summer vacation

Through the stress I really haven't paid much attention to my etsy store and I hadn't been selling much. Strangely though sales come in groups and I made three sales in 2 days last week. Ive been trying to figure out what sells best between the patterns,

 the fabric

 and the handmade items 

but everytime i think one is the leader i sell some of the other two to make it neck in neck... so as of right now i have sold the exact same number of handmade items, patterns and fabric. Now because i did sell one baby quilt the hand made items have grossed more income, followed by the sheets then the patterns. What that tells me is i need to make more things and put more things ive made for sale. 

My goals from last Monday: 

1. finish piecing the top to Liberty (done)

2. quilt and bind cowhand quilt (Ive made the sandwich and plan to quilt it tonight - should be done by monday)

3. finish one of the table runners or table mats ive started. I pinned and started quilting one but hate the quilting ive done so im tearing it out... i may not finish this one)

4. put 6 new listings on etsy... hmmm so far a total fail on that one too.

lets see what i can get done by monday!

but its not wonder with the whirlwind week we have had concerning the children!

We finally had a CPS meeting with the concerned grandparents and Ralph's son. His wife was too sick to attend. I have mixed emotions. I felt the need to defend Ralph's son because i do feel like everyone was pointing the finger at him saying you messed up. Yes, mess up he did but I know in his heart he was trying, he just lost the battle because he was  trying to juggle chainsaws. He had a sick wife, two kids, a dangerous job... he took a step off in the wrong direction and it took him down a rabbit hole. I dont know if he will ever find his way back out but I do see he is trying. Two steps forward one step back. It was agreed among everyone there that until Travis met his goal of no longer doing drugs, to keep the kids safe they would live with us. Everyone agreed that the two boys should stay together. (the grandmother that im about to talk about was at that meeting and agreed to the same thing)

So... let me talk about the older child for a second. He is not Ralph's sons child, he was 3 when he met his mom and they got together... so for half his life Ralph's son has been this boys father because his real father has broken into the local drug store for drugs, has gotten out of jail for that and is now incarcerated somewhere else for who knows what. I think the child has seen his biological father 3 times in his life. Now his grandmother, the woman who raised the jailbird has played a role in the childs life. While we were keeping him we were letting him spend weekends with her. My feelings were that his mom was ill and we are not sure what will be the outcome for him. He is going through a rough time and he needs all the loving supportive people in his life he can get... she seemed to be one. 

In the last month, we did have to ask her to quit feeding the boy so much sugar because twice he came home throwing  up pure sugar. I also had to ask her to quit giving him medication that wasn't prescribed because she believed him to be sick. I took him to the doctor he did not have asthma he had a touch of seasonal allergies but she was giving him breathing treatments that were straight steroids and he didn't sleep for 2 days after spending time with her. (so she is a bit batty i think... and with the self medicating, no wonder she raised a brood of drug addicts!!!)

The other night while he was visiting her, she called and she claims she has "custody" of him and wasn't going to give him back. no one has been served anything so she may just be batty or she may have a lawyer that drew something up that she thinks is custody papers... who knows. We are letting him stay there till legally we can do something about it. what i do know is that she has taken him from us, from his brother, from the man he knows as his father and from his mother who isn't dead yet... what she has done was nothing but selfish and was done to meet her own needs.

Ralph's son has hired a lawyer and honestly since she did this before the childs mother died... i think he has a shot at getting Ralph and I custody of him. I honestly dont know what would be best for him. With this grandmother his aunt would be his babysitter and she has the same problems as Ralph's son. The other aunt is a prostitute i have been told. (i think she HAS been one... HAS or IS im not sure of her role model ability) I honestly didn't expect to keep him forever because we are not blood and there hasn't been an adoption... but i did picture a much smoother transition, one where we and his little brother still had a place in his life. 

Child Free Weekend

Both children were with other relatives this weekend. It was like old times, Ralph and i relaxed.... and i finished projects!

I bought a box of fabric and these 6 blocks were in it. I made them into this table runner during the playing at the orphanage day!

The purple fabric is from scrubs (i am actually planning a quilt of solids from scrubs for my niece who is a nurse.)

I ordered thread from connecting threads.... this yellow is one of the colors i bought. It is very Mardi Gras ish against the purple. (and on my computer the solid is looking royal blue but really it is a deep purple.

I had started the quilting before the donation quilt... yesterday i finished it and put the sunny yellow and orange flower binding on it. awww weee how pretty as alyssa my other 2 yr old granddaughter would say. I think im going to sell this one. I haven't decided. I may keep it for my Mardi Gras decorations!

My pastel and pink 9 patch table topper. I made and finished this one a while back, but just now getting pictures of it. So sweet and dainty!

and a vintage sheet table topper from 2 1/2 in squares. This was also finished a while back but Im just now getting pictures of it to put it up for sale. 

Lets see if i can do some simple goal setting for this week.... i may be over confident since ive been kid free.... but how about i set 4 goals.....

