Friday Finds

Some quilting tools have many uses. Take the Gypsy Gripper ~ Yes, it's a great handle to put on your rulers, and it's removable and can move to different rulers in your collection. It's especially nice when you are cutting fabric all day and can lean on the ruler a little differently to help with hand fatigue, not to mention keeping your fingers up safely away from the rotary blade...

...but did you know it makes a great telephone? (sorry for the grainy photo, it was snapped quickly on my daughter's phone camera) As soon a Elsie spotted the Gypsy Gripper when she came to visit me at the quilt shop, she immediately picked it up and started holding a conversation with her Uncle Bobby. I don't know why she was calling Uncle Bobby, but she kept saying, "Hello, Bobby, Hello...I can't hear you". I guess the calling network for Gypsy Grippers aren't quite as good as Verizon or Sprint :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Elsie Has a Big Girl Bed!

...At least she has one in her bedroom across from her crib. Lisa (also known as Elsie's mom) took these pictures and sent them to me to show me the quilt that I had made her unfolded and on the bed.

Back when Lisa was pregnant, and her husband Cory (a US Marine) was deploying one week before she was due to deliver, I being the dutiful mom that I am, decided that I would go down to North Carolina and stay with Lisa to take her to the hospital when she was in labor, and sit in for Cory.

Anticipating that I was going to be a grandmother for the first time, I had already of course made a quilt for the baby. I had picked up (1) jelly roll and 1 5/8 yards of fabric for some setting triangles around the edges and thought I was making a crib quilt ~ but it turned out to be huge. So I took the top with me to NC and in the couple of weeks we had while waiting for the baby to decide to be born, we hit some quilt shops and picked out some border material to add and voila, it was a simple split rail style bed quilt.

We also picked up a couple of charm packs and made a crib quilt to coordinate with the twin size one :)
Charm packs and jelly rolls are wonderful for whipping up quick quilts that look great because they are so well coordinated. And because they are generally quick to make, they are the kind of quilts that can be well used, well loved, and well washed. Every child needs that “sicky quilt” (the one that’s ok to cuddle them in even when they might throw up on it ~ after all that’s when they most need a quilt right?). I’ll make Elsie an “heirloom” quilt later on, but I have a feeling this one will be just as loved, maybe even more.

After all, this one is great for jumping on the bed and waving to Grandma in the camera :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Pause for a Few Moments of Cute

Sometimes family and friends take precedent over other things...as well they should. Yesterday I didn't finish my Jo Morton club project (again) because my mother-in-law came a day early for her visit and wanted me to do some house hunting with her. So we spent a very overwhelming (lots to see and take in), but pleasant afternoon together. Then I had already promised my kids that we would go to the phone store in the evening when everyone had gotten off work to get our new family plan and phones. It was like buying a car in the amount of time this took, but we had a good time getting together to do it. But like so many, it was a day for everyone else ~ although I did get a new blackberry out of it :)

So this morning I'm indulging myself and taking a little break from "regularly scheduled programming" for a few moments of Cute:

This is my little Elsie (center) with her buddy Cadance (left) and Cadance's Daddy, Zach playing Rock Band. The girls take their drumming very seriously!

And here is Elsie again getting ready to help Mommy do some baking in her apron that Aunt Heather embroidered for her. This is her famous "Say Cheese" face that looks exactly like Mommy Lisa's from about 1989 (this could literally be a picture of Lisa).

The first picture at the top is a finished quilt block from a customer commission that I did get to finish on Monday ~ so I have gotten something done this week :)

Please forgive my shameless "Grandma Brag-booking", but now that you have had a pause, deep breath, and smiled...resume your regular operations and...
Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Grilled Cheese, Macaroni & Snow Days!

What is this stuff? It crunches under foot, and it's really cold! Today Elsie discovered real snow. She was born in North Carolina, and although they had a little flurry where she lived earlier this winter, this was the first time that she had been out in a real snow storm.

She just happened to be visiting Grandma's house this weekend and we got a big snow. So of course she went out to play with Uncle Bobby. Elsie is 18 months old and quite the little talker. She just kept pointing at it and saying "snow".

This is her "cheese face" in the snow.

No work today, just a bonus day of fun in the snow, baking, and eating with family.

Enjoy your day!

~ Dawn

Calendar Quilt - January Finished!

Well, I got the chance to work on my Calendar Quilt Challenge! As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I got a surprise visit from my daughter and son-in-law and I "talked them into" leaving my 18 month old granddaughter with me while they went out for a while. So Elsie and I had fun picking strips to update my Calendar quilt. She is quite accomplished at picking fabric strips out of a basket and putting them back in ~ I see a little quilter in the making. Sometimes I just need this kind of surprise diversion to make me slow down and just enjoy ~ even though I got nothing done on my "to do" list, it was a great way to spend the afternoon! :)

I wasn't able to do anything but the planning while Elsie was here, but later I went back and did the stitching of the strips we had layed out together. This next picture is my January section finished with all 31 days. I'm randomly varying the width of my strips, so I'm not sure how long each monthly section will finish. I'll try to keep them all similar though. (I had appliqued the snowflake to represent January and I'm machine embroidering on special days throughout).

The next picture is my friend and coworker Mary Nielsen's January Calendar section all finished. Mary did little appliques on hers for significant days. She did little socks on days when she had finished knitting a sock, and a little snowman on a snow day we had ~ How cute is that!

This is the start of my February section. I had to start the month with some Football fabric for the Superbowl of course. I won Pat Sloan's drawing for the Sew Along block this month and she sent me an envelope of Arabella fabric, so I've included that in there! We had a beautiful weather weekend here in Maryland, so I got out and worked in the garden, thus the leafy flower fabric strip. And the rest of the fabric strips are projects that I was working on at the time like our Jo Morton Club project and my Baltimore Album block for the month, so it's a very eclectic grouping! This will be quite an interesting quilt when it's finished!

Thanks to Elsie's visit, I have strips all picked out through the 22nd of February. Why the 22nd you ask? Well I knew I'd be working with orange for Pat's OP Challenge that runs from Feb. 20 - 22 (see the button link on my sidebar for info and join us for that Virtual Retreat weekend). So Elsie helped me pick out some orange strips and and we worked back from there, now I'm all ready to sew more strips on as the days go by. Send me a picture of your Calendar Quilt, and also periodically check out the Calendar Quilt button on my sidebar to see how other very creative ladies are tackling this challenge!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

An Elsie Post

Well, I learned to knit in 2008 ~ very basic knit & purl ~ so I of course made scarves! Here is the first little tiny scarf I knitted being "modelled" by my granddaughter Elsie (17 months old). Actually, she is taking it off. That's what she does, her mom puts it on ~ and she takes it off...Lisa has to snap the picture really quickly!

I plan to learn to do more with the knitting this year as we are now carrying Cascade yarns and knitting books and supplies at And Sew It Goes. The beginning knitting classes and Great American Afghan block of the month begins this Saturday at the shop. I think I'm going to take the beginning knitting because she is teaching how to increase and decrease and I don't do that yet. Who knows maybe later I can make a sweater for Elsie to take off :)

And for some extra eye candy, here is Elsie and her mom (my daughter Lisa) playing with the web cam. (You'll have to forgive me, I just can't get enough!)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn