Happy First Birthday, Clara!

Clara joined our family one year ago today!  

She is such a happy little girl!  She always has a smile on her face!

I decided she needed a special outfit to celebrate her birthday.  After all, a girl only turns one once!

So, I made her a pretty pink tutu and a onsie to match.

She had a great time at her party.  She enjoyed the people, loved her cake, and had a great time opening her presents!  

Happy Birthday, Clara!

The tutu will be passed down to the next granddaughter for her first birthday.  

Wonder when that will be????

Future Trouble??? Or Not???

I love watching my grandchildren interact, especially now that there are several the same age. Can you tell how thrilled the oldest were to sit for this picture??

 We were recently at Travis and Kerry's and Chance and Grayson had the opportunity to play together.  (Clara wasn't able to be there.)

Chance doesn't look too happy with Grayson in this photo!

Now what are they up to???

Whose idea was this????

“It's funny that those things your kids did that got on your nerves seem so cute when your grandchildren do them.”

Ranch Roasted Potatoes

I'm always on the lookout for new to us recipes and came across a good one this week.  We, unlike our children and grandchildren, are not huge ranch dressing lovers, but we did like this recipe.  As usual, I changed it up a bit based on what I had.  (Kerry, you should try these!)

Ranch Roasted Potatoes

12 oz. red potatoes, washed and quartered ( I didn't use red potatoes)
1 packet Ranch Dressing Dry Mix
non fat, olive oil cooking spray(I used butter flavored)
1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In a large bowl add potatoes and spray lightly with the cooking spray.  Then, add in the ranch mix and salt, and toss well to coat each potato piece evenly.  Spray a baking sheet with non stick cooking spray and spread out potatoes evenly on sheet.  Bake in oven until potatoes are cooked through, and edges start to turn very dark brown, approximately 20-25 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Entire recipe makes 4 servings
Serving size is 1/4  of recipe, approx 1/2 cup
Each serving=2 Points +
Per Serving: 78 calories; 1 g fat; 18g carbohydrates; 1.75g protein; 1.5g fiber

I found the recipe HERE.

1600 Jelly Roll Quilt

For Trina and anyone else who thought I was talking about food in this post---Jelly Rolls are collections of 2.5" x 44" strips of fabric. Jelly Rolls typically include 40 strips of fabric but can vary.

A year ago I purchased a jelly roll of Strawberry Lemonade by Me and My Sisters for Moda.  You can read about it here.  I loved the cheery fabric, but couldn't really decide what to do with it.  

While reading some blogs the other day I happened upon this Jelly Roll 1600 Quilt in someone's post.  I knew right away that was what I wanted to do with this jelly roll.  It was quick and easy.

I'm home alone with no quilt holder, so I have to show you this quilt top in two photos.

Take a look at the video showing how to make it  HERE.

Now, to get it quilted!

A Well Loved Ladybug!

Two years ago I gave Nate a new quilt for Christmas. He was two at the time and had taken over a quilt of Cael's. He loved the flannel back of that quilt, so I decided to make him a NEW quilt of his own.


Well, Nate LOVES that quilt. He calls it his Ladybug because one
of the fabric looks like little ladybugs. I used all flannels and tied it rather than quilting it. Well, between all the lovin' Nate has given it and all of the washings his babysitter gives it(daily), it had started to come apart.


I've repaired it several times. The first time I carefully hand stitched the few places that had come apart keeping the integrity of the quilt.The last time I used a decorative stitch on my machine and stitched over several seams, and hand stitched a few other places. It still looked pretty good...well worn, but good. This time I decided to forget what it looked like and just make it sturdy so it will last, so I machine stitched over MANY seams and around the binding. It isn't what I would choose for it to look like, but I don't think Nate will have to go through the trauma of spending any more nights without "ladybug" while I fix it.



It is nice to know that it is so well loved!

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Jelly Roll Fun!

I'm working on a quilt just for fun using a jelly roll.









I've had the jelly roll for quite a while without knowing what I was going to do with it. The other day while reading some blogs It hit me!



I'm left with a pile of these as I trim for pressing.
Now what to do with those?????




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Horton Hears A Who

Trina and Tanner decided on Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears A Who" for Maddux's theme. Grayson's theme is "A Very Hungry Caterpillar". You can see his quilt here.

Anyway, Tanner painted Horton on Maddux's wall, and put up the saying, "A person's a person no matter how small" on his wall. You can see Horton here.

So it was my task to make a Horton quilt for Maddux. First I had to find fabric. Well, I soon learned that they don't make Horton fabric! So, I puchased these fabrics by Robert Kaufmann.













I had to fussy cut Horton out of the first two fabrics which led to a LOT of fabric wasted. I will probably make a Dr Seuss quilt in the future to use it in.

Then I had to decide upon a pattern. After a lot of searching I decided on this pattern at Moda Bake Shop. You can find it here.

I didn't follow it exactly, but I did it pretty much the same.


As you can see I needed to know the baby's name before he was born, and since Trina and Tanner don't share that information I had to convince them to tell me.


