Monday, February 26, 2007
He is home!!!
Thank you all for your prayers and hugs, my son came home today, he is fine. He's lost probably 10 pounds and doesn't look like he's slept in a month---but he survived on the kindness of friends and only spent one night in the cold. Now that I am relieved and happy he is home, it's time to start thinking options for him--something that will work and keep him on the straight and narrow. I am not putting him back into the treatment center, we'll work on an out patient basis and try and get the help he needs that way. Thank you again for your prayers and kind words, I am going to actually sleep tonight, I think. Lord knows I can use more than 2-3 hours of sleep!!!
Son ran away again.....
Needless to say, I haven't spent much time quilting this weekend. I found out on Wednesday that my son ran away from the treatment center on the 16th. 5 days after he disappeared, someone finally informs me, his mother. Their excuse was that their policy is to contact the guardian and the police--since county took emergency custody of him to place him in this facility, they are now his guardian. The problem was, all county workers were off Monday for Presidents day, so my county worker didn't find out until Tuesday and he didn't inform me until Wednesday. In the meantime, my son has been gone for 5 days by the time I am informed. Now it's been over a week, one friend saw him the night he ran away and no one has seen him since. I am literally falling apart with worry, I've contacted all the friends I knew he knew and asked them to contact any I didn't know. My daughter has asked everyone she knows---but no one knows anything. He left the facility---in the tail end of our blizzard week---dressed in a hoodie, jeans and checked tennis shoes---that's it. He has no money, no ID, nothing. The treatment center has all his belongings locked up, so he had no way to get his money or other things. I have his ID, his guitar, all the "stuff" that he cares about, I am surprised he hasn't come back for them, which worries me even more for his safety.
I am just blabbing at this point, I've done all that I can physically do, it's a waiting game now, although I have been driving around everyday trying to find him. It's taking a toll on me, my health, family---it's just awful!
Ok, I'm done, I just needed to get that all out. If you are reading this, please pray for my son, for his safety and a safe return very soon!
Thanks
I am just blabbing at this point, I've done all that I can physically do, it's a waiting game now, although I have been driving around everyday trying to find him. It's taking a toll on me, my health, family---it's just awful!
Ok, I'm done, I just needed to get that all out. If you are reading this, please pray for my son, for his safety and a safe return very soon!
Thanks
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Heirloom Quilts
Well, I've been working on the baby's quilt, I was going to machine quilt it but decided at the last minute to hand quilt it. I sent DH up to the attic crawl space to find my quilting hoop and he came back with treasure! Oh, and my hoop! About 17 years ago, my ex's great aunt had died (of old age, she lived well into her 90's, she was a wonderful human being!) When the family was 
going through her condo to take things, clean it out and give stuff away or throw it out, the ex and I had gone to help and to pick out what we wanted (what was left, anyway--the rest of the family got the best stuff and as usual, we got the pickings---but personally, that was the best stuff to me!) Among the stuff to go to the trash was a big box, so
I lifted it up and got stuck by a sewing needle. So, I opened it up and there inside was tons of sewing stuff, most of it very, very old! In the big box was a smaller box and when I opened it up inside was a treasure trove! His great aunt was a quilter, she had started a grandmothers flower garden back in the 30's and worked on it here and there throughout the years but never finished it. When I found it, it had a large completed panel, some completed rows and some completed flowers---along with
many cut hex's and all the fabric that she used for the hex's AND a homemade 
template made by her husband. I was SO excited, I wasn't a quilter yet---in fact I knew nothing about quilting but I knew that this was special. I took the whole box to my ex's mother and asked her if she was sure she wanted to throw it out. She said yes, no one in the family wanted it. I asked if I could have it and she said yes. So I took it home with the intention of finishing it, but I soon found that I needed much more quilting experience before tackling a job of this magnitude! So I packed it up and put it away until I would be ready to finish it and from that day on, I've been a quilter ever since! When my ex and I were 
splitting up, he told me he took it and destroyed it, and I was heartbroken, I never expected to see it again. But Lo and behold, DH found it in the attic---along with long forgotten quilting books and templates and patterns and cross stitch patterns---lots of stuff I thought was gone forever! Needless to say I am tickled to have this quilt back, after I get some of my UFO's done, I am going to finish this quilt! There is a lot of scrap fabrics (original 30's fabrics!!) left and tons of cut pieces, but there isn't much of the yellow solid used in the center of the flowers. I am hoping that I can find a fabric to match!
