These were our Happy Mom's Day cards for our moms.
Monday, May 9, 2011
I stamped!
Don't fall off your chairs, but I actually stamped some cards! I used Kitchen Sink Stamps Bluebonnet set. Sadly, it was so late when I did these and I hadn't stamped in so long that I had no idea where my light blue inks were and didn't have time to hunt for them. Still, these turned out pretty cute. Just love what Maria does with 2 (and 3 and 4) step stamping!
These were our Happy Mom's Day cards for our moms.
Thanks for stopping by!
These were our Happy Mom's Day cards for our moms.
Friday, May 6, 2011
The Rest of the Story about the Quilt
In respect of the family of this sweet girl, I have attempted to edit it to protect her privacy. I just HAD to show you the smile on her face.
The story of the quilt mystery
At some point in the year, another Girl Scout mom said she would like us to make a quilt as a group project & asked if I would head it up. She also said she thought this girl would be a good recipient. We asked the older girls to choose if they wanted to work on the quilt project or something else. 5 of the older ones chose the quilt. One of them was this girl. Now, THAT was fun trying to keep this a secret! Of course, having all the girls make a square was a rather generic thing to do for a troop quilt "to be given to someone later." We WANTED them to personalize it for this girl, but knew that would likely not work with her right there. Instead, we found pictures featuring her over the years in Girl Scouts. This girl went to the quilt store with us when we went. This girl was at meetings when we worked on the quilt. This girl was in my house arranging squares for the quilt. I am so happy to say that NOT ONE SINGLE OTHER GIRL leaked the surprise this whole time. They all knew! They all kept it quiet. Yes, TWENTY girls and moms kept this a secret! PLUS all but the leader's daughters knew about THAT quilt, so we kept TWO secrets for a LONG TIME!
At the Girl Scout banquet, I had all the girls come up front and the 5 who had worked on the Quilting Badge (all the girls worked on the quilt in some form) stood in front, with this girl front & center. I had typed up a little something for each girl to say. 4 of them had the same page. This girl had a different page. The words only changed at girls 4 & 5, so we hoped she wouldn't notice, and it worked! When they got to the end, they announced, "This quilt is for YOU!" Her mouth dropped open and she said, "WHAT???!!!!" then threw her head back in laughter and glee. Oh, what a sight it was. How much love those other girls poured out to their dear friend that night. How many tears some moms and dads shed!
Let me explain why this was so significant. You will need tissues. You might recall that about a year ago two of my dear friends were diagnosed with cancer. My friend Kathy was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. It was aggressive, but the doctor assured her very treatable thanks to medicine available just in the past few years. Our other dear friend (Kathy was one of her dearest friends) was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. Stage 4. She had surgery a few weeks after Kathy had a mastectomy. They began getting chemo within 2 weeks of each other. I sat with each of these friends in the chemo rooms at some point. Our other friend appeared to be faring so well, physically, throughout her treatment. Emotionally and spiritually, we had never seen her looking better. She went from someone who rarely mentioned her faith to someone who could not give God enough praise for what He was doing in her. She believed He would heal her on this earth. She wanted to speak to other women going through this to encourage them. This is a lady who didn't even like to talk to a group of 4 people at a time. The transformation was amazing.
Then, just after her 3rd chemo treatment (out of 6 treatments), her mother, who had been her rock during these days, suddenly became ill. She was hospitalized. After a rocky 2 weeks, she lost her battle. Our dear friend had to say good-bye to her precious mom in the middle of battling cancer. She continued her chemo treatments, but we knew her heart was aching as never before. Still, she appeared physically to be doing well. Then, the week of her last chemo treatment, she didn't seem like herself. I picked her up on Wednesday (she had 2 days of treatments each time) and she was extremely lethargic. She said she just hadn't slept well as her mom's death certificate had arrived. On Thursday another friend took her home and said she was very tired still. On Saturday she collapsed at home and was taken by EMS to the hospital.
We learned in the days and weeks to follow that she had developed an infection, and even more disturbingly, that the chemo had not shrunk any tumors and they had, in fact, spread. She spent 5 weeks fighting for her life. She was prayed over. She was cared for by nurses. She was doted on by her husband. She wanted to live to see her baby (a teenager but still her baby) grow up. On December 1st of 2010, our precious beloved friend was healed. However, it was not the healing we'd wanted. It was the ultimate healing. She was home free. She was out of pain. She was with her Lord and with her sweet mama.
