Yesterday's doings

Yesterday I picked up my shirt for the Phoenix race for the cure on October 12th.
This cause is very close to my heart, because my mother passed away from breast cancer on February 13th 2005, after a ten year battle. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer while I was pregnant with our son and she passed away the day before his tenth birthday and just a little over 2 weeks after her 67th birthday. I miss having her around. She is probably the strongest woman I've ever known. A fighter with a big heart, who touched many lives.
Contributing to organizations like the Susan G. Koman foundation will hopefully make a difference in the life of many families, so that they will not have to suffer the loss of a loved one to cancer.
Remember, breast cancer awareness month is in October!
Here are a few links:

http://cms.komen.org/komen/index.htm
http://www.nbcam.org/
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast


Staying with the color scheme of the t-shirt, here's a little table topper I'll be putting together.
The four Drunkard's Path units were made in a demonstration for the Progressive Sampler quilt I was teaching and I don't like blocks or samples to go to waste, so I'll be adding some sashing strips and the purple center square to turn the blocks into a small table topper. :o)

This next block is another quick block I used to quickly demonstrate sashing to the class.

Don't know if any of you have tried out some of the new battings that are on the market now. Since I had to kill some time to sign up for the Race for the Cure, I visited JoAnn's. They had all packaged battings on sale (40%), so I thought I'll give the new Bamboo batting from Fairfield a try. It's a 50/50 mix of bamboo fibers and cotton. Very soft to the touch. I' bought a queen size batting, so I can try it both for hand and machine quilting. I'll let you all know how I like it after I had the chance to test it.

Last, but not least, I received my signature blocks back in the mail from a swap that was done on WASIQ (Washington State Internet Quilters). Unfortunately 13 participants dropped out, but it still leaves me with 77 signature blocks (if I counted correctly lol). This should be a fast quilt to put together, once I can decide on the layout I want to use for the blocks. Oh, so many options!

Moon Glow

This year I also started on some Moonglow blocks with Jinny Beyer's pattern and fabrics. Above are the blocks that are done so far. I intended to make one block a month, but you probably all know how that goes. lol

If I get this quilt finished, before Cliff comes home from Korea, I'll be very happy, so keep watching for updates on my progress.

45 Dear Jane blocks

Just finished my 45th Dear Jane block. I took all of the blocks I've finished so far out of the folder I stored them in and put them up on my design wall to get an idea of what it's going to look like. Definitely a far cry from the traditional Dear Jane. Once all of the blocks are done, which will probably take me a year, I am planing on using a blackish blue sashing and colorful cornerstones at each intersection, but we'll see how this quilt comes along.

The Star Tower

Yesterday Michelle and I went to Goodyear to check on Cliff's aunt and uncle's house. Every time we drive out there, we pass this tower and never knew what it was about, so on the way back, we stopped there to check it out.

As one of the plaques below tells (click on the pictures to see a larger view), The Star Tower is a living memorial to the many Native American cultures that have studied the sky from this very location.

Below is a blooming cactus we saw on our way up to the tower and a small waterfall. There is also a small picnic area, that we are planing to use on one of our other trips up there - maybe as soon as next weekend.

Here's Michelle on top of the Star Tower.

Pineapple blocks

I offered Moira to make two blocks for her Pineapple quilt and here are the finished blocks. She sent me the paper pattern and pre-cut pieces, so the blocks went together very easy.

Cliff is in Korea

At 4am on September 3rd, I brought Cliff to the airport for his one year tour to Korea.
He was able to call yesterday evening to let us know that he made it safely.
I miss him already, because he used to come home every day for his lunch break and we'd have lunch together, but I'm staying very busy here, which seems to make time go by faster.
Tonight Aaron will have two of his friends sleep over, but I told him that they have to be picked up by 9am tomorrow, because I have to go to the "meet the teacher" event at Bearly Stitchin, since I'll have 6 classes there this next quarter. So you can see, it's not going to get boring here. lol

SURPRISE!

