Celebrating a New Life

He is Here

Yes, the long awaited grandson, first boy in our family in a long time, and our second grandchild has arrived!!!

He had a rough start.  Mom had to have a section since she didn't dilate past 4, and he followed up with low platelets.  

They left the hospital today after 5 days in.  The new family gets to bond and relax now.

They are in Ct. and we can't wait to hold him and smother him with kisses!!

Finished this quilt this weekend.  It's made from Moda Vintage Modern.  I fell in love with this line, and had to make something  with it.  We didn't have it on the bolt when I bought the nickel pack.  It was a challenge to make something interesting, but keep the cutting simple without wasting fabric.  

The green on the left with be the back.  I will be quilting it myself.

The Bernina 200 has been broken for over a year.  I put off the repair, knowing that anything Bernina can get pricey.  I was thrilled when the tech told me it would only need a part soldered, costing 79.95.  

Yay!!

You know where this story is going don't you?  

I brought her home, turned her on, Wa La  ---How do you spell that??

Turned her on a second time, 

Nada!!

Brought her back,.

She needed the main board.

378.00.

Sigh!

Upside, I made several more burp cloths for our grandson, and was able to do other sewing while she purred along.  

What price we pay, huh??

Hope you all are well, 

sewing the summer heat away!

See you soon,

Till then,

Linda

By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea...

Oh, we surely date ourselves with certain songs, don't we? 

 Are you telling me to speak for myself?

Insert Big Smile!

We are fortunate enough to go the beach weekly, most of the year.  

When I am ready to leave Fla. and that is guaranteed to happen every September, I think about the beach.  As much as I miss the woods and mountains, and I seriously drool when you post pictures of Fall, Snow, and great scenery,  I don't think I ever want to live landlocked again.    

All you Grammarians out there, was that a run-on sentence?

The rest of you, do you even remember what that is?

Me either!!

Back to the beach.  

We usually go for a walk down the shoreline.  

Some days there are very few shells, but this last time, we happened upon these two beautiful specimens.  

The one on the left is one of the most perfect spirals I've ever seen.  Not one chip, and I especially like the tiny gold dots evenly spaced all around it.

The one on the left is a perfect image of a dragonfly.  It's on both sides, so when I first picked it up, I kept turning it over to see if it had a hole as for a necklace chain.  It's so unusual, I have to wonder where it came from.  

I hope if you try to enlarge the picture, you can clearly see what I'm talking about.

I have been playing with this pattern for table runners.

One of the gals I work with at the quilt store told me how much fun it was to work with, so I had to try it.

Good thing she pointed it out, since the picture on the front would never have caught my eye.

You start out with border fabric.

The pattern is well written and easy to follow.  

The technique is all about how you cut the fabric and sew it together to create just 5 seams, and hopefully an interesting design.

There is no need for binding.

Where the triangles meet, it would have looked a lot better, I'm sure, if I'd done more fussy cutting to get all the motifs aligned.  

It was a lazy day!!

In the spirit of learning, I wanted to share it with you anyway, in all its imperfection.

If you try this, I'd love to see how yours turned out, and please share anything you learn along the way.

See you soon,

Till then, be safe,

Blessings,

Linda

Sewing for Grandchildren

Well, Hi there!

I know it's been a super long time since I've posted, believe me, I've been knitting and sewing my fingers to the bone, gardening too, when I can get out there.

  How have you all been?
I hope you're well and getting lots of studio time.  That's important in our lives, I think, to help us relax, exercise our minds.

Our grandson is due a week from today.  Momma is having lots of aches as everything stretches.  Do you remember those days.  We are so very excited and can't wait to hold him.  They live in Ct, so it is a much anticipated trip.  

I have gotten a few things made, knitted a sweater and blanket to match.  I'd love to share them, but they were sent for the baby shower.  

These are some burp pads I made for them.  A bunch went up for the shower, but I'm continuing to make them, since as we know, you never have enough.  Gratefully, I have an embroidery machine, so I can whip these up quickly.

Here are waterproof pads, could be used as lap pads.  Are you familiar with the newer cloth diapers which come with a waterproof outside attached?  No more rubber pants.   Our youngest used them with our granddaughter, and I think they are terrific.  You can purchase the waterproof fabric at Joanne's, and make diapers and all manner of useful baby items.  There's a book of great ideas, even one on making the diapers. Oh, how things have changed!!

