My Crew...

Words cannot express how much I love them. Once, someone asked me how I had enough love to go around to all these children... True love is never divided, but always multiplied.

cinnamon coffee biscuits...

These are son, Jacob's, biscuits. Boy are they good! He makes them like you would regular bisuits and then rolls out the dough, spreads butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and instant coffee on it. Rolls the dough up, slices it and bakes in a cast iron pan. Did I mention how good they are? His glaze is very tasty, too, with coffee in it. Notice the theme. The kid is crazy for coffee. Mom, not so much, but these I like. He even has a recipe that he is dying to try for expresso soap. No kidding. Apparently, the skin absorbs caffeine even more than the tummy does. Just having trouble locating the lye. Weird.

Haven't been sewing any since I've been home- I have picked up a nasty cough and it is getting in the way of my sleep. And when Nines is sleep deprived... it just ain't pretty. That's all I'm sayin'. Hope everyone is having a great week.

And the winner is...

Sarah N.!!!! Who needs another quilt like she needs another hole in the head, but that's the name that Abe drew so we're gonna stick with it. No need to send me your address- I'll just send it along with your birthday blocks. Lucky duck. This was so much fun I may need to do it more often.

We had a bittersweet time in Alabama. Time spent with our son, Joe, and his lovely bride is always sweet. Donna and Wes were wonderful hosts even though they were having a very difficult time with the approaching death of a dear friend and sister. She passed away the last night we were there and know they are just heartbroken even though we have the confidence of her arriving on the other side rejoicing. Our loss, her gain. Abraham did a fine job at the wedding even though he was pale as a ghost and we had a few nervous moments that he was gonna pass out- he had some kind of illness badgering him as he had a fever. But all is well, now. He is out enjoying the sunshine and feeling just fine, now. Well, I still need to unpack- what fun. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Thanks for making the drawing such fun for me!

Spools...

Got all inspired by Julieq... thought you'd like to see them. I don't know why I am liking them so much... they are kinda simple. The blocks finished up at 3.5" and are just adorable. I couldn't wait to put them together and get it quilted and on the wall.

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How about a drawing for them? Anyone who leaves a comment gets their name in the hat. We'll have honest Abe draw the name out when we get back from Alabama on Tuesday. Just so you know, these were made entirely from my scrap drawer- even the backing- which is pieced. It measures 13x16" and I changed my mind on the quilting design half way through- so it's far from perfect, but it can be yours if you put your name in the hat! So leave a comment. I'm making another scrappy one for me. I just can't seem to stop making them!

Something for Sandy...

Here's a little something for Sandy. Actually, it turned out larger than I thought it would be. That is one monster vase! It is made from all of my scraps of reproduction floursacks. I picked up a huge amount of that stuff a few years back for a buck a yard and have made two large queen quilts and a baby quilt from it. This is the last of it- OK, I might have enough for another baby quilt... amazing how the stash never seems to truly diminish, isn't it? But I had fun with this one. The cream is actually Kona muslin and I would like to say that it was some very nice stuff- especially compared to the other muslins out there. Quiltwise, I random baptist fanned the background, stippled the cream, and did seed pod meanders in the borders. It washed up so nice with the cotton batting- already looks old.

We are getting ready to go on a short trip to Alabama- son's sister in law is getting married and Abe is to be the ringbearer. The girls are handing out programs...think I can find a picture of their dresses?

And now one of my silly girl Bek... the wanna be astronaut. I thought her spaceship and helmet were just too cute to keep to myself...

Happiness is a full thread drawer...

Mom was very generous with a thread order. Look at all my lovely new Madeira thread! I have been playing with all the neutrals- 3 colors of cream, who knew? A green cream, a beige cream, and a silver cream. What fun! Can't wait to use some of the brighter colors. I don't think the color on the monitor was quite accurate. She thought she was ordering terracotta and it ended up being bright coral/pink. But it's all good. She just finished a quilt that I think would look great quilted up with that bright color. And it is just so... "tickled pink feeling" to have the bright colors that I wouldn't normally splurge and get for myself, but that I am sure I will use.

My computer seems to have a mind of it's own- it has been choosing font size and style all on it's own and won't let me interfere. Lisa, I really could make a list of things that you can fix for me next week...

Amazing John...

John can draw anything with an Etch-A-Sketch. Think there's a career in it? This is a scene with a tent and snow on the ground- complete with footprints in the snow and a fire burning. See the smoke rising from it? He just cracks me up. He recently won a contest against some much older, bigger and stronger boys involving hammering, unscrewing a screw and sawing through a 2x4". He blew them away with the sawing. John is something else when it comes to anything handy. When asked how he managed it, he said he's homeschooled and this is just what he does for fun! And he was grinning the whole time. That's our John- not just another pretty face.

Bones- front and back...

