A few weeks back one of my readers commented on a post that she has always wondered about my kids' history and I replied that I keep their stories private. Ever since I posted that reply I've worried that perhaps I sounded a bit harsh so I decided that I want to explain a bit further.

I have a personal/family/adoption blog that I started back in 2006 while we were waiting to bring our children home. I had never blogged before but it became a great way to connect with other adoptive parents, those who had already brought their child (ren) home and those still waiting. It was a place for me to get things out during the long months and years and through other adoptive parent bloggers, I learned so, so much. And while I wrote about a lot of things there, one thing I always kept the same was referring to my kids by their nicknames only and never revealing exactly where we live. Some parents are fine with revealing those thing; I never was.

Once Jammer was in our arms, I really enjoyed posting about his adventures. Back then it was still a world of just other adoptive families and since so many others shared with me I wanted to do the same and share back. That blog reveals (to a point) a lot of raw emotions, from the moment Jammer was placed in my arms to the intense struggles we had with our original agency near the end that almost cost us our China adoption to the joy of Sunshine finally being our daughter, our first couple of years with her home and us a family of four.

Honestly I haven't posted there in a long time, almost a year now. I took that blog private a while back when I started to get really involved with the quilt blog community. For a reason that I can't explain, I started becoming uncomfortable with having that blog public and so much of my family life available for anyone and everyone to see. I have no idea where my quilting journey will lead me in the future and I felt the need to not have that blog accessible to the entire world. Besides vast majority of those in the adoption community that I shared my blog with no longer blog themselves. Everyone is over on Facebook and I'm not really a FB fan. Will I ever post there again? I really don't know. I haven't even looked at that blog for a long time. The one thing I do know is that at some point I will print it out into a book for each of my kids to have forever.

The biggest reason for changing my view and practice regarding my personal blog is the fact that while the journey to bring my children home is my story, the details about their beginnings before they became my children are their stories and it should be their decision, not mine, what they choose to share with others. Since they are still very young, it is my job right now to protect their stories and thus the need to take that blog private and be very selective about what I share with the online world.

Every adoptive child has a unique story about their beginnings, before they came to their forever families. As they get older, it is up to them to figure out for themselves how to deal with that information. No one can do that for them. Some of the details can be harsh and difficult and each adoptee has to work through it in a way that works for them. The connected world gets more and more intense and invasive every day and since no one knows what will happen in the future with the information that is posted online, I felt the need to protect their stories and keep the entire world from knowing every minute detail of their lives before we met.

So I hope that you all understand and will forgive me for not being more forthcoming about my kids. Those that don't, oh well. I will always shout from the rooftops that adoption is a wonderful way to build and grow a family. I will never stop believing that every single child deserves a forever family. If someone wants to learn more about adoption and how to go about it, I would be more than happy to share what I know and what I have learned over the years. Will I always be looking to make connections with other adoptive families and especially those with kids from Vietnam and/or China? Absolutely. But will I ever reveal here intimate details about my children, where they come from and how they came to be adopted in the first place? Nope. As I said, those are their stories, for them to tell or not, when they are ready. Until then, it is my job to protect them and to guide them as they travel their own journeys through life.

Lookie what I whipped up yesterday...my first pillowcase! After I shipped Miss M's 100 Good Wishes Quilt to her, her mom asked if there might be enough fabric left over to make her a matching pillowcase. I checked and the answer was Yes, barely but definitely enough. My BFF had recently made some pillowcases so I asked her which tutorial she liked and she directed me to this one by Ashley at Film In the Fridge.

If you haven't tried to make a pillowcase before, you should. It was so simple and the end product is super sweet.

I'm such a creature of habit sometimes.

When I came up with the idea for the 1st Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin, it was partially because I wanted some cool quilty things to adorn the walls in this new house.

For this newest MMMRR, I again wanted to decide where I'd put the finished quilt in order to figure out what sort of color scheme and design I might want to go with. The blank wall to the left of my dresser in our bedroom was an easy conclusion. The colors I would use were naturally derived from the other colors in the room.

But deciding what sort of block to start with was a bit more challenging. I looked through a ton of places for inspiration including books, magazines and websites. Just as I thought I was going to make another Windblown Square block (I do like that block so much), I saw something that caught my attention in the back of the the March/April issue of Quiltmaker.

In the column QM design studio, Carolyn Beam showcased 3 blocks she created by combining the elements of 2 other blocks. One of her new design blocks called out to me and here is my version.

I can finally share a finish with all of you. If you remember, I got an email from a fellow adoptive mom in the late fall asking if I could make her daughter's 100 Good Wishes Quilt in time for Christmas. It was a real rush job but I was able to complete it just in time. As I prepared to send it to her, she asked me to hold onto it for a bit because at the last minute they ended up being out of town for the holidays and would give this quilt to her daughter for her birthday instead. With the weather so nasty lately it has been impossible to get pictures of this quilt but I managed to brave the cold yesterday and got a few decent shots of it.
This quilt is really wild and busy. There are a ton of unusual fabrics in it...a bunch of cool Asian ones of course, a couple to represent the college the parents attended and a lot of ones that she picked up while visiting New Zealand, where she is originally from. I actually had a rough time laying out the squares but I called my graphic artist new quilter friend and she came over and lent a hand and her expert eye. The mom didn't want any sashing between the blocks. She simply wanted them put together and two borders added so that this quilt would be similar in layout to her other daughter's quilt.
 The mom chose all the fabrics for the borders and the backing. It was certainly a bit different visually working with colors and patterns totally selected by someone else. The only choice I made was which fabrics to use for the borders from those that she sent to me. It is tough to see but the watermelon tone on tone is a paisley design which is for her daughter's name.
The mom sent a green with white dot for the backing but there wasn't enough so I added a large strip of a fun multicolored paisley from her other fabric choices.

The finished quilt measures 84" x 90" and contains 110 squares.
It is finally getting boxed up this weekend and will be shipped out on Monday. I truly hope they like it. A 100 Good Wishes Quilt is so special in the fabrics it contains and it was a pure pleasure making this one a reality for this special little girl.