The worlds best Mom

This past August my mom turned 60. I have to say that she did so very gracefully. I think she is a beautiful person both in looks and in personality.

No one has to question if she is thinking something other than the words coming out of her mouth. My mom will tell you exactly what she thinks of things. I love this trait about her. I don't have to worry about her telling me that something looks nice on me because she doesn't want to hurt my feelings. If it is ugly, she tells me. A lot of times I bite my tongue for fear that I might upset someone. I need to learn to be like mom and just be honest. I think people will respect that even more.

My mom has had an amazing life so far. She might not realize it, but she has accomplished so much in the 60 years she has been around. She found my dad and got married. She was able to help build the very home that she lives in. Personally, I think that is amazing! She managed to have a successful stay-at-home business in a day care so that she could raise two wonderful (at least I think so) kids. My complete unbiased opinion is that she did a great job. I can't speak for Joe, but I know that she raised a confident daughter who is willing to look challenges in the eye and give it a fair shot. She has a daughter who wants to follow in her footsteps and have a successful daycare so she can stay home with her children. She has a daughter who wants to learn to make things (food and crafts) and to share with others... just like she did and still does. She has a daughter who lives halfway across the country and misses her dearly. She taught Joe and I to have values, to love God, to love life itself... not just our life, but any kind of life.... elderly, infants, wildlife... you name it. She taught me my colors, but also to have compassion. She tried to teach me to cook, sew and keep house (although those things are all things that I am still trying to accomplish). After raising us kids and getting us through college and married, Mom was able to work full time again at a bank and then at a daycare where she currently is. She has taken college classes and passed with flying colors even though she was stressed. She helped take care of her Mom during her final days and recently, she has taken on caring for her elderly father-in-law who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

While her birthday was approaching, I thought long and hard of what I could do to give her an appropriate birthday present. I didn't want to give her a picture frame, or another piece of jewelry. I wanted to get her something special. It isn't every day that you turn 60 and have all of these accomplishments behind you. I asked and asked for ideas, but found nothing. Mom told me that all she wanted was for her whole family to be together. We were. Mom, Dad, Pop, Joe and Erin all came to stay at my house. It was a great time. Cailin was old enough to respond to and interact with everyone so much more. We got to go to the zoo, mom got to visit with her sister, so many fun things. We had a cookout, got family pictures, and then cake and ice cream to celebrate. I still felt bad that I didn't have any kind of material gift... then it hit me. I am going to use my 'material' and make my first ever full sized quilt, and make a memory quilt for my mom. It is going to take 28 pictures and i am trying to collect pictures from her childhood till now. I want a picture of her wedding, my wedding, Joe's wedding, Cailin, Mom and her best friend miss rose, some of her brothers and sister, some of her mom.... The hardest part is collecting the pictures. As of right now, i have everything done EXCEPT getting the pictures silk screened and onto the quilt. I have worked for a total of 65 hours on it from cutting out the material, to making the blocks, to putting blocks into strips and strips into a quilt. Here are some pictures so far....

here is the material I picked out. The teal should match the living room, the blue the dining room... the navy has both the teal and blue in it...

Here were my PILES of material that I cut out. There were a total of 870 pieces of material for this thing!!!

These are the squares to make a ribbon looking border

My 9-patch blocks... don't pay attention to the lack of straight lines.

These are the blocks that photos will go on.

here is the body of the quilt before borders.

A close up of a coner. The hearts will be applique'd on the corners, and photos on the large white blocks.

Here is the final produck without pictures, or being quilted.