Ready And Waiting

Here is a full view of the disappearing nine-patch that I just finished for our new granddaughter. The squares for the nine patches were cut at 6 inches. I used 6 blocks total and added a 3 1/2 inch border all the way around. The quilt finished out at 38" x 54". Now we just need a baby to wrap up in it!

Still Waiting

We are still waiting for the newest grandbaby to arrive (so much for the doctor's prediction of an early delivery). I've been working on a simple rolled brim baby hat for the baby and it's starting to look like I won't have any trouble finishing it before the baby arrives...I may even have time to make a matching pair of socks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Still Binding...Still Waiting

Yesterday's delivery excitement turned out to be another false alarm. I guess little Miss Four is just making sure that grandmama has plenty of time to finish the binding on her quilt before she arrives!

Quilted...Just In Time!

The baby's quilt is all quilted and ready for binding. It should only take a couple of hours to finish it up and it's a good thing...it looks as if our little Miss Four is going to make her big entrance today!

Ready To Quilt

We are still waiting for our little Miss Four to arrive. Everyone thought that she would be here by now, but no baby yet. Maybe she's waiting for a Thanksgiving birthday as originally predicted or maybe she's waiting for Grandmama to finish her quilt! Just in case it's the latter, I figured that I better keep stitching. I basted the quilt yesterday (Sharon, my knees thank you once again!) and hopefully I will find some time later today to get started on the quilting.

QuilterBlogs.com

If you enjoy reading blogs about quilting then you are going to love QuilterBlogs.com! This site scans the blogs in its database (over 80 at the time of this post) and displays snippets of the most recent posts on the updates page. It's a great way to see what quilters from all over the world are up to all on the same site.

Car Seat Blankie

Quite awhile ago I started this car seat blankie to use as a baby gift, but when I prewashed the pink flannel it pilled something awful and just didn't look "new" enough to give as a gift and at $9.00 a yard I couldn't toss it out either, so I tucked it away in my "UFO" basket and promptly forgot about it. Yesterday, while looking for some fabric, I came across it again and decided that it would work just fine for our new grandbaby. All it needed was to have the binding stitched down and in a couple hours I crossed a UFO off my list and baby will have a soft cuddly blankie to use in the car seat.

These car seat blankies are very fast and easy to make. I use flannel or cotton fabric on the front and super soft minkee on the back. I cut the fabric approximately 30 x 40 and then bind with french fold binding (no quilting necessary). A tip for adding the binding is to pin well and machine sew the binding to the back side (minkee side), fold to the front (flannel side) and then hand stitch. These little blankets make wonderful baby shower gifts and they only take a couple of hours to make start to finish!

Another Finished Quilt

The cowboy quilt is finally finished! Anya did a beautiful job quilting loops and stars over the whole quilt. (I am so fortunate to have a friend who I can talk into quilting the patterns that I wouldn't dream of trying myself!) I used the same red bandanna print from the vertical stripes for the binding and I'm really pleased with the end result! Now I can box it up and ship it off to NC, so it will be ready and waiting for the new grandbaby when he arrives!

Stitching Along!

I have finally finished the sweet baby star quilt! I just did simple echo quilting throughout the whole quilt, nothing fancy, but I think it works well with this design. My next step is to baste, quilt and finish the coordinating disappearing nine-patch quilt that goes with this one...hopefully all before the baby arrives!

Scraps Are Wonderful Things!

I had quite a bit of tea party fabric leftover from the sweet baby star quilt, so much in fact, that there was enough to put together another baby quilt top! I used the disappearing nine-patch pattern with six different fabrics for this design, so it only took 6 - 6" squares of five different fabrics and 24 - 6" squares of the tea party fabric to make the whole top. Aren't scraps wonderful things?

Quiltathon Progress!

This has been the perfect weekend for a Quiltathon! It poured rain here all day yesterday and today the winds are blowing across lake Erie bringing us snow showers...perfect quilting weather! Yesterday I quilted the sweet baby star quilt and managed to put the binding on too! I just have the hand work left to do and it will be done. Today I hope to put borders on another baby quilt top that I have started and then this evening I'll be sewing bindings down on the cowboy quilt and the sweet baby star quilt.

