BYU Graduation #6

This is Abby, my sixth child and the sixth child to graduate from BYU! Go Cougars! I think she is the youngest also. Graduation was last week. Jim is the Associate Dean of the College of Life Sciences and his graduation was at the same time as Abby's, so she went to His! The best thing was that he gave her her diploma and got to have his picture taken with her and Dean Brown.

SO CUTE!!!

Caleb will be next.........a long time from now.......he's only 14. He's about as interested as a 14 year old can get.

Mira was much more interested! Maybe SHE will be next!

First "Show " Quilts

This quilt is titled "In the Beginning", Doodle #1. I took a bunch of my doodles and reproduced the shapes in bright fabrics made brighter by putting them on a black background. Kim Peterson did some fabulous quilting and then I put almost 1000 swarofsky crystals in the middle.

This quilt is titled "Love Multiplies" . It was made from another one of my doodles by the same name. This is the story that goes with the original drawing.

I was taking a Lamaze refresher course in preparation for the birth of my fourth child. The teacher was expecting her second. Her reaction upon hearing that I was expecting Number four was “We are only having two children. We don’t want to have to divide our love between more than two, it wouldn’t be fair to the children.”I was literally speechless. Didn’t she know love multiplies? It doesn’t divide or subtract, it adds and multiplies. The more you give it away the more you have to give. So this piece is dedicated to my mother and all those she has taken in and loved, and all her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She taught me that ‘Love Multiplies.”
I have entered both of these in a quilt show. My first. I am nervous about having my stuff judged. I am hard enough on myself without voluntarily paying someone else to criticize me.

I went to a quilt retreat with my Bee. We made these table toppers called "crazy Eights" . It was fun and easy.

I turn in the show quilts on April 18. Then I will be powerless to change things and will have to just wait and see what happens. GLUGHHH!

I think I will take up knitting!

#18 Afton Elizabeth Anderson

Last Wednesday, March 4, Little Afton was finally born. My schedule had been "tentative" for a week, thinking she would make her appearance earlier. The hospital wanted Betsy to come in at 9 am to be induced so I went to AF to pick up the boys. Caleb had an orthodontist appointment at 10:15, so I picked him up at school and took him and the little boys to the dentist. Afterwards I left the little boys with Caleb and raced to the hospital to be with Betsy when Afton was born. Russell was texting me the whole time, keeping me informed. He asked me to pick up a hamburger for him on the way. As I was finally on the home stretch to the hospital, Russell texts, "She wants to push!". I text back "Tell her to stop!!"

I made it 5 minutes before Afton was born. If that hamburger had made me miss Afton's birth, I would have been mad at Russ forever.

I have spent a great deal of time since then watching Porter and Reid.

I know at first glance this looks like a suave young man with a pencil mustache and a smoking jacket, but it's just Reid wearing his pajama top for a coat, after having a meal of good garden dirt. Russ said his diaper the next day had enough dirt to plant daisies. Oh well, that's the way gramma's babysit.

mission call????

I have a friend who says the only way she is going on a mission is if she gets an email from the Lord. She told me last week her email came. That ran through my mind when I walked outside on Friday night and found this.

the poster says "Congrats Bro & Sis Porter. Siberian South Mission.

Then I thought, "Oh no, some sweet person put this at the wrong house! That has happened before. Then Jim said, "I don't think there is any such mission as the Siberian South Mission" How would he know that? He went inside to his computer and looked it up. Sure enough---no such thing. We then recalled that our pranking mischeivous daughter and son-in -law had been here earlier in the evening. After a call and poorly disguised pretense of innocence, Betsy admitted guilt. We have had several calls from neighbors wondering where the Siberian South mission is, and how come they didn't know we were thinking about a mission. Funny....

New Quilts

It's been forever since I blogged or even read blogs. I have been busy with other things. I finished 3 quilts.

This is the "Swirl" Quilt that I started at Quilt Festival last September. I took a class from Louisa Smith. The Quilt is interesting, and I would make another swirl quilt, but I would not make my own fabric "strata" like Louisa does. It's not fun. It was beautifully quilted by Kim Peterson. (Kimberwood Quilting).
This little "Harvest" Quilt was a group effort. My Bee divided the tasks, I did the plums, somebody did the pears, someone else did peaches etc. We ended up with this cute thing. I embellished it with bug buttons.

I learned how to do this "Fractured Stained Glass" quilt last year at Bryce Canyon Winter retreat. I fimnally finished it because My Bee wants to learn how to do it. I didn't love it till I took this picture. It really looks like the sun is shing through a stained glass window. Cool.

The best thing Iam doing lately is taking care of Caleb Moody, a Darling little boy that I took care of when I was doing Pediatric Hospice. He surprised everyone and decided to live. He was expected to die shorly after his birth and he is now 4. He has a trach, a g-tube and is on a ventilator at night. He only has one eye. The other eye is closed and has eyelashes so he looks like he is winking. You can check out his blog winkfromheaven.blogspot.com, the link is on my blog. He is such an angel. It is very rewarding and uplifting to love him and help his family. It is just what I needed these last dreary days of Winter.