Happy Birthday to ME!! Yesterday was my birthday and I decided to treat myself to a trip to a LQS that I had never visited. The owner was our guild's guest speaker on Tuesday and she had brought things to sell and I fell in love with this book and a FQ of the fabric on the left. But since all she had was FQ's and she told us she was having a 20% off sale this weekend, I decided to wait and visit her shop and buy what I wanted then! So I cleaned off the bolt of the leaf fabric, bought the book AND found this gorgeous green batik that I just couldn't resist! I'm not sure what I'll do with either fabric yet, BUT.......who says you can't buy fabric without having a purpose for it?(Well, who besides my husband, and I don't listen to him anyway! hehe)

It was a WONDERFUL day for a totally other reason, too. I have been worried sick about the 2 cute little blondes you see here(taken at the airport when they accompanied my folks to drop us off for our trip home last summer). They are my niece and nephew. My mom and dad have been there for these kids since the day the oldest one was born. They have bent over backwards helping my brother and his wife with these 2 cutie pies. Well, last month, my brothers wife decided to leave my brother and took the kids and left. Then, had the audacity to send my folks a No trespassing order, which meant they could have no contact with the kids at all. What happened/happens between her and my brother has nothing to do with my parents, yet she chose to punish not only the children, but my folks as well. Anyway, my brother has never been what we would call an upstanding citizen, but he does love his children and when he and his lawyer were preparing for the divorce and custody hearing, the lawyer told him to be prepared because all of the stuff they were bringing up about his wife's past(and current on some of it), that she of course would be bringing up HIS past and the judge may decide that neither of them were fit parents. Which is exactly what happened. She(the judge) also stated that the maternal grandmother was not an option for temporary custody and so the choices were the paternal grandparents(my folks) or DFS. She told them she had to leave the courtroom for a few minutes and when she came back, they would decide where the children would go for the 30 days while thier parents were being investigated. Well, the........Mother.......(I'm being nice here) of these children had to take her attorney out in the hallway to have a discussion.....which tells us that she actually considered putting these babies in foster care rather than let them go to my folks whom they love dearly and have been close to all of thier lives. Anyway, the outcome is that my folks got them for the 30 days and thier parents have only supervised(by my parents) visitation one day a week. They may visit more if my parents agree to it. In a LOT of ways, I'm almost glad I'm 800 miles away, though. When they went to pick up the children after court yesterday, one of the "ladies" from the mothers family(I think my mom said it was the kids' grandma's sister) GRABBED my mom and was cursing at her about how could she do this to the kids' mama(taking the kids away from her)........I'm afraid if I weren't so far away, I"d have to go take care of that woman. My mom is a very kind and gentle soul and I don't ever EVER remember hearing a curseword come out of her mouth. And for this woman to get violent with her......well, it still makes me so mad I get tears when I think about it. She told the "lady", I didn't do anything to her, she brought this on herself.. Anyway, it's one of those bittersweet times when I wish I could be there to support the family, but on the other hand, almost glad I'm not, so I'm not involved. I've never been involved in anything like this and not sure I have the restraint to keep my mouth shut. Especially when I found out that they have the little girl, who is 6 years old today, on SLEEPING pills.....Pills are one of the reasons the mother didn't get them. She abuses prescription drugs, as does her mother and aunt, from what I've been told. I can't say for sure anything about the mother and aunt, but I have witnessed her use for myself last summer when we were down there visiting. But to put a 6 year old on them.........Oh well, enough ranting and raving. They are safe with my mom and dad for the next 30 days, and possibly for good. Both my brother and thier mom had to go for drug testing straight from court yesterday and have to undergo psychic evaluations and they will all be investigated(including my parents) to determine permanent custody. I will keep praying for the kids and have faith that God knows what is best and will take care of them. Thanks for "listening"! Have a GREAT day.

