ABIGAIL'S TURN

We arrived in Florida on Tuesday without a camping site reservation and a couple places we checked were already full!  Spring break going on!  We were very lucky, however, to get a spot just around the corner from DS's apartment!  I had checked with this camp ground before, but it was more than we wanted to pay.  Guess what!  They had lowered their rate!  So now, we're just a stone's throw away - literally!  If the fence wasn't up, we could take the shortcut because the apartment complex is just on the other side.

Here's a few pictures of Abigail at a park climbing on the climbing wall!

 What a big girl!

 Looking down from above.

Shortly after arriving in Florida, our truck starting making a noise.  Uh Oh....   We took it to a mechanic that our DIL has known quite a while and he's going to look it over.  We need it to be in good working order as after this trip, we have a BIG trip planned.

We will be posting more pictures of Abigail soon.

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!!

A VISIT WITH TWO BLOGGERS

Yesterday I met two bloggers for shopping and lunch!  One is "---Love" from I Just Love quilts and the other is Jennifer from Purple Hearts Ori"jenn"als.  I had already met Love a couple other times and she suggested we all get together.  We met at Lone Star House of Quilts in Arlington, TX.  I have been attending the Jo's Little Women class there and I needed to get a few pieces of fabric for our assignment for Feb. & March.  Love wanted to get some reproductions for the first time and, of course, Jennifer needed some fabric also.  I hope you'll check out their web site and and facebook page.  It's a great shop!

There is a huge magnolia tree in the front yard that I love.

Alice is the owner of the shop and they specialize in reproduction fabrics.

The entry into the shop:  Above - to the left of the door;  Below - straight ahead.  Promises of things to come!

Another display below in the room where they keep Jo Morton fabrics.

Below is a quilt that Love brought to share with us.  It was made in 1902 by her  great-grandmother and is in really good shape!  What a treasure!  

After shopping, we went out to lunch and had a great time visiting and getting to know each other better.

Last, but not least, here is my Civil War block for the week.  A nice easy one!

I forgot to mention in my last post that you can find a video demonstration of the blocks we made for donation quilts if you google "ten minute quilt block."  I got my new quilting foot in the mail yesterday, so I'm planning to try quilting again.  I hope that fixes the problem.  Have a great week everyone!

LUCKY AGAIN!

I was fortunate enough to win a giveaway from Wendy at Snippets of a Quilter and I received a package yesterday with this lovely table runner in it.

There is wool applique on both ends of the runner.

I also got a FQ of this western cowgirl fabric, an Old Glory pattern and a note pad for my purse.

I put the runner on a dresser and think it looks very nice, brightening up the bedroom!  Thanks, Wendy!

This morning I basted three donation quilts.  Here they are piled on a chair waiting to be quilted.  I'm going to go ahead and start on one of the smaller ones and see how it goes.  I ordered a new quilting foot and hopefully it will arrive soon.  I'm pretty sure my problem is coming from my old quilting foot, so we'll see what happens.  

I'm hoping to get these quilted before we go visit the grandkids in three weeks.