Needles and Pens

Well we gave it our best shot, but unfortunately couldn't quite recruit enough votes to win a prize in the "Horsin' Around Photo Contest." I do want to thank the 131 (wow!) people who voted for me, though. That's just an incredible number, and I really do appreciate all of your support! If you'd like to see the little cuties who did win, they're now posted over at Five Minutes for Mom . My congratulations to all of them!

I was just visiting over at Jean's Page , and heard it was the last day for Christina's Polka-Dot Club . I thought I'd try to find something polka-dotted to share at the last minute, but boy, did I have to dig! Kind of odd, because I do love polka-dots, but apparently I haven't done a lot of sewing with them... At any rate, I did find something! I made this grab ball toy for my husband's baby cousin on his first birthday, using black/white and red/white polka dots. (A great little homemade baby gift, by the way. The free pattern is here , if you'd like to make one yourself.) Hope you can see the polka-dots! Just too bad I didn't get a better picture. That little guy was in constant motion that day. LoL

Backstory: I have this old, raggedy Minnesota Vikings sweatshirt which -- because it is so old and raggedy -- is super comfy. I wear it around the house quite often, and every time I do, my grandson, Aaron, is absolutely transfixed by the purple and yellow lettering on the front. He wants to touch the letters, taste the letters, drool all over the letters. I think... he likes purple and yellow. Or he's already a Vikings fan. So anyway, I've been thinking (as any quilting grandma would) that I'd really like to quilt him something in purple and yellow, but I've already made him two quilts (and he's only four months old). How about making a mini -quilt with lots of purple and yellow for Aaron to touch, taste, and drool all over? So I did. The center applique is blanket-stitched onto a 9-1/2" square, with a 3" pinwheel border added, for a final measurement of 15" square. I wanted it to have some body and floppiness to it, so I cut up a purple bath towel ...

Lynette from Lynette Anderson Designs asked this question on her blog yesterday, and inspired me to share my own bed quilt story. I first became truly hooked on quilting back in 2002, by way of an online quilting group's invitation to join in my first quilting round robin. There were six quilters in my group, and we each started with a center block, sending it away to the next person, each adding a border and then passing the quilt down the line. I was fairly new to quilting, but really enjoyed the excitement and challenge of adding a new border to each quilt that came my way. Little did I know just how beautiful my own little center block would grow to be. When my top was finally returned to me, I just knew it belonged on my bed. It would be years, however, before I actually got it finished. Here's a photo of the quilt in 2007 -- five long years after the round robin was completed. I added the wide checkerboard and final solid borders to make it big enough to fit the bed. Fin...

After a very busy week with all the kids home from school, I finally had some time today to clean up my sewing room and complete the last two steps in the Great Summer Mystery . Here is a photo of my finished top, with the final borders added. I love how it turned out, and I'm really excited now to get it quilted in time for Easter. ;o) Had a nice surprise in today's mail, too, when I received the "pay it forward" prize from Angela at Angela's Quilts ! Along with the beautiful batiks, Angela included this adorable little crazy-quilted heart. Such an unexpected and sweet surprise. It will definitely have a place of honor in my sewing room. Thank you so much, Angela! And now it's my turn to pay it forward. Hmm...

What a birthday! Despite still feeling crummy with this miserable virus I've been fighting, my family and friends have made this a great birthday/Valentine's day for me. It began with a visit from my sister and nephews last night, followed by dinner and cake at my parents' house. Then the flowers and cards from my hubby: Watching my grandson open his very first Valentine this morning: Gift cards from my son, for dinner AND a movie: And when I finally got online today, I found that I am the winner of the Pay it Forward drawing over at Angela's Quilts . Another great birthday surprise! Thanks so much, Angela! I'll be paying it forward here very soon... And the day's not over yet. My girls are off on some top secret mission now, which I suspect has something to do with my birthday as well. Add to all of this the dozens of sweet birthday wishes from my online friends and I feel truly blessed today. Thank you all, for making me feel so special! {{hugs}}

Finalists were announced today for the Horsin' Around Photo Contest at Five Minutes for Mom, and... we made it to the finals! Now the voting begins, and I really need your vote. Please take a moment to stop by and view the finalists. There are so many adorable photos to choose from and of course, I'd be ever so grateful if you would cast your vote for my entry, #16 Needles and Pens . How exciting! Fingers crossed...

Well, my little guy didn't nap yesterday for more than ten minutes at a time, but I was persistent . Added the last strip of border to my sampler top at about 11:00 last night. It's ready to quilt! Don't let the small picture fool you, though. In fact, to get this picture, I had to stand teetering on the edge of my kitchen counter, with the camera held almost up the ceiling in order to get it all in. (Yes, it took many tries! LoL) From twelve little 9-1/2" blocks, I have created a monster to quilt. Finished size, 67" x 82," Much larger than I had originally planned, but it'll make a nice snuggly wrapping-up quilt for someone when it's finished. Once I get around to quilting it, that is. ;o)

I posted last week about the sampler blocks I pulled from the UFOs, and since then I've been trying to get in a little time each day on the project. Unfortunately, my daughter has been working long hours this week, and my grandson has been protesting naptime, so it's been slow going. Still, I am making some progress. Last week, I got all of the blocks set together with sashings: And this week, little by little, I've been working on this pieced border, which I finished up last night: I'm really happy with how this looks so far! The border is a pattern from Marcia Hohn's Quilter's Cache , called Curling Ribbon . I've used this same border treatment on a number of my quilts. I love the intricate look of it, and yet it's a relatively simple border to make. And you can use the same triangle units, set diffently, to create a Pyramid border. It's definitely a favorite of mine. ;o) Next I'd like to add one or two solid borders to finish it up. Maybe tod...

As I'm not getting much else done today, thought I'd share a quick photo of my grandson, Aaron. See how big he's getting? He's so much fun... He thinks his grandma is a riot when she makes that neat clicking sound with her tongue. ;o)

Here is my February block for the " Seasons of the Heart " block-of-the-month, designed by Sandi at A Legacy of Stitches . For some reason, I could not get to sleep last night, so I decided to "just pick out the fabrics" for the new BOM. Before I knew it, the pieces were fused and I was blanket-stitching away. LoL These little block patterns are so cute and fun to work on. Thanks so much, Sandi, for sharing them with us!

I didn't quite accomplish as much at yesterday's sew-in as I had hoped, but I did get one project completed, my scrappy quilt top for Quilts with Love . Here's the top, before borders were added: And here is the border, in progress: Finally, the finished quilt top: Isn't it amazing what a border can do? This pattern, Tammy Tadd's Paislies on Parade , is one of many available as a free download from Camelot Cottons . I changed things up a bit, enlarging it to 84" x 54," to meet the requirements for Quilts with Love, and by making mine super scrappy. But I can see this pattern working well with all kinds of fabrics and color combinations. Now if my grandson will allow it (I'm babysitting today), I have another border I'd like to work on. Wish me luck!