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!!

First Finishes

In keeping with May Britt's challenge for 2009, I am posting my first finishes of the month. They aren't huge projects, just a couple of panel quilts for baby girls born to my daughter's friends. I bought the panels and flannel backings at M & L fabrics when I visited in July, so they were technically UFO's, and at least they aren't sitting on my cutting table anymore!

Since I'm leaving for Road to California on Wednesday, followed by two days at my MIL's in Carmel, CA (straight from the airport), a brief pitstop at home and then up to Mendocino with my love to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary, I thought I better finish my monthly goal early. I'll be gone for 9 days!

Another of my goals is to get more comfortable with machine quilting. It is one of those things I can do, but I'm not very good at it and I dread it. I'm working on a table runner today and tomorrow, and will hopefully be able to post that tomorrow.

Round Robin Received!!

And nobody is luckier than me. Nobody.

As you may recall, we started this project in the fall of 2007, using an idea we got from MayBritt at Abyquilt in Norway. Because it was autumn and I love Halloween and its Latino cousin El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), I chose that as my theme with a starter block you can see here.

I received my finished quilt yesterday and color me happy--I can't imagine it having turned out any more perfect than this.

Thank you Round Robin Bloggers so very much--you absolutely hit it out of the ballpark for me!



PS: I already have an idea for Round Robin II and am ready when you ladies are!

As requested, here is the fabulous back of the RR quilt.

And yes, it is on top of the assembled top of my Verna Mosquera BOM.

I just need to add the borders and applique them and I'm nervous about the scallops and procrastinating.

Stashbusting With Judy

OK, I took the pledge--New Year's Resolution #1: I'm stashbusting for 2009 with Judy.

I started yesterday by tackling one side of the fabric storage closet. I took all of the fabric pictured at right out of the large plastic container that you can barely see at the bottom of the picture. It now contains a quilt that is in the process of being machine quilted by me. I'm avoiding it because I'm a serious novice at machine quilting.

The other items are:

A. Several flimsies and their backings. The two you can see are a 1930's Christmas quilt from a kit I bought in Maine in 2007. The other is a "Just Can't Cut It" made from the most gorgeous Autumn fabric with rusts and blacks. I'm going to see if my Sistah Becky wants to have them on hand to quilt at her leisure. That way they are outta here.

B. Stack-O-Fabric. Since my husband reads this blog, I can tell you that it represents my entire stash (multiply as desired)....LOL.

C. Is a beautiful line called Scarlet Night that my Sistah Kathy and I both bought after we went to Linda Ballard's retreat in Trinidad in 2007. Linda made our mystery quilt out of this fabric and we had to have it. Perhaps she and I need to challenge each other this year to finish the tops?

While we're making resolutions, I've also joined May Britt and Kris's challenge to finish one project a month in 2009. Sounds do-able and will help clear those UFO's out!

Why don't you visit their blogs and check it out and join the fun--all you have to lose is your stash and UFOs.

Ten days until I fly to Ontario to meet my Sistahs for Road to California, so I need to fondle the fabrics big time to prevent my feeling the need to buy more. Especially since we will be visiting M & L fabrics again.

Yikes!

OK, OK, I Get It!

Leader/Ender......what the heck? My longtime internet pal Bonnie Hunter has been extolling the virtues of leader/ender for years and I had the hardest time understanding this concept, much less putting it into use. Since much of my piecing is one-project-at-a-time ( which is not to say that I don't have many, many UFOs, PIGs, WISPs, etc), I couldn't get why leader/ender sewing was of any use to me.

Enter Pepper Cory and the class I took from her at Quilt Festival in Long Beach last summer. The Swartz Creek Quilt (scroll down to near the bottom), with its endless numbers of half square triangles and four patches seemed like the perfect way to try this technique. So, sitting beside my machine are stacks of 3" squares for the HSTs and 2 1/2 " squares for the 4 patches. As I was putting together the flimsy from the previous post, I used the heck out of my stacks and was amazed at how much easier it is to not have to clip endless pieces of thread!!!!!

Yesterday, to celebrate the New Year, I watched my favorite chick flick of all time, Bridget Jones's Diary and cut a ton of squares from the $1.00 fat quarters I got at PIQF to add to the project. What a great way to start the year!

The image is a shameless plug for Bonnie's article in the new issue of Quiltmaker--check it out!!

Year End Flimsy

I hustled and got a flimsy completed so I can send it to Kat for quilting later this week. Several months ago, I was the lucky lotto person for my online mini-group and I sent them all different blocks using some Civil War fabrics I'd received for Christmas last year from my friend Kathy.

I love how this quilt turned out! Kathy and I, using the same fabrics (we split a fat quarter pack), both made samplers using a finishing kit from one of the participants in a designer sampler from an online shop. We both used blocks from Marsha McCloskey's Block Party and I was lucky enough to get many of my blocks made by pals in the group.

Now Kat will work her magic on it and I'll bind it in time to deliver to a special someone who will remain anonymous for now.

I also completed stitching on the first block for my latest Halloween endeavor, "Hocuspocusville" by Crabapple Hill. I found the kit at the Napa Quilt Show at Thimble Creek's booth and had to have it!

Is it possible to have too many Halloween quilts?