What's Happening?
Have I mentioned that I have a week left till our move and I have packed only our books and DVDs? I've had a cold since last Wed. My in-laws are here this week. We went to the zoo on Tuesday. Tomorrow I go to the chiropractor and my quilt club, then we are going for a walk through Garden of the Gods, bowling, and another family bbq. Tuesday, Cosette gets her cast off and her arm re-x-rayed. Wednesday we close on the condo (Yikes!). Wed., Thur., Fri. we paint the bedrooms (just for fun, they don't need it!). And next Sat. we move. I think I'll start packing Sunday afternoon and all day Monday. I really do prefer to pack under pressure! So if I disappear for a week or two again, that's why!

B3 - Mirror Image
I'm doing pretty good catching up on the last 4 blocks the group has done. Today I finished cutting out the pieces for both this and the Bachelor's Buttons blocks. Just cutting out the pieces for this block took forever! I've never done a curved seam on a quilt block before, so that made me a little nervous getting the curve even and having the block lay flat. As a result, I did the curved seams by hand, and the straight seams on the machine. I think it turned out great despite having to suppress the perfectionistic side of me that wants to point out the top seam that just wouldn't line up! Grr.

This block made me think round, earth, creation (the Goldilocks and the three bears fabric lends to that, too!)... so the verse memorized with this one was Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world, God's visible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

I'm Back
I'm alive. The Women's Retreat was really a wonderful weekend and experience. I was very emotionally and spiritually drained when I got home, and still processing much of the stuff God was showing me. Then I came home and have been dealing with some other difficult stuff. So I seriously just didn't feel like being crafty. God is good through it all. Buena Vista, CO is possibly one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen to top it off.




Here is my A6 Uncle Homer block.
Nothing in particular really stood out to me with this block as far as making a connection with the memorization of a verse. I ended up choosing Psalm 34:4-5 because it is one that God brought to my attention while on the retreat. It says, "I sought the LORD and he answered me; he delivered me from all of my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are not covered in shame." The theme of the retreat was a Fairytale Redeemed. Basically, it was the idea of surrendering our dreams and plans to the Lord. At several of the women's events they have talked about how crippling our shame over our pasts can be, and that's partly why this jumped out at me. By turning our lives over to God, even the shame and guilt of our pasts, that he makes us radiant.

And here is D3 - Jason's Jacks.
This is hand appliquéd. I tried the freezer paper on top technique again. I think that technique seemed easier when doing the reverse appliqué for some reason. I like that if you use it on the bottom, as I did with the Dad's Plaids block, the fabric is stuck right to the foundation rather than having to pin it and deal with possible puckering. This block was supposed to get done over Easter weekend, and the symbol reminds me of some sort of cross. I picked 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Pretty
But worries me for our drive out to Buena Vista from the Springs this afternoon.

A7 - Dad's Plaids
I'm hoping to try some new techniques with this quilt. I didn't intend to, but I ended up doing this block completely by hand because I was too lazy to get my sewing machine out to sew 3 lines. I tried a slightly different appliqué technique than what I've previously done, using freezer paper. Check out my process here. One thing I learned doing this by hand... Don't piece and then trim your block! I didn't even think about the fact that I'd be cutting my threads which will now fall out. So I'll be re-sewing this one on my machine later anyway.

The shapes on this block and the fact that it's green made me think of leaves, growth, trees, etc. I memorized this verse a while back. I like verses that have these types of analogies, so I chose Jeremiah 17:7-8 which says "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots to the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, it's leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought, and never fails to bear fruit."

I'm off to the Women's Retreat this weekend, taking my Cathedral Windows with me that probably won't get touched! Have a great weekend, everyone. I'll be back on Monday, looking forward to the next Dear Jane block, and taking Cosette to get her cast.

Going For Broke
My baby managed to make it through 20 months of her life before breaking TWO bones!

This afternoon she and Connor were playing and she freaked out when he barely grazed her. Upon closer examination I noted that her arm was warm, had a huge bump, was swollen, and worst of all CROOKED! I emailed my husband right away, who made it home in 15 minutes. We were at the pediatrician's office within the hour getting x-rays.

And we were amazed to see this.


It's a horrible copy of the image, but you can see at least the one bone is definitely broken. On the actual x-ray it's even more obvious that both bones are broken clean thru.

I feel pretty bad for not noticing it sooner, but she really wasn't complaining. Neither of us have any idea how it happened or when. When the prospective tenant came to look at our apartment this evening, Connor declared, "I did it!" He better not have!

I'm leaving on my retreat on Friday and won't be back till Sunday. They made the appointment to get her cast put on for Monday. Until then she has a splint, made from cast material, until the swelling goes down a bit.

Here she is "showing off" her snazzy new accessory.

G6 - Papa's Star

This one was a little crazy. The center star is so small, but I managed to do it all by machine. For the points of the center star I actually made small flying geese that were about 2" wide so that they would be easier to sew, and then I cut them down to size (only 1"). I marked my sewing line on everything and then was careful to match the lines. That part was difficult because it was just so small.

