Needles and Pens

Officially en route to the birthday boy today, and therefore really and truly finished... ( Thanks to Austin's grandma and grandpa, for the extra-special delivery service! ) ... for my great-nephew, Austin, who turned thirteen last week. Since he was born before I really started quilting, he's waited a very long time for his quilt. On the plus side, his is a lot bigger than the baby quilts his younger cousins have received! The inspiration for this quilt came over a year ago, when I joined an online quilting bee to make blocks for Margaret's Hope Chest . One of the requested blocks was a very simple, sports themed hourglass block. If you look closely at the finished quilt for Joshua , you'll see a couple of familiar blocks in there... ... 9-1/2" squares of the sports print and black Kona cotton, cut diagonally both ways, sewn back together and trimmed down to 8-1/2" blocks. Here are all of the blocks sewn together for Austin's quilt, before ...

Sneaking in one last finish for November, another catching-up effort for the UFO Challenge. My daughter, Emily, picked out this bag pattern and not one but two combinations of fabrics for the same bag over a year ago. I dove into the first one with gusto, but by the time I finished it, the second one was put waaay on the back burner. (Rant Alert)This pattern (upper right on the envelope) is an absolute beast to sew. The gathers upon gathers upon gathers are bad enough, but really McCall's, is it too much to ask that you have someone actually test the directions, find and fix all the stupid mistakes, remissions, and generally garbled instructions? There is even one piece included in the cutting layout that isn't used in the bag, anywhere. Grrr... Pity the poor beginner who tried to follow this pattern and then probably gave up sewing for life! (End Rant) But today is Emily's birthday, so I had major incentive to get the beast finished in time to surprise her with i...

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 ...

... was a busy one! And since I've lapsed on my blogging once again, here's a little recap in pictures: My husband and I celebrated 25 years in June... Here we are, cutting the cake... Our daughters singing for us... Our parents... Our wedding party... And our own little family... The anniversary party was just the beginning. From there, it was a non-stop, go-go-go summer. There was Tim's piano recital... A trip to the zoo... A "new" car... "New" bikes, too... And a new puppy for Aaron... We watched the flowers bloom... Went tubing down the river... Watched a parade or two (that's Tim on the unicycle)... Took in some music (that's Emily on the stage)... And still found time for some good, old-fashioned summertime favorites, like popsicles... And the tire swing... Here's the one bit of sewing I did (a project almost too easy to count), some new window...

So... remember all those bright pink blocks from a couple months back? Well as of today, they are officially a finished quilt! (I had a hard time getting accurate color in this picture, but the border actually blends really well with the blocks in real life. Really.) The quilt finished at approximately 60" square. And this is the yummy tone-on-tone hot pink flannel backing I "just happened to have" in my stash (due to a few splurges while working at the fabric store -- shhhhh...) Again, my photography leaves something to be desired. Turns out there's a seam right in the middle of the shot, thus the noticeable color variation. (It also looks better in real life. Really.) I have in mind a special someone to receive this quilt, so I just need to make a label and it'll be on it's way to ? (Shhh... it's a secret.) So after that big accomplishment today, I felt like I was on a roll and found out that my May "Get 'Er Done" challenge panel...

I can't believe it's already May. Not that I'm complaining. I'm SO ready for summer. The good news is, I'm finally feeling better. I have a head cold that just won't quit (maybe if spring ever comes to Minnesota to stay, I can be done with that, too), but at least the pain in my shoulder and arm is nearly gone. I love my chiropractor! The bad news... there really isn't any bad news in the grand scheme of things. Life is good. My two daughters, grandson and I just returned from a long-awaited trip to Chicago, my two sons will celebrate birthdays this week, and a beautiful, warm spring has got to be just around the corner. However, I am behind. Remember the UFO and GED challenges from New Years?... Missed April entirely and now I have projects assigned for May. The Block-a-Palooza quilt I had hoped to finish for someone's birthday? Well, that'll be one belated birthday gift. And soon there'll be a need for one more baby quilt in the family. Gu...