Monday, June 13, 2011

Things Are Swirling

You are plodding along day to day. Things may seem a little hectic, but all in all, life seems pretty good.  Then all of a sudden the wind changes and things begin to swirl.  No, I'm not talking about the weather.  Boom!  Your life starts to get crazy.  You know, you've been there.  May was good, a few days were hectic, but life was good.  Then it happened.  School was out.  That means my husband is home for the summer.  A good thing, but a difference in my schedule.  We had planned a trip with our twin sons and their wives.  We left a few days after school was out and flew to Cancun.  We spent our time on the beach and at the pool sampling the tropical beverages, enjoying the water and the great company.  The food was nonstop and so was our fun.  A few days after we returned home, Greg's father passed away. We were all back together much sooner than we had planned.  Two days after the funeral Greg and I flew to Orlando, Florida.  I was being updated on some changes in training for the speaking I will be doing for the new medication I have been taking for my mulitple sclerosis.  We spent a couple of days in a wonderful hotel and I was able to reconnect with the others who will be speaking as well.  We arrived home late yesterday and were simply exhausted.  But life is still good.


This is a picture of the beach in Cancun from our hotel room.  Nice, huh! I will spare you the photos of me in my swimsuit.  The quilts are much more fun to look at!  Even though I've had lots to keep me busy, the work on the quilts hasn't even paused.  Everyone has continued doing their part to keep us going.  Here's some of our latest.





This is one of my favorite quilts.  A couple of friends gave me their leftovers from a quilt they made.  The pieces were originally 16 patch blocks.  I passed them to my sister and she put them all together.  We added a couple of borders and came up with a really cool quilt.  It shows what a few scraps can do.  It doesn't have to be fancy to make a great quilt.


The quilting really shows up well on this golden yellow backing.  Although this quilt has some brightness to it, it also has some softness too.  Looking at it makes me happy.




There is certainly nothing soft about this one!  This was a panel that Deb took, cut up and added some sashing.  She added a blue outer border and off it went to a quilter.



The hot pink backing is perfect for the bright flowers.  The quilter used several different colors of thread to match the front colors.  I can see a girl of any age liking this one.


This quilt may look familiar to you.  You just sew together 4 1/2" squares and add a couple of borders.  Although it may look familiar, it is still unique because we used different fabric for the border.  And it is great to use those scraps of fabric!



The backing for this quilt is a field of daisies.  Although you can't see it well in the picture, the quilting is wonderful.  Our quilters are full of talent!



Cats, cats, cats.  All these squares are full of cats.  The border is little blue mice everywhere giving the quilt a little sense of humor.



You can see the mice a little better in this close-up.



And what is better on the back of cats?  More cats!

Remember I mentioned my husband is home for the summer?  His new job is holding the quilts while I take the pictures.  Thank you to him.  I think he may be counting the days until school starts sooner than he thought he would!
More quilts to come!