Shelby's Graduation from College

Our daughter, Shelby, graduated with her BS in Psychology this Sat. She graduated from Grand Valley State University (GVSU). We are very proud of her! The first picture is of me and my dh with Shelby in the middle. The next pic is of all three of my children, Kelsey, Shelby and Thadd. I could not be prouder of the three of them! Just wanted to share my joy!!

The Interview Game

I was reading the blog of Amy at thecalicocat and she was participating in something called "The Interview game". Her post also asked that if you wanted to be interviewed to ask. So I did. Since I am relatively new, I don't know how many people will read this, but we will see : )

These are my questions to answer:

1-1. Who inspires you (their quilts, their blog, etc.) & why?

I have MANY sources of inspiration in my life. Of course, God is the ultimate inspiration but if you mean mortals and creatively, I would have to say my quilting friends. They are always working on new things and we discuss new ideas and they push me to try things that are out of my comfort zone. My daughters are a continual source of inspiration not only creatively but as a person. I am very blessed to have such marvelous girls. The things they do in their lives inspire me to reach for new and better things in my own. My son and husband are also a source of inspiration, but in a more quiet way. They challenge me in a different way and I love them for that. I run a quilt group at my church and most of the women are older than me. They inspire me with their creativity and stories. I feel like I could go on forever so I will just stop with this.

2. If you could live anywhere (you &/or your spouse could get an equivalent or better job there) in the United States, where would that location be & why?

I would have to say Delores New Mexico. We had a family trip several years ago and traveled by car through 14 different states. I LOVED Delores! The scenery is just beautiful and there were not a lot of people living there. Mountains, and water and no people=heaven!!

3. Are you a morning person?

I am TOTALLY a morning person. I love being up with the sun and getting my day started. We back up to a woods so there is a lot of activity there especially in the summers. I really feel like a slug if I stay in bed too long!

4. Do you like to drive or be the passneger?

Both, depending on the situation. If I am going to a new place with my friends, I perfer to drive (it's a control freak kind of thang...) If I am going with the fam somewhere and the dh is there, I am absoloutely A-OK letting him drive, but I will take over if he gets tired.

5. What is your fondest school (elementary through college) memory?

I have sooo many, I don't think I can choose. I loved being a Pom-Pon girl in HS. I have a lot of wonderful memories of friday night games and hanging out with my friends. I also have a LOT of great college memories. I went to Michigan State University and I am still a Spartan at heart! I really loved the football games. I think one of the most memorable events was the day we has sooo much snow that classes were cancelled! they had not been cancelled for a VERY LONG time! There was no beer left in any of the party stores. People put kegs of beer on sleds and were pulling them down the main street back to campus. We were able to climb to the top of the ice arena and slide down the roof into the snowbanks! It was amazing.

Here are the rules to keep it going.
If you want to play the Interview Game, here’s what you do:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (Many of you do not have your e-mails linked to your responses - if you fit that category, leave your e-mail too.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions. (I have been thinking long and hard on my questions.)
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. (Let me know when you do.)
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.


I hope someone will read this and ask, it is kind of fun!!

Stashbusting

My friends Robin and Yuki asked me to go to the quilt shop in Tecumseh, Mi yesterday after work. I was not able to go as my son had a lacrosse game. I really did not NEED any new fabric either. I made a NYR to try to use as much fabric from my stash as possible this year. So far I have done pretty well with that. A fabriholic still lapses occasionally but for the most part, I have bought very little.

I have been using scraps up making fabric postcards and now my friend Yuki showed me how to make a small whirly gig pattern that will be great for scraps and odd pieces of fabric that I just can't bear to part with. I have left overs from quilts that I loved making, but not always enough to make another quit but I can use this pattern for trivets or placemats or table runners. The blocks are quite small 3" X 3" so it is great for scraps. I am always looking for something to make for my husband's family for Christmas (there are 7 of them) and for my friends so this may be the project for me for this Christmas!

