Sunday is Here!

I know I told you I still had lots to share so I guess you will have to bear with me. First of all, I received another block for Matt's quilt. This one is from Laurie in ME. This was her first attempt at a string block (there have been several that this was a new technique for). I think she did a wonderful job! Thanks, Laurie!!

I thought you might like to see the things I got in the mail from Fabric.com. Would you like that?? I thought so!! First up is the backing for Matt's quilt

Followed by a yard of each of these fun fabrics

And I could NOT resist these Nicey Jane fabrics, all of it was on sale too!!!

I just fell in love with Nicey Jane. My DD2 is in love with Verna by Kate Spain and that is what I chose for my Jelly Roll fabric for the quilt a long. Here is my first block. I really love how it turned out too.

It was tricky to get those little squares to line up right, but after ripping one of them out 4 times, it is as good as it is going to get!!!

Now I am off to work on cutting out a couple of quilts for PTM and me to work on at the next church group meeting. I sent out an email letting them all know that we will be working on quilts for the veterans. The quilts need to be 48 x 48" or larger and have a patriotic theme or used patriotic fabric. I am doing the pattern "Make Life Sweet". I am very excited to try this pattern with these colors.

Why? Because I can use some of the red and blue strips I have left over from Matt's quilt and hopefully it will go together quickly. I am making some changes in how we are working at the church. Only works of charity this year. After talking with Debbie Miller and father Pat, they would like to see us concentrate on doing works of charity to support the mission of the church. I think this is an excellent idea! No more idle hands at our meetings. Everyone needs to bring something, related to charity, to work on to every meeting. No one should be showing up empty handed. I hope this will allow the group to refocus and breathe some new life into it. First up are quilts for the veterans!!

The Weekend is Improving!

I have so much to tell you all I don't know where to begin! First an update on the van. Apparently the dealership believed they were at fault (hmm let's see, they touched it last, had the wheels off less than 2 weeks ago to replace my transmission). Now they didn't *say* that but they are fixing it for free, so what do you think? I have a loaner car and should have mine back sometime on Wednesday. I guess the repairs are finished but there is some repainting that needs to occur.

I think you should remember that a few weeks ago I was asking for stuff for a friend's friend that had left an abusive relationship with 3 small children. Several of you sent me stuff. LTW quilted 3 quilts and donated them and the CL's had one that they donated also. PTM put the binding on the 3 from LTW. My friend, Anne also went above and beyond the call. She made 4 pillowcases, put them on pillows and added a few extra goodies for the kids. I have not thanked her properly, so sorry Anne! Here are photos of the pillows. One for each child and

Two for the mama!

Thank you so much Anne, they are perfect.

Next I thouht you might like to see what I bought at Checker. I *tried* to be a little restrained but...They had fabric sample cards and I love those so I got a few. You can see there is a little Hope Valley in there and I was so excited about that!


There were several panels, some that will be perfect for the church. I loved the Manly line on the right. Those might make fun little guy quilts. I even found Santa on a motorcycle!! Too much fun. PTM and I always have a blast going through the carts of these and I think we spent at least the first hour or so doing just that.
I also got a little fabric while there. Some Nicey Jane charm packs (splitting with PTM) and she got some Hope Valley charm packs that she is splitting with me. I also got 2 JR of Delft in both the green and the blue. These are right up my alley!

I bought a few inexpensive books and patterns.

I preordered these things so we were able to pick them up when we were there.



I am particularly excited about the Liberated Quiltmaking II book but have not had time to go through it yet.

The last thing I will talk about on this post is that I received 2 more blocks for Matt's quilt from Barb L. Along with a note for Matt. Thanks Barb!!

I still have LOTS more to share but I will stop here, go check the mail and put in some laundry. I did make it to the gym for 2 hours this am. My DD2 is home so loads more laundry will be done tonight too.

I did manage to work on my JR Quilt a long block and get it finished. I guess you will just have to stop back to see that along with the other goodies I got in the mail!!

OMG the good and the Bad of the day

Today was the GOOD and the BAD of the day!! So I will begin at the beginning.

