A "Tranquil" Nursery

So many of you left comments saying how much you liked the baby quilts I recently made for some sweet, sweet little grand-babies .... THANK YOU SO MUCH for all those kinds comments!!!  (If you missed them, you can click HERE)

I thought you might enjoy a few pictures of these quilts being gifted during my visit home for Thanksgiving last week in North Carolina.

Here is Anna (my DIL) happily showing off Tranquility at her baby shower!  What a blessing it was to be able to be there for that event!  I miss so many of these things living so far away :(

Tranquility is the rag quilt I made for Cooper, our newest grandson who is due the day after Christmas.  Anna & Josh absolutely LOVED the quilt!  I drew a deep sigh of relief, considering all the things they wanted me to consider while making it (read about their ideas for the quilt HERE).  (Short recap - my son is a hunter, and he wanted to recapture the tranquil feel of the forest for this little one's room - nothing "cutsie" or "babyish" for this little guy!!!!)

And we were all delighted with how well it goes in the new nursery.  Here are a few pictures of their "Tranquility" nursery for Cooper.....  did they nail "tranquil and serene," or what????

What baby wouldn't be happy in these sweet, gentle surroundings?  
(Yes, my son painted those stripes!)

One little corner all ready for some sweet times of rocking and smiling into innocent little eyes :*)
Anna has chosen the perfect sage/brown/cream plaid drapes for those windows

I hope Cooper learns how to Dream Big early in life!!!!!
(Did you notice the little John Deere piggy bank?  
And teensy, tiny deer antler plaque in front of the monkey?)

They even have a deer-antler light switch!!!!

Everyone I know would love to have one of these soft cuddly rag quilts!  

I've even got ideas for making another one for me =^..^=

+++++++++++++++++++++

As for the presentation of Miss Genevieve's Banners quilt .....

.....  I think she was more impressed with the tissue it was wrapped in LOL!!!  But her mommy and daddy loved it, and I'm sure Genevieve will too when she gets old enough to enjoy it :*)  She's right at 8 months now, beginning to stand and doing her version of a crawl, which her parents call "crawking" - it's too cute for words!!!

Here she is with her Grandpa - I think she was pretty impressed with him too, wouldn't you say?

Once again, thanks for all your sweet appreciation for these two love-filled quilts :*)  I have to get busy now with a few Christmas gifts - time is growing short!!!

++++++++++++++++++++

Just a reminder - come back for TWO GIVEAWAY POSTS during this upcoming week!!!!

Tomorrow - December 5 - I'm joining Jacquelynne Steves for her.....

And then Monday, December 9 - I'll be joining Terri Stegmillar's Blog Hop ......

Paws in the Garden - by Terri Stegmillar
Photo Courtesy of Terri Stegmillar Art Quilts

Great giveaway items on both of these Blog Hops....

So ya'll come back now, ya hear????

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Sharing a Few Finishes!

I'm definitely doing the Happy Dance around here!  

I've got FOUR finishes to share with you - whoohoo!!!!  Yes, I have been a busy little girl these past few weeks!  Thanks to my friend Joanne letting me use her longarm, I finished up two UFO's that have been burning a hole in my UFO closet ...

Christmas Geese

This is my FIRST Christmas quilt!  Yes, I have been quilting now for 7 years and this is my first full-size Christmas quilt ... *hangs head in shame*.....  It is a Miss Rosie pattern called Toulouse - apparently there is a type of goose in France called a toulouse..... who knew?????  You can read my post about this quilt's beginnings HERE if you are curious.

This was the first quilt I blogged about when I started the blog two years ago :*)  I fell in love with the pattern, bought it at a LQS, and then held on to it until I could decide on the fabrics I wanted to use.  When I found this lovely background oriental print on sale, I knew it would become a Christmas quilt.

On the longarm.....

Below is the design I chose to quilt it with, called Joyful Holly by Willow Leaf Studio.  

I love it!!!!

The quilt is trimmed and the binding - a joyful red and white candy-cane stripe - is all prepped and ready to apply....

I'll be sure to share a final photo when that's done, but for now I just have to get a few little projects out of the way first :)

Next finish ..... another long-time UFO - Fall Pumpkins Sampler!

This quilt started out as BOM blocks at a local LQS in 2008!  In January, they provided the pattern and fabrics to make either Fall or Christmas sampler blocks for just $3 a block.  Then if you brought the completed block(s) back on the first Sunday of each month, you got the next block free - what a deal, right? Of course, you could do both Fall and Christmas if you wanted - and I did :*)  At the end of the year, they also offered setting kits for each quilt.  I loved the addition of the pumpkins as an alternate block in this setting!  I chose to use my own stash fabrics, however, rather than buy a setting kit.

This quilting design is called Wave on Wave and I really enjoy the play of design on fabric....it was quick and fun to do too :)

I totally LOVE this binding fabric!!!

It was such a sunny day when I took these pictures, and the colors are a little washed out here....it's really a very vibrant quilt - lots of eye candy :)

A HUGE THANKS again to Joanne for helping me finish up some of these treasured UFO's!!!!

