Great Tutorial!!

When I was in high school, my great grandmother gave me a large paper sack full of quilt blocks to make a flower garden quilt that my great great grandmother, her mother in law, had put together. The were needing to having the white/muslin pieces added around them and then be pieced together to finish the front.

Sounds simple enough right?! Well not to me. Although I wanted to bad work on this quilt, to continue a quilt that my great, great grandmother started decades ago, I didn't have the guts. This quilt is made up of thousand of little hexagons and I didn't have the know-how to do it. I really didn't want to mess up these quilt blocks.

So they have sit, waiting to be worked on. Well praise God, I found a blog last night after all the kids went to bed  with a great tutorial for making flower blocks. It gave me the confidence to try my hand at piecing this quilt together. Here is the link for this amazing blog http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2010/04/hexie-paper-piecing-tutorial.html, take time and look around her site. It has great tips.

So of course I got so excited about finding this awesome tutorial that I had to stay up past 1 in the morning working on my first flower block. I didn't get it all the way done but I got a good majority of it done. I am so excited to work on this. Not sure what I will do with the quilt when it is finished, since it probably will be a long project for me. I hope to hand quilt it to keep with the integrity of the quilt, since it has been all hand pieced.

I love that I have this piece of history and am actually piecing together quilt blocks that my great, great grandmother, a woman who I never knew and died well before I was even born, put together. It is like she gave me a huge gift that she was unaware that I would receive. I have no clue what her plans for this quilt was when she was piecing together these blocks, but I think it is safe to say that she didn't expect her great, great, granddaughter would be finishing up the quilt decades after she pieced them.



I added all the natural color hexagons around the colored hexagon

Baby Quilt

One of the teachers at PVCA had a baby last month. The school has so looked forward to the birth of this baby. The kids were praying that she would get pregnant all last year, so we were all thrilled that she was pregnant this year. Tomorrow we are having a baby shower at the school for her and her little girl. Apparently she brought the new baby to the school the other day and all day Alex kept telling me how cute the baby was, how beautiful the baby was, etc. I think he wants another baby sibling. lol

Anyway I decided since I had quite a few quilt tops done, I would finish a quilt for the precious little girl. Of course I decided to go to the Quilt Rack to get the back and binding, which made it more than if I had gone to Walmart, but it will be so pretty. I made a mistake though and had John pick up high loft batting because it was cheaper and I forgot how it makes the fabric not lay as flat as I like. Oh well. It will be beautiful anyway. It is light pink, lavendar, and white. Very girly and pretty. I will have to post a picture after I get it all done.

5 down, thousands to go

My boys are EXTREMELY hard on their jeans. We are lucky if they can make a pair of jeans last over a month without getting holes in them. So after taking the 3 youngest kids to the doctor and getting a diagnosis of colds for each one(I knew it but with our trip this weekend I had to know for sure), I went to Walmart and got some vics vapor rub and orange juice for the kids and 1/4 a yard of about 5 different fabrics and some interfacing, I came home to tackle the growing pile of holey jeans.

Now I had the look of patches, they look so dorky to me when they are placed over the top. But with the amount of money it cost for jeans for 3 boys, I thought it was worth it to have them look a little dorky. But when starting I decided to leave the hole showing by putting the patch inside the jeans.

So now I have 5 pairs of jeans done so far, 2 that I just can't patch because the legs are too small to fit over my sewing machine arm, and more to do. There are probably some more in the wash to be patched also. But hey I have 5 pairs that are patched and the boys will be warmer.

Now I think I am going to pick up the living room a bit, work on Ryan's quilt(only 2 more rows before I can add the border on and have the front done) and then go get the boys from school. I enjoy these kind of days where I get to use my creative side. My house might suffer, but mommy is alittle less stressed. I mean that is all that really matters.

Working on quilts

I have gotten back into quilting the past month. I have enjoyed it so much. I decided that I would really like to make quilts for each of the kids for Christmas next year. I figured if I worked on one every 2 months, I could get all the kids' done in time. I have not decided whether I am doing the quilting myself or taking it to the Quilt Rack. Personally I would love to get them professionally quilted by I have to see the price.

After seeing the case plan having a date of April 24th(it will be later than that most likely) as the date the state hopes to have him back with mom or adopted it made me realize I needed to get his done in advance just in case. That way IF he has to go home to his mom then I can give it to him before he leaves.

The funny thing is that he has no clue I am working on a quilt for him and he asks me almost every other day if I will make him a quilt. I just smirk and say "maybe someday" knowing that he will be so happy to get his own quilt from me.

Here is a picture of the quilt so far.

Last day in children's church

Today was my last Sunday of doing children's church. I will once again be able to join the adults upstairs for worship, Praise God!! Now don't get me wrong I really have enjoyed working with the kids down stairs, but I can't wait to sit and soak in the presence of the Lord during worship with Joe and the rest of the worship team.

Anyway so we read about Noah's ark and God's promise never to again flood the earth. We took torn up pieces of colored paper and made a rainbow out of them. As we were doing this it struck me that when we are lost and broken, to the world there seems to be nothing that can be done. We are no longer whole and nothing in the world can put the pieces back together. But with the grace and mercy of God, if we allow him too, he takes those pieces of our life and puts them back together. And the work of art that he creates is not what we were before. He makes a new creation and there are no seams to be seen where the torn pieces were piecesd together. We are whole, new, and no sign of brokeness is to be seen. Praise the Lord for how this simple craft for the kids, could speak to me in such a strong and real way!!

Crafty by Nature!

I am by nature a very crafty person. Not crafty like, man that girl is shady, but in the way that I LOVE to do craft projects! Scrapbooking, crocheting, emboirdery, quilting, etc. Ever since I was a little girl I have loved to do crafts. I remember being about 7 and my great grandma teaching me how to make chains with yarn which is something you have to learn to start crocheting. Having a project to work on has always been kinda a stress relief, someway to get all my creativity put to use. I have even been paid to make quilts and sold stuff at crafts shows. I say all this to say that lately I haven't worked on anything in months. The last thing I worked on was my nephew's quilt front and it still needs quilted and given to him. I need to start doing projects again! I am so far behind in my scrapbooking, I have missed making quilts for lots of babies that have been born, and there is no way I am getting the quilt done for Emma for graduation I know she was hoping for. Part of the reason I haven't worked on stuff is lack of time. Even though I am a stay at home mom, with 4 kids, all the responsibility of being on the school board, youth group and Sunday school, and just life in general, I just don't have the time to do a long project. The other thing is the mess that quilting brings to my house. Having quilting stuff over my dining room table just makes my house seem messier than it already is. Lets face it with 4 kids, 2 dogs, and all the chores they require, I don't need to find more ways to add to the mess. lol But I still think I am going to start a crochet project today. Something to do to use my creative side and de-stress! This means looking through my stuff and seeing what I have to use. Hopefully I can find a crochet needle and not have to run to the store! Here are just 2 projects out of the hundreds I have done. This scrapbook page is of October 2003 and the quilt is the one I made Livie.