I got up this morning expecting this to be a fabulous day. PTM and I were going to Checker to pick up an order and I was so excited. I picked her up this am and we had to drop my DD1 off at work in AA. Then we headed off to Maumee, OH. On the way my car was making a whomp, whomp, whomp kind of noise. It kind of sounded like the tread of the tire had separated. So I called DH and he told me to check the tires. No problem with that. So we kept going.

We arrived at Checker and proceeded to shop. And shop we did! Then while we were shopping I go an email from none other than Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs. I had sent her an email telling her about my give away and the blocks that PTM had made from her pattern. She had a minute and finally got a chance to read my blog about the give away. Well, she was sooooooo nice and asked if PTM might like to "stunt embroidery" for her. Well, I have to say that PTM almost peed her pants right there in Checker!!!
Are you kidding me? Of course she would love to do that. Then a woman named Penny, that has designed rulers for Creative Grid and has written books was talking with us and mentioned that the designers of Crabapple Hill might like to have someone to stunt embroidery for them too. HOW COOL IS THAT???

So once we got over that we kept shopping. She bought sooo many bolts!!

I was so happy that we go so many cool things today. Photos later though because of what happened on the way home. We were so close to home and the whomp, whomp, whomp continued and then...and THEN...the wheel (yes the WHEEL) flew off of my car and went across the other lane on the road we were on across the median and then across the other 2 lanes of traffic and then up on the side of the highway. No one was hurt. PTM was shaken up (actually so was I). We had to call the tow truck and then wait for DH to come and get us. DH came and got us and we went to get DD1 and then went to the dealer and got our spoils out of the car. Here is my car as we were waiting to leave with the towing guy (who did not want to go across all the traffic to get the wheel!! so I had to go and get it myself).


We went to the dealership and then I brought PTM home. I did NOT get to the gym today. On the upside we did not even eat lunch today. WHAT A DAY!!!

On a lighter note. DD1 took our dog, Laxy to the local elementary school on Wed. She is training her to be a therapy dog. Here she is in her new vest.

and this is what the patch in the middle says:

All in all quite an eventful day. I hope your day was less eventful. I have to say though, that if I had to have this kind of day I am happy PTM was the one with me!!

Recent Matt Update and more blocks

I spoke to Matt's mom today. He had the dressing on his arm changed today and it was pretty painful. He has also begun PT for the elbow and it is VERY painful. It is difficult for a mama to watch their child suffer but he is working though it. She is there and helping him with some of the every day stuff he still needs help with. She said the military has taken care of everything and everyone has been so nice to her and her family. I think her other kids and hubby are home and it is just her there. His younger brother was over today and said that Matt's eyesight is not very good in the eye that had the damage, but then he laughed and said it was not very good before, but he is beginning to see shapes and they have high hopes that he will regain the eyesight he had before the incident. Time will tell with that. Please continue to pray for him.

So I receive more blocks in the mail today from Kathy L


And from Yvonne:

As you may be able to see in the corner on Yvonne's block I put her name, city and state so Matt would know who made each of the blocks that came from all of the caring, patriotic people around this great country of ours! So if you have not sent your block(s) yet, please feel free to do the same or I will be happy to do it for you once they arrive.

Now you know I just could not stand it, with so many blocks in my hot little hands and en evening of quilting so...

I layed some of the blocks out on the floor and PTM helped me by handing them to me in order, then pinning them together and bu around 9pm we had this!

That's PTM on the left and me on the right. I look terrible! I was late to the gym. My dad came down to Ann Arbor today and so I went to pick him up and bring him back to the lab. Of course I had tons to do at that time so my friend, Holly, kept him entertained while I finished my DNA extraction, read my gel and cleaned up. Then I brought him back to his friend (that he had driven down to Ann Arbor for an eye appointment) and left to come home. It is always good to see him but it messed with my schedule! He is beginning to look and act so much older now. He is doing the old person shuffle and doesn't hear well. It is difficult to see this about your dad. Then I had to rush to get to the gym after I got home as I was taking photos for the blog and trimming blocks, but I managed 20 minutes on the eliptical. I rushed home, wolfed down some food and changed my clothes and ran out the door to quilting with the Canton Area Quilt Guild (that's our new name, formerly the Cherry Hill Village Quilters)

