Donation Quilt...and one for me!!

     I am going to Shreveport, LA in June to a benefit for one of my cousins, who has been diagnosed with Gliosarcoma, a malignant brain tumor.  My mom and I are making a quilt to donate, they are having an auction, and a bake sale, and a dinner, a band....it is going to be alot of fun!! 

     This is my dads side of the family, and I only have been in touch with them for about 2 years.  My dads, father, Warren, was killed in WWII, and my grandmother remarried and "lost touch" with that side of the family.  And, to make matters worse, Warren was raised by his maternal grandmother, and his mother remarried and had several children who all thought that Warren was their uncle, and not their 1/2 brother.  So, 2 years ago I got in touch with my Aunt Catherine, she is Warrens youngest sister, and the only living sibling, who had only in the last few years found out that her "uncle" was really her bother, and now I have all of these cousins that I have never met!!!  Last April, my Aunt Catherine, her daughter, Deborah, and her nieces, Ruth and Marianne came to MS and visited with us for a few days, it was awesome!!!  I am so thankful to have found them, and can't wait to meet the rest of my long lost family!!!  I only hate it that my dad is not here to enjoy this side of the family that he so longed to have known for his entire life, but I know that he knows, and he is with the rest of the family that were there ahead of him and those who have joined him since, and I know that they are celebrating together as well!

Mom and I started this quilt out of scraps, and I decided that it would look wonderful made of old shirts, so here are a few pics of the quilt that we are making only in shirts, and I am keeping this quilt for myself!!  It reminds me of my dad because he was very patriotic!

     We thought that with the auction being in mid June that an Americana quilt would be good since it will be getting close to the 4th of July.  I love it, love it, love it!!  I can't wait to get them both finished,  I will post pics of the one we are donating in the next few days.  I am trying to work on both of them at the same time because I know me very well, if I get the donation quilt finished, I will be tired of working on this pattern, so I have to work on them at the same time, so that it doesn't end up as a UFO (UnFinished Object, for those  non-quilters out there!!)  We are going to have the donation quilt quilted by a longarmer, and I am going to quilt mine with stipple and stars!  

     I went this past week and bought my grandson a baby bed, and my sweet-tart was going to come home this weekend and put it together, but working late tonight and weather kept him from heading home this weekend, so....next weekend he is planning to come home, or I am going there...it has been 4, I repeat...FOUR weeks since I saw him and I miss him terribly!!!!!!  I will also post pics of Beans bed.  My daughter-in-law, Jackie and her daughter got all moved into their new apartment this past week, and little Tommys' room got painted and I can't wait for the bed to be put up...I know that Jackie can't either!  Only one more week!!!

My mom has been sick, and went to the doctor last Monday, she still isn't any better, so she has an appointment with a specialist on Teusday.  Hopefully, everything will be ok, please keep her in your prayers.

Speaking of prayers, go to Youtube, and look up "The Katinas" their song "Thank you" is my very favorite song!!!  I love it!!!  Back when my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and we knew that he was not going to make it, it seemed like everytime I got into my car that song was on K-LOVE...it reminded me that even though I was going through the worst thing that had ever happened in my life until that time, that I still had so much to be thankful for!!! I was thankful that I had had the father that I did and that I had had him as long as I had!  I was thankful that there was nothing "unsaid" between my father and I, and that we had a close relationship.  I was especially thankful that I was able to be thankful at a time that was so hard and that I realized that God is truly with us at all times...especially the worst times!!!!

Well, I guess that is about it for me, well, for now anyway!!  By the way, Tommy is Beans' real name, and I guess I should start calling him Tommy instead of Bean, but it is hard to do!!!

Busy week...

     Boy has this been a busy week!!!  Monday we had quilt guild meetings in the morning and in the evening, we went to lunch with our friend, Mary Jo, and then went to play at the casino for a little bit before our evening meeting.  Both meetings were really good, our program was "favorite thiings in our sewingroom..."  we all had to bring our favorite gadget, tool, etc.  I took my ironingboard table, mom and I each made one from a small folding table, it is a little bit bigger than a TV tray, we folded 2 layers of warm and natural batting and mom made a cover with a casing that we put elastic in and voila....a perfect ironing table for right beside our sewing machine!!!  I love it!!!!!  Here is a picture...

It is wonderful having it right there for ironing, and I also use it with a small cutting mat to square up small blocks etc. 

     Another thing that is one of my favorite things in my sewingroom is a film that goes over my windows that blocks the UV rays, it helps keep it cooler in the room, we used it in our first sewingroom when it was downstairs, there was an East facing window, and the room was HOT all day...my sewingtable was right in front of the window because I loved the view of the pond and the trees, and when I put the film on the window I could sit there at any time of the day with the blinds open and it would not even be warm!!!  Your fabric will not fade either, I have learned that it is better to put it on the storm windows instead of trying to cut it into the little window paynes, it is a little bit dificult to get the backing off at first, but it is well worth it, it helps on your utility bill also, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!  I got mine at Lowes, and it is at Home Depot, about $28. a roll, but it does several windows.

