8 years old and 3rd Grade

Another year has gone by.  My baby is officially 8 years old.  We celebrated twice over the weekend.  Big family/friend party on Saturday and ice cream cake on Sunday.

Today was the first day of school.  A 3rd grader.  Where did my little preschooler go?!

I just realized that my 5th blogiversary is coming.  I also just realized that I started my blog on my wedding anniversary!  HA!  I never noticed that before.  I think a giveaway is in order but I'm going to hold off for another month.... when I celebrate my own milestone.  :)

I have been doing a little sewing.  Working on getting some bindings done but I also made a little wallhanging for myself.  I'll show you that soon!

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)

Birthday Gift

It's me again and so soon.  Are you surprised?!

In between working on the blocks for the memory quilt for my Grandmother, I've been working on a birthday gift for a friend of mine.  I take a weekly ceramics class and August is a busy month for birthdays there.  My teacher, my good friend and her mom - all August birthdays.  And our class is small.  Only 5 students.  We do one big August celebration.  No need to have cake 3x in one month.

My teacher has a round table and has been asking for placemats to fit her table correctly.  I bought this book by Gudrun Erla for another project (the super tote on the cover - I haven't made it yet) and in the book? Curved placemats!

I bought some Fig Tree fabric and some coordinating ones and got to work.

The fabric right in the middle is what I used for the backing.  Quilting as you go is a wonderful concept.  These were quick to sew up.  Just need to take a pressing to them, box them up and wrap.  Good to go.

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 :)

Let me catch you up

Well hello there!  No excuses on my blogging absence.  I just didn't have much to say.

Let me catch you up on the last 6+ weeks or so.

Amelia graduated college and she's off to Super Hero school.  Just kidding.  She successfully passed 2nd grade and on her way to being a 3rd grader and a "book buddy" to a kindergartner.  She's looking forward to that.

Last day of school

Ellyn made Amelia the dress that she wore for her last day of school... 2 years ago!  It finally fit her.  She's a petite little thing.  I wish I had her metabolism.

Her teacher loved the apples wallhanging.  I had Amelia write the label.  She added the last sentence all on her own; "Thank you for this wonderful year".  She really liked her teacher this year.

I had some quilting done by Jill again.  Wonderful job, as usual.  Here are 2 of the pieces I had done.  I finally got my pinwheel quilt (quilt in my header) quilted but I haven't had a chance to trim it up.  I will show you that one soon.  The Valentine heart wallhanging - Carol made one earlier this year and I really like it so I made one myself.  The Lucy's Crab Shack table runner... I pieced it last summer.  Nothing like procrastination at it finest getting it quilted.

Lastly, I made a couple of pillowcases.  Next week, Punk and I are flying the friendly skies to Texas for a mini vacation.  We're off to go spend some time with my BFF and her family.  We haven't seen each other in 3 years.  We email/Facebook pretty much every day so we keep in touch but there's nothing like face to face.  We are all super excited about the trip.  The pillowcases are for her girls.

That's it.  Not much.  Trying to keep cool in this mega heat we've been hit with.  Spending lots of time in the AC and pool.  My sewing room doesn't have AC so it's a bit warm in there.  Probably why I've been staying away from my sewing projects.  I have a few things in the works that I would like to get motivated to finish.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Ready for the Beach

Seems like my blogging time gets further and further apart.  I hope to NOT have a repeat performance of last summer and my lack of blogging. 

I bumped into a very fun (and quick!) project earlier last week and it was on my mind for most of it.  So I gathered my supplies and went to town in my sewing room over the weekend.

Did I say this was a quick project to sew up?  Yes?  Well, trust me.  It was.  2 hours and I had a new bag done.

Isn't it CA-UTE??  It's big too.  If you want to make one... click here!

It really is a nice size and has six pockets on the outside.  I put two beach towels rolled up on the inside to give you an idea but there is so much more room for lots more stuff.

I made mine with a home dec weight on the outside and DS Quilts fabrics from Joanns for everywhere else.  I love that orange print that I used for the lining.

Now I'm ready for the beach!  Or at least the pool.  I love bags and totes.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

An Apple for the Teacher

The end of the school year is fast approaching and of course, I am scrambling.  I had this mini quilt idea way back, when Lori posted her apple row in her Row Along.  I put it off and put it off: "I have PLENTY of time!" and look - June 1st is Saturday!

In between rainy days this weekend, I worked on this mini for Amelia's teacher.  Happy to have the top done. 

Here is my question... what color do I quilt it in?  I'm going to a simple straight line quilting of some sort but I don't know if I should go with a red or a neutral - like a gray or cream?  Thoughts?  I'll welcome any ideas because I need to hustle to get it done for the last day of school. 

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

To ease myself back into sewing, I worked on getting all the pillowcases made that I bought fabric for when we went away back in April.  Our weather for the Memorial Day weekend was terrible.  Raw, cold, and raining.  We were very happy that we decided to stay home and not go up north.  My in-laws went and New Hampshire got 4 inches of snow Saturday night.  I heard that upstate New York got upwards of 3 feet of snow!  It felt more like March than the end of May!

Thankfully, the sun found its way back and Monday it was nice and sunny.  End of this week, the weatherman is saying we are going to hit the 90s!  From winter to mid-summer with no Spring.  As usual for New England.

Question is... which ones will go on the beds this week?

Enjoy your day!
Jen