I'll Be Back

After the weekend celebration.

The boys and their parents are coming as is Auntie Sarah and we are going to celebrate my birthday (Sunday) this weekend.

I'm coming up on my 300th post, so will probably have a wee bit of a giveaway next week. January through June is crazy-hectic in our family because EVERYONE save my SIL and DS have birthdays before mine on June 14th. We like birthdays in this family, so we've been celebrating and often that means either house guests or out-of-town travels. I'm thinking that more sewing will be done and blog posting as well now that the birthdays are pretty much done for now. Of course, there IS that wedding coming up in October....




Photo is from my 2nd birthday.......55 years ago!

But Wait, There's Even More Applique!

I'm still busy and not getting a lot of machine time, but I have been doing more applique as you can see.

This is the third finished block for Pearl Pereira's Baltimore Halloween Block-of-the-Month. I have 2 more blocks in process and another will arrive next week, so I'm a bit behind on this one, but I'm getting there.

I am caught up on my Bunny Hill FREE BOM, the basket quilt and I just love how these sweet little blocks are turning out. It is so generous of Anne to share these with us. Every month, I'm digging through my Mom's old buttons to try and find a couple that work and this month I found a set of four square mother-of pearl buttons, so I used two and have two for another month.

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to take a class with Sally Collins and I'll tell you about that tomorrow. She is amazing!

Back to Quilting

It has been a busy week with my MIL and FIL arriving on Mother's Day and staying through Thursday, and after a day's respite, my stepdaughter Sarah and friend Eddie arrived for another evening of celebration of hubby's birthday. Needless to say, we collapsed last night and will continue to do so today!

Two years ago, I participated in a round robin inspired by May Britt's group and we finished our projects just after the first of the year. We were so pleased by the results that we decided to play again this year. We had a few dropouts and added a few new faces, some gals I "knew" from other mini-quilt round robins or swaps. You can see them all by following the link on the sidebar for Round Robin Bloggers. I decided to have a soft "Be My Valentine" theme this year and present now, my starting block. Quite a switch from the last one, isn't it? The initials are for Jan Brackett (my maiden name) and Mike Andrews. Should be a cutie when finished because the gals in this swap are very, very creative. You won't be seeing it again until I get it back as a finished quiltlet in about 15 months because we've decided to keep the progress a secret again. Stay tuned.

And Yet More Applique

I'm also working on Bunny Hill Designs (Anne Sutton) FREE Block of the Month and am now caught up!

At right is the block for February.

I just happened to have a yard of a great Nancy Halvorsen background for all of these blocks and the rest have come from the old scrap bin. The blocks are great because they use up tiny snippets of fabrics. Stash diving is such fun!

The second block is for March and features a couple of buttons from my Mom's old button box.

Finally, the April block is the chocolate bunny and I just love him. I'm not happy with the cheapie ribbon on the chick's neck and will be searching for something better.

Some April Applique

As I said before, I have been appliqueing my little heart out.

This is block one of Pearl Pereira's new Baltimore Halloween BOM, the Owl. I tried using Pearl's method on this block, and have to say that for small concave and convex pieces, I really prefer my old standby, needle turn using a sharp toothpick from the Cracker Barrel Restaurant.

I did a few modifications to the block by adding the buttons and watch chain to the owl's rather plain vest.

Block two is a huge basket of fruit covered with a spider web and very complicated, so I'm working on it a bit more slowly and I jumped ahead to block three, Spiders and Bats.

This block was a complete disaster using the freezer paper on the back and fold the edges over method. So much that I had to redo the wings using my own fabrics. All in all, I think it turned out pretty cute. This particular kit gives "just enough" fabric for the appliques without a whole lot left over, so when I mess things up, I have to go stash-diving. So sad to have to fondle all of my fabrics.

Some Finishes for April

My finishes for April are Alex's birthday card quilts for his first and second birthdays--caught up at last!

The quilt for his first birthday is kind of a play on words--the old saying "Baby Makes Three"--but because big brother Benjamin was a wee bit jealous as a two-year-old new big brother, Alex took a few hits early on.
"I didn't mean to hit baby," Benj would say with his big blue eyes wide. So Mommy and I used to joke that if Alex made it through his first year, he would be invincible. We second kids have to be tough, you know!


Well Alex (whose brother still often calls him "Baby"), turned out to be tougher than we imagined. He's a daredevil. Standing on chairs, climbing things, giving his mother heart failure, etc. So, I decided to commemorate that by having him dancing on a chair for his second birthday quilt.

And, any resemblance to Charlie Brown you might notice is purely intentional and Mommy finally found the shirt to prove it!

Pathetic!

Or just busy and not in the mood to blog? Who knows?

I have been stitching, largely by hand these days and I'll post the pictures over the next few days.

I did go to Visalia and visit these characters:




While visiting we did a lot of this:



(He is having fun, in spite of the facial expression....he kept telling me: "Wing! Wing!"

