Quilts!

So, as you may have gathered from my social media feeds over the past year or so, I am obsessed with quilting! I started trying it when I was pregnant with Eric but only recently fell completely in love. There is something so wonderful and therapeutic about selecting fabrics and patterns and turning them into something comforting and beautiful for someone you love (This seminar by Mary Fons brought me to tears and gave me the bug). I make a practice of praying for the person the quilt (or wall hanging, or bag...) is for as I sew. So if you don't believe in God and I give you a quilted gift some day - ha! I prayed for you for hours! ;) 

Anyway, if you have ever considered quilting, I recommend you check out Missouri Star Quilt Co's YouTube tutorials (or YouTube in general). The owner, Jenny Doan, reminds me of my mom and she has this way of making you think you know her. Also Craftsy.com has lots of more in-depth classes. And then try it! Or ask me and we can quilt together! :)

This was, I think, my first exposure to quilts. It was made by my Granny, my great-grandma (Lela!). 

She made it out of my Pop’s old work clothes and other garments and I absolutely love that it was made out of necessity and from what she had available to her. I think it is one of the most beautiful quilts I’ve ever seen for that reason. It’s lovely and heavy and warm and it layed on my bed all through high school and college. As you can see, I have some work to do to patch it back up!

Here are some quilts I've made over the past couple years, because half the fun of quilts is looking at other people's!

This one I made for Jake when I was pregnant. It was a great beginner quilt because the brick layout meant no points to align perfectly, it was tied instead of quilted and there was no binding. Easy. 

This is a Jelly Roll Race quilt I made for my brother. I used masculine fabric and backed/bound it with denim. I tied it instead of quilting it because it reminded me of my Granny’s quilt.

I made this one for my nephew in Portland. I found some cute organic, foresty fabric and was really happy with the way it came out. This one turned out nice and flat - very few puckers! :)

This fun chevron one was made for one of my best friend’s baby boy. It is made with rectangles, which is a surprisingly easy way to create the zig-zag pattern. The cool thing about this was that I only had a vague idea of what her nursery theme was and it turned out almost perfectly matched! 

Since I was pregnant with Lela (scratch that - since I was 4), I’ve loved hearts and rainbows. I saw this Pixelated Heart pattern and decided it looked simple enough. And it was! I love how it looks in her room. 

I saw this pattern, which is called Granny Squares, and knew I had to make something for my mom using it. Then I found this fabric line (Honeysweet) in mini precuts on sale and they were screaming her name so I snatched them up and made them into this wall hanging for her (didn't take a picture of it completed). This is one of my favs because I just love the way the colors look! 

I used Spell It with Moda patterns to make these for my kids' playroom. 

A surprisingly easy one I made to fill some empty space on my bathroom wall. It's called a Lonestar block.

A quick one, just for me. Hangs in my office. 

This one is another Jelly Roll Race quilt (Jelly Roll is the name of a precut 2.5” strip). I chose this fabric because it’s called Summer Vacation and it looks very tropical. I made it for my high school bestie who just moved back from living in Hawaii for 5 years and I thought it would be a perfect bed or beach blanket. I quilted it with wavy lines. Get it? Waves?

This one was a stretch for me skill-wise. I had my sis- and bro-in-law pick a quilt they liked for me to make for them. The daddy-to be ended up making this selection, as he’s a big Cowboys fan. This was paper pieced, which I’d never done before, but by the end I was feeling more and more confident. I did a combo of machine, hand and tie quilting on this one. I wish some points had lined up a little more perfectly, but I really like the overall result (and I’m in love with the new nephew who goes in it!!).

I saw this one on Pinterest and used a scrappy collection of fabrics from Joann’s and my stash to piece the top. It’s for some very special friends who are welcoming a very special foster baby into their lives.

 I thought this verse was an appropriate one for his little life — no matter what happens!

Another Pinterest idea. Looked masculine and simple. It was one of my first and I wanted to hand quilt it with green floss to match the back but it took forever and didn’t really look that good. So halfway through I changed my mind and picked out the stitches and machine quilted it. Happy to have that one done :)

I had forgotten about this one. I sewed the top and set it aside months ago. I recently pulled it out and am enjoying hand quilting it with different colors of variegated pearle cotton!

This one was for my Gramma. A couple months ago she fell and hurt her hip and knee and spent a couple weeks in a nursing home. Seeing her in there made me think how nice it would be for her to have a nice, snuggly quilt to lay under. I used April Showers for this one because she (along with all the farmers in my family) loves the rain!

Another for my Momma. She loves to decorate for fall, maybe even more than Christmas, so I made these for her for her birthday this year.

 So there you go! Though I am by no means an expert and have plenty of room to grow with my quilting skills, this is a hobby I love and I wanted to share...

 Now if I can come up with a way to be more efficient and make some money at it! ;)

Scary Day

Here is the story of what happened to our Lela this week. And since it was just Lela and me most of the time, I took quite a few pictures to send to family...

