Needles and Pens

My sisters asked what I wanted to do for our birthday weekend get-together, and I said, "Sew. And drink wine." So that's what we did! We spent the weekend together and finished this little recycled blue jean quilt. The back is all blue camouflage/wildlife print flannel: (Incidentally, we also finished three bottles of wine. lol) It's a big accomplishment for us to finish a weekend project, because around here, you never know how your plans will change, or who's going to stop by next. I think we did a pretty good job of "going with the flow." Much of the weekend was spent holding/rocking/feeding/enjoying my great-niece, Ciara, and my grandson, Mason -- such adorable babies! All in all, a fun and productive and tiring weekend! It's Monday evening now, and I'm just getting started on my to-do list for the week: My fabric order arrived today. Good timing! First up, finish the lavender/white custom order ragtime quilt. Finish green/mus...

Yes, he is finally here! Our baby grandson, Mason Mitchell, was born on Wednesday, September 26, at 10:32 a.m., a beautiful, healthy, nine pound, 4 ounce bundle of joy. Mama and baby are home from the hospital and doing well. We're all so happy the waiting is over. He is so precious! Just like his big brother, Aaron, so proud of his baby brother. And I am SO proud of him. :o) Yes, I am one happy Mom and Grandma. Here's the quilt I made for Mason, which has been all hush-hush until now. I wanted to do something extra special with this quilt, so I had it longarm quilted by Marcia Wachuta from Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting . She did a beautiful job with the swirls and hearts. I love it! I'm going to free-motion quilt like this someday... I couldn't wait to get the binding on so I could get it washed and see it in all it's crinkly goodness. I finished a baby quilt for my niece the same week, so I had to take a shot of the cous...

Still no new grandbaby... The due date has now passed, so we're all getting a little stir crazy around here, and when I need a distraction, I tend to sew -- a lot. I've sewn three baby quilt tops in the past three days: A " Wickedly Easy Quilt " from ByANNIE.com, all in dusty, mauvy pinks mostly from the 1980's. (Hate having to admit it, but that really sounds vintage these days. And one of these prints was from a skirt that I wore in high school, so what does that say about me? Wait. Don't answer that. LoL) I ad libbed a little bit on the border: A Sunday mystery quilt, by Cindy Carter of Quilt Patterns from Seattle . Today Cindy posted the photos that have been sent in from the mystery on her blog. If you'd like to see all of the pretty color combinations (or download the pattern), you'll find them here . And here's mine: And today I finished piecing a UFO that was originally for Judy Laquidara's monochromatic challenge last year...

It has been a very busy, yet very unproductive week at my house. We've had our 3-year-old grandson, Aaron, staying with us all week, keeping this grandma in a state of total exhaustion. As if that wasn't enough to wear me out, I've also been sick with a head cold, coughing, congestion, sore throat, headaches... you name it. Once Mommy comes to pick up the little guy tonight, I may sleep straight through the weekend. LoL So it was Wednesday afternoon, and I hadn't stepped foot into the sewing room all week, when I suddenly remembered -- the Mini Quilt Challenge at Amylouwho's! Dangit! I really wanted to join that party. Could I still finish one in two days, with all this added distraction and fatigue? Well, it couldn't hurt to try... I started out making a simple postage stamp doll quilt of 1-1/2" scrap squares, but in the process of working on that, something bright and shiny caught my eye and I came up with a new idea. (I'll have to share the fin...

This past weekend, my two sisters and I got together for a marathon quilting session in hopes of completing the top for our mom's 80th birthday this December. All of the family members had (awesomely) personalized their 6-1/2" squares, so it was time to piece the blocks... working from this plan I had drawn up as a possible layout: After deciding our first choice of fabrics might be a bit too busy with all the decorative blocks, we ended up going with these: (If you knew our mom, that pink rose print practically screams her name.) We got busy right away on Saturday morning, cutting and prepping pieces for 35 blocks. My daughter, Kaitlin, helped out with the pressing (and yes, Kaitlin, if you're reading this, it was a LOT of help!) My sisters pinned and chain-pieced the 280 points onto the sashing units, while I started to assemble the blocks... Jan, please don't be mad at me for sharing this picture. (We're all a little camera shy. LoL) The first ...

A little follow up on my last post... We went to our grandson, Aaron's, birthday party this past weekend and he showed me the new sheets and pillowcase I made for him, on his bed. They fit! "Good job, Grandma!" (I love it when he says that.) Looks like he won't fit in his little bed for much longer, though! I can't believe how fast he's growing up... (Here's the tutorial I used for the crib/toddler sheet. Super easy-to-follow instructions, and purely coincidental that she also used a John Deere print. lol) Not only do the sheets match his John Deere quilt , they also match one of his birthday gifts... "Take you for a ride on my big, green tractor..." (Jason Aldean, one of Aaron's favorite songs.) Cousin Sophia hangs on for dear life. :o) Borrowed this picture from my daughter, just cause it's so cute. Happy birthday, big guy! We love you!

Finished the John Deere panel quilt for my grandson last week... Cute, huh? And here's how the pieced back turned out... Looks good at a distance, but I made the mistake of making the back border the same size as the printed front "border," so the edge of the border quilting on the back is all over the place. (I don't think Aaron will mind.) I had a little chunk of the backing fabric left over, so yesterday I made a little pillow to match -- with red piping! All done! But something is still missing... I know what, it's this 'lil cutie. Miss you, Aaron! See you soon! XOXOXO

I have a darling little 2-year-old grandson who loves tractors, especially green tractors. In fact, to him the color green is synonymous with tractors, and if you ask him what color this is... ... he'll tell you, "tractor." (Don't worry, we're working on that. lol) So, even though I really didn't need another project to do, when I saw this adorable John Deere panel at work the other day, I had to buy it for Aaron. And when I saw the equally adorable coordinating print, of course I had to have that for the back. Unfortunately, such an impulse purchase often comes without much thought, and I failed to notice that the direction of the print required extra fabric to lay the right way on the quilt back. So today I was considering buying a larger piece, when my awesome mother-in-law took one look at it and suggested I just add a border to my backing. (Duh... why didn't I think of that??) After she left, I immediately went to my sewing room to look ...

This is my grandson, Aaron, one year ago. See how nicely he posed for a picture back then? LoL What a difference a year makes! We tried, I mean we really tried to get a good picture in his pirate costume, but the child never stands still . What I did get were lots of pictures on the go. This way... ...and that way... ...and for one brief moment, I thought I had the shot. But no, he had things to do and people to see -- and that pirate hat really didn't fit into his plans... ...there was furniture to rearrange... ...wrestling with Uncle Tim... ...Hotwheels to drive... ...and lots of hugging and kissing and giggling and squealing to do... Aaron's not the easiest subject to photograph these days... ...but he's definitely the cutest little pirate in town. ;o)

I only just discovered Sew & Tell Friday last week, and seeing all the great projects everyone posted really motivated and inspired me. In fact, two of my finishes for this week were directly related to last week's Sew & Tell, so if you're in need of some creative inspiration, I highly recommend visiting Amylouwho for a list of this week's participants. Last week, Beth, from Love Laugh Quilt , posted a scrappy pin cushion tutorial, that looked like so much fun, I had to make one myself. I wrote about it in an earlier post , but here's a picture, in case you missed it. Fun project, Beth. Thanks again! :o) I also received a package in the mail this week, children's novelty charms from a Country Quilters USA charm swap. The original plan was to use them in an Ami Simms Picture Play quilt. Unfortunately, I jumped the gun and had already sewn 130 little charms together before I learned that they were cut a little too large for the pattern. I could have taken...