How's about a 2 for 1 post tonight? ;)

Wow, 3 posts in a row... :) See I'm trying to get caught up... but there is just so much that I want to share with you that I may never really get "caught up" but I'll try. How about a 2 for 1 tonight...
Tonight was a fun night. Nora's favorite show "Word Girl" shown on PBS is now featured in the kid meals from Wendy's. So today after she ate her meal, she was anxious to see what Word Girl prize waited for her and she when she opened up the hexagon puzzle, I just didn't have the time to stop everything and play with it with her. So I asked her to save it for tonight and we'd do it together "just me, her and Daddy" in "her room" without the babies... and said it all in a special exciting voice... and what do you know - it worked!

She took it upstairs and put it in the highest spot on her bookshelf so the babies wouldn't get it and she saved it for tonight! ;)

So after our bath time and read books to the twins and say prayers to them in their room... we came to Nora's room and instead of our usual story time..... after Nora fed her fish, we all 3 worked on this together. ;)


Or rather 2 of us worked on it - Nora got board with it after we had the first 5 pieces in place... but she did supervise and tell us when we were doing it wrong LOL it was fun all the same ;) She got excited seeing it come together. ;)

and what makes this a 2 for 1 post? Well at the Circle of Friends Retreat in NH last month, I took 3 classes. One of which was machine binding. Yep, binding by machine - no hand stitching "what so ever" ;) as the class description said... also no pins or binding clips either! which was awesome!

The week before the retreat I had mailed off Nora's Happy Quilt to Carol, needlecrazy, and she machine quilted for me as a part of the Hurricane Ike Relief fundraiser... and I had mailed ahead my scrap binding to Lisa - TX who also lives in Houston and sees Carol every so often... so when it was finished being quilted they handed off to one another and Lisa used her serger and attached the binding for me before I arrived in Houston.

I took the quilt with me on the plane in hopes that I'd work on whipping down the binding by hand on the way - and during the retreat but b/c I had been up so late the night before... and was so exhausted...

However once I got sat down and still... by body started shutting down and I never even gave one moments thought to getting out the needle and thread to work on it.

I took the above photo once we were up and then I pulled the shade down and took a 3.5 hour nap! The quilt made for a great pillow to stuff between me and the window on the plane not long after the take off. I was too exhausted from the night before and knew that I needed to rest up on the fun I was about to have. ;)

In the above photo Nora was feeling very much the same way tonight....she was so tired that I think she was snoring before we were finished saying prayers with her... and since I had the camera I couldn't resist and took a few photos in hopes to share with jayardi who taught the machine binding class so she could see that I really did get Nora's quilt done and the binding looks great!

Here is a close up of the binding for jayardi to see - I am so glad I machine stitched this one down - b/c I can tell this quilt is gonna get lots of lovin over the years... it's already been thru the washer/dryer 4 times since I returned at the end of April!

and I know all of my blog readers have seen photos of this quilt numerous times, but I just have to share one more full shot of it.... once more...

This pic was taken during the retreat show-n-tell. This was the whole reason I ever sat down at the computer and googled a search for a fabric swap and found The HGTV Quilting & Needlework Message Board Forum on line b/c I wanted to make an "I-Spy" for my at the time 1 year old daughter.... her and thanks to my friends on the board and the swaps it all came about! ;)

Never did I realize then I'd become part of a great online community and meet so many wonderful friends - and REALLY MEET them! In NH no less! :)

and one more picture of the man who deserves a very big THANKS!! I have the best husband, who is also my best friend. From the moment I mentioned going on a retrat to meet my quiting friends, David supported me and made it all possible for me to go and take a much desired "Break from Motherhood" Just 5 days away made a world of a difference and I had a really great time with my quilting friends. David did a fine job holding down the fort and keeping up with the kids while I was gone. I'm so thankful for him and how good he is to me and my children ;)

Also before I end this post I want to share a link with you to my photo album of what few photos I did take during the retreat. I did not take nearly enough..... but there are some and a few good ones ;) You do not have to be a member of Facebook to view them but if you are a member you can log in and then leave or make comments or ask questions. ;)

Love from Texas!