Stunning News

Here we have my two granddaughters with one of their uncles. You may be able to tell that this was taken very recently. ;- ) Miss M is now four and a half years old and her little sister is just over two.

Their mother, my Darling Daughter, has been suffering through the worst pregnancy she's ever had. We've been thinking the source of her difficulties must be the boy they've been hoping to add to their family.

Tuesday she had her first ultrasound. It's not a boy. It's twin girls. TWINS!! My tiny little bird-boned daughter is trying to carry twins! Eeek!

Needless to say, there's been a flurry of phone calls and emails and a mad scramble to come up with a whole new set of potential names (not that there's any real hurry in that department). They were pretty well settled on a boy's name. DD claimed they were all out of ideas for another girl's name anyway. (You know how it is, having to find names both parents can agree on.) Inbetween researching baby girl names on the internet I've been visiting online fabric retailers. Went a little nuts to be honest. One order has already arrived - turns out that vendor is not far from where we live. Some of what I ordered was intended for preemie quilts - for other people's premature babies - because I have nicely depleted my inventory of flannels for that purpose. Now I will have to make preemie quilts for my own daughter's babies. There's no way her petite little frame will carry two babies to term. I understand twins typically come about 6 weeks early anyway. Yikes!

To further complicate matters, DD and SonInLaw are trying to buy their first house and SIL is scheduled to leave on a 6 month deployment in mid-November. He will not be around for the birth; he'll be somewhere on the other side of the world. Hoo boy.

Before my world was turned upside down by all this news I did manage to get my flannel Lincoln Logs quilt sandwiched and pin basted.

I even slept under it last night, with the batting hanging out all around the edges and everything. What I need to do now is figure out what color and type of thread to tie it with so I can get that finished up for good. And then there's the quilt for little sister's big girl bed and receiving blankets to make and, and, and...

Are We There Yet?

First off, the Iraqi Bundles of Love project is coming to a close. You should take a moment to go read IBOL Guy's current post. It will make you feel good.

Second, I want to congratulate Renee S. who is the lucky winner of my Pink Artist needlebook. (I'm going to do my best to get it into the mail to her sometime this week.) And, woohoo, I won a print from Alma Stoller!

Now, back to the back for my Lincoln Logs flannel quilt. You may remember that I'd put a light plaid on all four sides but didn't like the way it looked. I took off two of those strips and cut the remaining two down to half their original size. The next thing I did was to add the dark blue floral you see here on the two sides. That was another piece of fabric I've been hanging onto for years in the hopes of including it in a quilt for myself someday.

Today I added what I thought would be the final strips/borders. This red plaid went on all four sides. But when I measured it against the top it was too short in both width and length. I was disappointed, but not terribly surprised because my measuring has been less than precise.

I only lacked half an inch in one direction. Since there was plenty of the plaid left I simply took off one of the borders and replaced it with a slightly wider one. On the two sides, however, I put in a little more effort. I cut two 2.5" strips (which had to be pieced to get the necessary length of course) and added them to each side. Now I get this cool vertical stripe effect every once in a while along those two sides.

My hope is to be able to take the top, the back, batting and some pins to a local VFW hall tomorrow to get the layers sandwiched. Originally I had planned to have this machine quilted, maybe in a clamshell or Baptist fan type pattern. Now I think I'd rather have it tied. It seems more appropriate somehow. And I can do it inbetween making blocks for DGD's quilt. ;- )

Borders On, Borders Off

Just because I found fabric for the background of the blocks for DGD's quilt doesn't mean that's the quilt I'm working on. ;- )

No, instead I've pulled out my Lincoln Logs friendship top and have been working on that.

It could be that I was inspired by the season or the weather - it's cooler and wetter now - because this is a flannel quilt top. (I last worked on it almost exactly two years ago.) At any rate, I thought I wanted it bigger so I added borders to all four sides.


Then yesterday I started building the back. I've had this flannel print in my stash for many years and have been looking forward to using it in a special quilt. Those buildings are outhouses. {grin!}


I left the outhouse yardage whole and just added strips of other flannels around it. For the photo below I folded the big piece back on itself; it's not really this long and skinny.

I also added another strip of a light plaid all the way around before I quit working yesterday. I wasn't completely happy with it though.

This morning I decided that the borders I'd put on the top weren't working. I took them off. After trying the quilt top on the bed in various directions I decided to just add borders to two of the sides, thus making the top nearly square. I used different fabrics this time and I like it much better.


When I had that done I reluctantly came to the conclusion that the last round of strips I'd added to the back would also have to come off. {sigh} I removed the top and bottom strips but then decided to just cut the side strips down to half their original width.

This still needs to be a bit bigger in both width and length. I have a plan in mind...

Stay tuned to see what happens!

Flitting About

It's been an eventful week so far. At least it seems so to me, whose life is not what one would call eventful most of the time.

Monday I went out to look again for background fabric for DGD's quilt, not realizing that it was Columbus Day. I couldn't figure out why in the world there was so much traffic! And the store I went to was busy and smelled strongly of perfume. Not a good thing. But I did find this print I think will work. I bought enough so that I can use it exclusively if I so choose.


Yesterday I went out again, this time to deliver the preemie quilts I've been making. Oh, and I made one more on Monday:


It's a good thing I made as many as I did because apparently some of the ladies didn't follow instructions and donated quilts that can't be used. Too bad.

Today I have to go out again (!) to replenish my vitamins and supplements. Might as well pick up some actual food while I'm at it.

My SIL sent me a surprise package that arrived over the weekend:

Fun halloween prints! There was a skull and cross-bones charm too, I just didn't get it into the picture. It's all I can do to keep myself from making a Halloween preemie quilt. (Do you think that would be inappropriate? ;- ))

Tomorrow is the last day to get your name in the hat for the Pink Artists Prize Wheel. Every $10 you donate will give you two chances to win one of the original works of art and goes to support the Susan G. Komen search for the cure for breast cancer.

Be Bold - go donate!

New Homes for Orphans

Orphan blocks that is!

I got the word earlier in the week that preemie quilts would be collected at the next guild meeting. I'd set a personal goal of making and donating at least 12 quilts for premature babies this year. At the end of September I was right on track with nine blankets completed and six of those already donated. So I got out my bags of scrappy blocks and started playing around.


All of these quilts were made from the six inch Shoo Fly, Bow Tie, and Churn Dash blocks I was making a few months ago from my older yardage and scraps. I began by separating the Shoo Fly blocks into piles according to their background values: dark, medium, or light. I knew a strippy set would be fairly easy to pull together quickly and here it is:

It's a little dark, and not at all "sweet," but hopefully someone will be glad to have it. The next one definitely has a more juvenile feel to it, primarily due to the Precious Moments critters I fussy-cut from the large striped print.

I'd had my fill of the Shoo Fly block at this point and got out the Bow Ties for the next effort. Proportionally they seem a little big for such a small quilt top but we're not out to win ribbons here. I really like them set in rings this way. The borders at the top and bottom were added to achieve the necessary length while keeping the top visually balanced.

Finally I got out the Churn Dash blocks to see what I could do with them. This top may have taken the most time to create. I had a hard time finding a subset of blocks that would play well together. I still wasn't convinced until I found this rose print in my stash. Somehow it seems to make the whole thing work.

The quilting that holds the pieced tops to the flannel backs is very simple in all of these quilts. You should be able to click on the pictures to get larger images; you might even be able to see the quilting lines. It's all straight lines that didn't require marking. On the strippy quilt I stitched a giant zig-zag pattern down the narrow lattice strips between the columns of blocks. All the quilts have a double row of topstitching around the perimeters in place of binding.

I have time to make a couple more of these little quilts - the meeting isn't until Tuesday - but I'm not sure I will make any more right now. There are other projects tugging at the edges of my mind. I'm just delighted to be sewing again.