We played Candyland and Benjamin beat Nana on his very first game.

And after all the sweaty yard play, we had to take several very splashy baths in the brand new tub! Thank heaven for Sham Wow.


And finally, when the fun-meters got pegged out, we had a minor meltdown. He is wearing his official "I'm two and there's nothing you can do about it" shirt, so we'll give him a pass on this one. Mom has obviously been here before, ya think?

Happy Easter

This and That

I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote something! March came in like the proverbial lion with a birthday celebration in Lake Tahoe for son Scott's 30th birthday and a "Meet the Parents" with his fiancee's folks. The day we got back, my in-laws arrived for a long weekend and the next day, FIL's daughter and family from Maryland come over. After a weekend of wine-tasting and noshing (fun!), we collapsed--sort of. Hubby got picked for a civil case jury and has been doing that every day since and I've been keeping the home front nailed down.

In the midst of all that, I presented my beloved Father-in-Law Ed with a quilt to commemorate his 80th birthday next month, since we won't be seeing him on the big day. (He likes to fly those birthdays under the radar).

You may recognize these blocks as I've pictured them as they arrived from my FQ pals and also the ones I made myself. I bought the set kit from the Fat Quarter Shop after Kathy B. bought me the fabric line for Christmas in 2007. My friend Kat who owns A Thread Runs Through It did the quilting with a lovely wool batting and the quilt is gorgeous.

I also (very, very belatedly) finished my grandson Alex's Birth Quilt. Bad Nana. Birthdays number one and two are under construction and will be done in time and will also be my April finishes. Benjamin's birth quilt is a pale blue with stars because he was born at 12:02 p.m. Alex's is a blue sky because he was born at 12:01 a.m.

Final Friday in February Finish

Say that three times fast!

I finished this quilt last night for our step-daughter Michelle's son Broden and it's only a few months (like 9 months) late.

It was made entirely from stash a couple of years ago at a guild meeting. One of our talented members, Melissa, does an annual "Mystery Quilt" after a meeting and I finished the top right away and it lay languishing in my closet. Now it is a finished project and one more UFO off the list.

Next up: Borders on the Verna Mosquera Halloween quilt.

Happy February, Happy Friday!

I've Been A.W.O.L.

But I have excuses, a million of 'em.

The first part of the year is busy for me with quilt guild activities. I'm the newsletter publisher, so each year I have to "break-in" the new committee members who write reports for me to publish. I also help the membership gals by keeping the database and prepping the printed roster for them and that is another first-of-the-year activity as well. With all that and traveling, I've been a busy gal who isn't sewing much.

My first finish for February can now be revealed, my grandson Benjamin's annual birthday quiltlet. I decided to do these quilts for his birth and annually until he is five, so this is the next-to-last. We visited them last week and Kate had the quilts all hung on the special hanger I bought last year and they were very cute if I do say so myself. I present this years' addition, a celebration of the fact that my boy started preschool last month and is loving it. Kate reports that he loves the peek-a-boo door on the quilt this year, so maybe I can think of something 3-D for next year.

It is hard for me to believe that this little guy is four years old already! Kate, Benjamin and I had a wonderful time making Valentines for his classmates while Alex was napping.

Mrs. Goodneedle is right--life is good!

A Tisket A Tasket

I finished January's basket!

In the nick of time for the challenge, I finished block one of Bunny Hill designs free block of the month for January. The buttons are tacked on for pictures and storage, but will be removed before I quilt and sewn back on later. Isn't he cute??

15 Little Quiltlets

All of our little Round Robins have been received and posted and you can see them at Quiltgranny's blog. This was a great project and many of us are going to do it again. Now to think of a theme. My quilt is El Dia de los Muertos, the third one down.

Thanks again ladies!

And, just because I really need another UFO/WIP, I've decided to do the 12 Months of Baskets, a free BOM from Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs. It is just too cute, and how often can you get a FREE set of designs from such a great designer?

Home Again

And all shopped out!

I left on the 14th to meet up with Kathy, Kat and Becky at Road to California and we had a wonderful time, but I forgot to take any pictures of us doing so.

We got home today from three days in Mendocino and our last stop was Sew n' Sew Fabrics in Fort Bragg, CA. If you are ever in Mendocino or vicinity, I highly recommend a trip into this shop. It looks like an old feed store building, but trust me, you will not be disappointed. She has darn near something for everyone in there and I found a pattern and template set by Terry Atkinson that I'd not seen at the entire show and five quilt shops in the Los Angeles area. This in a town of about 8,000 people! (This picture, from Terry's website does not do the pattern pictures justice.)

I'm definitely ready to sew and hope to post something quilty in a day or so.

Do You Love Quiltville?

Then go visit ForestJane Designs and grab her great little sidebar button to promote Bonnie Hunter's site. She also has one with a white background for pages with colored backgrounds.

Thanks ForestJane!!