Room with a View

As you probably know by now, I live in Amish country.  There are pros and cons to this decision to live in such a remote place.  I miss Target.  I am pathetic.  I have tried for six years to get over this, but I still drive over an hour to the nearest Target every once in a while to get my fix.  HOWEVER, no 'poor me' is allowed.  I live within a couple of miles of FOUR quilt shops plus some other fabric sources as well.  And this is the view from my sewing room.  Seriously.  I can see 25 miles.  This is where I find peace.

A Quilt Gift from Wonderful Friends

I am home now from helping my daughter and her family get organized for life with a new baby girl.  They are doing so well!  Marina received this beautiful baby quilt from friends of our family from Minnesota.  Isn't it sweet?

Family Reunion Quilts

Several years ago I won a raffle quilt at our national family reunion.  It was made by my husband's cousin, Wanda, and it is beautiful.  It was machine pieced but hand quilted.  It is queen/king size quilt with room for a pillow tuck at the top.

Beautiful hand quilting...

Wanda's son dropped $50 in the dollar raffle hoping to win his mother's quilt for himself.  It was her favorite quilt, and the one she put the most heart into.  So I lovingly cared for the quilt, using it occasionally, but being sure it didn't fade or become soiled.   Last week, I returned the quilt to Wanda and thanked her for sharing it with me for a while.  Yes, I won it fair and square. But now I feel it has gone home to its rightful owner.

Baby Afghan

This is Marina's baby afghan in colors that match her baby quilt.  (She has been released from the NICU and might even get to come home today to meet her big sister!) 

I made this using two strands of Caron Simply Soft in Sunshine and Pink and using an N hook.  It is a variation on a crocheted blanket found on the Project Linus website.

She's here!

Our new little granddaughter finally arrived early this afternoon!!  Her name is Marina Karen.  She and Mom are doing well!

Granddaughter #1's Quilt

I know you have seen this quilt in the various stages of production but here is the finished quilt.  I really love it...a perfect quilt for a little girl.  It now resides on her bed with the matching pillowcases I made for her.

Here is the quilt:

 

Here is the back, washed and crinkly:

  

And the front, washed, dried, and snuggly:

  

Here is the pillowcase:

  

Close up:

Yes, there are two pillow cases as the bed is a full-sized bed.  Baby sister has yet to appear...

Still waiting...

I now have a computer and can blog again!  BUT our new little granddaughter has passed her due date and seems to be shooting for 'fashionably late'.  Can't hurry mother nature, I guess.  I have been staying with my daughter (who feels 40 months pregnant) for a few days. We have kept busy with her finishing work and starting her maternity leave, plus doing some projects around the house and walking, shopping, more walking, and playing with GD #1.  Waiting for the birth of your baby sure can drag on, can't it?  I know first hand because this particular daughter of mine was 13 days late herself.  (Roscoe was 19 days late...ugh.)

So I am finally revealing the completed baby quilt for GD #2.  I have posted about the fabric and layout before, but the quilt is finished, washed and dried, delivered, and awaiting her birth!  It is made from Lecien fabric...the "old new collection 30's."   The batting is Quilter's Dream Cotton in the Deluxe weight.  Here's a look at the front...

And the back...

And a close up...

And a little matching pillow...

Her mom and dad seemed pleased!

A Quick Update

Our new granddaughter is yet to arrive but her quilt is finished.  Big sister's quilt is also finished as of this morning.  My new computer will arrive early next week and I can get access to my photos at that time.  (Posting is pretty boring without a picture!)  So lots going on here and I am trying to be patient!!  Thanks for checking in on me!

Motherboard

The motherboard on my computer no longer works.  This puts a big crimp in my blog posting and in my life in general.  Gosh, do you realize how much your computer means to you?

Please be patient with me as I have to retrieve my files on the hard drive and get a new computer.  Anyone have a laptop that they love??

A Reversible Jacket

I haven't been able to post lately due to a serious family illness and other various family commitments that called for Super Granny Nanny!  My quilting time has been greatly compromised, but I am grateful to be able to help out my children and to spend time with the little grandmunchkins.  Well, the 7 year old is up to my chin as far as height goes, so he's not such a little munchkin lately.

