A Sweet Baby Quilt

A little over a year ago I was (im)patiently waiting the arrival of our 13th child.  I had carpel tunnel, high blood pressure, my FIL had recently died and my MIL was terminally ill with cancer.  I'd chosen an adorable baby quilt to make for a girl.  Unfortunately, I hadn't paid attention to how much work it was going to be!!  Also, I didn't have any pregnancy related problems at the time I chose it.  This week when I finished it, I decided it truly was worth all my work.  I'm just glad I had a boy and his quilt was already finished when he arrived almost 3 weeks early.

I found my pattern here, on the Riley Blake website.  It was called Vintage Chic.  If you haven't been there, you might want to check it out.  They have tons of free patterns.  I had to refigure everything so I could make it a baby quilt.  When trying to decide what kind of fabric to use, Aimee found this line of fabric online . . . Aviary 2 in Lilac, by Joel Dewberry.  I thought it was sooo cute . . . but wasn't really thinking about what small pieces I would be cutting and, for the most part, you can't see what most of these prints really look like.  I still like the end result.

A few facts:  This quilt is 37" X 40".  It has 476 triangles of fabric in the chevron part of the quilt, making up 238 2" finished blocks.  Um . . . yeah!!!  So, with my sore wrists/arms, I had to square up each block to 2 1/2" after I sewed them all together.  Like I said . . . totally worth it!  But, I don't think I'll do it again:)  And, it will only go to a daughter or granddaughter because I don't think anyone will pay me enough for it!!!

 

Aren't these little birdies just so adorable??

Here's a photo of the back of my quilt.  I used minky.  I'm not sure if I like the back or the front better!!  I really do like the front better, but I really do like how the quilting shows up on the back!

A little closer up.

And the whole thing.

So there's my bragging for the day:)

Looking forward to a craft day on Monday . . . and lots of visiting!!

"School"

I've been helping Hunter at home with learning his letters.  Walker and Morgan want to do school, too!  Walker now knows his alphabet and Morgan almost has it down.  The other day Walker learned how to write "W", so today he got to do "a", the second letter in his name.  First I printed out a big "a" for him to fill in with different objects.

He used Legos first.

Morgan wanted to do it, too, so I printed off an "M" for her.  She knows "M" is for "me and Mom!"  Here she is filling hers in with dominoes.

Lincoln logs were another thing they used.

Morgan really filled up her M! . . . and the rest of her paper :)

Hunter was done with his "school" so he played with Legos while they did their letters.

All 3 of them got to write their letters with their finger in flour on a plate.  They thought that was fun!  And then Walker finally got to write "a"s.

Then they all decided they were done and went off to play.  I'll have to work more with Walker on his "a"s another day.  He is a good student and always anxious to move on!  When we did "W", I had him filling in a W with different objects and he told me he wants to write "W" today!  So I let him be done doing that and he got to start writing it :)  He did pretty good!

Rachel

*I've been getting lots of ideas and worksheets from themeasuredmom.com

***Mom's editing here . . . Rachel is an EXCELLENT teacher!!

Annual Stitch & Chatter Quilt Retreat

Our Stitch 'n Chatter group had our annual quilt retreat on Saturday.  Everyone works on their own quilt.  This year Marcella taught us the "Band Box" quilt.  We're given a list of what is needed and buy our own fabric if we want to do the group project.  These three quilts are done using the technique each a little differently.  I'm working on a quilt that will be similar to the middle one, with the blocks "on point".

Since it was our 10th annual retreat, we displayed a quilt made from each year's group project (I didn't get a picture of all of them).  I've been to each of the retreats and have done the group project every year except for one.

These quilts were made two years ago.  I didn't work on the group project that year because I'd made this one, which was very similar, the fall before.

This was the quilt from our first retreat - Yellow Brick Road.

Wacky Stars

This is a quilt from several years ago that I made for Tara - Blooms for Annabelle.

Rachel came to the retreat this year.  Many years ago she came to babysit for me, but has never been there quilting.

Jan, laying out her quilt blocks.  She was making a bright children's quilt.

Jerrie Lynn showed off this pretty quilt that she was making.

It's so nice to get together with the ladies to quilt.  I love having the whole day to work and visit.  Of course, it even nicer on the years I don't have a baby along with me, but still fun even then!  Tanner got to join us (with Aimee) for most of the day this year. 

Very much looking forward to, and hoping I will be able to attend, the beach retreat in the fall!!!

Tanner's 1st Birthday

Yesterday Tanner turned 1!  God sent him to us early so Grandma could meet him.

 

Usually everyone likes to give the birthday person a present, but I finally learned that isn't really necessary for a 1 year old:)  We got enough (small) things for the younger kids to give him.  Here's he's showing off a shirt and baby food.  And, yes, he loved getting the baby food.  He kept on saying num-num and picking it back up off the floor!!

 

Daddy had seen this Ford ride-on toy awhile back and has been knowing that Tanner "needed" to have it for his birthday.  He was very excited about it.



 

 

Grandma's last words to Tanner (as a one month old baby) were something to the effect that there was a Tonka truck downstairs that he would get to play with when he got bigger.  After her death, we took it home for him and it has been stored to give him on his birthday.  I was looking for a simple cake and remembered this kind . . . a load of "dirt".



Dirt . . . or mud . . . kind of makes a mess:)

Getting a ride in his new truck . . . "Look, Mom, no hands"!!

And a picture of Morgan since she's so cute and said "Mom, take a picture of me":)