Merry Christmas!

To all my wonderful blog friends, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Pink Love

Here we go again!  With Granddaughter #3 scheduled to arrive on February 23rd, I have been thinking about her quilt.  I found the first piece at Miller's Dry Goods.  Her mama loves daisies and simple.

The next piece, Frosted Dots, came from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I've used this before.  It adds a little fun to a quilt and is really great for binding.

I am thinking pinwheels of some sort but can't seem to move beyond that.  It will be back to Miller's after Christmas for me for some more inspiration.  My head's on overload with the holidays approaching.

:o)

A Double Finish...and a Little Disappointment

I am very happy to report a couple of finishes.  Remember this...

and this...

and this...

And this...

 Well, I am finally finished.  I love these quilts and the little guys who will receive them.  Each printed square represents some event or time we've spent together.

Here is the older grandson's quilt...

 and the back...

 Here is the younger grandson's quilt...

 and the back...

One more...a little closer...

The disappointment?  I used Dream Wool batting.  I love Dream Wool and how it looks and feels after it has been quilted...so snuggly and warm.  After I gently washed and dried these two quilts, there seemed to be a lot of fuzz on the black Kona cotton squares.  So I got out my 3M lint roller and thoroughly went over the quilts.  The fuzz was not really fuzz but bearding by the wool batting through the black Kona cotton squares.  Of course, I couldn't get all the bearding off.  I have never had this happen before with other quilts but guess this is the only one (or two!) that I ever used this combination of a dark solid with Dream Wool.  Anyone else ever had this trouble?

Birthday Pillowcase #9

This is the final in the series of the 2011 pillowcase birthday gifts for the Amish children who live next door.  This pillowcase is for Sam who turned 13 this week.  Sam is the neatest kid...very quiet, sweet, and smart.  He is an amazing artist...can illustrate a family gathering with pencils and white paper...and the result is almost like a photograph.  You seldom see formal drawings or paintings by Amish artists.  They are a community of people who like sameness and blending in with the others.  An Amish person really doesn't want to stand out as an individual artist.  That being said 'art' appears anyway...in quilts, for example...or a simple house design...or in a flower garden.  At least this is what I have observed since moving here almost 7 years ago. 

Here is Sam's pillowcase.  He likes blue.

I took a chance and used a small plaid in his gift.  I think it was okay with his parents. 

:o)

William's Birthday Pillowcase

My neighbor's youngest child, William, just turned four this year.  It is hard to believe he is that old as Roscoe's Pa and I took Mom to the midwife for check ups for several months before William is born.  It seems like it was just yesterday.

My hubby actually was the one who took Mom to the hospital the night William was born, after they helped the mid-wife load a trailer of household possessions as the mid-wife was in the process of moving.  After the trailer was loaded, the three of them went to the Amish 'care center' where William was born.  Imagine being ready to deliver child #9 and stopping to help someone move out of their house.  Whew.  The Amish dad stayed home to care for the other 8 children.

Here is William's birthday pillowcase...grey which is a color he likes and a combination of many of the fabrics I used in his siblings' pillowcases.  See previous posts for the whole story!

Oh, did I mention Roscoe's Pa's first name is William!?!

:o)

Sewing Fun!

Sewing is a stressbuster, therapy, life balancer, and a blessing for me.  I got some stressful news last week.  It's not terrible news but it is life changing and I needed to wrap my arms around it.  After spinning my wheels for a couple of days...feeling bad that I couldn't concentrate on my 'to do' list (which gets a whole lot longer this time of year for most of us)...I abandoned all attempt at trying to accomplish anything that I 'needed' to do and retreated to my sewing room.  I grabbed the pink haired dolly that we are giving our granddaughter for Christmas and the sewing began!  Here are some pictures of this therapy session!

A Pink Dolly!



A Totebag with a Sleeping Bag Pocket and Pillow!



Dolly Daydreaming in the Sleeping Bag!



Dolly in Tutu!



A Happy Skirt and Vest

 

A Sun Dress!



And add a school skirt and a nightgown to the ensemble!

 

  Life goes on and my head is in a better place!

  :o)

Ta Da!

The new addition to our family Christmas stocking collection (posted about that here) is finished.   Hooray!  Finally I am getting some things done!

