almost the middle of October!

Beautiful Sunday to you!

I'm still busier than ever, but enjoying it all!!!
Attended a wedding last Saturday, and a baby shower last Sunday.

Here's the baby quilt I did for the new momma:

I left the bottom/center area un-quilted so when the new little guy arrives, I'll quilt in his birthday and name.  Also, don't know if you can tell from the picture or not, 
but I didn't finish the binding on the bottom, left hand corner.  
That's where I'll put a label on, too.

So I was an Indian-giver at the shower. lol  
Gifted it, then took it back home with me.

This pattern is the 16-patch/X-block,
aka Goodnight Irene pattern.  
Over 60 different fabrics used (a 2.5 inch strip of each) 
to make it Eye Spy-ish.

Seems like this is now my go-to for baby quilt gift making.
Do you have a favorite pattern for a baby gift?

The weather is finally cooling down here - and just a touch of color in the leaves on the trees,
so Autumn weather seems like it finally has arrived.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

quilting to share

Here's another baby quilt that
I didn't get shared in the last couple of months
(when I was having blog-access-troubles).

Well, actually, it was TWO baby quilts that I was
able to meander over...
But since the two were exactly the same, 
I guess I didn't think I needed a picture of BOTH of them. LOL
So here's a picture of the ONE that I did photograph!!:
THE cutest little Owl families!!!

Just adorable fabric! and wonderful piecing by Janet, too!

I've also been working on a couple of commission quilts -
so no sharing those right now...
One for an June anniversary gift, 
and the second for a wedding in August.
Such fun sewing and quilting!
And a little pool-side fun with the Grands, thrown in also!

baby quilt gifted

Isn't that the greatest quilt picture, ever ?!?!?!
I didn't get a picture of the quilt I made
with the new baby when I gifted it, 
so I requested a picture from the new parents, 
and THAT ^^ is the picture I received!
I just adore it!
A much better picture than the ones that I took. :)
The pictures I took pale by comparison - 
Front:

Back:

This quilt is the one that I pieced together last month at retreat.
I used my favorite block layout
of the X block and 16-patch block,
(aka: Good Night Irene).
I had about 50 different prints of fabric,
cut at 2.5 inches wide.
Makes it nice and scrappy, I think - a good 'Eye Spy' !
But since it's all strip-pieced, it really goes together
much quicker than it looks like it would.
And, yes, I did stitch in her name and mine in the quilting:

 Another good finish,
and great memories made! 

retreat, rested and renewed

Does anyone else LOVE retreating as much as I do?
I'm talking quilt retreat here, but any retreat will do it...
you come back SO rested and renewed.
Even if, at the retreat, you don't accomplish much?

During my 3 days of retreat, I pieced together an
ENTIRE baby quilt top.
Yep - a whole 50 inches square.  LOL
Here's a peek of the 70-ish chosen fabrics:

(Better pictures after it's gifted.)

One of my favorite quilts at the retreat was
a friend's little finish...

Isn't it the greatest???
The patterns are by Kathy Schmitz, (My Little Patterns: Little Garden, Little Home, Little Stitches, Little Year)
and Amy hand-embroidery-stitched them at 60% of the original size.
I have the patterns, and already reduced them down to 50%!
Great minds think alike!
Can't wait to get started on another stitchery!!

Hope your Friday is Tony The Tiger Grrrrrreat!!!

I think I'm back

Finally!! I'm back, I think!  
I've been locked out of my account for some unknown reason! 
Hopefully I've fixed it!  And I'll try re-posting the pictures of some of my quilting fun that I THOUGHT I'd shared. lol

Happy Easter wishes to everyone!

More fabrics I've added to the stash recently:

Check out that cute bunny in the tulips!!

Chosen for another baby quilt

And just for fun:

 Hope your weekend is great!

