Images from this past week

This past week was a fun one!

Ryan has wanted a basketball hoop forever, and, since we have a huge driveway to play in, we decided to get one. During the rest of the year, Bob is more than willing to throw baseballs or footballs with him, but tax season kinda puts a damper on that. Shooting hoops, however, can be done on your own, or with your mom (who throws like a girl!). He's been out every morning before school and every evening afterwards shooting hoops. One evening, the neighbor boy was here until dark. I envision lots of late summer evenings out front. Emma's practicing her dribbling so she'll be ready to shoot when she's a bit taller.

Reading together Bob's brother, Rick, and his family came to visit. Paul's fourth birthday was this past week, so we celebrated that. Ann and I did a bit of shopping.

I am SO glad we kept our Thomas toys.

Cousins!

Does Emma look a bit outnumbered?

Three of the original Beery boys (out of five), and six of the nine grandkids (two more boys and a girl not pictured).

Emma took this picture...it cracks me up!

Paul was practicing his ninja man skills.

Happy birthday!

My little boy is getting much too tall!

Emma started swimming lessons just down the road in a salt water pool.

She was a bit nervous before the first one...now she keeps asking how many days until the next one.

This week is "Read Across America" week. It would have also been Dr. Seuss' birthday.

On Tuesday when I volunteered in Emma's class, they happened to be making Green Eggs and Ham. The kids had a blast and every single one of them tried it!

I caught Emma and her little buddy doing this several times. They are such good friends!

Yum! Right?

Spotted some of Emma's artwork in the hallway.

{Photo by Ryan}

Sewing, sewing, sewing

Dogpile on Daddy!

I love that Bob still makes the time to play with the kids even though he's exhausted!

Just a few more pics of the finished quilt.

Here it is after it was washed and dried. I love how washing it afterwards gives it that wrinkled look.

Finished size was roughly 70" x 60".

I LOVE this photo of Emma and Trevor.

Right after this, he came over and said, "See? See? See?"

It was awfully hard to get any more photos since he wanted to "see" them (before I had a chance to take them).

Emma was teaching some of her dance moves to Trevor.

Emma brought me my camera and asked me to take pictures of her while she was tossing her ball. This one was my favorite. She threw it up and missed; love the look on her face!

Since I no longer have my quilt to work on in the evenings after everyone is asleep, I started a new project last night. Here's a sneak peak...more on Monday!

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We're hearing birds through the (sometimes) open windows, our two doves are back in the yard, and the tulips have poked through the dirt. We're starting to think about what to work on in the yard this spring and summer, and we're also planning some more inside painting. The kids and I are on our way this weekend to the Poor Farm to spend some time with Hop and Nana.

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Happy weekend to all! Enjoy the sunshine and warmer temperatures.

Super Simple Strip Quilt ~ Day 6

As I mentioned in the past post, I decided to go ahead and quilt this myself. I "stitched (mostly) in the ditch" on the entire center panel and the thin yellow border. Then, on the large outer border, I used the masking tape method.

At this point, I was getting a bit tired. Looking to the left of my machine as I stitched sure did perk me up, though. Look at all of those colors!

One thing I've learned in my short life as a quilter is to run a basting stitch along the edge of the quilt. This helps so much to prevent the fabric from moving as you're sewing on the binding.

Before sewing on the binding, trim the excess backing and batting and create a straight edge.
Note: If your husband and/or children suggest buying a ping pong table or air hockey table, say "Yes!" It's a GREAT place to lay out and cut fabric. :)

Trimmed and ready for the binding.

Best use of a paper towel roll...

I start my binding about a quarter of the way down one side. I usually clip it to the quilt just on the first side, and then I just match it up as I'm sewing.

Want perfectly mitered corners? It's much easier than you think. Measure the finished width of your binding (the part that you'll see from one side after it's all sewn on, or the measurement when it's double folded. Mine was 3/4" . As you're sewing, stop that distance from the end of the side. So I stopped sewing 3/4" from the end of the first side. Spin the quilt to the next side, and fold it like this....

It's hard to explain, but basically you fold it back up on itself. Underneath you should have an angle at the corner.

and then fold it back down again. Start sewing up there at the very top of the new side.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

There are several methods to use when sewing on your binding. The method I prefer takes a bit longer (and puts a slight cramp in your hand), but I love the way it looks. There aren't any visible seams. I like to sew it on the top layer with the machine, and then I fold it over and slip stitch by hand on the back.

I love it when the corners turn out like this!

All done!!

Doesn't the red border just finish it off? Thanks so much to my sister-in-law, Ann, and

one of the employees at the quilt stop for helping me pick the two borders and the binding.

I love the back, too!

I always wash my quilts after they are finished, rather than prewashing the fabric.

I have a terrible time getting all of the wrinkles out of washed fabric, and I love the way it looks after it's washed and dried. It'll crinkle up due to the quilting.

The quilt's in the washer now...I'll post just a couple more photos once it's out of the dryer.

Then, just in case your all tired of looking at this fabric, I'll blog about something else. :)

My favorite moments of this process have been...

~watching Emma as she sits at the kitchen table and watches the fabric move.

~hearing my son's compliments (although he'd prefer it to be blue and orange)

~the numerous times Bob asked, "And this is for us, right? We get to keep it?"

~last night after I finished hand sewing the binding, I curled up under it with a book and enjoyed the fruits of my labor.

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Linking to Skip To My Lou

Super Simple Strip Quilt ~ Days 4 and 5

This next step can be a pain in the neck (and back, literally), but it's so important.

Once you've got your quilt sandwich laid out as smooth and straight as possible, pin it together with safety pins. Lots of them. I prefer the ones sold by Singer that have a curved pokey side.

Then it's time to quilt.

A friend showed me her completed jelly roll quilt this past Sunday. It was quilted with a floral design and was beautiful! Sadly, I do not have a quilting machine, can't seem to get my machine to stipple (could be the operator), and am not willing to pay $60-120 for someone else to quilt it for me. Therefore, I'm stichin' in the ditch on this one. I don't like the ditch...I seem to enjoy jumping up on the banks (a little farm humor). But we'll give it a try.

This is my backing fabric...it's so cheery that this quilt might spend some of it's time with the backing facing front!