Mystery quilt website

This is the site that I am following for the 24 month mystery quilt. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apocketfullofmysteries/. I want to be sure to give her recognition.

Mom's quilt

I forgot to post a picture of the quilts my sister and I made for our siblings for Christmas. As I mentioned in a previous post, my mom passed away at the end of April and we thought it would be nice to make quilts for our siblings out of her clothes. So we set to work!! Here is a picture of two of my sisters, a brother and a cousin (who is like a sister) with their quilts on Christmas Eve. We put a nice little label on the back and had my cousin read it. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Although mom wasn't a fashion plate, we think these came out pretty good. We tied the quilts rather than quilt them because ... well because we had to make 9 of them! I come from a very large family.

Moving along on my projects

I have been sewing for at least an hour every night. Makes me feel like I am accomplishing something. I made a list of my "to do" and have been trying to scratch things off. I had wanted to do a mystery quilt that was running for 24 months, but as life goes I didn't do any of the blocks and they are now on month 13. I am happy to say that I have finished 8 of the blocks so far. I am using only fabric that is in my stash (the fabric I am using was actually given to me by my friend's mother-in-law, its not something I would have purchased, but I am using it anyway) and have been trying to do at least one block a night. I have managed to get a couple of them done each night. Hopefully, I will continue going! I also managed to get a diaper made for my granddaughter for Valentine's Day -- and then last night threw one together for her doll. So cute!

I am still here!

Hi everyone!  I'm back again.  I have started a list of what I need to finish.  No more fooling around!  I have moved into a new sewing room and am still trying to get organized.  The cleanup of this room just showed me all the projects I've started and not finished.  Soooo -- I am determined to finish (or at least give it my best shot) one top a week.  You see -  have the tops done, they all need to be quilted.  I almost wrote they all just need to be quilted - but that is my biggest problem -- the quilting.  I love the actual sewing of the tops not so much the quilting part.  Anyway, that's my new new years resolution.  Hopefully it will last past one week. 

Back again!

So, its been a long time since I've posted and a lot has happened in my life.  Happy things first - my youngest son got married and has become a father.  Exactly one year from his wedding, beautiful baby Hannah was born.  She is absolutely gorgeous!  My daughter and I flew over to Italy and arrived the day she was born.  Good timing or what!!!  There was a little issue when she was born, but everything is ok now and she is happy and healthy!  Can't ask for more than that.

This was also the year that my mom passed away.  She was sick for a while and we did what we could to keep her happy and at home for as long as possible.  It turns out that we were able to keep her where she wanted to be (home) right up until the very end of her life.  We were fortunate to have her for as long as we did.  She passed away in April after fighting the good fight and is missed every single day.  You might still find me tearing up when I talk or think about her (as I am now).  She was the best mother, wife, aunt, nana to the whole herd of us!

So, now you know why I have been away.  I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things and try to blog weekly on what I've accomplished in my quilting world.

Talk soon!

Cheryl

Fabric Extravaganza!

I know its been a while since I posted, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. This weekend a friend and I went on a quilting weekend.  It was great!  We left early on Friday afternoon and went to the Fabric Extravaganza in NH.  Bought way too much fabric - but who can pass up such bargains?  We then made our way to two more quilt shops and hit JoAnn's Fabrics at the end of our travels.  We went out for dinner and then headed back to her house to begin our weekend of quilting.  Did I tell you it was great?  Saturday we stayed in our pjs quilting until it was time to go to Keepsake Quilting.  Yup - bought more fabric there.  From there we went back to JoAnn's (cause you never know what you missed the first time - or as Karen says "Do I need this?"), got something to eat and then back to our quilting!  Sunday we stayed in our pjs quilting until around 4 pm when we decided it was time to shower and head for home.  The best part of this is that I finished two - yes I said two - quilts.  (Ok, technically I guess they aren't done till they're quilted, but the tops are done.)  I've posted pictures.  My friend, Karen, finished one as well.  It was a great weekend.  Thanks Karen for the hospitality!

Still quilting

Almost a week has gone by since my last post, actually, more than a week - so its time to get busy posting again!  I know I said I was going to try and post daily, but a lot has been going on in my life.

Right after the holidays, my son (who is in tech school at Keesling AFB in Biloxi) got married.  It was pulled together in two weeks time and turned out very nice.  His wife (still sounds funny to me that my baby boy has a wife) will join him in Biloxi if they can get base housing. 

The day following the wedding we found out our 4 year old yellow lab had cancer.  She really got sick quickly and we weren't sure she was going to make it through the week.  She lost about 10 pounds - granted she was overweight to start but that was a lot of weight to loose so quickly.  I started making hamburger, rice and shredded carrots for her and vet started her on steroids -- then we waited to see what our options were.  We took her for a second opinion and that vet confirmed the diagnosis.  He gave us two options, do nothing and she would only have a couple of months to live or do chemo and she could survive 9-13 months.  We chose chemo for her given her age.  We will only continue with chemo if she seems to be tolerating it, we don't want her to suffer.  We also have her brother (black lab) and I know he will be lost when she finally goes.  They have been together since day one - they sleep in the same crate.  We have separate crates for them, but they like sleeping in the same one. 

So, we take one day at a time and if I don't get around to posting, hope you'll understand.  I will contiue to quilt and try to get my UFO list down.  How is everyone else doing on this?  Any New Year resolutions?