New addition to the family!

The good news is we have a beautiful new baby grand-daughter!!!
The bad news is, she is in the hospital. Our daughter had been having mild contractions all day Wednesday, but nothing to write home about. Then while she was on the phone that night with me, her water broke. It was green, which, for you boys who don't know, means the baby has pooped in-utero. Not a huge deal, but it meant she had to go in to the hospital instead of just waiting at home for things to progress. Then early in the morning labor stopped, and since the water had already gone, and the baby's heart rate was considered too high, the decision was made to push things along and they gave my daughter pitocin. Oh, and somewhere in there the gynecologist threatened a C-section if things didn't move forward soon. She had a midwife though, and neither my daughter nor the midwife wanted that to happen so they got her up and walking. After that the baby came quite quickly, but, from the brief conversation I had with my girl last night, she (baby) never gained any color, apparently she has very low red blood cells. She was given a blessing, but my daughter was pretty shaky when we were talking and the authorities couldn't explain why this was happening. A son of mine looked it up for me, and there are a number of reasons. One that sounded most likely to me is if the cord is large and the baby is held too high above mom's abdomen before the cord is cut, the blood can drain back into the mom, leaving baby with not enough. Anyway, since they weren't finding a reason. they were moving baby to children's hospital last night. We have been praying of course, but haven't heard more. I wish I knew what was happening, but they have too much to worry about for me to keep calling. I wish I had time to fly out there and help, but I just started a job that requires me to be here. Talk about being of two minds!!

Very busy summer!

Today is the last day of my "vacation" so I thought I had better explain my summer. It started in mid June with Trek. We had volunteered to go along as 'Ma and Pa' months ago. sometime last fall. We had training meetings, and were given lessons to prepare. Nothing, though could prepare you for the actual experience. For instance, the love you have for the youth that you are in charge of. I know it's like that for every calling, but this was so immediate. We had the very best group of kids on trek and knew it as soon as we met them. We all met at the church the night before to check in baggage and hear about what was coming up. Then we were back at the church the next morning at 5 am to drive up to the ranch. I won't even try to explain the incredible spiritual experience we had though I might have if I had written this down earlier. I just want to say that it was wonderful. Physically we had a bit of everything. Some sunshine, some cold, and mostly a lot of rain and mud. And we still had a ball. I'm sure there were some who absolutely hated it, but everyone I talked to had a great time in spite of the wet. (Maybe because of it. Without rain it would have been incredibly hot.)
The day after we got home my son brought my granddaughter to spend some time with us. He only got to spend a couple days, but the granddaughter spent three weeks and that was fabulous. My daughter and her daughter came next and that weekend was our family reunion. We had a lovely camping trip - perfect weather, lots of fun things to do and lovely family to do it with. The most fun for me was that my granddaughter got to go camping for the first time. I think she had fun. I know I had fun watching her.
Then it was the wedding for one of my sons. A couple of spouses didn't make it, but the rest of the immediate family did. It was such a great gathering. I wish we could have spent more time together, but some people had to get back to work. Sigh!
Then my daughter and I drove back to Washington DC where she was living at the time. It was 4 days driving, and we broke the trip in Iowa where we dropped my son's daughter off. I miss you Missy D! Interesting trip, but we were traveling too quickly to stop as see much. That isn't to say we didn't stop. With two little girls you stop a lot. Mostly at rest stops to let certain people run around for an hour or so. In spite of dvd's, toys and food she still got very tired of being in a car seat. (Who can blame her?) (I'm speaking of the 2 year old)
I was expecting to hear about a census job during July, and when I didn't I started think about what else I should do for work. I knew I could have my old job back and that would be fine, but I still needed to think about after. Before I left home my husband had suggested the new quilting business. My daughter and I visited a couple of quilt shops on the trip and I started thinking about quilting for a living. Spent a lot of August looking into the idea of running a long arm quilting business, but then I also heard from the Census Bureau. I will be the Assistant Manager of Quality Assurance for the Provo office doing the decennial census. I begin work tomorrow, which is why I thought I better post now. There has simply been no time.
The garden was very productive, still is. I took a class on a long arm machine, which helped me make up my mind that; yes, this would be a good job for me. I could choose my own hours and work around my garden. I can work barefoot, my favorite way to be. We bought a new sewing machine (regular type for piecing quilts - mine is nearly 30 years old) and I have been taking classes on how that works. We have shopped for quilt fabric and other things needed to start a business. I went to the Utah Quilt Guild Quiltfest, and took a couple of classes there on how to piece quilts. I also went to education week, more very instructive classes. We painted the area where we wanted the quilting machine. We made a lot of quilts to practice on. My husband actually made more than I did as I was always doing other things, but I had a lot of fun anyway. Since August I have made 7 quilt tops and my husband has made 8. His are mostly larger and more detailed than mine.
And last of all, Thursday our quilting machine was delivered. It was an all day affair and we were too tired in the evening to really catch the little bit of training they were trying to give us. Sweet C has already quilted and bound two of his tops. I have been doing sample quilt stuff on cheap fabric. So, there is the summer. Now begins the working life.

