Fourteen

Do you know anyone who has fourteen children?  I do.

This is the quilt I made for her.  Pink and red are her favorite colors, and you can see they are well represented here.

She is a truly amazing woman.  She and her husband have taken foster children into their home for a very long time.  They have adopted nine of those foster children.  That's a lot of love and commitment.  To my way of thinking anyone with that much love surely deserves a quilt, and that quilt should surely have each and every one of those children's names stitched into that quilt.  So they are.

It's a beautiful day here in Houston, Texas!  I can hear the birds singing outside my window, and as you can see there is still lots of green out there.  One of my sweet neighbors gave me a peach tree she had grown from her tree.  It's been blooming like crazy.  We'll have to wait and see if a freeze will get it.

This little pot of prettiness is on the inside windowsill.  I do so love flowers!

We are having special meetings this weekend at our church, so lots to do.  Hope your weekend is filled with only good things to do and see.

Hugs and kisses,

Mail Goodness!

Would you just take a look at what I got in the mail today from DowntownHousewife!  I had a little email conversation with the lovely Megan (the downtown housewife) a while back and she so very kindly sent me this brand new pattern of hers.  I think this pattern is due to show up at Moda Bakeshop tomorrow. 

I have so many quilts to get made, several of them baby quilts, so this came at a really good time.  Thank you so much, Megan!  I wish you great success at your pattern writing and fabric design.  Hope to see you at Quilt Market.

In other quilting news, the Christmas quilt for my sister is still hanging around.  Unfinished.  Mocking me.

The little baby quilt is also hanging around.  Not mocking, just waiting.  I got more of it sewn together last night.

And no, having two unfinished quilts hanging right there in the sewing room did not hinder me in the least from putting up the beginnings of another one.

Nor did it stop me from getting the first few rows of this one sewn together.  What can I say?  I just have so many quilts in my head trying to get out all at once.  It's hard to control them sometimes.  LOL

Maybe, just maybe, the trouble is that I am too fond of muddling.  Could it be, do you think?

Oh, well, I'm having fun anyway.  And I am getting a fair amount done, just not always in the sequence I'd like.

Hope you're getting all that you want to do done, too!

Hugs and kisses,

Evolution

I'm making a baby quilt for a baby due in April.  I started off with the blocks on the right.  But then, I thought maybe I should add in some baby blue.  I thought I might turn those squares into snowball blocks.

Then I thought I might turn them all into square-in-a-square on point.  But I did not have quite enough of the blue fabric.  Bummer.

This is where I am now, alternating the square-in-a-square blocks with 6-inch squares.  I have all the vertical rows sewn.  Maybe tomorrow I can get the horizontal rows sewn together and add some borders.  We'll see.

I've been a bit remiss in my posting.  (And I've heard about it.  LOL)  I guess I've just been a little sad.  My wild friend Claude (the feral cat who took up residence in the back yard) has gone missing.  I haven't seen him in a week.  I'm concerned.

Hope all is going well with you.

Hugs and kisses,

Strings and Horses

Mr. Muddling's string quilt is finished.  He is a great fan of the old cowboy television programs and movies, so I was sure he'd like the horses on the back, and he does.  Matter of fact, he and Miss Ru have been fighting over it pretty much ever since he got home from work today and got his hands on it.  (She had shown admirable restraint and left it alone until he got his first look at it.)

I really like it myself.  It is so bright and colorful, and the fleece backing makes it a really comfy cover-up.

I let the chickens out for a little while this afternoon.  They do so love to run and explore in a wider venue.

Not much else going on around here.  I've got to get out tomorrow and get some errands run.  And would you believe it - I have two rotary cutters and they are both acting up on me?  I guess I'd better get another one while I'm out and about.

Have fun with your day!

Hugs and kisses,

A Wonderful Gift and a Public Service Announcement

A while back I gave a friend from church a quilt.  Today she gave me a wonderful box of notecards.  She took photos of the quilt I made for her, added this saying to the front and had them printed for me.

I am just SO touched by her thoughtfulness and the sweetness of her gift!

And now, just because I love you, I have to share with you what I chanced upon at Sam's Club on Friday.  You know how hard it is to transport cupcakes and keeping them looking as pretty as you made them.  Well, look at this.  A dozen fit nicely on this little tray with handles to lift them out easily.

And you can flip the handles over and it will transport a sheet cake.

And, it will transport three dozen cupcakes (or three sheet cakes) at once!

 And all for around fifteen dollars!  Just kind of makes you smile, doesn't it?  I thought you'd like it.  It's manufactured by a company here in the United States, World Kitchen.  I had to pick up an extra set for a friend who is in the cupcake making business.

