Two Wedding Quilts, Two BOM's, Two Grandbabies! TOO BLESSED!

Now that I have a table in my library/office I have really gotten into puzzles (and audiobooks).  Here is a quilty one I made last week.  

Here are my A Quilting Life BOM blocks.  Keeping up with them!

This is my Dakota Farmer Rainbow Scrap Challenge block and below, more of them.  I have many of these blocks in different colors and sizes and am looking forward to seeing them come together into quilts.  I think next year I am going to do Bonnie's new Morning Glories paper pieced pattern.  I enjoy paper piecing but like the idea of doing a few a month instead of all at once!  I love that pattern too.  Linking up with Angela.  

                                        

In other big news, Hazel has a baby sister!  Meet Indigo Avolyn!  Indie was born on August 10th (just barely) and is the sweetest angel!  Hazel is loving being a big sister (and turns three next month).  

 

Look how proud Hazel is of Indie!  Hannah and Jeremy have their hands fuller!

AND!!!  Coleman's oldest stepdaughter Hailey and her fiance Chava had Wren Randall on August 13th.  Here is big brother Matteo (last you saw his pic he was barely bigger than this!).  He looks pretty proud too!  

Hazel and I picked some of our plantings the other day.  Lots of tomatoes and some green beans.  

Hailey and Chava are getting married Labor Day weekend.  He is joining the Army and will soon go off to training.  This quilt will be their wedding gift.  I made this one with 35th Ave. BOM 2017 and it has been waiting for its forever home.  I hope they love it. (I did refold it differently in hopes the fold marks will disappear in transit!)

My honorary daughter Rachel is also getting married in Norway.  This is another 35th Ave.  Kaleidoscope of Kolor 2013 that has been waiting too.  Very happy to get these quilts out in the mail.  

 

Finally--I am Sewing Again!

IIf you are interested in quilting skip this long paragraph about my health!  My health has not been good since last April or May.  I had dental work done and got an infection under my new permanent bridge.  It was pure hell for awhile there and then I finally went in for a second opinion about MS because I had so many symptoms (and have three relatives with it).  Turns out I do not have MS (thank you for that) but I do have a B12 deficiency which actually mimics MS to the point of ridiculousness.  It was so bad that between checking for MS the first time and then seeking a second opinion a little over a year later I no longer had a knee reflex in my left knee.  That got me further testing anyway and we got to the bottom of my problem.  However, all of these issues retriggered Epstein Barr ( I had mono when I was 18) and the fatigue is like nothing I had ever experienced.  So after every test under the sun (MRI, bloodwork, lumbar puncture, etc.) it looks like that has been what has made me so weak.  Have lovely leg spasms, burning feet, jumping nerves, ugh!  It has been really hard to even work since school started and I have been to the ER a few times..pretty sure I had another gallstone (sans gallbladder) and passed it in the ER too.  At least that pain is gone.  I long for my former healthy life!  I have not been going to Pilates for the past two months or so as I am too weak.  I can barely climb a flight of stairs and it seems like  lifetime ago that I hiked the Grand Canyon.  I have gained some weight back though been losing again this past month and am committed to trying. Good news though my migraines are the best they have been in twenty years.  I finally figured out a lot of my triggers are food.  UGH!  I do not eat fake sugar, much MSG, hardly anything processed and viola no more migraines unless I accidentally eat something.  I would take the crazy daily migraine pain over the worst of the fatigue though--that was super frustrating to me.  In the past week or two I have finally noticed some improvement. I am not sleeping near as much though I do need to be in bed with feet up a lot still.  Just a week ago I went out socially for the first time after a work day. I can do some on non work days but on a work day I just have to lay down as soon as I get home.  

Anyway enough about that!  Some people never recover from EB and I plan to if at all possible. 

Several weeks ago on a non work day Barb and I went to a fabric sale at a gal's house (her store in Prescott had closed) and here is the craziness I came home with for 80 ish dolllars.  I have not spent money on fabric in forever mainly because I have not been sewing but this came at a time when I was finally getting back in there!