Of course, both of the Baby Quilts are now finished, as well, and ready to be gifted .... (read more about them in my previous post HERE)

Cooper's rag quilt Tranquility is all washed & dried....
SO cuddly & soft - perfect for our new Little One!!!

And I just finished quilting Genevieve's Banners on my Janome 6600P..... (you can click on the quilt name if you want to learn more about how I made this quilt)

I used the background fabric as my guide for the quilting design on this one - soft, happy daisies everywhere.... connected with lazy little loops..... gosh this was FUN to quilt!!!

I wanted to add a rose design in the heart - for our little Genevieve Rose of course!  I traced the design onto tissue paper, then pinned it to the quilt and quilted over it - worked perfectly I think!!!

Here it is ... all trimmed and bound and ready for Miss Genevieve :*)

Thanks for sharing these finishes with me!!!

It's always so much more fun to enjoy our quilts with friends, isn't it?

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Baby Quilts Everywhere!

I was delighted when my daughter-in-law picked out a rag quilt design for our newest grandchild's baby quilt!  These are fun to make and sooooo much easier than a traditional quilt!

All ready to toss into the washer and dryer to get that lovely rag quilt look & feel!!!

My son, of course, has some very particular ideas about what is appropriate for a boy-child of his!  Nothing "girlie" or even "babyish" is going to go in Mr. Cooper's room - No sir-ee!!!  He made some very specific requests for this quilt.....

1.     Only sage greens, creams and browns
2.     No animals or anything else "cutsie"
3.     Only stripes, dots and plaids allowed!

Wow!  That was a challenge, let me tell you!  My son is a hunter and loves the peace and tranquility he finds in the forest, and he wanted that feel for Cooper's nursery.  After working with these lush, calming colors, I decided to name this quilt, Tranquility.  I think that best describes the feeling my son tells me he gets when sitting in the woods in the crisp early morning hours, just him and God and the perfect sounds of nature all around them.

I know - some of you are saying, "How could he kill Bambi?!?!"  I said that too when he told me he had taken up the sport.  But it is not just a sport for him - he has the meat processed and they use the venison in many of their meals.  Then a few of my loved ones barely escaped with their lives after accidents with deer, and I learned about how even all the deer suffer from lack of food sources when their population gets out of hand.  Then my son shared the joy he gets from his time alone in the woods with God, so I shut up and began to thank God for giving him such a wonderful way to meet with Him so often.  The benefits have far outweighed my squeamish tender-hearted misgivings.  (And much to my son's dismay, the deer actually don't show up very often LOL!!!)

So.... back to Tranquility.....I was fortunate to have enough of the colors and designs in my cottons stash for the top.....some of them were even pulled from my scraps bin!

I loved adding that gorgeous plaid shirt on the right!!!
It's so hard to find plaids in yardage.

I only purchased one half-yard of this piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric to add some brightness to it.....

For the back, I had planned to use this pale, pale, pale sage green dots print to give it a nice light ruffle on the front between all the blocks.....

.....but after deciding on the size and number of blocks I wanted, I realized there wouldn't be quite enough of this fabric.  I had 2 yards and needed 2-1/2!  Of course, I only realized this after I had cut it into 8" strips!!!

It's an older fabric, so I didn't even try to find more.  I thought about doing some sort of a design on the back, like adding some darker blocks spelling a "C" for Cooper in the middle, but I just couldn't fall in love with that idea.  Then I remembered a flannel in my stash that I bought when Hobby Lobby sold off most of their fabrics.  I think I paid $2-3 a yard for this piece :)  Here it is, playing very nicely with the other fabrics..... don't you just LOVE those rich, chocolatey browns.... YUM!!!!

And I love that it now has a flannel backing!

This soft cream animal print works perfectly with the theme of the rest of the quilt :)

I chose to use a Thermore batting, which I have used in all my rag quilts.

This thin polyester batting washes well and doesn't add too much weight to the finished quilt.

Tranquility on the Design Wall, choosing placement......

All the blocks were quilted together individually.... gotta love quilt-as-you-go designs!!!

I finished up snipping the seams last night :*)

I'll be tossing this in the washer and dryer today - yippee!!!  Cooper is expected to join us around Christmas-time, so I'm delighted to have his quilt, done and ready for his arrival!!!

And since I started this project this month (even though I finished it too), it is my November NewFO Challenge project......

Click HERE to see more!

Next up, I'll be quilting Genevieve's Banners quilt this weekend.  You can read more about her quilt HERE.

It's all sandwiched and ready to go.  I'm planning a very light quilting design, so hopefully it won't take too terribly long to do.

Looks like I'll have TWO baby quilts to deliver at Thanksgiving....

something to be very thankful for, am I right?

Wishing everyone a delightful weekend!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Linking up:
Cat Patches - 2013 NewFO Challenge
SoScrappy - Rainbow Scrap Challenge
Patchwork Times - Design Wall  Monday
Freemotion by the River - Tuesday Linky Party