A very busy but very good time!

 It seems that things happen at the same time! We have been extremely busy in our personal lives and those of our kids. When my daughter announced that she would be having our 2nd grandchild in May, we knew it would be close to when our youngest daughter would graduate from pharmacy school. We just didn't know how close! It just happened that my daughter's scheduled C-Section was scheduled for May 17th and my other daughter's graduation was on May 20th (in Austin, TX.) Arrangements were made for watching Magnus (the big brother) after we needed to leave for Austin early Thursday morning. But before we left, we were able to visit our new granddaughter in the hospital!

Happy Mormor

Happy family

Magnus holding his baby sister

Sweet Freya Ruth

We were headed to Austin early Thursday morning and met up with my daughter and her fiance, Brendan. We met Brendan's parents for the first time and had a wonderful time getting to know them. We celebrated Brendan and Kari's engagement! However, the main event of the weekend was Kari's graduation from pharmacy school. We now have a Dr. of Pharmacy in our family! 

Congratulations Kari! We are so proud of you!

So in between all this excitement, I did finish 124 blocks for Clue 2 of the O Say Can You Sew! QAL. It took me nearly the entire month to finish and trim each block!

I also finished the stitching on my hoop embroidery project. I'm please with how it turned out. I still need to trim and secure it in the hoop!

I'll be linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Friday Fun Foto @Powered by Quilting, TGIFF @Sarah Goer Quilts, and Linky Party @Patchwork and Quilting

I'll be back tomorrow for the final parade of quilts for the 

Hands2Helps2022 Challenge!

Small progress in the sewing room

I'm still here in case anyone was wondering! 

Since the end of May, my life has significantly changed and although my time in my sewing room is limited, I have been blessed with having my grandson (and his mom and dad) living with us. 

Adjustments and routines are starting to get more established. 

That's a good thing!

His swing was hung up this weekend in our neighbor's tree right next to our house. His smile says it all!

(we don't have a large tree so our neighbor gave us permission) 

Filling some BIG shoes!

Walking along a local park's lakefront.

I DO have a few quilting things to show you. 

The blocks for the Covered in Love charity were announced in the beginning of July. As usual, these blocks are red, white and blue stars! Any kind that you want in a 12 1/2" unfinished size. 

Here are mine for this year!

 Below is the graph paper design process I used based on a 9-patch.

These blocks were made from my scraps. 

July also brought a new color for the RSC and that color was dark blues. 

Here is my dark blue column

and all the columns together!

So far we have had 2 greens, 3 blues, a pink and orange. What will be next?

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday over at So Scrappy. 

A couple of other projects that I have been working on are the t-shirt quilt for a special graduate. I had a bit of trouble getting more interfacing to stabilize the shirts but now they are all cut and puzzled together. 

I added a 2" gray border and it is ready to be sandwiched and quilted!

I mentioned working on Elvira (quilt pattern by GE quilt designs) back in April. 

It is almost done! I found enough time to sandwich and quilt it. I also got the binding sewn on and now I'm hand stitching it down. Hopefully, this will be a finish sometime this week!

My 'I Spy' quilt is also waiting to be sandwiched. And the Morewood Mystery Quilt has started! Learn more at Meadow Mist Designs. Are you joining? I am! It was so much fun last year!

A little bit of sewing

It has been a while since I have had time to post or even sew. Our daughter, son-in-law and grandson have moved from Texas and are living with us while our SIL goes back to school. It has been in the planning stage for more than a year. Needless to say, Covid-19 complicated the move. They will basically have the second floor; 3 bedrooms, bathroom and a small family room. 

This is just before the move from TX

To make it feel a bit more like 'their space', we removed most of our things... cleaning out, getting rid of some, storing others. 

The house is still in a bit of a unpacking stage (their pod came on Thursday) but things are going well overall. It has been fun to have our grandson here where we can see him everyday and really get to know him and watch him grow! ❤️

In the midst of everything, I did get some sewing done! 

Since it is June and the monthly color is pink, I made time for the RSC block. 

All the colors together!

I'm linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday over at So Scrappy.

I also did a bit more sewing on the I Spy quilt I am making. Hopefully, I will have more to show in the near future!

I received some exciting mail this week from Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. She sent this lovely pack of fat quarters and Thank You note. Sarah not only hosts and organizes Hands2Help every year but she finds sponsors to help say thanks!  Sarah is pretty amazing! Creating quilts for those in need has been the draw for me to participate and give back these last 2 years. This touch of thoughtfulness is an added bonus! 

Looking forward to Hands2Help 2021!

Updates and a new block!

