I turn my back for a minute and its July! warning: lots of pictures!

Yes, that is how I feel.  Every day almost I said to myself, "Self, you need to post to your blog.  You just threw a few pictures up in March and never even said anything about the awesome retreat!" And every day I ignored myself.  So now its almost 4 months later so I have some catching up to do!
So here it is in a nutshell.  And then I will post some pictures.  Not really any that show processes, but mostly finished products.
February was the quilt retreat.  Lots of fun, fabulous food, gorgeous scenery, awesome house, and great people! I got a quilt top finished for my youngest daughter Miriam.  I love that top but it was sooooo time consuming and tedious! Still the finished product is one of my all time favorites. Here it is.

 yeah, Im not Miriam's grandma but I am a grandma, so thats the label she got...

detail of quilting and some of the cute fabrics-can you tell Miriam likes cool colors? 

Here is the whole quilt-it made me fall in love with blue too! Im usually a warm color person, but this was such a serene quilt (once it was done...) I had to have one which you will see later.

 Next came March, where I tossed a few pictures of older quilts up that Miriam had taken for me while we were buried in snow... well it seemed like it to me anyway.  My husband and Miriam and Hillary (another daughter) and I went to Bellevue WA to visit yet another daughter Vanessa and her husband Jefferson and their adorable son Donovan.  here he is:

 It was a great deal of fun being around them and this little angel boy.  Here is a picture of Vanessa with Grandma Babs  and then one of Jefferson on one of their hikes:

After a few days up there in Bellevue, we drove down to Springfield Oregon to visit My sister Marianne, her husband Stan, my niece Xan and her husband Zack, and my mom Dorothy. Vanessa and Jeff and Donovan came with us and it was so fun! One of Marianne's daughter's in law was there with her 3 kids too, so it was a cousin reunion! We left from there and drove home to Utah to go back to work.... bleh.
Miriam quit her job in Henderson NV and came to live with us for a couple of weeks in April.  She got the last minute preparations done for her mission, and on April 24 she left us and entered the MTC to prepare for her mission to McAllen, Texas, where she currently is teaching Spanish speaking people about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and about our Church, the LDS church.  She has been gone serving for a little over 2 months, and she is loving it.  Here is a picture the day she arrive in Texas:

Here she is out teaching and giving out scriptures.  

 That was a tough day when we dropped her off.  that was the day that all my children (5 children and 3 in law children) were now for real grown up and gone away.  Any of you who have become empty nesters will understand that feeling. When your kids leave, you really do grieve for them. But enough on that, I dont need to get all morose.
So with that done, I decided that I needed to go see the other precious grandbabies that live in South Carolina.  In May, i went to visit them for a week.  Here is a picture of Spencer and Genevieve:

we had lots of fun just hanging out and enjoying being around each other.  South Carolina is beautiful.  And here is a cute picture of their parents:

I didnt take very many good pictures while I was there, we were too busy playing cars and reading books...

During April I made a couple more quilts.  I had the bug and was pretty prolific relatively speaking so here are the pictures of those quilts:

I fell in love with this quilt, I love it so much.  but after I made it I felt inspired to give it to a friend, so I did.   She certainly deserves a quilt.  

I think i have mentioned this quilt before, its an Ocean wave quilt that was a swap I was in about 20 years ago. I finally put the blocks together.  I had delayed doing this because I hated the idea that I had to set the blocks on point, and then I thought, "Why? they look great in a straight set!" so i did it.  I do love it so much. its such a throw back to the early days of my quilting journey!

These are from a swap from years ago too.  I love this one for the quilt design.  Im not particularly fond of 30's right now, but it did turn out nice and I think i will give it to my mother in law.  

I also got involved in a sew along by bee in my bonnet blogger Lori Holt-its a cute little barn quilt! here it is:

Its not really sewn together yet, but I will get that done.  I happen to have a daughter in law who loves barns, maybe she needs this...

Im sure Im missing something, but I think i will need to wrap this up pretty quick like in a hurry--In June we had our annual vacation to Newport Beach and usually kids come with us, but this year mim was gone of course, and Hillary went to ITALY! AGAIN! She went with Mim's friend Lindsay. here is a picture of Hillary and Lindsay:

  But back to Newport beach....Its so beautiful.  Vince and Megan joined us down there for a couple of days and here they are:

they were on their west coast trip of a lifetime.  Utah, Nevada, California Washington Idaho and then back to Utah.  they are still gone! Here is a picture of me and Doug in Old Town San Diego:

Then my sister Marianne and her husband Stan joined us for the rest of the week.  I didn't get a picture of them! I'm so sorry! But anyway, I felt like I needed a quilt for the beach, so I FRANTICALLY pieced one together in June, and sent it off to the quilter and she had it done in 2 DAYS!!! Here is that quilt, and I must say I love it so much.  It was inspired by Miriam's quilt and a line of fabric from a friend of mine called going coastal.  Some of the prints from that line are in the quilt with others I had in my stash:

I had to take a picture on the beach because it was after all, my Newport beach quilt!   Now I'm pretty much caught up on my quilt blog and the family stuff. Like I said, I know I forgot some stuff ... oh and here are the last 2 quilts I'm currently working on-Spencer loves the Lorax so I whipped this baby up for him:

Sewing fabrics all from one collection is SOOOOOO not my style, but I broke tradition and made this because I know he will love it to deathlehem right now.... and this other quilt is the blocks for a baby quilt I'm making for Marianne to give to one of the doctors she works with:

I guess that's all-I will try to keep up but I always say that don't I?