Finally - a Finish!

I hope all of my US friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We were blessed to once again travel to North Carolina to spend a few days with our loved ones.  It was a lovely visit, even though both of us brought home a nasty sore throat and head cold!

I took my latest finish with us ....

I finally finished our youngest granddaughter's baby quilt.  Jacqueline is now 1-1/2 years old and I had not even started it, so needless to say I had been feeling a lot of pressure to spend any spare time I had on making that darling quilt happen so I could give it to her on our trip to see them at Thanksgiving!

I did the shopping last spring.  Pattern:  Cellophane Flowers by Abbey Lane Quilts.  The quilt I made for Jacqueline's big sister, Genevieve, has her name on it, and I thought J's name would be cute in the center of this design.

Fabrics:  Focus fabric is Canyon by Kate Spain - I just love those adorable birds in the selvedge!!!!

I chose this fabric because my daughter-in-law had shown me some of the items she planned to use to decorate the nursery, and they had these colors in them.  Now I'm just hoping she hasn't already changed the nursery already several times LOL!!!

For the background, I decided to simplify by using only one fabric instead of the scrappy style used in the pattern.  I went with one of my current favorite fabric lines - Grunge!  Can you see below how the fabric carries some of that turquoise?  It really couldn't be a more perfect match!

And I knew I needed to use Lara Buccella's method of Crafted Applique for the flowers and her name in the center.

I wanted nice crisp raw edges, no fraying for this special little girl's quilt!

And just in case you were wondering - Yes, I was under strict Snoopervision during the making of this quilt!

Rocky believes in being a "paws-on" kind of Snoopervisor!!!

By using the Crafted Applique technique, I didn't have to use a blanket stitch to attach the applique shapes.  Simple straight-line stitching was all that was needed - saving tons of time and work!

To give you an idea of how hard I worked to get this done for Thanksgiving, I finished up tying off all the loose ends in the car while on the way to Carolina!  You can see here that I used the same flower shapes for the quilting designs - it worked perfectly, but there were a lot of stops and starts :*)

Unfortunately, events conspired against us and we were not able to see Jacqueline and her family, so I wasn't able to give her the quilt personally.  Yes, we were terribly disappointed!  But we've made plans to make a special trip to visit them in early spring when the girls have their birthdays.  For now, we'll just have to box up the quilt and ship it to her this week.  I've never shipped a quilt, and I have to say I'm a real Nervous Nelly about it, but it just doesn't make sense for me to keep it here when it is so long overdue!

This little guy was pretty unhappy about the 8 hours of traveling (could he look any more pitiful???)  We have to give him meds to keep him from crying all the way down the road.

.... but he didn't waste any time at all convincing his Grandma that he was an abused kitty and in desperate need of love and attention!

Ahhhhh - Nirvana!!!!!

My mom was his first love, and he is always happy when he can see her and hop in her lap for some loving!

He also thoroughly enjoyed taking his Snoopervisor duties to a new level when it came time for the all-important Thanksgiving dinner preparations.

While at Grandma's he found a little vanity chair that sat in our bedroom window where he could look out and watch the squirrels play, and he quickly made that his happy place during our visit.  So mom gifted him with the little chair, and he is now happily napping quite a lot in it here.  He has to sit up to see out our window, but he doesn't seem to mind =^..^=

Later today, I'll join my Slow Sunday Stitching friends over at Kathy's Quilts and finish up the handwork on this Folk Art Album block while watching the Panthers pretend they are playing professional football.

And then I will be busy cutting up strips so I can start on Bonnie Hunter's newest Mystery Quilt, En Provence!  I only have 221 four-patches to make before tomorrow morning - no pressure right?!?  Haha - that won't happen, but I do want to make a few and get started before the next clue comes out tomorrow morning.

Are any of you playing along?  I've decided to use celery greens instead of the yellow, and only two neutrals, but otherwise I'm pretty much keeping to BH's color scheme.

♥♥♥♥♥

Thanks again for your patience with me in not blogging for so long!  I had no idea when I popped up that quick post back on September 6 that it would be my last for a couple of months!  To be perfectly honest, I simply lost my blogging mojo for a while.  [Insert whining music here]  It was as though I suddenly hit a brick wall and knocked myself out!  Without warning, I found myself overwhelmed with deadlines, commitments, and a few nagging health issues, a combination which left me feeling exhausted and drained of all mental and creative energy.