Jester

Ok, so my photos are never quite right color-wise. Maybe you can't tell how wild but cute this is, but I thought you should see it anyway. I think I'll call it Jester.

Bountiful harvest

Here is the morning picking of tomato and cherry tomatoes.I'll be giving away four or five small bags of "sweet million" cherry tomatoes. As usual. Oh, and I could have kept picking, I just get hot and tired and come in with many still undiscovered.

The top picture is the cherry patch immediatly after picking. ( I had them in the right order for once and somehow ended up deleting that one!) You can see how many I will have to pick tomorrow. I took a gardening class this spring. He suggested black plastic under the tomatoes and the vine crops. That was a great idea. He also suggested no support for the tomato vine. That isn't a great idea. I am wading around in the vines trying to find a place to put my feet that doesn't smash the vines or the fruit. He also said tomatoes like to be watered once every week to ten days. That is probably a good idea, my fruit tends to split a lot just at the end of the ripening process, however, I have a hard time remembering to turn the water on and off at the right times. It is set to water automatically twice a week, which the other crops need.
Here you can see half of my potato patch - ready for harvest but where would I put the potatoes? It is still too hot to store them loose in the storage room. We put in yukon gold and Pontiac Red. We have already pulled out potatoes at least 6 inches across. John and I shared one baked potato for dinner on Sunday and had way too much to eat. I will have to leave them in the ground for now, except to pick one to eat once in awhile. At the back of the picture you can see the sweet potato vines. They look great, but I don't know when or how to know if they are ready for harvest. Anyone?

Pinky

I finished my green and pink top. I like it, but the stripe is very bold. I have enough scraps to do something else. And you should see the top Sweet C has started. Tiny little triangles that add up to 2 1/2 in squares. In the end it will be stars, but a very complicated way to get there. It will be fabulous.

What's in a name?

Sweet C has now made 6 quilt tops. This is his pinwheel.
This is actually a baby quilt. The favored fabric will be the back.
This is the quilt I am working on. I am having some corner problems.
This is the balloon that flew over my head as I was reloading the hummingbird feeders this morning.

Ok, so we have decided to go forward with the business. We have ordered a long arm quilting machine and are preparing some quilts to practice on. We had hoped to buy a used machine from a teacher of mine who hoped to move. She ended up not taking the job, so we weren't able to get the 'deal', but have decided to go forward anyway. I will let you know when new one arrives, cause you all will need to make quilts for me to learn on too.
Here's the problem: What do we call this business? We have a business license already for DJP Enterprises, set up when we were going to do something else entirely, so anything we do can be under that general umbrella. I am thinking maybe DJ Quilting, or DJ Machine Quilting. We could go with something like Spruce Quilting cause it ties with our name. I'd love to do something cute, but I'm not very creative and we do want it to suit us. My daughter told us about someone she deals with whose business name is Green Fairy Quilts. Amazing how well that would fit me (anyone seen the fairies in my garden lately) but it's taken. Should I think of something that goes with gardening? Flowers? Quilting? Or just stick with the name we have?
In the meantime, I will be working as fast as I can in the yard, as there is a bit too much harvest right now, and on the house, as I have lots of painting to do. I start my new job September 28th. That is, the new census job.

research and learning

Sweet C decided he would make a quilt top to see how it is done. I didn't try to get the whole top in, as the lighting was bad. It is much nicer than you can tell here.
And I went to a long arm quilting class to see if I could even begin to do this. Of course, I loaded the pictures backwards, but you can see that my first ever attempt isn't half bad. Maybe I can quilt for others. My flowers (above) are my favorite. Didn't get the best picture.
They say you get better with practice. The above is my worst square, as I'm not sure I like those styles so I haven't drawn them much.
This is my teacher's favorite flower version
I, personally like hearts, but not perfect little all alike hearts. I can do those, but I prefer the little pointy tipped hearts that look all different.
You can see on the left my first attempt at a meander. Not even enough, but, still, my first few minutes on a machine. The bit on the right is my own version of a bounce. I kind of like the more geometric look than my version of my teachers favorite bounce, which I was horrible at.
And that is a poor picture of the whole days lesson. It was great fun, but I can see that I will need lots of practice. If I do this you will all have to let me practice on your quilts.