Moving Again!

     Moving again, but this time, not me!  My DSM (dear sweet man) and I were scheduled to visit daughter and son in law in Arizona.  His new job change requires a move to Denver within the year.  Day before we were to fly out, daughter calls and says, "Hey we just signed a lease in Denver and are moving in 2 weeks.  Can you and dad stay for longer, help us get our house on the market, and help us move to Denver?"  Our answer, "Sure".  We quickly checked on logistics, like a car parked at the airport for 3 weeks, flight changes, etc.
    We arrived on a Wednesday night, helped with last minute projects to get the house ready, had the realtor come by on Friday for last minute paperwork, took off for Puerto Penasco, Mexico for weekend while house was showing over the weekend.

     When we got back from our Mexican jaunt, we were ready for serious packing while son in law had to travel out of town for business.  These kids knew who to bring in for fast packing since we move every year.  House sold in 5 days.  Yeah!
     Since DSM and I move every year, we move with commander bins from Lowe's.   Since kids are not planning move every year (we hope), there was no need for them to have the extensive collection of commander bins that we have.  So we have made daily trips to Lowe's and the UHaul store for boxes.  I am impressed with Lowe's heavy duty boxes and discovered the small size is very functional.  They are not big enough for kitchen things to get to heavy, yet large enough for tons of uses.

     There are a few black and yellow commander bins in there, but the small Lowe's heavy duty small boxes might become my new fave.  
     Shockingly, we think we are finished and are just waiting for Tuesday when the truck is picked up and we begin the 2 day drive to a new life for them in Denver.   Now, the thing that makes us able to be finished is that we are completely moved out of the house and staying at the in-laws' house in town.  That is making this move one of the more stress-free at end that I have ever had.

 

Finally Finished!

I cannot estimate the hours this took, but I do know it was 10 days.  I slowly worked on the applique pieces.  I began with these original 4 pieces.

     That was a good start, then it went out of control after that!  I began adding more and more and more.  The fabric was Arbor Blossom by Nadra Ridgeway of Ellis and Higgs for Riley Blake.  I added some solids from Moda.  I had the center finished when my husband went on a 3 day business trip.  Oh joy!  Staying in my pj's all day sewing late into the night.  I planned to be finished after a couple of days.  Not so fast!  I spent 3 days squaring up, adding the borders, the baby name and the lines from an old hymn in the stars.  I tend to avoid free motion quilting, but this called for it.  I did echo stitching around the name, the stars and the appliques, blending the echoes together as  I went.  Since I had fat quarters rather than yardage, I made 2" finished squares for the border.  When I got the fat quarters, I cut each into 2- 2.5" strips and 2 - 6.5" strips.  I used the first set of 6.5" strips for the appliques.  I pulled one simple plaid print in 3 sets of colors for the binding.  The backing ended up being the other set of 6.5" strips cut into 6.5" squared for the back.  It was getting late on the first night when I decided to offset the squares rather than taking the time to match each corner on a 4 patch.
    This was commissioned for a baby that was to be born in February.  I got a text in November that the baby's delivery was imminent.  So, since November 29 I had been keeping up with her progress in the NICU after being born at 29 weeks.   She is home now and doing very well.  Her parents are people of deep faith, so the words to this old hymn I thought were appropriate for this.  This should be going out in the mail to her this week.

All things bright and beautiful

All things great and small

  

All things wise and wonderful

The Lord God made them all.