Labor Day!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!
Here in the U.S. of A., today, Monday, is Labor Day.
The Labor Day holiday is traditionally the end of our Summer.
I've been laboring, but the fun kind of labor -
keeping the grand kiddos whilst their parents move into their new home.
Also, I've been having fun, doing some of the cooking and hauling meals over to them while they concentrate on the actual labor. :)

Just yesterday, I was able to deliver my gift quilt
to Poppy and meet her as she came to visit at just a week old!
She's such a sweetie, and I'm sure she loves her quilt as much as I loved making it for her!

Last week, I also stitched up some more of my Farm Girl Vintage blocks...
I'm loving making these six inch blocks!

 

 And, I don't think I showed the ones I had done the week before,

so here they are:

 

Back to Labor Day plans,
the grand kiddos are coming over again today (while SonnyBoy continues his unpacking), so we have great plans - swimming and enjoying the 90+ degree weather; also we'll have a hot dog roast as we have some downed branches to make a little bonfire.
Later tonight, THE Ohio State Buckeyes have their season-opener football game, so there will be some home-gating/football watching going on around here.  

Hope your weekend is grand, also!

still being sluggish

I don't know what's going on with me!
The weather, the phase of the moon, the season?
Whatever it is,
it needs to GO!
No more being a blog slug!
The only stitching I HAVE been doing?
Binding and more binding.

I do have a baby quilt gift completely finished though,
and the baby was just born yesterday!!
Welcome Poppy!

 I even used more from the stash for the backing.

So, back to my sluggishness...
Maybe only doing bindings is my problem?
How many pictures of binding
can I share on here without it looking like a re-run? :)

So, I made myself go load some fabric on the long-arm machine.
And then did something that I've been telling myself to do for over a year!

I tried something new.  (Thanks Great-Grandma B!*)
And that is my way to get out of my 'being a slug' routine!
(* if you've not read about my 'out loud' promise to my Great-Grandma B,
you can CLICK HERE to find out more.)
I'll share pictures tomorrow of my newest project-of-learning.
It's a plan.  I'm no longer a slug!
Happy Wednesday to you!

rain, rain, go away...

Here in central Ohio, we are enjoying 
(I use the word 'enjoying' very loosely)
more heavy rain, lightening and thunderstorms.  
Again.
Yesterday we had another 2 and a half inches of rain!
I don't know about you, 
but when those electrical storms are ongoing
(like they have been here recently),
I don't plug in any of my computerized machines,
like my sewing machines or the long-arm machine.
I figure it would only take one hit to electrically fry
the components of one of my favorite machines!
Are you the same way?


During the stormy days here, 
I have pre-cut and prepped many blocks -
ready to stitch anytime the storms are not visiting.
I've only stitched together ONE of my Farm Girl Vintage blocks this week!!

I have done some hand-stitching...  

I'm still whip-stitching together 
more of the potholder blocks of
my Flags of the American Revolution quilt.

Also, I've worked on binding another of the baby quilts to gift...

(I know some will notice and ask about the area that's not quilted in this picture... the bottom, left.  I left it un-quilted, so that I could later quilt/stitch in the baby's name and birth date!)

During this rainy-so-far-Summer, 
I've taken some time to visit some blogs -
to live vicariously through others' pictures of 
sunny days, trips and vacations.
 
My favorites are ones that shared their travel photos.
Not just any photos, but specifically 
to the New England Quilt Museum
and the Sister's Quilt show to name a couple.
But the one that has stuck in my head the most is
Wendy's, The Constant Quilter blog (link here),
from her trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival.
So many great pics of wonderful, vintage quilts.

All of those travel photos makes me want to do some traveling!
SO inspiring!; 
But all of those quilt-y photos also cause me a little trouble,
as it makes me really, really, really
want to start another project!!
I do remember my promise to myself 
to finish up some Quilts already In Progress...
I will finish another QIP first. 
I will finish another QIP first.
I will finish another QIP first.
:)

Hope you are having sunny, stitching days!

Summer busyness already,

and it's not even officially Summer! 

Not just the busyness is here already, but
the four H's are here, too...
Hot,
Hazy,
Humid,
Having Summer-time fun.
The humidity, for me, makes it a little hard to breathe, so that means that little is happening outdoors around here, so it's a good excuse to have some indoor fun!

