It's good to be back home

We all had a wonderful time in Jamaica for the daughter's wedding. (See my previous post.) But all great trips need to have some crazy story to end it all. I have a crazy story!

Tuesday, April 27
4:30 am - our alarm goes off
5:30 am - check out of our lovely room at Beaches Boscobel in Ocho Rios
6:00 am - board the airport shuttle for the 2 hour trip back to Montego Bay
8:30 am - strip searched in immigration (yes - that is the absolute truth!!)
9:00 am - sitting in gate area waiting for our 11:35 am flight (we're early)
10:30 am - our flight is cancelled and we get into line with everyone else for rebooking
2:30 PM - finally reach the desk for rebooking and told the only option left is staying over
3:00 pm - retrieve luggage from customs and trudge out to our ground transportation
4:00 pm - arrive at our shabby hotel (it did have a nice beach area) for the night

Wednesday, April 28
8:30 am - board another airport shuttle for our 2nd attempt to leave Jamaica
9:30 am - my passport is confiscated and I'm sent back to the "security room" AGAIN
9:45 am - no strip search this time, just a "pat down" and unpacking of my carry on bag
10:00 am - sitting in gate area hoping our flight leaves today
11:35 am - flight time comes and goes - it is only a DELAY?
12:00 noon - we finally board our plane
12:15 pm - I notice that luggage is being UNLOADED from our plane - this is not good!
12:50 pm - following reloading of luggage, our 11:35 am flight finally pushes away from gate
4:00 pm - we're in Miami, but have missed our connection to Chicago & Sioux Falls
4:30 pm - rebooked onto a later Chicago flight with plenty of time to catch Sioux Falls connection
5:30 pm - flight delayed because the crew isn't there
6:15 pm - we finally are on the way to Chicago but our hopes are slim of making it to SF
8:00 pm (central time) - we are still circling Chicago. Can we make an 8:35 flight to SF???
8:25 pm - we exit our plane in the middle of concourse K and run (Dave does, not me) to the end of concourse G
8:35 pm - Dave gets to the gate but the door has already been closed on the aircraft. I'm still trying to get there - huffing & puffling! I must start exercising when I get home!
8:40 pm - thank you to the lovely gate agent who smiles (that was a first) and calls the plane asking them to please open the door for 2 more passengers.
MIDNIGHT - we've landed in Sioux Falls, picked up 2 of our 3 bags (golf clubs are MIA), and driven the 70 miles home.

HOME SWEET HOME!

PS 1 & 2: The cat was very happy to see us! And the golf clubs were delivered by the airlines on Thursday afternoon.

Congratulations to the newlyweds in Jamaica

The Roller Dollz rock!

Three future dollz celebrated Jada's birthday by going to see the Roller Dollz last Saturday night. They dressed up for the occasion and didn't stop smiling most of the evening.

The Roller Dollz gave them lots of photo ops and autographs. My daughter Laura is the "doll" on the far left.

Below is Laura skating as a "Killa Bee" - the second team. The Dollz have enough girls now that they can field 2 teams and give the rookies more skating time. Laura skated with both teams on Saturday. The Killa Bees won big over a team from Fargo, while the Roller Dollz got beat by the North Stars of Minneapolis. What a fun evening - and it all goes to charity! The photo below was taken by Jerilyn's friend Josh.

The Jamaica quilt is ready to travel

Here is the wallhanging quilt I've made for my older daughter's wedding in Jamaica. It is ready to pack into my carry-on bag for the trip.

The 2 flip flop blocks were signed by guests at her bridals showers. And the bigger palm tree block is ready for the actual wedding guests - almost 30 of them!

My friend Sylvia had some great ideas for adding some fun details to this project. It was her idea to make 2 tiny pair of flip flops to put onto the beach. And she had the idea to embroider the heart and initials onto the tree trunk. And she found the 4 star fish buttons that I added to all of the blocks. Isn't it great to have creative friends?

Then I stumbled on the beach scene fabric online and just had to buy it for borders. I can't wait for the bride to see it!