 

Liz joined us for shopping and we ran into Tina (who was my first quilt camp roomie) so we all went to breakfast together.  What a fun bunch!  So I put together both mine and Kathy's 35th Ave. BOM from last year.  Forgot to get a picture of the second one.  It is the same but orange outer border. 

 The main reason I got back in the quilting studio was to finish On Ringo Lake (On Green Bay).  I did finish it, Ros quilted it and has some close up photos here.  I love that she puts GO PACK GO on these!  She also quilted Love Shack for me.  I was so afraid I would not be happy with it if I did it so she did her magic.  I found a stripe to bind it with and it is such a happy quilt!

 Several years ago Barb gave me the embroidered squares below.  I finally got around to using some modern fabric to center them in the stars.  Still needs quilting but will make a nice gift for someone.

 Kathy had leftover bits and pieces from On Ringo Lake so I made a pillow for my brother Sam and his soon to be wife Ashley (she is pregnant so wedding postponed a year).  It is stuffed and done but I did not take a picture!

 Here is Kathy's matching quilt which Ros has right now.  I helped with a lot of this quilt and put all the blocks together since Kathy hates on point settings more than I do!

 I also got this March On Green Ba Packers quilt top together.  I need to order some Packer fabric for the final border and it will be ready to quilt or tie.

 I just love playing around with my shadow when I am taking pictures of quilts.

 

I also finally quilted (by myself!) this tiny Snow Buttons wall hanging.  I have quite a collection of little quilts these days!  I was overall happy with how it turned out. 

Kathy is back to working on her En Provence from two years ago.  She has a lot more blocks than this done and with any luck will get closer to done this weekend.  She is really trying to finish it up before Good Fortune starts.

 Also wanted to share my latest lunch find.  These stuffed peppers from Trader Joe's are really good and only four WW points.  I am eating them most every day at work.  Delicious.

Catching Up--Spring to Summer Version

 For whatever reason only one picture worked in this post....then I forgot about fixing it...

So I have a crazy life and it has been more hectic than usual!  In March we had a long weekend during spring break to Puerta Penasco/Rocky Point!  We went with a group of people we had only just met and made lots of new friends.  We plan to go back next year with the same group and more.  It was tons of fun!



Then RedforEd happened and I was off my regular teaching job for over a week, but I was out coordinating interpreters and interpreting at the capital everyday.  I had another two seconds of fame on the news all over the place, whoot.

I finally got to work with Linda Bove from Sesame Street. It was fun to have two CDI's (certified Deaf interpreters) work with us the first day.  After that it was me, Christine and Madison daily with a few others here and there when they could help out but we were on everyday.  I learned a lot about the government and sat in my first legislative and senate session.


Kathy and I even went to Pompeii during all of that wearing out shirts...great exhibit and I am glad we finally found time to see it!

So a couple of weekends ago I finally sewed for the first time in forever!  Kathy did too!  First I put the binding on this quilt that I had gotten back from Ros forever ago.  I was planning to gift this one to my best friends son and his new wife this month but now I think it might b smaller than I was thinking and I may give them Grand Illusion instead.  I need to make some room in my cabinet anyways. 

I cannot believe I still have not finished the 35th Ave. BOM from last year (we did not do this year's).  SO I fixed the backwards arrow in this block, made both of the December blocks since Kathy was working to catch up on On Ringo lake and then set them out to see what they will look like once they are together.

We sewed the next weekend too and Kathy continued On Ringo Lake.  I finished cutting everything we both need for all the steps.  I finally ironed my blocks that I had sewed at Barbs so long ago I forget when!  I then sewed all my corner parts and laid out a few blocks just to get the idea of what it will look like.  I think I will be calling this one "On Green Bay" instead of On Ringo Lake.  I really like how it is coming along even if it has taken longer than any other Bonnie Mystery ever!

And in other news, I survived my first (second attempt) year at teaching ASL at the high school level.  It was a hard first half of the year, but kept getting better.  I am looking forward to next year and expect it will be even better now that I have survived that learning curve and many of the students that were not mine will have moved on and only a few will be left this year.  Really hard to unteach and to fill in things that they did not get when I only discover what that stuff is as I go!  So graduation went well and several of my kids signed the music--they did a fabulous job and I was so proud of them!


