Posies Quilt

The finished Buggy Barn quilt top - Fun to make. Two women created this method of construction, where you stack ten fat quarters of fabric, and cut them out according to a pattern. Then you shuffle some of the colors, so that you use up all of the pieces, but create vastly different blocks. This technique is so much fun to do, because you don't have to worry so much about matching points, etc. Loved doing this quilt. The bottom three blocks are possibilities for a child's quilt. What a nice way to use up some fabrics I didn't know what to do with. The accent is on frogs, bugs, but no puppy dog's tails. Be sure to enlarge the pictures

Aline (a-leen'-uh) The newest member of the Family

Mandy and John's little family enlarged by one last Saturday night, and her uncle Phillip is already taking pictures! Named Aline Kathryn, and weighing 7 lbs, 13 ozs, she looks very angelic, and will probably never cry or kick up a fuss. I understand that Mandy had some meditation training, so that should probably help keep the peace in the house. I still love Wordsworth's poem paraphrased to say that we come from afar, trailing clouds of glory. It is so with each new baby. Enjoy the sweetness - children do grow up to become teen-agers. That time has it's own special joys, too.

It's the Shamrock!

I did not take time to color correct these pictures - the backgrounds are mostly white, but everything looks pink. Sorry about that. As I've written before, my local quilt guild (The Preston Piecers) have a block drawing each month. We're working on seasonal blocks this year, and if you commit to this group, everyone makes a specific block in colors of choice, and bring the signed block to the monthly meeting. Then a name is drawn from the group, and that person gets all of the blocks. There are about 17 participating, so you should end up with 17 blocks - eventually. I received the shamrock blocks this month, and haven't the slightest idea what to do with them. You can all help me by making constructive suggestions. (Non-constructive not appreciated.) Again, imagine most of the backgrounds as white, except for one that is yellow. And one that is green.........If I were Irish, this would be more appropriate, right?

Empty Nesters

Actually, I can't let this day go by without talking a little bit about a group of women from our church who get together at someone's house once a month to present our culinary skills for lunch, and sit together and eat and talk. The only requirement is that you do not bring children. Sometimes we have as few as 8 and sometimes as many as 20. We enjoy each other's company immensely, and tell stories about happenings in our lives. Some of the more seasoned members initiate the others into the life of hauling water, and having outdoor plumbing. We have yet to run out of topics. No gossip allowed, but we do have a good time, and go home convinced that the calorie gremlins who live in our closets and eat away at our clothes so that they no longer fit so well will be hard at work tonight. This get-together does require that the hostess for the month has to move a bit of furniture (or get her husband to help), and find enough chairs for all to have a seat, but the effort is worth the reward. We find that meeting together on Sunday does not give us a chance to really get to know each other better, and we find we are becoming a very close-knit group of women who can support each other through thick and thin. We've seen some through cancer, through MS, through broken bones, through surgeries, and on and on. The support system gets stronger for the association.

Newest Addition to our Family

Aline (pronounced a-leen'uh, which we are assured is a Celtic name) Kathryn, born Saturday late evening at the door of the birthing hospital. Obviously, this little one was in a hurry, and should be a joy to her parents and brother and sister. Congratulations and love to Mandy and John on this happy occasionl

March and April quilt blocks for the Friendship Quilt

A shamrock for March And a tulip, also. Did I really get my borders so crooked, or does the "keystoning" that poor photography does make all these look lopsided. Oh, well. Nobody's perfect - are they? A famous quilter said, "Better finished than perfect."

A Quilt for a New Baby

The lady bug baby quilt. This is the center - cute bug. The little quilt is all flannel - I practiced my quilting on this one, and ended up with a little too much quilting, so the quilt will make a good pad, and maybe a cover, too. I hope so. Doing free motion quilting without a pattern is fun, but I'm not good enough to really place things well. Some of the stitches look okay, but there is an occasional glitch - or two - or three.

If you really want to see the glitches, or admire my quilting ;-), click to enlarge. This quilt is for Mandy and John's baby, who is to be born this month. I'm not too worried about them seeing it, because they are so busy that they don't visit this spot too often. Fun to make, though, and successful or not, neat to have made with love for the new baby.

More Seasonal Quilt Blocks

Easter comes in April, but our friendship quilters will get an Easter block, and another one, as well. The kite will come in April - I decided the center of the block - the kite should be bigger, so all of the other blocks will be vey large. Once again, there will be a drawing, and the winnter will get about 17 blocks of the same theme, but different colors, etc. More later.