sampler quilt

started: august 20th, 2010

completed: march 16th, 2012

dimensions: 58"x58"

notes: this is the sampler quilt that i made with my mom and trish derrick. beth and i wanted to learn some quilting skills, so they came down and gave us quilting lessons over the course of several months. each square taught us different skills and by the end we had learned several new techniques. beth and i made the same squares, but with different fabrics, so each of our quilts looks different, but similar at the same time. it was fun to see how much fabric selection can affect the look of a quilt. maybe when she is done with hers i can post pictures of them together.

the quilt did not come together as i anticipated. i had wanted to put the squares together with sashing between each square, but couldn't find a fabric that i liked for the sashing. instead, we opted to just put them flush together and it worked out pretty well. 

this was really a joint project between my mom and me. and my mom did the hard work. she quilted the whole thing, beautifully. she recently took a freehand quilting class, wanted to try some of the things that she had learned, and volunteered to take on the quilting. i had the top done a while ago but had lost steam on it and was happy to turn it over to her. also, i had envisioned quilting it the way that my mom was going to do it (different designs on each square, particular to the features of each square), but knew that my execution would never look the way i wanted it to. 

so in the end, this was a sampler quilt for both of us. a sampler in piecing for me and a sampler in quilting for my mom. she really should have joint custody of the quilt. maybe i'll let her have it on holidays and weekends or something. 

here are some more detailed pictures of the quilting. i took a bunch and didn't feel like deciding which ones to include, so i just included them all.

sporadic posting

i have been really bad about taking pictures over the last couple months. really bad. which is why posting has been light. plus, i pretty much nap whenever the girls are both down, so i probably wouldn't do a lot of blogging even if i did take more pictures.

i do occasionally take pictures on my phone though, and finally uploaded those, so here is my latest installment of grainy pictures, depicting our life over the last month or two. prepare for a random post...


rachel, madeleine, and diane at my parents house.

one of the many times that diane has been sick over the last couple months. she has been sick more than i care to keep track of. sometimes it's just for a couple days, some times it lasts for a couple weeks. this looks like it was the flu, but most of the time she just has a nasty cold. no fun. she loves to put her hands in her mouth, so i'm not surprised that she gets sick easily, but i wish that her immune system would buck up to deal with her unfortunate habits.

these are pictures of the girls dancing along to a video of their cousin's dance recital. they ask to watch it several times a week and it is always hilarious and cute to watch.

since we have had unusually warm weather over the last few weeks, we have spent a lot of time at the park in the afternoons. on this trip, madeleine rode her bike to the park and diane commandeered madeleine's helmet upon arrival. she had me put it on her and didn't take it off until we got home (madeleine was "too tired" to ride home, so i carried her bike home and she walked. this happens more often than i'd like to admit. fortunately, it is a light bike and a short walk home).

safety first.

oh, and did i mention that we are proud owners of a new (to us) minivan? we traded in the corolla for this beauty, since you cannot fit three carseats in the back of a corolla. i know that it's not the hippest car out there, but i love it. when did i reach the point in my life where driving a minivan around could make me so happy?

these next two pictures prove that madeleine is my child. i constantly find things arranged by color, size, shape, etc. 

more fun at the park:

not so sure about how to get down.

also, as a side note, i should mention that i let my girls dress themselves almost every day (as you have probably already noticed from looking at other pictures of them). i figure that it fosters independence and we really don't see other people most of the time, so i really don't care. but they do come up with some excellent combinations and i do occasionally cringe when i look at pictures. 

diane is our entertaining sleeper. madeleine pretty much maintains one position all night, but diane is all over the place. this was during her nap yesterday. i like the headdress.

well, there it is. random pictures and commentary to update you on our lives. posting in the next few weeks should include a new arrival. we are coming down to the wire...

vanilla stars

started: august 23rd, 2010

completed: march 7th, 2012

dimensions: 63"x81"

notes: this quilt was finished in fits and spurts. i bought this pattern and fabric with jeanie as a christmas present for christmas 2009. i didn't start cutting it out until august 2010, which is what i'm considering the start date. i've had the top done for a long time and finally got around to quilting it recently. i hand sewed the binding on. i love the end result.