I had mom and dad and my brother to my house for Mother's Day and we gifted Mom a day at the Crowing Glory Tearoom in Fountain Hills.  She has always wanted to do a high tea, so we did that yesterday.  The food was delicious, so many deserts!  I tried Devonshire cream for the first time and WOW that is good, rich stuff.  The maple scones were my favorite though no one else likes maple..so I got the leftovers too.  I have gained a few pounds and I am going on vacation to Wisconsin on Monday for two weeks...after that will get my butt back into better gear. 
I have had some health stuff going on which may turn out to be serious but am waiting for MRI results to know for sure.  I will just be happy to have some answers as I am tired of everyone telling me I just need to take it easy and slow down...I have known something was really off for awhile and it just keeps getting worse.  I did get blood work results back last night and my B12 is really low.  That could actually wind up being a lot of my problem instead of what I have been thinking which is MS.  However I have no left knee reflex and other symptoms that are not explained by low B12 so who knows?
The trip to Wisconsin will include the third annual mother daughter Spring trip...with my teaching we had to move it to June and we decided to add in my son and the honeys for a day so it will be different than usual.  We decided to go to Door County, Wisconsin as I have NEVER been there at all!  That way I could make it home and be there for my best friend's youngest son's wedding--I missed the oldest one's a few years ago.  I cannot wait!  My daughter broke up with her man and got back with her ex fiancé from six years ago.  So sort of a new gang again.  She is happy though and says he has always been the one.  Will be fun to see how much he has changed in the past few years..I have not seen him in eight or so years I think.

Belated Blogging

I have less time to sew than ever and am struggling to find the time to get it in and to blog about it!  My phone does not automatically save my pictures to dropbox anymore (it is full) and so I have to email my pictures for my blog to myself and half the time I try to send too many so they don't go through..  Then top that off with the way I need to be logged in to blog (as opposed to blogging for my guild or bring able to see my other email that I email my pictures to) and viola, I just don't even get to the blogging.  UGH!  I am still working on my weight loss journey.  I reached onederland a month or so ago, yay!  I have been struggling for the past few weeks though and took a bit of a break where I just did not stress on it, but today I am back on the wagon and working my way back to onderland!  Thanksgiving is my favorite meal of the year--oh well, I have nothing but time to keep on keeping on!  

So a few weeks ago I completed these two tablerunners which I will gift to Mom and I was thinking my sister, but I think I decided to gift the second one to my son's fiance.  Thanks again to Barb for giving me her leftover bunnies!

 I finally quilted up (not too well I might add the little Christmas Tree mug rugs that were on Kevin the Quilter's blog last year (or was it the year before already?)

 Kathy and I both finished out 35th Ave. BOM for this month. Yep I see the boo boo.  Noticed it this morning.  May leave it--such is my attitude.  See how my Type A is improving, ha!

 I also finished the hand quilting and binding on Bonnie's  A Little Bit Hexie"  super cute, love it.  I am keeping this one for my little quilts collection.

 I also whipped up two little baby tops for future gift giving. 

A Stitch or Two

 We had quite a turtle  um tortoise adventure yesterday.  We were on the way out to drop off my car for an oil change before Weight Watchers (yes still at it, up a few pounds overall but still down over 110) when I spotted this guy in our yard.  Kathy had already left and we were running late so I called her and after dropping the car came home to throw this dude in a box with some water and food.  We posted his picture on a local site which finally led to him finding a foster home while the owners find him.  The gal that took him thought he was hers and just as she got to our house hers was found at home.
Later we were near Fry's when Kathy found someone's credit cards and driver's license.  We drove it to the address, no one was home and the neighbor said they had moved.  We drove it to the PD and dropped it all off there.  So much for a chill day.  Out karma better rock!

I sewed for a short bit today since my life is all about teaching high school right now.  I have been SO busy planning four preps (while teaching six classes a day with no prep hour) and even though I have tons of stuff to tap into it is still alot of stuff at start up and changing from college to high school and the different times for the classes at each.  Anyways, the first week with kids went well.  Better than I remember from my last time around teaching high school!

