Light at the End of the Tunnel

I can't believe its been a whole month since I blogged! Well, the quilt made it off in time for the photo shoot and is now on its way to Quilt Market. If any of you are going, it'll be hanging up in the Lecien booth.

I came home a couple of weeks ago to a package on my doorstep. Inside was a lovely note from Joy that literally brought me to tears. She had won a giveaway on my blog a few months ago, and after reading about my family getting robbed, she decided to send me and my babies a little giftie. She sent along a raggedy Ann doll (in the picture above), and two gorgeous lambs for Liberty and Wyatt. There isn't a picture of them because I literally cannot pry them away from them, and they are both asleep clutching them. But you can see a picture at the bottom of this post. Wyatt's kept the name Lambington, and Liberty named hers Joy. It was such an unexpected surprise that I still get all emotional thinking about it! Bug hugs to you Joy! You are such a wonderful, caring person!

I also received my lovely doll quilt in the mail from Jessica! I just love the munki munki prints and the awesome pebble quilting! This is going up on the studio wall!

And last but not least, one more addition to my Blythe family: a Bow Wow Trad (my dream doll), tentatively named Sabrina.

I've been busy sketching away on some BIG projects, but I can't show them for quite some time. Sorry for the tease! But, my project that is being published in More Fast and Fabulous (American Patchwork and Quilting) comes out this week! Woohoo! I will be having a giveaway to celebrate! I saved the fabrics that I used in the project, and I will be giving away as many kits as I can scrounge out of the stash!

Happy Stitching!

Chaos

That's right: chaos. I'm going MIA, peeps. I've got a quilt going to Market. I have two more days to finish it before I send it off to the quilter. I was honored to be asked to design a quilt for the Lecien booth. It will be a free pattern on their website after Market. Some really cool people have already "been there, done that". Seriously. I feel like I've accientally sat at the "popular" table in the cafeteria, and its only a matter of time before they start throwing tater tots at me. Wish me luck. I'll need it!

My Inheritance

Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile will remember this emotional post about a year ago. Well, about a month ago I received the rest of my inheritance from my grandmother: two trunks of antique quilts! My mom (the quilt hoarder) has a lot more, but she let me have these :)

An antique scrap quilt. Most of these fabrics are leftovers from the other quilts in our family collection.

This is a well-loved and very faded quilt

Perfect hand piecing

I couldn't believe it when I saw this one (my hubby is a pilot)!

This one is just amazing: needle-turn applique and embroidery:

A closeup of one of the blocksAnother embroidery one, very faded:

I also got an antique sewing machine from my Aunt. She was using it as a table, and knew I would love it, so she gave it to me. Isn't that sweet? Something is stuck in the table, so I haven't been able to get the sewing machine out yet. My hubby will have to use his carpentry skills to fix it.

Here's the instruction manual:

The sewing feet in a velvet-lined metal box:

And the little drawers were still full of vintage notions!
Some threads:

And rick rack:

I love it all so much and feel so blessed to have received all these treasures from my family. If any of you have any advice for displaying and caring for antiques quilts, I'd love to hear it!

Mail Call!

Today I got two books I had pre-ordered from Amazon. "Blogging For Bliss" and Tilda's new book "Sew Sunny Homestyle". "Blogging for Bliss" is just fabulous. If you haven't got it already, run out and get it!

I'm a big fan of Tilda, and I had seen some photos of her new book on Flickr. It was released in Norway last winter, I think. There was a cute little mouse in it, and I had no idea what projects were in this book, but I went ahead and ordered it. You can see all the pages I have marked already! And that was within 10 minutes of opening the box!

Here's what's first up on my "must make" list:
How cute are those "cake" pincushions??

I know a couple of friends who would like one of these:

A jewlery keeper:

Ta-da!! The adorable mouse! He needs to be in my sewing room!

And look at these cute little houses!

