Confessions of a Closet Quilter

Let me start by saying I am a quilter and I love it!

So after the day to day insanity that has consumed our lives the last few weeks, I was so excited for the chance to get away (okay there was a lot of trepidation about leaving everyone too) but back to the excitement - I had planned (Well I hadn't planned the retreat, just planned to go. It was put on by American Quilting) a quilting retreat in Provo, UT with some dear friends, many of whom I don't get to see as much as I would like to. But I had to laugh at myself because I didn't want to tell any of my non-quilter friends where I was going or what I was doing. It makes me feel like I'm twice my age and a major molly! Oh well, I am going to get over this really because I love quilting and I had a fabulous time at my first quilting retreat. I love being able to accomplish something that cannot be undone and I was amazed at how productive I could be without little helpers. We met all kinds of different quilters who quilt for all kinds of different reasons. I quilt to finish something. I quilt to for a creative outlet. I quilt because I love fabric. I quilt to create. I quilt to give. I love making a quilt for someone. Nothing says I love you for me like something you put your time and heart into .

So I was gone for three days and everyone survived just fine thanks mostly to my amazing husband who can roll with just about anything. He is such an amazing dad! My mom also helped out. I didn't even have to go home once! While I was gone Katelyn busted her lip open on the hemangioma so that bled quite a bit and Brandon was pretty needy with the cast and not being able to do what he's used to doing for himself and Derek spent a day at home with "bruised" ribs after falling on the desk at school (He was fine the next day though!) Anyway, here is what I made of my family's sacrifice....


I got a baby quilt done for my nephew who's on his way in March. I also did 3 other quilt tops that I am not sure what to do with. This is very uncharacteristic of me. In fact, other than my first quilt that I made in my quilting class 4 1/2 years ago, I have never made a quilt that I didn't have a pretty good idea who it would be for. So here are the pics of the quilts I got done.

When Blake saw one, he doubted I did it because it is not as bright as the colors I usually do (the reds are quite a bit darker than they look in the picture!)

This one I made from the fabric that everyone who attended the retreat received. I had been wanting to do this pattern so it was fun to do and went together really fast. Blake's comment on this one was "wow mom, impressive" and then "you have quilting skills". That kid is so darn funny!

And here's one of the retreat from Amy Smart's blog http://thequiltingdiaries.blogspot.com/ There were 5 Amys (and Aimees) at the retreat. One of them was Amy Smart who's blog I really like. We view quilting in similar ways and she puts the cutest things together. They are realistic for my life too. Not some of the utterly unattainable things I saw at the retreat.

This was our little corner of the room. There were 7 us that knew each other. There were more than 50 quilters there in all.

My re-entry into family life has been a little rough. I can't quit quilting. I have put three of these quilts together and quilted them since I got home and am working on getting them all bound as well. I can't stop. I may need help. Or better yet, my kids may need help, because I am busy. No, actually I love how much more there is of myself to give after a little break. It is so refreshing!

It’s been a long month!

It’s been a long time since we posted and a lot has been going on. I’ll give you an update on all the kids.

Derek:

A few weeks ago Derek was complaining of tooth pain so we took him to the dentist and he didn’t have just one, but two cavities! I was really a little surprised because he’s a pretty diligent tooth brusher. His two front teeth on the bottom were also loose and had been for a while and the new teeth were growing in fast so they decided to go ahead and pull them. He was so brave; in fact he didn’t even flinch or squeeze the hygienists’ hand. They were all very impressed with him. He told us today that “his pregnant teeth were almost all the way in.” (He meant to say permanent.)… such a funny boy. He had been jealous for quite a while because he hadn't lost any teeth and Blake had lost 7! So having his teeth pulled actually turned out to be pretty gratifying because the tooth fairy visits the dentist office too! So he scored on those two teeth. The funny thing is Blake lost a tooth at school the same day, so they were both happy. He participated in the storytelling festival at school recently and told the story of the Freedom Bird in his class. He did well and we’re waiting to hear if he will go on to the competition for all 1^st graders.

Blake:

He continues to be a challenge and a delight to raise. The other day when I was picking the boys up from school I waited for more than 10 minutes for Blake and I was starting to get pretty concerned because I had received a call that morning that he hadn’t been in his first period class. When I called the school to follow up they said they thought it was just an attendance error. But I started to get nervous so I got out of the carpool line, parked the van and went in the school. They paged him twice and while I was waiting I saw his teacher who reassured me that he had been in school that day. He finally showed up about 20 minutes after school had gotten out and said he had been “looking into a potential flood.” Let me translate for you – there was a large puddle from melting snow on the playground and he had been looking at it and contemplating evaporation and drainage possibilities FOR 20 MINUTES! He also participated in the storytelling festival and did well. It was a little harder for him, but he did well and we should find out this week whether he goes to the grade competition.

Katelyn:

She is getting more and more articulate and frequently surprises all of us with the sentences she puts together. At a Valentine’s dinner at the neighbor’s house tonight she told one of the hosts “You go upstairs right now.” Most of her sentences are commanding but she is also very helpful and concerned about messes (most of which she makes!) She is completely better and the January illness is already a far distant memory.

Brandon:

Life has been more eventful for Brandon than any other member of our family in the last few weeks. He is doing well – walking confidently, talking more and more and turning into quite the little prankster. He is a very funny and charming little boy. We have had many doctors’ appointments as of late and we have many more ahead. We followed up on his eyes a little over a week ago and were not surprised to find out that his lazy eye or strabismus has not improved. We were last given orders to patch his strong eye to strengthen his weak eye for one hour a day. However when he was learning to walk we stopped patching him because it was just too much for him to mess with his depth perception when he was working thru so many other things. His eye doctor changed the prescription in his weak eye to a stronger lense which helps correct the strabismus and told us to patch him 4 hours a day and gave us one more month to see if we can avoid eye muscle surgery. He is tolerating his patch very well though and I am confident that we are doing all we can so we’ll see what happens.

Last Tuesday he had 3 appointments at Shriners – therapy, physiatry and orthodics. All of this was a follow up to seeing the orthopedic doctor a few weeks before. Brandon’s OT at Shriner’s is very experienced with constraint therapy and has said for some time that he would be a great candidate for it because of how much functional use he has with his left arm and hand. The idea behind constraint therapy is that when you disable his “good” arm it will force him to use the weaker side. It is something that we dabbled in when he was younger, but not too successfully. His therapist at Shriner’s says that timing is very important and she feels like stable walking is a prerequisite. So with that in mind we went back to see her and she decided to cast him that day. Our next appointment was the physiatrist and she was concerned about the effects of some tone in his left arm and hand and felt like to maximize the casting, that he should receive botox as soon as possible and so we began working thru the details of getting him in as soon as possible for that. Our last stop was in orthotics to get his new brace and his new shoes, which he loves. The brace is mostly to prevent him from locking his knee on the left side which is a compensatory tactic he uses to feel more stable. It has a football on it and he loves it and frequently requests being able to wear it.

He tolerated everything well but the cast seemed to quickly get annoying and he begged to have it off by bed time. We had been instructed to watch to see if the cast changed position. By the next morning it had moved too much. In addition we didn’t do an effective job of keeping it dry for his bath. When we called in to ask what to do they had us remove the cast. He has an appointment to get it re-cast on Tuesday. It will stay on 2 to 3 weeks.

Brandon tolerated his botox well on Friday. They did 5 injections - his pec, his bicep, his tricep, his pronator, the muscle that causes his wrist to turn out and his thumb. No major difference yet, but it can take several days to take effect. But it was so effective last time that I am very hopeful.