    The third thing that I took was......my MOM!!!  She has been quilting for 30 years, and since I have only been doing it for about 2 1/2 she is great to have around!!!  She knows how to make binding, she knows what is wrong with the machine when it starts acting up, she knows so much, she is fun to mess with, and I do...ALOT!!! LOL!!!  When I have a question about something she most always knows the answer, I love having her share a sewingroom with me, we have lots of fun and we laugh, laugh, laugh...ALOT!!!Here she is throwing her iron at me...I am sooooo abused!!!LOL!!!!  I was messing with her about something and she said "I am going to throw this iron at you" and I picked up my camera and "dared" her, so she pretended to throw it and I took her picture....you know as "evidence" !!!!  We have a really good time together...when she isn't in "Billville" (her boyfriends)!!

     Wednesday was the 8th anniversary of my dads death and mom, Bill and I went to the casino to play...again!  Dad loved to go to the casino, and he told my mom that he wanted her to go every year on the anniversary of his death and play for him...and we have every year except one.  Well, you would think that he would show up and bring us a little luck....but noooooooooooooo, he must have been celebrating his 8th Birthday in Heaven, because he wasn't hanging out with us that day!!! 

     Thursday mom and I went to the car dealership where she bought her new car and we saw one of our dearest friends who is also the General Manager there, we used to work with him several years ago when we worked at the Cadillac dealership.  We spent several hours catching up, and he will always have a very special place in my heart, he helped me with several things when I had problems before and after my back surgery, and before my dad died, and he is one of those people that I will always care about, he is very special. I was so glad to be able to see him and get caught up on his family and fill him in on mine, it was a great afternoon!!

    Today, I went and helped my daughter-in-law move some of her stuff to her new apartment, did I tell you she was moving into an upstairs apartment?!?!?!  We got 4 car loads done, in the morning I have to go pick up my step-son and his wife and we are going to go and help my husnbands grandmother move from an assisted living facility into a "more assisted" assisted living facility....fun, fun!!  I am tired just thinking about it!  I also have to take my dog and drop her off to be groomed and hopefully get her shots in the morning before I go, she has never been shaved, but she is this year, I know it will make her feel better now that it is really getting warm!! 

     Here are some pics that I took of our sewingroom, we had to send in pics for our guild, we are doing a "virtual tour" or everyones room, so here are some from our room...Here is mom again, that is one of Beans quilts hanging up on the design wall, this baby is never going to be cold!!!LOL!!

Here are some of my thrift store shirts, I am using Bonnie Hunters' "Scraps and Shirttails" book and making quilts out of 100% cotton mens shirts....love it!!!

Here are some of my scrapbooking supplies and quilting magazines.

I love buttons, and I screwed the lids of some canning jars into the bottom of a shelf and then I can just unscrew the jar when I need to get into it and I have doubled the use of my shelf and I don't have to dust the jars!!!!

My sewing table, with my little ironing board right there all handy!!!!

Here are some more of my old shirts in plastic storage bins, I really lilke being able to see what colors are in them, it saves alot of time.

I found this shoe rack that fits perfectly in the window seat, and I am making the use of the space there so it

is not wasted!

God is Great!!

     My daughter-in-law is 17 weeks pregnant and had bloodwork done a few weeks ago.  Last Thursday morning they called her and told her that her bloodwork results had come in and that she needed to come into the office at 1:00 and the doctor would discuss the results with her.  I went and picked her up and we went in and talked to the doctor.  The results indicated that there was a 1 in 10,000 chance that the baby could have Down's Syndrome, that is good results he said, and a 1 in 16,000 chance of Spina Bifida, also good he said and then we were told that there was a 1 in 10 chance that my grandbaby was going to have Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome...these are not so good results....this is where the 18th chromosome has an extra component, instead of one chromosome from each parent there would be three altogether and if the results are correct this would result in a stillborn or the baby would only live a few minutes, hours or possibly a few days. 
     I refused to believe this could happen to my only grandbaby (we all call the baby Bean), and I prayed to God that these results were wrong.  I know that God answers prayers and that everything happens for a reason, and with everything that has gone on with my son and is still going on with him (he goes to court next Friday) I know in my heart that Bean is supposed to be here, there is a reason that Bean is coming into our lives at this time!  I gave this child to God and asked Him to protect this baby, and if it was His will that Bean will not survive to show us what we are to learn from all of this.  So, we went to a high risk OB and genetics specialist on Tuesday for an ultrasound and consultation.  Bean was very active during the ultrasound, but Bean now has a real name...Thomas Christos, Bean is a baby boy!!!  And, praise God, there are no defects, he looks perfectly normal!!!  If he had had the Trisomy 18 there would have been severe defects that would have been very apparent on an ultrasound.  When we talked with the genetics specialist, she told us that she had been on the phone with several other labs because the results of the bloodwork were so out in left field from where they should have been that they think that the test was bad or something and offered to do it again...no thanks!!  The ultrasound results disproved the bloodwork so I believe that God answered our prayers and is giving us a healthy baby!  God performs miracles everyday, but we like to give "other" explanations, like...the test was bad, was it?!?  Or did God perform a miracle, I know what I think...what do you think?  Have you or someone you love experienced a miracle?  Just something to think about...