I found a yummy sounding cake mix...
I've heard that there were limited edition, seasonal, flavored cake or cookie mixes, but I've never seen them in the grocery before.  
Until last night!

Since I love mango-flavored anything,
this one will be made for Sunday family dinner.
(: Oops, didn't realize that my salad dressing photo-bombed until I inserted the pic! :)

More fun:  I meandered on one quilt for a friend - 
the pretty purple one on the left is done:

and in the right background, 
a little girly quilt I'm making that is awaiting borders and then off to the long-arm (this is the third [I believe] of five baby quilts that I need for this Summer of coming babies). 

Also fun in the past week:

I finally got these stars & nine-patches pieced 
for a wedding quilt gift,
and am now auditioning borders (2); backing is off to the right.
I've been working on this one for a while.  
More correctly:  I've not been working on this for a while,
as I cut all the pieces and sewed about half of the star blocks 
last November and then put it away.
When I got all it all back out recently, 
I didn't have enough of the light, solid corner squares 
cut for the star blocks...
but I did have extra dark squares.
(insert 'things that make you go hummmm?' here)
Reviewing what I'd sewn with the pattern instructions, 
I'd mistakenly put in light fabrics on both opposite corners of every star block I'd made.
So I had a little time spent doing some un-sewing, re-sewing, and re-pressing.
But it's finally coming together, and I'll be able to gift it, only a few years after the wedding.   Better late than never, right??  :)

Hope you are having a wonderful start to almost Summer, too!

I'm lovin' this quilt!

My strawberries baby quilt is finished!

Strawberries for Anna:

I made this quilt for my daughter's (from kindergarten on) 
best friend's first baby.

I know I shared this quilt when I was making the blocks,
and I had one of the strawberry caps on upside down.

I almost left it with the upside-down top, 
but realized I couldn't -
it was going to be gifted to a little one,
who would not meet her grandmother - 
my friend and also a quilter,
who'd lost her battle with cancer just a couple of years before.
So, in my friend's honor, I corrected it, 
as she would have if she'd made it herself, for her little grand-daughter.

 * * * * * * *

Sometimes after I've made a quilt from a pattern, 
I'm over it, as in - been there, done that,
and never even consider making that pattern again.
I was hoping that would not be the case after I made the baby quilt to gift.
But this one is so cute, that I think I'll have to make another one,
this time for me to keep here at the homestead.

These are the fabrics that I originally chose when I got the pattern...
for making the quilt for myself -

Civil War reproduction pinks, reds, and greens.  
I just don't have a background fabric that's not so bright-white-new looking.

Now this stack of fabrics is with the pattern, 
added to the growing stack on the shelf of  the 'someday' list.
(: My list of the 'someday' quilts sure is growing! :)

Does everyone have a waist-high stack (or mile-long list)
of someday quilts (or something) to create?

Happy Thursday!

skip Spring, jump to Summer

Is is just me, or did we again skip Spring?
If I recall correctly,
the weather (here, in Ohio at least) was like this last year, also.
The sweet smell of  warm, Spring showers,
and gentle breezes changed almost overnight
to Blazing with a capital B-hot, humid, June Bugs-buzzin' May.

I am NOT turning my air conditioning on 
one week after the furnace last ran!

So, more important, quilty things:
I've quilted a little this past week...
First, I did a customer quilt that I can't share yet, 
because I haven't met up with the customer to make delivery.

Second, I did get one of my (five needed) baby quilts 
done except for quilting in the name and birth date.

I was able to gift it at the baby shower!,
then I brought it back home with me to await the baby's birth info.

Looking at the pictures, I see that I also need to do the binding. :)
Can you see the un-quilted area in the bottom, center, above?
That's where I plan to stitch in the baby's birth date and name.

As you can tell, I again went with my 
new favorite go-to pattern- 
16-patch/X-block layout (aka Good Night Irene).
(I love this pattern for it's scrappy-ness and ease of piecing... 
I think it makes GREAT Eye Spy quilts.)

