Avalon quilt

I know I know...this is late! aaauuuhh! but not too late. I'm getting better. It will be in the mail tomorrow.

It turned out really beautiful and bigger than I thought, even though I changed the pattern slightly. I used the Avalon pattern in the book Material Obsession, it said 18in squares but I made them 16 inches. This is a great book I love it. I had checked it out at the library and decided that I loved all the quilts and bought it. I'm getting ready to do a Dresdon plate block like the one in the front of the book. Pretty!

Just to make excuses for myself why this did not get there on time. I kept changing my mind about the quilting. I ended up with a meandering pattern, wasn't as bad as I thought even though I quilted it on my Bernina. I think anything bigger than a twin size will be hard on my hands and my nerves...haha! All this weekend I spent on the binding. Ram took a picture of me when I was almost done with the hand stitching, Sunday morning. My little photographer. My fingers hurt I had started with a big needle and it was difficult and then I changed to a smaller needle and it went faster.

Here is the back of it....I love the backing fabric it's from the Ooh-la-la collection, didn't find any of the coordinating fabrics but I think it works great on it's own as the back. L loves it. She keeps touching it when I have it out and working on it.

The pile of dirt to the right is our compost area.

Here it is!!!! The great reveal! I used the fabric I had bought a while back from Anna Maria Horner collection called Chocolate Lollipop. See L loves it...hehe! (The lens on my camera is dirty because the top of the pictures are blurry.)

I hope you like it!

Happy Birthday Isabel!

sneak peak WIP

I have another birthday sneak peak!

No details for now, just that I am almost done and I'm loving it! I think I want to keep it...hehe! But, alas it will definitely make it to it's recipient, my niece Isabel in California.

So here are some of the colors...not all because I didn't get a before shot of all the fabrics. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that it will be done and on it's way before the special day.

Don't forget Earth Day is Thursay, April 22nd. Think green.

signs of spring!

Finally, some signs of Spring!

We have had an abnormal cold winter and in the past few days has begun to get warmer, but {this is a good but} yesterday I noticed the blooms on my bleeding heart! Bestill my heart! {hehe, I know bad joke...} I live in zone 6 and this plant has done so good every year. I even butchered it last year by yanking half of it off and giving to my mother-in-law. So far it's doing great and the hearts are gorgeous. I just got done pulling weeds that have overgrown my perennial shade garden. Which I will have to move because the electric company cut the tree down {actually glad the tree is gone} and now there will be no shade during the Summer. I will have to transplant them {not happy about that}.

Happy Spring!!

rockets and flying geese

I can't wait...

I took pictures of Jaime's birthday gift that should arrive pretty soon, belated. {My sisters know that getting it in the same month is pretty good for me!} His birthday was the 11th of this month and thanks to several set-backs {stitches, taking it apart and sewing back together, the new stitching regulator (which is actually pretty cool once I got the hang of it), running out of fabric --changing my mind about one of the colors -- and not giving myself enough time} did not leave until yesterday. USPS should deliver in a couple of days. The flying geese pattern is new for me, learned quite a bit about triangles, they are easy and hard at the same time...haha! To get the corners perfect you have to be careful, mine are not. Don't look too close. This is my first machine quilted item. You can see the stars in the last two pictures. I had the boys hold it up and it was hard to get them to hold still there were several blurry pictures before I got a decent one. There was also another small gift that I forgot to take a picture of that will be a surprise. Lets just say it matches the quilt...hehe!

spring break

Just a quick post about spring break...

I took a few days off for spring break and we hit two museums.

The Philbrook was originally a villa built in the 1920's then it was donated to the city as an art center in 1937. (I took this picture from the Internet I didn't think of taking a picture of the building and it's so beautiful). They are having free family day every second Saturday of the month this year and the kids get art supplies. They have art activities but we spent so much time in the gift shop we ran out of time.

The boys had a great time they got to go into all the rooms and they actually enjoyed looking at the art. It was a little bit chilly so we didn't go see the gardens, but not much is blooming yet so maybe next month.

We also went to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium {a different day...hehe}because snow was forecast for Saturday and their prediction was accurate. We got snow Saturday morning and Sunday and it melted by Monday. That should be our last frost. {should, keep fingers crossed.} We saw a magic show at the Planetarium with 'Brandini', it was pretty fun he had the kids participate and explained how science helps his magic tricks. The TASM is not very big but we were there for 3 hours because they had to see everything in detail. The F-14A Tomcat was the highlight for them. L enjoyed running around.

The Philbrook

This is one of the first paintings they say and they said they had seen it before then they ran off so I didn't get to read about the painter.

TASM & Planetarium

Magic show

Backyard view and big snowflakes coming down.

View of my small vegetable garden.

girl's dress

I was perusing {love to use that word} Martha Stewart Living Magazine the March issue has an article , that just jumped out at me, what a creative idea! Turning a man's shirt into a dress for a little girl. The online instructions are very good. The article had other items to re-purpose into new things such as a stuffed bunny, pillows and bags. I can't wait to try it when L gets older. I had planned on getting rid of some of Rog's old clothes but I think I will hold on to them a little longer.

Rem when he wasn't feeling good last week. He is all better now, I can tell because he doesn't stop talking. He has plans for a trainer jet airplane that has an escape pod instead of an ejection seat for kids. Lately the boys have been into outer space. There favorite movie of the moment is Space Cowboys, which is actually a sad movie even though I believe it's a comedy. It's actually a really good movie except they leave someone behind. We had been watching {almost daily} Behind Enemy Lines, that was a bit gruesome {just a little bit} , but the boys didn't seem to notice they were into the airplane scenes.

Well Spring break is next week and I hope everyone gets to enjoy it!

Happy 5th Birthday Jaime!!!

Birthday WIP

Since last week I have been working on a work in progress with limited amount of time. I again tried to take on more than I should, no matter...that's how I work...under pressure...haha! I thought I would be able to finish and get it sent off, and I would have, if not for my new sewing machine. You know the one I bragged about so much! Well too many features and I can't seem to get the stitches right...figures...so much for technology. I'm planning on going back to the shop and have them help me as soon as I can. So, since I ran across a snag in my otherwise perfect plan...hehe. Here is a sneak peak at the birthday present I am working on for my nephew Jaime in California. {Again reference the new years resolution...make some kind of acknowledgment for birthdays, especially my much neglected family in Cali.} So here I am so close and so far away from being done. Needless to say this gift will miss the big day, but it will make it there!!! Got myself into trouble too because Ram says he wants one too...haha {that's a delirious laughter}.

This is a moment I want to share, my little girl enjoys planning with airplanes and cars. She was actually rolling the car on the ground making some grrrrr noises. Unfortunately planes and cars is all we have {for now} and since her brothers play with them she wants to as well.

Of course after I snapped the picture she quit playing and started towards me. Don't mistake the cars for a tomboy she is very girl-y!

Rem is sick right now. {no picture he is all bundled up to the top of his head}. We took him to the doctor last week since he complained of an ear ache found out he had an ear infection in both ears. Now he is throwing up and has been sleeping all day. It has actually been quite all evening and I got to use the computer!