I was tagged!!

Good morning, I poured a coffee, turned on the computer and see that I have been tagged by Dee at www.bubbachic.typepad.com/my_blog

I recently found and visited Dee’s blog and am enjoying going back for ‘tea’ frequently.

* Link the person who tagged you
* Mention the rules in your blog
* Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours
* Tag a new set of six following bloggers by linking them.

6 unspectacular things about me………..hmmm………………..

1. If there is leftover cake, cheesecake dessert etc in the fridge…..I will eat it for breakfast the next day.

2. I can’t stand the noise from crunchy food!

3. I go crazy if someone touches my feet.

4. I sing loudly in the car and talk to all the other lovely drivers on the road!!

5. When my kids were smaller on Special lunch fridays (like old fashioned hot dog days) I would do the Special lunch dance for my kids in the morning in my pj’s cause I didn’t have to make lunches. Now they are teens they would be mortified!!

6 This weekend, we went hiking, I took photos of slugs and fungus………..I like nature photography and there weren’t many flowers!!

*** cane back to add I’ve tagged 6 new quilting friends. I thought I would randomly select 6 bloggers who are also listed as participating in Amanda Jeans Star Block Quilt along. I thought it was a great way to meet some new blogger friends and find out something new about them:
- www.quiltilicious.blogspot.com (I love her Liberty Melon blogs and the blog name)
- Nicolette at www.deviliegendekoe.blogspot.com (She shared photos of the most wonderful sewing basket she made.
- Nichole at www.vanilla-spice.net/wordpress.com – She is a lovely young woman who shares her fun decorating style on the entry I read
- Hobby Mommy at hobbymommy.blogspot.com (I adore the blog name and she shared photos of some coasters that I also made very recently)
- www.jennicakes.com/blogspot (A lovely site and I love the name. It just sounds so cute)**** Thanks everyone for having fun blogs to read and for brightening up my afternoon!!

I will link my 6 in a little bit ( I will come back and add them to this post). I am using my son’s laptop at this time and have a hard time figuring out how to do things on it. In all seriousness, my littlest son came down very sick in the night Sunday night. Andrew has a critical illness but has times when infection etc make his condition worse which is where we are at today. We are giving him IV antibiotics etc and he will feel better in the next couple of days. Today is starting better than yesterday so that is good! I am going to settle him on my bed watching tv, then, fter some house work, I will go into my little sewing room (which is off our bedroom) and I will do some simple sewing as the eyes are a bit blurry from my lack of sleep. So I promise I will come back and link 6 people this evening, if not before.

If you want to read more about my special angel, there is a link to his caringbridge page in the more about me section above!

Have a wonderful day everyone.

A 4 Seasons Summer Swap update

I wanted to share with you a little glimpse of how my 4 Seasons Quilt Swap is coming along. With 100 participants I don’t have to worry about giving anything away as nobody knows if it is for them or not. I sure hope my swap partner likes it as much as I do so far!!

This morning, my friend Cheryl and I, went to the Fraser Valley Quilt show. Took lots of photos and bought some wonderful treats. I’ll come back tonight or tomorrow to share my photos. I took my daughters camera as it is much smaller than mine and I have to wait for her to come home to download cause I don’t know where the cord is.

This week one of my goals is to do the 5 star quiltalong blocks from crazy mom quilts’ quilt along. I did the last quiltalong amada jean hosted and it was a great experience. I have one block left from that one to complete and then to sew them together. Now, I have selected a cream, red and blue theme for this new quilt along. I will share photos, of course, as the blocks progress. I enjoy visiting the other bloggers who are participating also. It is inspiring to see everyones colour selection and progress.

A Blessed weekend to all!

PS Watch my blog – I’m going to announce my first giveaway coming up this week and I hope to have lots of names to choose from.

A Little Wings update

I wanted to stop in really quickly on this busy Thursday evening and share a photo of my latest Cross stitch WIP’s. This is Lavender and Lace’s Little Wings. I am really enjoying stitching on it. It is very classic and victorian looking and there is something very comforting about creating something that reflects on a time long ago. This is a portion of the ‘mother’s’ long flowing green dress. I will be back on the weekend to share more of this and my current quilting projects!!

Anniversary bouquet and 4 Seasons sneak peek

I was blown away when I dropped Andrew at school this morning and his aide showed up with the absolutely beautiful and huge bouquet of flowers and a gift card for Martin and I for our Anniversary. I was blown away. How sweet and kind. I have included a couple of close up photos. The bouquet is so big I had to split it into two vases.

I have the joy and privilege of participating in two blogger’s swaps over the next month. I am very excited to be joining in Margaret’s Four Season’s Quilt Swap (Summer)

www.fourseasonsquiltswap.blogspot.com

I have admired many blogs that have shared their creations: made and received from this swaps other seasons. I was very happy to hear that I was able to sign up in time and am able to be included. I received my swap partners information yesterday and, after spending a leisurely evening going through many books and mags, I think I have found the perfect project. In fact I went into my Quilting Nook this morning and chose the fabrics and even cut out a bunch for the ‘main piece’. Below is a photo of the cut fabrics, just to give you a little hint of what is ahead!