I will post about something I made last summer to fill in the gap.   I made a reversible jacket for GD#1.  I used the 'Wonder Jacket' pattern by Stephanie Kurtz at Sew Baby.  The pattern ran big in case you decide to use it.  It was a little tricky fitting the pieces together at the neckline, but eventually I got it.  I was trying for an Oilily look.  Not sure I got there but it was fun trying anyway.  I looked everywhere for hot pink star buttons and thought they looked so cute on the jacket.  Then when I tried to help my little granddaughter button the jacket, I had big regrets.  The pointy star buttons were impossible for little girls and grownups to button.  I would recommend function over form for little people clothing!  Use nice smooth round buttons!  Here are the two views--

She seemed to like the jacket!  Hopefully I will be able to post, later in the week, on progress I am making on her snowball bed quilt and the soon-to-be born sister's quilt!  I have maybe three weeks to get these done!  Plus a crocheted baby blanket!  Yikes!

Stitchin' and Moanin'

I was really excited that by late afternoon I had a block of time to sew.  First, I made the back for Lucy's snowball quilt.  I always try to have the back and the binding done before I start sewing the front.  It's a treat to be able to keep moving once you have the quilt pieced.  It's just one of those discipline things I make myself do.  Here is the fabric for the back. 

Then I decided to start quilting my soon-to-be born granddaughter #2's quilt.  I was just humming along and thinking, 'Wow, I might get this quilted and the binding machine stitched to the front before I go to bed!'

I was half way through the quilting before I thought to turn the quilt over and check the back.  I hardly ever have trouble with puckers after years of tweaking my 'sandwiching' skills of pinning together the back, the batting, and the quilt top. 'Oh my.  There is a pucker.'

'Oh my there is another one.  Oh, you have got to be kidding me...'  Yes, there were many puckers.  Sigh.  So I marked the puckers with safety pins. Oh, yay.

I am going to blame this on the weather.  The day in June when I made the quilt sandwich, it was a gorgeous sunny one with low humidity.  Today it was muggy, hot, and ridiculously humid.  I think it changed the backing some and made it ripple.  Am I dreaming?  I have never read any blogs that have addressed humidity and machine quilting.  The carefully pressed snowballs on my design board aren't crisp looking any more because of the humidity.

I began to rip.

I was lamenting about it all.   I could rip out to the end on some of the quilting lines but it wasn't really feasible to rip out the all the quilting.  I would have to resandwich the whole quilt, and I could risk putting a hole in the quilt from excessive ripping.  So I was going to have to 'spot fix' some of the puckers.  Matching up the serpentine stitch is really hard.  One hundred years from now when the quilt police start looking closely at this quilt, they will say 'She could really piece well, but too bad about her machine quilting skills.'  After my pity party, it dawned on me that this quilt was for my new little punkin.  I hope she loves it so much that it becomes shreds long before it ever makes it to its 100th birthday.

Lesson learned.  I am over it...sort of.  I have a really busy week of babysitting and such.  I won't get to work on these quilts for a few days.  So for now I am stitchin' and moanin'.

Snowball Progress

Got this up on the design wall Sunday night.  It is the full-sized bedquilt for my granddaughter's big girl bed.

Who knew how long it would take to make 156 snowball blocks?  Anyway, I am short two blocks and will add them today and continue to tweak a bit with the design.

Yes, I should have started at the top of the design wall, but by the time I realized it, there was no way I was going to move 100+ blocks!  I forgot to allow for the seam allowances when I measured for placement on the wall.  Duh.  Next time...

Ruffled Pants and an Update

Colin came home from the hospital yesterday.  He's been doing very well.  Little people can be so resilient.  I am happy that maybe his tummy won't hurt any more and he has a healthy outlook ahead of him.  Roscoe's Pa had his first PT this week and it went very well.  He can now put weight on his leg and graduated from the walker to a cane.  He is already thinking of the yard work he wants to do.

Here are some little pants I made for GD#1.  I used a Kokka print for the main part of the pants and simple gingham for the ruffle and pockets.  I used the 'britches & bloomers' pattern by Jackie Clark.  The pattern ran large in case you use it.  I would recommend sizing the ruffled pants by comparing the multi sized pattern with a pair of pants that you know fit.  At first GD#1 wore these as pants, and then by summer they became capris.

She really liked them!  "My apple pants..."  Score!

Three Pillowcases

I think this blog is turning into a pillowcase blog instead of the intended quilt blog.  At any rate, I wanted to show you three fun pillowcases that I made for three little guys.

First, the soccer pillowcase...

Second, the rocket ship pillowcase...

And finally, the dinosaur pillowcase...