Robin gave me the fabric to begin the U of M quilt for the art auction at U of M so I will be trying to get that cut out soon. It will be like the Texas quilt but in U of M colours, obviously! It is another stash buster as I had some left over U of M fabric from the Big Ten quilt last year and the U of M quilt I made for my daughter's, now ex, boyfriend!

I have quilting with the church ladies tonight and hope to work on the U of M quilt there. We will see how it goes. I will keep you posted. Then lax game on Friday and dinner with some friends. Sat is my oldest daughter's college graduation so that will take up the entire day. On sunday I would love to quilt, but if it is nice I really really need to work in the yard. On days that I am not working I would rather quilt than do anyting else so I make deals with myself to do a certain job and then I can sit down and quilt for a certain amount of time. Does anyone else do that?

Winter Snowfall

I had a minute and thought I would find a pic of a quilt I made to send to Australia with my dd. She went there to visit a friend at the University in Sydney and as payment for her stay I sent her friend a quilt. I asked her what kind of quilt she wanted and she asked for something winter. Well living in Michigan, I immediately thought of snow. So this is my rendition of snow beginning high up in the dark of space all the wan until it covers our ground in the palest of bluish white. The white pinwheels are actually a white on white snowflake fabric. The friend was thrilled (and so was her mom as she is a quilter also!) The first day my dd was there her friend's mom took her to a big quilt show in Sydney and my dd brought me back some lovely fabric from halfway around the world! I have since bought a BOM called "Australia all over", and plan on making it for my dd. I vowed to try to use up a lot of my stash this year and to work on things I bought to do and have not done yet. I still do not have a quilt on my own bed.

My dh told me that I could not make any more quilts for others until he had one on our bed. Two days later he came home from work and told me that one of his friends at work was expecting...TWINS!!! I said that was wonderful. He hmmnned and hawwwed and finally he asked me if I would make quilts for the new babies, and would I use a Noah's Ark pattern? Hahaha, it was kind of funny. I will post pics of the Noah's Ark quilts later. I designed them around a panel and they came out cute.

Thadd's quilt begins

Here are some pictures of the Texas blocks I have made for my son, Thadd's quilt. He is a HUGE University of Texas quilt (but we live in Michigan, go figure.) I have finally settled on a design and I just have to finish stitching around all the longhorns before I can lay it out and begin to put it together. I am quite excited, I think it will be great. The person who runs the quilt raffle at my work was looking at my pattern (mostly my own design) and wants me to try to work with her to make one using University of Michigan fabrics and colours. Now, for any of you that know me, a die hard Spartan, this will be difficult, but it is for a good cause, I suppose I can...I think it may actually end up in our "Art Auction" so I will keep you posted and you can go to the auction site in Novemberish and bid on it! (If YOU like U of M that is, lol). If anyone wants to see the quilts we raffled last year go to www.pathology.med.umich.edu/charity/ That will bring up the charity page and you can see the quilt raffle quilts for the past few years, but last year was our best yet! Let me know what you think of the quilts and if you could find mine...
Gotta run, LAX calls.

"Hen-na Party"

Yes, those are my hands covered with Henna designs. Most of the women I work with went to another friend's house last night and got our hands and feet covered in henna. It is more beautiful in person than the pictures show. It was a true "Hen" party! Thank you to Amrita for hosting the party.

Cats and Quilts

It seems like they are a natural combination. I happened to be on my computer looking for some other quilt pics and I found these of some of our cats. The first one is our cat Aiden. She belongs to my oldest daughter, Shelby.

In the next one, I was finishing up a Noah's arc that I designed around a panel for friends of ours that had twins and I had them draped all around. The pink and purple one was a graduation quilt I made for a friend of my other daughter's. In this pic Aiden and Mosen and my son, Thadd are all in the quilt "tent" and have appeared to have fallen victim to a "nap zone". You all know the place. You start petting the cat(s) innocently and then, WHAM, you are fast asleep. Well, my friend, you are in the cat's "nap zone". I believe they could take over the world if they could organize. Hmmm...maybe we should send cats to Iraq, we could use some of the Iraquies to fall into a nap zone...

