So, We're an Aggie family now.

So apparently I am much better food blogger than I am a personal blogger.....sigh.

Moving on!

I have this girl.

She's awesome and almost all grown-up. She makes me proud, she makes me laugh, she makes me super glad to be her mom. I don't know how I lucked out, but I'm not going to keep asking why, I'm just going to accept that she's mine!

So, like I was saying; she's almost all grown-up. We dropped her off at college last week. Go Aggies!

I will say that this event is bittersweet. I have always gotten a ton of satisfaction by watching my kids grow up and do the things that we want them to do. You know: go to school, learn to be independent, get jobs, learn to be self-sufficient, all that good stuff.

But here's the down side: They go and get all independent and self sufficient and leave you to go to school!

Sucks in a way!

It makes me all wistful and lonely and afraid that she'll starve and freeze!! Worried that she might just go off and have a life of her own or something. Without me being able to watch all the funny and the frustrating and the entertaining stuff! (she's so dang entertaining!!)

See--such conflicting emotions!!

Well, I managed to bypass most of the angst leading up to her leaving by driving myself into a different kind of frenzy. The kind that comes from deciding to make her a secret (ha!) going away to college quilt.

Did I plan to do this all along and just procrastinate like I usually do?

No. Not this time.

I was flat-out last-minute guilt tripped into making one. Not by Sid, mind you. I think I had her convinced that it couldn't possibly happen.

It was me. And Lisa Young a little bit.

Sidney fell in love with the quilt Lisa made her college-bound boy and I just couldn't make myself disappoint. Not when I could use it as the perfect opportunity to make Sid something that would remind her of all the people she left behind. That would possibly make her cry when she looked at it, and would make it impossible to wrap herself up in the snuggly softness of it without thinking of her ever-loving mama.

No devious intentions here at all!

Thank goodness Lisa had already done the creative, brain-thinking work on the quilt she made allowing me to shamelessly steal her idea for family handprints. So cute and sentimental!!

Thank you ever so dang much, Lisa!!

And thank goodness also that I have a never-ending supply of half-finished projects (Yay!! Totally knocked two birds in the head with this project!) that I could poach from making it possible to actually finish this quilt in a little over a week without buying much fabric at all. Which, by the way, never could have happened without the help of several people, two being Kellie, who quilted it in record time, even though she should have been training for her marathon, and sewing her own kid's college quilt, and also Sid's friend, who kept me alerted with texts as to when she would be arriving home from work and dates so I could frantically hide the project before she came in. Seriously couldn't have done it without you, *Dust!

Here is a look at the college/UFP quilt that Sid seemed to love!

The fabrics in this quilt were scraps leftover from my parents 50th wedding anniversary quilt. So Sid has a bit of grandma and grandpa with her up there as well.

I used Lisa's idea for a handprint from everyone in the family. I love it. It's what makes the quilt such a special thing! Most everyone's print was stitched in their favorite color.

I'll admit that this block was an indulgence. I think of Sidney when I see Tinkerbell. I like to pretend that Sid likes her as much as I do.....Tink was actually stitched twice--each line in two colors to give her some extra dimension. The pattern for Tink came from a shirt Sidney got last time we went to Disneyland.

Sid is a cowgirl at heart. This quilt wouldn't have been complete without some horseflesh!

When Sid was describing the college quilt she wished I could make, the only block she specifically requested (before I told her that no way could I make a quilt in time for her to take to college) was a block in the middle that said "Crazy Girl". Her song of the Summer.

This was the most special block of the quilt. I had *Dust be all sneaky-like and secretly get her handprint so I could include it in the quilt. I just didn't think it would be complete without all of us on it together. I asked everyone in our family, and a couple of Sid's close friends, to tell me three words that make them think of Sid. (Had to be a little creative when it came to Jack--his words are in orange. Oh yeah-- you can click on the pic to read all the awesome things about Sid!)

I stitched all those words around her hand in colors that coordinated with that person's handprint so Sid would know who said what. A couple of words were said by multiple people and I wanted to include that, so they have different colors making up the word. I will forever love this block!

Never a second passed that I wasn't grateful to be able to make this quilt. For all that it signifies, for all that it says about Sidney, for all that it symbolizes how much I love her, I am thankful.