Finished!!

Yes, I am finished the quilt I've been slowly working on for the past year! It feels very good to have if done and hanging on the wall. It warms up the room and fills in the spot where our piano was. I'm pretty happy with it overall - I learned a lot along the way. But...if a beginner quilter ever comes to me wanting to do something like this for their first big project I think I would deter them from a pattern as intricate as this. :)

The first snow

Yesterday morning we woke up to the first snow of the year. It was just a little bit but the kids played in it for a couple of hours. So much fun!

We said goodbye to my parents yesterday. It's always hard to say goodbye but we had a really nice week with them. A few pictures...

Tessa remembered Opa and Oma from the summer time and gave them lots of snuggles over the week :)

We went to St. Jacobs on Thursday. One lonely horse and buggy. It was a pretty cold day to be driving far in that.

We spent some time at the lego store for the kids after we walked all through the market

On Friday we went to pick Conrad up from school so Dad and Mom could see the University.

The view from Conrad's office.

Look what I found!

Or, rather, "who I found"...

After I had put the kids to bed I went down to the basement for a while. I heard Lukas come out of bed so I called up to him and told him to "Get back in!" He complained a bit but then I never heard him so I assumed he went back to bed. Well, 20 minutes later I went upstairs and I was about to go check on the kids when I almost tripped on this little guy. I can't believe he fell asleep there. You'd think it was more comfortable in bed!

Fast forward a few weeks...

There hasn't been anything too exciting over here the past few weeks. Let me think... Conrad's sent off a bunch of applications for jobs for next year. We'll wait and see what comes of that. I'm almost done on of my quilts. Yey! I'm just stitching down the binding and then I'll be finished! Oh yea, I've almost forgotten already, Conrad and I went to Statford a couple of weeks ago for a night. It was really nice. We stayed at a B&B and watched "Oklahoma". The play was great!

Today my Dad and Mom are flying out for a visit! We'll see them Saturday or Sunday because they are in Toronto for a day first, and then they're here for a week. We're looking forward to that!

Here are a couple pictures of our littlest girl. She's growing up so much, a little stinker.

Graduation

Yesterday morning Conrad graduated and officially received his PhD! It was a long and boring ceremony but he walked across the stage and was hooded by his own supervisor, which was really nice. It’s a bit strange because he was done months ago and now he graduates so it’s a bit anticlimactic. We had a few people over tonight to celebrate – we had a good evening (chocolate fondue ...Mmmm…. don’t you wish you were here for that??) We plan to go away next Friday for a night too which we’re really looking forward to. I hope you all have a blessed Sunday!

Toddlerlogical

The other day I over heard this conversation between Anneke and Lukas:

A: "Do you want to play house Lukas? I'll be the Mom and you can be the kid, but the Daddy's not here because he's dead."

L: "No! I want to be the Dad and you can be the kid and the Mommy's dead."

A: "That can't be Lukas because Daddy's are older so they die first."

Now that, folks, is what I call Toddlerlogical!

Exciting mail, free fabric and a finished project!

One day last week I went to get the mail and this was in it:

Not very often do I get something fun like this in the mail! This already made it a great day but then later in the afternoon the courier came to the door with my order from ConnectingThreads! What an exciting day!! I had ordered lots of thread as I didn't have much cotton thread. I bought a neutral set, a bright set and a few extra of the natural. In the sets they were only $1.59 per spool of 1200 yards and separately they were $1.99!! I don't think you can get that anywhere else. I have to thank my sister for telling me about that place. Anyways, in order to pay only $7 for shipping I bought a charm pack (what a hardship :) ) and some 1/4" tape.



This morning at quilting JW had brought a whole bunch of fabric she didn't want after cleaning and sorting her fabric closet. I found a bunch of stuff to build up my collection! First some fabrics that I know one day I could use for a quilt...

Then two pieces of a bright, tropical print that I thought would be really fun for some beach dresses for the girls, or maybe even backing on my bright quilt one day. We'll see...

The last pieces are an orangy-peach and green of the same fabric. My first thought was skirts or summer pajamas for the girls...



This last picture is of my "nephew" Ben. I had promised to make PJ's for his birthday back in April but I just finished them tonight! I guess it's better late than never and it's just in time for the cool weather. I was glad they fit! Isn't he cute?

Thanksgiving

This past weekend we had a special day to be celebrate Thanksgiving. I believe that everyday we need to be thankful and live out of thankfulness for Christ's saving work. It is nice to have a day to be reminded of all the things we should be thankful for and to realize again how abundantly we have been blessed. We spent Sunday evening with friends from church and on Monday we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with relatives/friends. The strangest part of the weekend was the weather. It was so, so hot and humid and felt like the middle of August. It didn't feel like we should be eating a big dinner. Conrad and the kids even went for a swim! Yesterday it cooled right down though and now it's only 10 degrees so hopefully we get some nice, cool, fall weather.

