Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt Clue 2

My daughter had the baby... 7 lbs 5 oz boy!

While middle brother wasn't quite sure what to make of this squirmy bundle...

big brother was thrilled to have a new baby and help out!

    

They are all home now and settling in.

I am back home now too and have worked on Grand Illusion this week in between everything else that life has thrown at me.  Clue 1 is now complete.

And I have begun cutting on Clue 2.  I've decided to use the 2 square method to make these Double Diamond Blocks.  It is a method that I am most familiar with and since I was having trouble getting my printer to cooperate :p I thought it was easiest.

My friend Bettie is now home from the hospital and happy to have her kit to work on.    I will stop and check in on her progress later today.

Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt Clue 1

I have lost track of time and almost forgot to do this link up.  I've been a bit distracted.  My oldest daughter is in the hospital preparing to deliver our third grandson.  I'll have an update next week.

checking into the hospital.

my fabrics pulled from stash.  deciding between blue and purple to replace the green.
I happened to be walking by the fabric store and found the purple flannel to use for backing

My Black Friday sewing.... HSTs

Saturday morning I cut up the yellow and black fabrics and pieced some of the broken dishes blocks.
I stopped when I realized that because of the fabric I chose... as it is cut into squares... half are mostly yellow and half are mostly orange.  Now I must decide if I will use the orange or, since I have extra fabric, fussy cut out only the yellow areas to use.

By Saturday night I had all the yellow squared broken dishes sewn but stopped at just a few of the orange... still trying to decide what to do.

On Sunday cut and sewed the next grouping of HSTs and half of the blacksquare/HST block sections.  Still trying to decide whether or not to use the orange.

And, just because I needed an additional challenge... I helped out a friend who is experiencing some health issues at the moment and is unable to cut and sew fabric.... I cut strips and kitted up some blocks for her to maybe hand stitch if she has a few moments when she is feeling better and able to sit up.  The plan is for her to cut up the remaining strips and machine sew the rest when she is back on her feet.

baby quilts

My daughter recenly told us that grandson number 3 is due November 27th!

Matthew has been busy embroidering again this year and recently finished the Mother Goose blocks.  I pieced them into a top and he has decided not to sell this one... but to give it to is new nephew when he arrives.

As with my first two grandsons.... the new baby gets a simple quilted fabric quilt.

The middle brother gets a quilt pieced from some of his receiving blankets

And big brother will get a quilt pieced from Goodwill shirts and some of his grandfather's shirts.

Fair Time

Early in the spring the grandson and I went out into the yard, loosened up some dirt and planted some zinnia and sunflower seeds.

When it came time to submit entries to the local county fair I snipped some flowers, stuck them in a vase and entered them for him

He was thrilled to learn that his zinnia arrangement took 3rd place and he earned $4 to put in his piggy bank

He was ready to immediately go out and plant more seeds to win more prizes!

Summertime Fun

We were able to keep our grandson for a couple days this summer and we visited the Nashville Zoo, the Nashville Science Discovery Center and the Chattanooga Aquarium

learning good dental hygiene at the science center

petting the sting rays

posing with his aunt and uncle

He loved looking at the aligators and turtles... although this aligator was a bit bored with him
 

While this fake penguin  didn't entertain him for long, he was fascinated to watch a male penguin pick up rocks and bring them to the pregnant female... building and adding to her nest.

Football Season Begins

My daughter's boyfriend used to play some football in high school. 

Now he has decided to spend some bonding time with my grandson and has signed on to be pee-wee coach!

They start with some stretches

The running some sprints before lining up for some scrimmages.

I have several 30 second videos of his blocking attempts, but don't know how to post them.

He loves his water breaks!

The team record is 0 wins  2 losses  1 tie

Their goal is to win 1 game this season!

Child's Busy Bag

 

Here is my grandson modeling the busy bag I made from a linked tutorial found on Bonnie's blog.

http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/busy-bag-tutorial/

It is very simple and easy to make. 