So you all know what I'll be up to. My quilt buddy Stef has been showing me up with all of her completed projects. She got me inspired to get back to work on my UFO's. Back to the sewing room!

Whew!

I've been busy.

Chasing after this one (Lord help me, he's a climber!)

I got two new girls.

Emma, a custom by Melacacia, inspired by Jane Austen

And Jenna, the 2009 Anniversary Girl

Yes, I've gone crazy in Blythe land! What can I say? They are my muses!
Lots of cute stuff to show you soon.
Until then, enjoy the sunshine!

One Year Later

Remember this little picture?

Here he is one year later!

Wyatt had his first birthday on the farm. He even got his own little cake! This is what he did when Daddy brought it over to him:

After that first bite he wasn't so sure if it was worth all the excitement.

Maybe he won't have a sweet tooth like his mommy!

Watching the Storm Roll In

There comes a time for all bloggers when you question whether or not to talk about something in your blog. You have to decide if you want to cross that line. Well, this is my time. I've decided to share something with you. Maybe because if I put it out there, I can move on. Or maybe because if one of you has been through something similar, you can offer me some advice. So here goes.

Over a week ago, my husband, my two babies, Wilbur and myself set off to drive cross-country to my parent's farm in Idaho. We left one evening, and by midnight, Wyatt started getting sick. Really sick. We ended up stopping at the Toledo, Ohio Children's Hospital. I thought they'd give him an IV and he'd be fine. Well, he wasn't. It was very scary. They ended up admitting him to the hospital. I spent the first day sitting next to his crib, holding his limp little hand that was all bandaged up with tubes taped all over it. He was so sick, and so pitiful, all I could do was cry. After two days without sleep, I started to doze off in the hospital chair.

My phone rang.

It was my husband, calling to tell me that our car was broken in to. While I was at the hospital with Wyatt, he and Liberty were staying at a hotel. The hotel security guard scared them off. But not before they got my purse. I never leave my purse, or anything valuable in the car. And either does my husband. But that night, he had to carry my sleeping daughter and puppy and an overnight bag in to the hotel. As he was getting ready to go back to the car to bring our stuff in, hotel security called.

In my purse was my first Blythe doll, Fiona (those of you who have been reading my blog will be familiar with her), our digital camera, and a bunch of "little things": baby toys, diaper, wipes, a book...you know how Mom purses are.

And my wedding rings.

That's right. A complete bad stroke of luck that they were even in there. There is no material object that cannot be replaced, other than my wedding rings. I know we've all heard these stories before.

I was not prepared for the emotional turmoil this would bring. Every day I try to focus on the important things: Wyatt is healthy again (after 3 days at the Children's Hospital), it could've been a lot worse, and my family is safe. My husband missed crossing paths with these criminals by minutes.

But I cannot get over the disgust that someone out there has my things. Someone has my wedding rings. The rings I was supposed to wear for a lifetime. Gone in a matter of minutes.

What really disgusts me, is that these criminals walked up to my car, looked in the window, saw two little car seats, and smashed my windows, filling the carseats with shards of glass. When they got away with my purse, they saw a mom's purse. Toys, diapers. Did they ever pause and think about the family they had affected? What we now have to go through? Weeks and weeks of insurance claims, paperwork, and car repairs. We had to get the windows replaced. We need to get the damaged passenger door replaced, new keys, new locks, new ignition keys (because they have my keys as well), we're still finding pieces of glass all over the interior of the car. We have to file three insurance claims: one for the damage to the car, one for my jewlery, and one for all the stolen goods. Along with that we have to meet three separate deductibles.

But will I ever feel safe again? Will I ever stop thinking "what if"?

Tonight I sat on the front porch of my parent's farmhouse and watched a storm roll in. It was so quiet, just the distant sounds of thunder, the smell of rain and a cool breeze. The storm stayed for awhile, then was gone. And like a cliche, the sun broke through the clouds and I saw a rainbow.

Thanks for the sign, Big Guy. I know you're looking out for me.