Precious Moments

Words cannot capture the emotion I feel right now.  Maybe this picture will give you some idea.  After a roller coaster ride of 34 weeks, I am overjoyed to announce the birth of precious Leo!  He has completely stolen my heart!

Is this not the sweetest picture ever?!!!  

Leo is wrapped in a blanket crocheted more than 24 years ago by a great-great grandmother.

I can't believe my oldest baby is now a father!  Wasn't it just yesterday that we were reading chapter books together?

Can you tell my son hasn't gotten much sleep in the last few days, possibly even weeks?

Here are the parents-to-be back in April one of the times Leo threatened to make an early appearance ;-)

Notice the Peace Baby quilt draped on the back of the rocker?  I  finished stitching on the binding while waiting for Leo to be born and finished just in time! (It's not as easy as you might think to hand stitch binding while on a plane....at least not in coach!)

Jet lag is setting in, so I'm off to bed now.....need my beauty sleep....want to be refreshed when it's MY turn to hold Leo tomorrow!!!!!

Friday Finish: Peace Baby

Once again I am posting while sitting on an aircraft waiting to take off. I did finish the baby peace quilt I started a few days ago (handstitching the binding will be done while traveling) and have linked to Amy's Sew & Tell Friday!



The quilt was pieced using Malka's A Stitch in Color jelly roll strips and a green shot cotton for the backing. I don't remember which shot cotton but the color isn't the shade it appears in this picture.


The obligatory toe shot above. The shot cotton was one I had on hand which saved me a trip to the LQS. The thread is from Connecting Threads and called Sprout. Again, I had this in my thread inventory.


I love the feel of the shot cotton. It is so soft and perfect for a baby quilt. (My daughter is editing over my shoulder and says her baby blanket {emphasis on blanket} is much softer.) She did help me with the photo shoot so I guess I should be nice to her on the plane ;-)


I probably could have gotten away without piecing the back but I wasn't taking any chances. All the fabric for the backing is A Stitch in Color - some is yardage I bought and the pieced center section is unused jelly roll strips. The binding is also pieced jelly roll strips. There are 61 print squares in this pattern. I cut three 2.5" squares from each jelly roll strip, so there are quite a few (partial at least) strips remaining which is awesome as I love this line of fabric.


The quilting was done with a walking foot. I didn't mark any lines, just followed the outline of the peace squares and quilted organic straight lines. There was a lot of starting, stopping and turning so thank goodness for the small size. Have I mentioned how I like working with baby size quilts?!!!



This quilt is headed to the Pacific Northwest as a gift representing sunny Florida, so I find it ironic that it has rained this entire week while I worked on this quilt. Orlando hasn't seen the sun shine for quite a few days now. I couldn't even take any outdoor pictures of this quilt in Florida.

Remembered the quilt stats this time:

Peace Baby, 30" x 30", fabric used Kaffe shot cotton, A Stitch in Color jelly roll strips, pattern design and quilted by me!

- Posted using BlogPress from Rene's iPad

What's Up Wednesday: Thursday Edition

My daughter is now on summer vacation and I tend to forget what day it is.  Wednesday was our OrlandoMQG meeting, and I ditched my daughter to attend.  I did invite her to join us, but she declined.  I don't think she was keen on getting up that early.

We had a great meeting as usual.  It was nice seeing my friends and meeting some new folks.  There was quite a bit of show and tell.  You can click on this post for a recap and to see some of the quilts.  There is even a picture of my big Peace quilt top since I had helpers holding it up.

Today, I worked on the baby peace quilt.  I have to say this smaller size is so much easier to work with.  Pressing is easier too as it all fits on my board without having to scrunch it up constantly reposition.

I think another reason this quilt top went together faster is that I worked on this exclusively (rather than four million other projects in between) and even cut up all  my strips ahead of time.  Novel idea, huh?

I have started the quilting but don't have any pictures to share.  Maybe I'll remember to do that tomorrow.

Funny, Max came home from the spa Wednesday wearing a gingham bandana.  Reminded me of the Gingham Giveaway button I saw over on Cindy's blog. 