About 10 years ago when I was really going full steam ahead with my quilting, my Aunt had given me a quilt for Christmas. She had inherited it from her grandmother and it was made by her great grandmother, my great, great grandma, sometime in the late 1800's---they say it was made in the 1880's. I know she died in the early 1920's and it was finished way before she died so it was most certainly started at least in the 1800's! It is a log cabin, I believe it's a barn raising pattern.
It is made primarily of silks and velvets but there are many cottons and some woolens as well. Many of the silks are fraying, I'm not sure I want to fix them---well, I'm torn. I know if I repair it is takes away from the value of the quilt. I also know that since many of the silk strips are fraying that there probably isn't a whole lot of monetary value anyway---and even if there was I am not getting rid of this quilt for any money!! I would
like to hang it eventually, but I worried that exposing it to light 
and air will speed up more deterioration of some of the fabrics---some are perfect, however. I can't put it out on my bed, with the baby, the boys, the dogs and the cats, it would be sure to be ruined very quickly. I hate keeping it hidden and folded up with acid free paper, looked at 
maybe 2 or 3 times a year. If anyone has any advice on how to handle this quilt, please leave it in the comments section!
For now, I am still working on the baby's quilt, stitching away---hopefully I'll have it done in a week!
Stitch on!!
going through her condo to take things, clean it out and give stuff away or throw it out, the ex and I had gone to help and to pick out what we wanted (what was left, anyway--the rest of the family got the best stuff and as usual, we got the pickings---but personally, that was the best stuff to me!) Among the stuff to go to the trash was a big box, so
I lifted it up and got stuck by a sewing needle. So, I opened it up and there inside was tons of sewing stuff, most of it very, very old! In the big box was a smaller box and when I opened it up inside was a treasure trove! His great aunt was a quilter, she had started a grandmothers flower garden back in the 30's and worked on it here and there throughout the years but never finished it. When I found it, it had a large completed panel, some completed rows and some completed flowers---along with
many cut hex's and all the fabric that she used for the hex's AND a homemade 
template made by her husband. I was SO excited, I wasn't a quilter yet---in fact I knew nothing about quilting but I knew that this was special. I took the whole box to my ex's mother and asked her if she was sure she wanted to throw it out. She said yes, no one in the family wanted it. I asked if I could have it and she said yes. So I took it home with the intention of finishing it, but I soon found that I needed much more quilting experience before tackling a job of this magnitude! So I packed it up and put it away until I would be ready to finish it and from that day on, I've been a quilter ever since! When my ex and I were 
splitting up, he told me he took it and destroyed it, and I was heartbroken, I never expected to see it again. But Lo and behold, DH found it in the attic---along with long forgotten quilting books and templates and patterns and cross stitch patterns---lots of stuff I thought was gone forever! Needless to say I am tickled to have this quilt back, after I get some of my UFO's done, I am going to finish this quilt! There is a lot of scrap fabrics (original 30's fabrics!!) left and tons of cut pieces, but there isn't much of the yellow solid used in the center of the flowers. I am hoping that I can find a fabric to match!
About 10 years ago when I was really going full steam ahead with my quilting, my Aunt had given me a quilt for Christmas. She had inherited it from her grandmother and it was made by her great grandmother, my great, great grandma, sometime in the late 1800's---they say it was made in the 1880's. I know she died in the early 1920's and it was finished way before she died so it was most certainly started at least in the 1800's! It is a log cabin, I believe it's a barn raising pattern.