Since this is about sewing for grandchildren, this is a picture of a dream come true.  As she's now 3, it's time to share my passions with her, at least on a small scale.  I had several charm pieces left over from other projects, and I asked her which ones she liked.  Of course, she chose all of them!  She was very good about keeping her hands away, and loved learning how to pin.  I didn't really show her, she just watched and copied what she saw me doing. Oh, how she wanted to get her hands in there, and kept drawing mine away, telling me to be careful.

Don't we all dream of teaching at least our granddaughters how to sew?  I can't wait till we can actually work together, I hope she loves this as much as I do.  

Well, my friends, it's' time to get dinner on, scallops tonight. We love our fresh seafood, do you?

Drop me a line, I love hearing from you. 

 Be safe. 

Till next time

Linda

The Liebster Award

                                              Oh, my goodness, two posts in one day. 

                                                         Something must be up!

                                                            Well, something is. 

                                             I have received the Liebster Award!! 

                                                            Thanks to Katie.            

                                               http://katieandkwilts.blogspot.com/ . 

                                     It's a really fun award which recognizes blogs with less than 200

                                           followers, but you still find interesting,  for recognition.  

                                               Thank  you so much, Katie, for this honor.

Now it's my pleasure to pass this on. 

I'm not so good at this linking thing, but here it goes.

http://bountifulheirlooms.blogspot.com/

This gal is Nancy, and she surely deserves a following.  One of the things which drew me to her is we have have same taste, and I love her quilts.  In our blogging discussions, we discovered that we both have BOMS from the same small quilt store in rural Pa.and we both live quite far from there.  Actually, I've never visited the store.  Nancy is soon to be published.  Check her out!!

http://threemennonitequiltingsisters.blogspot.com/

Ok, first, someone tell me why this isn't purple.

This blog is obviously written by 3 Mennonite sisters who quilt.  They are very creative, and I learn alot from them.  Meet them soon, you'll be glad you did.  Oh, now it's purple.  Go figure.

http://needlingthings.blogspot.com/

This is Edna.  I enjoy her because she says, forget perfection, and get some tops quilted!!  I wish I had learned that years ago, I may not have the WIPS I now do.  At least I'd like to think so.

http://myemptynestisfullofcathair-sheilac.blogspot.com/

This is Sheila.  If you think I don't post often, she's less than I am!!  But she is fun when she does. And besides, we have the cat hair dilemma in common!

 http://auntbeequilts.blogspot.com/

This gal is Beth, and I know her personally.  Not only is her blog interesting, but she's a wonderful woman, and a very talented long arm quilter.  I'm sure if you visit Beth, you will be glad you did.

Now what? you ask. 

 This is what happens next.

1) Post about your win on your blog.

2) Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award.

3) Copy and Paste the award to your blog.

4) Present the award to 5 blogs that have less than 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognized.

5) Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

I think this is fun.  I hope you do too.

Happy Liebster Awarding!

Blessings,

Linda

PS.   I just want to say that I've just spent 10 minutes trying to get to layout in a pleasing manner, and I can do nothing with it!!  Like a South Florida bad hair day!!  My apologies.

  How have you been these past two months?
 Oh, I may have not been talking, but I've been listening!  Everyone seems to be having a creatively wonderful time.

How were your Spring celebrations? 
Easter, Passover? 

Personally, we celebrate Easter.  There's a large Jewish population here, so I have learned alot about the culture and celebrations.  We aren't so different, you know.

We spent the weekend at our daughter's, 2 hours North.  You know, the one with the golden, only grandchild??  We colored eggs, had an egg hunt, played Rock Band!  I got to play the drums.
 Oh, I am sooo Cool! 

Our meal has evolved from the traditional ham and fixin's, which years ago we decided it was too hot to cook!!  So, we switched that to a picnic, in the back yard mostly.  We have subs and potato salad, easy peasy.  And relaxing for Mom!!

The beginning quilting classes I've been teaching are going really well.  The gals are delightful, and I love watching them "get it".  The first group is about to graduate.  Proud of them.

Have I told you??  We are going to be grandparents again.  Our oldest in Ct. is expecting her first, a boy, in August.  Now, I have a large family, lots of nieces and nephews, around 15, and great ones too---like 20 of them, but it's been over 40 years since a baby boy has lived near me.  Seriously, he'll be like a novelty.  When I was 14, I learned by trial and error, of course, the intricacies of changing a little nephew.  How many times did we have to change those sheets??  It will all come back, I'm sure. 

His  name will be Daniel, after his Daddy, and we cannot wait to meet him. 

Certainly, I've been busy making something.  Still working away on Marianne Wenn, and I've learned to knit socks with a pattern!!  And my DH had me paint a project he made.  Painting is the hardest thing for me, not easy to control the brush, but here it is.

