Nana's Babysitting Service

On most weekends we keep our oldest grandson while his mom works.  The two littles spend the weekend with their dad or their other grandmother.   But on occasion, we have all three!  That makes for a lot of activity.

There is coloring and lots of snacks

  

Chores, like laundry and table setting

and, of course, lots of Mickey Mouse

Messy Bun Hat

Over the past month or so I have seen several local people posting about the Messy Bun Hat.  It's actually a pretty smart idea.   It's a basic hat with the top not closed so that girls with long hair can tie their hair up in a bun and the bun would stick out of the top of the hat where there would normally be a pom-pom.  The hats I saw were all crochet, but I figured I could design a knitted one... and I did.  

I made this one for my youngest daughter and she loved it!

 






She actually loved it!.... and requested a blue one.

Now I'm working on a few more to sell at Santa's Workshop next year.

En Provence.... assembly begins

Now that all the parts are made it's time to assemble this quilt.
First... one block at a time.  These blocks finish at just 8in each in the quilt.... 72 pieces per block!   Yes... they are tiny!

Second... assemble the sashing blocks.

Here I have laid out blocks and sashings to get an idea of how this will look.

Here is the top left quadrant of the quilt... with the first border added.

And now, the first quadrant with the second border added.

yes, I have fixed that wayward HST near the second pink star on the left.

This quarter of the quilt is only 22inches square... which will result in a quilt of only 44inches... too small to hang on the brackets in my living room.  I need to add another 10 inches!  I have some ideas and will have to play with them once this center is assembled.

My Leader/Ender Project for 2016

 Over the years, I have been intrigued by postage stamp quilts, but I couldn't imagine having enough  different fabrics to make one.  It takes thousands of pieces of fabric to make one.  Then in my browsing through the internet I came across a postage stamp swap... and I joined!  


The idea for this group is to take a 1.5in WOF strip and cut 25 squares. Do this 25 times for 25 identical sets.  At the time I joined, I was in the process... or just finishing my niece's wedding quilt.... and I had some extra fabric. Perfect! I had to dig through my stash to have the required 25... but I made it work.
 
I mailed the package off to the group leader and waited. In a short while I received a package back with 25 sets of squares.   There were several repeat sets from each quilter but my postage stamp quilt was born.  

Here are my first 8 blocks (my block is laid out and ready to sew at the top). You can see the remaining packages waiting to be sewn on the left.

Here are the steps I use to make these tiny blocks with 25 fabrics that finishes at only 5inches.....

1. Lay out the squares on my side table.

2.  Pick up and sew the first two vertical rows.

3.  Pick up and sew the last two rows.

4.  Add the center row two the first two rows.

5.  I feed through my main project.

6. Pin last 2 rows to first 3 rows.   

  

7.  My little block is now "webbed".

8.  I go back to working on my main project.  When I reach a breaking point I fold over and pin the top row to the next row of my little block and feed it through as an Ender.

9.  I feed through my little block, remove the main project.  Now my little block is a Leader to the next step of my main project.

To date I have made 52 little blocks... and I have a few more packages of little squares cut and ready to sew.  Yes, they are a little fiddly to work with such tiny pieces... but I'm having fun... and isn't that what sewing is all about!?

I am not sure what my final project will look like... I'm still searching the web for ideas.  I've found a few I like... I just have to decide when I have enough little blocks made to start.

En Provence.... Parts completed... assembly required

silly things...

Silly things, like a job, housework, cooking... are getting in my way of completion for the moment. 

I had to stop midway through Step 7 parts assembly because hubby came down looking for food. 

I'll give him credit... he did say he would go grab some KFC for dinner... but I nixed that as we had it earlier in the week and I want to get back to eating healthier now that the holidays are over.

So I was very good and walked away from the studio and into the kitchen....

30 min later... voila!  dinner!



Dinner interrupted my mojo and that was all I got done for the day.

This morning after running around picking stuff up... I put my maid to work.... my roomba did all the vaccuming... while I work on stripping beds, washing laundry, loading dishwasher, paying bills and generally putting stuff away....my life in the fast lane.

En provence #5 & #6 wip.... and #7 decisions

Christmas and visiting family has slowed down my progress... 
but progress is still being made.

Clue 5 is done.

And clue 6 is done...except for a bit of dog-ear trimming to finish.

Clue 7 is now a work in progress...

I am torn about the yellow... and if FB posts are any indication... so are many others. 

I originally planned on using this bright yellow  but when I laid it out I wasn't so sure about the pale lavender centers.  Then I thought about changing the pale lavender to my bright "lavender" to go with the bright yellow.

I am leaning towards the pale yellow and lavender and those are the pieces I have already made above.  After seeing the bright colors that others have made I think I have made the correct choice.   But, I will need to make up a few of these bright color blocks  to audition before assembling the quilt and regretting it later.

I have really had a lot of fun with the mystery this year and I look forward to a finish in the near future.

I haven't been able to stay close to keeping up since the Easy Street mystery.  That one I finished and is on my bed.

Visiting Family

Every Christmas season we make the trip north to Maryland to visit hubby's family.  With his mother's recent passing and his father turning 93 in February, these visits seem more urgent.  We never know which visit will be our last.

  

Maggie the cat, coloring books and crayons kept the youngest ones occupied while the three brother caught up on happenings.

Four Generations of Kulis men

After lunch we took a walk across the yard to see the damage done to the barn. 

A huge white pine fell right through the middle of the roof.

 

His brother was very lucky... the tree fell in the exact right spot and landed between the tractor and the antique car.  There was some damage to shelving and parts, but it could have been much worse.