We don't know why the Lord allowed this. It seems unfair. It is unfair in our eyes. Yet, we trust that He will bring beauty from ashes. He will use this to His glory. We have seen Him already paving the way so that our friend's husband could stay home and continue homeschooling his daughter. He stepped into a world unknown to him and has become a hero in our eyes.
The sweet smiling girl in the picture above is our friend's daughter. She lost her grandmother and her mom within a few months. She was quite angry when she lost her grandmother but, amazingly, through her mom's illness at the end, we saw this young lady grow by leaps and bounds. She told me at one point, "If my grandmother had lived, I would be sitting at home right now doing nothing instead of all the things I've been able to do with (names of families)." It's as if God gave her that ray of hope to see that He would care for her and give her hope in the midst of anguish.
As her friends, these Girl Scouts wanted to shower her with that love in a tangible way. Kids don't often know how to comfort someone who is grieving. For that matter, adults don't often know how. As I thought about it, as far as I know, all of us Girl Scout moms still have our own moms living. We've not experienced what she has. But these girls found a way to love on their friend. When their friend uses this quilt, she will know that her friends love her. She will also remember the love her mom had for her.
The last pictures on the quilt were these: 1) A picture of her with her mom and a few other scouts several years ago at a Girl Scout Event 2) A picture at the Christmas party this year with her dad and her older sister in the background. I put the words of a Girl Scout song that seemed so fitting:
The story of the quilt mystery
At some point in the year, another Girl Scout mom said she would like us to make a quilt as a group project & asked if I would head it up. She also said she thought this girl would be a good recipient. We asked the older girls to choose if they wanted to work on the quilt project or something else. 5 of the older ones chose the quilt. One of them was this girl. Now, THAT was fun trying to keep this a secret! Of course, having all the girls make a square was a rather generic thing to do for a troop quilt "to be given to someone later." We WANTED them to personalize it for this girl, but knew that would likely not work with her right there. Instead, we found pictures featuring her over the years in Girl Scouts. This girl went to the quilt store with us when we went. This girl was at meetings when we worked on the quilt. This girl was in my house arranging squares for the quilt. I am so happy to say that NOT ONE SINGLE OTHER GIRL leaked the surprise this whole time. They all knew! They all kept it quiet. Yes, TWENTY girls and moms kept this a secret! PLUS all but the leader's daughters knew about THAT quilt, so we kept TWO secrets for a LONG TIME!
At the Girl Scout banquet, I had all the girls come up front and the 5 who had worked on the Quilting Badge (all the girls worked on the quilt in some form) stood in front, with this girl front & center. I had typed up a little something for each girl to say. 4 of them had the same page. This girl had a different page. The words only changed at girls 4 & 5, so we hoped she wouldn't notice, and it worked! When they got to the end, they announced, "This quilt is for YOU!" Her mouth dropped open and she said, "WHAT???!!!!" then threw her head back in laughter and glee. Oh, what a sight it was. How much love those other girls poured out to their dear friend that night. How many tears some moms and dads shed!
Let me explain why this was so significant. You will need tissues. You might recall that about a year ago two of my dear friends were diagnosed with cancer. My friend Kathy was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. It was aggressive, but the doctor assured her very treatable thanks to medicine available just in the past few years. Our other dear friend (Kathy was one of her dearest friends) was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. Stage 4. She had surgery a few weeks after Kathy had a mastectomy. They began getting chemo within 2 weeks of each other. I sat with each of these friends in the chemo rooms at some point. Our other friend appeared to be faring so well, physically, throughout her treatment. Emotionally and spiritually, we had never seen her looking better. She went from someone who rarely mentioned her faith to someone who could not give God enough praise for what He was doing in her. She believed He would heal her on this earth. She wanted to speak to other women going through this to encourage them. This is a lady who didn't even like to talk to a group of 4 people at a time. The transformation was amazing.
