Trick or Treat?

It was Trick or Treat here in the Village tonight for 1 hour. I am exhausted. Trying to keep track of 3 little spastic girls was almost more than we could handle. My daughter and I took them out at exactly 5pm. By 5:50 I was worn out and we even had a reprieve when my husband joined us for about 20 minutes. They really were well behaved, but there were so many other children . . . the highlight was two little Daschund's (weiner dogs) dressed as hot dogs! They were so cute.
I will have to dress the girls up again tomorrow as it was just so crazy that I only got one picture of Haley as a flower. Emma did not want to dress up as anything, but as we were heading out, she decided that she would wear her Super Girl pink satin cape. Madison was dressed as a witch and she looked so cute. I will post more pics tomorrow!

It's Haley's turn!

It's Haley's turn to hold baby Sophia today - and she's thrilled, can't you tell?

it's been crazy here all week . . .

Sorry for the lack of posts, but things have been absolutely insane here! In fact, it's been so crazy that Emma has taken to "hiding" in the bottom of a cupboard I cleaned out. She has her drink, a stuffed dog and a bowl of angel food cake and apparently, she's set for life! Who knew it would take so little to sustain her?

Monday and Tuesday I spent working on the two online block swaps that I was in charge of for the month. I spent the entire day on each swap and then got them mailed back to their prospective owners on Tuesday.

I also had a rug class to teach Tuesday afternoon from 3 to 6! The picture of the sky is one I snapped after the class on my way home - it was so cool, but this picture just doesn't do it justice.

Wednesday I had an appointment for my knees and then I hosted a Bead Retreat at my home at 6pm.

Thursday, my husband had a computer geek tech come to the house to look at my computer.

This morning, baby Sophia had her 2 week check up at the pediatrician and this evening I am hosting a Pampered Chef party.

Tomorrow, if I'm lucky, I hope to collapse! Cancel the collapse, the phone just rang and I have another freaking class tomorrow . . . who knew, NOT ME!

Star BOM + Raffle Quilt Blocks

Block No. 6 of Judy Laquidara's Star Block of the Month is done! The second picture is blocks 1 through 6.
I also finished my blocks for our quilt guild's raffle quilt shown below!

I'm back . . .

I got back from the longarm retreat late Thursday night. I had a blast and I got to meet Karen McTavish (the picture above is of feathers that she designed and had tatooed on her arms), Sue Patten, Jamie Wallen, DeLoa Jones, Jessica Brunnemer, and Jodi Robinson. I learned a lot and on Friday, I finished setting up my new Studio Table and Frame. Last night, my husband helped me place the carriage and head on the tracks. This morning, I was practicing what I'd learned. The big APQS machines at the retreat were not intimidating, but I was unfamiliar with how to operate them and had a little bit of trouble at first, but they are similar enough to my machine, even though I feel that my machine is more user friendly!

The picture below is of me and my partner in crime friend PJ. If we do something like this again, I am going to have to invest in some Depends - - we laughed, and laughed and had a great time!

Reunion + Retreat

Well, everyone left and the house is relatively quiet. The first picture is of Nick's parents with all of their grandchildren. What a time we had trying to get them all to stay still! We went out last night to El Portillo for Mexican food and were serenaded by Mariachi's! It was so nice and they were very talented.
Well, in a few hours, I will be leaving for my longarm quilting retreat. I will return late Thursday evening, so until then - play nicely!

The newest family member is home!

Sophia Olivia arrived home late Friday morning and it's been a whirlwind since! The older sistah's were quite excited to see her as you can tell from the following pictures. ALL of the in-laws arrived early Friday evening, so it's been pretty hectic here. So hectic, that I just now realized that I did not get any pictures of them. I will take care of that today, because I'm not doing the cooking this evening - it's a BBQ!

The Big Sister's are here!

Well, we took the girls to see their newborn sister again today and everything went well again with the exception of Emma - again! Emma just does not even want to look at Sophia, but get out of the way for Haley and Madison as they couldn't get enough of her. Actually, I think that Haley just wanted Sophia's Binky, but that's another story! Daddy even made a pit stop to check out Sophia too!

I need sashing and borders . . . .

Well, the blocks are sewn together vertically, now I need to add a narrow, then wide sashing to the vertical rows. This is going to be big (88 x 96)! When I first started this Guild BOM, I had it in my mind that I was going to make table runners from the blocks, but the blocks are large (like 20 inches!) and I thought a table runner would look like a tablecloth that shrank, so there went that idea.

Multitasking - - -

This is the epitome of multitasking - had a granddaughter in the morning and finished a block in the afternoon!

Brand spankin' new granddaughter!

Sophia Olivia arrived this morning via C-section at 8:08 She weighs 7 lbs 7 oz There is a volunteer organization at the hospital that knits hats and sweaters for the newborns and that's what she's dressed in in this picture.

Update #2

Well, I just finished the third block! Just one more to go, then I have to sew them all together before the meeting Saturday morning. I am trying to finish the blocks today so I can have the rest of the week to work on sashing and borders . . .

Update!

Update: One more block is done, two more to go! Got to go work on the third block now, I'm on a roll - pass the caffeine please!

Time Crunch . . .

As usual, I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off! Amber is having the baby (Sophia)tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., so I will have the 3 girls and tomorrow is their picture day at daycare. I've got a class to teach Thursday night and I'm not sure at this point how I am going to pull that one off as I will have the 3 girls since I am sure that Amber will still be in the hospital. The entire Chaput clan is arriving on Friday, I have a Guild meeting Saturday - my 4 birdhouse blocks that I've been procrastinating on are due, plus it's a workshop for our raffle quilt. I'd like to go, but I don't want to leave since the Chaput's will have just arrived . . . Gads, I think I need a drink Pepsi!
One of Four blocks done:

where is our Grandpa?

Just had to post this picture of the twins sitting in Grandpa's chair waiting for him to come home . . .

Star BOM + I've been inspired . . .

Well, Block 5 from Judy Laquidara's website is done! It's actually be a lot of fun working with these bright colors! Judy recently became a dealer for APQS, and this is what she had to say: "For those who follow my blog (and for those who don’t . . why don’t you??), you know that I truly love my Millennium. I’m proud to say that Vince and I are now officially APQS dealers. That means I can sell you a Millennium . . or a Freedom . . or . . or anything APQS has to offer. Call me . . I’m waiting. You could be my first sale!!" So if you're interested in becoming a longarmer, get in touch with her - she's a hoot!

On another note, Paula from Coffee Time Stitches has been working on some stitcheries and I thought, I would like to do that! Could I have picked a more intricate project though? Oh no, not me! If you're gonna do it, do it good . . . The pattern is from CrabApple Hill. I really like what they do, don't you?