Do you remember from my last post to the blog that I didn't know what all can happen after DH makes rank? Well, I found out this morning.
DH will be sewing on his stripes some time in August and since they don't have room for two Master Sgt's in his shop we knew he'd be moved around somewhere else.
Well, that somewhere else will be Korea for one year! Now you'll probably wanna know when this is going to happen?
As far as Cliff found out this morning (he called around 6:30 to tell me this news) he'll be leaving in September.
Good thing is, I get to stay in the house with the kids. I'll update you all on more as information comes in.

It's JULY already!

Gosh, I just realized that the last post I've made to my blog was in March! A lot has happened since then and currently things are a bit crazy again. Since I didn't have a chance to blog about it, some of you didn't know that I went to Germany with the kids for a little over 3 weeks last month to surprise my dad for his 72nd birthday on June 3rd. He had no idea we were coming, so the surprise was a good one. We made it back home 10pm on the 25th and since then I'm just going, going, going to catch up on things around here. DH has been feeling sick with coughing, body aches and no energy since the day we got home and he's not getting better, so he's home sick right now, waiting on blood results etc. to finally find out what's wrong with him. Then yesterday I also received a phone call from my sister, that my dad is in the hospital again. While we were there, he was on antibiotics for an infection on the leg, which he had an amputation on. The infection did not go away, so now he might need to have some surgical intervention. My fear is that, because he still has not slowed down on his smoking a bit, his circulation is very bad in that area again and that the doctors will have to remove even more of the remaining leg. Not that there is much more to work with, so if you have a moment, I'd appreciate prayer for my dad.
On a happier note, I did sign up for another of Marjie McWilliams' dyeing classes (Quilter's Palette) at Quilt University - the down side, with me keeping the kids busy on their summer break, Cliff sick and me waiting on a maintenance guy for two days to fix some things around the house I have not been able to touch any of the dyeing materials and the next lesson will be loaded tomorrow already. UGH! Well, maybe I'll get to try both lessons over the weekend.
In my first dyeing class (which I didn't blog about here either - hanging my head in shame) I was able to do my set up outside on the patio. I thought of dyeing outside again, but I guess I need to get up early for that, because the temperatures hit the 90's before 8am already and from there on it just gets too hot to stay out there for very long.

Last but not least - Cliff made Master Sgt.!!!!!
Don't know yet what changes will come with that, but I'll try to be better about updating my blog. I might just throw some random posts with pic's in, here and there to follow up on some things I have not posted about earlier.

Diagnosis update

Aaron is home with his arm in a cast.
His accident resulted in a Salter-Harris fracture (growth plate fracture) as well as a Colles fracture (forearm bone) of his left arm and he had to have his bones reset last night before we were able to go home.
His pain seems manageable, but he's sleeping right now, so we shall see how he'll do once he gets up and is active.

No boredom here

DS Aaron was out riding his bike and using a jumping ramp with other kids this afternoon when he crashed at 4:15pm. I called DH at work, who was about to get off, to let him know what happened and he rushed home to get him to the emergency room, because Aaron was in a lot of pain and his wrist started swelling. Aaron let me give him some Tylenol, but didn't let me put ice on it or make him a splint to immobilize his wrist.
So far they think his wrist is dislocated and he might have a hairline fracture. I'll keep you updated. Did I tell you I don't get bored around here? lol

On the bright side, I finally finished the wallet I've been working on for 5 days now.





OK, DH just called from the hospital and Aaron wants Michelle and myself down at the hospital, too. Looks like he needs surgery now to insert a pin.

Weekend doings

My weekend wasn't quite as productive as I had hoped (we have a carnival going on on the base, to which the kids wanted to go to, and I was helping out for 4 hours at the school carnival yesterday), but I managed to make four little wallets. The patriotic one is the one I'm keeping, then Michelle wanted a pink one and the red and blue/pink ones are for friends.

Other than that I was playing around with some layout ideas for another American Hero quilt top.

At this point everything is just put up on the design wall and nothing is "set in stone", so which of the two do you all prefer?

OK, time to let DH on the computer.

My mini vacation

You've probably been wondering where I've been since November.

Things have been very busy around here, but I don't want to bore you with details about that, so I'll get directly to posting about my mini vacation.

My sweet DH thought it'd be a good idea for me to fly up to WA state to attend the annual Sew Expo in Puyallup and visit with my friends up there, so who am I to argue about that?

