Photos of the Blue Charity Blocks Close Up

I forgot to mention that if you want to see the blocks individually and close up go to this thread on the HGTV board to see them. ;) ~Bonnie

Voter's Choice for Charity Quilt

I love helping out for a quilt charity project, as do most quilters. For me, it's simply easier to make a block and mail off than make and finish an entire quilt. I just don't have time or motivation to do that right now in my life.. but this way I still am helping and it makes me feel good to see my work in a FINISHED quilt occasionally! :) I get more done that way than I do here at home! LOL

As you may have read I am a member of the HGTV quilters message board and participate over there on a lot of things..... I have calmed down a lot on the swaps since joining, but occasionally find one I can't pass by ;) Also, I host an annual FAT QUARTER Bingo in the spring each year... and love to read the threads and show and tell. The members there are really great and several I am personal friends with. :)

Shown in the photo is one of the latest charity projects that the board members have completed. (not quilted yet, but will be soon.) Quiltaholic coordinated the project. She took 40 participants and assigned us either blue or pink. I was in the blue group.

We were to make any finished 12" block from blue or pink fabrics and then after they were mailed in she would post them all anonymously and the HGTV board members would vote on an open poll for viewer's choice. I am not sure what the prize is...? but because of the great voter turn out she announced she would be sending little gifts to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places. :)

The pink quilt will be shown soon and voting on it will take place the same way she did for the blue group.

If I had been a good blogger I would have told you about this way back when... and even showed you my progress on my block... but I didn't. Not b/c I didn't want to - but b/c I'm not good at managing my time and juggle all my mommy tasks and still play on the computer. But I am working on that.

So since you don't know which I made, I will take a vote - by comment section only b/c I have no idea on how to set up cool polls in the side bar like Judy L does.. nor do I have time today to figure it out. Plus I am curious to see how many will leave a comment and vote. :) and if you are an HGTV board reader leave your HGTV name when you post. :)

Which one would you have voted for?? Tell me which row and which block. I wonder if you all will vote similar to the HGTV voters?

A little information about the charity the quilt:
In North Carolina where Quiltaholic lives there is a Masonic Home for Children in her hometown. This orphanage houses children from 6 weeks of age to 18 year olds. We have given 10 quilts so far and have 5 more ready to go but there will still be around 55 more children that live there.These children get their names put on the label of these quilts and when they are old enough to leave the orphanage, they can take their quilt with them. Some of these children are very lonely and this is a way of reaching out to them to show that someone does care.

It is my understanding that a boy will get the blue block quilt and a girl will receive the pink block quilt. I will share a photo of it with you when it is posted.

ALSO in a few days, I will reveal which block I made in the blue group - I did not receive 1st place but did qualify for a prize. I have no idea what it will be... but waiting for it to arrive is fun :)

Love from Texas! ~Bonnie

EDITED TO ADD: I made the next to last block (or 3rd from left) in the top row. I forget where I saw it or the name of the block. sorry.

Happy Quilt started today!

I just wanted to pop in and say that "Happy Quilt" is officially a GO now! ;) This afternoon, while the babies were napping, Nora and I were in the sewing room and we sorted out a couple dozen 3.5 I-Spy patches on one side of the bed then I found a good dozen or so Bright FQ's that read solids form a distance and began cutting them into 2" strips. I don't have enough variety of my bright framin strips but it's a good start.

I don't think Nora really gets it yet, b/c she wanted to sew the squares together.... but after we framed her purple "Little Mermaid" square with a bright orange fabric (our first block) then she got it better. It is gonna be a fun project I can tell already. :) I will try my best not to overrule her judgement on what fabrics should go together and encourage her creativity.

I just need to get in there for about an hour without her and get all the framing colors cut up b/c she keeps digging thur my scraps under the cutting table saying "No, Momma use this blue!" and there is no way to explain to a 3 year old that it isn't long enough to go around all 4 sides or isn't at least 2" wide...

We framed a mermaid block, mushroom block, lady bug block, and another but i forget. I'd show you photos but David has the camera with him today & tomorrow while he is traveling for business.