Also, don't know if you can tell, but the
setting fabric that I used this time is different (to me),
it's a 'Grunge' fabric...
white with a patchy, subtle overlay of blue and green 
that is almost dry-brushed looking areas of color.
I've not used this fabric before, but would definitely use it again.

So, looking back, it doesn't seem like much accomplished for 
a week, but, I've also stitched on my Gardener's Alphabet blocks,
and have only 11 more letters of the alphabet to do.  Hoping it
will be off the UFQ list soon!

Hope your week was grand, also! 
with or without the furnace or air-conditioning.

One of these things

is not like the others.
One of these things just doesn't belong... 
Do you remember that Sesame Street song?

Well, I sure did after I pressed my strawberry blocks!

I have all of the blocks made for my quilt-y gift!
As I pressed each strawberry block, I put it off to the side.
And I didn't even notice UNTIL it was 
off to the side that one was definitely different.

I had purposefully sewn the 'stem and leaf' sections
with some of the leaves going left and others going right.
But do you see the strawberry on the right-hand side in the above picture?
That's an Oops.  

Who knows why I didn't notice that the stem and leaf section was upside down??

It was a quick fix.  And I'm glad that I noticed it before all the blocks were sewn together and quilted!

But that song's been stuck in my head all day.
I know I'll be humming it to put myself to sleep.

May Day

Another May day already!










Time to find some unsuspecting folks 
and drop off some little flower bouquets on their doorsteps!
I have lots of daffodils and grape hyacinth right now
so I'll share those. 
Does anyone else leave May Day baskets anymore?

Also, I've seen the first arrivals of the hummingbirds back in my garden!
That's always exciting to me
catching them flitting around the flowers and shrubs.

This week, I've been working on another UFQ,
stitching together some little, seven inch pot-holder blocks

that I've had finished for a year or more.
(I'm afraid to check to see how long they've really been a work in progress!)
Thinking more on it, I know I started making them 
as take-along samples when I was teaching at
the local reproduction fabric shop... 
so I guess it's probably more like they are two year old UFQ's.
Anyway, after finishing the bindings, 
can you see (above) that I have them safety-pinned into place
and readied for whip-stitching together?
I have a couple of groups of them stitched together and they are table topper sized.
I may, though, stitch the small table-toppers into one bigger quilt.  
Haven't decided yet.

I have my day dedicated to finishing a little boy's quilt 
for a baby shower this weekend...
I'm using my new favorite go-to pattern: 
X-blocks with 16-patch blocks,
(also known as Good Night Irene...)
as it makes a good Eye Spy, I think.
Which is great for little kids.
And great for using more stash & scraps!

I'm off to stitch;
Hope your weekend is wonderful, and
that you, too, can do a little stitching.
Or playing in the garden flowers!

Is it still February?

Though the weatherman is again saying
that a February-like snow will be blowing in,
and I'm still celebrating my February birthday,
it IS mid-March - almost time to ring in Spring!!!

Yes, I know I'm pushing it - 
still celebrating my late February birthday,
but!, :)  
my excuse this time, is that I still have
birthday gifted money, hot in my pocket purse,
so technically, it's still birthday spending. :)

Last weekend, (in belated celebration), a friend and I 
drove north towards an Amish area of Ohio
and visited a few fabric shops, 
a couple of cheese houses, and
an antique shop (: which I'll share in another post-as it deserves it's own share! :).

So, sharing of the shops visited:

At the first quilt shop I purchased not a thread of fabric...
what's up with that?

The next quilt shop stop I didn't get too much -
just some C.W. reproductions for a pattern I had 
and, as always, more greens
(I love repro greens) :

Warning: Library-head-turn needed, 
don't know why blogger won't play nicely -

Can you see that great pattern at the bottom left?  
Strawberries!!!, therefore, pinks, reds, and greens.

