Victoria and a Big Birthday

We were so blessed to be able to go to Victoria to see family there and especially to be able to be at Thatcher's baptism.  It was a trip with just me (Baylor is everywhere I go as well) and the big girls.  They were able to earn this trip by each finishing 2 math programs and completing their years worth of math in about 9 weeks.  They did great and we had a great trip to the ocean.

I have never before taken any of our children on an airplane or to the ocean, so this was very special.  We were so grateful for the Bly's for allowing us to stay with them and helping us not get lost.  Here are a few of the great things that we did.

We fed these wild seals that live at the marina in Victoria.  I have never seen creatures like this so close before and I was just as amazed as the kids were.  They sell little packages of frozen fish to feed to them and with all of these kids we went through a bunch of them.

These seals were surprisingly bigger then I thought they would be.  They were so beautiful.

We spent some time at a beach.  It was quite a cool day but that didn't stop these crazy kids from enjoying their first time to the ocean.  We collected a couple shells and some rocks, dug in the sand and jumped over waves.  They also found lots of dogs to play with on their walks along the beach as well.

Their feet were so numb and cold when they got out but they had a fun time.  There was some tail end of a hurricane or something coming through this weekend and it rained and sprinkled and was pretty grey but that didn't stop any of our activities.

I guess I don't have any pictures of the baby with us.  He was such a trooper.  He fed sitting on the beach, being sheltered from the cold wind and then he spent the rest of the time there staying warm in his stroller all covered up.  It was windy and chilly so I tried to keep him sheltered.  He was so great the whole trip, such an easy going baby!

We had a fun time watching Macartney play soccer, but Thatcher had a bye so we weren't able to see him play.

Elliette's also had her birthday while we were there.  We did all of the thins that she wanted that day, going to the ocean, feeding the seals and eating a crab.  It was a prefect restaurant that we went to, it was right on Wharf Street and overlooked the inner harbor.  They led us back to this glass enclosed space that we had all to ourselves.  That is perfect with a group of 11 people consisting of 8 young children.  They were so kind and accommodating to us.  We had great seafood that we shared, I think it was nearly 10 different kinds of seafood including mussels, shrimp, salmon, crab, battered fish, calamari, etc.  It was delicious and fun for the kids to try some fresh from the ocean food.

They brought all of the kids ice cream and Elliette got a big piece of cake with a candle and happy birthday in chocolate sauce.  It was so nice to make it an extra special 8th birthday for her!

 This is a pre-birthday that Elliette had before we went to Victoria.  Auntie Amber made her this creepy looking cake and she had so much fun having her teeth made black.  It was so great to be able to celebrate her birthday a few times with all of her Wigg cousins.

Giving Thanks

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents with this fun crowd.  It was a great feast ,as always, and a fun, crazy time with this big group

For us to try and give thanks and remember our blessings we worked together to make up a list of 100 things we are grateful for.  Once we got going it was really easy and we could have kept going far beyond 100, we just ran our of room on our cardboard sheet.  It was really fun to think of all of the things that we love and express gratitude for them.  Especially to see it all written out on a long list, we have so much more even to be grateful for.  I am thankful for the reminder of all we have been blessed with and how grateful we are for all of it!

Zig-Zags and Squares

Here is a bunch of the quilts that I have done this year.  I also realized that I take and post pictures of the quilts that I have given away but have a bunch that I have kept that I didn't document.  So here are some new and old ones.  

I saw this pattern to do with the chevron and I immediately began cutting my chevron to use for this.  I like chevron and I bought all of this and then didn't really know what to do with it all.  I love how the zig-zags come together to make squares and the rainbow of it.  It is bright and crazy, just the way our life is.

It also has my favorite backing fabric, the large floral print and a colored polka dot edging.  Trying to squeeze as much prints together I guess.  I think it turned out fun and will be loved in the family of a friend of mine.