It is almost 10:30pm and I'm exhausted!!! It only took me just at 3 1/2 hours to do our usual 1 1/2 hour bedtime routine. Boy I sure do miss David tonight!!! And I have to fly solo again tomorrow night too :( b/c his plane doesn't come in until late and he will have to drive home from Houston....

First we got started and I fed all three kids supper including spoon feeding the twins. Santa brought this supper cool spoon which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who has to spoon feed baby food!! Anyone, Momma's, Daddy's, Grandmas.... it's even great for big sisters like Nora who want to help out.

It's called the Boon Squirt Baby Food Spoon and we have two (one for David and one for me) but tonight dinner was only half as fast as usual with me being the only spooner.... which meant Paul Thomas whined the whole time that the spoon wasn't headed towards HIS mouth.... and heaven forbid I stop to clean any hands or faces... He would tear up and have a fit as if you just told him he couldn't have dessert! :P That boy loves to eat!!! He cried so hard he turned blue during the times I had to break to mix up more and refill the spoon! For supper tonight, together they both ate a total of 4 jars of baby food mixed with oatmeal cereal. Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans!

Nora got to have her ice cream dessert b/c she ate all her food on her plate :) and I of course had to join her! I l-o-v-e Ice Cream!!!

Then took 2 of the 3 upstairs for bath together while Olivia was left behind buckled into her baby swing and would have been perfectly content any other time, but she quickly figured out that me leaving the TV on was not the same as having REAL people in the room with her and that she was all ALONE downstairs... so she cried her head off :(

Meanwhile, I am upstairs bathing both Nora and Paul Thomas at the same time. Get Paul Thomas out, dried off, diapered and dressed. Lay him down in the crib to go finish up Nora... he is bawling his head off now b/c he really doesn't like the mobile in Olivia's bed, but his bed is in our master bed room and that is too far away and I know it is gonna take me a while to finish up Nora and b/c she has been playing buttons upstairs today, I can't leave him in the floor.. he may find something and pick it up and eat it...

So go back and finish up Nora, get her dried off dressed, teeth & hair brushed and EXPLAIN to her over and over how we can not read all her favorite books TONIGHT b/c Daddy isn't home to help Mommy and I have to do it all myself.... (usually this is mine and her time alone and we love to spend 20-30 minutes just reading together).... and thankfully she understood and said, OK Mommy just TWO BOOKS... I pick one and you pick one. But she ended up picking both and amazingly they were both shot books... really short. You know the hard board books... Great! And she said her prayers and never got back out of bed! Thank you Jesus! :)

Then after that, with Paul Thomas still crying, I ran downstairs and rescued Olivia, brought her up gave her a bath real quick. They basically just need a good rinse off from eating their food... but tonight she needed the works! She had sweet potatoes and green beans all in her eye brows and hair. I have to remember to take a photo of her eating sometime. She chases each bite she takes with her THUMB! :) it is so cute.

Anyway, by now Paul Thomas has fallen asleep so I get Olivia diapered and dressed then breast feed her for a good 20-30 minutes (we both fall asleep) I wake up and then get her breathing treatment ready and begin it while she sleeps in my arms and breaths it in. I fall back asleep holding her and it... something about that sound that the nebulizer makes really can make both David and I fall into a coma quick! LOL

Wake up about 15 minutes later and turn it off and get the medicines ready for Paul Thomas... then do the baby switch. Hardest baby switch I have had in a long time - like two ships passing in the night! The crib rail was up and I had to figure out how to get it down q-u-i-e-t-l-y without waking up Paul Thomas and one handed while holding sleeping Olivia in my arms. Put one baby in while not waking the other but I did it!

Then since Paul Thomas was a sleep I left him be and hooked up the breathing treatment to him -his takes longer b/c it is two medications instead of one... usually a good 35 minutes...or more depending on if it clogs up or not... so again I fall into a coma around the 5th minute! LOL ;)

I didn't bother waking him to breastfeed b/c he will be up around MIDNIGHT anyway... and again between 3am and 4am as USUAL. :P So I put him to bed in our room and just as I was turning out lights and going back into Olivia's room to get the nebulizer mask to wash out the PHONE RANG! so I as fast and "lightly" as I could without making the floor squeak, I ran to our bedroom to get it before it woke up Paul Thomas. The caller ID said David's cell... so I just hit the talk button without saying a word, until I could get somewhere to talk. :)

