Baby Quilt

One of the Teachers at the Elementary School is going to be a Grandma for the first time this February. She sent me an email a month ago and asked me if I would make her a quilt out of her son's old clothing.  She had saved 5 pieces of clothing, a cross stitch and a crib sheet for her someday grandchild.  She gave me the clothing and the crib sheet and said she wanted the clothing look like clothing.  Basically she didn't want me to cut up the clothing to the extent that it was unrecognizable.

Since the crib sheet was green gingham I added blue, yellow and red gingham to the quilt to tie it together with the baby clothes.

I took the pockets from the vest and the plaid jacket and turned them into corners for the exterior border.  I left the sleeper fronts snapped together when I cut them out and included the collars to make them look like sleepers.  (let me tell you it is not easy to quilt around a collar!)

For the final touch I created a bow tie, the original having been lost, to finish off the Easter outfit.  How precious!  This is going to be one lucky grand-baby.  Now she just has to Wait.

Just Hangin'

This weekend everyone had long term projects they were working on.  M had the typical high school assignments papers, tests and quizzes.  J had a spanish assignment and E had a power point for English.  Therefore I felt absolutely no guilt at working on a couple of my long-term projects (aka. UFO's).  

It was a wonderful feeling to be back sewing and working with fabric.  Being sick this fall I haven't had much opportunity to work on quilting at all.  Truthfully I haven't felt like it.  At one point  I contemplated selling all of my quilting things!  Now that is sick!

I finished up this Star blossom from my summer foray into paper piecing.   It was a quick finish with almost immediate results! John and I just had to staple the finished project onto a canvas.

This was my second finish.  I have been working on this since February!  Well, not continuously.  I bound the quilt, sewed on my rod pocket AND hung it! (talk about an accomplishment).

Dog Bed Sewing.

Our Dog, Ginger has an attitude.  She doesn't like other dogs, or men.  She loves to chase and play with small animals, such as cats, squirrels, voles and rabbits.  She loves children and tolerates them well.  Basically she rules the roost, at least she thinks she does.  Last week I walked into my bedroom and found her lounging on my BED!  We have never ever allowed her to sleep with us.  She has a crate which she sleeps in at night.  She likes to take naps under our bed, or next to my side of the bed.  Not only did I find her on the bed but her long nails had snagged the  bed spread!  UGH!

I have several "practice quilts"  that I have laying around.  My definition of 'practice  quilts"-- a quilt I made with scraps, that is quilted with less than beautiful stitching, that is unbound.  I never know what to do with them.  They are not pretty, are usually and odd shape or size and the stitching is well, "just practice."  I had and idea swimming around in my brain.  I took some measurements and decided it just might  work.  I'll make a new dog bed for Ginger, perhaps then she will not need to sleep on  my bed.

I started with this quit that measured 32X64.  I squared it up, folded it in half and installed a heavy duty 22 inch plastic zipper along the long side.  Once the zipper was installed I sewed up the two remaining sides.  I measured and boxed the corners, and added a piece of 2 inch foam.

and TA-DA  Instant dog bed,  just add dog, wait and enjoy!




***For those of you wondering the bed frame does say "Rosie"  M and I made this when Rosie was alive and M was 9!  WoW!  Now it has a brand new look****