My First Quilt

When we went to the lake a couple of weekend’s ago I realized that we didn’t have a good beach blanket. The girls asked for a picnic awhile ago and I realized we didn’t have a good picnic blanket. So I got to thinking that it would be great to make one out of all the fabric that I got from my Grandpa. He had to stop making quilts because he went blind so he had to get rid of all of his stuff..and I took a lot of his fabric home with me last December when I was home. It was actually quite comical. We fit as much as we could into one of them vacuum bags and tighten it up. and of course when we got to the airport to check in they had to un do it to check it..and since I was flying out of a very small airport I watched them open the bag and pouf it just got bigger in a matter of seconds. and as we were standing there we were thinking there is no way they are going to get that back shut. We also have four quilts in there too..ha!
But anyways I did manage to get it all back home safe and sound. But I just kind of filed the fabric away with all of my other fabric and hadn't thought of what I could make with it yet. But then when I thought of the quilt it was perfect. The girls could help and we would have lots of fun doing it.
Quilts are very tedious. and I got very bored with it but I stuck with it.  Brielle helped pick out all the fabric. Most of it was my grandpa’s but I did have to use a few different kinds of mine. I did all the cutting out. That alone takes up so much time! We tried to use some of the stuff that my grandpa already had cut up to make it easier on us;)..but he only had smaller squares cut up so we used smaller squares then. (big mistake for someone who has never made a quilt before) First time quilt= simpler the better. Brielle and Destiny helped with the ironing. Now we were ready to lay it all out and design it. They had a lot of say in the whole design process but even towards the end of that we decided we were sick of it! We did 14 rows across and 19 rows down. The next step was to sew all the pieces together. Brielle helped with a few rows but then she was done with it and ready to move onto the next stage. My girls have all these big ideas but when it actually comes right down to it..they want instant gratification..or they  are done. They wanted the quilt to just hurry up and be done. anything that takes tooo long is no good with them. After about a week of sewing all squares together..I then sewed the all the strips together. and laid it out. It was tooo short. and EVERYONE had to make it very clear it was too small. Jared included. so we added on more rows. so we had to design more rows which was getting harder bc we were running out of certain fabrics. In the end we ended up with 19 rows across and 23 rows down. and I didn’t care after that bc it was BIG enough! So after I got the top done I found the back fabric from my grandpas stash also and used that. I of course not knowing what I'm doing just sewed right sides together. and flipped it right side out. and sewed around the edge. WELL here comes the tricky part when you want to “quilt” it. The first three rows went really good sewing the lines straight down next to the seam of each square. But after that it went down hill.fast. I ended up seam ripping out four. YES FOUR. straight lines all the way down bc it bubbled everything all up. and decided it didn’t need to be quilted that it looked just fine after that I never put any batting in it either bc I wanted something really thin and light weight to carry.
The finished quilt. The PERFECT picnic/beach/lake blanket.

The other side but I don’t know if you can really see the fabric but a lot of it is kind of vintagey. which I love. Brielle thinks the quilt looks really kidish. so what do you think?

What have I learned? I have HIGH respect for quilters. HIGH. You would have to pay me A LOT of $$ to make a quilt for someone else. I actually probably will never make another one. I learned quilting is not for me. But oh how I do LOVE the finished project! LOVE IT!  I only wish my grandpa could see it. but I'm going to send him a picture anyways and hopefully he can blow it up on his machine that he has and will be able to see it a little bit. but I wouldn't want him to look to closely anyways bc it isn't perfect. a lot. A LOT of the squares do not line up. But it was a learning process right

Before I started my quilt I had seen the downy touch of comfort for kids posts on a few blogs and I wanted to do it with my girls. You request a quilt kit..all free they send you the fabric and its already cut up..isn't that the best part..lol..You just have to sew it together..and u have to pay for the batting for the quilt and also to ship it back to them if there isn't a local chapter by you. and what do they do with them you ask??? WELL they deliver them to kids in hospitals. now after my hospital stay for a LONG week..I can tell you any kid I walked by would of welcomed that quilt in a second. a lot of them are there for the long haul and what better way to brighten up there day. It gets very boring looking at the white rooms..white linen.white walls. white everything. What a great project to do with the girls too..to give back..don’t you think?? Want to read more about it…go to this blog..http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2012/06/downy-touch-of-comfort-quilts-for-kids-part-2-quilting-and-binding-the-easy-way.html that is for the second part..she has a previous post that shows u exactly how to do the front of it. here is that link..http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2012/06/downy-touch-of-comfort-quilts-for-kids-part-2-quilting-and-binding-the-easy-way.html..I think we can handle a small quilt like that…a couple hours week project for us maybe.

We are big on picnics here.why we need a nice picnic blanket...anyways I walked outside the other day and where did I find Avery. She was having a picnic with her dolly. She set everything up too..and she is using the doll quilt that my grandpa made her. 
 
Why u got to put pepper on your lemon of course

Memorial Day Camp Out

For Memorial day we had a camp out at our house this year. It was pretty fun and relaxing..We had everything we needed at any campground..we had a lake (our pool)..we had a playground for the kids…im not ready to tent with the babies yet..so this worked out perfect..bc then they got to stay in there beds and I stayed in the house too..and Jared and the other girls slept in the tent. One night the older girls with there cousins slept on the tramp while Jared slept in the tent.

We set it up on our hill away from the house so everyone would stay outside and not be tempted to go inside. We set up a fire pit..and chairs..and we did most of our cooking over the fire pit..that part was pretty nice bc then I didn’t have to do much cooking at all.

Brian and Boo just pulled there camper over here and hooked that up…

A few nights some of other family members came over for campfire..and/or they would bring over food to cook over the camp fire for supper or lunch…But mostly the weekend was spent just relaxing around the pool..it was very hot out and most everyone went home looking like a fried lobster;)

This weekend I also retired this swimsuit of Avery’s and have just went to arm bands..This swimsuit has been the best thing ever but its time to part with it..it looks horrible..I tried to teach her to swim with out and she didn’t like it very much..but I don’t think she will be jumping in with out any thing one at least.

We had to wean the babies into the water..Jayla wanted nothing to do with it..and screamed her head off until I just put her in with Destiny and Destiny walked around with her screaming for a little  bit but then she started to like it and by the end was the last one in the pool she didn’t want to get out. Jianna had no problems getting in..she loved it..
Jianna

Jayla

Jianna on the left, Jayla on the right

Do you see Jianna’s freckle on her cheek? That is how some people tell them apart now..bc Jayla doesn’t have one yet..

HAHA…

Doesn’t this picture look so sweet like they are holding hands???:) Well actually Jianna on the right is trying to shoo Jayla away from her but Jayla likes to make her mad so she is still trying to get her..

First day of summer

We kicked our summer of with the first sleep over of many probably this summer with the girls cousins. Jared’s brothers family moved down her a couple of months ago and the girls are so happy that they have older cousins there age now to play with and that they are girls too helps:)
We roasted hotdogs for supper…that’s my kind of supper and the perfect kick off to summer if u ask me.


The girls pretty much swam the whole time..

Somebody was pretty happy to get back in the pool..she has been waiting..and since we got her cast off this was one of her first times back in..and I haven't been able to keep her out..

Jared made the girls some kettle popcorn over the fire for there snack..and it was pretty good the little bit that we got.

We are off to a good start..