It is made primarily of silks and velvets but there are many cottons and some woolens as well. Many of the silks are fraying, I'm not sure I want to fix them---well, I'm torn. I know if I repair it is takes away from the value of the quilt. I also know that since many of the silk strips are fraying that there probably isn't a whole lot of monetary value anyway---and even if there was I am not getting rid of this quilt for any money!! I would
like to hang it eventually, but I worried that exposing it to light 
and air will speed up more deterioration of some of the fabrics---some are perfect, however. I can't put it out on my bed, with the baby, the boys, the dogs and the cats, it would be sure to be ruined very quickly. I hate keeping it hidden and folded up with acid free paper, looked at 
maybe 2 or 3 times a year. If anyone has any advice on how to handle this quilt, please leave it in the comments section!
For now, I am still working on the baby's quilt, stitching away---hopefully I'll have it done in a week!
Stitch on!!
More winter pics...
My little snowbunny boy, LOL! The snow is melting and by this weekend we are gonna be knee high in mud. Not looking forward to that! This is his first time in the snow!
Click on the pictures for
a bigger view!
Here is our puppy, Raven, attacking Jeremy in the snow, LOL!
Here is Sean measuring our snow---and this was before the storm was even over!
Our snow dogs, having a blast. Annie has to be tied up because she keeps climbing on the big pile of snow by the fence and jumping over! Stupid, smart dog!!!!
Friday, February 16, 2007
Ok, time to quilt!
The baby is better, I'm feeling a bit punky but better than I was yesterday. I'm ready to quilt! I WILL have this quilt done by midnight, Sunday. I am going to machine quilt it, I've decided. Since it is for the baby it'll be stitched in the ditch and around each block---I may attempt to do some stippling for inside the blocks, I'll have to practice first.
I've also decided that my giant Christmas quilt is going to be hand quilted and I even have an idea now of how to do it! I just needed some inspiration and the ladies at the Quilter's Corner Club, Quilter's Who Care and Ohio Quilter's group and of course, Alex Anderson and her wonderful guests on Simply Quilts have provided me with SO much inspiration that I want to make EVERYTHING I see and EVERYTHING I dream up!
After spending the week with a sick baby (poor thing, he's better now!)and being sick myself and having 3 other sick kids, I need a major sewing break. I'm gonna tell DH when he gets home that I need a bunch of time this weekend to sew--but we need to make sure he has time to do what he wishes to do as well. I WILL get this quilt done! After all, I have at least 10 snowmen blocks to make for the snowman swap I belong to--and whatever other swap I decide I have to join!I will not be posting again until the quilt is done, I hope to be posting pictures of it this weekend, check back, it'll be here!!!
Have a good, safe, warm weekend!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Winter is here, again....
In the past, before taking my kids out of school to homeschool, I have watched the crawl early mornings to see if school would be closed due to the horrific winter weather outside. Time and time again our wonderful school district (NOT) has kept them open, even when every single district around us was closing left and right. This year, we actually had two--TWO! cold days last week (when they have stayed open in the past for the same type of temps) and tomorrow (or really, today) they are closed again due to the blizzard going on outside. I guess they really couldn't be foolish enough to stay open, we'll be lucky to get the service truck out of the drive tomorrow so DH can get to work, let alone the tons of school buses that go up and down our street all day.
We are getting TONS of snow right now! My 10 yo and I went out around 4pm to shovel and there was probably a good 6-8 inches on the ground. My wonderful neighbor came over with his snowblower and did the majority of our long drive for us--so I reciprocated and baked him a batch of chocolate chip cookies! Here is the snow level on our table in the backyard (we use this to gauge our snowfall)at 4 pm. Click on pictures for a larger view.
Here is our table now, at midnight:
We've gotten a foot at least with up to 8-10 more inches possible by morning! Pretty cool, huh? I love snow!
Here is the snow fall as of 10 am this morning! Now the drift against the fence is due to the neighbors snow blower, the rest of the huge drifts are all real!
With the blizzard-like winds, there is major drifting--some areas of the backyard are 3-4 feet, some 3 inches. The dogs are loving it, although when they first ran outside, the snow right outside the door is an almost 3 foot drift! They jumped up and found an area that was less deep---but hopped around the yard in the drifts, LOL!