I just love the fall colors too!  I had fun taking these in our backyard!

Paul came home one day with a gift of fabric for me, a bundle of Halloween fat quarters.  I don't usually love seasonal prints but this was fun and cute with little spiders and webs.  So I set of right away to make a table runner that I thought would be perfect with this fabric.

It was really fun and easy project to make.  I really want to do some more small projects as they get done so quick.  We will see!

It was so fun to quilt it as well with spider webs and cute little spiders.  The black backside really shows it well and then it is reversible.  I am happy with how it turned out.

I made this quilt for Marshall last fall and never managed to take any pictures of it.  I was excited to put it on his bed and it hasn't come off much; even though at first he didn't like it at all.  When I gave Marshall his new quilt he cried and pulled it off his bed.  When I put him to bed with it he wouldn't sleep until he had removed it from his bed and dragged it as far from himself as possible.  He cried and said "No like it!"

The way that I got him to keep it on his bed was to turn it upside down, for months that was the only way that he would use it. If I tried to turn it over he would again pull it off and cry.  After a long enough time it became part of the bed and he wasn't worried about it anymore.  I think that it was just too busy for him.

I quilted it with a fun swirl pattern.  I loved to add some more movement to a straight line, very square quilt.

Here is the more simple back.  I still love to have it with some design to match the front.

Marshall obviously loves it now.  I would cuddle him in his quilt and tell him that I made it special for him because I love him.  I also put his name on the back of it so that he can have it always feel like his.  I love it in his room with the squares on the wall as well.  I think that it goes so well together.

So when I began really loving quilting was 3 years ago when I finished up the girls quilts that took me 2.5 years to do.  Then I managed to finish them and began to want to make more and more.  So that is what I have done, had a few quilts on the go since then.  I have been loving it and learning lots.  I love to learn new things and I have always had a creative outlet so this goes together perfectly.  Here is the girls quilts.

Dawsyn's quilt is green with purple accents.

Here is my little buddy, always by my side!  I just love that look when he raises up his eyebrows like that, it makes me laugh a lot.

Elliette's quilt is pink based with the accents of green and purple.  I love to see it in pictures and how it appears different then I see it in life.  I love how Elliette's has formed almost lines of color between the pink.  She now has a queen sized bed and her quilt is a little small but still looks nice.

Kyndal's turned out quite different as well, with the dark purple standing out.  I love to look for the stars, with the dark purple forming a star around the 16 patch.  In the picture below it is easier to see a star,

These are the only quilts that I have had long arm quilted.  I am happy that I did and really love the results but do not intend to pay for that often.  You can see well the quilting on Kyndal's with a dark variegated thread.  The girls each have different quilting that I tried to pick to go with their different personalities.

Here is a quilt that I made last year with the fabric that I got in India.  The one big thing that I wanted as a keepsake was to make a quilt with India fabric.  I am really happy with this quilt, doing raw edge applique for the circles.  This pattern was really great for this fabric as it really showcases it and is bold and very Indian.  We love to cuddle under this quilt on the couch!

I was happy as I thought one day about when I began quilting.  I did grow up with my mom and grandma always having quilts on the go and I helped to do some quilting on them regularly.  Then I made these quilts when I was pregnant with Kyndal.  I wanted a bright colorful nursery so I made them in primary colors.  I also had a fun time making the wall hanging with alphabet applique.

Here is my very first quilt ever.  I did this even before I was pregnant with my first.  I wanted to have it be really small pieces and did triangles and squares to make this.  I also didn't iron it at all.  That is funny to me now as I have learned a lot and have gotten so much better.  Ironing seams is just part of it now, but I refused to do it on this one.  So there is documented my history of quilting,  Over the years I have also made some quilts to donate and have made a lot of little taggie blankets for babies, with ribbons along the outside for a baby to chew on.  These were really little quilts and I had so much fun making different colors and patterns together.  I have really always needed a creative outlet.