Baby Shower Sunday

Today was a special day at our church.  We had a shower for three of the expectant mom's in our church.  Next month we will do another shower for two more ladies that are having babies.  For those of you who attend big churches, that may not sound so unusual to have 5 babies all due within a couple months of each other, but we attend a very small church.  I think our average attendance on Sunday morning is around 125 or so, maybe a little more recently as the church family is growing.


So I have been working on baby quilts for a few weeks now.  The last three babies born in the church, one of which was my sweet Adeline, I made quilts for.  Now its like I set a precedent that I will make a quilt for new babies born into the church family, which I enjoy doing.  But when you have 5 coming so close together, it can be a challenge.

 First up is a quilt for Lorelai, my granddaughter.  Holding the quilt is Ellen, my daughter. 


This quilt is made of blocks that my mother quilted (solid pastel blocks) and blocks that I made (girls).  Both are hand quilted and I used a quilt as you go method to sew the quilt together.


I think it made a very special quilt to have one made both by Lorelai's great-grandmother and grandmother. 

Next up is a quilt I made for Hudson, the only boy baby being expected at this time.  The quilt is held by his momma, Anna.

I had made a quilt for his brother, Abram, who is now 18 months old.  Abram's quilt is primary colors so I went with the primary color theme again for Hudson.

 

Our third baby to be honored is Ivy Hosanna. Here is her mom Carolina and her big Sis holding Ivy's quilt.  I have fun with this chevron pattern - had not made one of these before. 

After I got home tonight, I looked through my patterns to come up with quilts for the next two babies.  Their shower is to be the first Sunday of June, so I gotta get busy!

And I will close with a picture of my two lovely daughters - Ellen and Jennie.  I am so blessed to have two very sweet daughters who are fantastic Mom's.  Jennie spearheaded the shower today.

RSC - Green for May

Start of new month always means more nine-patches in the color of the month.  For May the color is Green, so perfect for May, which the birthstone is Emerald.

I have started on the blocks and enjoying all the Spring greens I have in my stash.

I have to make 33 blocks for May and have completed 7 so far.

My fabric selections for May....even a cute little frog hopped into the collection.

Moda Blockhead Challenge - Learning to accept failure

That is kind of a negative title for this blog post, but really it is a very positive one.  I probably should not say "failure," but rather "imperfection."


I am having a great time making the blockhead blocks, but have learned and accepted that they will never be as perfect as so many that the other blockheads are posting.  I have tried paper piecing them, measuring and re-measuring, re-sewing each block multiple times....and to no avail, they simply are not going to be as perfect as what I see on-line.  (Personally, I think they are photoshopping those pictures!)


What I have learned through this process, is to strive for perfection, love the process but to not be discouraged when things don't go quite like I had hoped.  After all, a 6" block with 40 pieces is truly a miracle if it all come together perfectly.


So here is my latest block - Block 8.  I know what the problem is, its that bottom HST is not right and needs to be re-sewn. There are also a few AWOL points.  Am I going to "fix" it - nope, I like the block, I tried my best and it is what it is.  When I cropped this picture, I cropped off the seam allowance on that top row, but believe me - they are there. 

Thanks for stopping by....Teresa





Moving along - ever so slowly

Thought I would just post an update of the various projects I am working on....just keeping track of my ever so slow progress:


Star of Bethlehem: Finished Blocks 7 and 8; four more to go:



Lorelai's Quilt: Finished quilting blocks 1 and 2; three more to go.  I am doing this as a quilt as you go process and did not realize how much the blocks would draw up when you hand quilt them.  These two are smaller now than the 12 1/2" they started out as.  Going to have to add a frame or something to get them back to the size my mom made on hers.

Bali Wedding Star:  Have completed all 88 of the A arcs and 10 of the B arcs:



 



Irish Chain / Dresden Plate - patiently sitting and waiting for me to resume quilting on this one.  I need to finish the Lorelai blocks first. 

Moda Blockhead Blocks :  Completed Block 7 which was the one for this week.  These blocks have really been a challenge, but I think I am getting much better at the 1/4" seam.   I have one that I definitely have to redo - when I get around to it.

Jack's Chain; Rainbow Scrap Challenge - reported on this one in my previous post

New Project - YIKES; well what would a status report be without a new project.  I will be teaching

this one to my club tomorrow and I have completed one block to show, and have one in process to use in teaching and one cut out that will finish the table runner.  Its a fun block to make and we will be paper piecing the corner pieces with a freezer paper technique.





So those are my "active" projects as of this morning.  There is no point in discussing all the ones that are in-active, their day will come!

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

RSC Challenge goes to Texas

This month my husband and I made a trip to Waco Texas for a family reunion.  My brother, Jack, and his wife Debbie, daughter, Joy and two grandchildren, Elizabeth and Jacob, also traveled to Texas for this reunion.  I am making a Jack's Chain quilt as a gift to my brother, but shhhhhhh...its a secret.

I took my 9-patches with me to work on, and this is a part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I thought it might be fun to share some of the pictures with you from the trip.  In each picture there is a 9-patch...can you spot them?  I made 33 9-patches on the trip and completed my April goal.



Texas Bluebonnets

The Bluebonnets were blooming all along the highways while we were there.  There were also some mixtures with red and yellow flowers - not sure what they were, but they sure were pretty.




Magnolia Store in Waco

On our first day in Waco, we of course had to visit Chip and Joanne Gates at the Magnolia store.  Unfortunately, they were in NC.  It was fun to see the store and silos.




