Spring quilt, another UFO off the list!

Several years ago I participated in an online class to make a "Blooming 9 patch" quilt. The whole idea is to make the colors go from very pale in the center to dark on the edges without a distinct line.

It took my friend Kellie and I about 5 or 6 hours of jurying different fabrics to come up with this combination. Unfortunately it isn't perfect- dang it! The outside ones are pretty good, but the lighter blues needed more texture and a bit more color variation to "bloom" properly. The hardest part of the quilt is choosing the fabrics!

In the picture it looks almost pixelly in the center, thank goodness it doesn't as much so in person.

I quilted it with an all over flower pattern ( I watched a lady do it at the quilt show on a demo machine) with a yellow and blue variegated thread. I think the thread was Signature... The back is an all over small blue, yellow and white daisy pattern.

All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out. Can't wait to use it on my bed!

Perfect for spring!

T-shirt quilt

I finished this quilt this week. All the shirts belong to my daughter-by-marriage, Kati. She has enough left for 2 more about the same size- its just about twin sized. These were just the soccer shirts! Denim on the back with an all over swirl quilt design, dark yellow on the back and white on the front. It will be great for picnics and camping as its very sturdy. Had trouble with skipped stitches, tried using a ball point needle, a 14 and a 16 but it didn't really matter which I used, got the same result. Very frustrating :/

I did one for Chris a few years ago, when he graduated from college, but it disappeared at a soccer game, hopefully one day it will find its way back home.

Also finished quilting and sewing the binding on my blooming 9 patch but the handwork isn't done yet. Will post a pic when the binding is done.

Charity Card class-RAAM-Team Donate life- Connors Hope

Several months ago I received an email from Bobby with the link to Connors blog (www.connorsjourney.com). In 2007? I think it was, Bobby rode with Connors Dad, Jared Ellison, on TDL RAAM.

Race Across America (RAAM)- Ultra marathon bicycle race from West coast to East coast, Americas answer to Tour de France. Approx. 3000 miles in approx 7 days. Team Donate Life (TDL): http://www.teamdonatelife.com The "mother" operation bringing awareness to organ donation through bike racing, mostly RAAM. Please see their website for detailed information.

A few weeks after that, Jared asked Bobby to be the crew chief for "Connors Hope".Connors Hope: TDL RAAM team- bringing awareness and raising money for organ donation-consentrating on liver disease and telling Connor Ellisons story http://www.teamdonatelife.com/riders.asp?ifid=42

Bobby was very undecided and was afraid he didn't have the available time to do justice to the team. (As soon as I had read Connors blog, I knew this was a neat kid). Connor Ellison: 12 year old kid- awesome kid- please go see his blog www.connorsjourney.com , it will amaze, touch, and inspire you. Connor has liver disease, will need a transplant in the next few years, and is the youngest person to ever participate in RAAM.

When Bobby got off the phone- I really encouraged him to do this, what an awesome opportunity to be involved in helping a young man accomplish something incredible! How could he not do it!? I mean really... how could he not!? He may not ever have a chance to do something like this again! He was going to call and tell Jared he didn't have time but could advise- I encouraged him to wait a little while and think about it.

Well...a few weeks later he said- You should come... I thought... ya okay ..I can see what you been doing all those weeks you spent peddling across the country. Bobby called Jared and I was part of the crew. However, Bobby is now scaring me with stories of sleep deprivation, few showers, bugs , humidity, a week of bad hair days, and spending 7 -8 days driving cross country at 10-20 mph with a bunch of people I don't know- one of them (Connors Mom ,Tiffany) was Mrs. CA- ya..I know right..a beauty queen..me- bad hair-flat stuck to my head and no makeup for a week with a beauty queen... getting anxiety thinking about it! Seriously though, I did talk to her on the phone and seems really nice :) Bobby loves the family and thinks they are awesome!

Part of our job is to help raise money for the teams charity- Organ donation. My friend Rachele- www.theinkboutique.blogspot.com came up with this great idea to do a card class and all the money will go to our teams charity, she is donating all the supplies- Thanks Rachele!!. We also got some great items to raffle!

Please join us for the class, or donate if you can! We appreciate it!
http://www.teamdonatelife.com/riders.asp?ifid=52

29 years?

Yes- 29 years. Crazy! It doesn't seem like that long...

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life. No it hasn't been easy, as a matter of fact sometimes its been a lot of work, however I cannot imagine my life without this man. He "gets" me, doesn't mean he understands me all the time :), but he "gets " me. I admire and appreciate his calm leadership skills , his ability to see the good in everyone and see beyond "now", his dedication to work, church/Heavenly Father, family, biking, family, friends and me. I love this man more than I ever dreamed possible 29 years ago. There is no place I'd rather be than right here.

Happy Anniversary Honey, I love you :)

Left photo by Paul Long Photography, right photo by CJCarroll Photography.

Kellies Vikings quilt

The quilt I did this week belongs to my friend Kellie. Its great- colors of gold and purple with different Viking things on it, football field and football, football helmet, viking head... She made it for her husband for Christmas. The work and design into this was amazing. She loosely , very loosely followed a pattern and then went her own way with it. Several of the sections took many, many hours of work. I did a meander with gold thread, and then white thread on the white blocks. The toughest part were the small star sections, so many seams in a small space made for some skipped stitches. That on top of the fact that its made from batiks- which have a higher heavier thread count that regular quilting fabric- made it a real booger to quilt.

Im sure she and her DH will have a fun time snuggling under it for their Vikings games :)

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

A couple years ago Alli & Kyle went to NY and saw Mary Poppins. It was Allis favorite of all time. When it came to Gammage, we got together with Kyles family and got a load of tickets.

Gotta love the group rate!

Before the show we met at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant for dinner. Chris and Kati were running late so they met us at Gammage, Derek had class so he met us after a couple of the acts.

Our waiter was awesome! The perfect Greek waiter, accent was perfect, and his name was Nicco...lol! We gave him a hard time and he threw it back- especially with Steven, it was great! Steven asked what it meant when they break a plate- he said it was commemorating the dead- so a little while later Steve asked if he could break a plate- Nicco said sure, Steve asked if he would break one with him... And he did! It was great and we were all yelling "Opa!" They even lit something on fire during the breaking for us.

Then off to the play, which was also great! My favorite was the Supercalifragilistic song (its on Utube- go watch it!). The sets were amazing, so different from the movie- but very much like the book. Music was fabulous...love, love , loved it!

The dinner crowd- Brittany, Jolene (Happy Birthday!) Steven, Meghan

Bobby, Kathy, Alli, Kyle

Not the best picture :/ But you can see the fire, plate on the floor and Steven

Nicco the greek waiter, Steven

Kyle, Alli, Chris (yes he really was as excited as he looks), Kati

Jolene, Britt, Meghan, Steven

As I was taking this picture the "camera police" yelled at me and told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures. It was before the show started, and not nearly as disruptive as the ding-dong that took a picture of MP flying through the air during the show!

The crew :)

Bobby, Kathy, Derek, Britt, Steven, Meghan, Kyle, Alli, Jolene, Kati & Chris