Oh, before I share pictures about my trip I have to show you a picture of an antique desk that I've gotten off of my local Freecycle group two days before I flew. My Freecycle co-moderator was offering this desk that she had sanded but not finished and Michelle begged me to try to get it for her. Well, she was the lucky recipient and I painted it white for her (on her request) and it looks beautiful in her room next to her white IKEA bed (which she got the frame from Freecycle in pristine condition as well).

Isn't this desk beautiful?

OK, so I couldn't go up to WA state empty handed and was able to take 3 finished quilt tops for American Hero Quilts with me to drop off with ladies selling raffle tickets for a beautiful quilt top to raise funds for American Hero quilts at the Quilt Barn in Puyallup. I bought 3 tickets, but unfortunately don't have a picture of the raffle quilt to share.

This top was very fast to piece using Marti Michell's large Kaleidoskope ruler.

The second top was pieced using a large panel and some fabric Karrin from Trading Fabrics sent to me in a large box for use for American Hero quilts.

Since most quilts I piece are more masculin looking I figured I needed to make a top for one of our female soldiers. I still had some heart blocks left from a previous quilt and by putting those on my design wall (fuzzy backed plastic table cloth that's up on my wall) with some half-square-triangle blocks I came up with this design. The striped fabric was ideal for the border, which was a snap to sew mitered with Marti Michell's mitering ruler. BTW, did you notice that I really like to use Marti Michell's rulers and templates? lol

The day I flew out, DD sent me off to the Expo with a mission to take pictures of famous people and so I did - she was so thrilled to see me with sewing and quilting celebs that she keeps seeing on TV.

Here I am with Libby Lehman. I have been to two of her seminars and she is a wonderful source of inspiration for contemporary quilting. Pictures of her quilts really don't do her work justice. You have to see one of her pieces up close to really get the full impact of her work.

This year I've also taken Kaye Woods seminar and after having seen her at Quilters Night out last year and experienced what a hoot she is, I also went to this year's special even with her and was not disappointed. I also found out that she is a snow bird and living just up the road from me this year.

Here I am with M'Liss Rae Hawley.

And I got to meet with Sharlene Jorgenson.

Here's a scrappy Apple core that I've pieced just the week before leaving, using her Apple Core template - yes it's curved piecing and I really don't like pinning, which you have to do plenty of with this, but I can now say "been there, done that" and once this piece is quilted it'll make a nice little table topper. ;o)

This year I've also taken one of Pam Clarke's seminars again . Her method of marking and quilting has really taken the fear out of quilting my own quilts for me. If you're stomped at how to quilt anything, getting her DVD and books is great for inspiration.

The dvd is like a private one-on-one class at home and worth every penny.

Here I am with Nancy Zieman. Her sewing show was the first I have watched when I came to the US a little over 10 years ago. To me she is one of the big influences in the sewing industry and I love her catalog. ;o)

Martha Pullen is a very sweet lady and although I will never see myself sewing up all of the beautiful lacey garments she creates I highly admire her creations.

Of course I had to take a picture with Marti Michell again. I took both of her seminars this year and below you'll see the BOM of her's that I was teaching at Parkland Parish using Marti's fabric line.

Last but not least a picture with Marci Baker. I've been teaching her strip pieced Tumbling blocks quilt in Washington, so it's been nice having a picture with her taken.

After two days of Expo it was time to meet with friends.

First I was meeting with my friend Lupe, Molly and Tara at Shari's for brunch and then I went on with Molly to visit a few quilt shops.

Here I am with Molly, Kat and Judi at Evergreen quilting.

It was great to have this break and be able to meet a lot of "old" friends. It recharged me, gave me fresh ideas and energy to tackle several things I've been putting off.

OK, you're probably tired of reading by now, so I'll try to post less lengthy, but more frequently again.

Base car show and festival

It's been two weeks again since I last posted. So what have we been up to? Michelle for one had fun at a small fest here on the base. That's her doing flips in the picture. lol She waited almost 50 minutes in line for not even 5 minutes of jumping time, but she enjoyed it.

Then we also had a small car show going on here. Somebody even brought a Delorian!




And what do you thing of this car?

It was fun to look at, that's for sure.