As you can see, the dogs are lovin' it!
Here are pics of our drive and the street. It's really hard to get a sense of how deep it is--of course, it's nothing like what they have up in Oswego, NY but it's our worst storm since 1993 they are saying. I'm thinking it's almost as bad as the storm of '78, I was twelve and we got HAMMERED with a major blizzard. Too bad it's so cold out, the kids would love to be playing in the snow!
My poor baby is sick still. This started yesterday with a bad tummy and everything coming out from both ends. We kept him hydrated and loaded with pedialyte. Today he woke up all flush, now he has a temp and a high one at that! So, I've been keeping him dosed with motrin and continue to keep him fed with motrin and water and some of my homemade chicken and rice soup and more pedialyte, of course. I'm hoping this will go through him by tomorrow because the roads are gonna be worse than today and the doctor suggested that we not take him out since it will be so cold. If he still has a fever tomorrow, I'm gonna assume it's an infection and he'll have to be seen by someone for a possibly antibiotic. Unless it is a virus, of course. I'm just hoping for his sake, he's better---poor thing!
Well, the baby was up all night, I think he finally fell asleep around 5, although DH was up with him at 6:30, changing him and giving him a pedialyte bottle before he had to leave for work (poor guy, heating and cooling guys have to be out in all weather!). It's 11:30 and the baby is still sleeping, I'm just gonna let him sleep, hopefully he'll feel better when he wakes. Of course, with him up all night, I got nothing done with my WIP. I'm gonna go up and make hot chocolate with marshmallows for the boys, throw some laundry in the washer, mix up a couple of loaves of bread and try to get a little sewing done on my WIP before he wakes up. But, as we all know, the best laid plans..........
It's not like I'm going anywhere, LOL!
We are getting TONS of snow right now! My 10 yo and I went out around 4pm to shovel and there was probably a good 6-8 inches on the ground. My wonderful neighbor came over with his snowblower and did the majority of our long drive for us--so I reciprocated and baked him a batch of chocolate chip cookies! Here is the snow level on our table in the backyard (we use this to gauge our snowfall)at 4 pm. Click on pictures for a larger view.
Here is our table now, at midnight:
We've gotten a foot at least with up to 8-10 more inches possible by morning! Pretty cool, huh? I love snow!
Here is the snow fall as of 10 am this morning! Now the drift against the fence is due to the neighbors snow blower, the rest of the huge drifts are all real!
With the blizzard-like winds, there is major drifting--some areas of the backyard are 3-4 feet, some 3 inches. The dogs are loving it, although when they first ran outside, the snow right outside the door is an almost 3 foot drift! They jumped up and found an area that was less deep---but hopped around the yard in the drifts, LOL!
As you can see, the dogs are lovin' it!
Here are pics of our drive and the street. It's really hard to get a sense of how deep it is--of course, it's nothing like what they have up in Oswego, NY but it's our worst storm since 1993 they are saying. I'm thinking it's almost as bad as the storm of '78, I was twelve and we got HAMMERED with a major blizzard. Too bad it's so cold out, the kids would love to be playing in the snow!
My poor baby is sick still. This started yesterday with a bad tummy and everything coming out from both ends. We kept him hydrated and loaded with pedialyte. Today he woke up all flush, now he has a temp and a high one at that! So, I've been keeping him dosed with motrin and continue to keep him fed with motrin and water and some of my homemade chicken and rice soup and more pedialyte, of course. I'm hoping this will go through him by tomorrow because the roads are gonna be worse than today and the doctor suggested that we not take him out since it will be so cold. If he still has a fever tomorrow, I'm gonna assume it's an infection and he'll have to be seen by someone for a possibly antibiotic. Unless it is a virus, of course. I'm just hoping for his sake, he's better---poor thing!