 I used some novelty fabric I had in my stash that I have been saving to make an eye-spy quilt.

I have several more novelty fabrics and plan to make a few more.

He is calling dibs on the Super Dog fabric!

Summer Quilting Work

I have kept busy with several custom quilting jobs this summer....

  

First was this birdhouse quilt.... outline stitching around birdhouses and features of each block.  Tiny meander stitching the background of each block.  Stitch-in-Ditch the border treatments

This donkey quilt had stitch-in-ditch donkeys and meandering in the background.

This flower quilt has 1/4 stitching in the red and yellow parts of the flower, some "s" stitching in the background and parallel line stitching in all the borders.

This unique quilt with baby outfits sewn onto blocks of fabric required careful outline stitching and a meandering background

This quilt pattern is from Aug 2010 American Patchwork & Quilting is called Points of Pride.  There is circular quilting in the centers of each block and freehand stitching in the "sunrays", loops in the neutral background fabric and fine stipple stitching in the blue backgrounds.

I still have the Grandmother's Flower Garden and the second Donkey quilt to complete in September.

Sewing Vacation Part Three

I stopped at the dollar store to pick up a few items for dinner and these towels with matching potholders caught my eye.  These are a poplular craft item at our church Fall Festival so I stitched up a few.  I like adding new variety to my inventory.

 

This is my last day for sewing before packing up to head home.  I pulled out a kit of several Disappearing 40 Patch blocks and stitched together this wall hanging.

  

 I miss-cut one of the blocks and that made me short one of the black print blocks for the corner.  I don't think it sticks out too much.

I have a bunch of extra Cracker Barrel parts and 7 extra blocks. They are 12 inch blocks and I'm thinking 4 placemats and a table runner.  I also have extra fabric that I can make more blocks and maybe a small lap quilt.  I'll decide later how much more I want to work with this.

 My last project for this vacation are red/white basket blocks.  I didn't have time to sew them, but I now have 20 kits cut and ready to use as leader/enders when I get home.  I bought 12 Thangles kits at my LQS...but didn't purchase those Thangles papers.  Instead I used my easy angle ruler instead and I was able to make their 12 kits stretch to make 20 blocks!  

The beds are now stripped and dishes done.  Hubby is hooking his trailer and boat up to the car and it's time for me to sign off and load everything else into my van for the ride home.

It has been a fun and relaxing week.... and I am positive we will be back here next year.

Sewing Vacation Part Deux

Friday was my day to drive up Paducha and search Hancocks for backings and borders for my projects.  

I found this blues/white geometric fabric that will make the perfect backing for Cracker Barrel



 I had to search long and hard for a border fabric for the blue baby quilt.  I walked up and down every aisle in search of something perfect.  I thought  the clamshell design in this fabric mimicked the circular dots in the blue sashing.  Also the variety of colors seemed to blend with the colors in the toile.

 

Next I needed something to bring all the colors of the Quiltmakers Block Swap quilt together.  I think this pink floral fit the bill nicely.  I draws on the floral shapes of the center block, the pink of the border and the pale orange and green throughout.  I even found another small piece of pale green on the discount table to use for binding.

I spent a lot of time browsing through the discount table at the front of the store...looking for nothing in particular.  These fabrics struck me as pretty and I will be making placemats with them when I get home.

I also found this beach themed fabric... perfect to use for a backing or borders for my Happiness Key wall hanging designed by Pat Sloan a couple years ago.  That is another project that I must pull out and finish one of these days.

It had been a day of threatening storms... nothing happened here at the cabin but I drove through some heavy downpours both to and from Paducha.   I quickly cut and stitched the newly acquired borders and now have 4 tops ready for quilting..(pink baby, blue baby, quiltmakers and cracker barrel)

 

Just before sunset the sun peaked through the clouds and gave us a spectacular rainbow!  I hope the pictures on my camera capture it better than this phone picture.  It only lasted a minute, but it was gorgeous!