tidying up

I pulled out a bunch of fabric to work with the other day that wasn't my normal pallet. It is bright and happy and colorful, very kid like.... I have been adding and taking away from it and this pile has become my "reward" for finishing some ufo's! I have a basket with the most recent (so no not even ALL of them) that i want to finish before I can cut into this pretty pile. I am actually going to make 2 very scrappy quilts from it. . 

First was this disappearing 9 patch. I finished it off as a twin quilt. I have not liked most of the disappearing 9 patch quilts I have seen but this allowed me to play with blue and red, my go to colors. I started it on one of my creative days, i wanted to see what would happen "if"... and then i had half a quilt finished. I liked the little satellites it created so its named "Space Race"

This quilt honestly is one that makes me want to try to free motion quilt some more.... I really wish I could have highlighted the satellites in the quilting but I just wasn't brave enough to "practice" on this quilt. So I think I had better spend some time each week practicing till Im brave enough to FMQ on an actual quilt!!

Then the striped monster. I started it to be a queen quilt for Ralph and I but I pulled some squares out to make my first "for sale" item. A small baby quilt out of blue, tan and yellow square but I ripped the backing while quilting it and it didn't end up for sale... it ended up being Tristan's favorite quilt that he uses daily at our house. OH, and i used some squares to make the squishy blocks that the grand kids love.... So I still had a gazillion more squares to cut to make our quilt and I just wasn't as in love with the idea... I made this instead, a baby quilt that i will put in the shop. Just have to quilt it yet. (LOL funny how the pieces to this quilt keep being my test for should I start making stuff and selling it. It took everyone 6 months to convince me that i should! Ralph is still mad I haven't put the squishy blocks in the store but honestly the grand kids keep stealing them and I haven't had a set to put in there!)

Here are some of the other things i have finished recently....

some napkins...

a table runner....

A table topper....

This is kinda cool... a bathmat for our bathroom! I quilted it on an old towel!

So I had talked about goals in my last post and YES I have met them! woo hoo...

my goals for the coming week:

I have two vintage sheet quilts to finish, a twister quilt and a string quilt. Add borders to two other quilts... buy some batting and finish some more.

Now on the family stuff...

Caty is reuniting with her baby's father. This is a good thing, they have been together for 8 years and I think they do love each other... I told her if she thinks she can work it out and she thinks they will be happy to fight for the relationship to work. I know this is what Lydia her other mother (my husbands previous wife) would have said. Honestly.. what do i think? I asked if she was happy with him? I just want her to be happy. But what do I know...  when it comes to marriage and love... my generation (im 45) is really screwed up. We grew up with the fantasy of happily ever after, our parents didn't divorce but our older siblings, cousins and counterparts... well they decided that the ever after part rarely included happy and we watched divorce happen, for me it was like a horror film. I went to their weddings as a child and by the time i was dating they were all divorced. Hmmm wasn't the best advertisement for committing to a serious relationship! Add to that all of the "you cant have everything" movies of the early 80's where we were taught we had to choose career or love and well, all that marriage stuff seemed like the raw end of the deal. So.. yes, i was 44 before I got married. (between you and me I think i picked a winner... it just took me a while to find him!!)

Things with Travis and Bridgette have settled down and Travis has sobered up and stopped doing drugs. That has been a miracle to watch and I am so proud of him. He has faltered some but he is winning the battle.  Bridgette is still in the nursing home and is still not doing well. I've decided that Child Protective Services is a joke. The other day we needed a phone number to something and we stopped to get it from the  investigator. We were told he wasn't in but his truck was clearly in the parking lot. We waited 20 min for his supervisor to get us the number. The receptionist even put up a sign saying to wait, there was no receptionist on duty, so we were in this waiting room and not a soul around. We left without the number, I had 2 two year olds in the truck who were cranky! when they realized we left the investigator called and said "uhh, i know you saw my truck in the parking lot and she told you i wasn't here. I just wanted you to know i didn't know you were out there and I didn't tell her to lie to you" What ever, CPS is a joke. On a bright side, they did have Landon the 6 yr old this weekend and it was nice seeing him. I miss Landon.

But all the changes means the house is getting empty again. Its quieting down, Im getting more sewing time, ralph is getting bored again and not sure what to do (im hoping he catches the "make stuff and sell it" dream again) But were not going to say any of that too loudly because Buck, one of his other sons is between jobs and staying with another family member. We dont want them moving back in.... that would be 2 adults and 3 children!

Uhhh... i wrote this the other day... here is more updates. Bridgette in in the hospital with an infection... and buck isn't just unemployed he either is doing or has been doing drugs! Not sure where this one is going yet or if we will end up with more grand babies... but dang... didn't he learn something watching his brother go thru that!!

forgot to mention im linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts for the first time!