Don't you just love it when you find something that will work!

Hugs and kisses,

Meet Hetty

Hetty is one of our little flock of hens.  I am ashamed to say that it took me a while to notice that she is blind.  Our granddaughter was the first to figure out that something was not quite right back when they were all just a few days old.  I did mention at the time that I should probably not leave her in the world to suffer.  And I didn't.  She's not suffering.

Hetty has developed a system of bobbing and weaving her head to navigate.  Obviously she can't carry a white cane, so she uses what she has - her head - to feel her way around.  And she does well.  The other chickens don't bother her and they don't mistreat her.  And she does lay an egg most days.  The challenge is just in finding it before I step on it, because she does not find her way into a nest.  She's had no problem finding the food and water though and appears to be perfectly healthy and happy.

 Mr. Muddling and I had a few errands to run this afternoon and I couldn't resist bringing home a few flowers.  After putting them in a pot I put them outside the sewing room on the window ledge.  Aren't they pretty?

And of course Chloe had to check and be sure I had done it right.  That cat!  LOL

No sewing today, but that's okay.  It's good just to spend time with my Honey!

Hope you're having a good time, too.

Hugs and kisses,

First Finish of the Year

I have finished the Boxed Squares quilt and I am so pleased with it.  It's for a man (and his wife) at our church.  He's fighting a battle in his health, so this will be a tangible reminder to him of all the people who are praying for him.

And a reminder that no matter what it might look like - he IS blessed.

This is such a snuggly quilt.  I hope they'll like it.  I just need to get the label sewn on and it's done. 

I got six blocks done last night for Mr. Muddling's string quilt.  I think I need about six more, then I'll start putting it together.  This one will have a fleece backing.  Yes, it will be another one for him and Miss Ru to fight over.  They're already plotting. 

It has been an absolutely gorgeous day here today.  Warm and sunny.  Unfortunately I have not been out in it that much, just the in-between of running errands.  Maybe tomorrow.

I "read" (listened to) The Help over several days.  My childhood, up until I was nineteen years old, was spent in or near Jackson, Mississippi, so a lot of the locations were very familiar to me.  Our family did not have "help".  Too poor.  But I was there in that time frame.  Let's just say that it brought back a lot of memories and not all them were good.  Having said that, it is a very moving book.  I find myself still thinking about it.  I've never understood the concept of thinking that you are better than another person just because of the color of their skin.  I've never understood the concept of being mean to someone just because you can.  I hope I never do

Have a great weekend!

Hugs and kisses,

Here We Go Again

I've started the year as I mean to continue.  I've started another quilt.  I know.  What a shock!

I wanted to make another tumbler quilt, and I will, but then I saw this one over on Mary Johnson's wonderful instruction pages.    I want to have a quilt done quickly and this one is going together pretty fast.  I chose the fabrics last night and then got it cut out and this much of it up on the design wall tonight.  I want to put together two more vertical rows of squares, then I'll start sewing them together.  I'm hoping to have it ready by the weekend. 

Other than that, I've had a really lazy day.  I've barely even been outside, which is a shame because it was a beautiful day.  It's cold tonight, though - almost freezing right now.

I'm going to head to bed now, so I'll say good night.  Are you doing anything interesting?

Hugs and kisses,

New Year

I was really surprised last night when I started putting together this collage of quilts I made in 2011.  I thought I had made 25.  Turns out I completed 28!  Of those, 4 live here in this house and one of them belongs to Ruthie, so it will be leaving when she does in June.  You know I love to make quilts and then give them away.  It's a struggle sometimes, because I've never made a quilt yet that I didn't want to keep.

There was a lot of this going on in our neighborhood last night/early this morning.  We are in an unincorporated part of Houston, not in the city limits.  There are no bans on fireworks when we live.  So lots of people have lots of fun blowing up lots of fireworks.  Mr. Muddling and I went outside and just enjoyed the free show from the comfort of our own driveway. 

It's a beautiful day today, cooler but with lots of sunshine.  We're supposed to get much colder weather tonight.  For now though the flowers outside are still smiling and pretty.

Claude is just glad all the noise is over.

At church this morning one of my friends who is a faithful reader of my blog told me that I have not put pictures of the chickens on in far too long.  While I was out there this afternoon I let the chickens out to roam and frolic and took lots of pictures.  Now, Betty, is that better?  Seriously, Betty is very good to encourage me to blog more often. 

I think we could all do a better job of encouraging each other.  I do so enjoy seeing what each of you has been doing and creating.  I'm sorry I don't always comment when I visit your blog, but I'm going to try to do better.  You are a blessing to me!

From one chick to another,

Hugs and kisses,