Hello, Again!

It has been almost 4 months since last posting! I hope to connect with friends again. Summer passed,

 Papa working over his new toy, a featherweight I  sewed on during our visit back home in Nebraska ~

 "Eye of the Needle" natural rock formation, 
South Dakota.

Just one of the many fun places we visited ~

 

Larry loves the horses~









We enjoyed the break, 


school began,

Just a few of my 25 kiddos in our classroom library, first day of school photos ~

and then, I was not able to post anything because a widget took over the pokeydot blog! Naughty lil' widget!

Until I was able to get tech help, sharing was on hold. So, here are a few pictures of the creativity that continued even without posting. . . you know you don't quit making stuff when the sewing gene is in your DNA!

 

 can hardly wait to show this progress

 a baby quilt for Kathy

This Batik braid quilt was beautiful, and remained square! I was so impressed with Donna's piecing. I quilted it with a swirl pattern ~

 My sweet friend Nancy, and this lovely quilt she pieced, I quilted and bound it for her niece ~

These are two small table toppers, about 36". Same colors,  pieced by Donna, and I quilted with a beautiful variegated thread ~

Another of Kathy's that I was lucky to get to quilt. Can't remember the magazine she used, this was published this summer called "Rain Bows". The photo isn't true to color, it was stark white!

This sweet baby boy's quilt 

was for My bbf's grandbaby, 

Gavin. Beth did the embroidery, 

I pieced and quilted it. 

I can't find a finished photo!

This is Kathy, and her gift to her dd for her birthday in October. I quilted with stars,  the word "Boo" and a spiderweb here and there  

While in Nebraska, I was able to visit with fellow quilter and blogger, Elaine! Sorry that this wasn't put up before now Elaine, but I sure enjoyed our little visit. Go see her quilting skills here ~  

Hope to find other pictures and post them soon. Until then, good to be back!

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD." Psalm 122:1

B.O.O.K.S. and Time ~

Stars for April's BOM with Quilt Doodle Doodle

It sometimes is a challenge to juggle a balanced life. I think that is how to label the season I'm going through right now. There, how is that for being positive!  insert sarcasm :-}!  School has been a consuming work. Besides the lively group of students that I call mine, our school took on a new reading program which required all books to be given codes. 

I'll compare this to doing an inventory. It needed to be done this year so that the kids could know which books qualify and were at their tested reading level, 

and the testing could be activated by the fourth quarter.  That fourth quarter is here. Being the OCD person that I am, this has gone on for the last month, almost all free time. (Oh, that's where quilting, sewing, blogging time went!) I did ask for volunteers, and there was one of my former students that came for an afternoon and got the ball rolling. I asked him to please write down the step-by-step directions, and bless his heart, it was perfect.

Larry made the cute labels

 I've shared those steps with other teachers in my school, since it was such a daunting task! After that, I started pulling the books, 

 

 I see a Highlights in this pic, we didn't include any magazines in the count.

filling my wheeled carts, and hauling them home.   It was too much to try to spend the days at work, so bringing them home each day worked best, and then sweet daughter worked on it also. Lydia and I have worked and touched almost every book in my personal classroom collection, and I am pleased to see that there is more than 2500 books there!
The students are really enjoying the program, and I'm seeing great growth in the desire to read.

 

this is the tree for March BOM with Cindy of quilt Doodle Doodles,

and this is the April strip of stars. Both have been my little bit of sewing therapy for the last 6 weeks ~

Our Easter break is coming up, and I'm so-o ready!

"May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus…perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." 1 Peter 5:10

Monday Sewing!

This is my finished BOM for February. 

 

I changed my house up a bit from Cindy's, I wanted a different roof line.










Lookie in the window, there's a bit of Dr. Seuss there :-}                                                                      


My sweet honey has some work this morning, and then he is going to his classes from 1pm to 10pm, what a long day! (yesterday was his birthday, too)

But, me? I have a day home from school, thank you Mr. Presidents! 

I sent Larry off with two packed lunches, and a piece of his birthday PIE. . .

there is chicken slow cooking and already smelling yum. . . 

. . .and this is waiting on the frame! Happy Sewing Day!

 







"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:36-40)

Happy Groundhog Day!

Happy February 2nd, Mr. Groundhog is overshadowed this year due to some football game playing today. Okay, it was "Go Broncos!" at the Davis' house. Too bad....Anyway, on to other stuff ~



Larry is settling in to his art classes, doing well but tired. Not as easy as when we were young. He is surprised at how many of the classmates do not even attempt to do assignments. He has received comments from students like"How do you know all this stuff?" (when he helped them do something on the computer, he is not one to speak out or draw attention to himself), to one teacher seeing a caricature drawing he submitted, and stating aloud, "We have an illustrator in our midst!" ~ Insert cheeky grin, I'm proud of my honey! ~

  * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ *

The last two weeks have been report cards for the little people in my life, and the grand field trip: lighthouse tour, mariner's museum, whale watching at lunch time, marine museum with touch tank and lastly, the actual tide pools at oceanside. The Kids L.O.V.E. all the exploring time, and the parents enjoy it all, too ~

 * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ *

I wrote out my UFO list, or rather my PhD's. Either way I started writing, and thought I wouldn't reach the end. 

 

 Look at the little note pad sheets...

I needed four pages, LOL!

 I do not plan to finish all 24 on the list, But I wanted to have them all written down. Let me show the ones I'm hoping to complete. 

 

• Jeanette's Comfort Quilt. This has been a casualty of the unorganized sewing room, but I found it last week! It needs the backing, and then quilted and bound. from June 2012
  
  
• Temecula Quilt Company projects: two samplers from 2012, 
  
• and the cakestand from June 2013. All three are small. The cakestand is bigger, but the quilt on point is what stymied me.... 
•  half hexagon. First 110 inch quilt finished on my quiltframe, and the back had some big winkles in it. It was half ripped out, and then pushed into the cedar chest. That quilt WILL be finished and used.
   
• Larry's Blue Kitchen Sink. Another monster size quilt. I have trimmed it; we have even had this on the bed, but it is not bound! Must. do. this. 2011
•  
• Great Granny. I love this. Even the backing is ready. Hmm. 2012
•  
  
  
  
  
• Friendship Stars, and Bright Hopes. Both inspired by Tina of Seaside Stitches.  2013
•  
• Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street, 2013. This needs a border and backing purchased. This may have to wait a bit ~ 
• Checkerboard and Dresdens, using a prized Amy Butler jelly roll. Quite a bit of sewing to complete the top, but it will be special! 2011.
•   
• Wiggly Whimsy with Terry, 2013. Half assembled.
• 
• BOM 2014 with Quilt Doodle Doodles
• 
• Spools, 2013. need to find a backing, and quilt it!
• 
•  Tiny Pinwheels- I dnk why I called them windmills on my list. 2013
  
• One I do not have a picture of is another comfort quilt for my friend Sharon, made from her husband's shirts. She gave me them this past fall, 2013.
• These are pictures of other UFO's I'll just show you:
•  
• flower garden scraps in green ~ Block Lotto coin stacks ~  Pineapple blossom

 Well, that is a list! I must admit, I so enjoy the learning process of the sewing project, and I see many tutorials that I want to try, that sometimes some sewing is started just for the educational experience. Does that sound like an excuse? I feel it is only an excuse if I tried the steps and decided to not take it to a project. The pictures I've shown all moved to the project stage!

My list is for the UFO and NEWFO

Now, let's see what is possible!

 

"Jesus said, 'If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.'" Mark 9:23

"...with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26