NOT MUCH SEWING GOING ON HERE!

We have been having lots of fun with Jonah and Eli.  Every day since we arrived, we have eaten lunch in the camper with Jonah.  It is the highlight of his and our day!

Me with my two adorable grandsons!  (Am I being obnoxious?)

Eli is soooo cute!  He is such a good & happy baby too.

Thanks for all the comments on my last post!  I haven't had much computer time, so haven't answered them.

I took my sewing machine to be serviced the day before we left town and got a call from the repair man on Friday that it was finished.  He fixed the automatic needle threader!  That will really be nice, because the holes in needles seem to be getting smaller nowadays.  He also had to replace a part in the tension area, which should really help in my quilting.  The tension hadn't seemed to be working as good as it used to.  I don't remember when it was serviced last - several years ago, I guess.  

Tomorrow we leave here for Florida and will visit another son and family.   Come back for another visit in a few days for some pictures of Abigail.

FUN WITH GRANDSONS

We are visiting our 3rd son & family for a week and having fun with our two grandsons.  Eli is just 3 months old and is getting so aware of things.  He is a very happy baby and content to watch and grab his toys.

Jonah is almost 3 now and is getting to be such  a big boy.  

 He loves to play outside and seems to always have a stick in his hand.

Monday we took a trip to the zoo and got to ride on a choo choo train!  He wanted to go again.

 I think we looked at the elephants 4 or 5 times.

Yesterday we took Jonah for a "day camping" trip.  He loves the camper.  He has trouble saying the letter "c", so it comes out as "hamper."  He got his first ride in our truck and while at the state park we ate lunch and he had a short rest with grandpa in the camper bed.

I couldn't resist making a special quilted wall hanging for the camper.  The Team Grandpa was embroidered on Eli's jammies that we got him when he was first born and I got the idea from that.  All the little ones seem to gravitate to Grandpa.

After playing on the playground at the state park, we went to the visitors' center and Jonah loved looking at the displays which included a stuffed alligator.  We had to go back to see that more than once.  Below he is looking at a pretty lake with paddle boats.

A tired boy fell asleep on the way home.  We were all worn out!  Only a few more days here, then we move on to another son & his family!

THIS AND THAT

Monday night was my guild meeting, so I took the 3 quilts that I finished as well as this baby afghan that I made with mostly donated or leftover yarn.  I did have to purchase some to finish it because it wasn't quite big enough.

This is the civil war block for week 11.  So far I'm all caught up, but Saturday we leave on a trip, so I will probably get behind.  Check back for pictures of grandchildren in the next few weeks!  We decided on the way home from our Christmas/birthday trip in January, that we HAD to go again before we take our long trip to Oregon in June.  Then DS#3 called to see if we could come there in March for a week and that worked out great.  We will be visiting Florida also.

I'm getting projects ready to take along.  Here I'm basting my second Cheddar Cheese & Crackers quilt for hand quilting.  This time I'm using Mountain Mist batting for the first time - recommended for the Jo Morton quilts that I'm doing for Jo's Little Women club.

Here's some fabric for making Abigail a dress and apron.  I don't know if I will do this or not, but I like to be prepared.  My DIL said she is very attached to the Christmas pillow case I gave her in December.  Two year olds are so sweet!

This is my hand work bin with embroidery projects.

A bigger bin with quilting projects.  The "birds in the air" block is for my Jo's club quilt.  I will need 48 of those blocks (4 1/4" unfinished).  The HST's finish at 1 1/4".   Also, my paper piecing project (which I haven't touched since the last trip.  

The hand work projects will be for riding in the truck.  I will have my featherweight in the camper so I can sew at night.  I always take at least twice as much to do as I even touch, but I don't want to run out of things to do and get bored.

Happy St. Patrick's day!  Now, I'm going to put on my shamrock earrings!

DOLL BED FIX UP

As many of you know, I seem to be drawn to vintage doll beds.  I told DH a while back that I wasn't going to buy doll beds any more....but when I see a good deal, I can't seem to help myself!  I saw this doll bunk bed set at a garage sale a couple months ago.  At first I didn't know what it was.  Maybe it was a vegetable bin or other such storage.  So I went closer and this is what I saw.

Look at the price tag.  $4.00!  Wow!  So, I asked if it was doll beds and did the price include both of them?  Yes!  OK.  That is sold!

So, the first thing to do is made mattresses and pillows.

Love the ticking fabric.

Next comes sheets and pillowcases.  Must add some lace to the pillowcases.

Much better.

Now, the important part - quilts!  I decided to make them pink and blue since those colors are on the lining of the beds.  One is blue, one is pink.  Maybe the dolls are twins - a boy and a girl.

Much better!

All ready!  The blue quilt turned out much better than the pink one, but I guess they will do.  Hope someone needs doll beds for their little girl.

This is the Civil War block of the week.  If you go to the blog site, there is some very interesting historical information along with the directions to make the block.  I found out that last Friday was the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration.  Very interesting information concerning it.

Happy quilting, everyone!

QUILTING & BINDING, BINDING & QUILTING

My new quilting foot solved my quilting problem, so I got busy and quilted the three donation quilts.  I spent most of the week quilting and binding these three quilts shown below.  The hand sewing the binding to the back was done while watching TV in the evenings.

This first quilt will be for a teenager at Children's Hospital.  We (meaning people in my quilters guild, including me)  don't make very many of these larger quilts because they take longer, but they are needed too.  

Here's one of the baby size quilts.

And the backing, which is really cute (I got it at a garage sale).

Another baby size quilt made with the "10 minute quilt block."  

This quilting design was a new one for me - I found it in Kim Diehl's book Simple Seasons.  It's easy to do and looks pretty good.

I decided to make a table runner with the 10 minute block and used a charm pack of Moda's Pure fabric. I might use up a couple more of my charm packs this way.  

Have a good weekend and get lots of sewing done!!