SOME OLD AND SOME NEW

Hmm, I guess I'm just kind of finishing up some projects, starting others, and waiting to finish yet some more.

The baby blankie I was knitting is finished, and I just completed the quilt to go with it today. I must say that even though I have made many baby quilts, this one was quite exciting: #1, I used my walking foot for the first time to do just a "tad" of free motion quilting. (I'm taking a beginning machine quilting class next month, so I decided to wait for that before I decide to get too fancy!). #2, I used fabric glue to baste my binding. Of course, I used the walking foot for the binding too. Both these new experiences in quilting were awesome!

(This quilt, blankie, and receiving blanket will be a gift.)
The little bit of machine embroidery that I did on this quilt is new for me also. Aaaaand how great it was to be able to do multitask quilting. While my Janome was doing the embroidery yesterday, I was busy on my little Brother making half square triangles.


Now that the baby blankie is knitted, I have started a sweater for my soon to be 13 year old granddaughter. Is it cheating too horribly to only do 2 inches instead of 4 for a guage check swatch?


As far as quilting goes, I'm waiting to pick up my Buckeye Beauty quilt from the LA quilter on Tuesday, but I'll have my binding all ready to go,

and I'll have a new bottle of glue too, instead of the glue stick that I used today.

So now to get back to my half square triangles from the exchange fabric.

A day in the studio

Ah, what fun I had with my daughters and families this weekend. As Orthodox Christians did not celebrate Easter quite yet (It will be celebrated this year on April 27.), it was not a holiday weekend for us--just time to be together because the cousins were on spring break.

On Saturday while the girls and I did a bit of antique/flea market shopping and just hanging out, the guys made marshmallow guns out of pvc pipe. You can imagine just how many mini marshmallows there were around the yard with 3 boys, ages 8-10; and I believe 6 yo Isabela got in on that action too!

But for me seeing what's new in Anna Maria's studio is always the highlight of a trip to Nashville:
All the rolls of her new Drawing Room and Garden Party fabric,


and even getting to fondle it a bit as Eleni and I helped pack it in to little bundles for prizes and her on-line shop.


And this trip, I had the extra bonus of watching the girls put together a photo for Anna Maria's upcoming book, from camera set up


to hair


and make up.


The make up artist, is granddaughter Juliana, and the model daughter Eleni.

All in all a great weekend. So now that I'm home it's time to get back to work with some knitting and quilting!

A COUPLE WIPs

Just so you won't think that I have totally abandoned the quilting and knitting world, I thought that I should show you a couple WIPs (for those not familiar with the "lingo", that's works in progress).

These are a couple things that are I'm making for baby gifts. Neither are quite finished. The quilt is just the quilt top. I am considering adding some machine embroidery to it, since I do have a disc with some really cute little puppies that I think would work well. That, of course, needs to be done before I add the batting, so I guess I'd better hurry up and decide.

It would be a good use of time to be doing some machine embroidery as I am cutting fabric for this next project.

Now, are you ready for the fun? I am currently in the midst of a fabric exchange with my internet Weight Watcher quilting friends. There are 30 of us in this exchange. We are each sending 2 10" squares, one dark and one light, that coordinate. It is SO very much fun. I have 12 so far. I am making them in to half square triangles as they come in. I have 12 so far. I'm a bit undecided about what pattern to use for this wonderful variety of fabrics for a "scrappy" quilt. I'm thinking about just plain diagonal stripes.

I think that would give me a good opportunity to try some machine quilting on a quilt larger than baby size--perhaps stitch in the ditch on the diagonal seams and then meandering curves between those lines. I've already purchased my quilter's gloves, so I'm ready to go.

In the meantime, my Buckeye Beauty quilt is at the quilters and I'll be spending the weekend with my 2 daughters and their families. See you after I have my heart's full of family joy--time with my 2 girls and 7 of the grandchildren.

Just a quick hi

Just thought I'd drop you all a little note this weekend and show you the completed sweater for little Eli that will go in the mail next week for his 3rd birthday on Saturday. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.



I'm still working on my other knitted baby blanket and have started a simple quilt to go with it.

My Buckeye Beauty quilt was dropped off with the long arm quilter today and I'm looking forward to sharing a photo that completed project when I get it back.

A STITCH/BLOCK AT A TIME

I seem to be knitting and quilting up a storm lately, but taking forever to get either of my projects finished. Perhaps that's because this is the largest quilt I've tackled so far--it will be for a queen bed. (These blocks aren't sewn together yet, just laid out to check size on the bed.)
It's Buckeye Beauty.

But I also got "way-laid" on a couple other projects. Glad to be back to this one. I have 5 more blocks to assemble, using half square triangles that have the "busy" print fabric pieced. (As busy as that fabric is, though, the piecing is not even noticeable.) I'm going to the quilt shop today to see about finding a long arm quilter for this one. Once I'm a little more experienced, I'll do more of my own quilting, but not on this size project quite yet!

As for knitting--well, I labored over a decision when I ran out of yarn: do I use the same yarn with an off dye lot, or do I add a "design dimension" with contrasting yarn? I went for the contrast.

I promise to show you the end result in a couple days. All it needs is the final assembly and zipper now.

I've also been in a crazy reorganization mood, from clearing off book shelves and cabinets, to finally organizing all my magazine recipes in folders. (I started throwing out magazines --recycle, of course--once I have clipped what I want from them.) From that organization project, I came up with this idea: Right now I am in the midst of a fabric exchange with internet friends. I wanted a way to remember who sent which fabric, so I snip a piece off the corner of each piece sent. (Yes, I loose a little fabric that way, but to me the memory of my friends is equally as important as the fabric.) I put the little piece of fabric in a photo album adjacent to the giver's name and address.

As in this case, I also add any stationery (sometimes it's stamps) that is quilt oriented. I'm really happy that I decided to do this.

I'm also working on another simple baby blanket and there will be a quilt to go with it--more on that later. So, you see, I haven't been ignoring you, I've just been busy.

HERE SHE IS !

Well, since sweet little baby Grace is still in the bassinet close to mom at night, she isn't in her room quite yet to check out all the bright colors of the bumper pad, bed skirt, rag quilt and pillows that Nani made--or for that matter the window valences, picture mats, and pillows that her mom made. Very soon, though, I'm guessing.





In the meantime, though, she does get to snuggle just a bit with the blankie that Nani knit for her.



Now tell me, was that a subtle enough way to get to show off this precious little girl?