My youngest daughter's visit ended yesterday. We had a great time together! During her visit, she wanted to learn how to sew garments. She sent me some pictures of a couple of items she wanted to make. Although I haven't sewn many garments in recent memory

(with the exception of some diaper covers for my grandson), 

garments are what I made for many years before quilting. I searched for some patterns that I thought she would like and we settled on and ordered 2 patterns from Wiksten. They arrived on the day she arrived. We headed to JoAnn's for some garment fabrics. There we found fabric for her top and my coat. We cut her top out together and started sewing. She learned quickly.
The next day, we headed to Vogue Fabric (a big fabric warehouse/retail store close by). We spent quite a bit of time looking through many bolts of fabrics. We narrowed our choices and headed home. She got fabric for her jacket 

(and a bit more) and I got the lining fabric for my coat and another short jacket. 

We had successful days of sewing and she went home with sewing knowledge! 

On the left is her inspiration and the right is the one we made.

To add the quilting, we needed to changed the pattern to add a lining and we also slightly changed the sleeves.

I choose to make the oversized long coat. I will add some hand quilting.

My daughter wanted the short jacket and choose to use the same fabric (a light peach linen) for the main fabric and the lining. 

Left is her inspiration, right is her finished project!

Yay, for successful sewing projects!

On to quilting news!

I finished another block for the Quiet Play Pattern Club!

Another text block which I love. Isn't it cute!

Here are the 6 that I have finished so far.

I will be back soon with my next finish! 

I'm so excited to finally have a finish this summer!

Exciting news!

The New Year came in the most exciting way this year! 

On New Year's Day morning, we got a call from my daughter around 7:30am with the news that they (daughter and son-in-law) were heading to the hospital to have our first grandchild! 

What! She wasn't due until the 19th. 

Her water bag broke around 4:30am and contractions were strong and regular. 

OK we wait....

(they live in Austin and we live near Chicago)

A little after 10am, our grandson was born. He is small (5lbs 15 oz) but everyone is doing fine! 

My hubby made them a bedside cradle and we were planning on delivering it the following weekend. So as planned, we headed down for a quick trip. 

We were able to get in some snuggles

and enjoy meeting this new addition to our family. 

He is so precious!

He fits into the little hat that I knitted.

Proud and happy Tante (aunt)

Before heading back home :(  

We will be heading back in February for an extended stay! 

I miss him already 😍

Busy times and updates

Once again I have failed to keep up with life, quilting and blogging. 

The month of November was quite a blur as we welcomed (and helped move) our DD1, her partner and dog, Ole to our home after they lost their lease and decided to try to save some money to buy instead of keep renting. We moved most of their things to storage and the rest to our house. 

We are glad to help but I have to admit, it is a bit of adjustment after being empty nesters for many years. 

Thanksgiving week, we welcomed home our DD2, our SIL and their dog, Miss Sadie and our DD3. The house was full and BUSY!

We hiked. We ate out. We visited. We cooked. We crafted. We baked. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. So many blessings to be thankful for! We took the opportunity for a family picture (missing one). 

On Friday, we ventured downtown as our out-of-town kids wanted to have a family day there. We strolled through Maggie Daly Park, and Millennium Park. Saw the Chicago Christmas tree and went to Cindy's on top of the Chicago Athletic Association Building for a beautiful view of the skyline. We also went to the (very crowded) Christkindlmarket for some holiday cheer!

 Maggie Daly Park

kids of all ages @Maggie Daly Park 

 Millennium Park

 Chicago Tree
still too light out to get the full effect

view from Cindy's

 my daughters and me from Cindy's

hubby bought me a giant pretzel at the market

On Saturday, we had a Baby Shower for my DD2 with our friends and family. 

(I am limiting the number of pictures from the shower as this post is a bit photo heavy)

dessert table

 center piece we crafted

our dear friend said the welcome and dedication

On Sunday, DD3 flew back home early. DD2, SIL and Miss Sadie headed back home a little after 1:00pm. A storm was brewing so even though it was sad to see them go, we were happy for them to get out before the weather got bad. 

It was a good thing because at 1am my husband woke and said we had lost power. The blizzard was in full force. It was 36+ hours before we had electricity and HEAT. Schools were closed for a Snow Day on Monday so my job was cancelled. By Monday night, the temperature had dropped to 20º and it was COLD in our house. It gets dark by 4:30 so we had candles and battery operated lanterns to give some light. My husband had to leave for an out-of-town business trip which left my daughter and me with 2 dogs. Thankfully, the power was restored on Tuesday afternoon! It took a bit to get everything back online but we are back up. 

As for quilting, My Little Blue House quilt is waiting for an opportunity to photograph it. It is all finished. I hope to have pictures soon!

I also put together one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. 

I decided to add a dog as if sitting in front of the quilt as I took a picture. Kind of like a photo bomb...? This will be a charity quilt. It is waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. 

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday @ So Scrappy

I also have been working on trying to catch up on my Temperature quilt. I continued to log the daily highs and lows but have to admit that I fell quite behind on actually making the blocks. 

At least, I'm into November now.  See how the temperatures are dropping. Orange and reds are gone for the year. I will start to see more greens and blues now as we come to the end of 2018!