I meandered the entire quilt, but I ran into a snag. MY MACHINE QUIT WHEN I HAD ABOUT A SIX INCH SQUARE SECTION TO FINISH!!! (and that is another story in itself). I went ahead and finished it so Maddux could have his pictures taken on it, then a friend brought her machine to school so I could finish it for good. I do still need to put a label on it when I ever get my machine back from the shop.


I hope Maddux loves his blanket!

Happy Belated Birthday, Cael!

What happened to my post?????

I had a post here wishing our grandson, Cael, a belated Happy Birthday and it disappeared!!!

Cael turned 8 on June 13th.  He is quite the techno geek!  You will most often find him with his DS or my iPad in his hand.  He also loves anything Lego.  I was lucky enough to be in the room when Cael was born.  I was very excited to be there right from the beginning!!

Cael also loves to talk and is a wonderful reader!  

Happy Birthday, Cael!!

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Rhubarb Coffee Cake--YUM!!

We have always had rhubarb around, and even though I didn't think I liked it, it was free food, so I had to find recipes the kids would eat. I don't remember where this coffee cake recipe came from, but it has become one of our favorites. I even make it in the winter using frozen rhubarb.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake
Cream together: 1 1/2 cups sugar & 1/2 cup shortening

Add & beat: 1egg.
Pinch of salt
1 cup sour milk or buttermilk (I use a cup of milk with a
tablespoon of vinegar)
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp vanilla

Fold in two cups rhubarb:



Bake at 350 40-45 minutes in a 9 x 13 pan. After the first 20 min it will look like this:



Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar:



Finish baking for 20-25 minutes more.




Moist. Sweet. Sour. Yum.
If you want other rhubarb recipes see previous post here.


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Clara is Outnumbered!

Poor Clara is outnumbered.  Yes, she is the only granddaughter with six boy cousins.  Here she is with the two boys closest to her age.

 They took her toys from her!  See that pink car in Chance's hand?  That belongs to Clara.

Doesn't really bother her much though, so maybe she's happy being the only princess.

Read The Shirt!!

That's right, Chance is going to be a big brother! Travis and Kerry told us a week ago, and told us to keep quit until they could tell the rest of our family at a get together on Saturday. That was HARD!! December 19th is the due date. I'm going to hope for a red-headed granddaughter, but we'll love whatever we get! And that will make seven grandchildren. We are thrilled!



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Location:Nutmeg Ave,Kalona,United States

Sewing Time!!

I've had the chance to sew the last few days.  I managed to figure out how to sit at the machine and cutting table with my foot up!  How's that for desperation?!  I worked on some blocks for the block of the month club, which I've gotten behind on.  I'll show those another day.  Then I needed a quick finish so I whipped up a drink cozie.

Then I made a couple of purses.

They are loosely based on this pattern.

One is smaller than the other.  It is very similar to the one I made for Tasha. You can see it here.

 Always have to have some pockets inside.

The second one is a little bigger and a little more fru-fru.

 And of course, pockets on the inside of this one too!

I'm  not sure what I'm going to do with them, except that I have had several people that have asked about buying one.  I am also thinking about opening an etsy shop, but then I'm afraid I'd sew that stuff rather than just things I want to sew for family and friends.  What do you think?

Head, Shoulders, Ankle, Toes, Ankle, Toes!

(Warning: Possible gross photo!)

We've had quite the interesting past few weeks at our house. It all started on May 19th when I went in for hammer toe surgery. Yes, thanks to my grandfather, mother, and aunt, I inherited hammer toes. Anyway, the best plan was that I would have the surgery on May 12th and be back at school at least half time for the last week and a half of the school year. BUT, my GP wouldn't release me for general anesthesia(even though that isn't what I was having), because she said I had a cold. (It was allergies.). Long story short, there was a LOT of miscommunication between medical professionals, and I was put off a week. I came out of surgery with this:



This is my foot five days after surgery. Yes, that is a pin sticking out of my toe! It will be there for a month! I have two boots to wear--a soft one for bed, and a sturdy one for walking. I'm still having a hard time having my foot down for very long before it starts swelling. I did manage to go to school to spend a few hours yesterday and today. It's going to be a looong summer!

AND on top of it all, our plan was for me to at least have the pin out and be somewhat recuperated before Bud had surgery on his ankle. Welllll, that didn't work out so well either as they moved it from June16th to May 27th to May 25th!!! I was hardly walking yet when I had to take him to the hospital where he unexpectedly spent the night, and then go back to get him the next day! We had sweet rides to the door when we left!!!



I was very embarrassed, and hoped like heck, no one I knew saw us!!! The funny thing was that the college kid who pushed Bud out looked at us both and said, "Now, which one of you is driving?". We're both on the mend, nothing serious is wrong, we're just inconvenienced.

Now that school is over, I'm hoping to be able to spend a little time sewing here and there if I can keep my foot down, then I have science class four days next week, reading class two days the next week, and language camp every morning the last week of June. And there goes June!


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Location:H Ave,Kalona,United States