A BUSY QUILTY WEEK

Sometimes I'm all enthused to sew. Sometimes I'm not. But lately, my enthusiasm has come back. I think it is a form of procrastination. At the back of my mind among the myriad of things to do, I know I should be packing up stuff to move out of the master bedroom so the painters can come and repair/paint the ceiling. Since they haven't officially called me with a start date yet, I keep putting off the inevitable job before me. What better way to spend time than to sew, sew, sew.

So what have I been working on lately. Well it began with a small quilt for my DIL's aunt who is about to undergo a lumpectomy and radiation for breast cancer:

This quilt began when I was cleaning out some fabric bins and discovered quite alot of left-over fabric and orphan blocks from a quilt that I had made for my sister. Her quilt was much larger and I wrote in several positive sayings and lots of family names to wrap her in warmth while whe was undergoing chemo. Nina's quilt is smaller but I hope it will also warm her and let her know she is loved.

But wait! There was more left-over fabric in that bin. Among the scraps were some squares that I had begun to hand-piece together. Since there were several squares already cut but not stitched yet, I just sat down at the machine and added them to my already begun piece:

All of these fabrics were from various Quilt For A Cure lines of fabrics. I have to say they are really not colors that I normally lean towards. I'm more a warm color palette kind of person. Fortunately, I still have MORE of all this fabric so I should be able to come up with some borders for this "middle.

Then there are all the baby quilts waiting to be made. The daughter of a dear friend is having a baby girl in November. She and her husband are decorating the nursery with an aquatic theme. Even though I am trying desperately to use up stash, I couldn't resist the cute little fish flannel for this quilt:

This quilt along with the others needs to be sandwiched, quilted, bound and labeled. I've got lots of projects still ahead of me. Basically, I need to stop making new quilt tops and get busy finishing UFOs.

And finally, there's the quilt that got started (and is almost finished) for no rhyme or reason. I just felt the urge to "play" with scraps and before I knew it a quilt top had emerged. About half-way through, I decided it was the perfect gift for my youngest brother who is turning 50 on Sunday. Now that is an incentive to finish. No.....I won't get it there by Sunday but I will get it finished in time for the trip we're taking next week to Texas that will include a side trip to visit my sibs. So Happy Birthday Little Brother:

In general, I am not a very creative person. I tend to work better from following patterns and directions. But for this quilt, I truly worked outside my box and just invented it as I went along. I really like it. What you don't see if stars on the cornerstones that have now been added. I especially like the mini-piping. It really helped set off the middle.

So that's it. My busy, busy, quilty week.

Quilts, Costumes and Life in General

It's been a month since I last visited my blog. In the meantime, I started a blog at thequiltshow.com which I seem to access more often. I've got to watch the time factor here. On-line diary/blogging can be a bit time-consuming and addictive. Then there are all those blogs that are fun to read.


At the end of August, we went out to CA to visit DHs father and sister in Southern CA and then went up to Northern CA for a visit with the DGDs.....oh...their parents, too LOL. We're still exploring Alameda as a place to live in retirement. DH loves the nearness of the SF Bay. Wonderful opportunities for walking enjoyment.


Since I've been back, I've been working on Halloween costumes for the DGDs. I don't think I ever sewed any costumes for my boys when they were young. The extent of my garment sewing for them was PJs and T-Shirts.....those were the days of knit fabrics. For this project I had to get my brain back to a 5/8" seam and not the quarter-inch seam that quilters use. Working off and on, I managed to actually finish two costumes before Halloween. Here they are:





The 10 month old will be a darling little lamb and the 2 1/2 year old will be a cute little ladybug. I think this may be my only foray into costume making. I forgot how I hate sewing curvy garments. But you never know. If the DGDs ask, I'll probably give in. I think that's what grandmas are supposed to do LOL.

In between working on the costumes, I pulled out some scraps for a quilt that I had made for my sister when she was undergoing chemo for breast cancer. I found that I had enough orphan blocks and fabric that I could make another quilt. Since another friend is about to have a mastectomy, I decided to play around with what I had and make a quilt for her. Here's the results of that effort:


It's not a very big quilt but it might be enough for her to put across her lap and know that she is loved.

We are having lovely Fall type weather this week. It's the season I like most in the Mid-Atlantic region. It will be one of the things I miss when we move back to California.