17 Years - Love Letter to My Son

From the moment you were born, and my eyes met yours, I lost my heart to you forever. You were so tiny, so precious - and nothing had prepared me for the monumental, shattering love I felt for you.



You always looked at the world through your own unique perspective, and taught me to do the same, taking nothing for granted.

And oh, how you loved your daddy - even when he teased you. His arms were the safest place in the world. And you were in them every possible moment.

Such joy and wonder. The tiniest things were a gift. You couldn't learn fast enough, see enough, touch enough.

How proud you were with each new skill. Making daddy's first peanut butter and jelly sandwich - and watching him eat it, with all the pride of a mother hen watching her chicks hatch.

And when your brother came along, and you had to share the limelight, you embraced it. You were always so giving, so sharing, so joyful.

I think you were just very glad to have a built-in playmate.

It was so gratifying to watch you teach him, read to him, show him everything you'd learned, and be his friend.

John darling, I'm so proud to be your mum. I'm thankful beyond words that God gave you to me. I'm humbled that He thought me capable. And I'm so incredibly proud of the man you've become. I love you more than life.

Love, Mom

Wonky. It's What I Do.

And how convenient for me that Jenny of Elefantz had stitcheries for it. I can't sew two things together straight to save my life.


But when you're doing stitcheries that are called Wonky Houses, it's like a license to play. And boy did I have fun. I didn't bother worrying that things weren't lining up, I didn't care, it was just pure quilting for pleasure.

I used up all but a teeny, tiny part of that jelly roll - first on the quilt I haven't shown you yet [which isn't done] and the leftovers on this. See the binding? Leftovers. With a couple of inches to spare. Now, it's hanging on my wall with my other Wonky House. I'll have to take a picture of my wall, it's getting a collection of little quilts. I just love little quilts! They cover the nail holes really well.

This isn't one of them, though - it's something I made for my son Sam. Waaaay back when. He loved frogs. I found this saying and it was tailor made just for him.

Secret Project Revealed

My friend Betty is a treasure. I've never met her, but I love her dearly. She and her hubby were going to spend their 20th anniversary at one of their favorite places, Heceta Head Lighthouse in Oregon. I wanted to do something to commemorate that.





Shortly after I started this, they found out her hubby has cancer. He's in the fight of his life. Please keep him in your prayers. Their faith is an amazing thing.

This was very fun to quilt, but it did distort somewhat. I've never machine-quilted this heavily before.

I drew the design and painted it, using regular craft acrylics. Then I machine quilted, NOT free motion. That was fun.

The rose and names are machine-embroidered. In their pictures of the trip, on the way up Betty had a rose on the dashboard. I looked through my stash of designs and didn't have a long stemmed rose! I got this one from Embroidery Library.

I love the way the water turned out.

Betty and Layne, I love you guys.

Totally Random Rambling

For the past two days, I've been cleaning and re-arranging. A good friend gave me a 4 drawer chest, and it's perfect for fabric storage. I'd much rather open a drawer than Rubbermaid totes when I'm on the frantic hunt for that perfect piece of fabric. Now I'm so sore from trying to make it fit in my sewing room I can't move. Or think. Thank heaven it's on wheels. But nothing else is....



These are some books I'd like to make quilts from. The Whimsical Quilts has a flamingo quilt that I'm dying to make.






Remember, I warned you this would be random. We're having severe storms tomorrow and I may not get my blog fix. I'm too tired to make a lot of sense so you're stuck with this.



This is a tote I made for a contest. The chefs are machine embroidery designs from Ytmar at Retroboulevard.

She's my most favorite machine embroidery designer ever. I had to make the cake myself. It's my favorite kind, no calories.






Just in case you ever wanted to know what I look like, this is me. With contacts and long hair. And reading glasses on top of my head. Bifocals have simplified my life now. Would you LOOK at those circles under my eyes.....I've always had allergy eyes. My boys gave me the grey hair. One side is John's, the other is Sam's. I don't know what the spots are on my shirt - probably cake. The high-calorie kind.