I have 3 more rows to do and the top will be finished. I am hoping to finish it this weekend. If you have sent your blocks I am waiting to put them in the quilt. If you have blocks and you have not sent them yet, please let me know so I know to expect them. I have space for 30 blocks! PTM is going to make one for a friend of hers who is in the service as well. He was not injured but he is a family friend, American, that married a Canadian (PTM is Canadian). So any leftovers that she and I have made will go towards that quilt.

PTM and I are making a trip to Checker in the morning to pick up some stuff so I am off to bed soon. I just took some muffins out of the oven for breakfast in the morning. PTM gave me a fabulous bran muffin recipe and they smell so good!!

More Blocks

I received Mary's block for Matt yesterday. She included a note for Matt! Thanks, Mary!

I have not spoken to Matt's mom but this is what Matt had to say on his Face book status:

Update:doing good waiting on eardrum repair and some follow up procedures before they release me to outpatient care, primarily done in MI over the next few months. I will have to fly down here a few times for orthopedic consults. Thanks for all the prayers, wishes, care, etc I'm doing just fine and I can't wait to have my boys home" I took these photos from his FB pages.
The one on the left is taken more recently and shows his funny side! The one on the right is when some of his buddies went to MD to visit him in the hospital. He has managed to keep his smile through it all.


Once again, I want to let everyone know how much I appreciate your making a block or 40 (PTM) and contributing to Matt's quilt. I am hoping to begin to put some of it together tonight! I don't have quite enough blocks to finish it but soon that will happen too!!

WHEW...What a day!

I had a crazy busy day today. As I said, I almost forgot to choose a winner! When I came home this is what I saw, my big boy, Mosen, looking out the window waiting for me to get home. I don't take many "artsy" photos but I like how this one came out.

The next thing I did was look at the mail and boy oh boy was it a good mail day! My friend, Kathy, had asked for my mailing address because she wanted to send me something. Now we met when our girls swam together at Michigan State. My DD swam her freshman year and hers swam all 4 years! I made her DD a quilt because she is such a good friend to my DD. So the package arrived today from her and this is what was inside!


Not just one jacket but 2. One for me and one for my DD. What a thoughtful person. Just the kind of pick me up I needed today.

But wait...there's more. I received some more blocks for Matt's quilt in the mail today.
From Sherrill, Laural and

Kathleen too. Thank you so much!!

Thanks, ladies!! Laural, if you are reading this, can you email me something to include with your blocks in the way of a note for Matt?

Oh and of course the day would not be complete without a weigh in at WW tonight before an hour of Pilates right? I lost another 1.2 pounds and broke a major milestone in weight loss for me!! I was afraid I was going to have gained but I didn't and I was so happy!!!

So I made dinner for myself, DH had salmon ready to go so made some rice and green beans, YUM. I did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen and scrubbed the pots and pans, loaded the dishwasher and sat down to watch 24. Now I will finish this and head off to bed. It has been one long day!

We have a winner!!

I almost forgot that today was the day for the drawing!! I had my DD1 use her random number generator (who knew she has one on her key chain?? What's up with that??) and the lucky number is 21, Kim D. So Kim if you will send me your mailing address I will get them in the mail to you soon.

Congratulations to all that entered and thank you for visiting my blog and commenting!

Matt's quilt update. Now don't freak out that PTM has 23 blocks made I still need more! I am making the quilt larger so I need like 80 blocks or so!! I made 24 on Sunday so we still have a ways to go. Thank you for offering to make a block or two. I am looking forward to receiving them!

Matt Update

I'll make this short. Matt and his family got to meet the president of the United States and Matt received his purple heart today. Sorry that's all the new info I have. I think the honor should be the presidents since our brave men and women put themselves in harms way to protect him and the rest of us. Too bad it wasn't a president I have any respect for, but I respect the office.

