I'M A HAPPY CAMPER !

Ah, I just couldn't wait! I had to put the quilt top on the bed, just to see how it will look when it's finished. Not to mention, I had to figure out just how wide to make my sashing.

I gotta say: I love it! And so does my husband. We will be using it before the quilting is completed. Since it's so large (king), there is no way I can machine quilt it on my sewing machine. So I'm planning to baste it well, sew SITD on the sashing seams, go ahead and put the binding on, leave the basting in place, and USE IT. Then I'll hand quilt the blocks by hand when the mood strikes. (That will be quite often as I always do some sort of hand work in the evening when I watch TV.)

My daughter helped me choose a great backing fabric when I was visiting her in Nashville over the weekend. We managed to hit a great sale at Textile Fabrics--which was nice since I needed 9 yards.

You can barely see the binding fabric between the backing fabric and my blocks.

Oh, and hand work in the evening: This sweater for my grandson is taking turns with the quilt embroidery. (for the quilt that is currently on our bed).

I should have this sweater done in plenty of time before his March birthday!

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD . . .

. . . er, sewing machine that is.

I've finally gotten back to the "Block of the Month" quilt from last year. I've had the blocks assembled for quite some time, but just hadn't gotten around to assembling them.

So this is some of that work:

The two blocks at the sewing machine are the ones that go in the empty spots here:

Ah, and before I started back at the sewing machine, I DID do a bit or organizing.

Oh, and the quilt that I made in 2008 that I'm still embroidering:

These are a couple of the blocks that were the easiest to embroider in a way to mimic the fabric.

And yes, I do have a sweater on my knitting needles, but it's for a birthday that isn't until March, so I've got lots of time--hopefully both of these quilts will be done before I have to worry about that time crunch!

STITCHES, STITCHES

I've been playing around with all kinds of stitches lately. With the help of the Quilter's Embroidery Bible, I'm adding embroidery to the rather solid color squares of this quilt. (It was a "light/dark" exchange with some of my on-line quilting friends.) I machine embroidered the initials of the sender in each block. I used stitch in the ditch machine stitching on the seam between the blocks and the sashing. I hand quilted diagonal lines through the blocks. So I have hand and machine quilting, and hand and machine embroidery all wrapped up in to one quilt. I guess you could call it a sampler quilt of sorts. Within each block I am trying to somewhat mimic the other fabrics in the block, using only a subtle color difference from the fabric I am embroidering.

Funny thing is, we are using this quilt this winter. I just pull it off the bed in the evening to work on it, then put it back before I go to bed.

I'm using back stitching and French knots on the sashing;

This is some of the "feathered chain" that is a new stitch for me.

And when the embroidery stitching gets to tiresome, there's always the knit stitches to fall back on.

These are for my older daughter.

And this for our youngest granddaughter for her second birthday next month.

Next up: a sweater for her almost 5 year old brother, and in a few days, back to my day time sewing and the assembly of my block of the month quilt.

CLUTTER BUSTIN'

Whew, it wasn't easy, but I was able to put together a few baby and child quilts from pajama (and other) leftovers of the past few years. Most of them I could even find appropriate backings in my stash.

A few, however, I did buy some fleece and flannel for the backings:

And now that I'm on my way to ridding my cupboards of fabric, I though it was about time to do the same thing with my drawers full of yarn. This is the first of the yarn stash reducing projects.

Hmmmmm, what will be next?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I am not one of those people who gets overly sentimental about the ending of one year and the beginning of another. Suffice it to say that my 2009 was filled with blessings far beyond any expectations I might have had.

I begin the new year with the hope that in some small way I might be able to give blessings to others. OK, that's enough sentimentality for me!

A couple weeks ago, I shared a photo of the jammies that were going to the NY grandchildren. I think those PJs look MUCH better with the children in them, don't you?

And yes, I did get the socks for one daughter made before we went to Nashville to deliver a bit of Christmas cheer.

One of my favorite Santas is encouraging me to finish this second sock for my other daughter. We will see her in a couple weeks, so I have plenty of time to sew that toe. (Actually I'll do that today.)

Ah, and I got a little carried away buying sock yarn at one of my local yarn shops. But who can resist a 60% off sale!

But before I start on more socks, this yarn will be getting whipped up in to a sweater for little Grace's (far left in the NY children photo above) 2/21 birthday.

I'm going to start that in just a little bit as I watch the Rose Bowl parade.

Well, now that will be a little bit of sentimentality, too, I guess. I'm not particularly interested in the Rose Bowl (parade or ball game). However, I will be watching both. My mother never missed the parade as she was cooking for our New Years Day gathering of friends. So it just seems like something I should be doing--ooohing and aaahing at all the flower covered floats.

And as for the game. Well, I heard last night that this is the first time since 1997 that Ohio State has been in the Rose Bowl game. As an Ohio State vet school graduate, my father rarely missed watching an OSU game. I'm sure he was watching that '97 game, just a year before he passed away. I'll watch it for you this afternoon, Daddy, and cheer Ohio State on, just for you.