I Must Ask . . . How Many Siblings Do You Have?

We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. –Erma Bombeck

I think last week's poll was really fun! I love that so many people voted this week. I've been watching all week and 2 and 4 kids were neck-and-neck, but at the very last second, 2 pulled ahead by a vote! It looks to me like more people have an even number of kids. Possibly because even numbers are more easily accommodated at amusement parks? Or maybe because then nobody is left out? I also noted that the higher the number, the fewer the votes there were. Only 1 person with seven children stopped by to vote {thanks, by the way!} and after that, zilch. It is probably because anyone with that number of children doesn't have any spare time to read blogs and vote in polls.

This week is a spin-off of last week. As a parent, you have somewhat of a say in how many children are in your family. As one of those children, you don't really have a say at all. And in both cases, you pretty much have to take it as is comes. I grew up in a family of six, the oldest of four girls and two boys. I loved having so many siblings. With the exception of my sister, who is 2½ years younger than I am, I remember waiting anxiously for the arrival of the next baby. It was always so exciting to find out if it was a boy or a girl and I loved going to the hospital to see mom and hold the new baby. I changed diapers for all but that same sister, who is just younger than me. In my early diaper-changing days, I nicked my brother, who is five years younger than me, with a safety pin trying to fasten his cloth diaper. And as the oldest, I babysat a lot. All six of us had to share bedrooms at one time or another. Sometimes there were three kids squished in a bedroom. I shared with my sister for a lot of years. She was messy and I was neat, which got on my nerves. I got on her nerves when I had hiccups that shook the bunkbeds while we were trying to go to sleep. We fought and we made up. We giggled and shared secrets and hated each other and were best friends.

I have two other sisters. One who is my twin-ten-years-younger, and another who is 13 years younger than I am. I mentioned the older of my two brothers already, and my youngest brother is 18½ years younger than I am, or in other words half my age. As adults, I have great relationships with all of them, and as crazy and hectic as it was {I escaped to the quiet of Grandma's house quite often} I loved growing up in a house full of brothers and sisters. And how about you? I must ask . . . how many siblings do you have?

Daisy Cottage

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home. –Unknown

I ♥ Lori Holt. Her appliqué quilt patterns are absolutely amazing. I'm {slowly} working on her Woman's Work quilt. Early this year, she designed the most adorable fabric line called Sew Cherry and nine patterns to go with it! I made these cute Hexie art journals with a bit of Sew Cherry.

Lori's at it again. She's got a new line of fabric called Daisy Cottage coming out in just a few weeks and she's been designing like crazy. I think she's come up with 10 patterns to compliment this line. Have a peek. You'll be absolutely amazed. Home Sweet Home, Ring Around the Rosy, and Daisychain are my top three picks.

To celebrate, she's giving away three fat-quarter bundles and three of her new patterns {details}. I'm crossing my fingers, because just look at this deliciousness.

Love & Hate Tuesday

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
–Attr. John Watson

Love: blogging and reading blogs
Hate: that I don’t have more time to blog, read blogs, comment and reply to comments

Love: the beautiful the fall colors and the lovely weather
Hate: the shorter days and the fact that winter is right around the corner

Love: rainy days
Hate: days that just pretend they are going to rain

In reverse order:
Hate: migraines and the frequency with which I have been having them lately
Love: a little Ben & Jerry’s to help quell the pain

Love: keeping lists in little notebooks
Hate: losing a notebook

Love: weekends
Hate: the short duration

Love: the quiet after the kids have gone to bed
Hate: the 30 minutes immediately preceding bed-time

Love: staying up late
Hate: mornings

Love: sewing and quilting
Hate: frog stitching

Love & Hate format heisted from Heidi who 'jacked it from Janet.

Sudoku!

If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.
–John Louis von Neumann

Over the past five months, I've been teaching a quilting class for a few ladies who attend the same church as I do. Once a month, we get together and work on our Sudoku quilts. We're approaching the finish line, and I'm really excited about it. It has been so fun to see each of the quilts emerge. The fabric combinations these ladies picked are really amazing. I took my camera to class on Saturday, but my batteries were dead. The time before that, I forgot the memory card . I took pictures of my finished quilt top when I got home, and besides mine, there are four finished quilt tops and four quilt tops minus the borders. Next month, I'm going to make sure the memory card is in the camera and the batteries are charged the night before so I can show you all the fun we've been having.

I really like how this quilt came out. I pulled the fabrics for the nine patches and sashing from my stash and then bought the stripe for the borders, back and binding. It was a lot of fun to be able to put a quilt top together mostly from fabrics I have on hand.

I even got a bit of quilting time in. I'm a little rusty, but it was fun!

Here's my tag. I forgot to take a picture of it before I started quilting and there's not much left of it after I blanked out the confidential information. But you get the idea.

Sabbath Songs: Teach Me To Walk In the Light

And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.
–Mosiah 4: 14-15