Jarred is my oldest child and he has always loved to fish. So when he found out there were some flathead fish that were dying in a dried up lake bed; Jarred went to their rescue. He kayaked through mud and then when he got to shore he carried them on his shoulders a long way to the truck then put them in a private lake and revived them. As far as we know they have survived.

Then there’s Angie my middle child; who is the Mother of both of my grandchildren. She has been keeping busy just being a Mother and a wife. I have been so thankful that I was able to help her out by taking Ava home with me several times just to let Angie rest. Both of my Grandbabies are so much fun and I enjoy every minute that I get to spend with them.



Emilee is my youngest and she is kept busy by working two jobs. My husband and I have enjoyed visiting Emilee at Tanya’s Soup Kitchen, and here she is behind the register.

We were invited to attend a beer tasting party at Emilee’s friend’s house.

I could hold Truman like this all day.

Then I’ve also been able to take my parents to their doctors’ appointments and also take them on a couple of day trips. One day we went to Zenda, Kansas and I didn’t even mind when we got lost along the way.

Another day we went to Greensburg, Kansas and learned a lot about how the town is rebuilding “green” from the EF5 Tornado that ripped through their town in May of 2007. This was the storm shelter that is made from an old propane bottle. It’s been fun spending some quality time with both of them as I know that their time is limited.
Another day I took a short trip to Newton with my sister and we stopped by Charlotte’s Sew Natural to pick up some fabric for a Cute-as-a-Button baby jacket. Charlotte has the sweetest young lady working for her and her name is Brecken. We even got to take her with us to see Melinda Hutton’s studio, you can check out Melinda’s fun projects here.

I always love seeing all the neat things that Melinda is working on. 

I couldn’t resist taking a picture with Brecken and her Volkswagen.

I even was able to spend the day with my small quilting group and catch up on all the projects that they were working on.
There are some new projects on the table here at JCD too and I’ll be able to share them with all of you real soon, so stay tuned. I hope you had a fun July like me.

But, it did get sweeter.  I am so excited to have wonderful fabrics to sew the models for the new cover.  This photo has been in my mind for several years.. waiting for the right circumstances to remake the delightful pattern cover of  Britches & Bloomers. 

 The Little Flower Pocket Top looks so good with the Britches, and I couldn’t resist showing more fabrics using the owl pattern.. Sew many choices!  I am sew excited to be using my Baby Business and In the Nest fabrics by Benartex, and my little granddaughter, Ava and her cousin, Lyrik for this brave step. 

I can’t wait to show the new cover all finished!

I have been spending quite a bit of time with Ava lately, I had the priveledge of babysitting for Angie and Travis last month when they took a short trip to an out of town wedding.  All Ava, all to ourselves. 

Angie and Travis have worked with Ava to teach her sign language and she really communicates so easily and readily using her hands instead of whining for what she is after.

I wanted to make her a soft baby book for quite some time, and finally got it done over the holidays.  I think she is just hungry for more words, more information.

I used some fun fabrics to make her pages, pockets on each page and a little something to go inside each pocket.  She dove right in and opened all the pockets with her chubby little hands!

She’s so busy, making all kinds of  sounds, she knows just what to do!  She’s big business!

It  amazes me to see her mimic what she sees the grown ups do.  We bought a  little kitchen set for her to play here grandma’s house.  She is turning knobs, talking on the cell phone, opening the doors on that thing as busy as she can be!

I used fabric transfer paper to put a photo of Mark and myself onto a shape she could pull in and out of one of the pockets.  

I enjoyed this project, and I think Ava did as well.  Thank you, Angie for taking the photos for me so I could see her reaction!

Travis and Angie have been a joy to watch as new parents.  They have been a good team and kept all of us Ava-baby-crazed family members in the loop and on the visitation rounds.  We have all been so crazy about this baby, I get to see all of my kids and family weekly!

I love seeing the four generations in this photo: me, my mom and Angie with Ava.

 The minute they call, we all stop whatever we are doing and prepare for the arrival of Ava.  We’re just such softies.  My son, Jarred loves this little girl.  I love seeing them together.

 She doesn’t have to try very hard to be the center of attention.  Emilee and Angie do a great job with photos – Ava is very well documented.  Can you believe those blue eyes?

 We are putty in her little pudgy hands.  She wants to walk so badly!

So, while I am traveling this week with Emilee to New York, this is what we are thinking about missing.  Thank goodness for computers, email and photo-bucket!  I can get my fill of her just about anytime as Angie is always updating Ava’s blog and sending us Youtube videos of Ava’s adventures.  These are tools I just didn’t have around when raising my kids – I can’t get over how wonderful technology and photography work together to keep us all close.

Emilee is my travel buddy for my New York trip, I will try to have some photos uploaded of the exciting city life.  This photo is of Emilee at work, she is studying Marketing and works at Intake Studios  here in Wichita.  And, this month, Emilee has a birthday, so I am sure another family get together will be in order and we can fight over who’s turn it is to hug and kiss on Ava!