No Time to Quilt But Having Fun!

I sure haven't been able to find the time to do much quilting lately, it seems. But I have been having fun. This weekend it was my granddaughter Kayla's 4th birthday and she was in town staying with her other grandma. She brought her and her little brother, McKay over for the afternoon so we could celebrate with her. I gave her, her birthday gift which was this little doll and this doll quilt and doll burp cloth I had made and crocheted around the edge. She was so adorable playing mommy, I just had to share this picture with all of you. She made my day when she said, "Grandma this is the bestest gift ever!" (I knew she loved dolls so I couldn't go wrong.)

We also went to Jamba Juice where her aunt Mallory works and had a drink, and then went to the new library that just opened recently and just sat and read books for quite awhile. She loved it.
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Gratitudes:

1. Granddaughters that bring me smiles and joy!

2. My first paycheck from my new job!

3. A husband who loves to be a grandpa, too!

4. My favorite Jamba Juice drink -- Berry Fulfilling!

5. Relaxing Sundays!

One of My Very First Quilts

I have always loved to quilt, but raising 6 children gave me very limited time to quilt for many years. It hasn't been until the last 6-8 years that I've really gotten back into it. What got me back into quilting initially was wanting to carry on my mother's tradition of making each of her children a quilt when they got married. So, the first major quilt I made was for my oldest son when he got married. (I'll have to scan that picture in, sometime....that was before digital cameras.) A year later, my daughter got married and this picture is the quilt I made her for her wedding. She loves blues and wanted a blue quilt.

I started keeping a journal of my quilts a year or two after I made these quilts, so I hadn't taken pictures of these first two quilts to begin with, but when I visited my daughter a few weeks ago, she got this quilt out and let us sleep with it on the guest bed so I finally got a picture of it. It brought back fond memories seeing it again. It's a special time, when your daughter is getting married and you're deep into wedding plans with her. All of those feelings and memories came rushing back when I saw it again. I just thought I'd share it with all of you since I just got a picture of it.

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Gratitudes:

1. Fond memories of a special time that comes flooding back.

2. A heart to heart talk with a daughter.

3. The feeling of seasons changing and the crisp air of fall.

4. Taking a quilt to "show & tell" and getting nice compliments on it.

5. Hugs from a child that come unbidden.

My "Quilt Block of the Month" Class Project

I have been absent from blogging for a couple of weeks and I've really missed it. Thanks to several of you who contacted me and let me know I was missed. I was totally touched by your friendship. I've had company, (my newly married daughter and husband surprised me as a belated birthday present and showed up on my doorstep for the Labor Day weekend. This brought all of my other children and spouses and grand children to visit since they were home), I went on a trip, (my husband and I drove up to Seattle to tend our two adorable grandchildren together for a long weekend - see pictures below) andI just started a brand new job that came out of the blue and I started the day it was offered to me, so I've been trying to adjust to a whole new schedule (and less time for blogging and quilting). I'm hoping to find a balance that I can live with and enjoy. Things have been extremely busy and crazy but everything has been such a blessing and great things to have happen.

The top picture is of soon-to-be 4-year old Kayla on her new bike and 2-year old McKay on his new tricycle. Grandkids are soooo much fun!! They light up my life.

I've had the very fun opportunity to teach a "Quilt Block of the Month" class at my church. It's been a totally volunteer situation, and I've loved it. It was a group of mostly new quilters just starting out. I started with 15 enrolled and after a few months it narrowed down to 9 very enthusiastic, dedicated new quilters. It was so much fun watching them catch the quilting "bug" and get so excited about their quilts. (One of my new blogging friends that I had mentioned teaching this class at church said, "Don't you feel a little guilty teaching addictive behavior to church friends."--or something close to that. I laughed so hard. It's true.) All 9 finished up the class and are now doing the quilting on their quilts so that we can display them in October at a church function.

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Above is a picture of my finished product. (Well, I'm still quilting it.) As you can see, because it was a beginning class, we did very basic block patterns and we did them 12". I had accumulated a lot of blues and yellows in my stash that I wanted to use up so mine is blue and yellow scrappy. All of my "students" chose 3 main fabrics and used just those 3 fabrics. They all turned out lovely and it was so gratifying to see, as their teacher, their finished projects and how pleased they were with them. I'm going to take pictures when we display them and I'll share them on my blog.

I decided to hand quilt mine on my hoop for a couple of reasons. I love to hand quilt and I haven't for awhile now and I miss it. Also, I wanted to use polyester batting because I had some on hand and I wanted it to have a little heavier loft and I like hand quilting with that batting better than machine quilting.

I ended up with several extra blocks because as I would prepare to teach, I would experiment with different fabrics and I wanted to show different options for assembling their block. I picked out 4 of them and stuck them on the back of my quilt.

The class was so well received (I take no credit -- it is the quilting people catch excitement for)and generated even more interest among other ladies in my church, I'm going to offer a 3-month class making a holiday table runner which starts September 27th. I've all ready got about 20 signed up for that. (I'm sure it will also narrow down to the real serious quilters.) But I'm excited about it. Here is a picture of the table runner we'll be doing.

GRATITUDES:

1. Wonderful surprises!!!

2. A granddaughter who says, "Your house is fun, Grandma!"

3. New "Dream Job" opportunities.

4. Grandkids laughter and cute conversations!

5. A piece of Chocolate coconut macaroon cheesecake shared with my husband.

6. My family all around me sounding happy!