I am also very happy to be doing a Pincushion Swap over on Linda’s site.

www.all-stitched-up.blogspot.com

I received my partners information yesterday and tonight will be looking for the perfect Pinny pattern to create for my secret friend.

Well, back to the Sewing Nook. I am eager to start putting those little pieces below into something beautiful!

Sunflower challenge and sharing a piece of my heart.

Today is a very special day. Today I celebrate 19 years married to an amazing man. Who would ever have known when this ‘then teen’ met a certain ‘young man’ that 23 years later incl. 19 years of marriage, we would be more in love today and stronger than ever. Our married life has been faced with challenges beyond comprehension. Issues that, as young marrieds, you think you will never possibly have to consider. Like having a child with a terminal illness. Yet, we remain a unit. Yes, we have had ups and downs. I don’t think we would be where we are today without them but, I love him more now than ever, and more because of the challenges we have had to face together. They say the percentage of divorce in marriages that involve children with complex medical issues is close to 90%. I am proud to say that we are in the 10% that is making it and are stronger because of it.

Now, today we had our Challenge reveal coffee. The challenge this time was a piece of sunflower batik that was about .8 metre in size. The Challenge: go create something, anything and bring it to coffee morning. So I am sharing photos of our creations. They are all so unique and so fun. We always enjoy seeing what the others come up with. If you click on the photos it tells a bit about them I think. ( I am really having issues figuring out how to put the photos in now wordpress has changed their format-I apologize if they don’t show up)

I made Cheryl and Yvonne some lovely little fabric coasters and gave them a little Mary Englebreit Journal. It is so nice to share little lovey gifts on our coffee mornings.

Now, here is where I share a bit from my heart……………. and I don’t know how to ‘activate’ a vision that I have. If you are new to my site, welcome. I am a mommy to 4 children. 3 boys and a girl. Andrew, our youngest, has a degenerative disease of his nervous system. Simply explained-he has a terminal disease that is slowly over time destroying his autonomic nervous system. We have in home nursing. He does go to school but has aides and, at 10 years of age almost, functions at a 4 year old level. Our other three children are healthy and active ( our 14 year old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 3.5 years ago-but it doesn’t stop her) Our children have lived with relative chaos in their lives since Andrew was born. They would awaken to find that I had had to rush Andrew in to the hospital in the middle of the night and at times like that, he might be inpatient for a couple of days or a month. They have had us cancel special events when nurses didn’t show up to watch Andrew. We can’t take vacations to fun and exotic places as a family because Andrew won’t have health care. We can’t do things very spontaneously, as going out for a day requires several hours of preperation and planning. They have attended counselling to prepare them for the fact that one day their brother may very well die. They have seen dear friends of ours bury their children as they, too, had a ’special’ family like ours. Through it all, they hardly complain, they grow in their Christian Faith and in Compassion for ALL humans regardless of colour or ability. They don’t see boundaries but opportunities. They will be better, stronger more caring adults because of the childhoolds they have had to live. Now, this brings me to my plan………..

We have been blessed with many special gifts for Andrew over the years. In fact, a quilter whose blog I visited recently has so generously offered to have her group sew Andrew a blanket. How special is that. Obviously, as Andrew is the one who is very ill, much attention is always showered upon him, and rightfully so. I know many families whose families are like ours. Where very special and amazing siblings stand quietly supportive and altering their lives due to the fact that their family’s have hurdles to face. I would like to start a special outreach Ministry that makes quilts for the siblings of critically ill children. What child-young or old-would not love a quilt to cuddle with when times are very hard or days are overwhelming. I don’t know how to start it. I think I will put a call out to quilters to make a 12 by 12 block in a certain quilterscache pattern with a certain colour scheme and hopefully 12 blocks per quilt will work. I am happy to put them together and quilt and bind them. I want to send them to these special siblings and let them know that we recognize what they go through and that people out there love and care for them too. Please tell me what you think. Tell me if you think this could work. Tell me if you have better ideas of how to do it. Our church sermons have been about outreach and ministry and finding our place to touch others with God’s love. I truly feel that this may be a way for me and others to touch children in a very special way.

PS One very important question is: If you are a quilter, would you be willing to consider making a 12″ square once every couple of months and send it in unfinished??

to make a

A belated Happy Mothers Day and a few photos

Well a very Happy belated Mothers Day to all those Mommy’s out there (and Mommy’s in spirit). I hope you had a joyous day celebrating our wonderful, and yet sometimes thankless!! : ) jobs.

We also celebrated my angel girls 14th birthday yesterday. I can’t believe my little baby girl is now 14. I have included a photo for you of her with the flowers that Andrew ‘bought her’ for her birthday. He also made her a special little bookmark with the help of his nurse yesterday.

