The Shed

About a month or so age I wrote Sylvia in South Haven and asked her if I could rent the shed for a week in June. My mom and Amy both have their usual cottages. I usually will stay with mom and Penny for a few days in their cottage but I get squirrly about not having my own space and i want to run home after 2 or 3 days.
Sylvia likes to save the shed for family members to stay in when they visit, so its not really available for rent..... but I thought oh what the heck, it can't hurt to ask. Well, she called yesterday and said I could have it for the week the rest of my family was there. Yippee! Back in 2004 I stayed there for a long weekend while working on my book. It was like being in a tiny artists cottage. I loved it. Its only about 300-400 square feet at the most, but there's a bathroom, a bed and a desk...oh and a coffee maker. What else do I need?

More fabric experimentation

BAD Bubba kitty!

This is why I try to keep the craft room door closed at night......I forgot to shut it last nite. Obviously there was some kind of kitty party going on in here while I was sleeping. No wonder Spooky had the lampshade on her head this morning.

Get OFF, Bubba!

Well, this quilt is coming along. I ran out of white for the sashing as you can see. I'll have to hit the fabric store tomorrow...oh darn it!...not the fabric store! They always take all my money.....Every time I lay a project out, Bubba thinks I made a special bed just for him.

We shall not be defeated......

....the tulips that is.

Before wash...

After wash....

The ink faded quite a bit with one wash. I'm going to try and heat set it next time before I wash the fabric. Also, I'll try some different fabric ink maybe. Anyway, I really like it.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Quite busy this Sunday morn.

Here are all the vacation blocks laid out. I'm going to put at least 3 inchs of white sashing in between the blocks so it will be a fairly large throw quilt. Some of the blocks are different from the original pattern due to mess ups. Also, I had to cut the blocks down from 8.5 to 7.5 inches due to, uh.......more mess ups.

What the......

Just when we thought we were done with this crap.......

Playing with my stuff

I got some scrap fabric, stamps and fabric markers out yesterday. I've been wanting to try and make my own fabric. This is what I came up with so far. Ireally like the cherries and the orange flowers. Im thinking about using the orange flower print in the Rainbow swap. It's just a tiny thought right now. I need to stamp on better fabric and then put it thru thewash and see how it comes out......stand by......I'll let you know.

orange stamped on white....

I just did this one.....I think I like it.

Vacation blocks

Here are most of the blocks for this quilt. They are faaaaaaaarrrrrrr from perfect but I like them anyway. I made most of them while in Florida. I have one more set of six to do then i'll be able to start adding the sashing. I wonder if I'll get that far or if I'll decide to start something else......

I need a new iron.....

.....this one is pretty beat up.

A beautiful mess...

mmmmm..... a jelly roll...

...and tasty fats....Delightful!

Family

Little Leprechans all in a row.

Jimmy and Tina's little sweeties.

I heart my mini Janome

This machine actually works really well. I'm so surprised. It's the perfect size to bring on vacation. It weighs less then 5 lbs and it nested nicely into my suitcase. I'm so glad I bought/brought it. Oh there is one slight problem. I'm having a little trouble keeping my seams straight in terms of a quarter inch. I need a quarter inch foot for this machine if
I'm going to be using it a lot. Maybe dad will let me use his car today (he's VERY protective of it) and I'll find me a quilting store. Oh that would be yummy!


BTW...isn't my new blog layout the cutest one on the block?

Kid Art

Our poor Sessica

She's been sick since she got here. The rest of are just waiting to catch it. We're all pounding the Vitamin C to try and keep it away.

the magic of Tylenol

....we filled her up with Tylenal and she felt good enough to go to the pool.

so stinkin' cute

Kristyn and Marcus' baby......Sweet Delaney.

she's a maniac.....

.....get it...?...leg warmers....?...Flashdance....?....really, Kristyn...?

WIP in FLA and quilting and cocktailing.

Here's what I worked on yesterday. I love these fabrics together. These are some of the blocks that are going on the mod sampler quilt. I started squaring them up half way into cocktail hour, but realixed I better stop. Quilting and cocktailing....not a good mix.

Who turned the lights out.............?

Little cousin Caycee enjoying a St Patty's party.

florida

Here's some pics of the place dad rented for March. it's really nice and he seems to be enjoying himself down here...as am I. The weather is great! I've been enjoying spending time with dad, but he really needs to practice some patience! he's a very impatient guy....especially when he drives. Chill out daddy-o...you're on vacation!

quilting on vacation...doesn't everybody?

I got all my stuff out this morning and did a little quilting.

Lunch @ Gramma Lu's

Amy, Jack and I brought lunch to gramma's last Thursday. Gramma is doing really well and was super chatty that day. We had a really nice time.

Shoofly block for Rainbow swap

Susan's Big Adventure

My sweet and amazing friend Susan, who I met while doing births (she's a doula and is working toward her CPM), is in Africa practicing midwifery for 2 months. She's able to blog every now and then so here's what's been going on with her the last week or so.

hey all,as it turns out, my internet access leaves much to be desired .. what? rural africa? how dare i not be able to blog!! so, you might not be hearing from me as much as i’m sure you’ve been counting on. i will quickly tell you that i have been here for 3 and a half days and have already been to 9 births. dang. also, i’ve missed 4 when i dared to step away from the maternity ward for a night’s sleep. it’s tough, though, because while everyone is friendly towards me there’s a certain loneliness in the wait it out down time that we all know so well. even though there are lots of births happening, there’s very little hands on labor support. the women are tough as nails … do their thing, come in when they’re 6 cm with their own bucket to pee in beside the bed and a piece of black plastic (think trash bag) to lay y on, keep doing their thing on one of the three narrow metal beds in the L&D, push out their babies, endure sutures without local, stand up, get dressed, carry their stuff to the postpartum room, and come back in to get their kid. so much for hand holding. it’s hard for me to get used to. i’m trying to figure out how to be present to these births in an authentic way while also respecting that things are different here. i can’t demand the luxuries and warm fuzzies of chicago home births.
ok, that’s going to be all for now because there’s a line for the computer and there are only so many minutes to go around. my love to all. and thank you for your comments! -sus

Wow! This really puts birth in perspective. Pray for Susan that she stays safe and is able to help these women in any small way.