Well, the baby was up all night, I think he finally fell asleep around 5, although DH was up with him at 6:30, changing him and giving him a pedialyte bottle before he had to leave for work (poor guy, heating and cooling guys have to be out in all weather!). It's 11:30 and the baby is still sleeping, I'm just gonna let him sleep, hopefully he'll feel better when he wakes. Of course, with him up all night, I got nothing done with my WIP. I'm gonna go up and make hot chocolate with marshmallows for the boys, throw some laundry in the washer, mix up a couple of loaves of bread and try to get a little sewing done on my WIP before he wakes up. But, as we all know, the best laid plans..........
It's not like I'm going anywhere, LOL!
Monday, February 12, 2007
It's getting better all the time
Well, a week has past and things are better, calmer. The storm of activity around my eldest son's behavior has quieted. He is doing ok at the group home he was put into and he will be entering their independent living program in a week and eventually they will get him his own place (under their supervision). He turns 18 in September so hopefully this will teach him how to live with common sense and how to survive in the world. That is a tall order for the agency, DS thinks he knows everything and it usually isn't up to par with the real world. Of course, most teens think they know everything, so maybe it isn't so uncommon. The other boys and I are probably going to go see him this week, I am looking forward to seeing him, I don't think he'll ever realize how much I miss him and wish this never had to happen.
On a lighter note, I knitted my first project this week. I made myself a hat. It looks pretty good, there are mistakes in it that I can see (I miscounted on the rows were I had to K2tog and then k so many, reducing it every other row. Somewhere I miscounted on a row and it threw things off, but of course I am the only one who noticed! Here is little Seamus modeling my hat, just for you!
My birthday was Saturday but DH was on call and ended up working all day until 7!!! He wanted to take me personally to my favorite quilt shops but of course they were all closed. We went to JoAnn's and I got some border stencils, some chalk pencils, some knitting needles and cables, and a bunch of flannels for my snowman quilt I want to make. The pattern is in the current issue of Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine and it is called Jolly Snowmen. I went to their site to see what the price of a kit would be since they advertised it in the magazine, but they don't have a kit for this quilt. As a matter of fact, I am having trouble finding plaid flannels ANYWHERE! It calls mainly for reds and greens--I seem to be finding lots of blues. I got some nice stuff at JoAnns but I still need a lot more greens and some green herringbone and gray herringbone which I have not been able to find in flannel at all. I will probably just use wool (if I can even find that!), since the quilt is supposed to have a woolen look, anyway. I am planning on hitting a couple quilt shops this week to take a look and DH is going to get me a walking foot for my Bernina as his present to me (Yay!!! I've wanted one for years!!!) My mother and Aunt came over today and I made dinner for us (it was my mom's birthday as well, I was born on her 20th birthday!) My mom gave me some books, a quilting book that had different, original stuff in it, a book from the 70's on fabric art and stuffing fabric to make things---it's pretty neat but very dated, LOL!
The last book she got me was a book called Folk Art Friends; Hooked Rugs and Coordinating Quilts. The funny thing is that I saw this book on Ebay 2 weeks ago and bid on it, I really wanted it and I ended up losing the book because I forgot about the auction, LOL! I was bummed but figured I'd either end up getting it at Amazon.com or Borders and I never bothered mentioning it to anyone. Lo and behold, my mother finds it at the Border Outlet store and buys it for me because she thinks I'd like it, LOL! Is that a hoot or what???
My current WIP is going to be finished this week--or that is the plan, anyway! I figured out how to do the mitered borders--I've done mitered bindings but never wide borders. Luckily for me, they did a show on attic window quilts on Simply Quilts this past week and they were showing how to do mitered borders and I think I've got it down. I DVR'd the show, just in case I need a reference!
I've decided my next quilt (if not the snowman, or I will make it as I am making the snowman, LOL!) will be a scrappy string quilt. I don't have a lot of scraps, though. I stupidly did not see the value of scraps until the last year or so and threw away many, many scraps (yes, I am hitting myself in the head repeatedly!) Now, (in my defense) the scraps I've thrown away were always thin pieces, or short pieces, nothing I ever thought would be of any value. After getting a link to quiltville.com and checking out her string quilts and other's she had pictures of, I knew right then that I had to make one too! Plus, I am ready to try paper piecing---it's frightened me in the past but I am ready and willing to tackle it---plus after seeing it demonstrated on my fav quilt shows, I think it's a lot easier than I thought. My problem is the fact that I don't have a lot of scraps. Of course, I can just cut up stuff in my stash---but I think that whole point of these types of quilts is to use up your scraps and I'd like to stay true to that point of it. SO, it may be a while before I actually make one, hehehe!