If you are a regular reader, you'll recall that I have FIVE baby-quilts to make between now and August, so the coming little girlies will be getting some of this pink incorporated into their quilts (maybe even get a strawberry quilt).
The blue fabric (top) is for a maybe border for my Flags of the American Revolution quilt,
and, the last fabric piece, below, a cute, pastel fabric:

Isn't it adorable?  Maybe as big blocks offset with nine-patches?  While standing at the cutting counter, that was my thought.  We'll see if it comes to fruition. :)

As I l look at that pictured stack of fabrics, it looks like I went Birthday$$Wild!
But I didn't feel that I went fabric crazy, as I was purposefully shopping for the upcoming baby quilts.

Then, there was cheese shopping.
Lots and lots of cheese shopping.
Maybe I did go a little crazy here:

The unmarked package on top is a yogurt cheese slices, garlic and herb. Yum.
I may have eaten some of the cheese evidence.
I also may have an addiction to cheese. 
And looking at the cheese varieties I got, I may also have bad breath. :)

Happy Thursday!
and I'll be back soon with my
Antique shop find!!!

PS - I just had a text that the first of the expected babies has arrived!!!
- a little girl, so time for me to start cutting into those pink fabrics!

some meandering last week & babies galore

 This baby quilt was pieced flannels, front and back:

So soft and cuddly.  It finished at about 45 by 60 inches.
I love how the quilting shows so well, and it was
another great finish by Jackie.

For myself, I've started to work on a few baby quilts
for gifts I know I have coming..

1. for a boy due anytime
2. for a little bundle of joy due now, but the parents have chosen not to know the sex of the baby beforehand, so I'm doing it eye-spy style and not going to layer and quilt until the baby arrives, then I can add a gender-specific backing.
3. due May and I haven't heard the sex yet
4. due in August and is a boy
5. and it seems like I'm forgetting one, so I may just make another of the #2 quilt to have on hand.

So, choosing, pressing, and cutting fabrics has started!

Happy Monday and hope you have a
great, stitching week!

my I Spy quilty gift

This is the quilt that I made for the newest great-nephew:

My version of I/Eye Spy,
using the 16-patch and X blocks.

loopy quilting and crayons for the backing

I didn't happen to have a yard and half of setting fabric that I thought went well with all of that scrappy/eye spy/busyness, so had to get some fabric from a friend (Thanks, Janet, for coming to my rescue!!).  She had some on hand that wasn't as white as what I had in my stash... (remember, this quilt was being gifted to a family that lives very rurally and has well-water.  And in some places in Ohio, that means high iron content, so orange sediment and orange coloring on everything!, even with a water softener SO NO WHITES in the quilt).

It finished at 48" square, and had more than 48 different fabrics for I/Eye Spy entertainment... bugs, houses, corn, candy, birds, letters, sports balls and equipment, mice in string cheese, spiders, lizards, and the list goes on and on.

Well, it entertained me as I was making it, 
so I'm hoping it will entertain the little guy for many years to come.
Truth? I'm still enjoying it, just looking back at the pictures!
I'll probably will do this layout again.
It may even be my new go-to for baby quilt gifting, I like it that much!

the start of a new great-nephew quilt

I'm thinking an 'eye spy' type of quilt,
maybe in the 16-patch/X block layout...

something that's not too elaborate,
since the little/big guy is already here!
(little because he's newborn, big because he weighed in at almost 10 lbs.!)

I gathered up a whole bunch of boyish novelty fabrics -
48 to be exact,
and cut a 2 1/2 inch strip from each fabric.
Here are most of the strips of novelty fabrics that I cut: 

I sub-cut 10 inch cuts from each fabric, sewed four of them together, sub-cut again
and sewed them into 16-patch blocks.
Here they are, unpressed:

Now, just to make some 'X'-blocks as the alternating blocks!

Problem though...
I chose a light tan mini print for the setting fabric, 
but after I did some figuring, and I don't have enough. 
Bummer.
The other setting fabric options I've found so far are white/light fabrics, and the new little/big guy's family lives very rural-y, and they have well water, so a light/white setting fabric just won't work well for them.

More digging through the stash closet yet to come!
If you don't hear from me for a few days, please send help -
I may have fallen into the rabbit fabric hole!! :)

What are you stitching on??