 I love happy kid fabric!

Updates

My nephew had his surgery yesterday.  It was scheduled as a 2 hour surgery and ended up being 6 hours.  The mass near his kidney and intestine was removed as well as a little section of the intestine.  Then another mass was examined near his esophagus, and as it was growing into the esophagus, the mass had to be removed as well as a small part of his esophagus.  The masses are thought to be benign and the doctor was pleased with the results.  He assured my niece that Colin will be okay.  The miracle is the surgery was done laproscopically and Colin only has three butterfly bandages.  He will be in the hospital for another week as they try to get his system ready to accept food again.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

My hubby had his post op appointment with the surgeon today and the knee is progressing well.  The staples were removed, the splint/brace must be worn at least another month, but physical therapy will begin next week.  It will take about three months for the bone to heal if all goes according to schedule.  Again thank you for your thoughtfulness and for your prayers.

I have been sitting in a chair or sleeping on the couch near the recliner where Pa has been propped up for the last two weeks.  An immobilized knee really challenges a person's life.  You can't do much of anything when this one link in your body is broken.  Between meals, meds, delivering beverages, adjusting pillows, etc., I have been catching up on my computer 'stuff' and working on Lucy's quilt.  (Another reason to do this in the living room is the Midwest heat wave made my sewing room thermometer read 102.  Ugh.)

Lucy's quilt will be a scrappy snowball design. (Some of the fabrics can be seen here.) This is the set up beside my chair...

First I marked the diagonal stitchline on all the corner squares.

Now I am pinning the corners to the blocks.

I feel like this has been progressing very slowly.  Sleeping on the couch and living through this heat wave has left me somewhat without energy.  Better times are ahead!

Ruby's Pillowcase

Little Ruby turned 7 on 7/7.  She is a tiny little girl who is very quiet and very sweet. She will start 2nd grade in August.  She told me her favorite color is orange.  The orange is a Red Rooster fabric and has a very nice feel to it.  It is another sort of mottled fabric that qualifies as plain.  The yellow is a Kona solid.  (Where did the dots come from on the right side of the photo?!?)

I dressed it up with some pink cotton jumbo rickrack and some topstitching.

 I have 6 pillowcases done now with 3 birthdays to go.

Aaron's Pillowcase

I have a new finish for my Amish neighbor kids' birthdays. (See my Leanna's Pillowcase post for more information on this year long project.)  This pillowcase was made for Aaron.

Aaron turned 15 on July 1st.  He is finished with school and has 'worked out' for the past year.  He has learned to assist a farrier and now shoes horses.  He has also been breaking and training horses for riding and for pulling buggies.  His paycheck comes home to help support the family, and he receives a small amount to save for himself.  Many Amish kids get a cell phone with their savings and only text with the phone as that is less expensive.  Once they join the church as adults, the cell phones are no longer used.  Aaron's favorite color is dark blue.  I found a Moda fabric with slight mottling that could be counted as plain. 

I made the end of the pillowcase by piecing Kona red, navy and black stripes.

I find photographing pillows impossible!

Just Another Evening in Amish Land

The neighbors came over last evening to mow our grass...7 of them...with two lawnmowers plus ours. They mow a while at a quick pace and change off to someone else. Unbeknownst to the adults, the 11 year old had come ahead and filled our lawnmower and one of theirs with diesel fuel...yes, they are gasoline engines. So while we were draining the fuel from those lawnmowers, we noticed sirens...and more sirens. We don't have sirens very often and even one tiny siren becomes the main event. In the east sky, beyond our woods was a big cloud of billowing black smoke. A sawmill was on fire. Some of the adult and teenage males jumped on bicycles and went to get the details of the fire, while the lawnmowing continued. After the fire was out and the lawn was mowed, the neighbors gathered in our driveway to discuss the details of the fire. About then, the same 11 year old spotted a couple of raccoons under one of our pine trees. The men turned into little boys and the little boys turned into men. A 7 year old ran home to get the coon dog and I will spare you the details. We'll just say there are two less varmints terrorizing the neighbors' poultry, and Miss Kitty has two less enemies.

Roscoe's Pa missed the whole thing...propped up in the recliner in the living room. His knee is less painful and he remains upbeat.

 

This is a photo of the 11 year old who added to the evening's drama.  Here he is training a pony to pull a cart.  But the cart wasn't available so he hitched the pony to the surrey.  This picture is in our driveway.