Thanks to all who have sent blocks to me. I received a block from Joan and a nice note for Matt too. Here it is:

I have been sewing blocks today and have around 10 more finished. I will sew a little longer and then probably watch the US v Canada hockey game.

I thought you might like the view out my kitchen window. This morning the one closest to the window fell and it was so loud! The icicles in the ivy look so cool.

I hope you are all having a nice weekend.

Matt's Blocks

I am so excited! I got my first blocks in the mail (or in person) today for Matt's quilt. The first ones I received were 10 from Pauline(PTM)! Then the mail came and I got 2 from Jeanne. Thanks gals! Now Jeanne, if you are reading this, you forgot a note for Matt with your blocks. Can you email me something so I can include it? Jeanne and I actually met IRL one summer and she is a real sweetheart. You all know that PTM is amazing, so enough said!

To my great surprise I received a block from another person, Balinda. Come to find out this is the first string block she has ever made. Great job, Balinda!! It's a beauty. She even wrote her note on the back of the block so Matt would have her words forever. Now I took a photo so he would at least know what she said!

I can't thank you all enough. I need something like 60 total blocks for what I am going to make. I have made 6 so far and with what I have received so far we are off to a good start. Keep em' coming gals!!

I had a minute to shop yesterday and bought this from my friend Cori's online quilt shop. (Be sure to go and visit her, especially if you are in the Jelly Roll quilt-a-long as she has some of the BEST prices on the web and she is a sweetheart too!!) I digress, here is one of the things I bought. A jelly roll of Verna. Isn't it gorgeous? I also bought some fabric for gifts that I didn't take pictures of since they are for gifts, DUH!! You wouldn't want me to spoil it for them now would you??

I had the day off today to go to a meeting with our financial planner, BAH!! I HATE these things.
BUT...that left the rest of the day to play, YEAH!! So I made DH take me to Sam's club, that was good. I can get the most amazing green beans there, even at this time of year. Then I called PTM and asked her go come out and play. It was snowing like crazy and PTM does NOT play in the snow, so I went and picked her up and we got into lots of trouble at JAF!! They have these wonderful project boxes in 2 sizes and the big one is usually almost $30 but it was on clearance today for $10!!So I just *had* to get 2. They has sparkly green or red, so I got 2 green. The small one, normally $17 was on sale for $7, so I may get some of these for Christmas gifts. I also got another 10% off so that was great, right? Then I drove our sorry butts to the gym where we proceeded to sweat like an oldie for an hour. I took her home after that and came home too.

Tomorrow is weigh in at the gym followed by 2 hours of torture working out with Body Vive followed by an hour of ABS work. WHEW!! Wish me luck! I hope you all have a productive Saturday too.

500th Post Give Away!!!

Yep, can you believe it? I have done 500 posts (actually this is 502, LOL). I was talking with PTM last night trying to decide what to give away. What should it be? Something amazing, right? You all wouldn't mind something amazing now would you?? When guess what? PTM offered me something I just could not pass on. Now you might want to sit down to hear this one. Many of you do not know PTM as she does not have a blog. She is one of my bestest friends and she is meticulous about her work. METICULOUS, I tell you. Makes my work look like a third grader did it. Fortunately she is a wonderful teacher and I have learned a LOT from her. All this being said she offered to donate for my give away an entire set of the embroidered blocks (NOT the patterns) from the "Rabbits Prefer Embroidery" pattern. She has them all done and her hand work is stunning! Here is what the pattern looks like (photo from Bunny Hill's website)
I will share the next 2 blocks of this that I have done but hers are much better than mine! Here is block 4 and 5, done by me.

So if you want a chance to win these fabulous blocks (all 13 of them) then leave me a comment and tell me why you would like to win and what you will do with them if you do win. I will draw the winner on Monday.

On to news about Matt. I received a text from my son this am and he had received it from Chris, Matt's brother and here is what it said:
"Hey, just letting you know Matt is ok. He's got some scabs on his face and his arm is in a bandage cast deal and his vision is blurry but he's ok".
Now these words came from the brother and I will talk with his mom once they are back home, but this sounds like good news!