Yesterday I got to see my best friend! She was visiting her family for a few extra days after the weekend so I went with the kids for the day. It was really nice, especially to see eachother's kids again. The part that always feels funny is that you feel like you should be talking and catching up because it's been half a year but because we always talk on the phone we ended up not talking about much of consequense yesterday. I think we talk better on the phone :) I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures to share but I'll post some when C sends me some.

Crafts, Duplo and the beginning of Autumn

I think one of the best parts of being a Mom is watching your kids be creative. Anneke and Lukas love to colour, draw, cut and paste. It is amazing to see them learn how to control a pen or felt and then start making shapes, people and so on. Last week We got some huge pieces of paper from a friend and the kids spent over an hour making some wonderful posters. It was a big mess but definately worth it!

This is our family that Anneke made

Lukas drawing beds :)

The kids, Tessa included, love duplo. We have a lot of it, some bought new, a lot given to us and some really good deals at the second hand store. Hours and hours of fun!

Lukas playing knights (who do you think started that one??)

On Sunday after church we went for a walk around the stadium, by the river which is right across the road. I forget that the river is so close by. It was a beautiful day and the trees are just starting to turn colour although that's a bit hard to tell on the pictures. We saw lots of Canada Geese. Does that mean they're on there way south already?

This week in pictures...

On Monday I tried my hand again at homemade bread! I haven't done this for a long, long time especially since I got a bread machine (which was almost a year or so?). I made 50/50 whole wheat/white and it was delicious. So much better than store bought and the bread maker!

The other day I tried to put an elastic in Tessa's hair and it worked! Conrad thought it looked pretty dumb but I think it's cute :) She is such a little girl - she loves to play with dolls, putting them in and out of the stroller, hugging them, and putting them back in.

And today...my diapers arrived! Yeah! No more folding flats or kushies velcro getting stuck on everything in the wash. I bought them used off of the Mother-ease web site and got a really good deal. Don't they look good hanging on the line? If you read this Chas - Thank you! You'll be glad to know they're very appreciated.

As for other news, Conrad found out that his graduation is on October 19. So...do I throw a party, or??

Free-motion quilting!

Yay!! This is so neat. I tried my hand at free-motion quilting tonight. It'll take a lot more practice to feel comfortable but I could do a lot with this! Here's my first attempt...
Hey Charlene...with the free-motion foot I can stitch in any direction without turning the fabric!

A little something

Since we got back from BC I've been working on a big wall quilt that has been in progress for a year or so. It's coming along and I really hope to get it done in the next month or so. Anyway, this week I decided to do something different and I made a changing pad for the change table (obviously :)). I used left over fabric from the first quilt I ever made. It was a baby gift for a friend of mine. I think I even have a picture of it on CD somewhere but I'll save it for another day. Here's the changing pad

I used some circus fabric I had for the back - kind of fun. I also put in two layers of batting to make it softer and instead of binding it I put a small border on it, sewed it all together and then flipped it around. Then I just quilted in the seam of the border and ta-da! it looks like binding.

Anneke and Lukas also did their first "quilting" this week. They had a lot of fun gluing fabric onto paper! Here's Anneke's:

Another exciting thing is that I finally got a free motion foot! I'm really looking forward to playing around and practicing with that.

And...a picture from this morning of the kids sitting on the couch reading stories. I'd never have a problem getting the dishes done right away if they always did this! :)

Tom

Today my brother Tom is having another operation on his elbow. After many attempts to fix the problem they are now going to cut the socket right out. We are praying for you Tom that the operation goes well and that in time you can live without constant pain.

A special day

Today is my beloved husband's...

and wonderful sister's...

Birthday's!! Happy Birthday to both of you!

Fabric

On our trip to and from BC we stopped at quite a few quilt stores (well more than a few, but usually only one a day ;o) Anyway, I collected all different yellow and blue fat quarters that I hope to make a quilt with using a pattern called Bento Box. Here's one of the quilt stores we stopped at. This one's in South Amana, (I can't even rememer the state right now...) The best thing about all these stores is that most of them didn't look like much but then you walk in and it's so full of colour! Another thing, I don't think we once went out of our way, other than going down a side street, for a quilt store. Most of the time we'd be driving through a little town (with me looking both ways in case I saw the word "quilt") and there it would be... "Quilt Shop" or something similar. Needless to say, it would make my day :).

When we were in BC I had a day out with my sister Alisa. We went to Quilt Essentials in Abbotsford and they had a couple tables full of fabric samples that you could buy by the pound! It was like we had found gold! We went a little crazy stuffing things into our bags - it was so much fun. I mostly collected brights for a nice kid quilt one day.

We hit Fabricland at the end of the day too and I picked up some fabric to make a bag. I was inspired to make one by the bags my sister-in-law made. Should be fun (when I get around to it).

Before I came to BC Alisa sent me a couple fat quarters. She also had the same ones and we both made something with them and other fabric without telling each other what we were doing. It was a really neat thing to do. Alisa's is a pillow and mine a table runner that is still in progress as I'm hand quilting it.