Quiltathon Weekend

Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times is hosting a Quiltathon this weekend and as it works out a quiltathon is just what I need! I have a stack of baby quilts that I need to finish as well as several other projects that I want to make for the new grandbabies before they arrive and time is running short! I took Judy's advice and straightened up my sewing room, gathered my supplies, put dinner in the crockpot and now I'm off to spend the rest of the day sewing!

Let The Addiction Begin!!

My friend, Deb, at The Angel and the Pukeko makes the most amazing quilts with beautifully hand embroidered blocks as well as other projects decorated with hand embroidery. Not long ago, I mentioned to her how much I admire her embroidery skills and that I wished that my "talent" in that area wasn't so lacking. She assured me that it wasn't that hard and with a little practice anyone could do it, so look at what she sent to me in the mail to practice with! In the envelope were three wonderful stitchery kits along with a lovely note that starts with "Let the addiction begin!!" Hmm...I wonder how many thread related addictions a girl can have and still keep up with all that needs doing around the house?

Oatmeal Crispies

Yesterday was our monthly charity sewing day, so I thought that I would bake a batch of oatmeal cookies to share with everyone while we were sewing. My regular oatmeal cookie recipe makes a very small batch and rather than doubling it I went in search of something different and found this recipe for Oatmeal Crispies. They turned out to be a big hit with the lake house ladies!

Oatmeal Crispies

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the remaining ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture.
Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Sidetracked

Why am I knitting when I should be quilting and finishing baby quilts??? I've always wanted to try knitting mittens and when I stumbled across the pattern for Kate's Training Mitts the other day I had to take an evening to see if I could figure it out. The instructions were clear and easy to follow and as you can see the result is a really cute little mitten! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and now I really want to knit mittens for everyone in the family, but first I HAVE to get these baby quilts finished!

Veterans Day Tribute

May God bless our veterans, may God bless our troops in harm's way, and may God continue to bless the United States of America!

On Its Way To Ami!

My Priority Hope Challenge quilt is finished, registered with AAQI and is now in the hands of the US Post Office!

Please note that the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt project is an ongoing project and finished mini quilts are accepted at any time...you don't need to wait for someone to organize a challenge! Any quilt measuring 9" x 12" or less can be donated. You can use any technique, any theme, any color and all skill levels are welcome! Please visit the AAQI's Make A Donation Quilt webpage for all the details to make and donate a mini quilt to AAQI. If you need a challenge to get started, then I will challenge everyone reading this post to make and donate at least one mini quilt to AAQI...now go get started!

Basted

The Sweet Baby Star quilt is all basted and ready to quilt. I've never been a big fan of pin basting...the pins always seem to be in my way, so I always baste with needle and thread. Up until a few months ago I basted my quilts on the kitchen floor on my hands and knees, but then I found Sharon Schamber's pinless painless basting method! Thanks to Sharon, I will never again have to baste a quilt on my hands and knees. If you aren't familiar with Sharon's basting method, you can see an updated video of the process here.

A Small Finish

I finally finished my Priority Hope Challenge quilt...I guess I should say that it's almost finished. I still have to put a label on and then register it with the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) website, but after I get that done it will be 100% finished and I can put it in the mail to Ami Simms. Thanks to Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting for organizing such a fun project for such a great cause! If you would like to see some of the other Priority Hope Challenge quilts that have been donated to AAQI visit Tonya's Priority Hope Challenge blog by clicking here.

Sweet Baby Star

Thankfully my daughter-in-law chose a fast and easy quilt pattern for little Miss Four. The pattern is Sweet Baby Star from Piper's Girls and I was able to get the whole top pieced in one afternoon! Now on to the basting and quilting...

The Race Is On!

A trip to the obstetrician yesterday revealed that our little Miss Four may be coming before her Thanksgiving due date! That means, sick or not, grandmama needs to get busy in the sewing room!

Election Day

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." ~John Quincy Adams

Sick Of Being Sick!

Reading the new quilting magazines is about the closest thing to quilting that has been going on here lately. Actually reading quilting magazines, watching TV and napping on the sofa is about the only thing that I have been doing lately. You wouldn't think that a simple sinus and ear infection would be such a difficult thing to shake, but it's been one thing after another...first a round of antibiotics that didn't help much, then an allergic reaction to an antibiotic, then a secondary infection from the third antibiotic and this past weekend a stomach flu was added to the mix for good measure. I don't have time to be sick...I have a baby quilt that I have to finish before Thanksgiving and thanks to all the reading that I have been doing, I have about 100 other projects that I want to make!