Stash Report - Week 22

Wow look at me here ... Finally giving you a stash report in a timely fashion!  Now I have added quite a bit this week, but I have plans for all the fabric, I didn't just buy it to buy it!  I think that makes it better, doesn't it?  [wink, wink]

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 41.25 yards
Added this Week: 7.75 yards
Added Year to Date: 30.75 yards
Net Used for 2014: 12 1/2 yards

It does not look like I am going in the right direction, does it?  I promise you I will as soon as I get home!  I have a quilt to quilt for my daughter and the backing is 10 yards from my stash, so that will definitely help!  I can't wait to get home and start sewing ... In fact I've been considering buying a mat, ruler and rotary to get started while I'm here!  Then I'll just leave them for my next visit!  My dad has 7 bedrooms in this new house -- why I don't know --maybe I can turn one of them into a sewing room!  Heh, heh

I have so many plans running through my head of quilts to come!  It seems I have been attracted to patterns lately that use precuts and I also just bought the Missouri Star magazine and everything in there is using precuts. Many ideas for inspiration, of course with my own spin!

And I leave you with this ... Yesterday we drove 2 hours to have lunch with my baby brother (black shirt) and his family.  We decided to take a walk after lunch and do some shopping -- well the girls did at least!  This is the way they looked at the last stop waiting for me!!

Hahaha ... From left to right ... 13 yr old nephew, brother, sister, 16 yr old nephew, stepmom, dad ... You can't see my beautiful sis-in-law ... She is standing behind my dad!

Catching up!

Hi!!  We had a wonderful trip to Michigan and my granddaughter is so darn cute!  She is 3 1/2 months old now and just found her voice.  Makes the cutest noises!  My daughter is in love with her and can't believe how wonderful she is!  She has an easygoing personality and is a good baby; her parents are lucky.

Isn't she adorable?  You just want to squeeze those thighs!  I only got one pic of her and me, and she wouldn't look at the camera.

Here is a picture of aunt and niece ... They both adored the other.

I have done no quilting, but did shop at a cute quilt store in Brighton, MI.  It's called Monarch Quilts.  It had more on the bright side of fabrics: very friendly staff, and I found some cute fabrics for baby Kylee.

Hopefully I'll get something done this week!  I've just been playing catch up and trying to get back in the swing of things!

Monday doings

Took our daughter back up to school tonight. I am ever so grateful that she only goes to school 1 1/2 hours away. It is wonderful having her so close. We had a great Easter and the Easter bunny visited and brought lots of yummy goodies. I made popovers for breakfast ... Yum!

I actually quilted yesterday and was able to get a couple of small quilts done. Shhhh ... Don't tell Mindy because she is going to be so surprised I got them done. She just gave them to me on Friday .... I snuck them in. Aren't they cute? The red one is a table topper that she made using a 2 1/2 square grid; I used a tight swirl (she loves a tight design), and used Glide in top and bobbin. The green quilt I also believe she's using as a table topper. This is all fabric from the French General line ... The green is a really different color, but I like it. I made the swirl a little bigger and used the same cream Glide in top and bobbin. I did have the thread break on me once on the red quilt, but I decided it was because the tension was too tight on top.

Do you longarm? If you do, I'd love to hear from you about bobbin tension. I often have the problem where I run a test piece and the bobbin looks good. Then when I stitch through the first row and roll it up, I see little pokies ... grrrr ... The top tension isn't tight enough. It is so aggravating. What do you do to insure you don't have this problem. Please leave me a comment! Have a great Tuesday ... Don't you love my "Easter bunny?"

Wednesday snow

Well it is snowing again in Michigan ... It's the third day of snow since I've been here. It's very pretty and really hasn't accumulated very much. I think it's beautiful, but I suppose if I lived in it I wouldn't think it was so great.

I've been helping with the laundry and baby care and meals. The kids are staying with her parents. They were gone for a few days since I arrived (her parents); her dad came home the other night. I was trying to help with dinner and/or clean up and he would not hear of it. He is very nice and said I was the guest ... I don't mind helping, and I don't want to be waited on, so we just don't let him know! Mommy was supposed to cook dinner for us yesterday ... Lasagna. Well I wasn't going to let her cook so I put the lasagna together before her dad cane home. I kept asking her, is this how you do it? I did it wrong on the top layer apparently, so the story we told was that my son had to finish it because she was nursing the baby! Ha ha

I'm sending more cute pics of the baby. I am having a great time ... I miss my husband and my dogs and I sure wish I had my sewing machine! My son is working two part-time jobs so he hasn't had a lot of free time since I've been here but he's doing what he has to do. I don't mind, but I know he wishes he had more time with me.

The first quilt was one my friend made for Kylee. It's her own design out of the Noteworthy line of fabric. I did a new quilting design in it ... A tight flower that looks so cute. King Tut thread on the top and Glide in the bobbin.

The second quilt is also Mindy's and she sewed both backings together for me to load as one. As long as the backing are similar sizes it works well .... You just load the quilt back as usual and when your done with the first backing, you just roll some more and there is your second backing. It cut the load time in half on the second quilt. I did a swirly loop and also used the King Tut thread with Glide in the bobbin; both quilts I used the same creamy white thread so I did not have to change thread.

I stated having some trouble with my thread breaking, but I changed my needle, and then adjusted the needle bar height a little and that seems to have taken care of the problem.

Michigan

I just arrived in Michigan last night to visit my beautiful granddaughter and her amazing parents. I had several flight issues yesterday, but after a long day of travel I got here at midnight. I almost kissed the ground when I got off the plane .. I was never so happy to see land!

