little bits

Last Saturday, my sister and I had a garage sale. The weather was gorgeous and business was steady until lunch time. One thing my sister got rid of was this table. Sometimes these things happen. Now I have a sewing table that doesn't bounce when I sew and give me motion sickness. I moved that folding table to the opposite wall (you see can see it there on the left) to make myself a better cutting table. Instead of using the bench I sat on. I moved a chair that didn't have a home up here. So far it seems much better. Someday I may make a chair cover like these for that chair.

Tuesday was the rescheduled 4th grade "testing is over now and we are crazy" party. The weather was great for that too, and included the ever popular egg toss.

He caught that one. I have a better one of one of his friends (who missed) but this is not his mama's blog. Just picture egg yolk all over one side of the forehead. Awesome.

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. The big 15. With the plans for the weekend, and it falling on a Thursday, we didn't plan to go on any big trips or anything like that. Enough of those coming up anyway. We did go eat at Victoria's. And I made him this:

Also yesterday, my uncle passed away. It was the day after his 64th birthday. That is actually the reason I went ahead and made the pie. We had leftover cheesecake from a Kids Hope teacher appreciation lunch in the fridge.

I had planned to make the pie for weeks but started to think maybe a should wait a few days, until the cheesecake was gone. But then my uncle passed away and in the middle of working through that, I resolved to make the pie anyway. I can't be just putting stuff off. Life is too short. The pie crust recipe is from Pioneer Woman, the "Pam's piecrust" one and the rest is my mom's recipe. The cheesecake was from Meg's Whatever blog and is called "Pam's Cheesecake." I think these are two different Pam's.

We have a four square set up in our living room now, amidst all the other random stuff that is currently piled in there. Apparently it's big at Lincoln Elementary now.

I had this for breakfast. It was going to be a rough morning.

My husband needed to use the car today for a meeting, so I was in charge of taking both kids to school. On our bikes. My son was worried about the route, because their usual walking route is terrible for bikes, especially a four year old on a bike. I knew a better one though and we headed out. The four year old has a little bike and is still a little unsure about it, and she likes to look at the scenery, so it took us a little longer than I had hoped. I think we got him there in time for morning assembly. I think.

The rest of the ride was less stressful, because we had more time. It is still difficult following a four year old on a bike though.

Especially if you try to take pictures while doing it. This is me almost crashing into that wooden picket fence.

And this is the dense "forest" we had to pass. It is a great path in the summer. Super shady. I stopped riding the bike to take this one.

We also passed two dead toddler birds but I spared everyone and didn't take pictures of those.

I think that's all I planned to post. I'm sure I think of something else after I hit "publish," but it'll have to wait until another post. I still have some cleanup to do in our foursquare room before I head out for the afternoon bike rides.

May quilt 2 {purple stripes}

Five years ago I started working part time as the director of a mentoring program called Kid's Hope USA. My job is to recruit and train church members to be mentors for at-risk students at a local elementary school, the same school my children attend. As part of that, I got to be a mentor to an elementary child. The first year I worked with a 2nd grade boy. He moved away over the summer, so I worked for the next three years with a sweet little girl from Nepal. She moved away this past summer. After waiting to see how the students lined up with mentors this school year, I chose a 5th grader. She had been in the program for a few years, but I couldn't match up her schedule with her mentor's this time. So I took her. This will be our only year together and our last meeting is Friday. I finished up her quilt last night.

I took some quilt books one mentoring session to figure out what styles she liked. I knew she liked purple because she chose purple anytime there were color choices. And of course that day she said she wanted a blue one. She picked a block she liked. I was glad I had checked with her because it was not one I would have chosen. Then about a week later I discovered the March-April Quilty magazine and found the perfect quilt for her. It is called Homestead and was designed by Cori Derksen and Myra Harder. I took it to my student and she liked it. I chose to omit the gray border and backing because, well, I didn't like it.

I took pictures this morning. It was cloudy. I thought--oh this will be better than those blaring sun days. But the purple doesn't look right. The purple in the Homestead link is a much better match. It has more red in it than it appears here. If I had finished a week earlier, I would have had some purple irises to match in this first picture!

This was my first all solids quilt and my first strip piecing. As you can see in this picture, the black shows lint a lot so I probably won't do many more that have that much solid black. Otherwise, it was an easy pattern, as the magazine says. It would work well with other solid colors, and maybe even with patterned fabric.

new addition

I finished the Little Red Riding Hood quilt back in March, but just now took the time to add it to my shop.

I have pre-washed it since these picture were taken and is a happily crinkly now. I really love how it turned out!

the backyard

Every day this week, as soon as we get home from school, we head outside and stay out there until I need to make dinner. Sometimes we are on the front porch. Today we went to the back yard. Being outside with my kids a lot means I see lots of this:

We have lots of brick borders around flower beds and ever since my son was about three, they are always all wonky. They get moved A LOT. Now both of the kids are doing it. They save the worms for the turtles, so at least we are saving a little money on pet food.