Then, just after her 3rd chemo treatment (out of 6 treatments), her mother, who had been her rock during these days, suddenly became ill. She was hospitalized. After a rocky 2 weeks, she lost her battle. Our dear friend had to say good-bye to her precious mom in the middle of battling cancer. She continued her chemo treatments, but we knew her heart was aching as never before. Still, she appeared physically to be doing well. Then, the week of her last chemo treatment, she didn't seem like herself. I picked her up on Wednesday (she had 2 days of treatments each time) and she was extremely lethargic. She said she just hadn't slept well as her mom's death certificate had arrived. On Thursday another friend took her home and said she was very tired still. On Saturday she collapsed at home and was taken by EMS to the hospital.
We learned in the days and weeks to follow that she had developed an infection, and even more disturbingly, that the chemo had not shrunk any tumors and they had, in fact, spread. She spent 5 weeks fighting for her life. She was prayed over. She was cared for by nurses. She was doted on by her husband. She wanted to live to see her baby (a teenager but still her baby) grow up. On December 1st of 2010, our precious beloved friend was healed. However, it was not the healing we'd wanted. It was the ultimate healing. She was home free. She was out of pain. She was with her Lord and with her sweet mama.
We don't know why the Lord allowed this. It seems unfair. It is unfair in our eyes. Yet, we trust that He will bring beauty from ashes. He will use this to His glory. We have seen Him already paving the way so that our friend's husband could stay home and continue homeschooling his daughter. He stepped into a world unknown to him and has become a hero in our eyes.
The sweet smiling girl in the picture above is our friend's daughter. She lost her grandmother and her mom within a few months. She was quite angry when she lost her grandmother but, amazingly, through her mom's illness at the end, we saw this young lady grow by leaps and bounds. She told me at one point, "If my grandmother had lived, I would be sitting at home right now doing nothing instead of all the things I've been able to do with (names of families)." It's as if God gave her that ray of hope to see that He would care for her and give her hope in the midst of anguish.
As her friends, these Girl Scouts wanted to shower her with that love in a tangible way. Kids don't often know how to comfort someone who is grieving. For that matter, adults don't often know how. As I thought about it, as far as I know, all of us Girl Scout moms still have our own moms living. We've not experienced what she has. But these girls found a way to love on their friend. When their friend uses this quilt, she will know that her friends love her. She will also remember the love her mom had for her.
The last pictures on the quilt were these: 1) A picture of her with her mom and a few other scouts several years ago at a Girl Scout Event 2) A picture at the Christmas party this year with her dad and her older sister in the background. I put the words of a Girl Scout song that seemed so fitting:
Make new friends, but keep the old
One is silver and the other's gold
A circle is round. It has no end.
Thats how long I want to be your friend.
We miss our friend so much, but because we know she is with the Lord, we know we will see her again because her life had no end, and our friendship has no end. Dear, dear child, I don't know if you will read this, but we want you to know how much we love you, and because you love Jesus as we do, we know our friendship will have no end.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Girl Scout Quilt, Take 2
Our Girl Scout troop is different from most. We are a homeschool group. We are also a multi-level group, meaning we start with Daisies (Kindergarten) and go through Ambassadors (junior/senior in high school). Because of those 2 facts, we have sisters in the troop in different levels. The troop as it is has been together for 6 years. Prior to that, some of these girls were in the troop as Brownies even earlier. The best way I can describe it is like growing up in a small town where the kids all know each other. These girls really know the others in the troop, and many are the best of friends. Most of us have also been in the same homeschool co-op group for years. In THIS troop we are Christians first and Girl Scouts second, which makes things work well, at least most of the time!
Each girl created a quilt square representing something about herself and Girl Scouts. Most chose to use fabric markers, but embroidery was also incorporated. The squares are all different. It was interesting to see that some did choose a similar theme, such as badges, but even those were totally different. Some reflect our troop, some reflect the activities we've done (such as selling cookies or camping), and some reflect awards (badges and special awards).
I found the Girl Scout fabric online. They do sell some at local fabric and quilt shops, but to get a bigger selection, I found online shops were the best source. I picked out about 8 or 9 different prints. For the back, a local seamstress donated several pieces of fabric. She has taught sewing in the past and "happened" to be the sewing teacher for our quilt recipient, so she knew her interests. She included some large pieces of cat themed fabric. The girls sorted through these and chose the ones they liked for the back.
