Catching Up...

I am so darn bad at blogging on a regular basis! I am not even going to try to apologize or make excuses. It is just a fact that blogging has not been high on my priorities list. But...I'm here today to share some things that have been happening and I hope to be back sooner, rather than later.  :-)

There will be no rhyme or reason to the order of pictures I share today. I am simply going through some photos and sharing what I think are fun or special pictures. 

This was NOT fun! Fortunately I had a second pair on hand, so I didn't have to tape these. 

Honestly though, I kind of wanted to tape them and see Jack's reaction, as well as the grandkids. I'm sure they would have simply rolled their eyes.  

Since I'm feeling a little silly right now, I'll share one of my favorite pictures of my BFF Kare. She just might have a sweet tooth and when she goes/sews away from home, she is always prepared. :-) 

I don't know if you noticed in the picture above, but Kare is also health conscious, so she added a banana to the basket of Peeps and Milk Duds. 😂

My absence here on the blog doesn't mean that I haven't been busy. I love that Avery and Peyton spent some time sewing while they were here recently. They had projects in mind and I just let them "have at it." They are happy with their results and I feel certain that they are both becoming much more comfortable sewing on their own. 

They always clean up after themselves and I like that. Perhaps they can teach me. LOL

I've been busy with programs, classes and events over the past few months, and that will continue. This is what the back of my car looks like quite often these days. 

I'll eventually share pictures of some of the classes and events, but know that will not get done right away. I want to spend time at my sewing machine and will download pictures when I need a break from that. 

The image below made me laugh out loud. It was sent to me by a friend who heard me lamenting that I've been feeling like all I've done recently is attend meetings, prepare for events, etc.  If I was a drinker, I might consider doing this.  LOL

I'm going to go spent time with my trusty sewing machine. 💖 

See you soon!

Helpers!

It's been quiet here on the blog over the last week, but that's only because we've been busy celebrating with family and friends.

In my previous post, I had pictures of our Christmas celebration here on Dec. 22nd, but I didn't share pictures of earlier that day when Avery and Peyton were here. They came early while Lynn and Ty ran errands, etc. Because it was just the girls (we figured Layne should probably stay with Lynn), we had lots of time to play and enjoy some alone time with them.

As with all the grandkids, Avery and Peyton love to be helpers. They helped Grandpa Jack fill the bird feeders. (Notice that the girls are wearing short sleeves. It was pretty warm that day {Dec. 22nd}, but that didn't last long. Check out the pictures at the end of the post that I took Dec. 23rd.) 

After filling the feeders, you really do have to come inside to check out which birds came to enjoy a feast.

Of course when you're using binoculars to check out birds, you have to check out each other too.

And when there are gifts under the tree, binoculars help you read the names written on each package. 

And in Peyton's case, you have to check out your favorite tree ornaments.

It was a good thing they filled those feeders because this is what it was like outside the very next day.

 

I have a lot more pictures to share, but I've got work to do. Perhaps I'll share them later today or tomorrow.

Some Sewing, Some Not

Here's the back to the Scrappy Strips that I showed on Monday. I used the extra blocks I made for the backing and I love it! 

 

 

I had a helper yesterday and she did a really good job keeping all of the blocks in order. It sure did speed up the process.  :-)

 

 

I had three young ladies with me yesterday as well and they sure did have fun playing on the roll of batting that I purposely did not put away because I knew they would love rolling around on this. I was not wrong. They played on this for nearly an hour the first time and probably another 20 minutes later.  

 

 

Ann bought some hula hoops and left them here because I only had two and there are six grandkids. They sure do have a blast with them, even Peyton who pretty much just kept walking through them. They always say, "Thanks Aunt Ann!" whenever they play with them.  

 

And then it was rest time...

 

I love this picture of Sadie and Avery. Avery, who is not even three yet, is almost as tall as Sadie who is five. They both have birthdays in August and just realized that yesterday. They had so much fun together.  



 

 

Not much sewing has been done the last few days, but that doesn't matter.

 

These days are so precious and I cherish them.

 

Be safe and have a wonderful July 4th!

 



I've had some unexpected sewing time and I'll post pictures of the soon, but I'm headed off to teach a class. Jack just reminded me that I get to see this little beauty tomorrow! 

