In the homestretch!

Progress...

is that what it's called? I wouldn't know. I hadn't seen it in a while... UNTIL TONIGHT! This is the quilt, pre-tree. What does that mean? you ask... It means, I will be appliqueing a tree right in the middle of this thing that will have branches that spread out onto the other squares and the center of the tree will have a picture of my parents. Then I will applique some leaves. Yeah... I took on way too much. But it's almost over. I only took one large shot because you can always click on it and see the close ups through picasso. I'd like you to notice that my brother paul's square (top right) is doing all kinds of damage to my otherwise pretty perfect quilt. I think it's ironically appropriate that his square has given me the most trouble. I tried to fix it. SEVERAL times. Then I gave up. Because in the end: no one will care. Anyway, Dennis is helping me tomorrow make my little tree into a big tree so I should have something to post on that front in the next few days.

squares 3 and 4

This is a joint post because I wised up and figured out that if I did two squares at once, it decreased my work time tremendously. Both squares only took me about 3 hours or so, versus the one square taking me two. Of course, that one square also had to have about 5 seams ripped and I only had to rip one seam, one time on this last square. In fact, square three (the one with the light green) was so easy, I thought maybe God was working miracles on my sewing machine. And then square 4 happened and I think I might have had a crisis of faith 3/4ths of the way through. Anyway, these are the 4 generic squares. I'm going to head to a friend's house to print the pictures in the next day or two so the other squares should be done shortly.

Square #2

I'm excited, this only took me 2 hours to do. It helped that I knew what I was doing and I set up a good routine of going upstairs to iron, then sewing everything that needed to be ironed, then going upstairs to iron then... well you get the idea. I can always set up the iron downstairs but here's the bottom line. If I burn the carpet upstairs, I'm the only one that knows about it.

Here is the second general square:

The measurements are still a little off but it's better. By the time I get to square #8 it should be just about perfect! right?! RIGHT?!

Here is a close up of the fabrics. I think they look awesome. This is also the other khaki color I am alternating with. The greens will be different for every square but I'm only alternating between the two khaki colors.


Since it only took me about two hours to do this one, I figure I can do one a day and be done by next week! Then I can get to the hard stuff! I'll keep you guys updated!

Sew on, baby, sew on!!

I realize it's been a month since my last post again, but in my defense, I'm a bad blogger. Wait... that's not what I meant to say.

So, for the last few weeks, this has been me:


I'm trying to design a quilt for my mom for Christmas. I don't think my dad reads this anymore so I think this is safe space to post this. I got done with my first square yesterday. The measurements are a little off but this is my first patchwork quilt so if it is great, then the stars have aligned but if not, then it will still be okay. I made a few calls to my friend Karen about fabric choices and measuring tips and inthe end, this is my first square:
And here is a close up look at the fabric:


Like I said, the measurements ended up just a little off but it looks pretty good. I'll be switching out the tan pieces with another tan based fabric I chose and the greens will be switched out. The four corners of the quilt will have pictures of the children (there are 4 of us) with their families in the center portion of the square and the middle will have a picture of my parents together. I'll be finishing it off with a tree applique and leaves branching out between the families. It's gonna look awesome if I can just pull it off. I'm doing well considering school is pretty light this quarter and I don't think I'm going to have any issues finishing it, I'm just not sure how I want to display it. I'm thinking a frame but I can always loop it at the top and hang it instead. Not sure yet.

Week of Hell

Monday - go to dentist for check up at 10am. Leave with 4 implanted antibiotics, a jar of prescription mouth rinse and a root canal.
Tuesday - entire city is under water. literally. below is a picture of six flags from satellite. the estimated total loss is 12 billion dollars.

Wednesday - lay around the house all day in immense pain, praying for the day to come and go quickly.
Thursday - get the call about Gramma passing around 7am. Realize after intense pain episode, that I shouldn't be in this much pain and decide to call doctor in the morning.
Friday - go back into dentist to have root canal redone.
Saturday - leave for Montgomery
Sunday - viewing
Monday - funeral
Tuesday - start school.

When this week is over: It's erased.

finals finals and more finals

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to post lately. Even now, it's 12:30am and I sooo should be sleeping. I am tired, but I've been studying for hours and so my mind is still racing and I'm not sure sleep will find me. I've had great dreams of reporting the going-ons about us, the caterpillars eating our trees, our trip to destin, and I extensively pre-wrote (in my head) an awesome bit about my wonderful husband whom I never give enough credit that I had planned on posting on his birthday. But his birthday has come and gone and I'm still drowning. I took one of my two finals today. I needed an 84 to maintain my A in the class. I got an 83.33. I couldn't have been more dissapointed and frustrated. That gives me an 89.92 in the class and I hope to God 8 hundredths of a point doesn't keep me from my 4.0 gpa that I have been working so hard for. But you know what? I can't change it now. If the instructor rounds up, great. If not, I can't worry about it. An 89 is still a really good grade in a really difficult class that I took online while trying to be a full time mom with a full time house to keep up.

Anyway, I have one more test tomorrow morning. In that class, I have a 97, so to be honest I just have to pass the darn test and I will maintain my A. Right now, I'm not even sure I can do that. But after I take AJ to his first day of school tomorrow, I'm just going to buckle down and study for a few hours and then I will take the test before I go pick him up.

Keep your fingers crossed or lift up some prayers for me today if you think about it. I'll let you guys know how it goes.