Then came the outer star. I traced the pattern and basically paper pieced it in sections... that was all a bit confusing. I managed to get the center star crooked from how I wanted it, but it is definitely good enough for me!

In my determination to find Bible verses that somehow relate to the block or vice versa, this one was pretty easy. It's called Papa's Star... so I'm thinking God the Father. It's a star, so maybe something that mentions stars. And it's difficult, so something that talks about God's power. I think this was one of the verses on that 100 best verses to memorize page I mentioned.

It's Psalm 147: 3-5
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

D13 - Field of Dreams
Anina is being nice to us by providing easy blocks on Mondays. So far, right? Because we'll run out of easy ones eventually. I paper pieced this one because it took less thought for me that way! I'm so excited for Mondays and Thursdays now to see what block we are all doing next.

The simplicity of this one made me think of rest or peace so the verse I chose with this one is Psalm 62:5-6 "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress, I will not be shaken."

I wasn't feeling very restful before sitting down to sew tonight. The manager of our apartment is showing our apartment on Wednesday night. I'm not really crazy about her showing our apartment, but I can't complain. We are stuck in a lease through July even though we close on our condo in April. The sooner someone rents this place and she lets us out of our lease the better. We are already jammed into this apartment as is, and in the process of packing, slowly. So the idea of making the place look presentable is a little stressful to me. Plus the kids were being crazy, and both of them have really been fighting bedtimes lately. Needless to say, it's good to have this sewing and meditation time to decompress a little.

I've decided to pack up most of my sewing stuff, all the UFOs, books, fabric, etc. I'm just going to leave out the stuff I need for Dear Jane, the pattern for review, and the Cathedral Windows pillow top (for hand-sewing).

M10 - Simple Simon
This is an easy one that can be made pretty quick. Because it's a nine patch I thought to pick a verse that had nine things, and lucky for me the fruit of the Spirit it is!

Here we go, from memory:
For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against these things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

A Focus for my "Baby Jane"
I've been thinking about this whole Dear Jane quilt project. And how the author of the book wrote letters to Jane while she was working on drafting the whole thing, and was thinking a lot about the Civil War and what Jane may have been thinking about while constructing her quilt. I'm not much of a history buff. Quilting is about as close to history as I get.

Some of the blocks are obviously going to take quite a bit of time. I love quilting, and spend a lot of time sewing, obviously. What do I often THINK I should be spending more time doing? I think I should be spending more time with God, and my quiet time often gets set aside for me to work on my hobbies. It's the time that I enjoy once the kids are in bed and I just have time to myself. So I came up with the idea of combining the memorization of a Bible verse with each block I construct. Honestly, I'm pretty good with memorization, I just don't do it. But this massive project is perfect because it'll get me thinking and give me something to focus on when I'm just stitching away.

I'm not sure where to really start with verses. I wanted to see if I could somehow use the designs of the blocks to facilitate the memorization of certain verses, but I'm not sure that's always going to be practical. But I did find this list of 100 verses to memorize as a place to start. I'm not going to worry about the 3 blocks I've already done... I'll just remember those as the first 3 verse-less blocks! Tonight I'm going to put together block M10, which is a simple nine patch named "Simple Simon." I wondered if there was a verse that had a list of 9 things... sure enough Galatians 5:22-23 lists nine fruits of the Spirit. So there you have it folks. It's a plan.

B13 - Four Corner Press
I won't tell you how long it took me to pick out the fabrics for this block. Pathetic how much time that can take! And at the last minute I even changed the corner squares to that darker blue. I really like how it turned out.

Then I felt the need to make another. That was after I sat at the computer for who-knows-how-long playing with general color lay out. My color selection for those first two blocks was pretty random, but turn out to kind of indicate how everything else will go.



J6 - Granny Weaver
Next I wanted to do a semi-easy pinkish/orange. For this one I strip pieced.

From the pink I cut (1) strip 9" x 1"; (2) pieces 2" x 1"; and (4) 2" squares.

From white cut (2) strips 9" x 1"; (1) piece 2" x 1".

Sew the 9" strips white, pink, white. Press. From this cut your (4) 2" pieces and (1) 1" piece. The 1" piece will be for the center of the little nine patch.

Sew the 2" x 1" pieces pink, white, pink. Press. Then cut in half so that you have the two side pieces of your nine patch. Construct your center nine patch.

At this point I sized all my sections to 2 inches. Then I sewed it all together like a regular nine patch.

Clear as mud without pictures?

I know at some point I will drop way behind the group, so I'm just slipping some blocks in here and there.

Books
I got my Dear Jane book today. I found one, and only one copy at my local quilt shop. That was after going to Borders where they told me it was out of print, and Barnes & Noble who didn't even have it in their computer. I suppose the "out of print" could be why there are only a few listed thru misc sellers on Amazon and eBay. I can't imagine, with its popularity, that there won't be another printing soon.

My sister mentioned to me recently that my niece is starting to show interest in sewing, and so my sister is starting to teach her a little. On my trip out I picked up Bend-the-Rules Sewing as a birthday gift for her. She's turning 13 next week. To think, she was born during my senior year in high school. Hmmm... Anyway, I love BTRS and think it has some good patterns that my niece would like to make. If she can't figure things out on her own I know my sister is beyond capable when it comes to helping her out.