1. quilt and bind the cowhand quilt.

2. Finish piecing the Liberty Quilt top. I need border fabric for it so i may not be able to totally finish it this week... but finish as much as i can.

3. Quilt and bind another table topper or runner that i have started but haven't finished.

4. Put in 6 new listings on etsy (I have about 100 things i can put!)

ok... there lets see how i do!!

Progress on Liberty Quilt

My first quilt where i have followed a pattern!!!

I am loving it. I love the colors, and as far as the pattern goes, i have always wanted to make a log cabin quilt but i have NEVER seen a layout of one i like... till this one.

Im not going to show the whole thing till im totally done because it is looking awesome. I have half done right now. Well, more than half, i am sitll making stars but the log cabin blocks are done.

I dont like the stars. the little 4 triangles are cut in quarters so they are on the bias where i am sewing and and im having a heck of a time with them. If i hadn't already cut them all i would figure out how to do the cheating way where you draw a line down the center and sew on either side. That would be so much easier!

Our family life has not slowed down. In fact it has gotten crazier. The kids now live with us and probably will for at least the next 6 months. Their mother is in a nursing home. Their dad is trying to pull his life together. It kinda all crumbled. At this point  he still cant accept responsibility for it crumbling... at his low times it is all my fault. (I am the perfect person to blame, im the step mom and i am raising his kids and he cant) I love him and care so much about him. But his hatred toward me is hard to take sometimes and his behavior makes it really hard to love him. His dad and i lay in bed trying to think of a happy ending for this drama and unfortunately unless there is a miracle, we cant see one happening. It is overwhelmingly sad.

It is the children who will suffer. The older child will remember his mother and miss her when shes gone. The baby wont remember her. I was taking them to see her, but the doctors have her on pain meds and the kids dont need to see her this way. She has her cell and hasn't called for a week to see how they are. I honestly believe she doesn't want to live anymore and has given up.

Both boys will always be looking for their fathers approval but unless he gets help he will always be so wrapped up in himself and his needs he cant see their needs let alone meet them. We play over the scenarios in our heads, what if their dad never gets better and gets them back... we will be raising these children... what if he does get better and takes them back... will they have a good life with their dad??

Meanwhile life goes on, we still get the older child on the bus every morning, and put them to bed every night. There are boo boos to kiss, and hugs to give and praise to lavish on them.

Which means im moving my sewing room again!!! Remember i moved out of the bedroom to part of the family room??? well, Ralphs daughter has moved into that bedroom with her 2 year old so i have to move my sewing room AGAIN because we are turning the space i moved to into a room for the boys

Its going to have curtains and not walls separating it from the house, but what can i say... they decided to turn the ranch house into a 2 room house because they had empty nest syndrome... who would have known the flock would come home and we would need more than 2 rooms! my sewing room is moving to the living room (yes, half of my living room will be living and the other half sewing!) That means we can make the bedroom their bedroom. That has created chaos and im trying to fit a bunch of fabric into a little bit of space! wish me luck on that one!

my new sewing space. Not sure what to put on the big window for covering, its great natural light, but bad for fabric!!

of course im using restaurant shelves in my sewing area! I am also looking at a bunch of ufo's in this picture, If i would finish them i would have room for fabric!! (I still haven't moved my neatly folded quilting stash!! this is a problem!!)

what the?? this is the i have no idea what to do with this fabric pile. Alot of it is stuff i plan on upcycleing, alot is not cotton fabric that has been given to me. I think if you watch etsy i will be putting alot of non cotton fabric on there soon!!!

but.. that is life.. I had left my camera in my pants pocket and washed it so pics were hard to take. I have a new camera now so im going to attempt to keep posting blogs.

already starting my next project

I finally finished it!!!!! The donation quilt is finished. My friend Casey asked me to make a quilt because they needed to raise money for their preachers wife. She had an accident and it left her with a brain injury. There is a surgery that may fix her problems, but its not covered by insurance so the church is raising money and she thought this would do well. That is why I made it.

BUT...  I haven't been able to photograph it yet!!! She has started selling tickets for it and I turned it over on the promise that she would give it back for me to take some pics but the weather has been icky... Im waiting.

so here are some of my sneak peak pics i took inside the other day... if you want a ticket based on the sneak peak they are $5.00 each or 5 for $20.00 and use this paypal button.

One ticket $5.00 USD Five Tickets $20.00 USD

So... the day i finished that one, I immediately started another quilt (even though i have a gazillion WIP's right now!) Caty (step daughter) walked by and asked what i was making and i showed her and she said "wow your picking more complicated and traditional things right now" So i dont know what it is but yes, i have "changed" how i do this with the quilt above and the one i am making now. First.. the one im making now i am following a pattern!!! shockers!!! Second.. i am actually enjoying cutting all the pieces at once and sewing them together... up till now ive been a cut some, piece some cut some, piece some. And, yes they are way more traditional than my previous quilts.... dont know why the change. The one I started is a log cabin and I have always wanted to make one, but never really saw a pattern that i liked.... ralph found this one that HE liked! lol

Here is the quilt im making...

