Nickel Quilt

You are probably asking what is a nickel quilt? Well, it's a quilt made from many "nickels" of fabric or 5x5 inch squares. Another name for the fabric square is a charm square. About 3 years ago, I attended a 2 day workshop with the authors of a quilt book called Nickel Quilts. During that workshop, I learned all the little techniques on how to sew a quilt using only 5 inch squares. It's amazing what kind of blocks you can create from just little squares of fabric. . Since my first workshop, I have been collecting 5 inch squares. Most of them are from my own stash because I'll just cut up some 5 inch squares from left over fabric from other projects. One of the many projects I'm working on now, is a quilt from a new book published by the same author, More Nickel Quilts, called Beach Party. I'm using all of my bright nickel squares in the quilt and the background has little ballerinas all over it. Below are some photos of the quilt in progress. I'm hoping to make this quilt for one of my daughters. Since they both take dance lessons, they may just have to take turns on who gets to put it on their bed. I'm sure I'll create some kind of fight by not making 2 quilts but they'll get over it.

One quilt square made from 1/2 square triangle units

The other square made from 4 patch units

The quilt so far. It will end up being a twin when or if I finish.

Little Ballerina

On May 20, E. and M. had their dance recitals. This was E.'s first recital. She was performing a tap dance to "Baby Takes a Bow" and a ballet dance to "Little April Showers". There were only 3 little girls in her class (class was for 2 1/2 yr olds) who were performing in the recital. They got to wear a beautiful pink tutu which E. just loved. Rehearsal went well and E. got on that stage in the auditorium and did her dances like a pro (well she did need a little help from her teacher). She wasn't at all afraid and really seemed to enjoy herself.

On the day of the recital she was so anxious to go on stage and do her dances. Unfortunately at the end of her tap dance she had a little fall and hurt her arm (the girls had moved up on the stage and would have been in front of the curtain when it closed so the teacher was trying to get them to move back and that's when E. fell). She was crying and very upset yelling for her mama when I got back stage to get her. The fall messed her up so much so that her ballet dance didn't go very well. She did go on stage, but as soon as she had to move her arm she went running back to me off stage. For her first recital, she did a wonderful job. If you really knew E., you would have been proud of her because she can be a little difficult, especially in her dance class. She spent most of her time in class running around or doing what ever E. wanted to do and not what she was suppose to be doing so for her to actually go on stage and pay attention was a huge accomplishment!

My beautiful little ballerina with her flowers

after the recital.

Future Gymnast

Future Gymnast

M. has been taking gymnastics lessons since she was 3 1/2 years old. She has been selected to join her gymnastics school preteam (blue team). This year she was in their more advanced preschool progam. She has become very strong and is doing very well for a 5 year old. This summer she will be spending 3 1/2 hours a week at the gym and this will continue into the fall. Today was her last day until blue team practice starts in 2 weeks so the girls did a little demonstration of some of their skills they have been working on this year and explaining why the girls are doing the skills that they showed us. They have been mainly working on strength and proper body positions. Below are some pictures of M. showing how strong she has become by hanging on the bars and climbing the rope.

M. and Her Coach

Red Thread

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break."

--An ancient Chinese belief

I thought I would briefly share my Red Thread story. On Feb 9, 2002, Ken and I were celebrating Chinese New Year with friends at Chinese Restaurant in IL. We had already been waiting 5 months for our first daughter's referral and we would have another 9 months until we would eventually see her face for the first time. That night we were talking about the wait, wondering , dreaming about our daughter to be with other couples who were also waiting.

Halfway across the world, a little girl was born on Feb 9, 2002 and her life would be forever changed when she was placed at the gate of a government building in China on a Monday morning after the Chinese New Celebration (Feb 18). She lived in Qingxin SWI in Guangdong Province until her new family came to bring her home.






On Nov 7, 2002 we received that call that our referral had arrived and we had a Daughter. It was that special girl who was born on that day we were dreaming about her. We were destined to meet and we did on Jan 12, 2003!

Today that little girl is a beautiful 5 year old. She brings us so much joy and love! We couldn't imagine our lives without her!

This is my first time doing a blog. Writing is not my specialty so it's probably not going to be anything deep or creative. My creativity will be from posting about my quilting projects (hence the title of the blog- Quilts). I'll also post a little about my two girls and my family (the other half of the title-and More). I'll start off by describing the latest quilt that I made for my niece's High School Graduation. I figured she will need something bright and cheery for her dorm room when she goes to college so that's what I did. The quilt is called "Wickedly Easy Quilt" and it was very easy to make. The pattern was a free download from a website online http://byannie.com/free_patterns.html. It used 20 fat quarters and I chose to use all bright fabrics. Most of the fabrics came from online swaps that I did with some of my Yahoo groups. I think it turned out kind of neat using such a large variety of fabric prints and colors. I hope she likes it!

Closeup of quilt with binding

Closeup of one quilt sqaure

Twin size quilt