Sharing fabric for a good cause

I currently work with some remarkable people in the field of education. One of them - Sylvia - is also one of my best friends and quilting buddies! And she has come up with a fantastic way to help out a woman who is teaching quilting to the next generation.

Sylvia has posted a request on her blog Seams Sew Simple for extra fabrics from our stashes to be shared with a teacher on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in western South Dakota. Marion Running Horse teaches quilting (among other family and consumer science courses) to students in her school and relies on donated fabric for the quilt projects.

Please go to Sylvia's blog for more information on what is needed and where to mail it. I know that I have quite a few fat quarters and other yardage that really could use a better home - where it will get used more quickly. And Marion's students deserve to quilt using good quality and pretty fabric.

Needle and thread

I've spent most of the afternoon with needle and thread, doing some hand applique work. I had already made 2 flip flop signature blocks for Jerilyn's bridal showers, and now I'm making a larger palm tree block for signatures at the actual wedding. The beach theme is because the wedding will be in Jamaica and is coming up soon.


My friend Sylvia found the cutest starfish buttons and gave them to me. I put one on each of these flip flop blocks this afternoon. And the other two will go on the beach area of the palm tree block. Aren't friends the best? Thank you Sylvia for finding such perfect buttons!



I embroidered a heart on the tree with the initials of the bride and groom. The green leaves are done now too. The only major thing left to do on this block is add 2 tiny little pair of appliqued flip flops onto the beach. Then it will be ready to go into my carry on bag for the trip.

A new acronym

I had a hilarious comment left on a post from a few days ago that gave me a whole new acronym that I don't want to forget. More on that in a second. . .

WIP - Works in Progress . . . these are the projects that are currently on my radar, but not quite complete. I have quite a few of them living in my sewing room at any one time. My interest often dwindles as I work on something and the reason varies. Sometimes I just get bored with sewing too many of a particular block. Sometimes I get tired of sewing on a particular color. And often I'm just excited to dive into a new project and can't wait until I finish what I'm working on.

UFO - Un-Finished Object . . . these are the projects that were WIP, but have been set aside with no immediate plans for completion. Again, a variety of reasons exist in my head for this status change. Sometimes I don't quite know how I want to finish a quilt - a different layout or border is needed. Sometimes it just gets covered up by other things and forgotten in the clutter. Shame on me!!

But here is the new acronym, courtesy of my cousin Julie who is a highly talented knitter: TAurDS (totally abandoned in disgust!). Isn't that perfect? I hate to admit this, but I also have some of these hiding in shame in my sewing room. Maybe I need to pull those out, and offer them to anyone who is willing to adopt them. Sounds like a summer project. Wooly Jooly - thanks for the laugh and the inspiration!!

A couple more wedding pix

I'm on the road for a couple of days for work again, so no sewing to report. I should have brought some handwork with me, but didn't think of it before leaving. However, I may have a chance to visit a quilt shop before heading home tomorrow - I hope!

So I'm sharing a couple more pictures from Laura's Christmas wedding. Notice the red shoes peeking out from under her dress in this picture. I just loved her shoes - just a fun, surprise touch.

This is our family group photo - with the engaged couple on the left, the newlyweds in the middle, and the old folks on the right. We all clean up pretty good! I do notice that even with high heels on I'm still the shortest person in the group by far! My husband is 6' tall, so you can see that we got a couple of very tall sons-in-law! Future basketball players in the next generation?

Block #3

I've finished the 3rd block in this year's Saturday Sampler block of the month. We had a couple of choices of colorway and I chose the pink and brown because I've never used this combination in anything before.

All of the blocks in this BOM are traditional blocks and I love the names of them as well as the designs. This month is Homespun. The 1st block was Kansas Troubles, and the 2nd block was Crown of Thorns.

A Wedding Quilt

I finally got the binding finished on the quilt I made for Laura and Jamie as a weding gift. It was a Thimbleberries pattern and fabric that I bought about 4 years ago. Laura had picked it out, but I never got around to making it for her until this fall.

She is planning to stop today after visiting her grandmother, so I wanted to make sure it was ready to pick up. Hope they like it.

This isn't the best photo because it is so overcast and grey outside today that the colors don't show up as rich as they really are.