A lesson learned

Our Maya is going to be three in July. I have decided to make her a flirty skirt for now in hopes of getting it in the mail so she will receive it in time. I looked over the pattern, cut it out and put it together. Looking at this first picture, it is little - I mean little!! I couldn't figure out how Maya would fit into it - it was 12' around at the waste. No way will this fit her, even as petite as she is.

So, after looking at the pattern again - and after complaining to Phil that they goofed - I reread the pattern, cut it out and put it together. Ta Da --- Here it is again - minus the elastic that I will have Sabine put in after she measures Maya's waist. I had cut one of everything instead of TWO of everything.

Here is the picture of both skirts. The left one will have straps put on it and it will be a sundress for her dolly. The other will fit her nicely and I will send it with a little top to match.
I can't wait to see Maya in her little outfit when it gets to the Philippines. She is gonna look really cute. And the lesson learned - READ THE PATTERN TWICE, CUT ONCE. I thought I had learned it before when I did that, but evidently I hadn't. Well, it made a cute story and will be fun to see the results on Maya and her dolly.

Wonderful News!!

We heard from our German son, Mirko, last night and I wanted to share a couple of pictures of them with you. Mirko is working for the German government and they are located in the Philippines for a three year tour. They are leaving for a two week Easter holiday and wanted to touch base with us before they left. They also have some wonderful news - they are adding to their family at the end of September. Sabine is doing well although her pregnancy is different from when she had Maya. Maybe a boy????? We will all pray for a healthy baby - girl or boy. So, here is a picture of Maya experiencing a ride on a horse with dad, Mirko.Two beautiful women, Sabine and silly Maya smiling for Dad. Maya is 2 1/2 years old and quite the joy in the eyes of her parents.

Two Special Quilts

I received a baby shower invitation saying that our nephew and his wife are having a baby boy in July. So, out comes shades of red, blue, green, yellow, and purple material to go along with car fabric to do a "Four on the Floor" baby quilt. I added a scrappy border, will quilt and bind it and -- ta da - a quilt is born. I also will find a book about cars to go along with it so that Cillian will have a fun book to look at while sharing his quilt with his mom or dad or even Pipi and Mimi.

This quilt is called "Mountain Get-away", and is the raffle quilt for the Sandy Historical Society's 11th Annual Quilt Show. We finished it by the end of February and it has been hanging in the local banks to have people purchase advance tickets. Notice the elk in the upper right hand corner - that is the block that I did. It was kind of plain until the antlers were added - now it is a regal elk overlooking our northwest. The blocks were machine appliqued and the quilting is wonderfully done by a local quilt shop owner. It was fun to do and a special person will take it home at the end of July during the Fly-In, Cruise-In Breakfast where the lucky ticket will be drawn.

I DID IT!!!

I like to sing. When I was in high school, I was in the SMA Choral. We did the musicals, concerts and sounded like angels in the IHM Motherhouse Chapel. Once out of school, I didn't join any choirs because I felt like I could just sing among the parishioners. So, when we moved to Oregon, after one year of being a member of Christ the King Church, I joined the choir, sang at the Grotto and was going to begin cantoring. Then we moved parishes.

We have a cantor, Vivian, and an electric piano pianist, Andrea, who do the music at our new parish, St. Michaels. As their is no choir, I told them if they wanted me to fill in for the cantor when she is not available, I would be happy to. So, Vivian said that she was going to be out of town at the end of March and would I fill in. I immediately said "yes".

I then asked if I could practice with Andrea, the pianist, maybe a few times before this weekend. That was when they told me that THEY BOTH WERE GOING TO BE GONE!!! Yikes!!!! So, not only would I be the cantor, I would be everything - cantor singing acapella!!!!

