Happy Mother's Day

Today I want to wish all the moms reading this a Happy Mother's Day! I hope you get a chance to spend some time with your loved ones, as I will. I will share with you the beautiful flowers I got from my son who had to leave Friday for his summer classes at the university. Thanks, Kyle.

Kyle

I come from a large family, and am happy to say that my parents are still here with us. As is typical of all kids, I never fully appreciated all that my parents did for me until I had kids of my own. So let me just say "Thanks, Mom!" I know how lucky I am to be your daughter. I always knew I was loved and you were always there when I needed you. What a great role model I have!

My mom with my daughter, Annie, on her wedding day last year. Two beautiful ladies.

And I would like to add another "Thanks, Mom!"to the other mom in my life, my husband's mom. I love your son more than I ever knew was possible. And I know that much of what he is, he is because of how he was raised. He, too, was blessed with good role models as parents.

My other mom

I love being a mom. I cannot imagine my life without my kids. My youngest is making plans to go away for college in the fall. The last to leave the nest. I hope that I did my job as mother well enough. I know I sure tried.

My youngest, Matt

In a quilting funk

Note: I came back and edited this post to add a picture of the apron and made a couple other changes/additions as well.

I'm not sure why exactly, but I don't seem to have accomplished much lately. I have done a bit of sewing. My bear claw quilt top is finished. Judy called hers "Bears in the Farmhouse", but I think mine needs to be called "I Bear the Long Michigan Winters by Dreaming of Hawaii". The floral border fabric kind of reminds me of leis.

And I have made some progress on my Time to Water quilt as well. This one has taken a bit of thinking for me, as the fabric was purchased with a specific outcome in mind, but I had not marked it or cut it. And since two years (yikes!) have passed since I bought it, I could not remember which fabrics went where in the quilt. Here is a picture showing a bit of progress. I'm working on a flowerpot border for it now.

Since it took a few days to add the apron photo, I have a bit more done on this top. Here is how it looks today as it hangs on my design wall.

I did finish one thing so far this month. It is an apron from the Clothesline Club at our local quilt shop. It's not really my style, so it will probably be gifted to someone eventually. Here is a peek.

My happy scrappy house quilt is still not done. But it is partially quilted, and shouldn't take too long to finish up. There has been a lot going on here, so it won't likely happen this week. This is what I have so far. And yes, it really is still sitting in that position just waiting for me to come back and finish. Someday. Soon. I hope.

Update

I started out on a high note today and have been progressing downwards at an alarming rate. Why is it that whenever I proclaim it to be a quilting day, interruptions come from all directions? I have gotten a little accomplished, but not nearly as much as had hoped. And I'm at a standstill for now, as there are a bunch of kids hanging with my son down near my sewing space. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. I did get the strip quilt top done. I really like how this one turned out. It has a happy feeling, I think.

Plus, I got all my half-square triangles made and trimmed for the next border on the bear paw top. Now I am changing gears and will work on a little hand applique. It wasn't a priority for today, but it needs to be done and I can do that away from the noise of the kids.

Spring is in the air

...and I am feeling a surge in creative juices. This has been a good week for me and my quilting. There was a shop hop to our south that introduced me to several wonderful quilt shops I had never been to. And although I bought very little during the hop, I know I will be making return visits to several of them when I am ready to begin something new. But for now, I am still trying to focus my efforts on completing those that have already been started.

And those efforts were helped along this week because I only had my granddaughter here for one day. So I have been busy stitching away. I even managed to finish something! This was a kit I bought several years ago. I had joined a table runner program with a quilt shop and they sent me five table runner kits spread out over a year. Can you guess how many still remain unmade? As of this week, four! And even this one isn't really as it was intended to be. But, it is done! And I am moving on- no regrets.

I think this one is very well timed to decorate my table for the Easter season. It really isn't "me", but I have decided to embrace it anyways.

This is another project I have been working on this week. I swapped house blocks with some ladies from an internet group I used to manage. They were a rather odd combination of colors and styles and I was having a terrible time imagining how I could ever make them work together. This is what I ended up with. I think it works. I hope to get this quilted today so I can add another item to my finishes for the month.

And speaking of quilting today, this is another quilt-a-thon weekend with Judy L. My goals for this weekend include quilting and binding the Happy Houses quilt, completing the final three borders to my bear paw quilt, and finishing my current strip club quilt top. I will post progress as I make it. Until then, I'm back to my sewing room. :D

A flimsy excuse for not blogging

I know I have been neglecting my readers again. But for once it is not because I have no progress to report. I have actually been quite busy lately. Even with my new commitment to care for my granddaughter three days a week, I have managed to make some progress on my quilts. I wish I could report some finishes of complete quilts. But, I have managed to complete a few tops and make progress on another. So here is my show and tell for today. The pictures aren't the best, as the lighting was bad, but hopefully they will suffice.

First up is my OP top. All the boarders are on, the binding is cut and backing fabric is purchased, so this one is all ready to go, once I get a couple other quilts quilted. Yippee!

Next up we have one of my strip night projects. I think I started this one in November or December. I'm not putting any borders on this one, so it is a completed top. But I don't have a backing fabric for this one, so it will just get added to the someday pile.

This was my project for last month's strip night. I feel pretty good about getting this top done before our next strip night meeting. I think this is the only one I have been able to say that about so far. Most of mine have taken me more than one month to complete. I will even admit that I still have one unfinished strip night project from last year. But I am on the fence with that top. I may be passing that one on to somebody else, as it just isn't speaking to me.

And finally, I got the next step completed for my quilt along with Judy project. All the blocks are together and a couple of borders are attached. Next up will be a half-square triangle border and then a couple more plain borders and it will be done too. Phew! It feels good to be making some progress. And I still have another week to finish something before the end of the month. Wish me luck!

Tops, blocks, and some other distractions

This week has been a bit slow for me quilting-wise. I have made some progress on my orange pile (OP) top. It is assembled all except the final border. I really appreciated all the suggestions on which colors to use to set the blocks. I finally decided to choose according to what I think the intended future owner would like. This is what it looks like as of now.

I plan to add an orange outer border to finish it off.

I also got some blocks completed this week for Judy's sew-along. We are making a bear paw quilt. She sends us instructions in steps and gives us a deadline to have that step complete. We then have to complete the step and send her a photo of the progress by the deadline to get the next step. Some of you who know me may think that I am taking a chance making a top this way. After all, I do tend to flit from project to project rather unexpectedly. But, I knew what quilt we were making before we started and I am confident I can finish this one even if I miss a deadline. Plus, she will make the pattern available for purchase after the sew-along so I have a back-up plan in place. No worries, see? Want to see what I have so far? I knew you would!

I'm trying to work out of my normal comfort zone here. These colors are so not me. I pulled everything for this quilt from my stash. I have a lot of blue in my stash. I have decided that is because I buy it but I never use it. I think I foresee another bluish quilt in my near future(OK, maybe not too near, but I need to use more of those blue fabrics).

As for the other distractions listed in the title of my post...

I have had my granddaughter here for a couple days this weeks. I think she is absolute joy.

Who can concentrate on sewing when you have this happy face looking at you?