Some Sewing Time

Last week Steve went to a Wild Game Dinner. I was more than happy to stay home, enjoy some left overs in the fridge and spend some quality time with my sewing machine. I got the March step of our Guild's Mystery Quilt done, finished the March blocks for our guild's Blocks of the Month quilt and worked on some more Tiny Mircle quilts. The picture shows some of the mystery quilt blocks. I enjoy making mystery quilts. For this quilt I just pulled two fabrics from my stash. The patterns shows a 2 color quilt and a scrappy quilt. I chose to do the two color quilt now but am thinking that I may do the scrappy version too.

Our Two Little Peas In A Pod

Our twin grandsons, Gavin and Grady were able to come home from the hospital on Friday. They are doing very well and we are so thankful. Mom and Dad are feeling a bit sleep deprived right now. I am going to go to their house tomorrow to help out and I plan to do lots of cuddling and lots of rocking.

I think Spring is here!

On Saturday afternoon I saw a robin in our yard. And yesterday I found some pussy willows in the ditch. Both are sure signs of spring here in northern Michigan. The temps are a bit cool today but the sun is shining and the sky is a beautiful shade of blue.

I made this small carrot quilt many, many years ago.

Our twins, Gavin and Grady are doing very well. They are still in the NICU but are making great strides every day. I was able to hold both of them last Thursday. It was absolutely wonderful.

I am hoping to get some sewing in today and then will post some pictures in the next few days.

A Little Bit of Sewing Today

I have managed to get a little bit of sewing in today. I had planned to take a hand embroidery class at Guild today but it just didn't work out. So I decided between doing laundry and packing for a trip to see the "new" Mommy and our twins I would do a little bit of sewing. Thanks so much to my friend Karen for the directions for the nursing cape, I made two of those for Rachel. I also finished up 10 more burp cloths and machine quilted 2 Tiny Miracle quilts. I am going to head back into my sewing room while the dryer finishes the last load of laundry.

Northern Nights Mystery Quilt

I am on a bit of a mission to get some UFO's finished. I made this quilt top for the March 2007 retreat here at Thunder Bay Resort. It is a Debbie Caffrey mystery quilt. I am going to take it to a drop off point for the machine quilter today. I do enjoy hand quilting but I have recently decided to save the hand quilting for some of my quilts and to have some of my quilts machine quilted.

Our Twins Have Arrived

Our twin grandsons arrived in the wee morning hours on Saturday, March 13. Gavin Edward weighed in at 5 lbs, 3 oz and Grady Steven weighed in at 4 lbs, 9 oz. Babies, Mom and Dad are doing great. Gavin and Grady are in the NICU right now as they were born a bit early. As of right now we don't know how long they will be there but I don't expect it to be real long. I don't have any real clear pictures to share at this time but hopefully soon. They are hospitalized in Saginaw, a 2 1/2 hour drive from here. This Papa and Nana are hoping to get some rest this week and then head back to visit this weekend.

Two more Tiny Miracle Quilts

I have been on a bit of a roll this week. I finished both of these Tiny Miracle quilts yesterday afternoon. During our WARTS (Wednesdays Are Reserved To Sew) small group yesterday I hand appliqued labels onto 6 Tiny Miracle quilts. I am hoping to get one more quilt machine quilted tonight.
We had open sewing at Guild today and we had two ladies come in who are brand new quilters. It was so much fun to watch them as they wandered around the room checking to see what everyone was doing. They both brought sewing machines in and one of the gals was looking for advice on machine quilting. The gals were sisters and they worked together on a Quilt For Kids. They had the quilt ready to machine quilt and after some advice the quilt maker started machine quilting it. The other gal had started putting together her first quilt using the same pattern. It was so much fun seeing the excitement build as they thought about the possibilities of what they could do. Although it has been about 26 years since I started quilting I can still remember those day. And I still have that excitement when I see new patterns and new ideas.

A Couple of Finished Quilts

Yesterday afternoon I started machine quilting some of the Tiny Miracle (preemie) quilts that I had sandwiched over the weekend. The black and white quilt was made using split 9 patches. If you look real close you will see cows in the fabric. Have I ever mentioned that I love cows? The green quilts started out as a gift from my friend and fellow Guild member Nancy. I was the co-chair of my Quilt Guild last year although because of health issues I wasn't able to be as involved as I had planned to be. It is a tradition in our Guild to "gift" the out-going President with a block of her choice. In past years I asked the members for blocks that I could use for the Tiny Miracle quilts. When asked again this year I made the same request. Some of the gals give me finished little quilts and some give me tops that I finish. Nancy gave me the center blocks and I added borders using some whimsical fabric I had on hand. I machine quilted these quilts and also put the binding on by machine. I hope to get one or two more done this afternoon after work.

A Very Productive Weekend

I had a very productive weekend, how about you? I managed to spend lots of time in my sewing room and loved every minute of it. I machine sewed the binding on to a quilt that I started in 2006. Once I get the binding hand sewn down I will show a picture. I also sandwiched 14 Tiny Miracle (preemie) quilts and got one of those machine quilted and bound. We enjoyed our grandsons basket ball game, lunch at Mancinos, spent too much money at Wal-Mart, cooked a couple of meals, went to Church, balanced the check book, enjoyed 2 walks in the 50 plus degree weather and did a load of laundry. Whew!! Uh oh, I just remembered that the load of laundry is still in the dryer. I will have to get that folded and put away when I get home. The plan for the afternoon is to try to get a couple more Tiny Miracle quilts quilted.

Some completed projects!!

Yesterday at Guild Show and Tell I announced that the "Binding Fairy" visited me last week. I added the binding to a hand quilted basket panel, two hand quilted small wall hangings (pre-printed), a log cabin (pre-printed fabric) and daughter Heathers hand quilted baby quilt. I bought the log cabin fabric several years ago at a Quilt Shop that is now closed. The gals at the Quilt Shop had machine quilted a sample using different stitches on their machine. That was my original plan but just recently I decided to use a straight stitch and get it finished. I am very happy with the way it turned out.
I had decided that I was going to work on using up my stash. Well......I have decided that will probably never happen but I think I will continue with my journey. Last night I spent too much time digging for the fabric to bind a quilt that I recently had machine quilted. Although I did not find that fabric I did find a couple more boxes of fabric that I forgot I had. I feel that I have been hopping around with projects during the last couple of months, working on this and that for various reasons. Along with that mind set I was thinking that maybe I should go through my stash again and make up some pillow cases. First though, I am going to make some more burp cloths.

A "No Sewing" Weekend

We had a great time last weekend. We took our grandsons Cameryn and London downstate to visit Rachel as she continues to "incubate" the twins. The first item on the agenda was Cameryn's basketball game. His team lost their first game by one point. From there we drove to Saginaw and enjoyed lunch with Sponge Bob at Burger King. The weekend included Papa and Cameryn teaching London how to play UNO, swimming at the hotel, pillow fights, elevator rides, vending machines and enjoying visiting with Greg and Rachel. Rachel is almost 33 weeks and we are so excited and so proud of her. Right now it is day by day.