Another Trip to Mill's End!

My cousin wants me to make her a baby carrier sling so we *had* to go back to Mill's End. I came away with far more than she did! I love, love, love this ball and jacks fabric and didn't get it the first time around. Decided it was still on my mind so I was getting it.

I also found doggie fabric to make my own doggie baby pocket/sling with. And got enough for a few gifts too.

This was the really crazy purchase..I found what seemed to be the entire line of Beatrix Potter fabric...it was not all together mind you. I had to search, but I wound up getting a bunch of it to mix and match for baby quilts. Got three larger chunks for backing too. I know you will be seeing this fabric again.

Last night DJ and I watched "The Matrix" one and two...and she assisted on a few hexies just for the fun of it. I think she likes it!

We made alot of progress between waiting for the skydive (pictures once I get home) and watching a few movies...it is growing!

We fly back to Arizona in a few hours...so I better get going. Will post from the land of the sun soon!

Hexie Progress

Just because I really don't have anything crafty to blog about I took a progress picture of my hand sewn hexies project. You can see the one I am working on baretted in...I really am enjoying working on this and it having a quilty travel along project. I may only get a few hexies done each time I take it out, but eventually it will grow into something larger.
DJ and I went out last night and met up with four of my Deaf friends. It was really nice to relax and not have to interpret everything for DJ! We even danced to "Lady" all alone on the dance floor. Today Hannah will be arriving *yay* and we are planning to go fishing tonight. DJ wants to try to catch a Walleye since she has never heard of or seen them in person. Iwill bring my hexie project and my Nook! We will have a good time with my cousin Tara, her hubby Tommy and son Reid. Some of the gals from last night may wind up joining us too.

Hannah in China and More Mill's End Pics!

This first photo shows the fabrics DJ and I picked out for her niece's quilt. Not even sure of the pattern, but fell in love with the fabric. Lily's favorite colors are pink, purple and baby blue. The bottom fabric will be the backing and we will put the others in the top.

Here are the four shirting fabrics I picked out. They will wind up in a Bonnie Hunter quilt for sure! The price was right and I always have a need for these.

And here is Hannah and her UWOshkosh group in China. She just arrived back today and I finally can text and talk to her. She will be here in Eau Claire tomorrow morning, I can't wait to see her! She will have tons to tell us about China. All I know so far is the people there could not believe how light her skin and hair is and kept telling her she is beautiful...which she is. She got that same reaction from the people in Korea when she was a baby...they kept calling her "ipo egge" not sure how it is spelled, but it means pretty baby.

A Trip to Mill's End!

DJ and I went fabric shopping in Wisconsin today! I found myself at my favorite discount place, Mill's End...and I went a little crazy buying close to twenty yards of fabric, but much of it is for gifts so that is my story and I am sticking to it! This fabric is corderoy to back some more baby quilts/blankets in. It was too cute to pass up. And I think the ladybugs appealed to me because I just finished reading the book "Choosing to SEE, a Journey of Struggle and Hope" by Beth Champan. It was about losing their little adopted Chinese daughter and she loved ladybugs. So I suspect this is how this fabric found its way into my cart. I didn't even know Maria but she touched my life!

DJ fell in love with this fabric. It is real similar to one I have at home..may be from the same line. We couldn't resist it.

The ball fabric will either be a quilt backing, pillowcases or find itself in a quilt top!

This picture is way too blurry...sorry about that. It is 1940 ish looking so I am hoping it works for backing my quilt history quilt, if not it will wind up in patriotic quilts for Quilts of Valor.

Again another blurry one, this one just spoke to me. Tiny little fruits...no idea where or why, but for $3.99 a yard it was mine!

Here you can see the entire splurge all spread out.....and my new purse too. That was yesterday's purchase. I need to stop shopping!

I met up with my good friend Jill yesterday and she cut, lightened and permed my hair. I am really happy with it!

My cousin Tara's husband does tattoos, so DJ had to have one. This was her splurge!

It is a purple rose...will get a better pic posted soon.
There are a few more pictures which I can't upload right now because my grandfather has a funny pop up blocker and I think I just told it to block. HAHA. So later on I will try again so you can see the rest of the fabric!

Now off to Mac's graduation! WHOOT WHOOT!

Neff Family History

Here is Tara (and Koi in her belly) getting the Simple Quilt Eye Spy that I made for him! She likes it, and the last stitch went in the binding less than an hour before the shower!

