Baby oh Baby!

Remember the post of the new babies in our family? Here are their quilts!  Baby girl will have hers soon - I promise before she enters kindergarten!  Our  basement flooded over a month ago and there is furniture stored in my quilting room while I await my Mr. S to finish the reconstruction.  It may take forever till he can get to it....and right now I can't get to my quilting machine to quilt!  How sad is that???

This photo is the quilt top unquilted.   I won the pattern as a prize at a quilt store during a shop hop in June 2010.  It is called "Gumballs" by Amy McClellan and it took alot of fat quarters and many trips to several quilt shops but was a fun way to test my creativity! I will take another photo when this quilt is finished. 


"My Mr. Lincoln" has his quilt as his was finished "pre-flood zone"!  His quilt pattern, "eat, play, sleep, repeat" came from the Moda Bakeshop website. A design by Vanessa from V and Co.   A really easy applique quilt and so much fun to do with primary colors. I wanted it to be bright and cheerful for him to lay on and look at the bright colors when he starts to scoot.  I bought fabric backing the day after he was born in St. George at a quilt shop his other grandma showed me.  She bought some of the same fabric that day for the quilt she is making for this sweet little guy. I think that little tid bit makes both quilts from his grandmas very special.  Lincoln loves this quilt - so says his mommy and daddy!

Both of these quilts have a different look and they were so much fun to put together.  Have I said lately how much I love to sew and quilt?   

Fabric of this and that

This quilt is one that I finished awhile ago.  It was a bit of this and that for fabric and I had no pattern.  The squares were samples of new fabric from a quilt shop I frequently visit.  About 5 or 6 years ago I paid a total of $25 for a sampling of new fabric mailed to me every month for a year.  I would get these squares in the mail and as they collected and I had no idea what I was going to do with them.  I was so excited when they came in the mail, it was like a little present in the envelope.  I knew that if  I saved them that one day I would find something to do with them for a quilt.  One weekend I pulled them out of their place in my sewing room and I began to just lay them out in rows.  The thought came to me, just sew them together and see what you get out of random order.  That is what I did and I really like the colors and the variety of fabrics. I used other fabric from my stash that I didn't have any plans for setting the borders. This throw quilt now lives in my living room on  my brown leather couch and brings a variety of warm colors to the room.  I love it there and I love to snuggle under the "This and That"quilt for a nap every "now and then".

Once upon a time...........

Once upon a time, there were two cousins. A little boy and a little girl.   They were close in age, born 18 months apart and as children lived across the street from one another.  They were happy children and they enjoyed playing board games and watching movies together.  They each had blonde curly hair and strangers would ask if they were brother and sister.  They were both the "baby" in their family and they both were happy, playful children.

The cousins grew up together and went to the same church and the same schools.  They shared many of the same interests and each brought much joy to their families and extended family. They went on combined family camping trips with their parents and would stay up late and talk over the "wood fairies" from the campfires.   The cousins even went on a few double dates together in high school.  They each wore glasses and later converted over to contact lenses. 

The cousins shared the same last name, the same grandparents and the same uncles and aunts and are loved by all.  When they were younger, they were sometimes called "the golden children".  When he went on his church mission to the Netherlands she, her sister and their dad went with our family of boys to pick him up in the homeland of their Dutch fathers. We had such an amazing time together!

Like all children they grew up and each cousin went their different way to college. She went  to the north end of the state and he went to the south end of the state. They each found the love of their life when they went to college and soon they married their sweethearts....within a year of each other.  Their lives have been parallel in so many ways and now...........each of the cousins have their own little baby to start their own family.  One cousin lives north of the big city and one cousin lives south of the big city.  She had her baby girl in June, he welcomed his baby boy in July.  Congrats to my sweet niece Deborah and her husband Logan!  Eloise is a beauty!  Congrats to my remarkable son Kevin and his wife Carrie! Lincoln is all boy!  I love you "cousins" and I treasure the memories of this great journey! 
I wonder.......will history repeat itself with these little cousins?  Guess we will wait and see.

Summer...Almost Over

Here it is Labor Day weekend.....  When I was a little girl that meant the end of summer and according to mom, you absolutely did not wear your white shoes after Labor Day!   Labor Day meant the end of summer which meant no more swim meets or hanging out at the neighborhood pool, no more  playing night games outside when the temperature cooled, no more lazy mornings and sleeping in late.  It meant back to a routine. 

Now that I am an adult and routine is an everyday occurance, the end of summer means the sunrise in the morning is getting later, the days are getting shorter and there is still too much yard work to do!  Sleeping in and lazy mornings are only for vacations. It also means more cars on the road in the morning as the students head back to school and football games.  Soon it will mean raking the leaves and planting spring bulbs. 

As for white shoes, I will wear them after Labor Day cause they are my favorite Sketchers and they are oh so comfortable!!! 

Lone Star Update

After I did the post on the Lone Star quilt in May, my life became increasingly busy and the Lone Star quilt blocks and pieces went into a plastic bin for storage.  I pulled them out a few times to look at and dream about and I hope that this fall I can get back to the quilt and finish.  Summer has just been too busy for recreation.  I did finish 2 quilt tops and one full quilt but they were for some very special little people.  More coming on those quilts very soon.  Life just gets away from me sometimes.

Hello Lone Star...