So here is my 35th Ave. BOM.  Happy to have it ready for next weekend.  It is the first I have sewn in July at all I think...or at least since I found out about this job.  I also cut out the stuff for Pat Sloan's BOM.  No time to sew any of it and of course this month is a doozy...all the rows in between instead of just one block. UGH.

 I still have the Rainbow Scrap Challenge BOM to cut and sew two of.  Not sure it will be happening before the new color comes out.  ACK!  I have two weeks off in October so I may be catching up then!  The good news is the number pulled for the UFO Challenge I am doing is one I accidentally already made!  YAY.  So that is caught up.
Bonnie's pumpkin pattern came out in Quiltmaker...love hers with the grey.  I made mine last year and like it too!

May Catch Up!

Way behind on my blogging!  I did finish the green May blocks (Straits of Mackinac) for the Rainbow Block of the Month!  Looking forward to the next color.  I skipped the "rainbow" choice for last month so I need to pick a color Angela is not going to pick to replace it.  One of these days!

Barb quilted this beauty for me!  This is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge from 2014!  I did not include the sashings as Angela did, but I am super happy with it.  This will be for my cousin Linc and his new wife Christin's wedding gift in June.  

I also finally managed to get the center and the first border on my Betty's Choice and Amy exchange blocks!  I am working on a piano key border in all the colors for this one.  

I completed the 35th Ave. BOM for May.  Here they all are.

This is the All People Quilt UFO choice from my list this month.  I got these blocks somewhere (guild maybe) and they were mostly done.  I am not an applique person (love it but not to do myself!) so I am super happy with my quilting around all the leaf parts so hold it all down.  I think this will be for my mom for her birthday in August.

Barb gave me these cool embroidered frogs playing baseball.  Linc's older brother Luke and his wife Ashley are having their first little one, a boy and Luke LOVES baseball so I made this one to send back for him.

I am also sending  back Danny's braid for Luke and Ashley's wedding quilt (I never sent one!).  Luke and Linc's sister Crystal had a little girl so am sending London the pastel paisley quilt  made awhile back.  Not to be outdone, my other cousin Ashley had baby number three (another boy) named Knoxton a few days ago so I am sending him the nine patch and snowballs quilt.  I think that catches me up on all the gifts!

I won a blog drawing over at Stash Bandit!  This is all the loot I got!  Diane sent me two magazines with her own patterns in them.  I love the windmills in different sizes and may have to make at least one!  Thanks!

Friday was a Sewing Sensation!

 I hiked on Friday morning, then did Pilates...after a salad and a hot bath I sewed and sewed and sewed.  I started out with the 35th Ave. BOM for February.  Got it done just under the wire!  Today I picked up the one for March.

 I am super happy to say  am motivated to finish off a bunch of my UFO's!  So I pulled out these Pineapple Blossom blocks from a 2015 workshop I got to go to with Bonnie.  Such fun blocks, not sure why I waited so long to get them done!  Now I have a baby size quilt ready to quilt!

 I also did the Rainbow BOM for March in red.  This is Straits of Mackinac.  Loving it!

Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC!

I also finally dragged out the Playing with Jacks blocks from the Tuscon workshop about four years ago!  I had decided to do these blocks in modern fabrics....however when I got going I realized I did not really have enough contrast in some of my blocks and he greys really faded in and the design did not show up really well.  So they languished away for a few years.  I finally decided to take the two worst offenders out and to make six more blocks that contrasted better.  And here you have it.  Works for another baby quilt!  

SEW fun to knock two more quilts off my UFO list (well not entirely as they need quilting and binding but forward progress!).  

Today we got our March blocks from 35th Ave and had lunch with BJ.  We ran a bunch of errands and went and celebrated my nephew Colton's 4th birthday!  To top it off we headed to the casino for the first time in forever!  We won!  Kathy lost 40 bucks (plus the free 15 they have her).  I played my free 15 and won about 95...so we netted 55!  Happy campers!