3 Little Bibs... all in a row...

I have been having a long reprieve from quilting... actually from sewing of any kind.  And sadly I am just not motivated to get going again. Ever had a quilting funk?  I have a baby quilt top begging to be quilted... Christmas projects I need to make... but just cannot get my inner quilter up and going. In the midst of the funk, my daughter said "Mom, I need some baby things for a shower gift. Can you make some burp cloths?"  Of course I said yes.  And I decided to make bibs too. I have actually never made a bib.

I perused the web and found tons of how-tos and tutorials and templates for bibs.  Decided on a very basic one.  Printed out the template and went to town.  It was so easy and quick and fun!  Instant Creative Gratification! After making the first "practice" bib, I decided to whip up 2 more along with 3 matching burp cloths.

Here is the result:

Miss Harper will be a well bibbed baby!

"Belle"

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is my sweet Mother's 80th birthday. She is a sassy Southern gal who is still going strong despite bouts with 3 separate cancers... arthritis in her hips and knees from chemotherapy.... damage to her heart and eyes due to an undiagnosed Thyroid disease... the woman will not slow down!  Active in her church.. busy with her friends... checking on others .... taking meals to them... does her crossword puzzle, cryptogram and jumble each day... reads... rarely watches TV... talks on the phone as much or more than any 13 year old girl... she is a hoot and I adore her and am thankful to still have her in my life!

A few years ago a group of quilty friends made a 1930s repro churn dash as a love quilt for a dear friend going through a tough time.  I had the privilege of putting all the blocks into a top and finishing up the quilt.  Mother saw it and thought it was for her!  She was very disappointed to learn I was mailing it off to someone else.  Well she has her own now and I think it looks great on her bed!

I whipped up the blocks... the mad quilter did the rest... quilting and binding (gotta love a man who will bind a quilt for you!)... we also made 2 throw pillows from some left over blocks (I got carried away and made a few more than I needed!)

We snuck over to Mom's recently and laid the top (without borders) on her bed to see how much drop we needed.  I think we did a great job with the size! I just love it.

Tonight we slipped over to Mom's while she was at church and got everything set up... we went back to drop off a mum for her (hubs heard her say she wanted one).  She was just getting home, so we stayed a bit. She never left the kitchen! LOL!  Couldn't think of a reason to send her to the bedroom. So we came on home. About an hour later the phone rang... she loves it!  I have no doubt she has been on the phone telling her friends about her birthday present.  LOL!

This is probably one of my favorite quilts ever... partially because it looks great... partially because it was made for my sweet Mother... and mostly because it made her heart sing!  I don't think I have done that too often in the past 49 years... more heart ache and stress and frustration etc. The joys of parenthood. So if I can make hers sing... WOW!  I have accomplished a great thing!

"Belle"

Churning Away.....

My quilting has been in small spurts lately.. a block or two here.. a block or two there. I am almost done with a stack of Churn Dash blocks for a bed quilt.  My mother will be 80 next month and this will be a quilt for her bed.  It will be full size with a good bit of drop on the sides (she has an old high bed).  I used 1930s repros as she loves them!  A group of quilty friends and I made a love quilt last year (or was it the year before?) using repros and the Churn Dash pattern. Mother loved it and was disappointed that it wasn't for her.  This one will be a tad bit different. There will be white sashing and at this point the border and binding will be white (Kona Snow to be exact).  Basically her bed will be covered in a field of repro Churn Dashes!  I also want to make a couple of pillow shams with extra blocks for her bed.  And some window valances with Kona Snow and maybe some small repro squares.  I think it will all look great!

Here is a taste of what is to come....

I think the bottom one (purple gingham, peach dot print) is my favorite block so far. I just love that peach fabric!!!

Stay tuned for the finished product... (and yes, the Mad Quilter will be quilting this... he loves his mom-in-law and he is much faster than I am at quilting!)

"Belle"

Time for a Little Girl Quilt!

My sister-in-law will soon be a grandmother for the first time... and It's A Girl!!! I couldn't wait to whip up something girlie after doing several boy quilts.  What fun!  I pulled charms and made a bunch of HSTs (my sweet husband cut them all down for me... are you jealous?)  and then I put them together in a very basic patchwork layout. No fancy patterns.. just a sea of HSTs.  I love all the colors. Have NO idea how it will be quilted!  But it will be worked on soon.  Baby Lou is due in a few weeks! Of course she lives in TX, so she won't need a quilt for warmth for a while!  LOL!

Here is the finished top.. unquilted..

Saddle Up Cowboy!

I posted this quilt top already, but wanted to show you the finished product.  I did super simple quilting on it. Just in the ditch around the panels and then some fun boots in the sections with the cowboy print.  The boots are difficult to see on the front.. I used a honey colored thread.. but they show up just fine on the back.

I love drawing out the designs (tracing them!) and then following the lines with my sewing machine. One day, maybe, I will be brave enough to go it alone and do some free motion quilting!

"Belle"

A LABOR of Love....

Last January we had the threat of severe winter weather.. now let me remind you that I live in the deep deep South.. so snow flurries are severe winter weather to us!  Mention snow or ice and run home and batten down the hatches.. much like we do for hurricanes. I also live in a college town, so when this warning was released, the college sent kids home... that could go home. My son's girlfriend came to our house.. and she brought her roomie, Morgan, with her.  We all spent the next 24 or so hours curled up under quilts.. playing games.. eating fun food.. watching movies.. being silly. It was a lot of fun!

Morgan was intrigued by our quilting and some time later mentioned that she had a quilt top her grandmother had made for her back in the 90s.  But that was all she had.. the top. Could we finish it? Sure. A bit later the top arrived. I looked at the size of it, smiled at my wonderful husband (a.k.a. the mad quilter) and said "It's all yours!"  

He removed the tiny bit of quilting that was on it... removed the high loft poly-fil type batting... added a simple white border to prevent cutting the edges off the red blocks when binding... used a thin cotton batting and got it all sandwiched again (took forever!).. and off he went with the quilting. Straight-line.. in the ditch... nothing fancy... but sooo much of it!  He growled at times while working on this one. Remember.. no long-arm machine here.. not even a medium one.. a very basic Kenmore sewing machine from the 1990s... work horse of a machine.. but small throat! Once quilted, he bound it and then.. gulp.. we washed it. We had NO idea if Morgan's grandmother had prewashed the fabric.  I think we used 7 color catcher strips!  No fading at all. Yeah!

It really turned out lovely and I know Morgan is going to love it.  Her grandmother, whom we met in May, told us it was queen size. Maybe as a bedspread that reaches to the floor!  We laid it on our Kingsize bed and it covers the top and drops down on the sides and the foot very nicely. I would like about 4 more inches in the drop, but still.. it is HUGE.  

It was definitely a lot of work... LABOR... for Hubby.  But I also know he loved doing it for Morgan.  He is a keeper!

"Belle"

Kindle.. iPad... covers to go!

A friend of mine has a Kindle and she found a cute cover for it online at the Moda Bake Shop (love that site!). She asked if I could make it... so I whipped one up for her.  The binding is the biggest booger.. it is so small and tedious to work with... but still, I think it turned out cute.

The tutorial can be found here.. Moda Bookkeeper

Here is the one I made:

When my son's girlfriend saw the cover, she said "Let's make one for an iPad!"  So we did some reconfiguring for size and she whipped up this cutie:

It is for her mom's birthday. I hope the size is right!

Both were fun and quick... I need little projects like this every so often... that instant gratification fix!

"Belle"