My mom oil paints. She's my favorite oil painter. She did this landscape years ago, and I want it very much. My aunt bought it from her, dang it.







But she did paint me this flamingo for my birthday last year. It looks much better in person. If anyone has any tricks for photographing oil paintings, pass them on. I need them.

Tomorrow I'm going to spend the day drawing. At least that's the plan. But considering that was my plan all week, and it hasn't happened yet, who knows. I hope I get to check in at your blogs tomorrow - cuz I'll miss you fiercely if I can't.

So Boring

This week has been oh so busy, but don't ask me with what. Doctors. Rehab. Family stuff. Nothing blog-worthy, that's for sure.

Today I started putting frames on my Wonky Houses. I didn't get far. I also created a custom-made design wall, by finding a large piece of flannel and pinning it to my wall. I had taken down my other one, it was huge and clunky and kept falling on me. Pinning it works just fine, thank you. Nothing fancy about me.





Isn't that a horrible picture? Sigh. I also started placing my blocks for my strawberry jelly quilt. I hate doing that, so I didn't stick with it long. I ended up sitting on my ever-increasing behind and stitching Shabby Roses all day. I did take a break to ride my exercise bike, then I had a huge bowl of ice cream. Life is good.





My son Sam went out with the camera this afternoon. I really, really like these pics, I'm not sure why - maybe I just really like these little flowers. Don't ask me what they are. Or if you know, please tell me. I might have to make a quilt featuring these little flowers. I seem to recall having a machine embroidery design just like them, it's made so you fringe the flowers.



I kind of like how some of the flowers are out of focus. Reminds me of wearing my bifocals around the house. Usually I only wear them to sew, but sometimes I forget I have them on and run downstairs for a cup of tea. And then I have to put my head all the way down to see the stairs...that's a pain. Makes me feel like Mr. Magoo. And the glasses are so thick, I kinda look like him.

Have a great week!

Some Beach, Somewhere....

Love that Alan Jackson song. We went to the beach today. It was far too cold to channel Jimmy Buffet though. This is one of our favorite beaches, in Purt Huron, Michigan:

It was FREEZING. And there were little kids in the WATER.

In this next picture, you can see Sarnia, Canada - if you have a passport, the beach over there is truly lovely. This is right where the St. Clair River joins Lake Huron. Lots of freighters come through here.

Here are my freezing cold sons, John and Sam. Notice the hands in the pockets. That's because their hands are cold.

It was warm when we left home. As we got closer to the Lake, it got colder outside. We knew it would, we just didn't know by how much.

But even if it's cold, the beach is my favorite place to play.

Man I Love My Wings!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I live in Hockeytown - where our Red Wings kicked some Pittsburgh butt tonight! I love hockey but I'm not allowed to watch the game, when I do they lose, every time - so I watch the blog live, lol. 5-0 Wings, I love ya!

Give-Away Alert....

Just because!!! Go see and comment at twiddletails!

If You Give A Quilter A Jelly Roll.....

Do you remember that book, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie? And how he'd want a glass of milk to go with it, etc etc.....well that was my day. I DID have good intentions. I finished hand-stitching the binding on Kathy's quilt.....

and decided to finish up my Wonky Houses. To do that, I needed to cut into my jelly roll, which I originally bought to go with this pattern:

and not knowing how much of the jelly roll I'd use for that pattern, I had to look for it. While I was looking for it, I found these that I want to do:

But I set them aside. I still couldn't figure out how much of the Jelly roll I would need, so I read the directions for the jelly roll quilt. One thing led to another, and I started pairing up strips:

and cutting:

and sewing:

and now I have a backache. I have strips everywhere. But I did find a strip I like for a binding for this:

maybe tomorrow I'll find out what happens if you give a quilter a cookie.