Laying out the Blooming Nine-Patch Quilt

I brought all the prepared nine patches and squares to lay out my Blooming Nine-Patch.   I love that we have a king size bed at the condo so that I can lay it all out, but I even ran out of room when I got to the outter layers.   

This quilt starts out by laying out the three center squares followed by nine patches and squares.  The colors bloom out.  While I do not like the colors I chose, I love how this pattern goes together and it radiates out from the center.     

   

 Adding more rows..  I like it so far....

Adding more rows.....  eekkk... don't like that orange   

All blocks are laid out...I'm wondering what was I thinking when I bought these fabrics.. ... I can see this will probably be a cottage quilt..wink wink..

All the rows are stacked up and numbered ready to sew in the right order.

Tomorrow I sew..

Settling in at the Beach

Well, we're pretty much settled in at the beach.  We have a bunch of groceries, and we're getting back into a routine.  I love our skype calls with the kids after supper.  Grace and Caitlin and the kitty gave us a call after supper, and we played a little typing game and got caught up on all the weather and news around Freddy.

This evening I continued to stitch on my final Winter Wonderland block.  I don't find the evening light very good for fine stitching here at the condo, so I think I'll leave this stitching for the lazy afternoons on the deck.  

It's been  a week since I sat at the sewing machine.  I'm feeling rusty..teehee....  Tomorrow I plan to set up the sewing machine and do an "Iny Meeny Miny Mo" to decide which of the 4 projects I'll start working on. 

A Posy Wallet for Rose

Every day, we wait for the return of our passports by registered mail.  To keep myself busy, I sew a little project every day.  I've actually gotten lots of work done while we wait.    I've made many of these before, so yesterday I made yet another Posy Wallet from my Nancy Halvorsen Sew Necessities book.   I dropped the little quilters wallet off to my friend, Rose's apartment mailbox today.  I didn't have time to go for a visit because we need to be home as much as possible for our important piece of mail to be delivered.   

Rose called me a short time ago and was thrilled with her unexpected little gift.  She said she's going to take it to quilting at the church on Thursday and make everyone else drool.  tee hee..

The good news is, Canada Post just dropped of our package this afternoon.   So with passports in hand, we'll be heading south soon!!

Winter Wonderland - Update

I haven't updated for a while on my Winter Wonderland project that I started last July.   Recently, I've finished the last of the smaller blocks.   I am working on the final block. It's the header block.  It's the largest block and it's half finished. I'm taking it south with me, and I'll get it done while I'm away.    I'm getting excited now, to finish the block and move on to the next steps of completing the quilt.

While I'm south, I thought I'd also finish up all the blocks that make up the border of the WW quilt.  I have all my fabrics ready.   But I went to look for my pattern, it's missing.  Or should I say, it's put away somewhere, where I can find it... except, .... I can't find it.   

I've looked in all the obvious places without success.  The good news is, is that I've found a few things that I wasn't even looking for, but I'm glad I found... .tee hee...

This weekend, I'll start a systematic search to look in all the non-obvious places to see if I can find it. 

Making Baby Boy gifts

My niece is going to become a grandmother to a new baby boy soon.  (Yep, that's you Shelly)  So making a couple of things for this new baby has been on my "must do before we go away list".

Today, I finished making two small gifts.   One you won't be surprised at.  A Take-along bag to put all the baby necessities for the hospital.    I was thinking of making a list to put in the bag, but really, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea what is required.  I'm sure Mama-to-be will figure something out.

The next on my list was something I looked for a pattern for but couldn't quite find one, so I made this one up.   It's a Bath Towel that ties around Mama's neck so she can pick up baby from the tub and wrap the baby up right away.     When I was bathing the grandkids, I would hold a towel under my neck with my chin and pick up the baby two hands... but it was always awkward. 

With coordinating fabrics to the take-along bag, I made this towel apron.  It is about 30" x 40" inches, with white toweling on one side, and a fuzzy brown soft fabric on the other side.  It's bound with bias binding made out of the same fabric as the take-along bag.   To hang it on a hook in the bathroom, I added a loop. 

PS:  As I write this blog post, and after I finished my towel, I did a search again, and I found where Martha Stewart had a pattern for a very simple bath apron towl. Click here... 

I hope proud parents to be and baby get lots of use out of these gifts. 

