Back to Stitching

I'm finally back to my stitching! After more than two weeks of concentrating on income tax laws and tax software, it took a little time to get back to my sewing. You know what helped? Touring a few quilt shops and picking up a few new pieces of fabric for my current projects. It also helped to spend an afternoon with my quilting buddies!
I'm back to working on my niece's quilt. See my posting titled "Final Day of Camp" for a picture of the basic block. The block contains Thangles units, and I have made all of them. Now to tear off the paper and trim them up. After that is done, I should be able to piece the blocks quickly.
I'm also working on a Sunbonnet Sue baby quilt. I'm hoping that it will be my next pattern in my "Thanks, Grandma" series.
And I'm making a new little quilt top for my granddaughter. Check out the quilt that she is sitting on in the taggie pix. My daughter called after Christmas to check to see how to wash that little quilt. Seems granddaughter had a touch of the flu and the quilt got the brunt of it! I told my daughter to use cold water and the delicate cycle in both the washer and dryer. She did, but when the quilt came out of the dryer, several of the seams in the quilt top had pulled apart. (See picture above...) Talk about disappointed! I chose that fabric because of the cute frogs on it--the nursery is decorated with frogs, ducks and chicks. But, the fabric came from Wal-Mart and was not especially tightly woven. The fabric for the new quilt top came from a local quilt shop...hopefully it will wear better! Stay tuned for a picture of the new little quilt.

The Taggie Blankie

Maybe by this time, my granddaughter has had time to really "get to know" her taggie blankie. These pictures were taken when I first gave it to her. It is light-weight enough that she had fun flipping the whole thing around, not necessarily by any tag. Grammy made it into a hat for her--she didn't seem to mind! She has certainly learned how to pose for the camera!

Withdrawal Symptoms

I am suffering...I haven't worked on a quilt project in a couple of weeks! I have been immersed in INCOME TAX LAW! I've been teaching the refresher course for the AARP TaxAide volunteers locally and every night I've been studying just to keep ahead of what I'm teaching the next day. BUT today is the last day and I'm definitely planning on getting the sewing out for this weekend! Stay tuned...I'll let you know what I'm working on. (And, I finally took the Christmas pix off my camera, so you'll soon see granddaughter with her taggie blankie!).

Holiday Wrap-up

The past couple of weeks have been busy ones! We thoroughly enjoyed having the Oklahoma kids visit for a few days before Christmas. I was able to have lots of cuddle time with the 9-month-old granddaughter during those days! Priceless!!!!
I didn't wrap her taggie blankie--I wanted to witness first-hand her reaction to it so I gave it to her before Christmas. She wasn't sure about it. So she didn't immediately pick it up and start playing with the tags. I guess she needed some time to get used to it. I received a Flip video showing her playing with the taggie blankie once she was back home. She was flinging it all around, from one hand to the other, sometimes holding onto the tags and sometimes just grabbing the blankie part. A hit? I'm not sure, but I had fun making it for her!
Christmas found our whole family in Illinois, visiting our other daughter. It was fun to see the two granddaughters playing together. From there we drove to visit my parents in Wisconsin. One of the first things my mother asked about was my book...she was very anxious to see it and was very impressed with the finished product! Glad I could make her proud! :)
My applique projects went along on the trip...was nice to have some needlework to do. I accomplished quite a bit! That's the great thing about hand sewing---it is VERY portable!