Feathered Star Block.... I was a little on the ornery side this evening with this block. I am the block of the month person of our quilt guild and I have been trying to challenge the ladies to do some things that are a little different this past year....so this month, I had put a tease in our newsletter about this month's block going to bring some of them out of their comfort zone. So when it was my turn tonight, I asked them if they were ready to be challenged, and pulled this block(12") out of my bag! You could have heard a pin drop! I know there are several ladies in the guild who could do this with no problem, but not so sure there are that many who would want to....After a "pregnant" pause, I laughed and said, "THAT was a joke....now do you want to see the REAL Block of the Month?" Heard a few sighs of relief when I brought out the Galactic Star block I had got off of the Quilters Cache website. The "Out of the comfort zone" part was that so many of these ladies just love thimbleberries and don't do much in bright bold colors....well, this block is a bright orange or yellow star on a black background..not to hard, I just like to tease and try to keep things fresh! One of the ladies told me afterwards, "When you brought out that Feathered Star block, I just decided then and there, I was not even going to attempt it!" We have such a fun group of ladies in our guild. Sometimes, after working 10 hours, I think, "I really don't have it in me to go to the meeting tonight."....but I always have so much fun, I'm glad I go! We keep each other inspired and I miss them if for some reason I can't go.

Just realized that when one of my fellow guild members mentioned a picture of Caleb, I hadn't put one of the cutest ones up here yet! So, ML(you know who you are!) this is for you to see!

I SEWED!!!!! I actually found time to sew Friday...well, I MADE time, when I should have been cleaning house, but decided to heck with housework, I wanted to sew! I had the strip twist(I got the pattern from Bonnie's website Quiltville . Then, I put a border on the Orange Peel that I made at the retreat in Memphis last November. All that's left on that one is to finish piecing the back, which I did also start Friday! Then, it'll be ready for quilting! Haven't decided yet if I'll do it myself, or if I'll take it to my friend and let her do it for me.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!

We had a wonderful Mothers Day. Our daughter and her husband and our handsome grandson met us at a park which is about halfway between us and we had a picnic and took a nice long walk. We had a great visit. Was to short, though! After hubby and I got home, we planted flowers. I have planted a LOT of flowers the last couple of weeks. Will be getting pictures of them later in the week. While we were at the greenhouse, we found a beautiful blue and purple hanging basket. I can't wait to show it.

WOW... I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted. Of course, I've made 2 trips up to see this big boy since then, and on one of those trips, I brought him home with me to spend the night. He's growing so fast. Can't believe he's almost 4 months old already. But then, his mama shouldn't be going on 23, either! We're not sure what his face was all about in the bottom one, but it was to funny not to share!

I'm hoping to have quilty pictures soon. I've actually been back in the sewing room again, after a hum drum period of just not having the motivation to sew. Guess I go thru these slumps every so often, and when I'm in one, I'm likely to get frustrated and toss something away if I force myself, so I just don't! Spent 2 days in there this past weekend, though, so surely I'll have something to show soon! Oh, wait, I can show my fabric bins all nicely sorted out. I have 10 bins, and the fabric is divided into colors. These bins are where I keep fabric that I have 1 yard or less of. Not sure if you can tell it or not, but my blues, greens and misc(prints with several colors or novelty fabrics) are overflowing. The orange bin isn't far from it. Not sure what has got me into buying so many oranges lately. Started with my project for the Memphis retreat last year and has just mushroomed from there! Like suddenly, I fell in love with orange!

I didn't realize til I put up this shelf a couple of months ago, just how many quilt books I have! It's unreal. And I keep buying more. Not sure why, but books and patterns appeal to me, even though I know I have more than I'll ever make in this lifetime. And I also have a big chest of drawers full of fabrics, too.....all my holiday fabric in one drawer, and the others are just full of larger pieces of fabric. I think I have an addiction to it all! hehe....anyway, it's getting late and I need to get a couple more things done b4 bedtime. Happy Wednesday(or whatever day it is when you read this, but tomorrow is Wednesday for me!)