At Jen and Derek's house...

The five hour trip (turned six with a lunch stop) was survived, and much of last night was relaxing, getting settled and grocery shopping.

Sleeping arrangements never really are much of a concern;  my sister's house has two guest bedrooms.  Grandma and Grandpa claimed one and I HAD intensions of taking the other, but I joined Caitlyn on the air mattress in the sunroom instead.  There are so many windows in here that I figured it'd be a little bit nicer than sleeping up on the 2nd floor.  The house doesn't have AC;  only the living room has been equipped with a window unit.  

I don't recall what Cassie was doing as she fell asleep, but I guess she needed her glasses for something throughout the night..... they're still on her face. OH!  And that blanket..... I have a Linus on my hands! It's her baby blanket, and she STiLL insists on sleeping with it.  She says "it's so soft, Mom!" :D  It's all good.

And Candace... she just grabbed her favorite dog that lives here and snuggled into a makeshift sleeping bag from an old spare quilt I keep in the car for ballgames and such.

This is what my sister does in the sunroom.  She's a puzzler.  She was saying last night that one night recently she couldn't sleep, so from 3AM-6AM she came down and worked some more on her latest puzzle.  Which then lead to this .....

My almost first ever quilt!  She uses it as a lap quilt---not very big;  I think each block is 6", so you can do some quick math to realize it's basically a large baby quilt.

But THIS is why I learned how to quilt!!!

In 1998/99ish, I remember visiting a craft-type store with (then) a fiance' of Paul's friend.... and for whatever reason, I was compelled to buy a Precious Moments cross-stitching book of the alphabet.  The last page in the book showed suggestions on how to use the designs, and one was a wall-hanging of a quilt.  

My sister is (was?) a Precious Moments fanatic!  At the time, I thought I could be COOL Aunty and start ahead of time to make a baby quilt!'  (Sister just married in 1997.)

Sadly, the children never came, but the quilt did get finished.  Much of my free-time (for years!) was devoted to the cross-stitch.  Early on in the project, I figured..."I gotta learn me how to sew and quilt!", so I requested some help from my mother to show me how to use a sewing machine, and then my mother-in-law here-n-there with pointers....  And quite literally, the rest is history.  

So, there's the story of how I came to be a quilter ... 12 years ago.