Crazy Cats II done - for Rose

My friend, Rose, was thrilled with her Crazy Cats II small quilt top that I sewed up for her from her kit.  I finished it over the weekend and took it over to her today.  I was thrilled that she was so happy with it.    A really nice "feel good" moment for me. 

She's excited to have a small project to work on over the winter.  She was tracing with her finger where she would hand quilt..in the ditch or not....inside the cats or not.  So many decisions for her to think about now...  A nice distraction from her sickness.



And this is just for you Judy!!

Celebrating 4 birthdays today.

It's hard to believe but our dear little triplets turned 10 today.  It's hard to believe they are in double digits.   And little Aurora is 4 years old on Tuesday but we celebrated her birthday today.   The triplets had separate big-kid birthday parties/sleep overs this weekend had had fun cookie cakes and cheese cakes.      So we used Aurora's Birthday as an excuse to have a big get-together for Hot Turkeys and birthday cake. 

Many visitors today including the newest baby in the family, Baby Jack!

Aurora is a little shy, but her other cousins helped to blow out the candle.

The triplets are helping Aurora open her presents.  How fun!

A skating helmet goes perfect with a party dress.  The helmet is a gift from Grammie and Grampie.

Just one of Aurora's fun gifts...  Fun Lip Gloss from the triplets!  She's already an expert at looking in the mirror to apply.

Crazy Cats II

I enjoyed piecing these little cats.  So, the center is done and tomorrow, I'll work on the borders.    I hope to have it done by Saturday.   I'll visit my friend Rose at her new apartment, maybe Sunday afternoon to get her all set up.  

A Crazy for Cats II quilt for my friend Rose

Well, I'm back in my sewing room after my lazy sun vacation in Cuba.  I had anticipated a fuzzy brain when I got back, so I prepared myself a to-do list.   And I'm glad I did.    I walked into my sewing room and stood with a dazed brain.   what am I going to do.......  Then I spotted my to-do list....

One of the things I must get done before we head south to our Snowbird home away from home next month, is to make this cute Debbie Mumm Crazy for Cats II pattern for my friend Rose.    She can't see well enough to sew any more and she really wants a small hand quilting project to work on over the rest of the winter.  So I offered to sew up this kit she's had for a few years.

It's cute...and not such a big job.... I'm doing all the cutting and other prep work today, in anticipation of sewing the 9 cat blocks tomorrow.... Then I'll sew a bit on it each day this week, and I think I'll be done over the weekend...

As I sew, all the projects that I was working on are coming back to my lazy brain.... slowly, and one by one....  The list really helped too.

Blooming 9-patch

Have you ever made a blooming 9 patch quilt?   Cecile G. from our guild led us in a workshop last week with her pointers on making the blooming nine patch.  

I'm having second thoughts about my colors.  I'm not sure what I was thinking!!  

Anyway before leaving for Cuba, I had all the larger squares and side setting triangles cut. Also, the binding done and 4 of the 7 sets of nine-patches are done.    I plan to get the other 3 sets of 9-patches done  the week after we arrive home from Cuba.  Then it'll all get stored in a nice kit, and the assembly of these nine-patches and between squares and setting triangles will be a nice little project for me while we are away in South Carolina next month.

My Wool washing experiement.

Last week I decided to try a different way to knit with Briggs & Little yarn.    That is by pre-washing.    So here are the simple steps.

Wash skein in mild soapy water.  Rinse in clear water, twice.

 

Hand squeese out water then lay on a towel.  Fold the towel over and squeese more water out.

Then hang to air dry.

Well,  I had these three skeins washed and hanging in my bathroom for a day before we left for Cuba.  They were quite dry and I couldn't quite feel a difference in the texture, but maybe knitting with it will give more of a true test of the feel.     I'll be knitting a Rococo Shawl this when we go to South Carolina next month, so I'll update you then.

A Vacation in Cuba

I'm getting great use out of my double passport holder that I made last summer.  My little wallet was made from a free tutorial and every time I use it, I say to myself, "This was a useful little project!  Besides my passport, I keep my boarding pass stubs, and my Air Canada Kiosk Cards in it. 

Well it's been a few months since we've traveled, so at the last minute we decided to take a little trip to Cuba.  We've never been there before but many of my friends have, and we've got lots of advice to relax and enjoy the beautiful resort and beaches. 

We leave on the first flight out, tomorrow morning.   There is no Internet that I know of at the resort, so no blogging, or email...

We'll be back in a week.  See you all then!