The roses and irises are blooming. Every May they start blooming and I remember how much I like May.

The trumpet vine is also starting to grow. You can see a little of it creeping into this bed. And this is half of the pile of vines we pulled down ahead of time.  The other half is in bins in the alley to get picked up this week. When we first pulled it down, the kids made a fort with it. But then we had to move the pile and mow. And then move it to a different place and mow again. So it needs to get out of the way.

 

This is William the turtle. You can see his orangish head peeking out under his little pavillion.

He likes it better when it is warmer.
This is the outside of his turtle enclosure. One of the kids' summer projects will be to paint the blocks. I can't wait to see how they paint it.

This is our other turtle.

He seems to be the last survivor of the five we got in the fall. I have another one in the turtle enclosure waiting to see if it is hibernating or not. This one has been the strongest and healthiest for awhile. That is a worm in his mouth. I've been calling him Little Buddy.

Yesterday was very warm so I decided it was time for Little Buddy to join William in the turtle enclosure. I put him out there, fed both of them, and wandered away. When I brought the kids home and took them out there to look, well, he was well hidden so I couldn't bring him back in. If you leave anywhere close to here, you know that it stormed last night. Little Buddy got his first downpour I really should check the weather before I make these grand decisions. Today was a little cool, so he is still holed up somewhere. He kinda blends in.

 
Do you see him?
Maybe in another year when he is bigger we will get to see him again. There is only one spot in there I can even step in to look around, that bare spot in the middle. I'm afraid I'll accidentally crush him. Maybe when it is warmer and he starts moving around one of us will spot him. Surely if the kids can find little rolypolies and worms, they can spot a turtle.

And finally, this is bits of the garden.

Looks like I need to get some weeds out of there. See my fancy plant labels? I saw a post the other day about making some plant markers and laughed. I found a few of the white ones leftover from last year. I dug around in the craft supplies and found some popsicle sticks. That was what I could do. That was enough. I think if I tried some sort of project like that the plants would be grown before I was able to finish. And I would need to buy that cool Dremel Moto Saw. The other ones are pretty though.


Thanks for joining us in the backyard today!

May quilt #1 and a whole bunch more

It was a bit of a crazy weekend, starting with a Kid's Hope mentor indoor picnic on Thursday and mushrooming from there. I had a goal to finish the quilt top on Friday--and I did that night. I knew this one was going to need to be my first free motion quilt because I couldn't figure out any good way to straightline quilt it. So after a few practices on Sunday evening while the rest of the family was having some sort of band practice downstairs, I started it. And then finished it! Quilting in swirl squiggles at high speed goes way faster than I expected. I had a few crazy squiggles but when I got done (as always), I looked at it and thought "That looks like a real quilt!" I am pretty sure I think that every single time I finish one, and I am always in doubt about mid-way through the piecing process.

This is one of the commissioned ones, so I will also be making a matching doll size quilt soon. The backing is a pretty floral flannel, and is a little more pink than the picture indicates.

 You can see some crazy squiggles on this red part. Character.

Want to check out some other projects along with this one? Check out this Show and Tell Tuesday. by Fresh Squeezed Fabrics.

The rest of the weekend included:

This piano recital

And this one:

And a birthday party:

And an in-town soccer tournament:

She wanted to be like brother.

We also celebrated Mother's Day with my mother-in-law, but I didn't seem to take any pictures of that. I do have this one from the weekend before of Grace dancing with her grandpa.

It's a little grainy but fun anyway. And now I am exhausted from trying to figure out where all of my phone pictures uploaded, as always. It puts them in different files each time and this time one picture went in one file while the rest went in another. First world problems, as my husband would say.

our weekend

The kids were out of school Friday. I had shifted the plans to allow for rain, but it didn't. We delivered the quilt and get ready to leave for an out of town soccer tournament early the next morning. There was piano lessons and gymnastics and that's about all I remember.

So Saturday. Broken Arrow soccer tournament. A little colder than we expected but OK.

Two wins. Two shut outs. Our team scored 27 points in those two games. 

After the second game I took a trip across town to visit my uncle in the hospital. He had been in and out since the last time I had been able to visit him at the beginning of Spring break. Drastic difference in him since then too.

The entrance is by the children's wing, so I saw this as I went in. Turns out, I NEEDED to see this as I went in, and as I left. And as I left I realized that all of my family members who have been ill, who have died even, have never been sick like my uncle is. He and his family (my mom included) really need your prayers.

The team had two more soccer games on Sunday. We ate a delicious breakfast at Egg It On.

I didn't get a picture of my daughter with chocolate smeared all over her face after eating these. You just had to be there! We went back to the house to wait. I sat on the lounge chair in the sun most of that time. A restful, healing Sabbath.

The two game that afternoon were tougher but they ended with two more shutouts.  And a first place finish!

Such a great group of guys who play well together, work hard, and are just great kids.