The next pic is a close up of Mosen. Isn't he so sweet? He is napping on a flannel rag quilt I made for my dad for Christmas 2 years ago.

The last one is of Autumn, one of our 2 calico cats. The other one is Halloween, or Hallie for short. Then we have Captain Jack. I will have to snap some pics of him to post too.

I am working on a quilt for my son at the moment. He is a huge University of Texas fan so I found some UT fabric and finally settled on a design but I altered it, of course, so it works better for what I had in mind. I have all the squares sewn, but I need to blanket stitch around the applique before I can assemble it. I will try to get pics of the blocks and post them so you can see the progress.

I just wanted to get something new on this page so you didn't think I had forgotten. It has been a busy week and will be a busy weekend. I have to work tomorrow (every day actually) then the women at my work are having a Henna party. I am still deciding if I want to go. We have a lacrosse game for Thadd on Sat in the am and then Kelsey has her university swimming banquet on Sun at. She earned her varsity letter as a freshman at Michigan State University! The best part about the weekend is that I will *finally* be able to give the anniversary quilt to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law as they are in the same city as my daughter.

Have a good evening and let me know what you think of the kitties!!

The Heirloom

I had a few minutes so I thought I would post the story behind the "Heirloom" quilt. A few years ago, I made a rag quilt for my nephew, also our Godson, for his high school graduation. My intent was that when he went away to college, he could take it with him and it would be a nice utility quilt for college. You know the kind I mean, flannel, with cut, raggedy edges? Well his mother had other ideas. She told me it was an "heirloom" and that he would not be allowed to take it with him! I tried to reason with her but to no avail. So when his mom and dad had their 25th anniversary, I decided I would make a *real* "heirloom" quilt for them. Possibly, by anyone else's standards, my quilt is not an heirloom, but it is the second most intricate quilt I have yet to make in the 5 years I have been quilting, so for me it qualifies!
So when we went to their new home to get an idea on colours, Margie gave me the tiniest bit of fabric and told me to use those colours. So I have included the *bit* on the label. From tiny acorns grow mighty oaks! I guess this is the case.

Enjoy the pic and the story.

HAPPY EASTER!

I know it has been a long time since I have posted, it has been crazy busy with Lacrosse season going on! Now that I have a minute to breathe and no one is on the computer, I have uploaded the pics I promised. The first one is of the butterfly quilt the ladies in my church group made. I cut out all the butterflies and fused them to the background. The ladies took the blocks home and did the blanket stitch by hand around them. They also put on the antennas. I finally got all the blocks returned in Jan (it was handed out in Jan of 06). I put them all together and but on the borders. The outside border with the smaller butterflies had to be done after the center was done, so some of the ladies took the entire quilt and finished the hand-work. As you can see it was spectacular!! I took it to a long arm quilting friend of mine and she did the quilting. It doesn't show up very well, but she did 4 hearts in the white centers, 2 hearts along the edge and 1 in each corner, along with some other creative quilting on the borders. She did a fabulous job!

The next pics are of the Easter postcards I made. It was fun, and I think everyone has received them.

The last pic is the anniversary quilt I made for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. They had their 25th anniversary last June. Their children planned a party but we had very little advanced notice. I wanted to make a quilt but did not have enough time. They had just moved so, I also did not know the colours in their new home. We went to visit them in August and she gave me a small swatch of fabric with the colours on it (which I included on the label, just to be funny!) When we got home there was an issue of Quiltmaker waiting for me with this quilt on the cover. I had been thinking about what to make and this seemed perfect, just what I had been thinking of! Unfortunately, it was a 3 part series, groan, so I had to wait 6 months (the mag only comes out every other month!) for all the patterns! I began making what I could and finally finished in March. I think it came out really nice and can't wait to give it to them. I sent them the fabric postcard I made with some of the fabrics from their quilt in it and told them to call me as I had something for them. She loved the postcard so I can't wait to hear what they think about the quilt!! There is a story behind the quilt in addition to the one I already told so I will post it another day with the label, so you can see the tiny fabric swatch I had to work with.

Have a blessed Easter!