Thinning the pile of quilts here

My parents were just here for a visit and I ended up sending four quilts home with them.

One for my dad:

One for my aunt:

And two baby quilts for a charity auction:

But, before I sent them, they all needed labels.  I love the look of hand embroidered labels, but that was not going to happen.  So I tried stamped labels.

I ordered the fabric ink online and I got the letters and the clear acrylic press at Joann's.  It feels good to get quilts labeled with more than scribbling with a Micron pen. 

I didn't get a picture of the stack of four folded quilts that my parents had to haul home.  We had to loan them a piece of our luggage for the plane ride.  But now I have more room to make more for the stack of quilts to stay here.

It takes a village

I am so so pleased to show this quilt.  Mommy Neighborhood is my first ever bee quilt finish.  It is also the first that I have mixed hand and machine quilting. 

The texture of the hand quilting portion is pretty amazing.  I only wish I was a better photographer to capture the white on white.

But this Mommy Neighborhood quilt is so much more than the fabric choices and the quilting.  I am grateful to my friends that made some blocks for me:  Rachel, Sarah, Jessica, Anna, Keri, Karen, Vanessa, and Veronique.  These and other online knitting friends (Katie, Laura, Suvi, Jennifer, Sindu, Charity, and Sheryl) were there for me during my pregnancy and ever since Henry was born.  They all have children Henry's age and we've become friends through sharing our trials and joys in raising our kids.  They were there for me through insomnia, severe infection, postpartum depression, anxiety attacks and Henry's diagnosis of autism.  Their commiseration, humor, acceptance and encouragement have helped make me into the mom I am today.

Hillary Clinton said that it takes a village to raise a child.   
This quilt will hang on my wall and remind me of the village that it takes to raise a mom.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my friends.


.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

Notes about this quilt:

• the green strips of lawn were inspired by this quilt,
•  I have two tutorials posted for making tiny house blocks if you are interested:  one and two.

"I think I like you"

I'm so happy that I'm finally making a quilt for my husband.  He puts up with a lot of nonsense from me and he's extremely supportive of my quilting habit.  I tend to hog my summer blanket, so it is about time I made him one of his own. 

All of these photos are progress pics off of instagram from the last few weeks. 

Each block is 10" and the finished quilt is seven blocks wide and nine blocks long, so it is roughly twin size. 

I'll use bamboo batting again to make it a nice, lightweight quilt.

In case I forgot to mention earlier, the pattern is Boy's Nonsense, a tutorial by Leila of Where the Orchids Grow.  It is a really striking pattern and I love how much she taught me about value in the process of picking out fabrics for these blocks.

My parents are visiting this week.  My dad is 6'1" and he still had to stand on a stool for the photography session.  He was just as patient as Ben is when holding quilts up for the proper photography :)

This quilt is called "I think I like you" and is named for a song that we both like.  The quote, "I'd watch C-SPAN with you if you asked me to," always cracks me up.  Isn't that what like/love is all about?

Oh, Hi!

I feel a little lost with blogging ever since joining instagram.  It is easier to post a quick picture and a few words than come up with a whole blog post.  So, I'll just jump right back in.

We went on a short camping trip with the best little camper!  Henry is finally understanding what we mean when we say, "Stay close to Momma!" (or Daddy).  It was so great to not be running three campsites away every few minutes or trying to touch the fire over and over. 

And the state park had the biggest, coolest playground I've ever seen. The kids were using so much imaginative play and there were some adults (besides Ben and I) playing on the tires, too. 

And another reason that I'm a proud momma:  Henry is doing well with potty training for pee!  Well enough that we packed his travel potty seat and set it up at the campsite.  That is a pretty great view for potty time, don't you think?

Starting and finishing

This quilt started as a first attempt at a quilt tutorial.  It was my very first jelly roll I ever bought and my first precut quilt.   It also was planned to be a throw quilt for my mom.  (This picture is from February of last year at our old house in Wisconsin.)

Now we live in Maryland.  I made a much better tutorial for the Four Corners Quilt and it looked even better after it was quilted.  (Both posts have more photos in our old backyard.)  And, after discussing it with my mom, we both decided that this quilt was meant to go live with my aunt instead. 

I did simple diagonal lines quilting and marked the lines with my Hera marker (I love that tool). 

I used a thrifted sheet for the backing so it has a nice smooth hand.

And, I have another UFO from last year done!  Four finished projects since the beginning of the year is a pretty good start (but I did start with a goal of 19 old projects from the last two years...)

Interview and more sewing

Remember w-a-y back yesterday when I told you that I was shy?  It is still quite true, but.....I forgot to mention that I did an interview with one of the members of the DC Modern Quilt Guild.  Elle published that interview yesterday.  So, I feel a little dorky, but you should click on over if you have a minute.  She asked some good questions, and I had fun.

In other news, I'm putting a binding on this top I finished last year in February.  I was planning for a long time to give it to my mom.  But now she has started quilting and she decided yesterday that the colors would be perfect for my aunt.