Tough week....

It's been a tough week around here - Mom has double knee replacement surgery on Tuesday and altho' was doing alright last night, she wasn't so great until then. Very hard not to be there with her. Kids come first and I need to be here at home for them. My wonderful NIL was diagnosed with a 2nd type of cancer, and she lives so far from us. It's devastating. Hubby is working now 24/7 as it's tax season, so I'm both mom and dad. So hard to help him handle his feelings about his mom when we don't see each other. The annoying issues from my recent surgery are returning, too. Thought they were under control. Is it from stress? Ugh. I'm so exhausted!


I am trying to find some time once the kids are in bed (or like now while Robbie is occupied with Imagination Movers) to take 5 minutes for me. I scrapbooked a few pages yesterday in my Faithbook and put together my first quilt block in Hazel's Quilt Along. Here it is, and I'm quite proud of it. Never having done a mystery quilt before, I was nervous about my fabric choices. So far, so good.



Today I'm "venting" in my blog...



Doing these small things helps me stay in control of at least some things...hoping it'll make things easier as each day arrives. That and counting my blessings :)

What's up?

Well, quite a bit...been off my blog for a while due to summer trips, a recent complicated surgery (ugh), family stuff - like our oldest going off to kindergarten (sniff, sniff)...and now it's tax season!

While recuperating in November, I picked up an old hobby that I just love - quilting! I hand pieced some blocks (not well, but they're done) and encouraged my hubby to pull out my fabric that got packed away when our almost 6 year old was born. Now I"m using up scraps to keep sane!

Here are a bunch of fabrics, although not old nor scraps, that I am using for the Life of Hazel Quilt-a-Long.

It's a mystery quilt that we do one step each day of 2010. I started it just today so I'm a few steps behind, but they're easy enough for a beginner. I'll catch up pretty fast. Click HERE to learn more about this facinating lady and the quilt.

I am also working on a block of the week for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler from the Elm Creek Quilts book series by Jennifer Chiaverini. I'm doing pretty well each week and I won a raffle they have for an official Elm Creek Quilts pin. If you haven't read any of this book series, I highly recommend it. It is addictive, however; be forewarned!

Jennifer recently requested 12" blocks be sent to Elm Creek Quilts to be sewn into a charity quilt. The block needed to represent something in your life. I sent a block off and a pin was sent back to me as a thank you. Best of all was Jennifer letting me know that my block will be one of those featured on the Sewing with Nancy program in Fall 2010 on PBS (Create channel on Brighthouse or Time Warner Digital Cable)! See my block and story HERE. Thrilling since I only came back to quilting a month prior after YEARS of not touching fabric, except for Robert's baby quilt and stocking.

That's it for now. Thanks for tuning in and TGIF!

~Carrie