I was recently away from home for a couple weeks for some doctor visits and to see family and friends.  It was a busy two weeks.  I was supposed to be away only one week but found there was just not enough time so I extended it (kudos to Southwest Airlines for fee-free changes).

Moving between various sets of family and friends, I worked on rebuilding a relationship with a high school friend I had lost touch with, attended the AQS quilt show in Des Moines, broke bread many times with different subsets of family and friends, delivered custom dolls clothes, shopped for new space with my BFF and her boyfriend, and spent time working on dresses donated for the Angels.  The time was filled to the brim with laughing, crying, reminiscing, and very special time with the DIL and grands: D and twins M and L. 

I was able to attend three of the grand's football games; L's last game (she ran a touchdown!!) and two for D, including his last game. 

D made a number of fantastic blocks and a very timely sack...  his team was rather amazing...  If I remember correctly, they had one tie and zero losses for the season. 



L's game involved all three kids as M was part of the cheer squad for L's team and D was the waterboy.   I commend mom for teaching the kids the importance of participation and proud of the kids for following through.

The kids shared that their school needed new dodge balls.  We discussed ways to help the school by raising the funds to purchase dodgeballs (can drives, etc)....   I committed to a donation if they reached a certain goal.  I am proudly awaiting their decision on how to go about raising the funds.

During my visit, the kids wanted to watch Titanic.  I was pretty impressed that three kids WANTED to watch it.   We all giggled about how many times Rose said "Jack" and there were guesses thrown around.  I googled it and L guessed it exactly on the nose...  Rose said, yelled, or cried "Jack" 76 times.


They were pretty much transfixed watching Titanic....  at least until dinner was ready. 

While the grands all love animals, including Mom, M is the soft hearted one that wants to adopt or care for every animal that needs love.  Their menagerie currently includes:

Keiki, who probably spends most of her time with L. 

Keiki is shy but like other cats, she watches everything from afar and

she will shower you with love when SHE wants to.

Wrigley is a 5 mo old Vizsla mix. 

I think the best way to describe him is that he is rather like a new born deer trying to stand up on ice. 

Wrigley is THE most lovable, cuddly, Velcro-like animal I have ever met.

Hunter is a loveable and very social male.

He seems to have a facial comment for everything that goes on in the house. 

His favorite place to be is drinking from a dripping faucet or with his momma, the DIL.

They are considering adding a German Shepherd or GS mix to the family when the time is right.  They may need more vacuum cleaners....

As for the Angelbabies, I brought back two suitcases full of donated dresses (wedding dresses can take up a lot of space) (kudos once again to Southwest Airlines) and friend KS is bringing MORE dresses to me in November.  We are still working through all the dresses donated as a result of the KCCI-TV report on us and word of mouth and still trying to catch up.

I was only able to see my son for a couple minutes at a time but that was all the situation allowed.  It was a wonderful time with family and friends and especially the grands.  While my time away was loaded with emotions, some bad, there were, oh, so many good ones.  I  kept my promises and showered everyone with all the love I had. 

I continue to be blessed.

A new sewing machine!

I (ok, hubby and I) brought home another sewing machine:  The Singer anniversary model!!!  I am anxious to get it out and cleaned up. 

I need to let one of my others go (I offered that concession to hubby) but he didn't seem to care one way or the other. Soooo, well, we will see.

The wheel turns hard and there is a noise when running but I think cleaning and greasing will make a world of difference.  Also, arm support for the top seems not well attached to the cabinet - hopefully, I can fix that too.

In the meantime, I have been working hard on three projects:

• Quilting
• AngelGowns
• Items for craft shows

I have decided that I will work on each thing for one day and move to the next project the next day.   With this process, I am finding some days are more productive than others but I feel like I am touching each of the things I love to do.

 Monday was quilting day.  I worked on a BOM (block of the month). 

I had three months of blocks that I needed to complete to get caught up.  Before we started this project, I added some complimentary fabrics from my stash so I could make additional blocks and end up with a larger quilt than provided in the BOM.


I see a square in the upper left block that need to be turned.  ooopsie!



On Tuesday, I worked on AngelGown items.  I finished several gowns, caps, and a wrap.

The AngelWrap to the left of the water bottle serves as a burial garment for the tiniest of babies. 

The cap in the upper right of the photo is unadorned and the lower right is trimmed and beribboned and ready to go.



 


Today, Wednesday, was a busy day! 

I delivered a box of AngelCaps, embellishments, ribbon, thread, needles, sequins, and pearls to a new "embellisher", Ginger G.  She is new to our little group and I am  positive that they will come back simply A ~ D ~ O ~ R ~ A ~ B ~ L ~ E !!!



In addition to picking up the sewing machine, being available to the pool guy and the guy who took some brush away, and meeting Ginger, I still managed to make four crinolines and ten poodle skirts for my fall craft shows.

The outfits (top, skirt, crinoline, belt, and maybe scarf) will fit 18" dolls, including American Girl dolls.  I made the skirts in pink, gray, and black with poodles in black sparkle, pink, or white.  I will make the tops for these outfits next "craft show" day!!




Making the poodles skirts makes me think of a day long ago that several friends and I all made poodle skirts in pink, burgundy, and purple.  The menfolk dressed as "bad boys" or "nerds" and we all attended a 50's party!  One of the girls was dressed as a "pink lady".  Such wonderful memories!

Pick a lovely old memory...  and savor it again!

Tomorrow is quilting again! Is it too early to say that I really like this rotation thing?