Hello again, I have had a crazy week again, so I missed last week. I don't have any quilts to show you, because I am finishing my binding on the three I showed you before.

I have others I am trying to finish, and when I finish them I will show you. I can't decide  between my Mermaid quilt, my Christmas (I know I should be finished with that one), or a couple of pieced quilts I am playing with.

I will let you know which I finally deiced on.

I have also, been busy taking my father to the hospital. He has diabetes, heart problems, kidney problems and he has had a couple of strokes through the years. He is a miracle to be living after all that he has been going through. Things have been getting worse this year, and we have been taking him to the hospital regularly.

He wants to live in his house, so my sister and I can not be there to help him through the day, and that is scary. 

Taking care of our children was just a natural part of life, but growing up you don't think that you will have to take care of your parents. It is different time of life. If you too have the responsibility of being care givers, I know how hard it can be.

I got to go to a fun Antique Show last week. It was held at a small farm about 30 minutes from my house. The farm has fallow deer, goats, chickens and roosters. I know there are more animals, but they were moved down the street for the show.

There were a lot of fun things to see and buy, I tried to be good, but I did buy a few things. I bought a wonderful old bucket with holes that they use in Europe to pick and drain olives, 2 milk glass pieces, an old beat up doll bed,

and a wire basket.

I think this will be wonderful with pumpkins, flowers, any thing I can think of.

Time to go, but I just thought of one more thing, I found out that someone had "pinned" my quilts on to Pinterest. It is all ways fun to see them when I least expect it.

Thanks for stopping by, have a good week and next time I will give you a wonderful recipe for a Peach-Blueberry Cobbler I made last night. It was so good and easy.

Good by for now,
Laurie 

Caterpillar Quilt

Hi again,

Today is a rainy day here in SLC. It is one of those days when I would love to rap up in one of my quilts and read, or watch a good romantic movie.

Before I can enjoy either of those activities I have some show and tell for you. I just picked up a couple of quilts from my quilter and I am excited to show you how they look. And I finished the Halloween wall hanging. It is not quilted yet. I tried to quilt it myself, but I can't seem to do it very well. I did finish the top so I'll show you how it turned out.

This is my caterpillar. I used the Dresden Plate ruler from Darlene Zimmerman.

 This is my sampler, I showed you how I was learning to paper piece, this is how it turned out.

Here is my Halloween Quilt. It is a little hard to see, but I will get it quilted someday and that all ways make them come to life.

I have many things to do today, you know how things come all at once or not at all? That is what this month will be like for me. I hope you have a good day.

It is beginning to feel like fall, I'm not looking forward to winter, but I love the cooler days and the changing leaves.

Good by for now.

Laurie

Hello again,

I have been trying to post sometime for 2 weeks. I had pictures to show you and my new project, and It will not work for me.

I wanted you to know that I have been trying to post at least once a week. This is my P.S. before my post, instead of after.

----Starting over-----

 I came home the other day and my daughter was watching a movie filmed in Ireland. Our ancestors are from Ireland, and I hope to go there someday. My daughter just came home from Europe and she was able to visit Ireland as one of the countries on her trip.

The movie was "Leap Year". I remembered hearing the name, but I did not see it when it came out. I wish I had seen it then. I thought it was charming. I loved seeing the beautiful countryside and I am a hopeless romantic, so the love story was very sweet, even though you know what will happen from the beginning.

The actors were wonderful also, I especially like the leading man, Matthew Goode, he is very cute. Amy Adams is beautiful of course.

 My project I said that I was working on last time is not Christmas, but Halloween. I did start the Christmas quilt, but I was asked to finish the other quilt for the Open House at our local quilt shop, Mormon Handicraft.

I have embellished it, and now I am sewing on the borders, I'll show you how it looks next time.

Good By for now,

Laurie

 

 Hello!

I said that I was going on a vacation with my family, well, we went and now I am home. I'm not ready to start working again, but that is what we do. Before I start to clean, cook, wash, and quilt, knit, etc. I thought I would let you know a little about our trip to Cancun, Mexico

This is the view that greeted us the first afternoon at lunch. I was beautiful!

The only problem I had was that is was hot!!

 I told you about my son and I chasing the "Super Moon" last month, well I just had to take a picture of the moon from the beach at the hotel. That is what I would call a Super Moon! It was a full moon and it changed as the clouds flew by. Every night we could watch the beach and the moon from our patio.

 We spent on day on the island Majeres, just 40 minutes away from the coast of Cancun. The island was beautiful, and the beaches were easier to play on with our 2 little girls. We did find a few topless sunbathers, but my husband was very discreet has he lead us through the sun bathers, so that our sons had no ideas what they had missed.

 Just down the street from our hotel was a place called El Ray. It is an area of ruins that were not tall, but very interesting and not just because remains of the civilization that had once lived here. They were inhabited by at least 500 Iguanas.

Everywhere you looked an Iguana was waiting for you to past by. It was a little creepy at first, then we started noticing how big some of them had grown. As long as you left them a lone you were just fine, but if you can too close to them they would start shaking their heads. That meant you were too close.

The only other problem there was that is was so hot that we all looked like we had been sprayed with a hose. That would have been nice. 

I said it was Hot!!!