Maybe I'll have a Friday Finish to show you tomorrow.....

Teenage Moment

I did get the backing pieced for my Peace, Love and Happiness quilt and while laying it out on the floor I experienced this sense of deja vu.  My daughter asked who I was making this quilt for, and when I replied "for myself",  we had the same conversation as when I was working on the first Retreat quilt for myself.....guess she doesn't think it's appropriate for one to make quilts for themselves.

 I wanted to share that conversation with you but I made the mistake of asking my daughter to clarify a certain point and she told me in no uncertain terms that it was uncool to blog about that prefers that I not divulge the specifics.  Let's just say that my sweet daughter is having more "teenage moments" now that she has turned 13, and I make sure to point them out to her.  She likes to point out my "mom moments", and I tell her that is fine as long as she doesn't refer to them as "senior moments" ;-))))

Because basting is not my favorite quilting activity, I started a new project.....and I wonder why I never get any quilts finished ;-))  Actually, this quilt has been on my to-do list for a while now, so that's OK, right?

I still have several baby quilts to make and since I was on a roll with my PLH quilt I thought it would be fun to see how the peace pattern works using 2.5" squares instead of larger pinwheels.  

I am using a jelly roll of Malka's A Stitch in Color for the blocks and a green shot cotton for the background.  I haven't progressed much, but so far I am loving the smaller size!

Hello June!

A few days into June and I have done more sewing than the five months of January through May combined!

This quilt top has been almost a year in production, only because I haven't been working on it ;-)  I pieced all the pinwheel blocks at last year's retreat, and it would be nice to finish the quilt before this summer's upcoming retreat.

Once I got going on this project it wasn't so bad.  I don't know why I kept putting it off.   I did make a few mistakes in layout because I couldn't remember my baggie system and had to pull out the unsewing tool.

Here is a picture of the quilt top as it began to look like a peace sign.  As with Feeling Groovy, I pieced the middle strip and then worked my way out.  The hallway outside my sewing lab is just wide enough for this shot.  Of course my design wall which should be used for this purpose is full of other WIPs.

No helpers were available for a photo shoot, so I didn't get a decent picture of the entire quilt top, but I am happy to say it does look like a peace sign.  Now to piece the backing....

What's Up Wednesday: Amelia Island

This morning I sure did miss my custom made omelette for breakfast.

Four mornings in a row I enjoyed a yummy lump blue crab and shrimp omelette.  

It wasn't until that last morning that I realized splitting the omelette with my son and partaking of more fresh fruit was the way to go.

The morning before Beryl hit we strolled through downtown Fernandina Beach.

I love visiting book stores, especially when they are locally owned.

Don't you love this No Parking sign?  Got to love the church's sense of humor!

Today will be spent unpacking, doing laundry, and paying bills, but maybe I can find some time with my sewing machine.  A girl can dream, right?

Be Careful What You Wish For

OK, so when I said I wouldn't mind a rain day or two over the long weekend, I didn't mean that as an invitation to Beryl to become a Tropical Storm when hurricane season hasn't even officially started!

My husband booked an ocean view villa on Amelia Island which meant we literally had front row seats to the storm.  You can't see the white caps of the waves from the pictures I took from our back patio, but trust me, they are there.  I wasn't crazy enough (or maybe I just didn't want to get wet) to walk down to the beach to take pictures.

It really wasn't that bad as storms go.  The power did go out for most of the night.  The condo didn't have any flashlights, so we all used our handy dandy flashlight apps on our cell phones!  I am happy that most of the gorgeous canopies of trees were spared from the storm.  

We still had a great weekend!  The weather was perfect the first two days for relaxing on the beach and by the pool.  We even had dinner with friends from home who also happened to be vacationing nearby.

I spent many hours reading, writing, drawing (if you can call it that) and stitching.  My daughter was happy to have at least one of her brothers to hang out with.  She sure gets lonely being "the only child".

One last thing.  Did you see this wedding video posted online?  I can't say for sure this Florida couple is the same one who was married on Amelia Island right before Tropical Storm Beryl hit, but it wouldn't surprise me!