Thanks Dana!

Guess what was in the mail today? My quilt from Dana at Old Red Barn Co!!! How exciting!

The pictures don’t do it justice. It is FANTASTIC! I love the colors and the quilting. I especially love the binding because it’s all the different fabrics in the quilt top. And seriously, I should be thanking her thanking her thanking her (and I am) and she sent me a thank you. How sweet is she?

Here’s an update on the baby quilt I’m attempting to hand quilt. Here’s the top in progress (please don’t pay close attention to my horrible stitches!!!)

And here’s the back in progress

The quilting store here in town only carries variegated thread. So it might look a little weird. But I like it. My finger and thumb are killing me though!

There is no way I’m going to make my goal of a row a day. I did about 2/3 of a row today. And I need to take a few days off for my finger and thumb to feel better. Especially my thumb. I got it bleeding good today after a vicious jab I gave myself. Sai told me to be careful.

Quilt update

Well, I got the quilt (from my previous post) up on the quilt stands. I had a goal of quilting a row a day to get the quilt done in five days. I almost made my goal for yesterday. I was just over a foot short of the goal. But I stopped because (1) my finger and thumb were sore! I think my mom must have developed super callouses on her finger and thumb from all the quilting she does. I did use a thimble and a needle puller thingy but my thumb still got poked a lot and bled a little. And (2) Joe built a fire in the back yard. I went out to enjoy it with him and the boys. We roasted marshmallows and had a good time until the boys were tired and ready for bed.

So yes, this quilt is for my baby and we get to keep it. Mom made the top, I’m quilting it so it’ll be a collaborative effort. My stitches aren’t so great. But I’m sure it’ll be fine. The boys sat and played under the quilt while I worked on it. I can’t get mad because I spent a lot of my childhood doing the same thing. However, I did ask them to stop when they would hit the quilt and send it bouncing. It’s hard to quilt something that is bouncing.

I haven’t set it back up yet today. When I do I’ll take a picture so you can see the progress.

So Grey’s will be back on April 24. I’m so excited. But that date doesn’t work so well for me. ABC: please start playing it sooner!!! Pretty please!!!

Here Mom…

Sorry, this post is for my Mom. She sent me a quilt top to hand quilt (YIKES! Yes, I’m going to attempt it) and she can’t remember it. She’s having technical dificulties with email so I’m posting it here.

Here it is Mom. I’m pretty sure it is Yellow Brick Road.

The back is the print with the frogs, fish, turtles, etc. The binding is yellow with an orange dot.

Oh sNOw.

It’s day three of Spring Break and we woke up to SNOW! I didn’t actually believe the forecast so I was a bit shocked. So far the break has been good.

Monday we took the boys to see Horton Hears a Who and out to lunch. The movie was OK. I didn’t love it and neither did Joe. But the boys sure enjoyed it. I actually was struggling to stay awake, but that could just be a pregnancy thing and not a reflection on the movie.

Yesterday we went to the library. We love the library. But I wish our town had more selection. After that Joe went fishing so the boys did some water color painting. Jay painted snakes and Sai painted himself, a rainbow, a crab, and some other stuff.

Today, despite the snow, we are going swimming. There is a town less than an hour away that just opened a new indoor aquatic center. My friend took her kids a few weeks ago and said that it was amazing and a good place to take the kids. So we are heading up there soon.

Don’t know what we will do with the rest of the week! I’m sure we’ll find something.

Spring Break Forecast

Next week is Spring Break. Sai doesn’t have school, Joe’s work is slow so he’ll be home the whole week. And here is our forecast.

So depressing. We almost left for Utah today to visit our families but decided that we really couldn’t afford it. Plus I’ve got just over a month left until this baby comes. So what are we going to do??? Any ideas on how to keep two kids and one husband happy during a cold and snowy spring break?

BTW, if you want to know how to get your blog stats up the answer is win a cool quilt. I had over 200 hits yesterday which is my best day ever. You guys are cool!

I’m Not a Loser…

I’M A WINNER!!!!

Can you believe it? I won the fabulous quilt that the Fabulous Dana at Old Red Barn gave away. I think I’m still in shock!