I received some wonderful little gifts from my kids who visited one of my favorite little stores just a few blocks from here. I included some photos of my goodies that I received. They will all find a home in our bedroom once the shelves and that go back in. (We are redecorating)

My Best friend and her mom and I like to do little quilt challenges every now and then. Nothing like having a date deadline to get stuff done. We usually choose a theme or a jelly roll etc and we each go away and come back with our creations to share. It is so fun to see all the different projects that can come from the same theme or fabric. We do our ‘reveal’ lunch this Friday but I wanted to share this seasons project with you. It is on the floor in my room as I still have to hand sew the binding and hanging sleeve on tonight. The challenge fabric was the yellow sunflower batik you can see in the letters and in the windows. It was so fun to make and I can’t wait to hang it on the back deck. I just have to wait until after Friday!!

Also, I have been slowly working away in the evenings on a Peter Rabbit Alphabet sampler in Cross stitch. I love seeing each letter take shape. It is my hope to have it finished and framed by the end of the summer when they are opening a new pediatric ward at the hospital that cares so well for Andrew. I would like to give to them as a thank you for their love and care.

 

Has it really been since January……….

I simply can’t believe I haven’t blogged since January and it is now May!!! I have done some projects but I have been so incredibly busy with all my kid stuff that I guess 4 months really has gone by.  I will share a few photos and then I will say that I will update once a week at a minimum. I am going to do another quiltalong over on Crazy Mama’s website so I will update as I go. I have also been doing the Block Central Block of the month and should update with photos of that. Let me go see what pictures I can come up with……..

Several projects to update on…….

I have a whole bunch of photos to share on some of the little projects that I’ve been working on. 

A couple of years ago my dear friend gave me a little birdhouse pattern for cross stitch. I found it all finished the other day and decided to finish it up. I made a mini wallhanging and thought I would add a stick under the birdhouse for effect!

I am participating in a round robin on my Quilting group and here is a photo of Joanne’s Turtle block. I just added my round. The blue plaid, green squares and turtle squares. It is looking very cute.

In a special December Secret Sister swap I received a little kit to learn redwork. I am having such fun stitching up this preprinted little “Home is where the heart is” Stitchery.

I am all caught up on my Quiltalong blocks! Until tomorrow anyway! So quilters, what colour would you do the sashing when they are done??

I found a lovely little freebie cross stitch pattern from

 http://midsummernightdesigns.com/index.htm

You can find the pattern here:

http://stitchingandscribbling.blogspot.com/2008/01/lovebird-freebie_103.html

I have kitted it up (with a few colour substitutions as I didn’t have them all) I am going to start this one this evening!

I am finished my coasters for the IbbyBee Coaster swap! Here are the coasters I have completed for my partner. I did 4 different herb drawings and stitched them. They are then quilted and I used a peach coloured backing for them to blend with the blue/peach flowers on the front.  I think they turned out very sweet. In the next few days they will go out in the mail and head very , very far away!

One last little update picture. Here is a little Prairie Schooler freebie that I started last Sunday. I am making it into a little bookmark. I used my own colours as I didn’t have what they recommended.

Whew, funny, I felt like I got nothing done in the way of stitching and quilting this week, however, when you put it all down in print you realize that you made some progress after all!

Two posts in one day!

This is my second entry for today. I mentioned in the previous entry that I wanted to make a little bag to store Andrew’s glucometer and supplies (to monitor his hypoglycemia) in as we always lose them or get them mixed up with Melissa’s (our daughter with type 1 diabetes). Here is what I created…… It only took about an hour and I made it up as I went along. I think it will work well as we can hang it on the back of his wheelchair when we are out and it is bright so we will easily spot it.

Life is busy…..

I have been running here, there and everywhere….3 kids doing basketball-2 of them high school ball-means lots of running around. I attended 7 basketball games this week alone. I have been finding time to stitch a bit this week, but didn’t find time to update the blog. Now I sit on a Friday morning with the kids at school, poured (well microwaved anyway) a cup of coffee and I think I am ready to update. I updated the look a bit to move past the Christmas theme it was on. The new header is a partial photo of a quilt I made for my son Aaron last year for his birthday. It was circles that were then folded in. It was more of a challenge than I thought it would have been. On Wed. this week I got together with a friend and we made Valentine’s Table runners start to finish in one sitting. That is about the only way to do a project!! We just precut the night before but did all assembly the day we got together. It looks very pretty I think. I found a great cupid fabric that I used on the back.

 I had made a little cross stitched Valentines square a couple of weeks ago and really wasn’t sure what to do with it. I used the leftover fabric from the big table runner and made a small table mat for the little coffee table. It actualy turned out very sweet I think.

I am doing a coaster swap over on Ibby Bee Quilts blog site:

http://ibbybeequilts.blogspot.com/

I was surfing around my swap partners site and thought perhaps she might life something with blue in it and also something ‘earthy’. So I am stitching herbs onto small squares of fabric and bordering and backing them in blues. They are cut a little bigger right now as stitching on tiny little 4″ squares is hard to hold onto. So the blue will be cut down a little bit when it comes time to put them together. I am quite impressed with myself as it was a totally original plan!

I also thought I would share a photo of a little pillow that my 13 year old daughter cross stitched and sewed for her best friends birthday last weekend. It turned out very sweet.

All right, well, I have to go do some housework and then I am off to create some type of a small sack or something for my son to keep some of his medical supplies in that we keep losing!

Hoping to update again after the weekend. Wishing everyone has some time to do the things that make them happy this weekend!