There she is, my bones quilt- made from all the "bones" that I had stashed away in the closet. I have a lot of trial and error in my quilting. I was telling a friend about this quilt and she looks at me-with a straight face, mind you,and said that she never has blocks that she doesn't use. Well I just don't know what to say to that, 'cause I have enough for the front and back of a queen size quilt. Lots of "oops!" and "that was fun but I don't have any desire to go on with it" and "practice makes perfect -supposedly." There are blocks made by Sarah in a challenge to use the ugliest fabric we could find... we have a difficult time finding fabric that makes us both go ooohh! Some peices from my Mom. Scraps from finished quilts- you know, where you miscount to the number of blocks you need. Extra peices of borders- made them too long. I'm getting the impression that I am numerically challenged, how 'bout you? It's all good. Now I have a quilt to memoralize all of my mistakes. Oh joy. I quilted it with every design I could think of. Used up a couple dozen half-full bobbins and nearly empty cones of thread. The binding is made from leftovers from other quilts- again where I misfigured the amount needed- better too much than not enough, right? Why do I call them bones? I was up late one night, cleaning out the closet, when this song came on, and it just seemed to fit what I was dealing with...

Little Big Town, Bones, by:

Karen Fairchild/Kimberly Roads/Phillip Sweet/Jimi Westbrook/Wayne Kirkpatrick)

What goes around comes around
Feel it breathin' down heavy on you
You made that bed you're layin' on
Deeds that you have done
Now you can't undo

It's a long and hard row to hoe
When seeds that you sow
Grow by the wicked moon
Be sure your sins will find you out
The past will hunt you down
And return to tell on you

Oh, it stands to reason
Every dog will have his day
Your day is leaving
Better hold on tight
Here comes the night

You've got bones in your closet
You've got ghosts in your town
Ain't no doubt, dear,
They're gonna come out
They're waiting for the sun to go down
(Waitin' for the sun to go down)
You can't hide from your demons
Feel them all lurking around
(They've got ya runnin')
You're runnin' scared cause
You know they're out there
They're waiting for the sun to go down

They're waiting for the sun to go down
Down
What goes around comes around
Feel it breathin' down heavy on you

Having fun...

One day, a month or so ago, I spent the afternoon with Sandy. Just hanging out and talking. Things all of us quilters seem more than capable of doing. Anyway, when we were trying to decide what to do, Sandy pulls out a box of little squares of scrap fabric. So we just started sewing them together with no agenda in mind. Sandy sewed the big ones and I sewed the smaller ones. Just feeding one sqaure in after another. Chatting some and enjoying the day. There were a lot of red blocks in my scraps. She had a lot of rust. Anyway, this is what I ended up with to memoralize my afternoon of mindless, agendaless sewing. It is crib size and I will probably donate it to the local hospital. What fun. Sometimes you just need a day like that. And it was so enjoyable that I've been making sure I do that a bit more of that these days. You should try it. Just sewing for the fun of it with no goals but to have fun. It seems like that is so easy to forget and before you know it, you're working away and feeling pressured to accomplish something. Where's the joy in that? I know I have said all of this before, but I need constant reminding of things I already know! Have a great weekend!

Something accomplished...

This is a little bit of my Bones quilt. I finished it and even have it bound. I put in on the guest bedroom bed... Lisa wasn't so sure about sleeping under a quilt with a skeleton on it. Where's her sense of adventure? This is a block that I liked, but there were no directions for it- don't you just hate it when a magazine has pictures of quilts but no directions to make one yourself- I don't mean the art quilts, just the regular ones. So I made this block out of some scraps but lost interest in it after the first inset seam- I finished them but didn't want to go farther. I did Darcie pebbles on the green- good practice. Once I figure out how to put a picture on the new computer(Should have had Lisa show me how. We have Skype now so maybe we can do it online. What fun! Anyway...) I might be able to show the whole quilt- if I can get the guys to stand on a couple chairs outside- should have done that, today. It was just a gorgeous day. It is a very generous sized quilt, a bit stiff from all the quilting, but I'm thinking it will wash up softer.

Can ya tell I am missing my Mom and my sisters? They left this morning and I was left alone to twiddle my thumbs. Finished quilting the wedding quilt and even have it bound. Shocking, I know. I worked on a mini and am over half way done with that. It is all in light light pastels so I hope to get it done as soon as possible- Easter is comin' up ya know. Then I finished my two block challenge for the Wayward Fabric Club. Best of all, I found my size 8 Susan Bates crochet hook. I've been lost without it. I have been using a finer thread and a smaller needle- rubbed a hole through my fingerprint- ouch. So I need to rest on the crocheting for a while. Now to sew two more dresses for the girls for the wedding- black dresses were requested and I found an adorable polka dot that will be perfect. Well, enough of the Chatty Cathy act. Hope everyone has had a great week.