He and I spoke for only 15 minutes b/c he is tired from flying and knows good and well how tired I am too. It will be another long day tomorrow too so I better close for now and hit the hay. I have rambled on enough.... and I just wanted to say I got started on Nora's Happy Quilt. :) Will share photos when David returns with the camera. :)

Night! ~Bonnie

2008 Oh Happy Quilt!

OK, I know it is a new year and I am already behind on posting - uham, that was my goal to post 2 times a week.... but the twins' breathing treatments day and night have kept me strapped down a bit more than I like lately :( Let just say Tuesday's and Thursdays I look like death warmed over when I finally make it to drop Nora off at Preschool around 9:30am!....... but 'nuf about that ;)

Anyway, tonight while surfing, I was reading over on Mary J's blog about charity quilts and she linked to this post over at Annie's Quilting Adventures about her Happy Quilt and immediately upon seeing the photo of her Happy Quilt I had an "Aaaaa HA!" moment. :c)

You see, in the summer of 2005, one night I sat down at the computer to search for "I-Spy" Fabric swaps thinking this would make the perfect crib quilt for my then soon to be 1 year old daughter.... that night I found the HGTV quilter's message board. Until then I had not ever searched the Internet for anything quilting related... well within only a week I was involved in a swap and that was the beginning of a wonderful swapping adventure! :) and as they often say, "the rest is history" ;) That was the official "kick-start" of my quilting hobby!

Nora is soon to be 4 years old in June and I still have all my swapped fabric charms in zip lock baggies. :( I have been feeling so guilty for not making her, her very own special quilt but now I have a solution! I will make the Happy Quilt pattern for her!

Honestly, just getting started felt so overwhelming... starting with choosing a design. I bought Ami Simms' book but they all appear so busy and i don't have a lot of extra time to keep it all straight, I don't have a design wall.... and with a 3 year old who is now old enough to want to "help" and 7 month old twins...

But the Happy Quilt looks so bright and fun with just simply framing each block with a colorful frame. I will get the blocks I have collected out and start framing them here and there when I have time... let Nora choose what colors to frame each one and had them to me... oh and maybe she will remember the experience of getting to help make her quilt :) .....some of my favorite memories of my mother are of us in the basement with her piecing quilts and me "helping" :c)

Then when we get lots of them done, one day sit down and lay them all out and sew together! PERFECT!!! I may actually get this done by her birthday in June! Guess now I should shoot for a generous "lap size" that will grow with her or perhaps a twin size for one day when she graduates out of her toddler bed.

I am so happy to finally have a plan that I feel I can accomplish!!! I am getting out my charms tonight! Happy in Texas ;) ~Bonnie

OH - I thought I would add this in to share with you. Two nights ago Nora woke up in the middle of the night 4:34am to be exact screaming crying! She was having a bad dream so I quickly ran to her room to comfort her.

"It's OK, Mommy's here... it was just a dream... Your OK..."

she is still sobbing and I can't understand her...

I ask her some questions... did you see a wolf? (generally her dreams are of a wolf)

everything I ask, the answer is "no"...

...so puzzled I ask, were you scared? "no"

what was wrong then?

I was very DISAPPOINTED! and balls again...

tell me why you were disappointed... what were you dreaming about?

"Me and you were in a store and I wanted the THREE QUILTS, the brown one, and the white one, and the other white one, and you wouldn't buy them for us to take home and I was havin a fit because I was so DISAPPOINTED!"

A fit?! a screaming fit?! You woke me up for a fit? for something that wasn't real? Not b/c you were scared or terrified, but b/c you didn't get your way??? I haven't had a continuous 4 hours of sleep in almost over a year (7 months of Paul Thomas not sleeping thru the night, and many months before that having to get up to go pee 3 times in the night....of which the last 3 months before they were born I had to use a walker at night!) URGH! Guess I should be thankful that I just had to deal with it at home in the wee hours of the morning rather than in real life in a public store! LOL :P

But it's OK b/c I LOVE you and I will come a running again when you cry out in the night again. Why? Because I am your mother and that is what we do! I love you ALL the time!!! :)