Spring Break at Gma's House

This year all 4 of my grandkiddies were on Spring Break at the same time – that’s never happened before.  I’ll usually have a set of kiddies for a few days one week, then the other set the next week.   Instead of having them over separately, I thought it would be a grand idea to have them all over at the same time.  How hard could it be?  I’ve raised 3 kids – I know kid business like the back of my hand, one extra kiddie wouldn’t be so bad….right?  What I failed to factor in……my age... I’m older now, and by the time 4 kids ran me wild, I was down and out by 7pm!  The only night I could get them into bed at a decent time was the day of our Mall Adventure.  We rode the Carousal and had lunch at the food court – you can’t imagine how excited 4 kids get at the notion of eating at a food court.  By the time I forced encouraged the kiddies to walk all 3 floors at the Mall, they were begging me to leave.   Oh sure, I may have been tricked into buying things I normally wouldn’t have, but I slid into bed by 9:30 that night!

We had a blast during our 4 day visit, we painted bird houses, played games and my oldest Grand sewed some! 

Showed Amber how to make half square triangles - on foundation.

 

If she's going to whip out multiple h/s triangles, then speed piecing is a must!

 

Amber decided to make a throw pillow for her bed

Beautiful!!

 

She's on a roll! 

Once her pillow was finished, she wanted to make a little bag for her school locker

 

So proud of you Amber!!

 

Trying to wear down the rest of the gang......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Quicky!

A while back I cleaned my sewing room (or quilt studio as some call it, although I feel silly saying it, as my sewing/quilting wouldn't be considered "studio" status!) anywho, I ran across a baggie full of half square triangles.  I figured one of these days I'd do something with them.  But, lately I've been working on my New Dresden Plate wallhanging. I've gotten the blocks set and now I'm working on the zillions of leaves to applique on the stems.  The pattern directions indicate I should "needle turn" applique the leaves.....after applying one leaf, it was clear I'm needle turned challenged (to say the least) and I need to find a different way of getting them on the quilt.  Thinking back, I wish I had taken a pic before ripping it out - but why publish my lack of skill!  I've got enough to be embarrassed about.   In my frustration, I decided to set it aside and work on something else.  I turned to my baggie of half square triangles, they're simple, I knew they'd cooperate and wouldn't deal me fits.  A little squaring up and they were good to go.  I whipped together a little wallhanging or place mat....I haven't decided which it should be yet. 

Another project?  Maybe so, I only used about a third of the half square triangles for the little wallhanging.

Gettin' my Hexy on.....

From the way I jumped up and down, you would have thought I was a 10 yr kid when they closed campus for another 2 snow days! They had just plowed 10+ inches off the parking lots, only to be hit again with another 10+ inches of more snow.  I placed an order for more 3/8 inch Paper Pieces right before the first dump of snow, and thankfully received in the mail before the 2nd Snowmageddon dump.  I was set.....

 

Not able to find a ruler, I used one of my quilting rulers to measure the snow.  A little over 10 inches.

 

 

Thought I would get the larger stars finished first....

 

 

These are just the cutest things, I can hardly wait to get this wallhanging finished.

 

 

 

Snow day means a sew day!

Oh yeah!  The snow (and I mean lots of it) couldn't have arrived at a better time.  A much needed mental reprive from my daytime gig was in order.  Not that I don't loooove my job, but I was really in the mood to sew.  And sew is exactly what I did on my 2 snow days off from work. 

 

First, I worked on a pattern from the most current Primitive Quilts and Projects , that is, until I ran out of 3/8 inch Hexagons.

 

Then, I pieced together the New Dresden Plate quilt and began the appliqued vines.  I still have to make about 150 leaves to attach to the vines......hmm, we're due more snow tonight....could there be another snow day in my future? 

In total, we received about 10 inches of snow in one day.

 

View from the kitchen

While the Hubs makes it sound like hard work doing the

snow removal, I think he enjoys it.

Gettin' close......

 Carol Doak has just posted the final mystery BOM.   April is the actuall finally, and she’ll reveal the layout of the mystery blocks.  While I haven’t started on my March block yet, I’ve arranged and rearranged my blocks into several possibilities.   Carol requested everyone try to guess the final layout and post a pic to the yahoo group.  Thinking I had a pretty good guess I submitted my fav, only to find out ol’Tina here didn’t have the correct layout.  Hmm, Would she have told me if it was correct?  I think not….then the mystery would be over!

February's block is actually 4 - 6 1/2" separate blocks

 

 

 

My final guess - without the March block

The Dresden Dish

Like I wasn’t busy enough with my BOM’s, I started a Dresden Plate quilt/wall hanging.  It’s a “shop” pattern made by Rita at the Quilter’s Station.  My friend Sue and her sister Cheri started the quilt using the same (or similar) fabrics as the shop, but I wanted something a little brighter.  Actually my fabric choice made little sense, as the “shop” colors would fit into the main decor of our house, but I’d like to put this wall hanging in a spare bedroom.   

The 36 - 6 1/2 inch blocks are now complete - the light green is the background fabric and the different greens will be the leaves on the appliqued vine, which is placed throughout the quilt.

 

While cleaning the sewing room (which should happen far more than it does -who knows what other treasures I might find!), I found this Lisa Bongean pattern buried under some fabric.  It was too cute and tempting to wait until I had finish numerous other projects, so I whipped it together this past week.  Instead of making it a pin cushion (as the pattern suggests), I added an additional flower sprig on the right side of the basket and plan to frame to hang on the wall.   

 

 

 

 

G'night, sleep tight....don't let the bed bugs bite!

It goes without saying, Miss Shelly needed a bed for her Christmas American Girl doll!  But grandma (me) couldn’t afford a “real” AG bed.  Sharing this dilemma with my friend Sue, she told me about a group of Iowa ladies who were making doll beds out of plastic totes.   I wasn’t familiar with these beds, but with Google Image at my fingertips, I was able to find several pictures of “tote” beds.  What a great idea!  When Shelly and her doll go visiting, she can pack up her bedding and accessories in the tote.  Not finding a pattern, I figured I could come up with my own version, especially since everyone isn’t using the same size tote. 

 

A sheet set too!

Fitted sheet pulled back to show thin mattress

Top of plastic tote

Skirt is removable from tote

Instead of using elastic at the top of the skirt, I used velcro. I thought the elastic would slip down easily

I also numbered the velco tabs on the skirt and tote so

Shelly could assemble on her own

Finished bed!