So, Wednesday afternoon I took the kids and ran over to my parents' for a bit. We were chatting in the living room and the kids were playing (Sarah and her girls were there, too). Suddenly Mom heard what sounded like pills shaking and we got up and saw Lela holding two pill bottles. The lid was off one and it was empty. We quickly searched around and didn't see any pills on the floor and I saw blue in her teeth (the color of the pills from the empty bottle). Mom quickly called 911 (so thankful for her quick thinking and acting!). Poison control said we should take her to the hospital because she'd eaten 4-6 pills. As I was talking to the lady about which hospital to go to, she said never mind the firetruck was already on our street.

So I ran outside with Lela and Sarah ran down the driveway to direct them to the house. Immediately there were about a thousand firemen & EMT's gathered around us asking a million questions and checking Lela out. She was pretty quiet. Then they had us get her carseat and loaded us into the ambulance. Again, Sarah went running and got the seat, then ended up running back to the house for my purse and cell phone.

Lela was starting to get droopy in the ambulance as we drove into Fallbrook. They gave her a syringe of charcoal, which she actually drank down with no resistance. But they were supposed to give her 4 more and she did not want any more. She kept signing "all done". By then she was pretty covered in charcoal and kept falling asleep.

We got to the ER and they took us in and hooked her up to a heart and pulse monitor. She was pretty out of it and was just sleeping. I was able to talk to Christian at work and tell him what was happening (although I felt like I really didn't know anything). No one could really tell us anything, but just wanted to monitor her.

Christian got there after an hour or two, and he was able to be there with us for a while.

At one point Lela threw up. A LOT of black throw up and also a whole blueberry that she had eaten earlier. I was holding her, so it got all over me, too. They gave me scrubs to wear, which was nice (all day people kept asking me if I was medical. Nope, just puked-on.). They put in an IV and did an EKG. They had noticed some irregular BP's while she was sleeping that they didn't like.

They told us we would have to stay overnight so they could continue to monitor her and since they don't have a pediatric unit at Fallbrook Hospital, they would send us down to Rady's Children's Hospital in San Diego. Christian left at that point and went home to get me a bag of essentials like clothes, granola bars, etc. Then he went back to Mom and Dad's to get the boys and take them home for the night. We left the Fallbrook ER about 9pm (side note: That was not an enjoyable experience. Gunshot wound came in after Christian left so there was lots of blood and police and most of the nurses/doctors were fairly detached -- which I guess you have to be?)

The team of transport people who came from Rady's were wonderful. They were so friendly and informative. They strapped our sleepy little girl into the big gurney and wheeled her out for her second ambulance ride of the day. Each time she rode they gave her a new stuffed toy, so she got a wolf and an m&m. They had me sit up front, so I didn't get to see her while we drove down to San Diego. So I just made stupid small-talk with the driver. This is totally irrelevant in the light of what was going on, but I was at my maximum frumpiness. I had just thrown on sweats (and Crocs) and had on no make up and dirty hair, since I was just running to Mom's for a while. And by now I also smelled like throw up. Christian had brought me my toiletry bag so I told the driver not to judge me, but I was going to put on some make-up :)

When we arrived at Rady's the nurse said she had talked to Poison Control again and had learned that the drug's effects peaked around 3-5 hours after ingestion and we were already at about 7. This was a huge relief. When we got to our room and they were getting her off the gurney she looked at me and smiled, which she hadn't done for hours. They hooked us all up and even brought in a big bed instead of the crib so I could sleep with her. The nurse stayed with her while I quickly changed clothes. She was pretty zonked so she slept a lot.

This photo is blurry and dark but I love it because at 4am she popped her little head up and was all smiles! This was the first "Lela" I had seen for about 12 hours.

Then she slept some more.

Then she woke up and was cute.

Then she had some banana.

Then she was silly for a while.

Then we watched cartoons.

More sleeping.

Then brushed her dollies' teeth.

Had some ice (who doesn't love hospital ice?!)

 Thursday at preschool was "Donuts with Dad", where the dads go to school in the morning and play games and have donuts with the kids for an early Father's Day. So since the boys missed school that day, Christian took them out for their own private "Donuts with Dad".

Then, after another EKG and lots of waiting, everyone cleared us to go home! 

This was seriously a nightmare. I still can't even really let myself think about exactly what happened and what could've happened. I am so thankful for all the many prayers of family and friends on our behalf, because I couldn't even think how to pray. They were definitely the moaning, wordless prayers that the Bible talks about. All I could do was keep my head down and comfort my baby, trusting that my heavenly Father was doing the same - for me and for Lela. So thank you to everyone who called, texted or facebook'ed to let us know you were thinking of and praying for us. This momma needed to know that others were holding us up when I couldn't.

Another "God Thing" is that I have been trying to wean Lela for the past 4-5 months and she'll have none of it. It's her favorite thing and she just won't stop. Well, I was so thankful for that because I was able to nurse her to keep her calm and happy sitting in those hospital beds for 24 hours so she wouldn't freak out or pull out her tubes and wires. So thankful for that!

Anyway, that was a very long story! I am just beyond thankful that my baby is ok. And my heart is heavy for the families I saw at the hospital who might not get to have the same end result from their stays. We are definitely squeezing our babies extra tightly - and following Lela everywhere she goes! 

Eric is FIVE!

Five years ago today, you made me a mommy. 

Feels like yesterday and a million years ago. 

So many firsts. For you and for us and they just keep coming!

You are an incredible little boy and I am so thankful that God picked me to be your mom. 

I love you with my whole heart!