We are in Wisconsin on vacation at the moment. We arrived on Friday and my Uncle Jim picked us up and we spent the first night in Winsted, Minnesota with him and his wife Mary. This is Jim sharing family pictures with me. Jim is my Dad's brother. He has three suitcases of Neff family history and he shared some of it with me. I wish I had had more time because it was fascinating! Here are a bunch of letters...the oldest on is from the late 1800's but most of them are from 1943. The picture you see is my Grandmother Florence Lottridge Neff and my grandfather Leonard Harry Neff. She died when my father was six. The condolence letter from Len's father to Flo's mother and father was among these letters. It was really interesting to read about life for my family during the war. I wish I had access to these letters during my quilt history class. Florence mentions knitting several times, including knitting for the Red Cross! She also mentions a Mrs. Jones (her hubby worked at Lockheed with my grandfather--they were engineers) who did quilting while they were together!

I learned quite a few intersting facts about my family from talking to Uncle Jim and speedreading these letters (DJ put them into time order as I read). My great aunt was a silent film actress and she once got my other great aunt Eck a part as an extra. The actress aunt whose name I already forgot (need the family tree to jog my memory) was married nine times! One day she got a ride across the set from some guy---who turned out to be Cary Grant I think it was! Flo's letters mention seeing various movie stars because they lived in CA during 1943. One of them was Mickey Rooney. Found out another relative was in a film with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. I can't remember the film or the name of the relative already but maybe it was "Swing Time" with Victor Moore. I will have to double check!

Another relative, who was married but had no children, had the largest bell collection in some state. I got to see pictures of the bells (like the liberty bell but different sizes) and they left the collection to his sister I think it was and when the house they were in was rented out the collection was stolen!

I wish I could remember more details or had written things down, but I thought I would remember better.

Tomorrow I plan to finish up Mac's scrapbook!

More Odds and Ends...

We leave for Wisconsin and my youngest son's graduation from high school on Friday morning...I have a crazy busy work week and more than I need on my plate this week! We did double time tonight trying to get our ducks in a row. DJ helped me pin Koi's quilt and I will be stitching in the ditch on it tomorrow afternoon between my morning job and evening job. (I got two classes at MCC so I am back to working both of my jobs for June!) DJ cleaned our female Beta's bowl. We bought her to go with our male, but they hate each other. Turns out they have to be the same kind of Beta to even have a shot at getting along. So she has her own bowl!

These goodies were a little suprise for me in the mail over the weekend. I love the middle one and like the one on the right but am not sold on the one on the left. I may have to gift it. June if you are reading this do you like any of them?

We spent the weekend helping my sister and parents move...it was a nightmare, but we made a good time of it and I rewarded myself with three yards of this fabric at the quilt shoppe near my sister's house. It was all on the clearance wall anyway!

DJ and I finished tying this little Eye Spy quilt which I think my cousin Crystal will get for her new second son. I think his name is Finn.

I finally broke down and bought myself a scissor fob! I have been eyeing these on Etsy for quite awhile. I bought one for me and one for a certain good sewing friend whose birthday is coming up. She may be reading this, so if she is I will say that the colors are different!

Hopefully you will be seeing Koi's quilt all quilted before Friday!

A Simple Quilt is Coming Along

My daughter Hannah is a junior in college majoring in accounting and is currently taking a summer class in China. She is the beautiful blonde in the center back row in white. This is the only picture I have seen so far as they don't always have the bandwith to post photos but they are blogging and it has been fun to follow along!

Got crazy at JoAnn's. I wanted a gnome so bad and he was 50 percent off so he is now snoozing out my front door!

I also managed to find another Densyse Schmidt fabric that I didn't already have! I pulled up the picture on my blog to see if I had it and it didn't look like it, and voila I didn't have it already! This pic doesn't have my green dots in in, but I have that one too.

I bought these two fabrics for backing...the dog paws will go on Seth's quilt that Kathy made last NYE day and the fish will go on the back of Koi's "Simple Quilt".
And here is the Simple Quilt. I didn't make it as big as the pattern but I have more blocks done. It just was getting too big for a baby quilt! I need to either quilt or tie it this week too. And the bonus is I have enough cut to make two more this size!

My parents are moving down to New River this weekend....into my sister's house actually. My sister is moving into two of the bedrooms that are joined (office and bedroom for her) and staying for the summer. Partly for financial reasons and partly to help mom through the radiation. My mom found out she has stage three ductile breast cancer. She opted not to do the chemo. So nothing like trying to help the family pack, clean, move and unpack. DJ and I came up a few weekends ago to help and again today. We haven't stopped moving! I just showered and wanted to blog and check my email. So tomorrow is another big day.

But....Sunday afternoon I am sewing with June!