Quilting on the Brain

This is my very first quilt! Isnt it pretty? For our class, we were required to learn how to make 12 different blocks and the techiniques for each block. We put all 12 blocks into a "sampler" quilt. Its slightly larger than a lap quilt, but not big enough for a bed. I stitched a sleeve on the back and hung it up on the wall in my new sewing room. I will take more pics of my new sewing room and post them later this week.

A Windy Path

It has been one interesting week, to say the least. I feel like Paul and I are on a very long, windy path and we keep coming up to sharp turns but cannot see what holds ahead for us. We are happy to report that Paul's father is safely out of surgery and went home this evening. That's one turn we dealt with this week and we are now walking ahead and trying to see where the next one will lead us. I am trying hard to not focus on the unpredictability of life, in general, but rather on the lovely foliage life offers us. If we look straight ahead, we will miss all the neat, lovely things on the peripheral.

Things are still chaotic with the Governor and Wisconsin. This is one of the biggest unknowns we are dealing with. This will indeed affect us badly, but just how badly? It is truly amazing how much power one uneducated person can have over an entire state. I simply don't understand it.

Please keep us in your prayers. We need a lot of faith to deal with the upcoming sharp turns.

A Few Blocks

My quilting class started off very well! There are only 4 of us in the class, which is great. We all get additional one-on-one time with the instructor. We all have varying levels of skill in terms of using the sewing machine, and it appears that I may be the top in the class (thanks to my intensive sewing class at Mizzou.)

We have class every two weeks. Between classes, we have to do homework, which consists of making a certain number of blocks for our quilt sampler. For our next class, we have to make 5 blocks and 4 cornerstone blocks. The class was only two days ago and I'm already finished with my homework. I think its time to go to the store and buy more fabric, so I can keep myself busy and practice making the blocks. By the end of the class, I will probably end up with 3 or 4 finished quilt samplers.

The interpreter (a student from the University who is volunteering her time to come with me to class) asked me if I am an overachiever. Hmm, what do you think? Ha!


Here is my office. The sewing machine is on my little white table and I sit on my ottoman when I am sewing. The ironing board is conveniently positioned where I can watch some TV while I iron the pieces. My new cutting board is on my sturdy desk. The secret to quilting is precise cutting and measuring. Once you have that down, the rest of the process falls into place.

I have plans to turn the "rec room" in the basement into my quilting room. It will give me a lot more space to spread out, but I have a few things to do down there first. Id like to find a box of carpet "tiles" from Home Depot and put down a temporary floor on top of the raised wood floor. It'll make it much easier for me to stand on for long periods of time and make it more cozy. Also, I am looking for a large sturdy table to do my cutting on. I probably won't have this set up until later this Spring or Summer, but it will be a great room once its set up!

Here is my favorite block out of the 5 I had to make for homework. It is called a "Rail Fence" block. The picture does not justify the colors of the fabric. They are very cheerful 1930s vintage fabrics.

Im off to a great start!

Time Whizzing By

It seems like it was only yesterday that I did my last post. I had no clue that it was so long ago. Why is it that time whizzes by so quickly and no one notices?

The last few weeks have been full of colds, crazy schedules at work, blizzards, making valentines, crocheting scarves and an afghan, and getting ready for a quilt class. I am very excited about my quilting class that will start tomorrow night. Over the weekend, I went into the shop and picked out some fabrics for my sampler quilt. I chose colorful, vintage 1930s prints in honor of Grandma J and her quilting talent. I am hoping that I enjoy the class and decide to pick this up as a hobby. I have done hours of research on patterns, fabrics, supplies, etc. I have many pictures saved of various patterns that I'd like to make someday.

January ended quickly and February feels like it is whizzing by. I want to devote my time in February to creativity. Lets hope that it helps slow down the clock...

Wordless Wednesday

I decided to get out of my funk today and make some handmade valentines. Its only a few weeks away and I thought I'd get a headstart on them. They are turning out to be very unexpected, yet fun and elegant. I cant wait to mail them out. I think they will put a smile on my recipients' faces.