I can't figure out how to put pics from the cell phone except at the end, so I'll just have to group everything at the bottom. I have been busy quilting away ...

The first quilt is one a customer made for her grand baby ... Isn't it cute? I did my signature swirl and used Glide thread on top and bottom -- the color is a nice turquoise that compliments the quilt.

The next quilt is a quilt I made for Kylee ... I was running short on time, so instead of making a label for the back, I quilted her name into the center of the quilt where the frog is, and then in each corner I quilted the date of birth, height, weight, and length. And then of course I have to close my post with a picture of me and Kylee ... I am just loving this Grandmama stuff!

PS. The last picture is a blanket I knot for Kylee and lined with minkee .... It's so soft And she looks so cute under it!

Aaacccckkkkk!

Oh friends I have abandoned you, haven't I?! My humble apologies. I am trying this from my phone, but last time I tried this it did not work. We will see!!

So much has been happening in my life. I am happy to announce that my granddaughter, Kylee, has arrived! She was born on March 1, one week past her due date and weighed in at 7lb 7o, 20 inches long at 1:26 in the am. I just had to laugh at her because her sweet daughter really told her ... Mommy said that baby will be born in February and Kylee said ... Nope, March!!! Ha ha ... That's ok as she was born on my favorite cousin's birthday and on my sister's birthday too!!

Isn't she beautiful!!! I cannot believe how much hair she has. I love the pictures I get that have my son on them holding her. This is my favorite ...

Ok ... I am trying this from my phone and did it a week ago ... I'm not sure if you'll see the pics, but if you don't I'll just add them later.

P.s. I just checked and the pictures did post! I'm so happy because I can do this whole I'm traveling now!

College bound!!

Took our sweet daughter to college on Friday ... finally the day came ... I was just dreading it on Thursday, wishing it was over with!  The last time I took a kid to college was four years ago and it was to Hawaii -- by myself, no hubby -- and it was just awful leaving him there, watching his face as I left and missing him all the long flight home to San Diego.  I knew this would be a little easier because she is only 1 1/2 hours away ... but still, she's my baby and my daughter ... and so special because of those things.

Her friend had come over several times to help her clean up her room and pack, so I had no idea what the packing was like nor what she was taking ... here's what my house looked like that morning as it all started to come downstairs ...

Hmm ... what is she taking?  When our son went to school it was a couple suitcases worth of stuff, and that was it!  Trust me ... even if we had driven in a car, nothing much else would have come with him.  I will give it to her that she was totally organized and had everything downstairs before I could even think about helping her.  Sheesh, I was hoping it was going to all fit in the car ... I have a Honda Pilot, so there is a ton of room in there!

Just barely ... good thing no one else was coming except for the three of us.  We got on the road as planned, and almost made it to the first exit before she realized we had left her comforter and pillows at home .... eeeeeerrrrkkkkkkkk .... off the freeway and back home ... so only 1/2 hour behind original schedule ... for our family, that's on time!

Got up to Irvine with plenty of time to get everything situated ... her roommate hadn't checked in yet, so after some scrambling because of confusion over tuition and how/where to pay (long story), we found a suite mate that shares the bathroom area with my daughter, and got into their room and started unpacking ...

This is daughter's back half of the suite ... her closet is what is behind her bed ... see all the stuffed animals looking down on her bed?  I thought that was a perfect spot for them ... the closet is awesome!  Whoever designed these rooms at Concordia University was a genius ... closet is 12' x 12' with wrap around shelving and lots of space to store things on floor under shelves ... there is also a long bar to hang the clothes on, and when you open the closet doors (both her's, and her roomate's) it creates a divider between their spaces so they have some privacy.

No her quilt is not made by me!  Have you seen a teenager's room?  Have you seen a college kid's dorm room after their parents leave .... no good quilt is going in a mess like that to wind up who knows where!  The sweet fleece quilt hanging at the end of the bed is one my son's girlfriend made for daughter to take to school ... it goes really well with what she had picked for bedding, and girlfriend didn't even know what my daugther had chosen.

I did make the green pillowcase in the back and the cute little coral pillows in the front ... she picked out the Grass Shack pillow to remind her of home and the beach!  It was so funny because all the girls beds in the dorms where done with all these cute throw pillows ... then you walked by the boys' rooms ... comforters were on their beds only because mom's had made up the beds for them ... nothing else though and certainly no decorations ... girls are funny!

This is the back half of her space ... dresser at the foot of her bed, window that looks over the parking lot with a pretty view of trees, grass, and a desk and chair.  The door on the right is the access to their bathroom that they only share with two other girls.  Where the trash bag is hanging there, forward of that is the sink for their room ... it's in my daughter's half of the room ...

Here you can see the roommate's closet -- it is identically opposite of the other closet.

Look at that cute little girl ... not quite ready (she thought) for college and her parents to leave her, but she's ready!  See the bed pillow on her right ... she was so excited to buy that!  I bet she almost never uses it ... ha ha!  We never did get picture frames for the Greece prints that are hanging above her bed, but they were beautiful and reminded her of her heritage and our amazing trip over the summer!

After an exhausting day full of moving and walking back and forth across campus countless times, activities for parents, activities with students ... a closing ceremony complete with a motivational speaker who was incredible and followed by a yummy root beer float party ... a walk around campus and lots of reassurances ... we took a picture ... proud parents with a beautiful daughter ... she was scared and sad, but I know she will have a wonderful time and I am just so proud of her ...  xoxoxo