Dr. Pepper Museum

 Right down the road from the Magnolia Silo's is the Dr. Pepper Museum.  Who knew, Dr. Pepper originated in Waco Texas.  The museum was interesting and the soda shop served up the best fountain Dr. Pepper I have ever tasted.  Well worth the visit if you are ever in Waco.

 That afternoon, we visited the cemetery where my grandparents are buried.  I never knew my father's parents, as my grandfather passed before I was born and I was only a few months old when my grandmother passed.    She was a quilter, and had started a Dresden plate quilt, completing one block.  I have the pre-cut fabric kits she had purchased, I believe from a newspaper, and hope to make one myself.  Then I would like to pass it along to my daughters, and then to granddaughters..and so forth, until the remaining 11 blocks are completed.  The last one to make a block would finish the quilt.

 The next day was our reunion.  Here's a group of the folks, and the guy on the left in the blue shirt, Uncle Phil, reminded all of us of my Dad.  Of course, he should as Daddy's brother, but it was just so special to see glimpses of my Dad and my brothers in the faces of our relatives.  We are the only members of the family that live east of Texas, so don't get to see this side of the family very often.






The reunion was at a state park outside of Waco called Cedar Ridge.  It was very pretty and we were right along a beautiful lake.  There was a steep drop off to the lake, and they had it fenced in.  All along the fence were these large cacti, some as tall as me.



The next day we headed for Ft Worth.  My husband was meeting up with some of his family to talk genealogy and I had a chance to meet up with a couple of my quilting buddies in the area - Tyrena and Judy. (Picture left to right: Me, Ty and Judy)  We became acquainted through the internet and I have made trips to Texas to go on quilting retreats with them.  Was so much fun to spend the afternoon catching up.  Who knows, I might just see them again in November at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.



The next day, the plans were to head out to Arlington to meet up with my brother and his family.  They did not go with us to Ft. Worth, but instead went to see the Dallas Rangers play ball.

On the way to their hotel, our brakes started make horrific noises.  So....we had to have the brakes worked on.  That meant an extra day in the area, but that was ok, gave us some time to take in Dallas.  I would highly recommend Coopers Pit Stop in Arlington if you are ever in that area and need some work done.  Very reasonable price for their quick and good service.

 



While in Dallas, we visited the George Bush Museum and Library.  I was so impressed and it really reminded me of the man of integrity he was and still is, not to mention his great sense of humor. 

They also had the display of his painting of the veterans.  It was all so moving.

And here is my little 9-patch on a replication of the Oval Office, with Theodore Roosevelt's desk - which is the one George Bush also used as President.

We picked up our truck that afternoon and headed for Hot Springs Arkansas. ....and another delay. After getting through Dallas traffic and feeling pretty proud of ourselves...we came to a standstill.  There was an accident on I30 where two tractor trailers tried to merge into the one lane of traffic at the same time.  We sat at this spot for about 3 hours before traffic began to move again.  I forgot to take pictures in Hot Springs.
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And finally.....after one more night spent on the road in Birmingham, Al...we arrived back at home.

The trip was so much fun, and especially since I got to spend time with my Jack and Debbie, Joy, Jacob, Elizabeth as well as Jack's daughter Alisha and her family Neil, husband, and children Lilly and Miles (they live in Oregon).  It was so good to see our relatives from Texas, Nevada, California and Tennessee.  And time spent with friends in Ft. Worth.

This is the mantle in my home - be if ever so humble, there is no place like home.  I did not realize how dated my home is with that metal screen and brick fireplace until Chip and Joanne set me straight. I think my home could use  a fixer upper touch, but then, I kind of like it this way.  

Thanks for joining me on my journey, Teresa

RSC Challenge - April

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge fabric for April is mixed colors - or fabrics that have multiple colors in them.  This was a fun search through my stash, and I actually found more than I needed for my Jack's Chain quilt. 

 

 

I will be leaving for a trip to Waco, Texas on Tuesday for a family reunion, and the RSC will be one of my take along projects.  Got all the squares cut and my sewing  box all ready to go this morning.  This project, along with my Star of Bethlehem, will be my English Paper Piecing projects traveling with me.  I always seem to take more than I can possibly finish - but hoping to get at least half of these done and finish two more Star of Bethlehem blocks.

 

 

 

Lorelai's quilt is moving right along with the completion of the last Sunbonnet Sue block - almost finished anyway.  I am going to add some raindrops and puddles under those boots.  Seems only right Sue should have some puddles to splash in with those pretty yellow rain boots.



 



Bali Wedding Star - Unit A

I finally got to the point of sewing on the Bali Wedding Star quilt tonight.

Took me awhile to line up the strips for part A.
 I found I had to take it one step at a time, and do exactly what the instructions said to do.  Instructions told you which strips to stack first, and whether to stack them right side up or back side up.  Also, instead of starting with strip 1, it started with strip 4 which was the center strip.  Like I said...I just followed the instructions.

 Paper piecing a strip set.  There are 8 strips in a set, and you actually piece them before you cut the strip.  This was something different that I had done before, but once I got the hang of it, was fun.

You start paper piecing in the center first, which is why you start with strip #4.

 I must say, even though there are 21 pages of instructions for this kit, if you just take it a step at a time, the instructions are very good!

One thing I did a little different, was when it came time to trim Unit A on the outside line .  Instructions said to use a rotary cutter, but that kind of made me nervous.  So I baste stitched on the outside of the cutting line, and then used scissors to trim the piece on the cutting line, which also cut off my basting stitches.  Worked really well for me.




And here are 8 completted Unit A arcs.  Only 80 more Unit A's to go!

Then its on to Unit B which is the other half of the arc.

Looking forward to working on this quilt.
Teresa