Three Years Ago Today

Three years ago we were asked to take these two darling girls into our home. We thought it would be for a short time but it turned out to be forever. 

These first pictures are from my retirement dinner.  I left work at 130 PM and we had them by 330 PM.  My good friends had a dinner planned for me and we took the  girls with us. This is Little Bit. 

This is Bigger Bit.  We went to the 

Spaghetti Factory and we took the Light Rail to the restaurant. 

Here I am at my retirement dinner with my lovely Retired pin. I went right from work to being a Stay At Home Mom. Not what I had planned.  Heaven Father had a different plan, I am so glad I accepted it. The day before this dinner our former sister in law called me on my cell and left me a message, asking me to take her grand-babies. They had been with her best friend for three weeks but her friend couldn't care for them any longer. So I called Mr. B and asked if he had spoken to Nancy and he had.  We walked about what to do.  I had that feeling in my heart, deep down, when you know this is a cross road in your life. I knew I needed to do this and it was important and I had better not pass up important.  

This is Little Bit in the new dress I purchased for her so she could have a dress for Sunday. I need to take a picture in it now, to see how short it is on her, 

This is Bigger Bit in her new Sunday dress.  It was long her then I bet it will be just right now.  

 This is a close up of Bigger Bit now.  She is so lovely and helpful.  She is a born organized person and I love to watch her just get things done.  The opposite of me and Little Bit. 

 She always wants to stand on her toes to be as tall as I am. 

Here is Little Bit hasn't she grown?!?!?!?  She is catching up with her sister.  She is very creative and not into details. 

 These girls are as opposite as day and night. The night they moved in Little Bit took my face in her hand and told me I was just perfect.  Just melted my heart.  She still does and she can drive me crazy just as fast.

It sure hasn't been easy, I have never doubted this was the right thing to do.  It isn't easy that is for sure.  I sure gets lots of hugs and kisses and that helps make it worth while. 

They accuse me of getting cranky sometimes at bedtime when they won't settle down.  I remind them, "When you get cranky putting your kids down, and you are twenty something or thirty something, just remember I was sixty something."

Here I am with Mr. B up at Snowbowl AZ. He is also a part of this endeavor. I think he feels left out a lot. 

Happy 3rd Anniversary to new kids and retirement!

What I Have Left

The last meeting of the Get RR Done Club was Thursday October 8th.  I didn't go I just had too many things to do on my to do list.  But here is an update on my progress.  

I finished three projects and made progress on three.  I didn't finish all six, but that is OK.  

I finished the Stick Witch, Stick Santa and the machine quilting free motion sampler. 

I finished the Pink Princess top, which was suppose to be quilted and binding on.

I made one block on my Design and Sew Quilt, it was supposed to be quilted and binding on. 

I made one Dear Jane corner and constructed my four borders except for the blank spots. 

I bigger dreams than I had time for.

If I do this again I am going to make my projects smaller, or smaller parts. Like finish blocks.  

Life gets too hectic for me sometimes.

Below are the pictures of the Dear Jane blocks I still have to complete.  I had to put her away again for a short time.  I have class samples to start and finish.  

I can't get these to line up the way I want.  But you get the idea,

More items organized

Of course, when you are cleaning you find other things you want to organize. I had opened my box of pantographs and all the rubber bands I had rolled them up with had broken.  So I remembered how I had used empty toilet paper rolls to hold my wrapping paper on the tube.  Would it work for the pantos?

At first I just put them in the tube without cutting it but I could see which panto it was, so I decided to cut it and pull the name out. 

I now have them all in tubes now.  They are a little fatter than the ones in rubber bands but with the bands drying out and breaking they would expand any way. 

My other project was to pick out the fabric for the last four triangles I have to make for my Dear Jane quilt and the one corner.

This one I have already started working on.  

The one below I couldn't decide if I like the beige or the green. 

So I saved both fabrics. 

As I look at the picture now I am leaning towards the green. 

I love these colors together in the one below.  

No dull civil war fabrics for my Dear Jane.

Design and Sew

Once the room was all clean I started making those last three blocks of my Design and Sew quilt.  I design this class for the EQ students at my LQS.  (Electric Quilt, quilting design software).  I taught them how to draw the blocks in the software and then we were going to sew the blocks.  I sewed as we went.  Some of my students were winter visitors, and once they started to leave the locals only wanted to design and not sew.  

So I changed the class to fit their needs. 

Here is the first block I made in EQ, Tinted Chains.

Here it is in fabric. 

The next block was Ocean Waves.

My fabric pictures turn out better when I take them in the daylight.  They are't so yellow. 

The last one, American Beauty.

Here is the other visitor I have had in my room.  

I rearranged of the blocks three time.  I think this is what I like but I am going to leave it on the design wall for a little longer just to make sure. 

I am thinking about trying to teach this class in the next year.  

I just might only do the design part. 

All Clean Again!

Well it took me a month but my sewing room is all clean again.  I didn't work on it every day.  I have even sewed in it for the last three days.  Boy does that feel good.  I have two bad habits that make it hard for me to keep my room clean.  I don't put things away when I am done and I am a piler.  I make piles on flat surfaces.  What does a sewing room have, three flat surfaces. 

Here are the results.

It feels good!

One of the first I did is change out my hall design wall.

I took down my Dear Jane borders and placed my Design and Sew blocks on the design wall.  It is the next projecting I want to finish.

Here are the 9 blocks I had done and I realized I only had three more to go.  For some reason I thought there were more to make. 

Bigger Bit was in my sewing room last night while I was sewing and she told me, my room was so cool and she wants it.  She likes my spool of threads lights.  

Little Bit was in the night before last and had to make a little fall decoration for her bedroom.  

Tonight both girls have a friend over for a sleep over the little girls are watching movie in my sewing room.  

Suddenly my room is a very popular place.