Quilting for Photography

I have an amazing photographer friend from the time I spent living in Germany.  She actually started her carrier as the photographer for the post there.  This is how I met her.  She took pictures of my oldest when he was just 18 months. I wish I had some of those pictures to show.  Here are a few photo props I made for her.  Her pictures are way cuter than mine with the sweet little babies in them.  All of her pictures are amazing and I suggest you check them out at Shannon Lankford Photography.

Here is my picture from my sewing away day.

And here is another quilt I made her.  I think the sweet little baby outshines the quilt in this one! 

I love this one too.  The flowers she is wearing matches the quilt perfectly! 

Shannon really knows how to use color and style in her pictures!  I need to learn how to take better pictures.

Colonial Williamsburg

Just wanted to post some pictures I took at Colonial Williamsburg.  My parents, who live in Arizona, took our 3 older kids on the plane back with them for a 10 day visit.  They love their time with their Oma and Opa and we love our time without them.  These 10 days we are enjoying our 18 month old Jacob and he is enjoying being an only child.  And these days we are enjoying quiet time and trips we wouldn't normally take because of the other 3 kids.  One of our trips was to Colonial Williamsburg, a historic town here in Virginia.  It was a quick drive, but turned into a long day.  We did a lot of walking  and looking at the historic homes, churches, and buildings.  Stuff I know my 4, 6, and 8 year olds would not enjoy!  Hope you enjoy the pictures.  

Prayer Quilts

I have been so busy since my son's birthday.  The night of his birthday I found out, thanks to facebook, that a friend of mine, Judy, and her family were in a serious accident that morning.  At 6am their whole house blew up and threw all of them out of it.  Their 14 year old daughter did not survive, their 18 year old was severely burned and my friend was seriously injured.  I had to read the news article 3 times before I could even understand it! My heart has been hurting for them ever since.  I have been meditating on God's word and trying to understand that he works all things for good to those who love and trust Him. I know this family loves and trusts God.  I know He will somehow bring good out of these ashes too.  I just don't understand it right now.


After I realized that they had lost everything, their daughter, house and pets, I really wanted to do something to help them.  So I went straight to work on a quilt! I love to pray while I quilt and sew.  It really relaxes my spirit and mind.  I don't listen to music, just pray and think. Back when my son was 2 years old my friend, Judy, had given me all of her son's clothes.  He is 2 years older than Brian and she had bags of clothes to give.  I was so thankful for all of those clothes.  I didn't have to buy Brian anything for years because of her giving.  So while I sewed away I thought about our friendship, her kids, what happened, prayed for comfort for their family.  I hope this quilt somehow brings comfort to her.  Only God can give her the comfort she needs, but quilts can wrap around you and help a little.

This quilt pattern is from Schnibbles Times Two pattern book.  I really love this quilting book and how it is helping me to use up my scraps!

Now I just need to go find some nice backing, batting and quilt it.

Before I went to work on Judy's quilt I had started an embroidery project on this one.  I finally finished embroidering all of the cream rectangles.  I found some beautiful flowers from an embroidery kit at the quilt store.  I love how elegant this one turned out.  I think it is going to be a lap quilt for me that stays on our bed away from the kids.

It is a little lumpy because I hadn't taken the embroidery backing paper off yet.  

Star Wars Room

My oldest son, Brian, turned 8 yesterday.  I really cannot believe it has been 8 years since he was born.  Time has been going by so fast since I had kids!  We had a great day celebrating him.  We went to the beach, went to a berry farm and had ice cream, went home and opened presents, made pizzas, had friends over and ate cake.  It was a great day.  For me, I loved watching him open the gift I made him.  He finally got to see the Star Wars quilt I made, pillow cases, and wall hanging.  He never saw me work on them so it was a complete surprise.  He loved it all too, which made me feel great.  I was worried he might be sad that he got a quilt for his birthday, but maybe because he sees how much time and work goes into making them, he really did appreciate it.  When his friends came over he rushed them up to his room to see the whole set.  He did get a few other store bought toys, but I like to believe his favorite gift was the hand made ones.  

The solar system panel actually glows in the dark and we put glow in the dark stars around it and on the ceiling.

My Quilt Shelf My Husband Made Me

My husband loves to do wood working.  I mentioned to him that I would love a shelf that also held one of my quilts for a wall in our kitchen.  I also mentioned I would love for it to have my Polish pottery knobs we bought in Poland on it for the clamp part.  We had seen a shelf like this awhile back at a quilt store and he thought he could figure out how to make one. And he did!  

I love it and it looks great with my table runner.  The Polish pottery knobs gave him a lot of trouble because they were all different sizes and he couldn't find screws here in the States to fit them.  He ended up having to make his own screws and nails for this project.  He also put three layers of colored wax on it, so it is beautifully finished.  After he hung it up I decorated it with a few knick knacks I collected while living in Germany.  I love this shelf because my husband put so much time into making it.  And because of all the memories I get from just looking at it.  

Life Changes

This is my baby Jacob.  He is now 18 months old and is our fourth child.  He is such a happy boy and full of energy.  He has reached every mile stone early when it comes to moving.  But talking has never been his "thing".  He has always been like a little bird.  He squeaks and squawks and as he got older he also started to growl.  He loves music and seems to sing the melody to his own sound.

After his 18 month check up I realized, after a few questions from the doctor, he still isn't talking.  This post is the beginning of a new direction in our life with Jacob.  He is on the road to speech therapy.  The only word he truly says is Momma.  After speaking with the speech therapist we are thinking that his mouth isn't moving correctly to make the right sounds.  Even his babbling sounds are not "normal" babble sounds.  He has never made the d sound, so he has never said dada.  This is usually the first words a baby makes.  Instead he says gaga, which has worked fine for us.  I wondered why he said it with a g, but I have been making the 4th child excuse when it comes to his communication.

He loves to use sign language.  He has picked that up super fast.  The only problem with signing, for me, is that I only know 4 signs.  I have lots to learn.  I have also noticed that he never picks up the tip of his tongue and this is most likely part of his speaking problem.  Next week I have another meeting with his therapist and hopefully then she will have suggestions for me on how to help him and then he will be the little chatterbox I know he wants to be.

So this has been a big change to my life in that I will probably not have much sewing time.   I am also no longer working at the quilt store.  This is actually now a blessing because he will have to be at speech therapy two days a week.  I could probably find time at night again while everyone is sleeping to sew, but I just can't find the energy to do it right now.

If anyone reading this has every had a child in speech therapy and has some sort of encouragement, I would love to hear from you.  I am trusting God that He has a plan for Jacob and I.  I am just trying to figure that plan out.  Sometimes life changes and it takes a bit for our minds and thoughts to change with it.

Photo Prop Baby Quilt

A friend of mine is an amazing photographer.  I felt so honored when she actually asked me to make her a photo prop.  She picked out the fabric, Moda fabric from the collection Just Wing It.  I also added a few scraps from my stash to make it a little larger.  She wanted it to be large enough for a pic-nic picture.  I think it turned out super cute and the pictures she used it in were even cuter!