A Love Story

Once upon a time
There was a lonely boy
who craved love.
His Master and Mistress
gave him a lot of attention and cuddles.
Sadly, this wasn’t enough.
He was looking for a constant companion
that would dote on him
every minute of the day.

One day, a lovely, gentle girl
arrived to the household.
It was absolutely divine
to see fate take place.
The lonely boy was no longer lonely.
The lovely, gentle girl has a sweet spirit
and immediately knew what the lonely boy needed.

These two are now inseparable.
They are constant companions.
If you find the boy, you will find the girl.
If you find the girl, you will find the boy.

This is deeper than friendship.
This is simply unconditional love.

The lonely boy turned into a happy boy.
The lovely, gentle girl changed his life for the better.
They lived happily forever after.

The End.

Honeymoon, Part Five

Our final days on the cruise were interesting, to say the least. Unfortunately, I had read all of my books by this time, so I did not have anything to read. I spent a lot of time roaming around the ship while Paul sat on the balcony with his book. I also took a lot of random pictures, which I will not torture you with! Royal Caribbean does provide captioning on the TVs in the rooms, but only on TWO channels. So, needless to say, not much good TV to watch. I think I watched Wizard of the Oz three times in two days.


The weather was very unpredictable! As we made our way to Los Angeles, we ran into many storms. We experienced beautiful, calm glassy waters; thick fog; choppy waters that made the ship a bit unstable; very cold winds; and ominous storm clouds all in a period of 48 hours. It definitely made me uneasy and a bit nauseous, but neither one of us got seasick, thankfully!

In the afternoon, we were sitting out on the balcony when we suddenly hit a HUGE pod of dolphins! There were approximately 200 dolphins playing, jumping and chasing the ship. It was a beautiful, breathtaking sight to take in! Sadly, my camera did not capture this incident very well... there were SO many dolphins around and they were moving so quickly that my camera could not focus very well. When leaning over the rail of the balcony, we could see baby dolphins in the water near the hull of the ship. They were just adorable! This lasted about 10 minutes before the ship passed through the pod completely and the water was suddenly quiet again.

As we got closer to Los Angeles, the storms became much more violent and the waters were very choppy. The captain warned us that the weather in LA was unexpected: severe rainstorms that would last over a week and cause catastrophic flooding and mudslides in California.

The airport was chaos when we arrived. Half of the runways were closed due to flooding. There were many flights delayed and/or cancelled. Thankfully, our flight to Milwaukee was on time and we were able to get out of California relatively easily.

We were very sad to leave Mexico. We had a FABULOUS time and consider ourselves so blessed that we were able to take such a vacation in this time of uncertainty regarding the economy. We truly loved Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. We hope to return again someday and explore these two places even more. We only got to scratch the surface in what they have to offer.

We were very surprised that this specific cruise under Royal Caribbean will end in February. RC has decided to pull this cruise for several reasons (according to several crew members): long traveling distances between the three ports, increasing diesel fuel costs, and high demand for cruises in the Mediterranean. The Mariner of the Seas will start its first voyage in the Mediterranean in March and will be housed there permanently. What's funny is that Paul has big dreams of going on a cruise in the Holy Lands someday and it so happens that the Mariner of the Seas will be doing just that. Perhaps someday we will be able to return to this lovely ship again.

Mexico Riveria: you were absolutely lovely and provided us a week in paradise. Thank you for all you offered us and we look forward to meeting you again someday.

Honeymoon, Part Four

It was a complete joy to arrive in Puerto Vallarta. It was like a tall, cool glass of water after our experience in Mazatlan. This ended up being our utmost favorite port and we have plans to return sometime in the future to explore more of this fun place.

I will let the pictures explain themselves. We took a whale watching excursion on a sailboat. Afterwards, we had a nice dinner in one of the local resturants.

As you can see, we had a GREAT time!

We loved you, Puerto Vallarta. Be on the look out for us again sometime in the future!