I've been asked how I put the pictures on the squares. I tried an iron on transfer first (mainly because I picked up the wrong package at the store). It did NOT transfer well. So, I got some fabric sheets to print on directly. I used June Tailor Sew-In Colorfast Fabric Sheets for Ink Jet Printers. You can click on the link to order. I found mine locally. There is no prep for printing, but after they are printed there is a little work to make them set. You heat set with an iron, rinse in cold water, then heat set again. They can be washed in cold water, no detergent, according to the package. They printed really well, even with my old not so good printer.
I will try to get "the rest of the story" posted soon. Thanks for stopping by! If you like the quilt, please leave a comment that I will pass along to the girls!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Quilt 2, which is really quilt 1, part 1
Because it is after midnight and my husband is sleeping in the same room with my computer (okay, so it IS the bedroom) and he says my keyboarding wakes him up (though he can't hear anything else) and because I've been dealing with an asthmatic child the past 2 days and because my kidney hurts and the doctor did NOT call me back yet and because I'm tired of this run on sentence, I am going to end it. Actually, I'm going to post a couple of pictures for you of the wonderful surprise quilt we made. Well, the making it wasn't a surprise. The recipient was. I can't can hardly wait to share the story with you!
Except there is a problem. I can't get the picture uploader to open. Come back later and I'll try again!
Except there is a problem. I can't get the picture uploader to open. Come back later and I'll try again!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
i-Interruption
Friday, April 29, 2011
Girl Scout Quilt Number 1, which is really number 2
Okay, NOW I can show you what we've been keeping secret for MONTHS! This year our Girl Scout troop made 2 quilts. The first one we made for a very special young lady. I will share about that one tomorrow. The second one we made was for our troop leader. I don't know if she suspected anything, but she certainly couldn't have known exactly what we were doing. We had each girl design a quilt square using fabric markers or embroidery. Each design represented what they thought about Girl Scouts. Those were used on Quilt 1 for a fellow scout. She had NO idea & I can't wait to tell you more about that.
The other quilt, for our Troop Leader, Kelly, used each girls handprints and signature. Getting their signatures on the hands was quite interesting. Since I am a dork & didn't think about letting the handprints dry then having the girls sign them, I jumped through hoops to get names on there. I had them write their name, I scanned them, resized them, printed them in reverse, went over those with iron on transfer markers, ironed them on, and on some, had to go over them with fabric markers. Really, wouldn't it have made much more sense to let them write it? Well, the truth is we PLANNED to embroider all the names. Best laid plans....
I had extra Girl Scout Fabric from the first quilt, so we used that for Kelly's quilt. I found pictures that featured the whole troop and some with her in them. I printed those onto fabric, then sewed them to white squares. The fabric included some letters and numbers, so we were able to put our troop number on it. My friend Kathy and her daughter Annie arranged the pieces and Annie sewed them together for the front. I sewed the pieces for the back together. Then Natalie (my daughter) and I discovered that using quilt basting spray and getting all the wrinkles out is harder than it looks! Thankfully there were the 2 of us. She's actually pickier than I am and was NOT settling for ANY bubbles or wrinkles at all. I just had to get her to listen to the best way to get them out. LOL!
The real fun started when we quilted it. Did you know that quilts with cotton batting are heavy? Quite heavy? Of course, all the paint & pictures probably didn't help the weight issue. I quilted the vertical seams in the ditch using my walking foot. Then Natalie quilted the horizontal seams. I went back and did diagonal stitching on the Girl Scout fabric squares. Then, because I really just
Now, if you read my last post you know that I was still up at 3 a.m. And at 4 a.m. I had my dvr set for the wedding. If you didn't read that part
By the way, Kelly is very petite, so her quilt is shorter than the one for the Girl Scout, who is normal sized. LOL! Kelly tells me I'm freakishly tall b/c I say she's so short!
Of Quilts and Queens and Kids
I have been busy sewing and quilting this week. I can't show pictures this week, but I will SOON! Actually, a trio of families have been sewing this week to make something happen.