 We found a pirate ship and I was sad to learn that we did not have enough time to meet the pirates themselves. Next time I go I'm planning on eating dinner with them. I had to show you the ship and the wonderful embellishments on the back of the ship. 

That reminds my I have a mermaid quilt I need to finish.

The last night we were there, as I was trying to get some sleep, (we had to leave for the airport at 4:30) my husband ran into the room and said that he had just seen a Giant Sea Turtle on the beach. Actually he had seen 4 that night. We ran down to see one right off from the stairs leading to our hotel. She was flipping her fins, throwing sand all over and getting ready to lay her eggs.

We were told to stay away from her so that she did not see us, if she did she would go back to the sea. There were 5 girls there with buckets waiting for her to leave, so that they could take the eggs to a safe place until they hatched.

They lay between 75 to 180 eggs at one time and they are the size of a ping pong ball.

I am so happy that there are people that care enough to help the animals around the world. The turtles come to this beach from July to October, so this not just a few night during the year.

I changed seasons this evening. I started a Christmas quilt that I will post for you to see and if you like it I will give you the pattern, as I go along.

Good Bye for now,

Laurie

I have been so busy that I forgot to post about the last class I taught on beginning applique. We had a great time thinking up different ways to use the fabrics we had for my dresses.

I started these dresses a long time ago and some how they were put to the side. I am going to finish them now. See what you think.

When I come back from our trip I will show you how to applique one of these, then you'll have the secret of how to do all of them.

There will be more to come!

Bye now!

Laurie

Good Morning!

Time as gone by so fast, and so many things have happened. So many projects completed and put aside. I just wanted to let you know that I am going to start posting at least once a week.  I am going to let you know about the ideas I have, the projects I have for you and the food we find that is worth talking about.

Before that I will be spending a little time with my family on a wonderful trip on the ocean. I’ll post some pictures so you can see how beautiful the world we have to live in.

Last month we had a “Super Moon” my son came into my room at 10:00 pm and said that he wanted me to go chase the “Super Moon” with him. We live at the base of a mountain, so we cannot see the moon as soon as the people in the valley. So we jumped into the car and drove down the hill to find the moon. It was beautiful!  Here is the picture we got, not as good as in person, but this is the “Super Moon”.

A Beaver Dam!

Then two weeks ago I was able to go for a walk with my son around a small lake up at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon here in Utah. It was so peaceful and beautiful. It makes me thankful for the beauty we have so close around us. I know that we all have special places where we live that fill our hearts and souls when we need a little time to unwind.

I hope you have been able to stop and enjoy some time this summer, time with your family, friends, and sometimes just with yourself.

How do you relax and unwind from the crazy days we live in?

Good bye until next time,

Laurie

It’s May, It’s May that lovely month of May…..

I could sing the song to you, but I’ll just write about Spring instead.

It is spring at my house. I have started planting flowers in my yard and the pots that were looking a little frozen are coming back.

I have been busy inside for the last month, both sewing and painting. I have almost finished the cabinet I was working on, just the drawer, which I don’t have, is unfinished. While I had the paints out I started painting on the cute box/foot stool I had waiting for attention.

Last but not least is the Millennium Quilt I am working on with my Clothesline Line Club. One quilt with 1000 pieces! The class is using kits, but of course I got working on my and decided to cut some of my own fabric, I now have 835 different pieces of fabric for my quilt. I started it is a couple of different sizes, etc. , and decided to cut them into rectangles. Well, mine will be a very strange looking quilt. I forgot to cut off some of the threads; I have sewn 161 pieces together so far. I’ll keep you posted1

Bye for now.

Spring Thoughts

Hi, I think spring has finally arrived!

I have been able to enjoy the last couple of days out side with my family. Friday we went to the zoo and yesterday we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point!

Isn’t nature beautiful!

There are so many wonderful sides to nature, but we all have to live through some of the sad, unexpected sides of life.

A few weeks ago I attended a funeral of a very influential member of our community. She had been very well known and she had given of her time and money in many different ways that helped the people of our state.

There were many, many important people at the funeral and just looking around you could tell that this was someone that everyone wanted to know and to have on their side.

I had met her at church; she was very polite, quiet, and humble. She did not flaunt her position of wealth and power.

The speakers at her funeral were her family members and close friends. They spoke of the wonderful person she was, the mother who was there for her family at all times. The grandmother whose grandchildren were the center of her life. And a wife who cherished her husband through all their years together.

They did not once talk about the money, influence, or power she had in the community. They loved her as their mother, wife and grandmother.

I left feeling close to her and their family, and felt their sorrow. Then a couple of days later my friend/walking mate told me that her niece who was pregnant had just find out that her baby did not have kidneys, and that he would not live. She was told that she would have to go through the delivery not knowing just how long their sweet baby would live. It could be minutes up to a couple of hours.

What a terrible loss to this young couple.

Two different loses, two different experiences.

I will never lose a baby that way, but I can imagine the pain and loss of a sweet baby before he has had time to become the person he was sent here to be.

As for Cleone, I just hope that I have been the mother, wife and grandmother that inspire my children to feel as her family felt for her.

May is coming this week and time goes by too fast. Back to quilting and painting.

Next time I’ll post some of my new ideas!