Hello February

 Welcome February!  How did we get here already?

In my attempt to do a better job of blogging this year, I have several new projects to share.  The first is a small quilt for Project Quilting hosted by Persimon Dreams.  Each season I think that I will participate and end up getting sidetracked.  This week's challenge is Kitchen Influence.  I come from a long line of fabulous cooks.  I remember many days of helping my grandmother cook as well as my mom.  I fondly remember those warm cinnamon rolls coming out of the oven as we arrived home from school.  As a tribute to all of their wonderful recipes and fond memories, I created a small wallhanging for the kitchen.  In the center is a four generation photo of my grandmother, my mom, myself and my daughter.  Surrounding the photo are recipes passed down through the years.  

To create it I made a collage of photo and treasured recipes.  I then copied it onto a piece of treated fabric backed with butcher paper.  Cut to legal size measurements, it easily ran through my printer.  After heat setting it, I used it as my center block and framed it with simple borders.  They look wonky in the photo, but they really aren't. 

Even with all the technology of digital recipes, there is nothing quite like the old recipe box filled with the handwritten recipes.  The additional stains from the years of using them add to the charm and the memories.  I could never move these to the digital format.  

A wee bit more sewing happened as well.  My eldest granddaughter is moving to Kansas City with her husband and grandbaby.  She had started to make burp cloths several months ago and came over to sew a few of them to completion.  I will really miss my sewing companion.  We have spent so many hours over the years stitching together, but I know it is a good move for them.  

While cleaning things out at my mom's house, we noticed her hummingbird nest in the potted plant on her front porch had two eggs in it.  Watching it each day, we were rewarded with the hatchling.  I cannot begin to tell you just how tiny this little nest (and the baby) is.  I am always amazed at the shape of the beak when newly hatched.  It's fun to watch it grow into the sword shape as the baby bird grows.  I guess it would be really hard to feed the bird if it also had the long skinny beak.  ;-)  I wonder if it is the same mother coming to the nest year after year.  Life goes on...........

Quilts, Monarchs, Flowers and Such

 The main problem with posting so seldom is trying to capture everything in one post.  It has been a busy month around here.  

Sewing started the month off with a gifted quilt for a friend of my DIL who just started chemo for breast cancer.  Snails Trail seemed like an appropriate pattern for the slow months ahead of chemo, radiation, double mastectomy and reconstruction.

The camera angles make one look quite long and thin while the other is square,  It is actually a generous sized throw..  

It progressed to more fun sewing, baby burp cloths and a Christening gown for a baby shower for our eldest granddaughter.  I completely forgot to take a picture of the gown, but will do so at the Christening.  

Then we slipped off to Hawaii for a week of complete relaxation.  It was heavenly!  The view from our balcony was glorious and we enjoyed the sunsets everyday.  The flowers there were also fantastic.  

Can you spot the courting gecko?

This masterpiece was hanging in our hotel lower lobby, artist "unknown". 
A reminder to label your quilts!  (110" square)

From our room we had a view of the hotel gardens below us.  It was such fun to watch the progress of their plantings from when we arrived.  I wouldn’t mind that job!

It’s always fun to return home and see what is happening in my own gardens.  So much is blooming now.  

Cymbidiums.  Many of these once belonged to my dad.  He had quite a green thumb.

Clivia.  These were all started from seeds that my BIL gave me.

Roses...I love this one.  It is called Tuscan Sun by Jackson and Perkins.   

We’ve had so many monarch cocoons this year.  Many have flown free already, but I have several left to hatch.  One is going to break free sometime today and I am trying to capture it on a video.  It’s soooo close.

Lastly, this past week our daughter’s Golden Retriever had ten puppies.  OMGoodness....cuteness galore.  Fear not.....that is not a handmade quilt, but would be worth it.  ;-)

Finishing July

As another month comes to a close, we move closer and closer to Christmas.  Have you enjoyed all of the great Christmas in July posts and projects?  There are so many great ideas which I am sure that I will wish I had done when December rolls around.  ;-)

What did I accomplish this week?  Well....I did finish the horse quilt in time for the birthday next Monday.

 The back....

I did the quilting with a star and horseshoe pantograph.

The same group that worked on our Round Robin will now be doing a Row by Row Robin.  I have finished my first row and my spacer rows, but am considering maybe replacing the black spacer rows with two white rows instead.  My thought was to alternate dark and light, but I'm not sure that I care for that idea.  I might alternate with a checkerboard row.  Any thoughts?

My #spellingbee block went out to Simone this month.  I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the colors in this one and made the first word in purple.  Fortunately, one of the other bee-ers recognized my mistake before I sent it off.  It was taxing on the mind to make purple in coral.

A young couple at church had a little baby girl so a couple of burp cloths were sewn up this week.

I had company in my sewing room yesterday when I went to sit at the machine.  This was what I put my hand on when I went to pull out my chair.  It scared us both half to death, but its colors were so pretty - orange and iridescent green.  I did manage to capture it and return it to the outside where it belongs.

I did get some really fun mail this week.  It came from a giveaway that Elizabeth had.  I have loved looking through these Uppercase magazines.  There are so many exceptionally talented and creative people in the world.  Speaking of talented....Elizabeth is someone who fits into that category.  Her work never ceases to amaze me and she tackles it with such precision.

We enjoyed our nephew's wedding last weekend.  It was a perfect day for a wedding with a beach reception.  I managed to grab a shot of a few of our "children" and a couple of their spouses.

So.....that has been my week.  How was yours?


Linking up with Finished or not Friday.

A Good Sewing Week

It has been a good sewing week for me.  I've had a bit of free time which is always welcome.  Of course I have to bribe myself A LOT these days.  A promise of some quality time in the sewing room IF I will clean this closet or that seems to get the chores done around here.  I surely wish that little cleaning elf would show up at my house.

I managed to get my table topper made with the patriotic fabrics that I won from Inchworm Fabrics.  I  used a pattern that I had seen on the internet and it said it was from Artthreads. 

It went up quickly and I really enjoy the way it turned out.  I would recommend using biased binding with all of the curves.  I did and it worked beautifully.  The red and blue decorative stitching is just one of the stitches on the sewing machine.  Thanks to Cherry for all the wonderful advice about starching the fabric WELL before doing the applique.  It sewed up beautifully.  She is the queen of detailed applique work.

Sunday was a baby shower for our DIL and I always enjoy throwing a few burp cloths in with the baby gifts.  They are constructed with flannel so are soft for the baby's face too.  Can you tell that the sex of the baby is not known? 

Nice shadow of the camera!!!!!

I continue to work on my It Takes 2 blocks.  This series called for two airplane blocks, but I did just one and then did a contrasting Ohio Star pattern instead.

This weekend is a birthday for one of the granddaughters.  She will be two years old so I made her a simple summer dress.  I LOVE this DS fabric and I think it made up really cute as a dress and bloomers.

Today is another granddaughter birthday.  We are invited for dinner tonight and I am bringing the cake so best get myself going and get it made.

Four of the girls will come home with us tonight for a sleepover and we will make bread and more strawberry jam tomorrow.

I know a few of my followers are in the fire area of Colorado and a few more  in the flooding from Debbie.  Please stay safe and know that we are all thinking about you and keeping you in our prayers.