I thought I would share the 4 blocks I made last night for Matt's quilt. I put them both ways so you could see the fabric more closely.

Once again, let me say that I appreciate all of you that have volunteered to donate a block(s). I am looking forward to seeing them all!

Now don't forget to let me know if you are playing along in the Jelly roll quilt-a-long and leave a comment for a chance to win here too!!

Thanks for the help!

I just want to take a minute to thank all of the wonderful quilters that have volunteered to make a block or blocks for Matt's quilt. I am thrilled that I will have some assistance and he will be touched to realize how many others, that he has never met, care enough to do something for him! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I did not mention this previously but that last post was my 500th post!!! I would like to do a give away. I don't want you to do anything special but I would like you to leave me a comment to be entered into the drawing for this giveaway. I need to decide what I want to give away now don't I? I will give it some thought and get back to you on that, because there will need to be some photos now too, right? So you will have to wait a day or 2 for me to decide. Anticipation is good right?

Now on to the weight loss for the week last week. I lost 3.2 pounds last week, bringing my grand total to 15 pounds over the last 6 weeks. Slow but steady!!

As you may have noticed, I joined a quilt-a-long! Yep, I sure did. I put the button on my side bar so if you want to join in you can too! You just need to leave a comment and play along. One pieced block a month. C'mon, get megged!! Maybe a good giveaway present would be a Jelly Roll so you can play along with me? Hmmmm...I will consider it!

UPDATE:

Here is the latest about Matt that him mom posted of FB:

I am happy to Report that Cpl Koetting Matthew R. USMC, has Both feet planted in the soil of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!! He will be at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, MD. Will update with address etc, asap.We will be arriving there tmw at 12p. Health, rapidly recovering!!! Thank you all. BIG HUGS.

Apparently he walked off the plane on his own accord too. He is one tough marine!

Bad things happen in groups

I have a very dear friend that has a son in the US Marine Corps. He has been in Afghanistan fighting. He was right on top of an IED when it exploded. Read about the incident here., I believe this talks about what happened. Matt is alive, but injured. He was thrown into a canal where one of his Marine buddies found him and got him to help. He had multiple shrapnel in one eye, the shrapnel is now removed but the eye is swollen shut. He has multiple open wounds on one arm and his elbow is smashed. They are cold packing his arm and won't even begin to address the elbow until the wounds are more healed. He is in a lot of pain. According to his mom, being away from his "guys" is more painful for him than his injuries. I spoke with her last night. They have flown Matt to Germany and she has been able to speak with him. Not sure when but he will be on his way to the Naval hospital in Bethesda soon and the military will fly my friend and her family to Bethesda to see him.

I've known Matt for a long time. I taught him in religious education class, that's in fact, where we first met. His younger brother is my DS's BEST friend, in fact he ate dinner here last night. They played football from second grade to freshman year, and lacrosse from 5th grade until their senior year. Matt's sister was on the swim team with my DD2.

Matt is a person that is bigger than life. He has struggled to find his niche in life. I think he found what he was looking for in the Marines. His personality is a good match for that program. He is the kind of kid you think of as "Superman". While talking to his mom last night we both have always felt that nothing bad would happen to him, not to Matt. It feels kind of surreal, actually.

Thankfully he is alive. With the help of the doctors and the grace of God he will heal.

Today I am asking you all to remember the brave men and women that serve in our military to keep this country safe and free. We all go about our lives and often take for granted the freedom we have and the relative security we live in (at least for the moment). Our military men and women are working hard to keep things this way.

We are at war. You are going about your life and only small things have changed but we are at war. We are working to preserve our way of life. There is a group of people out there that are making it their main mission in life to kill the infidel. This is you and me. If you don't think so take a minute and think of people like Matt.

Give your family a BIG hug and kiss today, and say a special prayer for Matt and his family.

I am thinking of making a RWB quilt for Matt. Any suggestions on a pattern? Anyone got a QOV quilt that is fabulous? I need to be able to make it up fairly quickly. Maybe strings? I'll have to think about it. I'll keep you posted on his progress.

