Baby Quilts

It seems that my quilting life lately has been spent on baby quilts. And the first ones are getting ready to fly out of my house.

The first one I have posted before but will show again in celebration of Lilliene Jade's arrival on Monday August 30th.



Congratulations to Jamie and Adrienne.

Today two more will leave. Baby has not arrived but the baby shower has.

The finished one:



And the top only:



I'll let the mom open it and then take it back with promises to have it quilted before baby's arrival in late November (should give me time to finish it. lol).

One more completed to show off now. This is for a young man I work with. He will become the father of twin girls before too much longer. This first one is finished - I have the second top done and just need to get it quilted.



Thunder would like to say his hello also before I leave:



It amazes me what this dog considers comfortable. lol.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

100 Posts!!

Woo Hoo! I have finally made it to 100 posts. Never thought it would happen. lol.

And I was beginning to think I'd never get anything done to post about. lol. The job has really kept me tired. I'm getting more hours which results in less time and energy to quilt. But we have to have a place to live and food to eat right?

There were a few accomplishments however. The first is the backing to the baby quilt I posted last time. I had forgotten to take pictures but here it is now.



This is the wallhanging for the bathroom. I did a bit of embellishment with sead beads. I love the look of beads on a quilt.



Another baby quilt finished. I have so many to make this year that I've just been working on them without any specific baby in mind. Except for this one. This one is for a young man I work with. Jamie and his girlfriend Adrienne will be blessed with a girl in about two months. I knew when I started this one it would be for Jamie's little girl.



And this final one was also made with a specific baby in mind - although I'm not revealing which one.



Now a return of Thunder. He's been absent for a while simply because I didn't have any new pictures of him but we had a bit of a cook-in for the 4th of July and I caught him begging for rib bones.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Finally!!

Yes I finally finished something. And not just one something but two somethings.

At last count I think I'm up to needing quilts for eight babies. I have a number of tops finished and actually got two of them quilted this past week.

I have to say right off the top I couldn't have done these quilts without my dear friend Julie. When I said I needed half a dozen or so baby quilts she sent me a HUGE box of fabrics. Thanks Julie! Here is the first one I finished:



And this is the second. This quilt is soooo not me. I'm not big on bright colors but I have to say that as I was making this one I kept wondering if I had enough fabric that I could make it bigger and keep it for myself.



I completely forgot to take a picture of the back - I pieced it too. I guess that'll be for next time.

Two down, six more to go.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

A Charming Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

I did manage to do a bit of sewing today. The first thing I did was the president's block for my guild's outgoing president - and none too soon. I have to take it to the meeting tomorrow night - nothing like waiting until the last minute. lol. We were supposed to use a bright citrusy fabric so this is what I came up with:



The kit they handed out included some Thangles. I'm probably the last quilter on the face of the earth to use Thangles. They are wonderful! I'm sure I'm going to be using these again.

I almost finished my diningroom wallhanging. I still need to put a hanging sleeve on it.



Mother's Day is a hard holiday for me. My mom has been gone almost ten years. I can manage her birthday, Christmas and all the other holidays okay but Mother's Day frequently finds me falling apart. Mom was not big on jewelry. She mainly wore her wedding ring and that was all. For special occasions she had a charm bracelet. I have a charm necklace. Each charm represents something in my life. It's getting rather heavy so I don't wear it too often but I love it dearly. I can take it out and look at the charms and remember special times and special people.



These charms will be added today.

Last year we went to National Zoo in DC. One of the things we all were thrilled to see was an orangutan that was loose in the zoo. It played on the wires above the trees. It was such a lot of fun to watch.



Years and years ago Rodger and I used to play cards every weekend. We started here in PA with our best friends and my in-laws - Spades, May I and Pinochle were the favored games. We continued when we moved to NY where we mostly played Spades although we threw in some games of May I now and then.



And this one is a birthstone ring.



All in all - it's been a good day.

Hugs and stitches. Jody

A Trunk Show and A Quilt Show

Unfortunately most of the quilting in my life lately has been limited to looking at someone else's quilts. But beautiful quilts they were.

First was the trunk show. My quilt guild hosted Sue Paul. I can't remember laughing so hard in a long time. The quilts were beautiful and Sue has a wonderful sense of humor. She specializes in scrap quilts. I am not a scrap quilt lover. But she does a lot of what I call controlled scrappy - fabrics within a color family or a limited amount of different fabrics. I loved many of the quilts she brought. And I took lots of pictures. Too many to post here but here are a couple of my favorites:




The rest of the pictures I took can be seen on my webshots account by clicking here

This was a great week for my quilt guild. First the trunk show and then this weekend was our bi-annual quilt show. We had well over 200 quilts entered in the show and there were some really lovely quilts. Again, too many to show here but this was my pick for Viewer's Choice in the wallhanging category:



And my pick for Viewer's Choice in the full-size category:



The remainder of the pictures I took can be found here

I've been advised that I will need more baby quilts. I think now we have one in August, one in September (which I have learned will be a girl), two in October and two in November. I have two tops done so I'm well on the way.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

National Quilt Day

has come and gone. And I didn't get much of anything quilty done. sigh. I did get lots accomplished otherwise but not much quilting.

I did finish one block for a BOM. This one is pieced and appliqued and there is a good bit of work to it so I am fortunate to have had enough time to finish it:



Not done on NQD but still a recent finish is a new spring tote bag:



I've been working on baby quilts. I've decided to work with the Downy Touch of Comfort quilt project and have the first top finished and ready to quilt. A number of people I work with are expecting babies. We'll be blessed with one in September, two in October and one in November if all goes according to schedule - so I have quite a few quilts to be working on.

So until next time, hugs and stitches, Jody

Quilting Changes

take some getting used to. As I mentioned earlier, this year I'm scaling back on my projects. I'm working more hours so I have less time and I'm ready to start working on some bigger projects, which require more time to complete. I'm loving the projects I'm working on - but sometimes I do feel like it's been so long since I've completed something I really just want to hold up something and say "finished!".

So here it is: lol.



I had this table runner done except for the binding last fall. So I did up the binding and now I have one more item in the finished column. lol.

Work continues on my BOMs. Here's the third block I've done in the Pushin' Up Spring BOM.



I have a rare treat - two and a half days off work in a row - over National Quilt Day no less! So I'm going to do my best to squeeze as much quilting as I can into that time while still keeping my house from looking like who did it and ran.

Hopefully there will be lots of pictures of progress even if nothing gets finished.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody