Hailey's Zigzag Quilt

Our 7th grandchild, Hailey, was born in January.  I had just gotten my long arm machine, and I kept trying to practice on junk fabric but I was running out of time, so I just put on Hailey's quilt and started quilting it without much practice ahead of time

 

I had a bit of trouble with the straight lines, but was pleased with all my little leaves.  I gave it to Janette and Seth, and they liked it.

 

(Notice my bright turquoise walls and checkerboard floor in my sewing room.  I love it!)

 

I picked out the bird fabric first, and then chose the zigzag colors to match it.

President Eyring is a witness

During every General Conference, I listen to see if the apostles say, in somewhat veiled language, that they are actual eye-witnesses of Jesus Christ.  I believe with all my heart that these men have actually seen Jesus Christ face to face and  spoken with him.  I think Pres. Eyring's testimony on April 6, 2013 is one of the clearest I have heard. 

"I am a witness of the Resurrection of the Lord as surely as if I had been there in the evening with the two disciples in the house on Emmaus road.

 

I know that He lives as surely as did Joseph Smith when he saw the Father and the Son in the light of a brilliant morning in a grove of trees in Palmyra.

 

This is the true Church of Jesus Christ. Only in the priesthood keys held by President Thomas S. Monson is the power for us to be sealed in families to live forever with our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We will on the Day of Judgment stand before the Savior, face to face. It will be a time of joy for those who have drawn close to Him in His service in this life. It will be a joy to hear the words: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”¹⁹ I so testify as a witness of the risen Savior and our Redeemer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/come-unto-me?lang=eng#listen=audio

My desk closet, then and now

 When we found our new house, and saw it for the first time, we saw this big space in the wall of the living room.  It had been the "big screen TV" spot when the house was built in 1996.  Remember when big screen TV's were so huge and thick they had to be placed in spaces like this?

The stagers had put the shelves, and plants to make it look nicer, and had hung a flat screen TV on the wall (which looked ridiculous).

We wondered what to do with the space. We thought about making it into a closet, but then realized it would make a great office for me.

We had a counter top added, and put rolling filing cabinets, and doors on it. I can do my paperwork and computer work right in the living room, but I can shut the doors and it basically looks like a flat wall.  It is one of my favorite things about this house.

Quilt from my childhood

I taught quilting in Hilton Head, SC, and stayed at a lady's house.  She had this appliqued kit quilt from the 1960's, and it looked familiar to me.  I'm going to have my mom and sisters look at it, I think this is the same poppies quilt kit that my mom made for my sisters' double bed around 1964.  If it isn't the same kit, then it is very similar except for the color.

I remember the quilt kit, the fabric had very light blue printed lines all over it, to show where to add the applique and where to hand quilt it.  My mother did two, a quilt with orange and yellow poppies, and one with lavendar/purple flowers.

Adam's birthday!

 October 2007

Dec. 2011

 
2005

We love you, Adam!

Got Water?

Since we have a well, we decided to install this rainwater collection system.  This cistern holds 1500 gallons, and we should be able to water our garden with it all summer.  We put chicken wire all over it and planted jasmine bushes around it, and they should grow up and cover it within a couple of years so it won't be so ugly.

Gabrielle's quilt

Here is the front and back of my granddaughter Gabrielle's quilt, which I made for her last October.

Response to Susan, my biggest fan

(I have had complications with my computer for a couple of months.  Here is the reply I wrote to Susan a long time ago.)

Dear Susan,

Every day I kick myself for not having written a book or created any patterns to purchase. I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you to buy. Maybe some other books could help you.

I have followed other precision-impaired quilters for years. Some of my favorite examples are Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran and Keiko Goke. If you ever have a chance to buy any books written by them, you will enjoy their styles of quilting too.

 

I just remembered another book which I think you would really love. It is called "Sunday Morning Quilts" by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison, copyright 2012. It is still in quilt stores now, or you can order it online, probably from Amazon.com. (I really should have written this book, I am mad that Nyberg and Arkison beat me to it.)

Here are the book titles by the other quilters that I recommended:

Collaborative Quilting by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston, copyright 2006.

Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again, by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston, copyright 2009.

And I'm so sorry, there are too many things going on in my life right now to do private lessons. Honestly, you would be the first one I would choose to be my student. Thanks for all your kind words.