Holy guacamole, it's nearly 4 a.m.!!! I'm heading to bed, have a great day and come back and see me again, soon!
On a lighter note, I knitted my first project this week. I made myself a hat. It looks pretty good, there are mistakes in it that I can see (I miscounted on the rows were I had to K2tog and then k so many, reducing it every other row. Somewhere I miscounted on a row and it threw things off, but of course I am the only one who noticed! Here is little Seamus modeling my hat, just for you!
My birthday was Saturday but DH was on call and ended up working all day until 7!!! He wanted to take me personally to my favorite quilt shops but of course they were all closed. We went to JoAnn's and I got some border stencils, some chalk pencils, some knitting needles and cables, and a bunch of flannels for my snowman quilt I want to make. The pattern is in the current issue of Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine and it is called Jolly Snowmen. I went to their site to see what the price of a kit would be since they advertised it in the magazine, but they don't have a kit for this quilt. As a matter of fact, I am having trouble finding plaid flannels ANYWHERE! It calls mainly for reds and greens--I seem to be finding lots of blues. I got some nice stuff at JoAnns but I still need a lot more greens and some green herringbone and gray herringbone which I have not been able to find in flannel at all. I will probably just use wool (if I can even find that!), since the quilt is supposed to have a woolen look, anyway. I am planning on hitting a couple quilt shops this week to take a look and DH is going to get me a walking foot for my Bernina as his present to me (Yay!!! I've wanted one for years!!!) My mother and Aunt came over today and I made dinner for us (it was my mom's birthday as well, I was born on her 20th birthday!) My mom gave me some books, a quilting book that had different, original stuff in it, a book from the 70's on fabric art and stuffing fabric to make things---it's pretty neat but very dated, LOL!
The last book she got me was a book called Folk Art Friends; Hooked Rugs and Coordinating Quilts. The funny thing is that I saw this book on Ebay 2 weeks ago and bid on it, I really wanted it and I ended up losing the book because I forgot about the auction, LOL! I was bummed but figured I'd either end up getting it at Amazon.com or Borders and I never bothered mentioning it to anyone. Lo and behold, my mother finds it at the Border Outlet store and buys it for me because she thinks I'd like it, LOL! Is that a hoot or what??? 
My current WIP is going to be finished this week--or that is the plan, anyway! I figured out how to do the mitered borders--I've done mitered bindings but never wide borders. Luckily for me, they did a show on attic window quilts on Simply Quilts this past week and they were showing how to do mitered borders and I think I've got it down. I DVR'd the show, just in case I need a reference!I've decided my next quilt (if not the snowman, or I will make it as I am making the snowman, LOL!) will be a scrappy string quilt. I don't have a lot of scraps, though. I stupidly did not see the value of scraps until the last year or so and threw away many, many scraps (yes, I am hitting myself in the head repeatedly!) Now, (in my defense) the scraps I've thrown away were always thin pieces, or short pieces, nothing I ever thought would be of any value. After getting a link to quiltville.com and checking out her string quilts and other's she had pictures of, I knew right then that I had to make one too! Plus, I am ready to try paper piecing---it's frightened me in the past but I am ready and willing to tackle it---plus after seeing it demonstrated on my fav quilt shows, I think it's a lot easier than I thought. My problem is the fact that I don't have a lot of scraps. Of course, I can just cut up stuff in my stash---but I think that whole point of these types of quilts is to use up your scraps and I'd like to stay true to that point of it. SO, it may be a while before I actually make one, hehehe!
Holy guacamole, it's nearly 4 a.m.!!! I'm heading to bed, have a great day and come back and see me again, soon!
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