Life is Good - Babies and Quilting

My sub-teaching assignment is going quite well, especially since I've kind of figured out some of the computer stuff and the regular teacher had such awesome lesson plans. Of course, it helps that the students are all pretty darn good too!  :-)

Anyway, life has slowed done just a bit and I was so happy to have the opportunity to watch Avery for a short time earlier this week. Look at this picture that I took when she first got here. I'm choosing to believe that smile is a result of realizing that she was at Grandma's house and that we were going to spend some quality time together.

 

And boy did we spend some quality time. Just look at what Avery did!

 

 

She wasn't here for more than a couple of hours, but she must have been starving. Each of the tall, skinny bottles had 2 ounces in them and them I made 2 more ounces because she was definitely still hungry. As you can tell, I made a tad too much. She took two or three long drags on that bottle, closed her eyes and promptly went to sleep. It was funny to watch.  :-)

 

When Jack came home she was still sleeping, but he needed some "baby time."

 

 

She continued to sleep until it was time to go. As a matter of fact, she was sleeping so soundly that she didn't even wake up when Lynn put her in the car seat. Maybe she was just worn our from all the fun here. (I was afraid to ask how she slept that night.)

 

 

On the quilting front, there was some actual sewing done this past week. It consisted mostly of sewing bindings on for other people, but the machine was running and I was sewing. I completely finished one binding and have the machine stitching part done for two others, both of which are quite large (queen and king). I'll get a good start on at least one of them today and hopefully finish it tomorrow. I like the idea of having the machine part sewn so I can just sit down and hand sew in the evenings.

 

The weather has been kind of brutal here (95+ degrees) and there is no air conditioning in my classroom so I have been quite spent by the time I get home. I tried sewing one night but had to spend some quality time with my seam ripper and decided it wasn't a good idea to sew when I'm hot and tired. (A cold front came in and Friday was beautiful. I'm afraid to look at the weather forecast, but I sure hope these cool temperatures continue.)

 

Yesterday was our guild meeting and I'd like to share a couple pictures from that. Here's is Carolyn's Maple Leaf Log Cabin quilt. This is one of my patterns and I love seeing the finished quilts from these patterns. I think this turned out quite beautiful and hope that the recipient appreciates how much time and energy Carolyn put into making this. This is a big quilt (107" x 117") and all she needs to do is add the binding.  

 

 

My friend Kare quilted this and I think it turned out beautifully.

 

 

I have a couple of other pictures to share, but I'm still having some issues downloading them. Hopefully I'll resolve that later today. They are beautiful quilts...just saying!

 

Well I guess I had better get moving if I plan to get anything creative done today.

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I have something to post for Design Wall Monday. Who knows, it may still be my Celebrations Tree Skirt, which you can see HERE.

 

Don't forget! There is still time to enter the Mystery Giveaway. Click HERE for details.

Big News and Updates Galore

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted, but I have good excuses for that. Really, I do!!

First of all, I've accepted a six-week sub-teaching position at a local high school and I've been spending some quality time brushing up on my literature knowledge. Yep, that's right. I'm teaching American Literature to sophomores and British Literature to seniors. I have a Media class thrown in there for good measure. It's interesting, challenging and fun all at the same time.

I am very fortunate that the regular teacher was awesome and prepared all the lessons for me. You have no idea how amazing that is (unless you're a teacher). Of course there are always the glitches of a new year, but the students and I are adjusting well and things are beginning to fall into place.

Nikki and family were here for a wedding two weeks ago and as usual, it was wonderful to have them here for the weekend. This was the best picture I could get of the entire group right before they left for the wedding. I really do stink at taking pictures!

The great big news and latest reason for my absence is that I am a grandmother again! Avery Lynn was born Saturday, August 24th and she is just adorable.

Of course I've got more pictures, but I don't have time to post them right now. I'll try to do that in the next couple of days, and I might even try to post something quilt-related. :-)

Nikki and family came back for Avery's birth and I have some wonderful pictures of Quinn riding a bike and Sadie playing office. Ronan is just too darn fast for me to get any good pictures. It seems that they are all blurry because he's always moving. I'll keep looking to see what I can find.

With all the wonderful things happening lately, I've been in a really good mood, so I'm going to spend some time in the quilt room this weekend and pull out items for a giveaway. Sound like fun? I'll post details later this week or early next week.

Until then, have a great day!