School is in session!!

August is almost over and it's back to school for the kiddies.  Keely is in 1st grade this year.  Her school is half a mile from our house so we walk both to and from school every day.  So far it's been great and she and I both really enjoy it.  Such a wonderful time for us to chat with only the beauty of the outdoors to distract us!!  I love the random questions she comes up with and the off the wall things she does and notices during our walks.  One day she noticed a cicada on the sidewalk, wondered if it was alive and to find  out blew on it.  It was and she scared the poor thing head first into the crack of the sidewalk.  Not to mention I jumped 3 feet myself, it startled us as much as she startled it!!  She likes to randomly hug trees, I smile.  I am often reminded not to step on a crack so I don't break my mother's back, I should let her know that I am very careful walking to school so as to not hurt her back.  We are becoming friends with the crossing guard at the school and are quick with a smile when we see her.  Every day when she walks away from me and heads into the school I am blindsided with the love I feel for her and how very grateful I am to have been in the right place when she needed me most.  By the end of November the custody issue should be over and she will be with me permanently.  I am blessed and thankful every day.

Today I finished my first queen-sized quilt and am so happy with the way it turned out.  I love it!  The entire thing was pieced and quilted on my machine.  I can't wait to start on another one....what to do, what to do???  Free motion quilting is pretty intimidating but so much fun. 

 

 

What will today bring??

These prescious fingers and toes belong to the little girl who hopefully will be one step closer to being with us permanently.  KVS has recommended to the court that they move forward with permanency options which I desperately want.  Of course that means lawyers for mom and the bio donor will fight like crazy against it, but they have had 9 months and have made little to no progress. Both of them have pretty awful histories over the last couple of years.  She deserves so much more than those two individuals.  Her papa and I are determined to see that she has a wonderful future to look forward to with parents/caregivers (depending which way things go) who will love, nuture, guide, and protect her as she grows.  I am so thankful that we are in the position to step in and be for our granddaughter what is lacking in her young life.  Tonight I will say a small prayer and ask for help in how tomorrow turns out.

Countdown to change!!

It's a good thing that I have such a great love for quilting, knitting, and crochet.  With all that is going on right now I rely on creating to take my mind away from wondering what is going to happen.  Tuesday we go back to court and I think we will finally know whether or not we will get our grand-daughter permanently.  8 months ago I pretty much begged the state to intervene because I couldn't find another way to put a stop to my daughter's destructive drug addiction.  At that time I was awarded custody as a foster parent.  It's so odd to be considered a foster parent to your grandchild.  It has been a joy to have her with us and witness her thriving in a safe, dependable, consistent, and loving environment.  Fortunately she did not suffer any abuse, but she was neglected to the extent that she basically took care of herself and missed more kingergarten than she attended.  Her mom loves her, but she loves drugs and herself more.  I say she loves her, but I have to wonder how someone can look at that sweet child and not put her first in every way possible.  I will never understand how someone can lose all sense of reason to substance abuse.  I know it happens every day, but I truly never expected it would impact our family the way it has.

Keely is my constant companion and loves to keep me company while I am working at the sewing machine.  She is a wonderful critic of what I do, always, always complimentary and positive.

I finished piecing this this afternoon and love the way it turned out.  I can't take credit for the pattern but I am calling it (for my personal purpose) Onward and Upward because that is my husband Gary's favorite saying and this seems to speak that to me.  Especially under the cirmstances we are in right now.  I am please with how the colors work together and am excited to contemplate the quilting part!

This top I finished piecing on Father's Day.  You can see Gary peeking over the top.  I am thinking that quilt will look wonderful on one of my grand-daughters' bed.  I have 3 so I can indulge in lots of girly colors and fabrics. 

One jelly roll was all it took to get this much put together.  I have gotten some dark green to use for borders and will probably use it for binding as well.  I love how easily you can find ideas, instruction, and help with pretty much anything you might want to do or create.  It's truly wonderful!!





I continue to strive "Onward and Upward"...........

Missing Daddy today

It's Father's Day today and I am missing my dad.  It's been nearly 4 years since cancer took him from us and yet it still feels unreal.  I keep expecting him to answer the phone one of these days when I call my mom.  He is forever in my heart and I will forever miss him.  Happy Father's Day daddy, I love you.

Lazy Sunday

Not to be forgotten, I am still "hooked" on making cloths!! I so love the colors on this little beauty.

