Design Wall Monday...

Well nothing on the wall, but I do have a finish.
I had planned to start on the baby girl quilt that goes with the baby boy quilt - they are cousins, but I spent my weekend driving - driving my FIL to the hospital to visit my MIL on Friday. It's a one hour trip one way.Then on Saturday driving FIL back to hospital to bring MIL home. So glad she was able to come home. She is feeling better, but will need to go back at some point in the near future for an appendectomy. Then on Sunday driving 3 hours round trip to meet my parents. My son stayed at their house after Thanksgiving dinner. It is a tradition now. We all go there for Thanksgiving and he stays until Sunday. The last 2 years my niece has been staying too. They are close in age and get along well. Sounds like they all had a really fun time this year!
Anyway, here is my finish - the baby boy quilt. I think it turned out cute. It is labeled, washed and ready to be delivered which I will do tomorrow. Hopefully I can start on the girl quilt tomorrow evening.

Since my last few posts have been pretty negative I decided that I needed to start thinking more about the positive things in my life. So...

My gratitudes for today:
- MIL is home from the hospital and feeling much better.
- My parents. I am grateful that they enjoy spending time with my son. Sometimes he needs a break from me and I need a break from him. It seems that as he gets older they are all enjoying each others company even more.

Still struggling, an Oh, Darn and Thankful

I am still struggling with the state of clutter in my home and nobody but me seeming to care about it. Last weekend I left home to go to work on Friday morning and did not return home until around 8:00 on Saturday evening. I took my son to my brother's home on Friday evening so my brother could take him hunting Saturday morning. Then ball practice Saturday afternoon, then home. I light bulb in my bathroom burned out sometime during the time I was gone. When a light bulb burns on when I turn on the lights I change it right away. No one else does. We went to my folks place for Thanksgiving. When we came home someone took of their shirt and put it on the dining room chair. It is still there. I know I should just buck up and take care of these things, but if I went around picking up the messes everyone else makes I would not get anything else done! I guess I should be glad that the mess does not bother any one but me. But I am pretty sure on the rare occasion that we have visitors, the visitors think that I am the one not doing a good job keeping the house clean.
I finished 2 QFK quilts. One was a kit they sent me, the other is from my own fabrics. I washed them. See the big red triangles in the one quilt? That fabric bled. Oh, darn :( I even used color catchers. My husband says they don't look too bad. And, actually the one from their kit doesn't look too bad, but the other one I am thinking I should not send.

When you look at this close up you can see that the white on white fabric shows where the red dye bled into the white. The cowboy fabric on the other quilt had a white background that is now pink. Oh, darn.
So as to end this post on a positive note I am saying I am thankful.
I am thankful for my family. My brother was kind enough to take my son hunting with him. They didn't see one deer, but my son enjoyed being in the woods and spending time with his uncle.
I am thankful my brother, his wife and daughter welcome us to their home.
I am thankful for being able to spend time with my family. We had a nice Thanksgiving visit with aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins.
I am thankful my mother-in-law is coming home from the hospital today. She has had some health issues the past few years, but nothing to terribly serious. She is feeling much better today.

So even though I do grumble I do have reason to be thankful. :)

Design Wall Monday...

Not one quilty thing done this past week. I spent the weekend in Milwaukee watching my son play basketball. And, guess what...

They won! All 6 games.

He has improved a lot since he started playing about 3 years ago. Here is is about to tip over. They all do that sometimes. It was really scary to watch the first time it happened, but now he just pops back up and keeps going. It amazes me how they are able to do that.


The team has lost members and gotten new ones. They play well together and we all have a great time!

Missed Design Wall Monday

Ok, so I had good intentions, but I missed posting on Monday. Not that there is much to post, but I really did mean to.
I'm working on another Quilts for Kids quilt. I do enjoy these, although I don't like this kit as much as the others they sent me. It is quilted and ready for the binding. You can my Rainbow blocks are still on the wall behind the QFK quilt.


I have been working on a label for the little boy quilt that is finished. I make my labels by using waste cross-stitch canvas. I stitch onto fabric that is from the quilt so it matches and then hand sew it to the back. No picture yet.

It is hard for me to find time for sewing since school and basketball practice have started. The basketball season kicks off this weekend with the first tournament in Milwaukee, WI. The kids are excited and so are the parents, I think! Go Wildcats!

I am having a personal struggle lately. It seems that no matter how hard I try to declutter and keep my home neat and organized I just cannot do it. I don't like to do housework to begin with, but I do like to be able to find what I need and keep things picked up. There are pack rat genes on my side and my husbands so my son gets a double whammy of that! I have a 6 foot table set up in our family room in my sewing area. My son had a fit that I would be using the WHOLE table. He just did not think that was fair. I said he could use it too. He has the laptop at one end. We had to go as far as to make a mark on the table showing the halfway point! How ridiculous is that?! He always points out when I am over my half. Sometimes I just have to do that when I am measuring and cutting bigger pieces of fabric.

Same with the quilt frame. I had to give him his own space on the shelves underneath. Now, admittedly most of the stuff under the frame is mine, but some is his. And it hasn't moved since it was put there. He tends to put his stuff on the top, though and then gets angry when I move it so I can quilt. My husband likes to spread the mail out on the Ironing board. I am at a lost as to how to get them to stop. I am also frustrated that I have to keep asking my son to pick up his mess on the table. Most of it is garbage. This past weekend I bagged most of it up and put it in his room. I told him I didn't throw anything away in case there was something there that he needed. Oh, he was mad! :) But, now a few days later, there is another mess on the table. So, how I am handling this isn't working. Any suggestions?

You can also see the the lower right corner that the dining room chairs are used for hanging up jackets and such. We do have closets and hanging pegs in this house. I hang my coat up on a peg by the door every time I take it off. There are four pegs. I am the only one who uses them. I work full-time - with Kindergarteners! - so I am tired when I come home and I am just really struggling with having to keep cleaning up messes that I didn't make.
I know... I need to put on my big girl panties and just suck it up. You don't have to tell me.