WOW it is already March 17 and I was certain I would keep this blog caught up.  Apparently not.  Well this year has been a busy one (understatement of the century).  We moved my mom up to The Brook Assisted Living in May of 2012.  She was requiring too much care for Sheffield Bay in Bay City.  I got to spend a large amount of time with her until she passed on February 19, 2013.  I am so thankful for the wonderful hours we got to spend together.  I hand pieced a wonderful wallhanging while I sat with her and it was displayed at the funeral home.  It was my first full hand pieced project and it is a wonderful tribute to my mom.  She did see the beginning blocks and I joke that she probably heard some of the "errors" during the last of the piecing.  Also, the day she passed away I came home mid afternoon and decided I was going to machine quilt it to show at the funeral home.  I believe I could of closed my eyes and quilted it.  It went so smoothly that mom must of been helping me.  I got it completely quilted and the binding sewed on in about 5 hours. 

I had been looking at the Block of the Month from Jinny Beyer and bought the border and other fussy cutting fabric.  So Friday I decided to get started on it.  I was not into the 14.5" blocks so I made the paper pieced pattern 25% smaller.  It took ALL DAY and I was not happy with the results.  The pattern from the border fabric did not show enough and it did not match up well.  So yesterday I went full scale and did the "soft piecing" method, which is cutting each piece and drawing the 1/4" seams on.  The border fabric showed up much more and it went together well until I joined the two halfs.  GEEZ it still is not working well.  I tried persuasive pressing, tugging and just about everything else but it is still not the straightest it should be, but.....So today I am forging ahead to block 2 and see what happens.

I saw the Mini Mosiacs on The Quilt Show.com and was intrigued.  So Judy and I purchased the book and we are going to try it with Sally and Joyce next Monday at The Loose Threads all day sew.  It looks like so much fun and every project in the book looks to be lots of fun.  I really need more projects ! ! ! I already have The Quilt Show.com BOM from last year top finished but not quilted. 

I purchased the John Flynn quilting frame and it looks like it will work well but I need to put my Janome Horizon on the front porch where I have more room to spread out and seriously get quilting.  Right now my machine is at Bonnie's Sewing Center in Bay City for a good cleaning and oiling.

Mike found his BLACK LAB puppies in the Grand Rapids area and we are going down soon to see them.  We have only seen pictures so far.  The owner is Sarah and she is such a wonderful person.  I am excited to actually meet her and not just converse via emails.  This puppy will be named LUKE and will be great fun.  Hopefully, Jesse and Jenny will think so.