a log cabin pattern would be a safe bet and would not fall apart in the wash!

I still think this is a very pretty quilt so I have it out in my living room for show with my array of other oops quilts and I sure have a lot of those!

I had this great idea to have one of the bottom Sues holding a kite. I also had a few of the Sues running or looking around. I thought it was so clever.







See how the bonnet on this Sue is pulling away. This happened to a lot of the appliques on this quilt. I used applique bond and zigzagged the edges but still not sure what I did wrong. Maybe, I used the wrong size zigzag?

Is Today Over Yet?

Do you ever have one of 'those days'? That was what my today was like.

From news of our car being non repairable, to teen attitudes, on to cats fertilizing our neighbors' gardens,to fussy 4 year olds. This is the very short list.

I am very sure I just ran through the front lines of a war zone I did not know I entered and then finding myself in one of those makeshift field operating rooms you see in the movies as my children stand over me with many scary operating tools...

I was very hard pressed to find even one thing good in this day so out came my camera and with a little help from a few of the kids I found a few good moments.

Alan found this at the park.



Seeing a free sign on this bike by the side of the road. A gift from God to Grant.



A few sweet precious girls.



Josh being sweet Josh



A trip to the dentist with Grant and Nolan. Hurray!No cavities!



Not a bad list for such a crummy day.

It could be worse. At least I was not a casualty,just a few wounds.
Now, I think I will bandage up all these war wounds and hide in my room for a little while.

Hello Monday!

This is for any of you out there who just might understand this...

"White rabbit".

On to my post...

Today isn't so bad considering it is a Monday. I over slept a little (a lot) so I declare today a relaxing day.

I had the camera out for a couple minutes and took a few pictures of a little of the home front action.

Joel and Grace reading a magazine.



Anya doing a word search. (It is also no comb hair day but everyday it no comb hair day for Anya)



Ekie and Odell finishing up their Monday:Pick-up of 50 trashes each outside chore. A very loved chore by all...OK ,I know I declared it a relaxing Monday but not a chore free Monday.



Josh found some batteries and was working on a motor project.



I decided to interview Josh about his newest invention.

Take a look!



I might get a quilt quilted this evening or at least a good start on one.