A perfect day to be creating!! Even though it's warm out, going up to 87 today, total cloud cover and kinda dreary looking. I picked up this little kit from Fabric & Friends, LLC in Camdenton, MO while at the lake house (Lake of the Ozarks). It's billed as a Ten Minute Table Runner. Took me a bit longer since I am still getting my sewing feet wet and just plain like to take my time. Love the way it turned out and it gave me an opportunity to play with some stitch functions on my machine. I love how the flowers from our yard look so pretty sitting on the breakfast table with such a pretty runner underneath. If you ever get by Lake of the Ozarks, stop by and visit this shop www.fabricsandfriends.com , very friendly and helpful. Since I have the directions I see a few more of these in my future!

I have fallen in love with this shop:  Fat Quarter Shop
If you haven't had a chance to visit this site please go:
http://www.fatquartershop.com/


This kit produced this little pillowcase which my 2 1/2 year old grandson absolutely loves:

I have gotten really hooked on quilting again.  It is so relaxing and the finished products are sooo cool.

Made this for Keely's doll

Bought myself a "serger" which I can't wait to get home and use.  A little nervous about it because I have read so much about how terrified people are with trying them out.  But the excitement overweighs the terror!!  I am firmly convinced that I shall rock at the use of the all-terrifying serger....

Have been practicing my machine quilting, just in time for a class that I signed up for next week at the local Bernina store (where I purchased my machine many years ago).  I am excited about it.  Little does my family know that blankets galore are in their future.  They will be confused because normally I am sharing the knitting or crochet items I make with them. 

Along with the newly rediscovered quilting I have found myself obsessed with reading quilting blogs.  I am in awe with the talent that can be found out in cyberspace.  I should have known since the same is true for my favorite knit/crochet bloggers.  It's amazing how generous people are when it comes to sharing their knowledge or expertise. 

Until next time..............

I have rediscovered quilting and am having an absolute blast!!  I have a great sewing machine that has been sitting neglected for at least 10+ years and had forgotten what it was capable of.  I think I originally bought it with quilting in mind so it is exactly what I need right now.  My first attempt for was my newest grand-baby Isaac who was born on leap day.  When all was said and done, it was an average attempt.  I was remembering things as I went along and unfortunately it turned out to not be my best effort.  I decided that since he was only 2.5 months old he probably wouldn't care much.  Krissy knows she can throw it on the ground and abuse the heck out of it, most likely I will be making him another in the not to distant future.




Next up was a lap quilt for my middle grand-daughter Keely.  Her favorite color is pink and mine is purple so I showed her the two fabrics I was thinking about using and she loved them (lucky me).  Keely is 6 years old and definitely has a mind of her own.  I have custody of her right now so I have a little one around 24/7 to love, spoil, and make things for.  She loves everything I have ever done for her, my best audience!  She has put in a request for a quilt for her dolls that will be perfect for using up some scraps.

Keely graduated from kindergarten this week and this was what we gifted her wonderful teacher with.  She loved the "mug rugs" (from a kit, now I know how to do them), and inside the crochet bag I created we put a gift card from Target (one of her fav stores).  Its so nice when people enjoy crafted items as gifts and I so love to make and give things away. 

Julianna is my youngest grand-daughter, she will be 5 going on 25 in July!  She is pretty girly but her mom, my daughter still rebels against that and pleaded with me not to make her lap quilt over the top girly.  I know I will have many opportunities in the future to feed my inner "girl" so came up with these fabrics that I knew would please her as well as her mom.  This has been my best effort yet and has gotten me so excited for my next effort. 

It's still pretty hectic at our house these days.  We are enjoying being full time parents again, but it can be tiring at times.  At the same time our home of 19 years is for sale and that brings alot of stress and sadness along with it.  When we first decided to put the house on the market we had planned on moving back to Denver once it sold.  Life has a funny way of changing your plans.  We now are not able to leave the state until the situation with Keely is resolved and that doesn't look like it will be happening for at least 6 months to a year.  We don't know if we will have Keely permanently or if her mother (our oldest daughter) will be able to get her act together.  So if the house does sell it will be rental time for us.  The thought of having to downsize from our current 7500 square feet to about half that almost paralyzes me. 

It's crazy to think about all that is happening right now.  Smile and keep putting one foot in front of the other!!  Perhaps I should start journaling??