 

Doll blanket for Tessa

We babysat Tessa for a couple of days after Hailey was born.  Tessa kept wrapping Tara's old doll in a huge blanket, so I let her pick out whatever fabric she wanted (she picked fabric with birds on it) and I put yellow flannel on the back and sewed her a doll blanket in about 15 minutes.

Email from a fan of mine

This is the best fan mail I ever received.  I don't know this lady, she emailed me out of the blue.  The email was entitled,  "My first fan letter at age 70."

I just found you. Tomorrow you are teaching a class at thimble pleasures. I am crying bitter tears because I can not afford to take the class.

I want to tell you that I have fallen in love with your designs, and am over the moon that they are not straight.

I have tried everything for years, and I simply can not cut or sew straight. I have piles and piles and piles of fabric and am frozen, unable to start any project knowing it will wind up in the trash because I just can not do it.

Please tell me you have a book, patterns, notes, anything that I could purchase so that I can learn your

method. I'm pretty good reading instructions.

I am trying to reinvent myself, as feb 1 will mark the one year anniversary of the death of my husband of almost 50 years.

Now it is me, and my fabric and my thread and my need to create.

I'm so sorry that circumstances have made it impossible for me to attend your class tomorrow. I can only hope that I will be able to manage it in the future.

I think what you do is genius…. it absolutely positively speaks directly to me. How wonderful for you that you found "your" true self.

thank you from a fan

Susan L.

 

Wow!  That makes me feel appreciated.

I'm no good at the long arm

I started quilting Hailey's baby quilt on  my  long arm machine, and boy, am I humbled!  I can't make it do anything!  I am a complete novice!  Even though I have quilted award winning quilts on my home sewing machine, the long arm is a whole different animal, and I have NO SKILLS which transfer.  It is depressing.  I am looking to attend the big long arm quilting convention in Salt Lake City in May (HMQS)  so I can learn the basics.




And I am posting this link for my sons Seth, who is a tinkerer, and for Adam, who is interested in 3-D printers.  I think they would appreciate knowing about the artificial hand made for a fingerless 5-year-old boy.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/07/5-year-old-without-fingers-receives-custom-robohand-made-using-3d-printer-and-150-in-parts/

Write down phone numbers

I had a dream the other night, I was lost and I did not have my cell phone and couldn't call anyone because I didn't know anyone's phone number.

I woke up and realized this is really a problem in real life, not just in dreams. My brother lost his cell phone and he was in real trouble, he didn't know any of the phone numbers he needed.

 I want to encourage you all to write down all your most important numbers and put a hard copy of them into your glove compartment in your car, in your purse, in your wallet, at your workplace, etc.

 There may come a time when your cell phone is lost or stolen or out of power, and you will be very thankful you have phone numbers so you can make a phone call on someone else's phone.





I loved this story of how the Seattle gun buy-back program became a huge gun show, with people buying guns from the people in line for MORE than the  government was going to pay them.  Free enterprise lives!

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/backfire-seattle-gun-buyback-turns-into-gun-show_01292013

Hailey is Six Days old

We went to Fayetteville to see them on Sunday.  What a sweet little pair of daughters!

Tara is 21

This is a great picture of Tara, but unfortunately I don't know how to crop out Wayne's tummy or the dirty dishes or the aluminum foil.  I wouldn't even attempt to crop out Elizabeth, it is a tradition in the family for her to be front and center in every birthday-cake-blowing-out picture.

Three Amigos

L to R:  James, Zac, Quin

Our son Zac has been friends with these boys since he was born.  He and James were born in the same hospital two days apart.  I went to see James' mother, Anne, in her hospital bed as I was checking out of the hospital.

Quin was born about a month later.

Our three families have been friends for more than 19 years, and were all in the same ward for most of that time.

Last night, Zac and James went to the temple for their first time.  Quin was endowed previously and came along too.  It was lovely to be in the temple with them and many members of their families.

James leaves on his mission to California next week, Quin leaves the week after that to the Philippines, and Zac leaves in May to Florianopolis, Brazil.

Welcome, new baby Hailey!

Seth and Janette's 2nd daughter, Hailey Elizabeth, was born yesterday.  We are so happy for them!

We have had a broken wireless router for more than a week, so either Wayne or I have to plug our computers straight into the modem to get them to work.  Therefore, only one of us can be on the computer at a time.  This puts a definite cramp in my style.  Sorry I haven't blogged more, I was actually trying to get back in the habit of putting stuff up more often.