:o)

The Family Reunion Quilt that I Kept for Myself

A couple of years ago we hosted Roscoe's Pa's national family reunion.  We had folks attend who came from California and Arizona across the US to New York.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of work!  In past years, some of the hosts had a raffle of interesting things for a fun activity that also raised a little money to help defray the cost of the event.  Often there was a quilt in the raffle.  I actually won a beautifully made hand quilted log cabin quilt at one of the previous reunions and I posted about it here.

I decided my reunion raffle quilt should have the Ohio Star as part of the design since the reunion would be in Ohio.  I also decided I would use Thimbleberries fabric as I always wanted to try a quilt with this traditional fabric.  I really admired these fabrics!

I began working on the quilt and I loved it.  I became very attached to it, actually...even after being totally overwhelmed about pushing a queen-sized quilt through that little space in my sewing machine. Let's just say I learned a lot about what not to do.  As time passed, I showed the quilt-in-progress to a few relatives, and it didn't get much love.  These family members gravitated to a flannel raggy quilt I had made for our living room and commented on it (pictured below) with much more enthusiasm than the reunion quilt I had spent hours on. 

SO...I made a homespun raggy quilt for the reunion with red, blue, and green country colors that seemed to be a hit with the family. (I forgot to take a picture of it.)  And I happily kept my Ohio Star/Nine Patch quilt.

P.S.  I tend to overbuy fabric when I am working on a project.  I had plenty of fabric leftover for this:

  

Another Raffle Quilt

Most people never win a quilt raffle.  I have won two.  I blogged about the first win here.  But I also won another quilt at our church festival raffle when I lived in Minnesota about 15 years ago.  I feel bad that I cannot remember the names of the mother-daughter team who made it.

  It is queen-sized, has been on many beds, and is very cozy!  Sometimes I wish I could take it apart and see what is inside.  It now resides on a high Amish-made trundle bed.

The fabric is from the early '90's.

:o)

A Portable Project

I am still sew-less.  I am compensating by working on a little project that is more portable (as in not connected to my machine.)  This eases the pain of not getting to sew.  Poor me...LOL!  Granddaughter # 3 is scheduled to arrive around March 1st.  I won't be able to start her quilt until after Christmas.  So crocheting a little blanket will help tide me over!

Yes, it's PINK!  The project is one from the Project Linus website called 'Crocheted Blanket'.  I am using a variation of this pattern by choosing worsted weight Simply Soft yarn.

 I also changed the gauge by using a J hook and adjusted the size of the blanket to one I like better.

:o)

Sew-less Monday

I need to SEW!  Life has gotten in the way this past couple of weeks...good life things but not sewing things.  I did get a package in the mail this week from Canton Village Quilt Works that kept those creative juices flowing.  This is my latest interest...Australian Aboriginal fabric!
 

I was introduced to Aboriginal art about 10 years ago by my daughter who has a fascination for it as well.  I ordered just a few pieces of this fabric to see these gems in person and to check out the fabric quality.  It is exceptional!  So now I have quilt ideas swirling in my head and plan to add to this collection.  Here are some close-ups:

:o)

Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 2

I won a copy of this:

by entering this:



There is still time to win if you visit Quilty Pleasures blog ASAP!  Good luck!!

My First Quilt

I made my first quilt in the mid-80's.

I had just moved to Minnesota and had a new machine...my beloved Bernina 1230.  I had no local friends and was a SAHM with a new baby along with two grade-schoolers.  I needed to 'get out'.  (This was pre-household internet, quilt blogs, and wonderful blog friends!)  So I took a quilting class at our local big box fabric store.  The class was based on the Quilt-in-a Day series and you could choose from the Log Cabin (which thankfully I did) or the Lover's Knot.

I had so much fun choosing the fabric to sort of 'match' our family room...browns and greens (which have now faded to blues.) Yep.  Calicoes!  I used the really thick bonded polyester batting that was so popular at the time.  The edges were finished by folding over the backing to the front of the quilt.  (I had never heard of proper binding!)  I tied the quilt with DMC embroidery floss.  It is still the quilt my family members grab for cuddling in front of the TV or wherever.