I have wanted to make a Lone Star Quilt for several years but piecing diamonds has never appealed to me and my style of quilting. I just don't have the time or patience for those points. I like to make quilts that are fast and simple and don't require me to think too hard! I really do not enjoy picking out my mistakes! One of my quilting friends and I took a class in March of this year at our favorite quilt shop and we learned a new technique for this Lone Star pattern using 1/2 square triangles. The pattern called for 4 charm packs in the same fabric line. I chose Kansas Toubles in Moda fabric that I just happened to have in my stash! Absolutely Amazing is what this pattern is! The Charming Lonestar, pieced by Karen Shepherd is found in the book Simply Charming Two by Konda Luckau. Konda's blog is http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/ She has an amazing talent and a very fun blog I love to follow. (I think she also is from Utah which makes her even more special)! I should grab her button for my blog.

The star photo is the center of the quilt when I finish. I took these photos to lay out the pieces before it is completely sewn together so I could get a feel for the color and the flow of the fabrics in the pattern. As I write this I have already sewn the star together and as pattern dictates I added a few more rows of color that you see in the above photo. I am at the point now to add the borders. Sorry, I don't have a photo of the almost finished quilt top........shall I snap one and post it? Right now I have to pause on the Lone Star.........I have some other little projects of "blue and pink" that need my attention. Babies won't wait for me to sew!

Favorite Things - Spring Tulips and Blossoms

These are some of my favorite things. I wish we had more of these favorites this spring and less clouds and rain! Personally, I am starving for the warm spring sunshine. My tulips and cherry tree were happy with the moisture from all the rain and they bloomed when they finally had some sunshine. I hope we can keep the cherries this year before the birds get to them. These blossoms were in full glory on Mother's Day a few weeks ago. Ah....spring has sprung! Now if we could just dry up a bit- we need a break from the rain.

Done + Finished X 6 = Happy Me!

Six quilts.....go ahead ....count them all. 6 Christmas Quilts! They are not anything super special or expensive. I used a quilt panel for 5 of them and just plain fabric for the other quilt. I decided it was time to clean out my Christmas Fabric stash and make good use of the collected fabric. I don't know what I was thinking when I first started the project and I was so ambitious to think they would all be done for Christmas 2010. I tried, really tried to get these done for a Christmas surprise. Two quilts were finished by Christmas morning but the "2 bachelors" had to receive their quilts in numerous pieces on Christmas morning. Two others recieved their pieced quilt tops un-quilted. So Plan B was to get all 4 quilt tops quilted and done by New Years... I wasn't planning on having problems with my eyes and three days after Christmas I had to stop sewing for several weeks/months to rest my tired and weary eyes. Well, my eyes are better now, spring has arrived and with it comes new energy for new quilts. The good news is that even though it is April and should be spring.....the temperatures are still cold and there is still a few more snow storms expected. They can still enjoy their quilts if they want to!!!!! Next year I am thinking that I make anything quilted for this gang it will be the size of a coaster. Yep, I can handle that! well ........................................maybe........:)

Merry Christmas Kids!

Merry Christmas Quilt - finished before Thanksgiving 2010 for Emily and Michael

For Scotty & Korin- Cold Winter Noses

Old Fashioned Christmas for Mandy & Troy ( I cheated and did this one in early 2010)

Holiday Joy and Something cozy for Kev & Carrie

Blue Snowboarders for Bachelor Chris - (It HAD to be blue) I took this picture before binding the quilt so the edges look a bit rough.

And lastly, a warm flannel quilt for Bachelor Tim.

Scrappy Pretty in Pink

I started the pink quilt above back last June. I saw a picture in a magazine of a similar quilt and I thought.... I can do that! What a fun time to pull all my pink fabric scraps together and lay them out for a preview. I added some green for an accent color and a ruffle or two and then finished. The hardest part of the process was quilting under those ruffles and over the ric-rac.
Our baby grand-daughter enjoyed laying on the quilt last fall and flipping the ruffles back and forth with her tiny fingers. With all my 5 grand-daughters in mind this quilt was created to wrap my love around them when they come to visit. It was also nice to warm under in the TV room on those cold winter nights this past season.

Please Stay Tuned

I hope to get some photos on the blog this weekend from my Quilts for Christmas photos. I know....I know......here we are in February and I am still stuck on my projects from two months ago. My life has been really full and busy the past few months. So much to do and unable get it all done.

Since late December I have been having trouble with my right eye. I woke up one morning with my eyelid so swollen I could only see through the slit it left. The eye ached so badly I could not move my vision to the side or up and down with pain. It was worse around bright light. Mr. S. got me right into his eye doctor that morning and after numerous visits, tests, new prescriptions for glasses, 4 different eye drops, and more tests, the right eye is finally on the mend. It was a very scarey time to think that what I had could lead to sight loss.

I still have the eye drops several times a day and the eye gets droopy by mid-day. I have to be very careful with daily eye strain. No more contact lenses and I am not a good candidate for Lasik. (sad) Wearing glasses is not favorable for me but it is better than the alternative.

I am slowly moving back to sewing my quilt tops and getting them quilted which is a good thing. I have sorted my fabric stash a few times because touching and feeling fabrics and color sorting does not cause eye strain. But I really am itching and anxious to get back to sewing, quilting and creating.
Just in case you were wondering!