Health

Basically I'm still in shock that Chris has type 1 diabetes. He was diagnosed in October. His endocronologist wanted to have him tested for other autoimmune defiencies/diseases and well he has tested positive 2x for celiac. The test results that came back yesterday were more positive than the first test. I know all of this has come from taking Accutane. I'm so upset over this. This was a very strong medication that should be taken off the shelf. The government did not warn of these problems. Now Chris has to live with this for the rest of his life.
Two days ago I was told that my sister Gail had a tumor the size of a grapefruit (doctors took the tumor out) that was stage 4. I'm still confused as to her prognosis, and I am waiting. Honestly, I'm holding in my emotions right now...just waiting to hear what the doctor says the next step is for her. Gail lives over 600+ miles from me, so I can't be there for her. I'm going to try to call her today.
This morning, on a happy note, I'm going to work on Sharon's quilt. I have a huge project ahead of me in the next several days....a signature quilt. I have all the blocks (20 large ones!!!) to piece together, put on the longarm machine, quilt it then bind it all by Friday morning!!!
I need to get moving....till later y'all!

VBS week!!!

Yesterday was our first day of VBS, great day! We have such a great group of volunteers!! My husband took the week off to teach 5/6 grade boys! While he has them in his room he is teaching them manners!! Way to go honey!! Son Chris is teaching the 3rd grade boys, he is loving it! I'm so proud of my family!! Steve and John are also volunteering. Nikki is very happy she has John and I helping her with crafts. John gets the job of getting in the floor to pick up all the pieces of paper, us older ladies don't want to get in the floor!! LOL!! Steve is helping his dad. Son Joe can't help this year, he has college and work, but that is ok he is there is spirit. Maybe next year he can help.
My latest quilt project: the french braid. I'm going to teach it at the Village Quilt shop this fall. I was able to piece all four braids on Saturday. Next week I'm hoping to finish piecing it all together. I need to figure out what I am going to do for the separators and borders. The quilting: I've already figured that out. Fern vines down each braid!!
That is all for today....till later folks!

Nancy

The heat is on!

Last night a strong storm hit our area. It was interesting to watch this storm move in. The news said that the storms had straight line winds and if you had patio furniture outside you should secure it. So I did. We also had lots of equipment around the front of our house because my husband has been working on replacing the rotted siding boards along with painting. I gathered up the boys and had them carry everything into the garage.
I sat in my bedroom during the storm and watched the rain. The rain was coming down HORIZONTAL!! I was so glad I was not caught up in it! We managed to not loose power, I was happy! I cooked dinner when the worst of the storm had passed.
You know, it feels as if summer has just begun and it feels as if it is almost over!! 6 weeks and it is Labor day weekend!!
Quilting: I managed to get my blue and yellow chinese coin quilt, quilted. Now to make the binding. I've also been playing with several design ideas....9degree wedges from Kaye Fasset fabric with paper pieced triangles at the top...vivid and wild looking. While I was playing I discovered if I placed two of my 1/4 circle wedges together I could form a butterfly....hmmmm....then I sewed fusible strips to the edge of the "wings". I used a lime green thread to sew the wings down with a figure 8 stitch on my Janome. Way cool!!
It is time to get moving....till next time....

Its a new day

Yep, it is Sunday morning and I need to go get ready for church. I woke up startled this morning, I thought I had slept in too late. Once I realized I was ok I calmed down. Grabbed a cup of coffee, wrapped up in a blanket on the couch and went back to sleep for about 15 minutes, lol.
This past week I have managed to make 4 quilt backs, and 4 scrap battings. I've organized a few shelves in my sewing room and of course a quilter knows that when she does that she gets finds fabric that she forgot about, and gets more ideas for quilts!! It is really dangerous to clean your sewing room! I believe I was working in my sewing room on Thursday and Friday.
The earlier part of the week we were working on the front of the house. My husband has been replacing siding boards that are cracked and rotted. I painted the front door and some window trim. I couldn't do much more than that, I would have been in his way. Yesterday he began painting the scallops on the front of the house, it looks fantastic!!! I love the paint scheme we chose!!!
Unfortunately, I have no pictures to post, hopefully that will change soon!
My goals for next week:
1. binding 2 quilts
2. quilt the 4 quilts I made backings and battings for
3. finish Christopher's quilt and ship it out!
4. women's ministry meeting-get bible study schedule down for the rest of the year
5. Get son Chris ready for OCC
6. clean up this computer room!!!
7. make new curtains for dining room
Those are enough goals!! We will have to see how much I actually complete! LOL

Later gator!

