A Month of Nothing!

 A sweet gal from guild made me a little doily for my sewing machine!  It goes under the spool of thread.  So cute and thoughtful of her--she did it because I invited her to our annual Quiltlville Mystery Kickoff.

 I have sewed nothing in the past month except this little hanging sleeve so my "Making Tracks to Guild" quilt can hang in the AQG show.  I had the flu, have had lots of migraines (though doing better the past week or two!) and just have had too much going on to even get in my quilting studio.

 I did buy backing fabric with thing one and thing two on it for Suli's twins (Blake and Alex coming May 15th or before) but that is as far as I have gotten.  Really need to decide on a pattern and get to making two of them!

 I did win this awesome book from Hugh Howey!  He has a short story in it and I am looking forward to reading all the weather related end of the world short stories in the book.

 I am still working on the weight loss and going to Weight Watchers.  I have lost 109.4 pounds so far and my marbles are slowly moving over to the other jar!

 Me two years ago, me a year ago and me now.  Still have plenty to go but I am happy with my progress!  Still hiking, doing machine Pilates and the elliptical.  We finally got Kathy a bike so we are starting to bike ride too!

Colton turned three so we went to his party (he had a Mickey Mouse bouncy house) after the Cave Creek Fiesta Days Parade.  

 I have been in the quilting studio today getting organized for a landscape class I am taking on Friday!  I picked out all these pictures (only the first one I took, the rest are looted off the internet) and will be choosing one of them to turn into a little quilt.  Way out of my comfort zone as I am not an applique fan but I just love how they look!

 My quilting friend Stephanie made the first one of these and found the other two on the net, one is Paula's from AZ.

 I have all my supplies ready and a stacks of fabric too.  Here's hoping I have enough variety!  There is green on the bottom of the stack.

Packer Guest Room and Florabunda Progress

 Last Thursday our floor guy came and put hardwood in the guest bedroom (now that Randy has moved down the street there is a guest bedroom!).  Kathy had already painted it green and gold since we decided we needed a Packer room.  I hung a fabric shower curtain and we put up a new shade too.  I am now collecting Packer decor.  I gathered up my couple of Packer gnomes, my scarf and the cool high heel packer mini shoe I got this past summer.

 He also put wood on our landing!  So once again we emptied and moved and refilled the quilt cabinet on the stairs.  THAT is getting old!

 Friday after work we picked up Colton!  We had fun hanging with him at my mom's while she and dad are in Cabo.  We watched Monsters University and read him stories and worked on crawling too.  He looks like he is going to be a scooter because he prefers to sit and lean more than trying to crawl.  Not enough tummy time for these babies that sleep on their backs!

I had a migraine this afternoon and so I didn't go to the PHXMQG.  I tried to take a nap which really was more me laying there waiting for the pain to diminish.  UGH.  In the late afternoon I finally got to sewing.  Kathy quilted two of the Rock Candy tabletoppers we had done and I bound this one.

 I have sewn all but these in my Florabunda stack.  Below is today's progress!  I am tired of sewing these blocks already...but hoping I can just get it to the top stage in the next two weeks.

 Here are all the blocks I have made so far.  It was super nice that our guest room doesn't have much furniture in it yet so I could close all the animals out and lay this out!  (And it is still in there undisturbed--GLEE!).

I am linking up with Jo's Country Junction for the Bonnie Challenge.  Check out everyone's progress and post your own!
P.S. Happy Birthday to my Dad--I miss him everyday!

Easy Street for Kelsey is Done!

Easy Street is done!  (Sans label but will do that this weekend too).  This was Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville's latest online mystery.  The clues are still at the link but eventually she may take it off the net and put it in one of her books, so if I love it, grab it now (and buy the book too later, lol!).  This one is for my beautiful goddaughter Kelsey back in Wisconsin.  Here is a picture of Kelsey heading to a school dance awhile back.  

 Purple is her favorite color, so I hope Easy Street has enough purple in it to keep her happy.  She is going to have to become a fan of lime green because there is plenty of that too.  I have been wanting to make Kelsey a quilt for a long time.  She is my ex-husband's sister's oldest and since the divorce I rarely see any of them anymore.  Kelsey however will always have a special place in my heart as my goddaughter and first niece ever.  She has also decided to follow in my footsteps and become a sign language interpreter when she graduates from high school this year!  She has been signing for a few years, and loves it as I do.  She will go to UW-Milwaukee and will be close to my daughter Hannah (in miles, they are already close otherwise!) while she goes to college.

I bound it in aqua scraps (while watching Bonnie's first archived Google Plus QuiltCam!) and I am really overjoyed with the quilting Barb did on it too.  She put big flowers on it as I requested and the thread she picked is really visible on the purple borders and just really adds to the quilt.  I hope Kelsey knows how much she means to me--not just anyone gets a Bonnie Hunter quilt from me!  :)
In other AMAZING news, my newest nephew has arrived!  My brother Sam and his wife Tiffany are adopting this little guy--Colton Darell.  He was born last night and is less than an hour old in this photo.  Pretty sure I got to hear his first cry through the door (with mom and Tina) while Sam and Tif were in with his birth mother.  She was SO awesome to allow all of us to traipse in postpartum to see him and take pictures.  I hope she knows how much love this little guy will get and what a precious gift she has given to my brother--she chose him and his wife--miracles do happen. :)

I love him already!  Welcome to the world Colton--you are my other favorite nephew!