A Quilt Exhibit by Bonnie J. Smith

I work at the University of Michigan.  

Yesterday a friend told me about a really cool quilt exhibit there.  

We walked over to the building to see it and thought you might enjoy the quilts too.

My kids were all swimmers.  

My son stopped after a few years, but both my girls swam through high school.  

The younger one swam at Michigan State for a year too. 

 My husband and I were YMCA and USA swimming officials for over 10 years.  

Needless to say, swimming was a major part of our lives for a long time.  

These quilts were fantastic.  

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

I took a photo of one of the signs, as pictured here, but not all of them.

This one reminded me of practice lanes!

I hope you enjoyed the show here as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you all.

Happy sewing!

~XOP~

Schmitty's going to the Olympics!!!

Just so you know, Allison made it into the semi finals which should be televised tonight at 10pm here in MI.  If you get a chance watch it and send your good vibrations to her!!  Go Allison!!

I know you are all probably sick of me talking about Allison, but I am so excited and proud of her!  Her parents have set up a blog so we can all find out how things go for her in China.  Please take a moment and stop by and wish her luck at her first Olympics ever!!  She is s wonderful person and her family is the best.


According to her blog her 200 free is on Monday in the am.  Take no prisoners, Allison!!

She did it!!

I don't have a lot of anything to post but our family friend, Allison Schmidt was swimming in the 200 freestyle finals of the Olympic Trials tonight. I left quilting early tonight so I could come home and watch the finals. She was seeded second going into finals. The first place girl was Katie Hoff. It was an amazing race. You can view the race here, under the womens 200m free. She finished second !!!!!! Top first and second place go to the OLYMPICS!!!!!!!! They BOTH broke the American record for the event. Allison finished second by 4 100ths of 1 second! Katie went 1:55.88 and Allison went 1:55.92. AMAZING!!! She is such a nice girl and I am so happy and proud of her! I was yelling and crying while she was swimming. She used to compete against my DD2 and when she would kick her ass in the pool she would get out of the water and tell her what a great swim DD2 had had. So humble! You certainly don't see that with Michael Phelps! Go Allison. We are soooo proud of you!!

The Anniversary Quilt

Yes, it is hard to believe but I have begun another quilt. It is one on the "gotta do" list but it is also one I want to do. Or at least I thought I did before I actually began it. I love the fabric, Simplicity fabrics, from Moda. I think the fabrics are just YUMMY!! Do you remember my friends, Karen and Cory that just got married? Well I made some 6" white squares for people to sign at the reception and had Karen choose a quilt block and the colors she wanted. She chose a soft aqua and a soft green and white. Of course I LOVE those colors too so I was excited to work on this quilt. She sent some of the plain white squares to Brazil (where she is from) for family and friends that could not be at the wedding so I will have to wait for those to finish the quilt. I am using the signature squares on the back.

Well, yesterday I began cutting the quilt out. I cut and cut and cut and cut some more. I finished the cutting this morning. WHEW!! Now the fun part, watching the blocks come together. So I began sewing. The first part, not so bad. It was a block I got from the Quilter's Cache called Morning Star 2. It is even shown in blue and green, perfect right? Yeah, you would think, but nooooooo...so much matching!!!! ICKKKKKK!!!!!! So I bucked up and did the matching. These blocks took me forever to make. One block took me over an hour to make, I was *that* careful with it all. So far I have 6 of the 42 blocks done. I will post the photos tomorrow as my DS wants the computer back to play WOW soon. I think this will have to be a first anniversary quilt, what do you think?

On another note, I am excited to watch the Olympic trials for swimming this week. The first is tonight on NBC at 8pm. We actually have a friend that is swimming in the trials!!! How cool is that? I went on the USA swimming website (I know, BIG swim dork) and found the psych sheets (that list everyone that is competing in the order of fastest to slowest) and she is ranked 4th in 2 events!!! The 200 free and the 400 free. Her name is Allison Schmidt and the kids all called her Schmitty. She is a friend of DD#2(they went to HS together) and I know her parents from years of officiating for swimming. She is a really, really nice person on top of all that. She also qualified for 2 more events the 50 and the 100 free, but her best chance for making the team is in the other 2 events. Keep your fingers crossed!! I do have to say that the blocks are really beautiful!

Now Natalie tagged me for a Meme and here it is

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it."

Seven Habits/quirks/facts about me...hmmmm.

1-I was a swimming official for 10 years.

2-I love cats and would have a million of them if I could do it without making my house into a giant litter box.

3-I can water ski on one ski. (Or could when I was young!)

4-I have to use my left foot first when going up or down stairs.

5-I tried to fly a water kite that my dad built when I was a teen (you know, you are strapped into it and ski with it behind a boat.)

6-I love to water toboggan! I love all water sports. I don't do them much anymore because I am not comfortable in my fat body.

7-I don't like being fat but find it difficult to eat less or exercise (I'd rather be quilting!!)

I guess that's enough, there are 7 of them, thanks Natalie!

I tag the following people:
1- Jeanne
2-Kim
3-Pat
4-Mary
5-Faith
6-Amy
7-Mama Koch

Now you all play along, ya hear??