One Stamp, Three Cards

More from my PTI winnings - love this set so much! Casual, big and bold, and definitely lets the receiver know that you're really thankful. I made five of these last weekend, mixing and matching ribbons, but sticking with the same sentiments and the little hearts that were part of the stamp set. 

Some Father's Day Cards

My husband doesn't like it when I refer to him as a rocket scientist. For instance, I might say, "You should know, you're a rocket scientist." He knows he doesn't know everything, and he feels that the title of rocket scientist means one would know everything. 

So, I explained to him the other day, "Have you put a scientific device on the outside of a space shuttle?" 

His response, "Yes, but I'm just an electrical engineer."

"Don't you work on electrical systems for things that go up in the sky really really high?

"Yes," he responded.

I asked next, "Haven't you spent your whole career pretty much figuring out how things would work in space whether they're satellites, drones, F-18 fighter jets or antennaes put on the space shuttle, which is a large form of a rocket?"

"Well, yes," he says. 

I end it all with, "I rest my case." 

I really should have gone to law school.

Anyhow, I would have no chance of sending anything shooting higher than a two story building, so when I made this card for him, the rocket just felt right. He has sacrificed a lot this year for our family, mostly time, money, and the usual dad things. But we're grateful. Now I need to think of a good gift.

And for my dad. I've had this blue embossed with gold star paper since the last time I lived in Colorado. I loved it, just didn't know where to use it. When I was making this card and was searching though my scrap bag, I saw it, and Voila - it seemed like the perfect fit, and the blues matched great! Yeah for all things coming together. My dad is a great dad and also sacrifices much for his family. I am very blessed to be his only daughter. And blue is his favorite color.

 My father-in-law is a more complicated person. I do, however, realize, that in the past couple of years he has turned a new side of him towards his family and thought this card would validate that. And green is his favorite color.

I've learned the value of having cards made ahead of time. However, now I seriously lacking enough Thank you cards, so I'll be making a bunch of those probably tomorrow while the men-folk in my family are off on the motorcycles.

Mother's Day Gratitude

This has been an unusual time for me lately. I spent Mother's Day in the hospital. This is the card I made for my mother but still haven't given it to her yet. I'm behind.

Long story short, I went to the ER three times last week and finally on Friday night they decided to admit me since clearly there was a problem and clearly I wasn't getting any better on my own. By Sunday evening the doctors had a good idea what the problem was, and on Monday morning I had a procedure done to help fix it, and it did. Unfortunately by that time my iron had dipped so low they were considering giving me a transfusion Tuesday morning based upon my blood work that day. Fortunately, I was just up to the point where a transfusion wasn't necessary but still very low. So, that's been making it hard for me to get back to where I was, along with my auto immune issues, but I'm getting there. Slowly but surely. My main problem has been greatly improved so I feel very grateful for that. Actually my main problem is a by-product of having an auto-immune, according to my doctors, and I can expect to keep having procedures done every couple of years to keep things functioning. However, I feel very grateful that they Can Do something because I was very miserable for several days last week.

Bodies - a gift and trial. I enjoyed reading Darla Isaacson's article in Meridian Magazine this week about manna from heaven. When the Lord provides for our needs, do we still feel bad we didn't get our wants too? I'm trying to be patient. I find it amazing that last Tuesday I could do everything just fine, and eleven days later its still a taxing chore to put a load of laundry away. But, that's where it is, and I need to remind myself to be grateful that things aren't worse, and that I am making progress. Patience is hard. I am grateful to be getting better. I really am.

I am also very grateful to my mother who still steps in to take care of me or my family after all these years of being a mother. Really, it should be my turn to help take care of her, but she's much hardier than I am. I am continually amazed by all she does, how good she is at so many things, and how wonderful she is to me and my family. My children had a lovely Mother's Day at her house while Mike was with me in the hospital and it was snowing inches that day.

One thing I also felt very grateful for in all of this was how capable my children are of being self-sufficient. My Cowgirl has been that way for many years, but the other three that live at home - this was a test for them. I was gone for four days, and out of it for days before and after, and they just stepped in and did what was needed without my directions or with just a small comment from me. LittleBuddy needs to get a ride somewhere, BigBuddy took him. Lunches and dinner needs to be made, MyGirl stepped in. Laundry needs to be done, they did it themselves. We're getting low on groceries, they went and bought some, or made a list for their dad to pick some up. Dishes piling up, they did them together. They know how to get themselves up, get things done, get where they need to be, take care of the house and each other, and I am immensely proud of them for being that way. It was an enormous comfort to me to be able to lie in a hospital bed and realize that what I have trained my children to do, they could do. It felt like the best gift ever besides the thoughtful cards and flowers. I know it was hard for them, just like it is for me sometimes, but they did it and I am really grateful for them for being who they are.

Wave on Wave - A Quilt

I did finish this quilt on time and gave it to my daughter for her 20th birthday. She loves it!

I titled it "Wave on Wave," partially because the quilting is done in a random wave pattern all over, and partially because of the lyrics to the country song that popped into my head as soon as I thought about what to name it. The phrase, "was I the one you were sent to save?" just seemed to be appropriate at this time for my daughter and me. She is doing well right now. Really well, and I'm so grateful for all the good choices she is making for her life. Nevertheless, it was a harrowing last few years, and to see her overcome and literally be saved, just makes me so incredibly relieved and joyful. I continue to pray that she will stay on this path forever. Parenting truly is the hardest and the best job in the world!

The quilt itself measures 56 x 66. She keeps it at the foot of her bed and then pulls it up at night when she gets cold.  Here is an up close look at the big patterned print we used, in her favorite color combo of blue and brown.

This print was the other multi-colored if you don't count the tone-on-tones or the polka dot. I really did love helping her to pick out the right color combos that would work together. There are a myriad of blues and browns out there, so it helped that we bought them all at the same place where we could put them next to each other and audition them all until we found the right ones. 

Each of the rectangles is either 4 x 6 or 10 x 6 and each of the sashings is 2 inches. Its not a true white but more of a soft stone white and seems to work best with the fabrics we have.

For the back I bought 4 yards to include that plus at least a fat quarter's worth that I used for the rectangles.The binding I bought a yard so I could use it for rectangles also and I have leftovers of both fabrics. (Thus a good reason to buy a pattern since you don't know exactly how much you need when you're making it up and math isn't your best subject.) What I don't have any leftovers of are the patterned rectangles and very little of the sashings. I believe I used 1 1/2 yards (but it may have been 2 - sorry I really don't remember) for the sashing, and fat quarters or quarter yards for the rectangles. 

 We used the print above for the rectangles and also the binding. This was one of my smoother experiences with binding. I machine sew it onto the quilt then I hand sew it to the back. I squared it all up before I put the binding on and got it right. Hallelujah!

 This kind of shows the various colors together. The hardest one to quilt on was the polka dot - really hard to see the white stitching on that. Above you can see the all brown back that she wanted, with the white stitching. It was kind of intimidating at first, as I knew it was going to show a little too well, for my make-up-as-you-go-free-motion-wave. Then I had a tension problem, and bless my mother, who helped me pick out about a third of the whole thing on the back. . . really she is the best kind of saint! She saves me all the time! And of course, it wouldn't be me if there wasn't at least one major issue to mess up on and learn from, but that apparently is how I roll and I just expect something with each project so it doesn't deter me from finishing.  I do have to say, though, that overall it looks good, and MyGirl loves it, says its warm to sleep with, which is what she wanted, and she knows it was made with love just for her and that's what makes it special after all.