Off to Iowa!!

My niece has been sent  home.  She will be bedridden for the next four weeks and then have surgery to remove the bar.  After that I'm not sure if she's heading to a rehab place or home and back and forth to physical therapy.  The kids and I are leaving tomorrow to drive 2000 miles (ugh) to help out.  She has to have two people with her at all times to help move her.

I've done all the packing and managed to pack some quilt projects that I'm working on.  I have the girls horse quilts and TL's dino quilt needs to be finished hand quilting.  Sorry for the yucky picture, but I was in a hurry!

Working on my pumpkin block of the month

Trying a little embroidery

Hopefully, I can get some of this done while I'm there.  I'm hopeful anyway!!

I'll let you know when I arrive!!

prayer request

Hello everyone!










I'm sorry I haven't posted. We have limited internet and December cost us a bundle, so I held off on posting.









Last week, our niece was involved in a serious car accident. She doesn't have any internal or brain injuries (thank God!) but she is in serious shape. She literally broke her pelvis in half in three places and fractured her clavical. Last week she had surgery to repair her pelvis. She has a eight screws and a plate in her, along with an external device (which basically looks like a bar sitting in front of her). Today she had seven screws and a plate put into her clavicle.









She's not eating because its making her nauseaous. Please pray for her quick recovery.









Its looking very likely that the kids and I will be heading to IA. Bailey will be in the hospital for another week or two and then in a therapy center. We will help with her brother and sister and hopefully take turns with her mother at the hospital.









Thank you for praying!

Christmas is almost here!

The camper took about ten minutes to decorate.  Our little four foot tree is a little depressing but its all that will fit.  Kevin wanted a smaller one but I refused.  Monkey girl keeps taking all of the decorations off of the tree.  I didn't buy many and they're pretty cheap, mainly because I knew that she would do that!  Maybe next year we can have nicer ones!

The kids activities are keeping me busy.  I'm looking forward to next year when Monkey can participate and I don't have to chase her around.  She's been eyeing gymnastics class for a while.  I know she wishes that she could join in. 

I've got some major homeschooling planning to do during the break, however, I plan on working on some quilts.  I have TL's about a third of the way quilted and I need to piece and quilt the girls quilts.  Alot to accomplish before new years, I know.  I'm hoping to at least get TL's done and the piecing done for the girls' quilts.  Then I need to quilt the little ones' quilts and start on ours.  Finally, then I can work on some fun stuff!!

I just received block two of my block of the month pumpkin block.  I didnt' even start block one yet.  Oh boy, another project.  Maybe I can get those done this week and show them to you!!  I also have some Christmas embroidery that I'm working on.

The saying does go, "whoever dies with the most projects wins," right?

Have a wonderful Christmas season!

Sorry so long and so short

Sorry its been so long since my last post.  This one will be really short because the kids are on lunch break.  My mother came to visit for a week and we had a blast!!  It was so much fun!!  The kids and I really miss her! 

We got our household goods and put 12,000 pounds into storage.  The movers were fantastic and fit it all into a 10x30 foot storage space.  I was amazed and excited!  I now have my sewing machine again!!  Yippee!

Terri Thayer came to talk at our guild.  She told about her progress as a quilter and a writer.  She was a ton of fun!

I got my first block of the month for my pumpkin quilt.  I'll post pictures soon.  My computer's been sluggish and I think I have too many pictures on here.  I'm going to upload them to Kevin's external hard drive and also get a thumb drive.  I need to start working on my digital scrapbook too!!

Take care and happy quilting!

I have been quilting, see?

 Hand piecing is going very slow for me.  I can't wait to get my sewing machine out of storage.  We need to find storage for the Navy to move our stuff into and then I can pull some boxes of things out that we'll need.  Luckily, since we were discussing living in the fifth wheel for three years, I packed some things seperately and made the movers label them "camper" so I could find the boxes easier.  My sewing machine and bread machine are in there.

 Both big girls loves horses, so when I came across this horse fabric I got enough to make two quilts.  I have six rows pieced and four of those sewn together.  The light green here, will be a small border before the horse fabric border.  I know the girls will love it.

