Always be Thankful

In those moments between being fully asleep and fully awake I can do just about anything.  This morning during that time I started counting my blessings.  It is Thanksgiving after all.  But during that magical time I am very articulate and creative, so I am hopeful that now during my wakeful state I can duplicate what was in my heart and head just a few short moments ago!

Just about all of the blessing that I have in my life have equal importance, but near the top of my list of people I am thankful for are my parents.  They gave me life, but not just any ole life, they gave me the opportunity to live and grow up in an idylic place where I knew I was safe and loved. They gave me 3 precious brothers.  They instilled in me a very strong sense of family and moral compass that still guides me in my life today.  They are my rock, the cornerstone on which my life has been built on.  I could go on and list many other things, but I will move on as I have a long list of blessings.........

Elizabeth Cooper Williams was my great-grandmother and was one of the most influential people in my early childhood.  I just did the math a few years ago and figured out that she was 75 when I was born.  I only had her in my life for 15 or so years, but in those years she molded me into the person I am today.  Her greatest gift to me was the gift of my faith in God.  Strong and unwavering.  She always told me that when she went to heaven she would be my guardian angel and I'm pretty sure that she watches over me everyday.
Grandma also planted the seeds of my love of quilting.  I am so thankful for her!

Have you met my family?   Mike and I have been married for 31 years and have made 2 beautiful children.  Those children have married brought 2 more wonderful people in my life along with their extended families.  And now I'm getting grandchildren!  Now if you really know me you would know that I could go on and on and on about my family.  But I'll spare you that today, since I write/talk about them alot on a normal day.  But suffice it to say that I am so grateful for Mike, Brian, Jenny, Jen, Rafael and Mia.  They are my world.

I am fully awake now and my creative side is getting rather uncreative.  Besides that I have cooking and cleaning and black friday planning to do, so my brain is starting to run on a different wave length. 

However I would be remiss not to mention one of the most valuable gifts that I am grateful for and that is my friends.  God has placed a whole host of people in my life who are precious to me.  My little ole heart just wells up with thanksgiving and love as I count each and every one of you. 

Sounds like I have a pretty perfect life doesn't it?  There is one area of my life that I struggle with, but I'm even trying to be thankful for that.   For the last 8 years or so I've not had too many days without pain.  Some days are better than others; I'm thankful that there are few days that are really bad.  I truly believe that we are given trials in life to shape and mold us into the people we need to be.  Sometimes I just wish I could learn my lesson and move on!  Guess I have a thick skull! 

I've been at this for an hour now and I really must start my day.  But I leave you with this quote that a friend posted yesterday:

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, and confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." ~Melody Beattie

 

Have a beautiful and thankful day!

~tammy

 

Another Monday, come and gone

Isn't this the sweetest baby

you've ever seen?

I finally designed and embroidered the

label for Mia's quilt today.

It is all sewn on the back of the quilt

and is now ready to go to it's new home.

This label was designed and embroidered today as well.

It was sewn onto this t-shirt quilt

which will go to it's new home soon too.

I guess I need to finish up the YIKES quilt

so I will have a quilt to keep!!!!

Sometimes it is hard to see my quilts leave.......

Does anyone else have this problem?

God Bless,

tammy

What a weekend!

I love this picture.

Our angelic Mia never has a shortage of people

wanting to hold her.

Grandpa refused to get in line.

He insisted that grandpa's always get to go to the front!

I wish every single baby in the world had so many people

wanting to hold them!

Mike and I had the pleasure of Mia's company for a whole night!

Jenny and Rafael had a wedding to attend

Here they are all dressed and ready to go.

These two are great parents and really

deserved a night to themselves.

I did decide one thing during the 4AM feeding.....

God was very wise to give babies to young people!

I used to love those nightime feedings when my

kiddos were young.....it was a very special time.

Even tho I was tired and rather bleery-eyed at 4am this morning,

Mia rewarded my loving care with an ANGELIC smile

when I picked her up.

She is just so, so precious and words just

can not describe the deep well of love I have for that little babe.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early and it found

me moving furniture and deep-cleaning my carpet

AND

embroidering these shirts for Jen.

She is in charge of a banquet this coming week and

asked me to make shirts for her committee.

I love the way they turned out!

I had embroidered these aprons earlier this week, but on

Sat. morning I also made some micro-mitts to go along with them.

So Saturday was a great day......

some cleaning, some creating and some family time and some MIA time!

Sunday was a day of rest.....well-deserved rest!

God's Blessings,

tammy

Whoopee!

Finally Finished!

I've been working on this t-shirt quilt on and off for some time now.

And I'm really happy to say that it is

 FINALLY FINISHED!

Isn't it cute?

I am so pleased with how it turned out!

Melinda gave me a big bag of really cool shirts

some time ago.

Her fav colors are yellow and red AND she

wanted the quilt to be made with FLANNEL!

