Hello again...at last!!!

Awww!  Thank you, LaDonna!  You are amazing yourself!   The things that you can do...you take "stuff" and turn it into such gorgeous things from your  ideas!  I don't have access to those type of things but even if I did, I don't think I could turn out such beautiful rooms, furniture, and accessories.

Now backing up to my last post.  I did get my mother-in-law's quilt completed and presented to her at the family reunion last week.  She acted like she couldn't believe that I had done it for her.  She kept saying how pretty it was.  The quilt was difficult to complete because other things kept getting in front of it and then I found it hard to go back  but I can now move on to what's next.

The quilt kept getting put aside because the school year ended, people got married and others were having babies!!!   Two very important people in our lives this past year were my granddaughter's teacher and her aide.  I made her teacher an initial wall hanging for her house.  I made the aide/ assistant an initial wall hanging in honor of his wedding.

I continued to make initial wall hangings for family and friends that either got married or added to their family.

 

I am now trying to finish up two more wall hangings for twin boys. Then I will be able to hopefully focus on other projects.  My daughter even said while I was making her grandmother's quilt...."Mom,she already has one from you.  I don't."  Sounds like a big hint to me that I'd better be thinking and doing more in that direction! And we won't even talk about the sigh and look I got from my husband!

However, first I have to get through the next couple of weeks and find homes for our "unexpected blessings".  Yes, we had a stray cat show up in our backyard.  (She is beautiful by the way.)  After waiting  the required number of days to locate her owner, I took her to the vet to get  checked out, shots, and spayed.  Well, she got checked out at any rate.  The vet told me that she was basically a kitten having kittens. She was 5 weeks pregnant so no shots no surgeries.  She blessed us with 6....... yes, 6 kittens! None of them look like her but they are cuties! I have to keep saying the mantra......we cannot keep them all...we cannot keep them all! I cannot have 6 kittens and two grown cats in my house. I'll be lucky to convince my husband that we "need"  two...well maybe three!

So as LaDonna said, with grands, daughter, husband, house, garden, dad, and kittens it may be a bit before I can get back to say hello to everyone who has not given up on us and our blog.  Until then, anyone want a kitten to help in your sewing room????

~Diana

In case you haven't figured it out....

It's no big surprise.   One look at our blog and you can tell.  Our blog is out of date.  Diana is so busy with the grands, daughter, husband, 6 kittens (whoopsie!), dad, house and garden that she makes me tired just thinking about all she does.  And yet, she still manages to find time to do some sewing.  Just no time to get it on the blog.  She is an amazing woman!

As for me, the only sewing I'm doing is at my church, making baby quilts.  We are remodeling our house, some structural work, a lot of repair work, updating, and lots of painting.  Oh, and the yard.  Ugh.  Anyone who has done work on their house knows it's one step forward, two steps back on just about everything.  Yes, we are do-it-yourselfers.  My sewing room is not a happy place right now (still as it was when we moved) and won't be for some time.  But the future sewing room will be delightful!  It looks great in my head! 

So since I'm not a woman who can multi-task magnificently, don't judge.  I hope to someday show you the befores and afters, my new old sewing machines (yes, I got the bug...estate sales and craigslist, yay!), and get back to my quilting.  Until then, happy sewing everyone!

Talk to you later!

LaDonna

I'm still here...

Please don't faint and fall over because I'm posting.  I know it has been FOREVER since I was on here.  I'll just put it down to that time got away from me. So please excuse that this post  may turn out to be a bit lengthy.

 First of all, I did get all of those stockings finished....I even threw in a few extra for the teacher's daughters and the girls I keep after school. Having them hung on my design wall, it sure did look like a lot of stockings!  Each one was stuffed with a pencil, a couple erasers (hard to get away from being a teacher), a candy cane,  and a sticker.

For Christmas, I made all of the adults in the family  and my granddaughter's teachers, quilted trays. Everyone got one out of fabric that seemed appropriate to them, including the quilting.  This is the one I made for myself.  I had to try it out didn't I? I'll be making some tweaks should more be needed..

I  had to dig out the baby quilt pattern that LaDonna had posted about earlier and make baby quilts.  One of my former students became a daddy for the first time.  He was one of those children that touched my heart and had always kept in touch with me. So his little boy got a quilt.

Of course the month of December was packed but not with any quilting.  My son and daughter-in-law were able to fly in from California for a few days at Christmas.  It had been two long years since we had seen them and so it was a wonderful few days! After they left, it was hard to get back into the swing of things so during that time, my sewing machine went in for it's check up.

While my machine was in the shop, I used that time to go through, throw away, clean, reorganize and then mess up again by cutting out a Valentine quilt for myself and Granddaughter's Kindergarten teacher.  She is one extremely awesome lady. I used a pattern (Ragged Hearts) I got from LaDonna years ago but never got around to making. Over time, I had gathered fabric together to make  a 'kit' but just never got around to making the pattern.  Something else always got moved in front of it. When we presented the wall hanging to the teacher, she just sat there rubbing it and smiling it...which I took as a good reaction.

So now you are basically caught up on the quilting that I've been doing.  As of today, I am tweaking the arrangement of quilt blocks for a quilt for my mother-in-law.  The blue flowered one that I made her a few years ago was looking rather worn last summer when we saw her.  As soon as I get an arrangement that I am satisfied with, I'll begin trying to quilt it.  Don't know how long that is going to take...I do tend to obsess about such things...right after I decide on pattern and fabric...which is an entire other story!

~Diana

Sanding Not Sewing

Not much sewing going on around here!  Though I did start a new project...sanding the wood trim in the house in preparation for painting.  I plan to paint the baseboard white and have the quarter round match the floors that my husband did such a good job on last year!  No clue yet on what color will go on the walls.  All those years moving around in the military, dreaming of our forever home, and now that we have it, I can't decide what colors to use! 

Everything in the living room moved to the center, covered up.  You can see the sanding dust along the floor.

Cleaning blinds is not something I enjoy doing... really, who does?!  Covered them up until the time comes to do the window trim.  

Action shot.  My goodness, look at my hair.  That's gotta be sanding dust making it look gray.  Yeah, that's it.

See my new knee pads?  Love them!  Makes the job so much easier!

For such a small house, there sure is a lot of trim!  We have so many plans for the house.  I can't wait to get it all done!  But just like in quilting, I'm trying to enjoy the process!

LaDonna