C9 - Jane's Tears
Didn't I tell ya?! I love to start new things! Here's my first completed block for my Dear Jane quilt. I traced the pattern directly from my computer screen because I obviously still don't have the book since deciding to join this afternoon! Cuteness. I used reverse applique, which I've never done before, as suggested. I have the other block from this week cut, but just didn't feel like lugging out my sewing machine tonight.

So, is it just me or is the book a little hard to find? Granted, it's out there, but I like a deal and it seems like those are few and far between for this popular book. I'm going to wait it out, see if I can find it in the store, or stick it out until I'm stuck and can't figure out a pattern myself. I do really enjoy drafting my own patterns. From the reviews, it sounds like although there is a drawing of the blocks, you're kind of left to figure out the pattern yourself anyway.

Janiacs
Alright, my arm has been twisted, by nobody in particular. I'm joining the Dear Baby Jane quilt-along. I bought some muted reds and blues a while back in hopes of doing an antique-ish looking patriotic quilt at some point. I thought of starting with those... But I really love all the 30's style reproduction prints, and have a lot of those in my stash, too. So I think that's what I'll do. I don't have the book yet, and feel a little uneasy making a block not knowing it's placement in the over all quilt even though I'm most likely not going to make the whole thing!! Neurotic? Noooo. Whatever, I need to get over my need to heavily plan every quilt.

Pause
This next month is going to be a little crazy for me. We close on our condo (we're first time EVER home buyers!) on April 2. Before then we are trying to sell our piano. I have to pack. I'm refurbishing a couple pieces of furniture, maybe even 3, which I would like to get done within hmmm a week or two of settling in. Even though it's a new new place, we are painting the bedrooms and master bath to make it our own. Tomorrow we are doing a home inspection.

No swaps for a while. Just a pattern review which needs to be done by March 21. By the way, I did receive some lovely coasters from Amy, and cute apron from Tracy. I will try to get pictures here in the next couple days. Thank you ladies, it was fun!

I'm going on a women's retreat with my church next weekend. Man! Is that really NEXT weekend?? I'm not afraid to admit that I am really looking forward to time away from my children. I plan on living it up and enjoying sweet silence, no one hanging on me, or screaming in my ear. And I may take a little hand quilting to keep me occupied.

Then the weekend after that my in-laws are coming to visit from CA. We plan on doing some fun stuff like taking the kids back to the zoo, bowling, and a walk-thru of the condoo... oh wait, that's not fun. My Basket of the Month quilt group meets the following Saturday.

And curses... I've been tempted into starting yet another quilt project. Yeah, I don't think I'd get too far on this one. But I do love the idea of working on a project with other people and seeing everyone's progress. What's worse is that I kind of don't want to go through the "hassle" of ordering the book, and I'm ready to just start drafting blocks from all the pictures! Actually, I really want the book now.

Despite all that, I am a little addicted to blogging, so who knows what this place will look like for the next month...

Sneak Peak
I'm so excited to get to do a pattern review for Sew, Mama, Sew! I'll probably try it twice, but we'll see how this one goes first.

My Chicken Tortilla Soup
I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my coasters and apron from the swaps. I managed to get the things I was sending in the mail on the deadline date and and the day after.

Here's the recipe I sent with the apron. It's a recipe for chicken tortilla soup that I created from scratch to mimic my favorite tortilla soup at Red Robin. I like that it's thicker than broth, and doesn't have tomato chunks in it. I used to hate cilantro, but it's been growing on me. Last time I made this I added cilantro and avocado slices... oh yum.


Wendy's Chicken Tortilla Soup
4 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup flour
2 (15oz) cans chicken broth
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning (basically basil and oregano if you don't have it)
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1 (15oz) can kidney beans, with liquid
1 (15oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
2 chicken breasts

In a saucepan melt the butter. Add the onion, and saute until onion is tender. Stir in flour till smooth. Gradually stir in one can of chicken broth, cook and stir until thickened. Combine onion mixture and all the rest of the ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on high for at least 4 hours (or all day on low). Top with your choice of tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, cilantro, and avocado. Makes about 6 servings.

Sometimes I just throw frozen chicken breasts in the Crock Pot and cut them up later, but I suppose it'd be just as easy to cut it up first. I've just hated touching raw chicken ever since my last pregnancy!

I lost my grandma's Crock Pot today. It was probably from the 60's or something and a fire trap anyway. But I liked that it was the small tall design rather than big and round. I dropped the solid glass lid and had glass shards crazy enough to kill an intruder all over my kitchen floor. Luckily it was nap time for one kid, and the other was occupied with Play-Doh long enough for me to clean it up. Sorry to see that ugly old Crock Pot go, but I do have another, and it was a downsizing decision made for me as I start thinking of packing this place up again.

And check out my progress on the Cathedral Windows! Neat-o! Yeah, these are a lot of work and this little 9 square pillow will totally satisfy my need to give it a try. And here I was thinking... 9 muslin squares would make 9 windows. Not so, it makes 12.