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!

Happy, Happy, Happy...It's time for the Happy Song..

Written on January 14th - hit save and forgot to publish.. sorry! The quilt still isn't done yet.. but lucky for me the teacher is a week behind on the letters... they did review week first week back after Christmas... and with my surgery early Feb. I think I will tie it off and machine quilt later... stay tuned...

Here I am doing the Happy Dance!!! I finished sewing the rows together last night after Midnight for Nora's Happy Quilt.

It's called an "I-Spy" with all the different pictures of things. There are MANY ways to make an I-Spy quilt, I just choose the easiest by framing each one with a color. I actually started collecting all of these fabrics when we first moved to TX 3 years ago.. then I found the HGTV quilters message board online group and participated in a swap! AND I WAS HOOKED! Swappin is so fun.

Nora's Happy Quilt ended up being 8x12 blocks and I'll add another 4 to the backing to = 100 blocks! Which I think is super cool b/c it is right in sync of something she's been working on recently called her 100 ways she makes my heart happy chart

Also on the 27th this month is their 100th day of school :)

If I had more time, I'd make a boarder with all the words of the items embroidered - I saw that done somewhere in blogland (sorry I forget who or I'd link to you) and the gal offered to do it for me.. but unfortunately I don't have the time to wait for those..

I need to have this DONE before the week they are on "Q" ;) either the last week of Jan or first week of Feb - gotta FIND OUT FOR SURE....oh I will be so happy to get this one quilted and bound in time! Wish me luck! :c)

and did I mention that this will be my FIRST attempt at machine quilting!?

By the Way - At our home, we actually have a real "HAPPY DANCE" that I made up the words to... and we do anytime Nora eats everything on her plate...home or away.. which gets a lot of looks in a restaurant b/c people around us thinks it's someones birthday with all the clappin we do.. but there are no servers standing around.. LOL and perhaps I'll video it next time...but I'm not gonna be demonstrating for my blog readers via video..until after my surgery... LOL

Love from Texas!

Happy Time Again

Yep not only is it Happy New Year's - but time to work on the Happy Blocks for Nora's I-spy quilt again! :) I haven't posted about it but just before Christmas I cleared off the dining room table and worked on them. It was fun having her help me as she was out of school for the break.

I sorted them by color groups and did a count and it appears I have made a total of 83 blocks that will finish at 6". I'm getting close to being ready to start sewing them all together! :)

Anyone else out there doing Happy Blocks? I started these some last year to make into a quilt for Nora... I first saw the idea from a member of the HeartStrings Quilt Project. Isn't it a great way to frame I-Spy blocks?? Never mind the fact that I've been collecting since discovering the HGTV quilter's board in, uhamm, 2005...

I have nearly 84 completed.. this is gonna be big as in generous twin size.. here they are laid out in rows 7 x 12. and we still have more blocks that don't have boarders yet! Guess she will just have to pick and choose or maybe I'll save a row of them for the backing - yeah, that's what I'll do!

Nora got a digital kid camera and is ready to take photos of her quilt in progress

I've declared my new monto for this year as "Making the time in 2009" and since the HeartStrings Quilt Project group has adopted this block as their new project (Jan & Feb) then what better reason to get them back out and work on them?

well I'll give you a better reason -

Nora's Preschool will soon be learning about the letter "Q" this month and her show-n-tell day just so happens to fall in the same week!!! and I so want her to have a QUILT to take and would rather it not just be any quilt but this one! Her Happy Quilt - the one that she helped make!

So I better hurry up and get these sewn together and.... quilted!

I've never quilted on my machine before and am nervous - Any tips for me on what to do or what NOT to do...? I'm a beginner for machine quilting!?

I have never did this before but I need this top done before the 3rd full week of January... b/c that is when Nora's class will be on the letter "Q" and it is also her show and tell day on Wednesday of that week - and guess what she wants to take!??!?! :) :) :) I am thrilled! :)

of course watch me work my tail off to get this done and then that day will come and she'll want to take some silly little toy... nevertheless, I want to see if I can get it done.. and if not.. maybe plan B can be to take another quilt and this one in process.. to show how quilts are made?

Again - any tips would be greatly appreciated! one question off the top of my head - should I baste with thread or use safety pins???

Love from Texas!

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!!! :)