It was in the McCall's Quilting (May/June) Ralph bought the magazine and it think he did it just because he liked this quilt! And yes, it will look great on our bed. Now the size, i will put another or bigger border on it to make it 90 inches at least... we like quilts big on our bed...

here is her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheerful-Quilts/112440155485447

I have pieced a couple blocks just to make sure i liked it, but i have all of the cream prints cut and over half of the darks... I am loving it so far.

Grand baby news: The boy's mom is now in ICU and things are not looking good. The doctors cant seem to give an answer as to why she is having episodes that look like seizers (or stroke) We are not sure if she will recover from this. Please keep her in your prayers. Their dad is keeping the boys at night and trying to hold it together. It is so hard to watch them all hurt like this... please pray for them all.

Mimi, We know the drill!

As i said in the last post we have the grand kids alot. It has changed our plans and our lives, and it has been an adjustment. Their dad drops them off at 6 am every morning.  We own a pizza shop... before this we didn't "do" 6 am. We had been starting our days at 7:30 or 8 ish and we haven't used an alarm clock in years... but i am getting up at 6 am now! wow!

Sometimes they get to spend the night, sometimes they go home at about 7:30pm. No matter what these children are welcome in our home, any hour and time and for as long as needed. It is the commitment Ralph and I have made.

Its hard to let go of the heartbreak of the situation. Its hard not to be mad at their parents for making the choices that they do. Addiction is an ugly horrible monster and we are watching it consume two young adults. It makes us feel powerless.

BUT.... this little guy smiles up at me and my heart melts and I fall in love with him each and every day. Both of these boys are fantastic children and when you give them love, attention and praise, they shine brighter than the sun. It is my blessing that I get to experience that each day.

But... it has taken some adjustments, and some trial and error... in the end we are getting routines. Oh and Lord knows, I am learning patience, Ralph is taking time to do things with them that he didn't do with his own kids because life was too busy or there were too many (they had 6 kids) It has taken a while but they are learning our rules,we are learning their rhythm and and as Landon likes to say "Mimi, we know the drill."

So.... I am still working on the donation quilt...

.
I did not make it by wednesday.... it will be done by the end of the weekend though!!! I cant wait to show pictures!!!

A week to make a quilt!

I haven't been sewing, or putting listings in my etsy store. Life got busy again and we have had to make adjustments again! Bridgette was in the hospital for 10 days and we had a 6 yr old and a 22 month old living with us again. Bridgette is our daughter inlaw married to one of my husbands sons. She is a type 1 diabetic and at 27 years old her kidneys have shut down and she is now on dialysis 3 times a week for the rest of her life. I love Ralph's son and his wife to death but they have problems and they do things they shouldn't do when they have 2 kids and she has health problems. Since October it has been a roller coaster of problems. They have had their ups and downs. I'm hopeful that right now they seem to be doing good and have finally stopped doing things they shouldn't do but we still have grand babies with us ALOT because of the dialysis.

Add onto that i spilled coffee on my keyboard and my computer hasn't worked completely (I'm using Ralph's today)... it just meant an overall absence from here... i have missed it.

I have been making some sales. Mostly the patterns that i have found at thrift stores and put on there. I have taken inventory and i have over 100 different items to list and i only have 43 on there! I cant wait to get my computer back so i can get the rest of the listings on there.

What have i been making?

first there is a donation quilt that i have to finish this week. Last week my friend Casey asked me to make a quilt for her cowboy church raffle.

i thought i would share my process on this one...

I first chose the fabric... I wanted to use some of the western prints i had they were reds, browns, tans and blues.... I loved the combination and i pulled other fabrics to go with them.

My problem was, i do really well with 2 toned quilts but this was 3 colors... Most of my design happens during slow times at zippys and yes, this one was designed on a guest check. I don't remember where i saw this block. i didn't like it when i first saw it (realize now i didn't see its potential when i first saw it) but this day i was playing with with different hst layouts where i could play 2 colors with a neutral against each other and this is what came of it... not bad not bad.

So... my preferred method of HST's lately is making 4 from one square... so i went home and started cutting 6 1/2 in squares. Why that size??? because that is a size i cut my scraps into and i already had a bunch of the blue and tan cut and it saved me time. Sure i could have said, i want a 12 inch block so therefore i need to cut my squares this big... my brain doesn't work that way... what ever size my hst's ended up it was ok, i just used some of the precut stash and that always makes me happy.

so put like sides of a dark and a light together and sew along all 4 sides, (easy peasy) and then slice and dice them like this:

woo hoo i have a mess of hst's that are in the process of being trimmed to 4" squares.

 

I told her i would have it finished by next wednesday... ekk... my first real deadline! lets see if i can make it. Oh... i forgot about the border, i found and ordered more of this because i didn't have enough to use:

 

claiming my blog on bloglovinl

Follow my blog with Bloglovin