Stitches Progress

I was in charge of the quilt blocks in February for do.Good Stitches.  The quilt is for a teen-aged cancer patient, so I asked for happy and bright colors.  It needs to be a little bigger, so I pieced together 4 more blocks.  Here are three of them:

I've been working on these blocks in tiny increments on days that Joel is at the hospital for clinic.  If I can get an afternoon or evening to myself I may actually be able to piece the quilt top. 

Happy Blocks

Steph was in charge of both March and April blocks for do.Good Stitches.  She asked for 2 Improv, Scrappy blocks in rainbow colors for both months.  I'm glad I had 2 months to get them done, because my sewing time has pretty much disappeared.  My sewing table is now my husband's office when he's not at the hospital.  And let's be honest, even if he wasn't there I have very little free time at all these days.  I've been averaging one block a week, but I finally got the last one done yesterday.  Wahoo!!  The blocks are all cut down to 9.5"

Fidget Quilts

There is a group of ladies at church that get together once a week to create and sew.  They make fidget quilts for young autistic children, children with severe illness, and also for the elderly in the dementia wards.  Sometimes they put it together based on a theme and sometimes it's based on a specific person they want to give it to.  I joined the group at the beginning of the year and it's been a lot of fun.  These ladies are seriously so creative.  I can't believe some of the crazy things they come up with to put on quilts for people to play with.  It's so cool!  Here are a couple of the most recent quilts we've finished.

Up until this week I was labor - they told me what to do and I sewed it for them.  This week they set me to work trying to create one.  They wanted a fidget quilt inspired by Spring.  This is what I came up with so far.  It was so fun trying to come up with ideas.  I'm excited to put together the final product.

Quilt Squared

I had enough fabric left over from the quilt made this Fall to make a second one.  A friend is having a baby boy and her baby shower is tonight!  Life is so busy!  I need another 2 hours in the day.  With two days to go I had only cut out the fabric.  I put some of my other projects on hold and quickly started working on the quilt.  I finished it late last night!  Phew!  Little Guy was my model before we quickly ran everyone to school this morning.  He wanted his Blankie in the picture with the quilt. 

Special Weekend

While we lived in Columbus, Ohio we became good friends with a young man who was investigating the Church.  Joel and I both taught the discussions with the sister missionaries.  Joel is actually the person who baptized Jaron.  We moved, but exchanged Christmas cards.  Out of the blue, Jaron called Joel 2 weeks ago.  He told us he was going through the temple for the first time and wanted us to come out to be with him.  He had moved to Utah and was going through the Provo City Center temple.  He asked Joel to be his escort through the temple.  We couldn't get the whole family out there on such short notice, so Joel flew out for the weekend to be there.  I was sad to miss it, but I was thrilled for Jaron.  While Joel was there he also visited 2 temples that we still hadn't been to: Brigham City and Payson.  That brings us to 65 temples!

 While Joel was in Brigham City, he crossed the street to the Brigham City tabernacle.  He went to the cemetery and he was excited that he found the gravestones of his grandparents and great uncle.

Continuing the Craze

Little Man was obsessed with Harry Potter when he was younger.  He still really loves it, but now he's not the only one excited about the books.  Little Lady finally sat down and started reading them.  She flew through the first three books in under a week.  She talked them up so much that BB decided he wanted to read them, too.  It's the longest book he's ever read, so I wasn't sure if he would actually do it, but he quickly fell in love with Harry Potter as well.  I promised the kiddos that when BB finished the first book we'd all watch the movie together.  They absolutely loved it!  Now they're anxiously awaiting BB's reading of the second book, so they can have another movie night.

Stephen Hawking

Little Man became Stephen Hawking for his Wax Museum project.  Today was the day we all got to see everyone at school.  It was a lot of fun.  Little Guy was thrilled to be there!  We even got to see Little Lady, because 3rd grade came to take notes on some of the presentations.

 His whole class did a great job.

January Stitches

It's a brand new year, so it's time for another round of do.Good Stitches.  This month we're all making one improv block for a "Nest" quilt.  You basically use strips in any way you want (log cabin, wonky, courthouse step).  The first fabric is red and the rest are blue and green.  It just has to finish between 10-15."  The genius in this quilt is that the sashing is what brings it all together, so I'll be anxiously waiting to see the end result.

I never did get my September Stitches quilt done last month, but it is finally layered and ready to be quilted.  Hopefully, I'll get that done soon.