Starting over again and again

I decided to sew the boarders down on Z's pirate quilt. I thought I could finish it off in the hour I had after dinner and before bath time. Not so... I had to take one side of the boarder apart 2 times. I kept catching the back fabric in the stitching. No matter what I did it kept happening. I was so tired by the time the hour was up and my hands were hurting so bad I had to put the quilt away without finishing the boarder. I am really starting to stress about how I am ever going to get to the other projects I want to work on. I don't know when I will find the time or if my hands will hold off. I have D's space quilt to do next, then I have the three Moda Charm quilts that I plan to make for my mom, sister, and mother-in-law. I have been checking out patterns on line for Charm quilts because I don't want to get bored making three of the same quilts. And at the rate I am going I won't have even one done before Hanukkah. I looked on lone at the Long Beach International Quilt Fair but decided there was no reason to go. I would just buy tons of fabric and see tons of projects I want to do but don't have time for. I also have a wall hanging quilt in mind for myself that I have been wanting to work on. So much to quilt and so little time.

Free Motion Quilting

I learned how to free motion quilt over the weekend. I really wanted to do it on Z's pirate quilt to make the clouds. I read tutorials on the web and practiced with a quilt sandwich. I love it. It was so much fun and exhilarating. To move the fabric and make the design. I started out just making cloud shapes which was fun and easy to control. It took a long time because I made small cloud shapes. Then when I started to make larger shapes things really got going. I really enjoyed it. For the ocean the pattern recommend making fish and other sea life shapes. I tried that on my sample but couldn't do it. So I just made a consecutive circle shape, like a shell. So much fun. Now I want to stipple my next quilt. I can't wait. I use to hate that part of quilting now I am looking forward to it.

Handeze

I got my Handeze in the mail yesterday. They are fingerless gloves that provide support for all kinds of things, but in my case tendinitis. They promote blood circulation which helps to prevent swelling and pain. I tried them last night while I was binding the memory quilt. Too early to tell how much they will help.

I have got to finish the binding so I can start quilting Z's pirate quilt. I have so many other projects I want to work on. I checked out the website for the Long Beach international quilt fair. There are so many vendors that I decided it would not be a good idea for me to go. I know I would spend too much money and I have not even used the fabric I got at the last quilt fair.

Quilting Mistake

I watched tons of binding tutorials and finally got down to binding my memory quilt. I was very excited with how it was turning out. I sewed on the entire binding and was finally ready to begin the hand stitching. I knew it would take a while since I have to take a lot of breaks due to my tendinitis. I also had to go back over each corner and sew them a little bit extra. Well I realized that I had sewn the binding to the back of the quilt instead of the front. The back looks amazing. But the front will now have all the tiny little hand stitches on it. There was no way I was going to pull the whole binding off and start over. I couldn't believe that after all of that I did the binding backwards. Oh well. Non quilters will never know the difference (I hope).

Birthdays

I spent almost 6 months planning my boys 4th birthday. And it was worth. Their Star Wars Jedi Training Birthday was amazing and the kids had so much fun. Then we took them to Disneyland for their birthday. What a great birthday celebration. But it was this event that has stuck in my mind the most: we were eating dinner at Dland and D had said he wasn't hungry so I did not buy him any food. When I gave Z his meal he took an empty cup and put half of his chicken nuggets and some fries into it and gave it to his brother. What an amazing moment. He is such a generous child always looking out for his brother. It really touched my heart. These past 4 years have been so wonderful. I have such great kids who are so much fun to be around.

Last night being the first birthday free evening I was able to get some work done on Z's pirate quilt. It is really coming along.

Anniversary

My hubby just had 12 dozen red roses delivered to my office for our anniversary. I love him so much. When I was walking down the hall with the big green box everyone knew I had received flowers from him. And I knew that everyone knew that he loved me so much.