All done!

Today I finally finished the baby clothes quilt for Laura! The finished measurements are 67 x 81 inches. I like the results, but a long-arm quilting machine would have done a better job at the quilting part, as it's difficult to machine-quilt this size of quilt on a regular sewing machine. Breanna and Levi were impressed with the results, too, there are lots of soft fabrics to feel! Eg: fuzzy bath robe, flannel blankets, soft bibs, corduroy overalls, burpcloths, well-worn cotton clothes, etc. Breanna & Levi both took 3 hour naps together today, which was a big help in the process, but they are still up and it's 11:30pm~

Memorial Baby Quilt

A few weeks ago I replied to a wanted add on craigslist.org, and started the newest challenge in my quilting. The lady had a 7-month old baby girl that died of SIDS over a year ago, and she wanted someone to make a quilt from her clothes. I had never tried this before but Mom & Aunty Clariss made quite a few from grandma Hilton's clothes, so I thought I'd give it a try!

It was a bit heart-wrenching at first, because of the emotional ties; and there were such beautiful little dresses that I didn't want to cut up! I soon got over it, though, treated it like business, and started really enjoying my new project. I had no clue how long it would take, but so far I've spent 22 1/2 hours total, and still have probably 5 left. It's very time-consuming because I have to disassemble the clothes and cut and iron them just to get little pieces of fabric to try and work with. She wanted it to be log-cabin style, which worked well and I found a simple scrappy pattern online. I finished the top on saturday, and like the results! I emailed her photos (she lives in Anchorage), and both her and her husband love it. I searched online and found that there are quite a few people who do these sorts of quilts! I was so pleased with the idea and results that now I want to make one for Breanna and Levi out of their clothes when they grow up, what a bunch of fun memories. Let me know if you're interested, I'm enjoying this and thinking of doing more! Here are a few photos of what I have done:

I made the block centers from special bibs, pockets from clothes, or 4-patches.

Then I laid the centers out, made coordinating piles of the outer strips, and sewed them together. I found it challenging to keep the like fabrics apart and keep it scrappy.

This is the quilt top, ironed and ready to be sandwiched with batting and backing, and quilted.

I'm really having fun at this, but I realized that Levi & Breanna were watching the whole "dismantling" process with the scissors and seam-ripper, and hope they don't get any ideas with their perfectly good clothes!

New Ideas

Wow, I read that last post and it sounded pretty grumpy! I decided I'm going to blog as I get the time, but mostly about my quilting, and I will update photos of our life in the Picasa Photo Albums as frequently as possible. Many have expressed frustration with Blogger for photos, and that is the source of my change of heart. Picasa is very simple and fast, as I do have two small children and don't want to spend all my time uploading photos of them for the family who keeps asking! So check out what you wish, I'll try to stay current so I don't get so bogged down! =)

Although there is no room for excuses for grumpiness, I can say that I am starting to feel a lot better lately. For those of you who don' t know, Tyler has had type 1 Diabetes since age 13. His doctor put him on a new type of insulin to try and manage it better, along with helping him to loose the weight he's trying so hard for. By the way, kudos to Tyler; he goes lap-swimming at the pool from 6am-7:30am at least 4 mornings a week before work! Anway, Tyler's body didn't like the new insulin, and reacted very strangely; it wouldn't work all day, and then worked excellent at night. We had the ambulance here in the wee hours of the night 3 times in less than a month, because his blood sugar would go too low and he'd go into siezures. When he's awake he feels it going low and compensates with food, but at night when he's sleeping he didn't register that. So.... I was becoming a nervous wreck and getting no quality sleep till he got up to go to work. Then less than 2 hours later, the kids would wake me up.

To make a long story shorter, he's now back to his old insulin that works better, and so far we have had less trouble. I still wake up every time he rolls over or twitches, but I'm even starting to get a little better on that. Breanna is very brave about the whole thing, but I was starting to worry about her. She would hear us talking late at night, and ask if the ambulance was coming..... I have a feeling that at that age if I had any idea my Daddy could wake up like that I'd have been a nervous wreck. Some good news also, is that his Dr. is petitioning the insurance to help pay for a constant glucose monitoring system that checks your blood sugar every few seconds, I think, and sets off an alarm if it goes too low or too high. So if they approve that, I no longer have to keep waking up & waking him up to check it! The problem right now is that it hasn't been approved by the FDA, so insurance won't cover it, and it costs quite a few thousand dollars plus another thousand per month for the supplies to keep it working. Since he's had such trouble, though, it's possible they will approve it. His diabetes specialist, Dr. Tanner, is a tremendous help through all of this. Thanks for listening, and I'll try to get photos up soon. The kids are growing up so fast it's hard to believe, and they are such good friends it is awesome. They do have their occasional squables, but it's obvious how much they love each other and us. I am so lucky to be part of such a wonderful family! =)