Category Archives: Family History

This Little Heart of Mine!

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My sista/cuz (her folks, my aunt and uncle, finished raising me) had three children…and then there was a sweet little girl who needed a whole lot of love, related to my sista/cuz on the other side of her family.  And my sista/cuz and her husband decided they could handle one more little girl in need, so they adopted her!  Things aren’t always easy when trying to raise a younger-than-five-years-old little girl, especially since she previously lived her life as the only child with her other grandparents.  They are still going through some therapy but I think things are getting better.  Now my sista/cuz has the exact number of children and even the exact placement of kids as we have – two girls, then a boy, then another girl!

With that extra child, I haven’t done very well at keeping her wrapped in quilted love.  Mainly because of the unknown with my MS – unknown as to whether I would wake up each day, unknown as to how I would feel each day, unknown how I would feel each evening when I normally quilt, etc. etc.

I made “heart” quilts for each of my sista/cuz’s first three children.  I don’t think any three are the same, but I could be wrong.  I do know that every quilt had a heart as the focus of the quilt.  For my newest niece, I made a very simple, very clear (to a little girl) heart design, then added a few more borders to make the quilt big enough to cover her in quilted love.

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My aunt and uncle should have delivered my newest niece with the quilt above, and I can’t wait to hear how she likes it!

Do you have a theme for quilts that you make, especially for kids in the same family?  If so, what themes have you used?

 

Yet Another Quilt with Many Blessings for the Graduate

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My husband has been a lay minister for a church down in Alice, Texas for more than six months.  They REALLY like him, especially the little elderly ladies.  They are all cute and very lovely to myself and our kids, the few times we’ve gone down with hubby.  Alice is about four hours southeast of us, so it’s quite a drive on a Saturday evening and hubby making the return trip home on Sunday evening – tires him out, that’s for sure!  And the ladies spoil him with home-baked goodies.  Some he actually brings home to share and I suspect, some he eats all by himself while he’s down at their parsonage and church.

And it’s not just my husband who they are so happy with, but they’ve basically adopted our kids, too!  They know most of their names and ply them with treats (both edible and things like puzzles).  It’s truly become a second home-church for our family – though we will retain our home church status until further down the road.

This past Sunday, they had a graduate celebration and they included our oldest daughter in their celebration.  Not only did she get a quilt from our home church, now she has another from the wonderful ladies at the church in Alice!

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She has been sleeping with this one because it’s all fluffy and she likes that.  But, you can bet she’ll have both of her quilts adorning her bed when she heads to the dorms in August!

As for my first child graduating high school?  I am playing the ostrich and sticking my head in the sand…or, better yet, taking a queue from my children by turning on my iTunes, setting my music to an eardrum pounding level and plugging my ears up with my earbuds.  Not gonna take this one easily…though, I am betting as each of our other three children reach this adult-like stage in their lives, I will be ready to boot that last one out the door and change the locks!

Hole in the Barn Door Quilt

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I can finally reveal this image of the quilt that took me forever to make because it is a purple quilt and purple is my least favorite color and I can reveal it because the bride and groom were gifted with it this past weekend:

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And I said something really corny in the note I wrote for this couple, but it was funny as well as a bit serious at the same time.  They’re both educated so I think they’ll get it.  🙂

But the next time someone asks me to make a purple quilt?  I may have to decline.  This quilt took me six months to complete, which is WAY TOO LONG for a non-BOM quilt!  What’s your least-favorite color to use while quilting?

Wrapped in His Quilted Love

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Although I normally do not post photos of other people’s quilts, I make an exception for this quilt.  Yesterday was the ‘graduation’ service at our home church.  Our oldest is a graduating senior and wanted to be sure we participated in the service so she could be blessed and recognized by our wonderful church family – the church we’ve been members of for the seven years we’ve been back in Texas.

Our Pastor has a special blessing for the graduates and their parents, incorporating a beautiful quilt that our quilting church ladies made for each graduate.  After the blessing, he re-baptizes the graduating senior with a sign of the cross on their foreheads, just as a reminder that they continue to be a child in God’s family.  As it came to DD#1 to be re-baptized, she made a joke to our Pastor and he mentioned (his mic was still on) that he should probably pour then entire bowl of water from the baptismal over her head.  :-)  He has taken her on two mission trips and their experiences have been wonderful – great way for the Pastor to connect with the youth and a great way to see that Pastor is a man and not just a Pastor.  Obviously, she was a handful for him.  🙂

Here she is, wrapped up in her quilt, and then a photo taken later with the whole quilt in the image.  From one parent of a graduation quilt recipient, many thanks and love from my quilted heart to yours!

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Tote Bag Fun for Kids!

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Our middle daughter asked me if I could make two of her friends tote bags so she could give them gifts.  Both of these girls had purchased gifts for DD#2 and she wanted to return the favor with a tote bag like the one I had made for her (the second tote on that page) that she loved using until an orange highlighter exploded on the inside of it.  She also realized that she fills it too full and the handles could eventually come off or a seam could rip out like her sister’s did if she continued with that behavior.  They are not allowed to carry backpacks to class and she doesn’t like carrying a purse but a book bag can double as a purse and no one is the wiser….well, except that all of her books are HUGE and HEAVY!

I told her that I would NOT make her friend’s totes but I would help HER make them!

We went on a hunt for fabric and found the perfect fabric for one of her friends at the local quilt shop.  She didn’t get the other gift until after that excursion so it was left to my judgement, when I went to the local craft shop, to pick out the other fabrics.  Lucky for me, she LOVED my choices.  She had told me that her other friend liked black and white cows – and anyone who truly knows me and has been in my kitchen would know that I have Holstein cows decorating every wall and flat surface in both the kitchen and dining room (and two or three boxes of them in my closet because we don’t have room for them anywhere else).  I am thinking I’m totally overqualified to be choosing COW fabrics!  🙂

I have only managed to get one of the totes finished but she absolutely loves it!

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I would love to share the pattern I used with you but it is about seven years old and I cannot remember where I filed the darned thing <blush>.  I have made a dozen or so of these totes, in all different shapes and sizes, and the pattern had fabulous instructions.  All of them that I’ve made have followed with the pattern designer’s copyright of “for personal use only” and I have definitely got my money’s worth out of that single pattern!