Completed D9P Baby Quilt

I sewed on the binding on the back of the quilt again because I like the finished look of stitching it down on the front...

....and no quilt is truly finish unless it's washed and crinkly soft!

I love checking things off my "to do" list....

Quilting the Baby D9P

I got the layers sandwiched and pinned...

...then it was off to start the quilting!   I decided on my loopy quilting but this time... 

...instead of quilting the loops in straight lines across the quilt, I tried meandering with the loops.  That was quite a challenge but I made it up as I went along...  

I have lots of room for improvement but I'm getting there...

...photo looks dark because I was trying to get shadows to show up the quilting.

Marathon Sewing

With a 3-day weekend, the drive to finish up the baby quilt is strong within me.   I had the top assembled yesterday morning...

...and pieced the backing in the afternoon.

I only had so much of the green solid and needed to save some for binding, so I used the leftover blocks and two strips of the leaf fabrics.    This is the Year of the Stash!

Big Blocks

Big block quilts have their place... particularly when you need a baby quilt quickly.  Last spring, one coworker announced the pending arrival of a new addition to her family and, when everyone started back to work in August, I found out that coworker #2 is expecting in December.

Hmmm...  the joint baby shower is next Tuesday.  I made coworker #1 a baby quilt during the summer. 

I don't think a gift certificate for diapers is going to cut it for coworker #2... do you?

During our shop hop last Saturday, I found some Amy Butler 1/2 yd cuts on the bargain table and picked up one of each for the baby quilt.

Cut out and sewed the big blocks one afternoon... then quilted and bound (by machine) the next afternoon!

Now I just need to wrap the quilts up and I'll be ready to go!   Gotta love those big block quilts...

Down on the Farm

When my son was a kid, he hated anything and everything that had to do with gardening.  So it's ironic that he is now gardening in his backyard in raised beds.... has even called me for advice.

I liked his raised beds and so my son and his family gave me a 4'x4' raised bed thing for Mothers Day and brought it up this weekend and put it together.

The kit (purchased on sale at Lowe's home improvement emporium) required wood glue, which isn't something I typically keep around...so we made a run to Lowe's for that... and I picked up some veggies...  German Johnson tomatoes, some marigolds to plant around the tomatoes, some basil... and two kinds of cucumbers... burpless and pickling.  As my son was planting the cukes, he commented that one of them said crookneck squash.   

Hmmm... either the pot was in the wrong tray, mislabed, or some clown moved the markers for a laugh.  We did study the leaves but couldn't decide at this stage what type plant it belonged to.  So I have to wait and see what I actually got.... not a problem because I like squash if that what it is.

My son also got the boys to plant some cucumber seeds in an egg carton for later in the summer when the first bunch stop producing.  Gussie the Wonder Dog watched from the deck and as she patrolled the backyard.

My daughter and SIL brought their girls over after church so the cousins could visit. 

The girls were excited when they saw the raised bed out the dining room window....

After lunch, my SIL took the boys and Emma to play disk golf but Chloe was a bit under the weather (recovering from strep, poor dear)... so she stayed with me.  I let her pick out fabrics from my scrap bins and we made Snowy the Owl a quilt of her very own!

It was the first time a grandchild stood by me while I sewed... 

I did get an outdoor photo of the HST quilt...  but I guess I'm either not a good photographer or have no "eye" for taking photos of quilts... but here's the finished quilt anyhoo.

Quite a productive weekend...

Baby Quilt Challenge

Last fall, I had been reading on quilting blogs about “shopping your stash” instead of running out to buy more fabric for a new project. So, when my daughter’s best friend had a little boy in mid-November 2010, I challenged myself to dig into my stash and scrap bins and make a quilt for baby Alex!

A recent fascination with Irish Chain made the pattern choice easy. But, as fast as my scrap bins are filling, they are still limited… so selecting coordinating colors was difficult, especially since I wanted to stay with bright, crayon colors. It was an interesting process of trying out different scraps together.

I’m pleased that I was able to make this baby quilt with no purchases whatsoever… I even used two pieces of batting that I zigzagged together.  Because I was using scraps, some of the animal faces, tractors, fire engines, etc. got cut off but I think they're cute... I especially like the monkey tail on one of the squares... and the giraffe, peeking through the "window" square.   

I worried about what to use for the back until I remembered remnants of a duvet cover I had made for one of my grandsons. I did the quilting myself since it was a small quilt… it’s not perfect but then, neither am I.

I got to hold baby Alex yesterday afternoon at my granddaughter’s birthday party… he is so sweet! Love the chubby little cheeks….