New Grandbaby To Be

Well, it's official! Today was the day of the 20 week ultrasound and the sex of our new grandbaby is.......female! I'm thrilled - now Bridgette will get to have a best friend for the rest of her life! Sean says that, since his house is being overrun with girls, Patrick will have to live with them the rest of his life.

Now I can start thinking about a baby quilt. I found a cute pattern today that has Cuddle bowties on it - it's in a book that I bought. And I've thought of another quilt that was inspired by a quilt in a magazine. It has applique flowers on it in three rows, but I thought maybe putting one row of flowers and a second row of sky, sun, birds, etc. would be cute. We'll see.

Beth, at Tiny Stitches, made the cutest door mats for her daughter and her daughter's roommate. Her daughter, Jessica, is getting a big heart with her name and lots of smaller hearts on it. Her roommate, who is an artist, is getting a paint palette, with a paintbrush thru the opening and pots of paint (and, of course, her name on the palette. Both of them are adorable.

Well, I had dinner with Bridgette tonight - and now I'm home alone. Gene is somewhere in a meeting. So, since I'm alone, I think I'll get busy cutting the fabric for the big squares on Patrick's quilt.

Oh, the best thing of all - Daniel is home. He and Ashley, Patrick, Kristen, Sean, and Bridgette all came over last night to celebrate Gene's birthday. It was so good to see him and know that he's home.

Time to go and change clothes and cut!

Progress on Patrick's Quilt

I haven't made much progress on Patrick's quilt in the last month or so - I've been making shopping bags, place mats, etc. But now, I'm ready to get going again. I printed the templates for the larger squares, since I've completed the 144 4-inch squares that make up the center of the quilt. I think I need about 106 8-inch squares for the outside of the quilt. And tomorrow, I'm going to start cutting fabric for those larger squares.

I really would like to have this ready for Patrick for Christmas - but who knows. Maybe I can sign up for Quilt 'Til You Wilt one of these weeks and just work on these blocks.

Poor Patrick - I haven't finished his Christmas Stocking, either - and I've been working on that for about 15 years (well, I started it 15 years ago - I haven't really been working on it for that long!) I did, however, finish the counted cross-stitch picture of Pinocchio. I saw it the other day when Gene was cleaning off his bookshelves, so I took it and hung it in my quilt room. Makes me happy.

Upcoming Quilt Show Entries

I have never been brave enough to enter any of my quilt into a show - until last week. I entered 4 quilts into the Chattahoochee Evening Stars Quilt Show. Here are pictures and descriptions of these quilts.


This quilt is named Autumn Poppies. I made it in an international quilt mystery series of classes. That month, the country was Turkey. The pattern name was Poppy Fields. Since I made it in autumn colors (orange, brown, and tan), I named the quilt Autumn Poppies. After I entered it, I took a closer look at it, and decided that, even for me the piecing isn't very good, so I withdrew it from the show. So much for good intentions.






The next quilt I named Dreaming of Sunflowers. It was the first quilt I made using paper piecing. I took a class, taught by Barbara Dole, who helped us interpret the directions. I still wish I had made all the centers black, but I didn't. I really like this quilt.










This next quilt is actually larger than the sunflower quilt. I made this for Daniel, who wanted a patriotic quilt. I called this quilt Back in the USA 2009, since I finished it in time for his return from his second tour of duty in Iraq. The pattern is called Carrie Nation, which I thought was appropriate, since soldiers in Iraq are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages.





This last quilt was made in a class with a pattern called Magical Slice and Dice. It's hard to tell, because I used a bad fabric between the squares, but all of the blocks are on-point. The interesting thing about this pattern is that you make all the squares (they're kaleidoscope squares), sew them in a straight set, then make two strategic cuts, sew the pieces together in a different order and, voila, your quilt is on-point. The border fabric is the fabric that all the kaleidoscope blocks are made from. I named this quilt Bustopher Jones' Family - obviously after the famous character in the musical Cats, which Gene and I saw in London. And the musical was based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by TS Eliot (one of my favorite poets.) The poem begins:

Bustopher Jones is not skin and bones--
In fact, he's remarkably fat.
He doesn't haunt pubs--he has eight or nine clubs,
For he's the St. James's Street Cat!

Christmas in July

Last week was Christmas in July at Tiny Stitches. The store looked so beautiful with all the new holiday projects and quilts. I made a blue table runner for the event, but didn't take a picture of it. Next time I'm at the shop, I'll take a picture and post it.

This week, I've been working on a doll rag quilt for Bridgette and a matching one for the princess herself. I don't have quite enough flannel to make it large enough, so I bought a couple of fat quarters last night. If it's not enough, I'll just buy more. Here's a picture of the doll quilt.

I'm also working on some star squares for my quilt guild. Like a fool, I chose one that's harder than I want to do - but, as usual, I'm doing it regardless! I also made several tote bags to be sold at the quilt show.