Hearts Full of Joy

my baby

gracie, 10 months old, is at a most delicious, perfect little baby stage. she still has all of her soft & sweet baby charms. and now her personality is really making itself known. she has humor, she has spunk, she is clever, and she can talk, and talk, and talk. i am continually amazed by how much she understands, and can communicate. she has mastered each family member's name, and calls them out in the same tone that her older siblings use. she spends much of her day calling for noah - whenever he is out of her line of vision, she calls, "nwa!". when she wakes up she calls for mom (ocassionally pronounced "bom" - not mama or mommy), and if i don't appear soon enough, she'll move quickly down the line of family names, trying them all. kitty is her favorite word, and is used for kitties, doggies, and anything else small and furry. she feels it is very important to fold her arms when we pray.

....so incredibly precious, each day with her is full of blessings.

this morning in an unexpected moment of clarity, i was humbled by how much love my children are willing to share with me, and how often i block it with my busy-ness, or mixed-up priorities, or impatience. to have the love of such precious people, moment by moment, is a blessing more than anyone can deserve. i feel most undeserving.....and very, very grateful.

one week ago

today it is snowing huge fluffy flakes. to remind myself that one week ago we were celebrating a beautiful, warm & sunny easter, and to feel grateful for that fact, here are a few more photos, taken by my sister, who is a great photographer. (huge, run-on sentence there)

we are a family of folks who love to be behind the camera......

mia taking photos of tashi, who was on the roof.

i damaged my camera on easter as it slid off my shoulder and bumped the ground while i was setting gracie down to photograph. it is being repaired, and i eagerly anticipate it's safe return.

a "charming" quilt for joy

i haven't made a baby quilt for any babies other than grace, since october 2004. but my new little niece, baby joy, who is 1/4 japanese, and reminds me so much of baby mia (yay!) inspired me to do so. since i already had 12 projects going at the time, and dozens more planned in my head, i decided to keep it simple. i used a "charm" pack of 5 inch fabric squares as a start. charm quilts were popular in the 1800s, and in the purest sense, were made of one repeating shape, such as a square, a triangle, or a hexagon, and no two fabrics were used twice. fabric manufacturers have recently started making "charm" packs which consist of 5 inch squares of each of the fabrics in a certain fabric line, with no fabrics repeated. this is a great way to get a lot of fabrics into one quilt, for people with fabric fettishes like mine.

although i used a charm pack, this is not a true charm quilt because some fabrics are used more than once. i cut half of the squares in the charm pack into four 2.5 inch squares, mixed them up, and sewed them into four-patch blocks. the remaining 5 inch squares now needed to be trimmed to 4.5 inches, to match the four-patches. i was able to get the fabrics for the borders from the same fabric line, on clearance!  i simply quilted in a square grid, following the line of the four-patches. then in a bold stroke, i decided to free-motion quilt the outer border. this is something i always want to do, but usually don't. i have never gotten comfortable with free-motion quilting on my machine, because i don't do it often enough. i love the texture the free-motion quilting added to this quilt, but it looks much better from a distance (or in photos) than up close. i would love a stitch regulator to keep my free motion stitches the same length. but that will continue to be a dream for now. i am lucky to have the machine that i do, and i am grateful.

this simple and fast project was a joy to make (for baby joy). and this is my new rule to myself for sewing/quilting: only do it for the joy of it, and love every minute!

click here to see the beginning of this quilt.

happy easter

i love this antique baby double wedding ring quilt from the 1930s, and it seems perfect for easter decorating. two years ago i used it with the easter pillow i made using a vintage embroidery pattern. this year i used it with a bowl of eggs at my easter brunch table.

we had a wonderful easter. my sister's family joined us for an afternoon "brunch" and easter egg hunt, making 10 kids, 11 if lexi hadn't been in japan. the weather couldn't have been better. the kids looked sweet in their easter clothes. the company was great. the food was yummy (& unhealthy) we only wish more family could have been here.

the kids on sunday morning, on the way to church.

tashi finished her dress on saturday afternoon, after many frustrations, and it turned out beautifully! that evening she & i prepared the food for our brunch. she's a good cook and great company. it will be a happy memory for me, cooking & having fun with my tash.

early easter bunny

we put in an early request to the easter bunny to please come to our house on saturday, just after lunch. he likes this arrangement, because it makes less he has to do during the night before easter morning. and we love it because we can stretch out the easter fun, and not have to get up super early sunday morning and rush to get everyone ready for church amid the easter candy frenzy. it also helps us focus on the real reason for easter, our savior, his atonement and resurrection, on sunday.

noah, who is honestly the single biggest candy freak in the entire world (he started getting excited for next halloween on november 1st, and asks about it almost daily), asked me to open a large marshmallow bunny from his basket. then he surprised me by saying, "no, wait! i want to save my candy for everyone", and he packed up his basket and took it inside where he shared some with his sisters. so sweet! his "happy birthday" package was purchased here in town, while he was shopping with me. i asked the clerk if she could keep it out of his sight. she left, and came back with it wrapped. so i (i mean the easter bunny) left it that way ...

daffodils are just starting to bloom, and the weather is gorgeous! brock took this photo while the easter candy was being eaten.

gracie LOVES her toy cell phone! easter bunny was right on with that one!

tashi was relieved once she was informed that the plaid capris were pajama pants, and not something she would be expected to wear to school :)

easter togs

easter outfits for the little people are finished! i had so much fun making them, and didn't let myself feel pressured about it - a major victory for me. if i did it over again, i would make mia's tiers less full, and gracie's dress a little longer. but since i combined several different patterns, made size adjustments and design alterations, i was probably bound to feel that way. noah already had the sweater vest that matched the fabric perfectly.  somehow i managed to get 7 different fabrics into mia's dress - i am such a fabric nut. these fabrics are from the "shangri-la" line by three sisters for moda. i chose them to match the michael miller fabric that lexi & tashi chose for their dresses. i bought their fabric for them (they generally are in charge of making their own purchases with their own money) with the deal that they make their own dresses. tashi's is well underway. lexi's is cut out, but lexi is in japan for the next 10 days to visit friends on their spring break and attend the tokyo stake youth conference.

i haven't made easter dresses since the year mia was born. we only had lexi and tashi then, and on that perfect easter day seven years ago, although we didn't know it yet, mia was born. it was a very spiritual day for me, and i felt that something important was happening, even though we didn't find out about mia for three more days. three years later, noah was due on easter (but he made his arrival six days late). easter is extra special to me now that i've had my easter bunny babies. and it will be fun to celebrate easter in the u.s. it isn't celebrated in japan, even among christians. they never know when it is because it is based on the lunar calendar (the same problem we have here with chinese new year)

happily ever after

last week mia was reading a book of fairy tales, when she suddenly made a very disgusted noise and said..... "that could never happen, they have to GET ALONG first!"

of course, my interest was piqued, and so i asked what she was reading. it was "cinderella" and she quoted to me from the last paragraph..... "he was so overcome by love and joy that he and cinderella were married that very day! they lived happily ever after."

...."that's not how it works! they have to take time to get to know each other and find out if they get along and can be happy together!"..... she informed me.

apparently she has it all figured out, in first grade. that's my mia. should i be happy or sad that she doesn't believe in love at first sight?

1800s charm

i love all things old, antique, and particularly 1800s. in the spirit of my passion, yesterday i was able to try something i have been wanting to do for years. i attended a rug hooking class. it is only offered once or twice a year at this particular quilt shop, and i missed the last one. it look a little effort to get there - over an hour away, but very worth it. and it was even sweeter, because my sister joined me. she helped me work on my first project, which i appreciated, because i had gracie with me, and because she was better at it than i was. you may be cringing as you think back to the latch hook rugs of the 60's & 70's, but this is a centuries old art form, using strips of hand dyed wool, and it is truly beautiful. jill & i started on the pineapple leaves. eventually the entire rug will be filled with loops of wool. i love it, even more than i thought i would - very simple and relaxing. jill already has her first project planned - a very traditional-looking round rug, with rings of variating colors.

here are close ups of the 1840s quilt top that gloria & i found. look at those colors! i didn't do any enhancing of the photos. surprisingly, the earlier you go into the 1800s, the brighter & more beautiful the fabrics were. this top is such a treasure - look at the poison green, the prussian blues, the cheddar yellows, the chocolate browns, and the double pinks - unfaded and brilliant.

the block is a flying geese variation.

my boy

noah is so enjoying the spring weather, and i frequently find him outside (without letting me know - we're working on that) riding bikes down the sidewalk. yesterday i found him with this hat and coat, which are both a little small, but so darling. several people have confided in me recently, that they are tempted to kidnap him. i would be tempted too, if he wasn't mine. so glad he is.

wish i were.... still there

exactly a week ago this moment, gracie & i were flying home from a WONDERFUL week. and now, after catching up on laundry, and getting brock packed and off to japan again, i can blog about it. it was the perfect girls' get-away, 

from the most amazing antique quilt find at the first antique shop we stopped at (i LOVE antiquing in the midwest)....
an 1840s quilt top in almost perfect condition, and at such a low price, it was a give-away! the seller didn't know what they had. this is gloria's first antique quilt purchase, and such an amazing one! she sent it home with me to analyze and study, and put in the quilt show i am organizing for this may. the fabrics are FABULOUS! i also got this 1890s basket quilt top from the same seller. look at the great shirting print!

...to a spur of the moment road-trip to independence, where we stayed in a darling, if over-decorated,  bed & breakfast.... nearly getting stuck in the mud at adam-ondi-ahman due to a thaw ......more antiquing & thrifting..... the hickory stick quilt shop in hannibal.....two day trips to nauvoo -
on sunday we picnic-ed in front of the temple, overlooking the mississippi

.....and lots of talking, laughter, and yummy food (still thinking about those donuts from the bakery in nauvoo (& I'm not even a donut gal - these were the best-ever), oh, and gloria's scrumptious banana cake!).

thank you, thank you gloria and family. it truly  couldn't have been a better trip in any way.

can't wait to come again!

and thanks to brock & kids for letting me go, and giving me the peace of mind that you can get along marvelously without me!

gracie & kennedy (who starrred as golde in her school production of "fiddler on the roof" while i was there - excellent!)  with the mississippi behind