Quilts, Quilts quilts....just can't get enough

You know you are a "die hard" quilter when all you think about is quilting. Each morning I notice how dirty the house is getting because someone is NOT cleaning! Now, who on earth could that be? Not me! IT is the kids' responsibility!! LOL Oh those birds create so much dust too, I need to teach them how to clean up after themselves!
Yesterday we had a little situation with 2 chipmunks!! The big one, the daddy, decided it would be the right thing to do to chew through my side porch screen so he could get into the house...he could smell bird seed. Bird seed that Henry and Gracie toss out of their food bowls inorder to find their favorite seed...how nice of them, huh?
So daddy chipmunk manages to chew through the screen. I find him and his little boy in my porch scurring around trying to get out cause there is a human!!! They finally figured out how to get of the screened in porch and off they go. My husband took the screen and flipped it so that the hole was now at the top of the screen...way up above our heads.....I really thought the situation was resolved.
I'm downstairs sewing and I hear lots of noise going on in the family room. The birds were going nuts! So I come upstairs to find Gracie chasing one of the chipmunks out of the family room!!! Yes, my bird was chasing a chipmunk! That was funny!! Both of those chipmunks climbed to the top of the screen,through the hole and back down the other side of the screen, through the family room sliding doors and into the family room they were!! Walla jackpot for them because of the bird seed in the floor!! Need to vacuum again! darn it! Now I can't leave the sliding glass door open, darn chipmunks! Close doors, open windows for a nice breeze.
Instead I opened the windows behind the bird's cage....geez these chipmunks are smart! Within an hour the birds were going nuts again. I come back upstairs only to find daddy chipmunk had gotten back into the porch and was climbing the screen behind the bird's cage!!! UGH!! Daddy chipmunk saw me and took off! He has not reappeared since. Wish I would have had my camera during each time. The pictures would have been great!!
Just imagine a green quaker parrot chasing a chipmunk! LOL I did reward Gracie for being such a great watch bird!! What a great bird! LOL
With the comotion of the birds and chipmunks I did manage to quilt my French Toile quilt. I squared it up and today I plan on putting on the binding. I also managed to put another quilt on the longarm machine. This quilt is a scrappy quilt from Bonnie Hunter's website: www.quiltville.com the pattern is Hidden Spools. I'm going to do an allover meandor pattern, bind it and ship it to my sister. The quilt measures 90x106...I did not mean for it to be this big!! LOL She said she is going to put it on her bed along with the other 5 quilts she has from me!! LOL
I did manage to organize my sewing room a bit also. That felt good to get those projects into bins and off my cutting tables. I have a total of 18 bins now...that is too many bins. What I like doing is pulling fabric together when I get a vision of a quilt. I place the pattern in the bin with the fabric, this way I know what my idea was. I've been designing quilts lately. not too many, but this is just another avenue for me to explore. Now If I could just sell my designs or quilts. My passion is really into piecing, the actual machine quilting is a big chore for me. At times I find it refreshing...only at times.
Well, time to get moving, need to take some pictures of my progress and clean my house!! I know if I go down to my sewing room first I will never clean the house today!!! LOL....

Life is slowing down

Life is beginning to slow down, except that I am adding more to my schedule! I have a found a new quilt pattern that is going to be taking up some more of my time....I just can't help myself. This quilt requires 1,849- 2 1/2 inch squares! Now I must decide if I'm going to do this as a true "scrappy" quilt or use yardage...hmmm...The cutting will go faster if I use yardage, but the look will be really neat if I go scrappy...decisions decisions, what is a quilter to do!

I visited my favorite quilt yesterday to show the owner my latest creation. The pattern is from Lynn Moore, I believe she is in Alaska. Her website is http://www.quiltswithatwist.com/ What inspired me was Saturday morning's quilt show "Fons and Porter for the Love of Quilting" on pbs. The quilt pattern is named Zebras. I had to tweek the pattern a bit due to how much of each fabric I had. And I was not fussy cutting the fabric like she instructed. My fabric was not directional so it did not make a difference. After a few mistakes of laying the ruler on the wrong angle I was finally putting the rows together. The quilt goes together very easily! I used Asian fabrics, Moda solid (black), and Fairy Frost Gold.

The other quilt pictures are projects that I have been working on. The quilt blocks with the black and white french toile fabric are from http://www.nancyrinkdesigns.com/ BOM Galactic Explosion. I have finished piecing the body of the quilt and now I am adding borders, so more pictures to come of that. I'm going to add my own borders though because I can't put the rest of the quilt pattern together...ran out of fabrics!

The quilt block with the guitars, that is for my son Steve. I'm also waiting to finish this quilt when the fabric arrives in the mail! That should be any day now.

The other quilt that I have been working on I'm calling "Through the Looking Glass" I'm making it from scraps and old fabrics. It is very bright and rich in color. It is a gift for a family member, and if she follows my blog I can't let my secret out.... As I am able I will post more pictures of the progress.

Graduation has come and gone. Chris, our second son, is amazing! He is so handsome and just an all around great person! I know he is going to suceed in everything he does.

Here are a couple of pictures of Steve dressed and ready for the Prom!

Machine quilting

Lately I have been preoccupied with gardening. I have managed to weed and plant 3 flowerbeds...my back is killing me! But today! I will be sewing. I'm working on several things, of course! oh yes, while working outside yesterday we found a bumble bee nest under our ground cover juniper....going to stay away from that area for a while....
My first project is a quilt on the longarm machine. Not my quilt but a friend's quilt, she named it Rose Bargello. It really is a nice quilt. She also gave to me a second quilt to put on the machine, this one is a panel quilt that she has sliced the panel into different increment segments and then sewn it all back together....very interesting look. I know how I am going to quilt both of them already.
Once I finish the both of these I am going to work on my Block of the Month by Nancy Rink:
www.nancyrinkdesigns.com Galactic Explosion! I love this quilt. Also, if I have enough time I'm going to put together my packet for the quilts that i have designed and hopefully get them published in a magazine.
Time is going by fast....till tomorrow....

Nancy