Last night and today were the days. I was really nervous last night, but only knew a couple of people at church and Fr. Kraull was grateful for my involvement. I also wouldn't let Phil sit where I could see him. Didn't want any distractions. I did fine until the "Holy, Holy, Holy". Somehow the music was nearly the same as another song and so we sang one verse of it instead of what I was supposed to lead them to sing. AARGH!!!! But I got through it and had many people come up to me and thank me for leading the songs.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I then had to go to St. John of the Woods in Welches and do Mass there as well. Wonderful little church, in the woods with great acoustics. Only about 20 people and I didn't know anyone so that was good. Noticed that they were singing songs I didn't know, so we changed that fast.

Then this morning, I went back for 9:30 Mass at St. Michaels and did it all over again. Only knew one person there and she sat in the choir loft so that was ok. Oh yes, I did all the songs correctly the last two Masses and am now done. Whew!!!

I did enjoy it and was glad that I only did one big goof and my voice didn't crack at all this morning. Vivian is going to be gone again in May but so am I so they will have to wing it themselves!! But I will look forward to serving in that capacity again in the future. Thank you God for getting me through it - it was great!!!

Oops - Forgot a photo

I meant to put this into the Northwest Quilters Quilt Show entry but forgot. The venue was Multnomah University which used to be called the Multnomah Bible College. So this gymnasium was used for their church services. As we looked up, there were these pipes and musical instruments in these boxes. And behind the glass was the pipe organ that they used. It was fun to look at - all the men who attended the show would be trying to figure out how it worked, I am sure.

My project for the week

I am involved in the Sandy Quilt Show which is held in the middle of July. About now is the time to think of what your entry will be for the show - or maybe not. Some people wait until three weeks before and then start scrounging through their stash to see what they can complete. Anyway, between April 1 and July 1, I will be gallivanting for a total of 5 weeks, so I need to make sure I have one in the works to be finished. Last year I did this top which is a wall hanging of the full size $5 quilt class. I didn't want a full quilt (already have two that need to be finished) so I chose to do this smaller version of "Kaleidoscope of Color".

Because I chose to do the "miniature" version, I had lots of pieces left over. So, I proceeded to do this as my backing. Now I will get time on the long arm quilt machine and quilt it. Yeah, an almost finished project. :-)

As you can see I still have some fabric left over. So, these will make nice borders for some of the squares we did last year at the quilt show called "Build a Block". More on that at a later posting.

Northwest Quilters Quilt Show

Yesterday my Q-FAC (Quilting and Fiber Arts Club) friend, LaDonna, her daughter Nissa and I ventured to Multnomah University to see the Northwest Quilters Quilt Show. They had 25 vendors, demonstrators and almost 300 quilts in their show. Very impressive and over-stimulating for the brain. Here are a few pictures I took of some of the quilts we saw.

This quilt was called "Pumpkin Soup", some piecing and some applique.
This was an indigo blue and white reverse applique quilt - meaning where the white is usually the blue is and where the blue is the white. These squares were 4 inch finished. Quite the eye opener when you first walked into the gym.

This was a three dimentional turkey called "Run, Tom, Run". His tail feathers were folded material and sewn into the seam and then fluffed to give it the 3-D look.

This was a wonderful fall applique piece. I loved the look of it - reminded me of Michigan in the fall.

This was a miniature pieced called "Button Baskets". Very cute - would be a neat hanging for a little girl.

This Quilt was done by a number of ladies. The blocks were all cross stitched and then put into a quilt. I believe it said it took them 5 years to complete.

This quilt was called "Almost Insane". Each square was 4 inch finished and put together with lots of little scraps of fabric.

This was one of the blocks in the quilt in the above picture. This 4 inch square has 200 pieces of material in it. (You can count them if you want - I took her word for it.) There was another one nearby that had 185 pieces in it. Very well done and the quilt was really neat to look at up close. Not for me to do!!
This quilt was fun to look at. The creator did log cabins for the baskets and then appliqued grapevine wreaths for the handles, flowers, birds, butterflies, etc.

Hope you enjoyed my little version of the Northwest Quilters Quilt Show.