In the nick of time!

I have a big finish for 2013.  Only 2 years in the making.  Maybe I should have held off and blogged about it on the 2nd anniversary of the first block.  I made the first block early January 2012 and here it is... December 30, 2013 and I can say it is finished and ready to be quilted... when I get backing for it.

SWOON!  FINISHED!!!  WOOOHOOOOOO!

Happy to have this one finally finished.  Sad that it took me so long since all I had left to do was to sash the 3rd row and sew the three rows together.  I made some little pinwheels for cornerstones in the sashing for fun.  I used a lot of red in this quilt.  I should have taken a better look at the blocks as I was making them. Another gray one would have been nice.  Eh.  It's done.  I'm happy.  Moving on.

I made a travel pillowcase for one of my BFF's daughters.  She lost her pillow and case that I made her a couple of years ago.  Requested another pillowcase for the replacement travel pillow.

Last for right now, some looming fun.  A warm scarf and a little hat for my God-son.  This loom knitting is super fun and addicting!  Christmas night, I was home alone.  Husband working and Punk went to my Mom's for a few days.  I sat in the recliner for 5 hours, just looming away.  I had to force myself to turn the TV off at 11pm and go to bed.  I kept telling myself "just one more row".  This scarf only took me a couple of hours over a 2 day period.  What I was working on Christmas night is just a fun project.  Using up some yarn.

The little hat is more of an aqua and celery color combo.  I couldn't get them to come through correctly in any picture I took.

 OH!  The memory quilt for my Grandmother.  I gave it to her last week on Sunday.  Unfinished but that's okay.  I will grab it from her in the next couple of weeks to put the binding on.  She cried after REALLY seeing it and figured out what it was.  She thought it was just a quilt.  The pictures in the blocks kind of got by her at first.  Once she really looked at it and saw pictures of my Grandfather, her children, her grand-children and great grand-children... waterworks.  It was a big, big hit.  Even my Dad shed a tear.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Labor of Love and Memories

It's done!  It's done!  It is packed up and waiting to go to the post office.

It's big.  Way big.  I went a little crazy with the pictures.  72 blocks.  3 months to complete.  I am thrilled it is finished on time and it's off my project list.

I had fun picking pictures.  Especially those with my Grandfather.  He passed away 35 years ago.  I remember him a little.  Wish my memories of him were stronger.  I can't wait to get it back all quilted and give it to my Grandmother for Christmas.  I showed it off over the last week and everybody who saw it just loved it.  Some people asked "You MADE that?!".  I was proud to say "Yes I did!".

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

The First Four Rows

Yesterday afternoon, Amelia helped me and we laid out the memory quilt blocks for my Grandmother and figured out where the holes were in the row patterns.  I was short a total of 5 blocks and had to unsew a few and re-configure them.  Glad I took the time to lay it all out instead of going with my system of keeping track.  I would have been way off.  I was keeping track of the 4 block styles along the way and it was working but when I got to 68 blocks, I figured it was a good time to pause and see what was going on in the quilt.

We fussed a little bit with moving blocks around but to be frank, I didn't really.  I knew I could drive myself batty moving the pictures around.  It is what it is.  I've been checking the rows before I've sewn them and did a little re-shuffle that way.  Good thing too.  I had a row that had one picture of my Grandmother and the rest were of my Dad.  LOL.

So far this weekend, I got 4 rows totally pieced together, rows 5 and 6 are pieced but are separate from the group and row 7 is waiting to be pieced into a row.  I just got tired and had to quit.  I will get the last 3 rows pieces the next 3 nights and by the weekend, fingers crossed!  My goal is to have this all pieced and to Jill for some quilting NO LATER than the first week of November.  I still have to get the binding on this thing once it gets back to me.  I am so slow with binding work.  

Here are the first four rows

Some close-ups in sections

Middle

Top

Bottom

I really love how this is coming out.  And if I didn't know I would get this quilt back eventually (hopefully years and years from now), I would want to keep it for myself!

My little helper

Next time I show you, this will be one massive quilt, ready for the quilter's.  This is my biggest one so far in my sewing career.  72 memory blocks.  I think I got a bit carried away with picking pictures, don't you think?  I don't care.  I couldn't decide and just kept going.  It is going to be awesome regardless!  I don't think I will take on another one of these quilts for a while though.  My bank account needs to recover.  That printable fabric paper is expensive!  Thank goodness for Joann coupons!

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)

Memories

It's been on my mind for quite some time to create a memory quilt for my Babci (Grandmother) and if I was on the ball, I would have done it for her 90th birthday celebration last July.  I wasn't but I am now.  I've been collecting pictures from back in the day; when my Daddy was a little boy in Poland and such to pictures from the stylish 60s, 70s and early 80s.  ;)  Current pictures as well.  I would like wedding photos of everybody. Myself, Brother, Cousin, Aunt, Father and Grandparents.  My grandparents don't have a "true" wedding photo.  My Aunt tells me there is a composite photo of them somewhere in my Babci's house.  She needs to find it.

I had intended to make a wall-hanging sized quilt for her but I think we're going into lap/twin sized quilt.  I have 16 blocks done so far.  Since the pictures all range in size and I really didn't want to fight to resize the larger photos, I decided to follow the Sweet Pea pattern by Anka's Treasures.  The pattern works well with the different sized pictures.  The larger ones don't have an inner border around them but the end result will all be the same size.  Depending on the size of the quilt, I may or may not put an outer border around the entire thing.

Want to see a close-up of our memories?

Me (age 2) and my cousin (age 5)

One of my favorites in the upper left.  Me (baby) with my cousin and Grandfather

My Daddy and my Aunt.  Not sue how old he is here.  My brother at that age could be his twin

My brother (age 3)

My brother and SIL on their wedding day in the upper right

My Grandparents

I need more pictures.  There is one picture of my grandparents that I want to put in this quilt but I can't find it.  It's in a frame in her house but she tends to move things around and nobody can find it.  On top of that, nobody knows what picture I'm talking about.  In my mind's eye I see it.  She's wearing a red dress or coat and standing with my grandfather.  Sigh.  I need to find it.  I want it for myself.  I would LIKE to keep the quilt to the 30 blocks in the pattern but I've earmarked 26 pictures of my own (!) so I'm thinking it will be growing.  2 blocks need to be re-done.  I screwed up somewhere and they aren't wide enough.  I am happy with the progress.  

I'm using this product for the photos and it's working really well.  Prints out beautifully on my printer.  I just wish it wasn't so expensive.  Thank goodness for Joann coupons!  I'm buying the 10 pack and I need my 3rd package of 10.  The 25 pack is $50.00 at Joann's.  

My goal is to give her this quilt for Christmas.  I'm waiting for more pictures from various family members.  I put a deadline on my request for earlier this month but due to some very unexpected family issues - I'm giving everybody a break.  It's not like I've asked for pictures at least 3 other times earlier this year (I hope my sarcasm is coming over in that statement).

All other projects have been pushed aside so that I can work on this.  It's been going together quick but it's a process with the photo transfer/printing.  When I purchased the fabric for this gift, I bought 3 yards and I'm thinking I will need more.  I HOPE the shop where I bought it still has it!  Unfortunately, the shop is an hour away from my house and I don't see myself getting out that way in the next few weeks. 

That's what I've been up to.  Hanging out in the past and enjoy the fashions we wore.  LOL!!

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)