I just couldn't get into making the quilt out of flannel

because I could not find any flannel that enhanced

the shirts.

I finally convinced her that having flannel on the BACK

of the quilt would still be quite cosy.

So today I was determined to finish this quilt.

Do you have any idea how heavy a 30 shirt t-shirt quilt is?

Oh....especially one made with FLANNEL?

I spent a great deal of time today pushing and pulling and lugging that quilt

thru the sewing machine while

attaching the binding!

Oh....did I mention that it was about a million degrees in my house today?

Okay.......I'm done whining.........

The quilt is finished and it turned out gorgeous!

I spent a few hours today over at Patrick Lose's studio working

on quilts that will be going into his new BABY book.

I pieced a very cute little quilt that will be on the cover of the book.

Made me want to come home and make one up for my

sweet little grandbaby!

Guess I'll have to wait until the book comes out

so I'll have a pattern!

Can't close a post without a picture of my precious angel.

Mike and I are going to babysit for the whole night tomorrow night.

Wish us luck!

It's been awhile since I've had to get up during the night with

an infant.

So with that in mind I think I'd better close and get some sleep!

til we meet again,

tammy

Added two piano key side borders today

and this Yikes quilt is starting to come together.

Still need to add the top and bottom piano key border

AND

another light border and a dark border.

Borders are not my favorite thing......:(

Almost completed quilting a t-shirt quilt today.

Just have a little more to go, but I just couldn't

work up the energy to finish it up tonight.

I embroidered these two aprons today

for a wedding gift.

Jenny designed them and

they will be part of a gift that

Jenny and Rafael will be giving at the

wedding they are attending this weekend.

I was lucky to spend a little time with Mia today.

She is AMAZING! 

I know, I know,

I'm sounding like a doting grandma, but HEY!

That's what I am!

I've really been seeing such growth in her the last

couple of days.

She is holding her head up so nicely!

Okay,  I'll stop at that!

God Bless, and good night,

tammy

What a day!

It's pretty hot outside so I am happy that I get to work inside!!!!

I worked on my "Yikes" quilt this morning  and finished

up sewing all the blocks together AND I put on the first border.

Honestly I'm not thrilled with it

so I hope that when the next border goes on it starts to come together.

The next border is a pieced piano key border

and it looks pretty cool.

My day was filled with quilting a t-shirt quilt and cleaning the

carpet in 1/2 of my studio.

Oh and some news.........My precious grandaughter rolled

over today for the first time. 

Amazing!

She's only one month old!

I hope this was just a fluke and she

is not going to start rolling over all the time!

One thing is for sure............Gonna have to watch her all the time now!

Mike and I are going to be watching her this Saturday night

while Jenny and Rafael go to a wedding.

They will be picking her up in the morning.

Should be an interesting night.

I've recently made this sweet quilt for Mia.

It was so fun to go to the quilt shop and pick out fabric.

So often I try to use fabric from my stash and make it work.

What fun to choose fabric and watch it all come together!

God Bless,

tammy

Friday Night Fun

For the second friday in a row I've found myself sewing at

Patrick Lose's studio.

Last night the Friday Night Quilter's met up there to sew.

It's been a long time since we have ACTUALLY SEWN!

What a wonderful feeling!

Cheryl finished up a back for her latest quilt.

The backs of Cheryl's quilts are ALWAYS interesting.

Interestingly enough this is a quilt that I started

many, many years ago.

It is an I Spy quilt that I was making using a variety of fun focus fabrics.

It was a project that I didn't think I would ever finish so I passed

it on to Cheryl's mom.

She worked on it and then it was passed on to Cheryl.

This will be going to Cheryl's new grandbaby.

I mentioned that I, too, had a new grandbaby,

but well, she wasn't willing to give it back to me.

Joanne was working on her annual doll.

Each year for her grandaughter's birthday she has made an original doll.

I always marvel at her creativity.

Dolly is working on making bags out of Capri Sun containers.

Like mother, like daughter.....creativity seems to run in the fam.

Cynthia was working on a paper pieced project.

AND brought in a really fun quilt to share.

Wish I snapped a photo!

Since I could not sleep the night before I had all of these

blocks cut and ready to sew.

Whoo hoo!  I finished them all!

Here are all of the finished blocks for the quilt.

Now comes the interesting part of arranging them into a quilt top.

Guess that's it for now.....

sleep well all,

tammy

Sleepless in the Southwest

For some reason I've found myself wide awake

in the middle of the night lately.

Usually I toss and turn and try to go back to sleep,

but this night I decided to take a page from my friend

Carole's book and get up and go down to the studio.

At our last quilt retreat I started working on Debbie Boles "Yikes" quilt and

I made a couple of blocks last week at the "Area 51" Work on your

UFO's workshop I attended. 