It’s funny because I was on the computer earlier this morning and was going to go check out Dana’s blog but I ran out of time. So while I was eating lunch my sister calls and says “Congratulations!” I was confused. I asked why she was congratulating me and she told me I had won the quilt. So I get on the computer and check out my blog where Dana had left a comment. Then I checked out Dana’s blog and saw this…

YIPEE!!! I never win. But today I am a winner.

Now what I was originally going to post seems so lame. But I’ll post it anyway. Yesterday was Sewing with Rhonda day. After my failed sewing projects last week I wanted to do something that I could finish and that I felt I would feel satisfaction doing. So I made a doll quilt with some fabric scraps.

Each square started out as a 2″ block. I’ve never worked with pieces so small. I assembled the front then added the yellow border. I drew on a pattern to do the machine quilting. This was only my second attempt at machine quilting since I got the darning foot for my machine last summer. I didn’t follow the pattern exactly. So it’s even more random. I’m going to have to practice at this free-motion quilting thing. I put on a binding and washed it, to get the markings off. And here it is. The finished size is 16″ X 13″, in fact, it looks more like a place mat than a doll quilt. Not very big but I was pleased with how it turned out. My next attempt will be bigger. But it was fun to do a project start to finish and to like what I did.

Or maybe I’m still on a quilt-winning high!

Baby Shower

Is it really narcissistic of me to post about my baby shower? Oh well. I’m doing it! This past Saturday my friend Rhonda held a baby shower for me. It was a lot of fun and very surprising.

I’d been at Rhonda’s house for about 10 minutes and she asked if I had looked at the presents. Well, no. So I went to look at them. I recognized hand writing on cards and packages and realized that my family and Joe’s family had sent presents. I was so surprised! I almost cried! It was the next best thing to having them there. They all said they would rather come see us after the baby is born rather than come up for the baby shower.

Anyway… I couldn’t believe how much stuff I got! They all knew that I didn’t have anything for a little girl. There were tons of clothes! Mostly in pink. And in a variety of sizes. There were some purple and lavender and other colors, too. And lots of cute little dresses! It was exciting.

When I got home I unloaded everything on the table according to size. I got only two or three things in newborn. A nice group of 0-3 months. A huge amount of 3-6 months. Some 6-9. A few 9-12. And I think one 18 month. I probably won’t have to buy clothes until she wears a 9 month size, or maybe as early as 6 month size. I packed the too big clothes away for future wear. I got paranoid thinking “What if She comes out a HE?” So I only washed the 0-3 month clothes that I didn’t think I would be able to return. All the returnable 0-3 month clothes are waiting till she comes home to be washed.

I also got some blankets. My mom sent me a cute baby quilt that looks like it’s in the 40’s fabrics. (It’s in the photo collage above. You can click on the collage to go to flikr and you can see the pictures better.)

And I got baby toiletries. Diapers. And a sweet diaper bag that my sister Nann made. And my in-laws sent a check so we can buy whatever we are missing. It was just crazy how much stuff I got.

And Rhonda did an awesome job throwing me a shower. I know she put a lot of time into it and a lot of thought. I really do appreciate it. I got her an awesome thank you gift made by my friend Mindy. Mindy sent it wrapped so I can’t show you how cool it is.

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We’ve had lots of hail and snow this weekend. And I say “What the junk?” to that! We’ve had rain today and there’s more rain forecasted for the week. It’s supposed to be Spring Break next week. And the weather doesn’t look to promising so we’ll be trapped inside the house!

And poor Jay had a tough day on Saturday. First I left him home with Joe and Sai when I went to the shower. He cried and cried when I left. Then he went with Joe to drop Sai off at a birthday party. He was so sad that he didn’t get to go too. He fell asleep before they got home so Joe brought him up to the baby shower and they hung out there.