Fast forward to today, and I am happy to say that I am finally feeling myself relax and unfurl a bit - getting Jacqueline's quilt finished was a major monkey off my back!  I have to admit that it has been a rather refreshing break, but I'm looking forward to sharing some new things with you soon.  I just want to send my sincerest thanks to all of you who sent messages saying you missed me - I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful friends!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Rocky Learns to Sew ....

First of all, I want to wish Happy Mother's Day to all my lovely followers!  

Lovely pot of hydrangeas from my son!

Even if you are not a mother in the typical sense of the word, it's more than likely that you have "mothered" others in your life - even guys can do that! - and that really is what we celebrate isn't it?  I've had a great day and hope that you have too =^..^=

Also, since this is Sunday, I'd like to join Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday linkup by sharing some hand smocking that I've been stitching during the past month or so.

I've never done smocking before, so it's been kinda fun, even it if does take forever.  I remember my mother making smocked pillows when I was a child, and being fascinated at the folded designs.  This is how it is shaping up.  Not perfect, but it will look better after I have straightened some of the puckers out.  It will definitely be good enough for my first adventure in smocking.

I'm making the smocked piece to be used on a bag project I started in March.  I took this class called the Fifth Dimension Bag from Rami Kim at Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge TN.

I have to say, this was the most interesting and downright FUN class I've ever taken!  Quite a few of my friends were also in the class, and we all agreed that it was great.  Above in the orange grunge fabric you can see a segment I made in class (by machine) called Harlequin Tucks, and beside that are my Lined Prairie Points and Square Chopkeys.  Chopkey is the Korean form of fabric folding.

I believe someone else has also taken quite a liking to this project!  Rocky has become quite the little quilter's helper.  He loves being in the studio and "helping" me do anything and everything.

He's even learning to help me pick out fabrics ....

Gypsy and Sable never paid any attention at all to anything I did in the studio.  They often came in to sleep on a quilt while I sewed, but I never had to worry about them bothering any of my tools.  But for Rocky, this is a veritable treasure-trove of toys to play with!

I've actually had to cover this area over with fabric and hope he never figures out how to pull it off ...

He knows it's under there, but hasn't yet figured out how to get there ....

His favorite thing to do is pull the pins from my pincushions - and of course that's something that worries me half to death!  I've had to bring out the squirt bottle to teach him to leave the pins alone.  He's not at all happy about being deprived of his most exciting pastime in the studio, and often sneaks over there to grab one when I'm ironing or pulling fabric.  So I've had to start covering all the pincushions too!

He especially loves the ones with the big colorful butterfly heads!

And remember the quilt he claimed before I could get the binding on it (here)?  He actually sat on the quilt while I sewed the binding down!

When I shooed him away, he went over to sit in the back and watch what I was doing from there - as though he was making sure I didn't hurt his quilt :*)

Something tells me I'm going to have to learn to sew with him right there watching every stitch!  After a bit, sitting quietly in the back wasn't good enough and he walked back around to the front to get a better look at exactly what I was doing.  Before I could blink, he started trying to grab the light!

The next day, he was back on duty.  I was simply sewing up a backing for the top I need to quilt for my Guild UFO Challenge.  First, he refused to let me press the fabric.  He decided it would be great fun to play "grab the fabric away from Mom" - thankfully the iron had not heated up yet and I got him down from there quickly!

Then he had to examine what was making all that noise at the machine ...

Nothing is going to happen around here without him supervising, that's becoming quite clear!

I sat back for a bit and just let him explore all the parts until he got tired of it.  I've had to be pretty careful though, because he just loves to sit close and watch the sewing process.  His quick little paws have come close to getting hit with the needle.  I like that he is interested, but I'm going to have to find ways to let him watch without worrying about him getting hurt.

Before I close, I thought I'd share a recent fabric pull ....

These two fabrics are the background - I just love grunge! - and focus print ....

These pretties will be used to make a quilt for a very special little one-year-old, our youngest granddaughter, Jacqueline Monroe...

Well, what else would I be doing on Mother's Day than picking out fabrics to make a sweet quilt for a grandbaby?  Hope you are finding something equally fun and exciting to do this beautiful Sunday!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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