Tonight is FNQ night and we are sewing at Patrick's studio so I decided to

get the rest of the blocks prepared so tonight all I have to do is

get the pedal to the medal and SEW!

Look at that!  I've got my blocks and patterns all ready to go!

Hopefully I'll finish them all up tonight!

Yesterday I got to spend some time with my two favorite girls:

And I'll get to see them again today since I get to spend some time

with Mia while Jenny attends to some business.

I wonder what mischief we will get into today?

Last time we were alone I offered Mia some frosting

(something I am notorious for!)

She pretty much shook her head at me and told me

(in no uncertain terms)

that "Babies don't get to have sugar until they have thier first birthday cake"

and "My mommy told me that I could not have frosting until then!"

Isn't she a smart girl already?

It's 5:30am and I think I'll try to close my eyes again and

get a little sleep if I can.

Don't want to be grouchy today with my Mia OR

tonight with the FNQer's!

Night,

tammy

What is the best pick-up line you've heard?

So when is the last time someone handed you a pick-up line?

I've been married over 30 years and if you do the math you

could probably figure out that I'm not in my 20's, 30's or 40's anymore.

I've heard some lines over the years, but I'm usually pretty oblivious to them.

Then I think back and say "HEY!  What was that?"

As was the case one fine steamy hot day last week. 

I was walking up to get a cart in front of the grocery store and as usual

keeping an eye out on what is going on around me.

I noticed this guy sitting on his BICYCLE holding a case of beer right

in front of the door of the grocery store. 

Weird, but not worrisome.

As I walk into the store mumbles something to me.  I keep on walking.....

It didn't really register to me what he was saying until I got into the store!

His words were  "Wanna go for a beer?"

WANNA GO FOR A BEER????

I cracked up! 

So was he picking up chicks on his bicycle?

Gonna go out into the parking lot and toss back a few cold ones?

AND  did he need glasses????

Hell-o?!?

TOOO funny!  Guess I still got it! 

Still laughing,

One hot gramma in Phoenix!

tammy

ps.  I can't end a post without a cute picture of my precious angel.

These are the things that I pick up!

Precious babies and pizza!

Saturday Sew Day

Last week Kathy and I had an

impromtu quilt shop hopping day. 

We decided to check out a new

 Quilter Cafe which had opened

beside Quiltz. 

Turns out it is the new studio of Patrick Lose. 

He wanted a place where he could work and hang up all of his designs.

Then he decided that he would open up this space to quilters to come

in and have coffee, bring in and work on projects and probably some

more exciting things to come.

Hanging on the wall in this lovely shop was a baby quilt.  I decided that

I really wanted to make it and wanted to buy the pattern.  Turns out the

pattern is located in a book that is no longer being published.  So I went

home and did a little search and came up with the Book "Special Delivery"

by Patrick Lose.  Yippee!  When I got home last night the book was waiting for me!

A trip to the fabric store and I'm ready to begin this project today!

I am anxious to begin!

Last night Kathy, Carole and I attended "Area 51".  Bring in your UFO's.

It was a lovely night filled with fabric, friends, fun and food!  Carole brought in her embroidery machine and stitched up some designs.  Kathy traced and cut fabric to use in a large applique wallhanging.   I squared up some blocks for a halloween project, mended a flag and worked on a couple of blocks for my "Yikes" quilt. 

We met some new friends, Suzanne, Kelly and Sue and enjoyed seeing what they were working on.  We had yummy snacks, delightful music, a movie and even played quilt Bingo!

Patrick and Gary shared the Triple Irish Chain quilt tops that they have recently made.  Unfortunately I did not snap a picture, but I DO have a picture of one I made several years ago.

This is one of my very favorite quilts.

I started collecting purple and green fabrics a looooong time ago

and contained in this quilt is fabric that Mike picked out for me

when he was on a business trip to Kentucky. 

He passed a quilt shop everyday on his way to work and one day

he stopped in.  The ladies there were more than happy to help

him pick out purple and green fat quarters. 

They even went the extra mile and searched around in the back

to find a special square of Kentucky Derby fabric.

I made my label out of that!

OH!!!

And that pillow!!!!

This is my VERY FIRST QUILTING PROJECT!

I made that over 30 years ago!

In South Africa no less.

Time to start quilting!

Hope you get some quilting in today too!

ps.....I can't end a post without including a picture of my precious angel!

God bless!

tammy

What a month!

My precious Angel

July 30th

July has been an emotional roller coaster type of month!!!

We began July WAITING.....

waiting on the birth of our first grandchild.

Mia was due to arrive on July 3rd, but my daughter Jenny

was adamant that she was going to be born on July 4th.

July 4th came and went, as did the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th,

and with each day passing the anxiety and uncertainty started growing.

The 10th of July marked one week overdue

and not even one centimeter dialated

so the doc wanted Jenny to go to the hospital

to do a hormone gel procedure to hopefully

encourage some dialation.

