Whole Again

Another page in stages. I am learning to be sloppy and more free.

Definitely channeling the work of Roben-Marie Smith and Tina Jensen.

Oh the joy and beauty of this.

Also this girl. This girl!

 Home from sophomore year, just turned twenty, my favorite person.

I gave birth to my favorite person.

We laugh at nothingness often.

Sweet Something

I received wonderful birthday wishes in October to celebrate my 50th.

A most lovely surprise was this box of unexpected treasures from Gretchen Portwood.

We met at Silver Bella years ago and there was an instant connection.

 

Thank you, Gretchen, for the sweet treasures and for your love.

G turned 3

Since I am the Mabin and Greyson turned three, I made a quilt for him...

This is my fifth flannel rag quilt to make. This is my own pattern. All have been gifts.

We had a rare opportunity to host the party for this little Texan here in Oklahoma.

Snacks and snakes.

And a cake for this beautiful boy.

To G from me...

Packing

So much packing. Packing for Glitter Market.

Packing for my husband's birthday vacation.

Now packing for Spellbound.

 

Good things, all.

Ten Thirty-One

With my husband on a rare vacation trip for his Halloween birthday!

Forever 32

It is this man's birthday today.

I have loved my big brother a lifetime

and missed him for 34 years.

I also still love denim.

1600 Inches with Mrs. Hilfiger

I am so very happy to have gotten back to my machine.  I have been mostly sewing on paper for a long while but my great love is quilting really and I had forgotten just how good it feels.

1600 Inches Quilt by Jemellia



I enrolled in an excellent class at out premier quilt shop Quiltworks, turns out the teacher was my best bird Jemellia.

The class quilt is made with a 'jelly roll' or 1600 inches of two inch wide strips packaged as a roll. I used Rouenneries Deux from French General, but of course.

Let's take a moment and be reverent...

Je was a great teacher, really, she is such an excellent seamstress and whisperer of fabric. and that's not just for the whoopie pies...handmade whoopie pies...

Dear Lord, thank you for my sewing machine, hands and time...

Here is my completed quilt top in the entry.

Oh Spencer, get offa that!

And finally, speaking of naughty boys...April 11 is my beloved father's birthday. What a great dad he was. I love this picture of him (middle) in the Armed Air Forces. He and a couple of buddies about 1941 "half-tight" before their European sorties during WWII.

That optimism is bittersweet.

In Celebration of a Birthday

Because my daughter loves details, because it was her 18th birthday and because I had the time and inclination, I started dipping things in chocolate. 

Oreos. Spoons.

Pretzels.

Marshmallows.

I then packaged those things.

Sparkly, girly...

Made a banner. 

My daughter went to eat with some of her best girlfriends and returned to this surprise.

A table to celebrate and delight her.

Candies and cookies to send home with her friends.

I am not sure who it pleased more, her or me.

Pretty sure it was me...

18 Cakes

It took 18 years for me to make this album.

It is my daughter's story of birthday cakes over the years until this one, her 18th birthday.

I will share a few pages here.

I used all the invitations that I found in a box I moved out of mother's house.

I also found a note mother left me. She knew I would be the last person to go through her things.

I have cried, smiled, laughed, cried...

That's what it's like to raise a healthy child that lives to celebrate all these birthdays.

I realize I am lucky.

Yet, there are clouds that pass over and tell me she is leaving.

And I grieve that.

And everything is going like it's supposed to.

And I celebrate that.

Suz said she has room in her heart for sadness, its the depression that she doesn't want to fall into to. I get that.

And, so, there is happiness and there is sadness, like most beautiful stories...