Monday, June 22, 2009

Charlotte's Vacation

My little girl left today for a 6 day adventure at church camp. She was on cloud nine for the last couple of weeks preparing to go. I am thrilled for her and pray that she find a deeper, more intimate relationship with her Jesus. I feel in my heart of hearts that this week could be a turning point in her life. Before she left this morning, she asked if she could spray my body spray on her pillow so when she went to sleep at night, she could smell me and then maybe she would not miss me as much. For those of you who know ANYthing about attachment disorder, you know how unbelievably H-U-G-E that is. I sprayed her pillow liberally!!!!
She is going with her BEST FRIEND FOREVER, Gracie. Also Tyler (our Youth Pastor's son) is going but will be on the boys side of the camp. Miss Allena (my Pastor's wife) drove all 3 kids 2 hours north to the camp which belongs to our church's conference. Bless her heart! Both of my Pastor's are there for the entire week as Camp Counselors.Zachary had a hard time saying good-bye to his sister...he did NOT want to let go.But, go, she did. I talked to Allena after they were dropped off and she said that Grace and Charlotte were not only cabin mates, but are sharing the same bunk bed. A close neighbor friend also attended camp and Charlotte is excited to have a couple of faces she knows. I am certain Charlotte will have lots of adventures to share when she gets home. If you think about it, say a little prayer for her this week. ;)
Zach was a tad bummed out for a while. He quickly got over it when I reminded him of the fun week I had in store for him. He will be going to an indoor water park birthday party and spending a night with Grandma and one with TJ and Rachel. A happy meal lunch sealed the deal and he was chipper once again!

It is a blistering 90+ degrees with thick humidity. A good day to sew in the nice cool central air! I spent a little time designing DeNiece's table runner. She won my drawing and chose the hand made gift instead of the Amazon gift card....I feel I better make something as nice as the gift card would have been. She loves blue...look at the tour of her home by clicking here. I took some things from some different Thimbleberries Quilts and made a design for a nice runner. I ran to the quilt shop to get a couple of blue fat quarters and some fabric for a certain part of the runner which I did not have. I have some really nice blues, but wanted to add something "new". One of the sections of the runner requires 3" Friendship Stars. Do you know how tiny that is??? VERY tiny...9, 1 inch squares...well 5, 1 inch squares and 4, 1 inch half square triangles. If that sounds like gibberish to you non quilters, just take my word for it...my sewing machine has eaten bigger triangles than that and just kept on going!! I decided, since I had no triangle paper, to cut 2" squares and mark the sewing lines 1/4 inch from the center on either side and sew.

I cut them in half and trimmed them up, and finally pressed them open, which, by the way, is impossible to do without burning your fingers several times!

(I trimmed the triangles using my most favorite ruler in the whole wide world!! Quilt In A Day makes it)

See how it works....

Perfect 1/2 square triangles and no need to measure out that 7/8 inch and then try to be exactly perfect.

Here is a finished 1/2 square triangle...that is a penny next to it to show you the size....And here is a finished Friendship Star...
To give you a better idea of how tiny it is, here it is next to my basket blocks....
They are about the cutest things EVER! Are you asking "Where is all the blue? I thought DeNiece wanted blue!" Yes, there is mostly blue...I promise!Tomorrow I am going to be gone all morning. It is going to be hotter tomorrow and we may see triple digits! My mom is having a chemical stress test tomorrow, so please say a prayer for her! It will be a two day test. She is fine, I am confident, but just making sure. ;)
Be Blessed,
Bren

13 comments:

Andrea Cherie said...

Oh Charlotte's going to have so much fun! And you will treasure your time with just Zach at home!

Unknown said...

I do hope Charlotte has a wonderful time at camp. What a touching moment that must have been for you with the spray for her pillow. Enjoy the time with Zach.

Susan said...

Charlotte will have a blast this week, and how sweet that she wanted to have your spray on her pillow!

I can't wait to see DeNiece's table runner!

Sure don't envy your heat . . .

Donetta said...

Charlotte is doing a huge thing sis, yes of course I will be praying for her.

NeeCee said...

The table runner is going to be amazing!

I am so thrilled to hear about Charlotte! Sounds like you are making huge strides with your relationship with her or more like her relationship with you. I know she will have an awesome time at camp.

meggie said...

Such a lot happening with you, Bren. Wonderful about Charlotte.
Your quilting is lovely, as usual.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Charlotte will have the best time ever, but will be so glad to get back home too : ) Three of my older children are attending Bible camp for a week in July. They are so excited. This is the first time any of them have been away from us for this amount of time.

Sweet P said...

I remember my first trip to summer church camp many, many years ago. I was homesick for one day and then had tons and tons of fun. I hope Charlotte has a great time!

Marilyn Robertson said...

I am so excited for Charlotte. I imagine Zach will enjoy the extra one on one time he will have with you and Hubby. Just a little quilting hint: If you have a straight stitch throat plate on your sewing machine it will greatly eliminate the eating of the triangle points, and it helps with machine quilting too. Prayers said for Charlotte and your Mother!

Love Bears All Things said...

Will this be Charlotte's first time to stay away from home for any length of time? I think it is so sweet that she wanted her pillow to smell like you. I know when she asked you had tears in your eyes. She will have so much fun this week.
I'm sure you remember that I have no sense of smell. I wished so much that I did when my Mother died. I thought how wonderful it would have been to have been able to pick up something of hers and smell her. I know that was a comfort to my Daddy.
I'm glad that DeNiece chose a piece by you as her prize. Lucky girl.And I like that ruler. I'll have to get my self one. I could have used it when I was making flying geese.
Mama Bear

~JoAnn~ said...

Bren~ I will be praying for both Charlotte and your Mom. I love the color of blue in the picture..I have been making some changes in my kitchen and hallway bathroom hope to have them all finished pretty soon.
Blessings,Joann

Anneatheart said...

I just think you are so cool for making such complicated looking quilt squares. I'm so intimidated! I have some of the equipment and a great desire to do it, so maybe next fall or something I can start a new quilt project. Of course then I'll be calling on you :)

Unknown said...

I guess Charlotte is home again, happy about her week! The friendship star is SMALL. What is a chemical stress test?