 On the side bar, you'll notice that I have two BOM's going on.  One starts this month and the other is this Christmas one.  Sadly, I haven't even started the Christmas one so I need to get moving on that.  The pumpkin one arrives this month and I can't wait!

 I found this pattern while shopping in OR with my friend, Connie.  I love it.  Just have to get some fabric.  The nice thing about living in the fifth wheel is that I don't have a fabric stash so I have to BUY!  Shhhh, don't tell my hubby.

This is daddy and the kids watching a movie in the back part of the fifth wheel.  The queen size couch is great because it fits all of us!! 

Have a wonderful quilty weekend!

Sad.....

I looked at one of my friend's blogs this week and saw her awesome quilts and how she decorated for Halloween.  I don't have any!!!!  In fact, almost all of my quilts are "utility" quilts.  I don't have any for decoration!!!!!

So, I've decided to take the three years we're living in here to work on decoration quilts for my home.  Whether it be table runners, wall hangings, or full size quilts, I'm going to get them done.

First, however, I have to work on some quilts for the camper.  I have TL's quilt to finish quilting.  The older girls are being pieced right now.  I haven't looked for fabric or patterns for the little ones yet....soon, soon.  My goal is to have them done by Christmas.   Can I do it?

If I do, then I can work on the little girls, which don't have to be very big cause they're small yet.  I can then focus on the one for our bed, cause this comforter is U-G-L-Y!

I have a couple of wallhangings to do for in the camper.  We don't have alot of wall space so this isn't too much of a problem.

Then, I'm going to focus on seasons for our home.  Spring/summer, patriotic, fall, halloween, Christmas, and winter quilts........wallhangings.......tablerunners!!  Yeah!  I hope to have several wallhangings and table runners done and perhaps a large wall quilt.

And then!!  I hope to work on the theme in our home, which will be the Pacific northwest.  I love the mountains and animals there and hope to decorate in that aspect. 

Ambitious right?  I'm going to update my list on the sidebar to see if I can get this all done!!  Perhaps I should focus on a year at a time!!  lol

Batting

One of the fantastic things about moving back to the desert is that I can return to Common Threads Quilt Guild.  I was very excited for the meeting last night.  I haven't gotten alot of sewing done, its been to hot here.  Over 95 for weeks on end and the air went in the front part of the fifth wheel.  We've been huddled in the living area trying to stay cool, but the temp in here was getting to be 90 or so.  The designer of this campground decided to have everyone's door open up to the sun all day long, and without trees, there wasn't any shade to speak of.  ugh.....

and now we've moved into fly season....ugh again.  I've killed over twenty flies in here today and just spotted a few more.  I absolutely hate flies!

Back to the guild.  It was nice to go back and see some friends.  I never was close to anyone in the guild.  I had small kids and lived on the base so I'm hoping to get more quilting friends now.

Last night the speaker talked about batting.  How enlightening it was to hear her talk about how long we take to pick out a pattern, fabrics, and sew and then quilt our treasures and we usually throw whatever batting there is inside of our quilt.  Wow, never thought of that before.

SHe had quite of few samples and I didn't realize that batting was now made from corn, bamboo, and recycled green water bottles!!  I always thought it was cotton, polyester, or a blend!  I did find out that for awesome hand quilting, I should be using wool.  Its a dream to quilt through she said.  I had no idea!!  I just phoned the local quilt shop and they don't have any in stock so I will have to order some from somewhere.  I think it would be a great idea also because the toy hauler area of the fifth wheel is getting to be pretty chilly at night.

I still don't have my sewing machine, so I decided to hand piece the girls' quilts.  I have one row done already and if I focus on it this weekend, perhaps I can get most of the piecing done.  I found some horse fabric with framed horses and some really cute barbed wire fencing, lasso fabric, and some other cute fabric.  I'm doing just squares of fabric, no real design because I wanted this to be quick to keep the girls warm.

I'm about 1/4 of the way through quilting TL's quilt.  I hope to have that done pretty quickly also.  Like I said, its getting a little chilly in here!  The temp drops about forty degrees at night and since its only in the 80s during the day, you can imagine how cool its getting.  At least the heat's working!!

Have a wonderful quilty day!