NOTE:

I have decided to make this quilt (Pattern by Mary Johnson) If anyone wants to contribute blocks please let me know. String quilts are so easy and quick to make. Just let me know and I will send you my snail mail address (unless you know me IRL and then you can drop them off or I can come and get them) Thanks!

Found out Matt went into surgery to repair some of the wounds and work on the elbow. If you want to send me a block or two for the quilt, I need you to do a couple of things
1-Download the directions from the link above. I will ask you for the half dark red, half dark blue blocks. I am cutting some right now and finding it difficult to find red in my stash with out a lot of white! I have some but not a lot. If you have any red patriotic fabric or blue use that. I made my muslin base 10.5" as I have found this makes the trimming easier for me later. You can send them untrimmed.
2-Please send me a note to include with the quilt for Matt. I will put all our names on the label too so unless you don't want to be recognized please include these things for me. I think he would be touched to know how many other people appreciate what he has done for us all.
3-Please email me and I will give you my address. I am trying to get this done asap so if you are sending something it would make it easier for me if you send it within the week. I realize this is a quick turn around time but I would like to send it to him with his parents when he gets back to the states.

Again, thanks for any and all that wish to help!

More Chubby Chicks

I kind of chuckled when I read what I put as the title of this post. I mean the quilt not me and my friends!!

One of the CL's stitched the binding on and PTM hand turned it. I wanted to show you because I love how the polka dots look on this. You can see that I wrote directly on the back of the quilt for the label. This will be going to St. Patrick's Catholic Church for their raffle. I hope I can purchase some tickets. I left it with our priest tonight so he can deliver it to the other parish. Fly away little chickies!!

This is a quilt made from blocks given to the church group by a man named Jack. His mother passed away and he donated all her quilting supplies to us, including many partially finished quilts, some quilt tops and blocks. These were orphan so one of the CL's put it together. I gave it to the pastoral associate for a woman undergoing extensive chemo in our parish. I hope she is comforted by this.

I have a lot of stuff going on in my own life right now and am praying it all turns out well. My dad needs to have some testing done and at this time I am asking you to keep him in your prayers. I hope and pray it will all turn out OK. Thanks for your prayers. His next test is March 17th. I am feeling very stressed by this since I am the only one in the family to take care of him and both of my sisters (both are handicapped). Work is super busy at the moment too and going to the gym every day is a challenge but I am doing it. I am finding, to my surprise that I feel so much better when I do. I have not missed a day since beginning except for Sundays because they are not open!

Have a great weekend. Two hours of work out tomorrow morning and weigh in at the gym too. Wish me luck!!

Weight Loss Check In

Ok, it is Tuesday already and I have not updated you about the progress of my weight loss. I weighed in at WW and lost 2 more pounds this week (by their scale). Then, yesterday, they measured me and compared my new measurements with the ones from when I began. I lost a total of 7.5" overall. Funny thing is that I lost 2 inches from my right thigh and 1.5 inches from my left thigh! I guess I am a little lopsided!!! LOL. Oh, I almost forgot, while I was doing the circuit tonight with PTM, a lady I knew from Curves started talking with us. Apparently she is a hand quilter. I have a really OLD project that needs to be finished and she volunteered to take it and finish it for me!!! I am going to let her do it too. I offered to pay her or piece something for her but she was not having it. I am going to pack it up in my car and hope I see her tomorrow!! She was one of the only reasons I kept going to Curves, as she worked there and was so nice to me.

Not much on the quilting front. I didn't do anything last night and tonight was a meeting at the church. I have trimmed up the string blocks I had from Saturday. I got a few more tonight. The progress on those is coming right along! Grace took the rest of the background and center strips home and some others are still out. I hope we may have them all back by next week. That means the quilt could be assembled and maybe to LTW by the end of the month!!

Quilting with the Canton Area Quilt Guild is tomorrow night and I am looking forward to going and working on my RPE redwork blocks.

Sorry no pictures tonight!! Maybe tomorrow. I hope you are all making great progress on your own quilts.