A little diversion...

This is a little diversion from the quilty nature of my normal posts!

Here are two of my sons skiing at Nastar Nationals last week:

And my husband too:

After 5 days in Colorado, we had 36 hours at home and then off we went to Florida for this adventure:

My son caught this huge 77" sailfish, and the other three guys caught the blackfin tuna and the two wahoos in the above photo. Everyone caught a fish - What a great fishing day!

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming... after a long nap that is...

Catching up and Falling Behind

Boy, this winter has been a rough one on my quilting! I did sign up for the 2013 first quarter Finish-a-Long, which definitely gave me motivation to get some older projects done. Binding is going on this one. Looking forward to being able to take some good outdoor photos of both the front and back! I think I like the back better than the front!

Have you tried Wonder Clips?? Love these things for binding.

But, with everything that's been going on with the kids, the ski season and my health... phew. It has been difficult.

We have been so blessed to be able to enjoy skiing as a family sport for the past few years. It gives us great outdoor exercise during those bleak months when I really feel like holing up in my PJs! But man, those days are also prime quilting time! I was late on this Bee block for Vickie, but she should be receiving it soon.

I've been really struggling with nerve pain this winter. It's something I've had for several years, but seems to be getting slowly but progressively worse. I have a whole range of weird symptoms - including pain and numbness down my right arm into my pinky finger, to half of a numb tongue, chestr pain and headaches. I found out recently that I have a herniated disc in my neck, and signs of degenerating vertebrae which a new doctor seems to believe is the cause of all of my problems. One nerve canal is 50% of what it should be. I had a procedure last week to inject steroids directly into that nerve canal to hopefully lessen the inflammation and relieve some of the pressure. So far, I have not seen any improvement... it has been 5 days....

Hoping I am able to get back on track soon and catch up on all of the things I have been putting off!

Bow tie swap completion

Another one bites the dust! Another project completed! Doesn't that feel good???

I am so pleased with the way this turned out! It's very happy and bright, and I embraced the randomness of those fabrics and colors.  The Bow ties were from the Scrappy Bow Tie Block Swap  (Round 5) on flickr.

Kathy of Stitch by Stitch once again worked her longarm magic on this piece! She chose a blue thread, which I love, but I never would have thought of on my own. The three quilting patterns are such a great accent to the center and borders of this quilt.  I used one of the Denise Schmidt fabrics from JoAnn for the binding, that I found for dirt cheap on the clearance table, and I love that little bright strip and the bias stripes!

Look at the way the quilting shows up so well on that yellow backing! Gorgeous! My 11 year old son, who has always been a yellow lover is lobbying for this one to become his.... 

Happy happy!

This was on my list for 2013 FAL Q1. Here is my list.