Friday afternoon and evening we had a short lived ice/sleet storm here.  The roads were quite impassable so we just stayed home.  This morning I was supposed to teach quilting in Chapel Hill, and since it was icy in the morning, instead of cancelling, the shop just made the class start later, so we were still able to have the class.  Our long gravel driveway and our gravel road were icy, so Wayne was so nice to get on the tractor and scrape a bunch of the ice away so I could have traction.  Then he drove me to the end of the road, and then he walked home.  (He is my hero!)  I drove to the shop, Thimble Pleasures,  at 11:00 a.m. and there were just a few scary icy spots, and then everything melted by evening when I came home.

Meanwhile, back at the Farm

When we moved to our new house, I immediately decided to take these pictures and send them out with our Christmas cards.

 (If you want to google "American Gothic painting" you can see if we copied them well or not.)

Florianopolis, Brazil mission

We are excited that Zac will be entering the Brazil Mission Training Center on May 22, to serve in the Florianopolis, Brazil mission.

Out of our five sons, three were called to Brazil.  Isaac to Sao Paulo North, Seth to Curitiba, and now Zac to Florianopolis.  That will be fun for the three brothers to speak Portuguese to each other.

(In case you  are wondering, Adam went to Ventura, California and Bryce to Oaxaca, Mexico.)

Is the mail here yet?

Zac's mission call finally came on Saturday, but he won't let me put it on this blog.  He said he will let me tell you in a week.

(A week later:  He is going to Florianopolis, Brazil, on May 22.)

Pillowcases from Jolene, 1977

Dear Jo,

I bet you are surprised to see these pillowcases.  Remember, you made a set for each of your 5 roommates at Heritage Halls the Christmas of 1977.  If I remember right, you probably sewed sets of yellow check, blue check, pink check, red check, and green check, those were the colors available about that time.

(I wonder if Toby, Marie, Dianne, or Joan still have theirs?)

I want to tell you about a strange coincidence that happened with these two pillowcases.

A number of years ago, I caught myself using one of these more and more, as my preferred pillowcase.  Sure, I used others when this one was in the laundry, but I always got this one back again.  The fabric has been washed a billion times and is SO SOFT against my face.

Then, after Seth was gone on his mission, and then married, one day I was at his apartment and discovered that he feels the same way about the other pillowcase!  I had no idea he had taken it on his mission and was still using it.  His wife is not thrilled, because it doesn't go with her other linens, but she hides it under other pillows when she makes the bed.  He won't give it up!

When we were at their house on Wednesday, I put the two pillowcases together and took this photo.  But then I took my pillowcase back home.  They will probably never be together again.

So, Jo, I just wanted you to know that your Christmas gift still lives on, 35 years later.

Thank you so much!

Love, 
your old BYU roommate,
Amy

Isaac's tree swing

Rachel said that all Isaac wanted for his birthday was to make a rope swing in one of our trees.  He chose one down by the pond, and worked on it a couple of different days, and got it finished on his birthday.

 Thomas, Rachel, and Hannah watching Isaac climb the tree.

 Isaac, getting ready to swing off of the tree.

 Exciting!

Boy Scouts everywhere

This has been a very happy day. Wayne has two scout troops over here for an overnight scout campout.  There were boys and their dads everywhere!  Some putting up tents, some jumping on the trampoline, some gathering firewood and stacking it, some riding in the trailer in back of the tractor going to pick up the firewood, some cooking dutch oven meals, and for an hour or so, all of them were having a AirSoft battle in our woods.  (Look at the picture to see how much wood they cut all in one day!)

I didn't see anyone down by the pond, or swinging on the rope swing in the tree, but they will probably discover those things tomorrow.

Wayne is in heaven!  He has always wanted to be like the Stephens, and have land where the scouts could camp out.  I am so glad he finally got what he always wanted.

These are only a few of the people who are here, most are not in the picture.

This photo was taken from my sewing room window.

Our Christmas

 We gathered at Isaac and Rachel's on Dec. 21 to open presents from each other.  The five grandchildren posed for a nativity picture (with and without costumes). (Grandchild #6, Gabrielle, wasn't here.)

 On Christmas morning, the four of us posed for our annual stairway picture. Everyone else was at their own houses or at in-laws.  Our first Christmas at our new house!

I ordered this folded book from a book artist for Tara, it was the most favorite gift I gave this year.