And today I’m so off my schedule. Monday is laundry day. I had also planned on cleaning the bathrooms and other stuff around the house. But Joe didn’t work today (won’t be working tomorrow either–they’re kind of slow right now) and he had school stuff to do in Redmond and Bend. He wanted Jay and me to go with him. So we did. We didn’t get back to our town until it was time to pick up Sai from school. So I’ve only been working on the laundry for about an hour now. It probably won’t all get done today. But in retrospect it may be good that I didn’t get it all done early…

At school Sai had his coat with him in the bathroom (I think it was after recess) and an older kid put his coat in the toilet! It happened once last week too. So not funny. He had a substitute today so the teacher aide went to talk to the teacher of the kid who did it. I’m not sure what happened with that. Sai’s teacher, who was originally due with her second child two weeks before me, is on bed rest. She’s been having contractions and her doc, who is also my doc, had her in the hospital overnight last week for observation and to get her contractions under control. So she’s out until June–she’s coming back for the last two weeks of school. The class was going to have a baby shower for her on Friday and the doc is letting her out of bed to go to the shower.

Do You Love Quilts?

 Old Red Barn is having a fabulous quilt giveaway. Go to this page and  leave a comment before 7:00 PM EDT on Wednesday, March 19. Go and enter!!!

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And here are some random thoughts…

1–This is my favorite song right now. Just love it. I heard it on Sirius before I ever saw the commercial. (YAY!!! I finally got it to embed.)

2–I hit 33 weeks today. And had a doctor appointment. We’ve tentatively schedule my c-section. But I’m not saying when! I’ll keep you in suspense. The first date my doctor threw out there was Joe’s one year anniversary of his heart attack. I laughed and told the doctor no.

3–Sai has a play-date after school. I need to get off the computer and vacuum and prepare snacks. Can’t have two starving 5-y-o boys moping around.

4–Speaking of Sai, there is a cute girl in his Kindergarten class who is shorter than Jay who is 2 1/2 y-o! She is so little and cute.

5–We’ve had rain here. I saw one forecast that said we should be getting snow today. SNOW??? Another forecast said that we’ll have snow Friday and Saturday. NO! I’m ready for spring.

6–I had my “Sewing with Rhonda” day yesterday. It wasn’t very successful. I’m afraid it has taken away my crafty sewing momentum. I’ve got to find a new, fun project to work on. Maybe something from Bend-the-Rules Sewing by Amy.

7–Speaking of Bend-the-Rules Sewing and Rhonda, I’m helping her and her 4-H class make the Amazing Teat Towel Apron (page 100). I think I need to make one in advance so I can be super helpful.

That’s about it. Hopefully I’ll have something fun to write about soon.

I Regress

It’s been about 6 months since I’ve had a Coke. I’ve been fighting the urge to drink one for a couple weeks now. But this weekend the words “I need a Coke!” came out of my mouth. And Joe bought me one! Probably because he said “I need a Pepsi” a week ago and I bought him one even though he isn’t supposed to have caffeine because of his heart.

That Coke tasted so good. I’m afraid I may have regressed for good. But I will try to resist for a few more months. I don’t want to drink it during the next 8 weeks and during the nursing months that will follow. This is the only pregnancy I’ve had that I’ve been able to give up Coke–maybe that’s why I’m having a girl this time! (I know that’s not the reason but it sounds good.)

So this morning while balancing the checkbook and paying bills I finished off my Coke and some Snickers minis. It made bill paying more relaxing. Yeah, more relaxing. I still have to file everything away and I’m out of Coke. My ice water will have to suffice.

My friend Serena received her blanket from me this past weekend. So now I can show the finished project. I think it turned out well. I still so love these fabrics!

Picnic

Sai doesn’t have school today or tomorrow. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with both boys all day. First thing this morning we went to the hospital. They asked me to come in this morning to pre-register. The boys were both really good. And I got a tour of the OB ward. It’s so small! They said that if they ever fill all the rooms, there were three or four, that they would move someone to the medi-surg ward.

As we were driving home Sai asked what else we were going to do today. So I asked him what he wanted to do. And he wanted to go to the park. Genius idea! We went home and did some chores (Sai vacuumed for me!!!). I asked the boys how they felt about taking a picnic to the park and they were really excited to do that.

I was lacking picnic food in my pantry so we went to the grocery store to get some supplies, then off we were to the park. We ate first (I was super hungry!) and the boys were cheesing it up for me. They had a blast but we had to hurry home because Sai was in serious need of a bathroom and the bathroom at the park was locked.

These two have been such good boys today! We haven’t had any arguments and they haven’t bugged me to turn on the TV. They’ve played outside or inside with playdough. They are just awesome. I hope their good attitudes last throughout the weekend.