I was actually up so late last night that I thought I would catch glimpses of the Royal Wedding. I thought when everyone was saying "4:00" for the time it meant it would be on at 3:00 here. Apparently the others were also in my time zone as 3:00 brought live shots of folks entering the Abbey. Then, I thought, "Oh, 4:00 is the wedding time," so even though I was finished with my work by 3:30 I stayed up. Apparently the actual wedding was at 5:00 my time! LOL! Whatever time it was I didn't see it live. I did, however, see some recorded parts while I was pinning some more sewing today and caught a glimpse of the Queen. What a lovely woman. To me, she's always had an "Old" look to her, which now means she doesn't look like she's aged. Prince Charles, on the other hand, looks much, much older than he is.
Some stations were showing the wedding of Diana and Charles. She looked like a frightened little school girl rather than the teacher turned princess she would be. How much happier Kate and William look. It made me so sad to think of how the marriages of the 3 royal children have turned out. I hope the new generation will take to heart the serious of their commitment. Of course, just seeing Diana makes me so sad knowing how short her life was and how tragically it ended. I will never forget staying up watching the news reports that night. So glad there is something HAPPY in that family today!
While my kids are not royalty (I have said we are all royal---pains at times! LOL), the Queen did have me help her with a skirt for our Girl Scout banquet tonight. It's a 50's theme. And a Paris theme. And a Black & White film theme. The girls are so indecisive! ha, ha! this was actually narrowed down from about 12 suggestions (Including rainbows and fluffy unicorns---we're a multi-level/age troop). Nat wanted a poodle skirt, but decided the little Scotty was cuter, so she used that, cut it out, attached it & the leash to the skirt & sewed the side seams. Due to time restraints, I did the waistband and elastic. It looks cute. Bethany is going with just the black & white theme. Oh, dear, I just realized I haven't put any new badges on their vest/sash. Yikes! Oh, well, we'll be busy this summer doing that.
And other "kid" news, I have none about my kidney stone. I am going to call the dr. AGAIN & see if they can give me results. I'm hurting again & not liking the not knowing what's going on. Maybe I should become that ROYAL PAIN I mentioned so I can find out about my royal pain. Hmmmm.
Hopefully I will have pictures to share tomorrow!
Thanks for stopping by!
I was actually up so late last night that I thought I would catch glimpses of the Royal Wedding. I thought when everyone was saying "4:00" for the time it meant it would be on at 3:00 here. Apparently the others were also in my time zone as 3:00 brought live shots of folks entering the Abbey. Then, I thought, "Oh, 4:00 is the wedding time," so even though I was finished with my work by 3:30 I stayed up. Apparently the actual wedding was at 5:00 my time! LOL! Whatever time it was I didn't see it live. I did, however, see some recorded parts while I was pinning some more sewing today and caught a glimpse of the Queen. What a lovely woman. To me, she's always had an "Old" look to her, which now means she doesn't look like she's aged. Prince Charles, on the other hand, looks much, much older than he is.
Some stations were showing the wedding of Diana and Charles. She looked like a frightened little school girl rather than the teacher turned princess she would be. How much happier Kate and William look. It made me so sad to think of how the marriages of the 3 royal children have turned out. I hope the new generation will take to heart the serious of their commitment. Of course, just seeing Diana makes me so sad knowing how short her life was and how tragically it ended. I will never forget staying up watching the news reports that night. So glad there is something HAPPY in that family today!
While my kids are not royalty (I have said we are all royal---pains at times! LOL), the Queen did have me help her with a skirt for our Girl Scout banquet tonight. It's a 50's theme. And a Paris theme. And a Black & White film theme. The girls are so indecisive! ha, ha! this was actually narrowed down from about 12 suggestions (Including rainbows and fluffy unicorns---we're a multi-level/age troop). Nat wanted a poodle skirt, but decided the little Scotty was cuter, so she used that, cut it out, attached it & the leash to the skirt & sewed the side seams. Due to time restraints, I did the waistband and elastic. It looks cute. Bethany is going with just the black & white theme. Oh, dear, I just realized I haven't put any new badges on their vest/sash. Yikes! Oh, well, we'll be busy this summer doing that.
And other "kid" news, I have none about my kidney stone. I am going to call the dr. AGAIN & see if they can give me results. I'm hurting again & not liking the not knowing what's going on. Maybe I should become that ROYAL PAIN I mentioned so I can find out about my royal pain. Hmmmm.
Hopefully I will have pictures to share tomorrow!
Thanks for stopping by!
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