It was a fun project to work on, especially because it was a joint effort.  I think he'll be hanging it on the patio.

And, drum roll please!  Finally a quilt for our 3 year old grandaughter.  Her first. 

Initially, I was waiting to see her personality to inspire me, then I didn't want to do difficult piecing for a peanut to drag around, but not so simple it didn't have any soul.   Finally I settled on a wonky nine patch.  Fun color, enough design for interest, and I used up scraps. Still needs quilted, we shall revisit it when it's Fine.

In the meantime, I've ordered yarn to make Daniel his first blanket, so I have my work cut out for me!

Everyone be safe,  And to my new followers, thank you so much for joining me,   I enjoy your responses, so be prolific!! 

I plan to make this an interesting journey!

Blessings,

Linda

My DH and I have been very industrious today.  He made two of these chairs this week, with stools,   I love, love sitting in adirondack chairs.  They are so comfy, and a bit romantic.

And I made the apron for our grandaughter.

Our youngest, sent me a picture of an apron Target had out at the time, and asked me to duplicate it.  I don't think it's OK for me to show the original on here, but here's my version.  I'm including a potholder for the fun of it.  I'm still working on the embroidery for it, so no picture yet.

She has one of those play kitchens, and likes to help her mom bake.  Can't wait to see it on her.

We usually go garage saling on Saturday mornings.  Anyone else going out early to find goodies?  Hope we find something cool. 



Be safe, have fun at your Super Bowl party!!



Blessings,

Linda 

Good Morning!!

As you can see, I've joined the Pinterest craze.  It's alot of fun, and a good way to keep a "scrapbook" of what you really like.  You may find things you've passed by before, actually make you smile now.  I'm just getting started, so there isn't alot on my board, but check it out.

And, because when I began this blog, I said it would have a spiritual component, I want to share that 2011 was the year for God to teach me about child-like faith.  Have you had to learn that one?  I didn't find it easy, at all!!  And not, thank God, because something awful happened, but because I struggle with trust.  I bet alot of you do too.  Frankly, I didn't much like learning this one, and in all honesty, it's still not automatic and easy, but I'm trying.

Blessings,

Linda 



Hi Everyone!!

No more promises to be a faithful blogger. Life just is what it is. It's a new year, and I am back.

Since my last post, eons ago, we finally took that month-long trip we promised ourselves years ago. In October, we started out by going to our daughter's just two hours north for the night, then on to Atlanta, where we both have sisters. The weather was cool, with warm sun. We really enjoyed that since, you know, the weather hadn't broken here yet!! Refresing to leave the heat behind. There was a side trip to the pumpkin patch in the mountains. What fun!! Hadn't done that since I was little.

Then on to Connecticut. Our daughter now lives inland more. Last year she had been in Mystic. It was a drive to get to the coast from her place, but we enjoyed the change of scenery from Florida. The leaves didn't have much color, actually alot were on the ground due to the hurricane they'd encountered. And my DH ended up sick, so we were homebound for too much of the time, never getting to go to Vt or Boston as planned. Thank God he rallied and we had a good drive home.

After visiting our daughter who lives two hours north of us on the way down the coast, we stayed a couple days in Walt Disney World. Try the French Quarter resort at Port Orleans. Really fun with a New Orleans theme. There's a singer/musician there, Elliot, who's a one man band, in an area between the lobby and the restaurant/bar. Really fun and personable. I think you'll like it.

For those of you who think Disney is just for kids, the first time we went there without any, it was a really good time. We were free of watching out for little ones, and carrying all the extra stuff. Try it, you'll be surprised!!

BTW, after our trip, we decided we probably wouldn't go for that long again.

December found us back in Disney for our anniversary, meeting my SIL and her hubby, two or our daughters, and the cherished grandbaby. Now, Fantasyland through her eyes is tremendous!!

And, the news is, we are going to be grandparents again!! This time it's our DD in Ct. Guess i'll be making that trip a couple more times.

On the quilting front, I've been teaching at Stitchcraft in Boca. It's a wonderful store, love the owner. If you get near there, it's worth the stop. She has wonderful fabrics.

And, I'm finishing up all those applique quilts I promised about. When I went looking for all the UFO blocks, I found that I had 12 quilts started. Seriously, that's nuts!! And Nancy, who knows the Oley shop from where these came, you may recognize them all!! My little fingers are hard at work stitching and stitching!!

Have you checked out Pinterest yet? Well, I have and I'm on there. Give it a look, it's fun!!

Glad to be back in touch with all of you!

Linda