Over 12 hours later.....still no dialation.

The nurse already had the pitosin bag out and

was ready to hook it up to Jenny's IV.

Jenny was ADAMANT that she did not want to

be induced with pitosin and thankfully her doctor

agreed to let her return home and see if she might go into labor naturally.

Unfortunately this was not to be.

Jenny returned to the hopital in the wee hours of July 13th

to go thru yet another dialation/inducement treatment.

This picture was taken around 6am Tuesday 13July.

Still hopeful that the Cytotec inducement would work.

Cytotec has a nickname of "Dynamite" so we joked that

it was taking a stick of dynamite to get Mia to be born!

Miss Mia proved to have an even stronger will than we thought since the dynamite was not successful.  By noon on the 13th the doc was giving the kids the option to keep trying the cytotec, break her water, pitosin or c-section.

Jenny just couldn't see the sense in trying pitosin and having to labor for hours, cause stress to the baby, still not dialate and have to have a c-section.  The doc tried to break her water with no success since she was not dialated enough to insert the tool she used.  So it was decided that a c-section would be performed at 6pm that evening. 

Mike and I went home to let the kids have some time alone together to prepare themselves, but less than an hour had passed when I got a call from Rafael that the c-section might be sooner and Jenny wanted me to come back in to the hospital. 

This is what greeted me when I got back to the hospital.

Mia's heart rate had begun to drop and not come completely back up with the small contractions that Jenny was having so they started preparing 

for the c-section.

Jenny kept saying over and over...."I don't want to do this anymore" and "I don't want to have a c-section".

She was taken back to surgery at 3:30pm and Mia was born at 3:58pm.

I am so proud of my daughter.  She wanted so badly to have a completely natural birth experience with no drugs.  She had been preparing herself mentally for this for months.  She did everything in her power by trying less invasive drug treatments when it became apparant that things just were not going to happen on their own.  She truly wanted the best for her baby.

Mia, of course, has taught Jenny the first in many lessons...Babies have thier own ideas about things, thier own time schedules, and moms just need to learn to be flexible!

After weeks and weeks of agonizing wait I get to hold my grandchild for the very first time.  The emotion clearly seen in my face is a mixture of elation, extreme joy and the release of days of pent up anxiety and worry. 

As you know the birth of a baby is just the beginning.

God's Blessing to you,

grammy tammy

I just had to post this picture again at the end of my story.

Is this baby girl just a perfect angel?

Can you tell that I am a berry proud gramma?

This picture was taken yesterday when she was 17 days old.

Can you see her TEETH????

Mia was born with 2 teeth situated just under the gums and started poking out the day after birth. 

Waiting........

I finally got to spend some time in my studio today and this

is one of the things that I made.

Well, all I really did was embroider Mia's name on this little dress.

Oh, and I did make the headband to match.

You can buy the stretchy ribbon at Hobby Lobby and just

sew it together.

I also bought at Hobby Lobby a bouquet of flowers and I pulled

off the flower head, removed the hard plastic part, hot glue gunned

the petals together and then hot glued it onto a hair clip

so it can be mixed and matched with various headbands and outfits.

I also spent some time ironing the baby clothes I had handwashed

earlier in the day.

I took such care with them because they were mine when I was little.

I remember a story that my mom told me about my

cousin Diane coming to visit from California and helping mom

iron my little dresses. 

WOW!  I ironed those little dresses today and it was

a heck of alot of work!!!!

It made me pretty thankful for the wash and wear type fabrics

that I had when my kids were little.  I can't imagine having to iron

all of my kids clothing!

I think the dress on the right was my Christening dress.

Here is my baby girl at 41 weeks.

Hopefully I'll be a grandma very soon!

grammy tammy

Friday Night Quilters

Last night I enjoyed a very nice evening filled with

good friends, good food, and really good quilts!

Here are some pictures of my talented friends

and some of the projects they have been working on.

Joanne with a couple of Alzheimers quilts that

are ready to be sent in to be auctioned

to raise money for Alzheimer's.

Mary's quilt

This is the quilt that we made for

Linda after her bed-bug experience at quilt camp.

It is hanging on her wall.

Katrina's out of this world quilt.

It has another name, but I can't seem to remember what it is!

Cheryl recently returned from a trip to Bali!

While there she made this batik panel.

She drew the design on paper, then drew it with wax before

she applied the paint colors to this piece.

She also made the jewerly she is wearing while in Bali.

Sharon has been busy finishing Quilts!

Sharon again.

I think Mary might have gotten the prize for the most finished tops.

Mary was given a patchwork dog like this when her twin girls were born, so she decided to duplicate it!

More from Mary.

I didn't have anything to show last night so I have decided to spend the afternoon doing some sewing!!!!

til next time,

Happy Quilting!

tammy