Mini Medallion, Finished!

I finished my Mini Medallion, yay!  

I think the colors are happy and I love the Aunt Gracie prints.

I am also in love the fabric on the back :)

Little vintage girls from the 1950's.

I grew up in the day when you could only wear dresses to school.

Thankfully, by the time I reached high school, the rules had changed and you could wear pants and even jeans (gasp!) to school.

If you are interested in making a Mini Medallion designed by Corey Yoder, all the information is on my Pinterest board here.

The mini measures 24" square.

Chalkboard Gifts

I ordered these wooden plaques from "Pick Your Plum".  

They were engraved with the names of all of my grandchildren, except for Benjamin who was born after I ordered the plaques.  Benjamin would be too young to play with them anyway....

I sprayed the first set with black chalkboard paint.

It dries really fast.

I used paint markers to highlight their names.

I sprayed the second set with green chalkboard paint.

The names looks so much prettier after they are embellished.

Before you write or draw with chalk on the boards, you have to shade the whole surface with chalk and then wipe it off with a dry cloth. This enables the chalk to adhere to the surface better.

I made a set of chalk holders for each grandchild.

Don't they look pretty all packaged up with a mentos treat?

I'm hoping they will be a big hit!

Pennant Banner

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

My husband and I are going trick or treating with our cute grandchildren tonight!!!

I will take pictures and show you next week:)

I have wanted to make a pennant banner for myself for a long time and finally got around to it!  My daughter motivated me by giving me four of the triangles that she had sewn.  They are the red polka dot, the pinwheels on white and the green horizontal stripe.  There is a fourth one (green polka dot) but it was hiding under the orange elephants and I didn't see it until I sewed them to the binding.

I had fun choosing the other fabrics to match the ones my daughter gave me.  Each fabric has a story.....the Amy Butler on the left is leftover from a quilt I made for my daughter Rebecca.  The orange elephants is leftover from a minky burp pad that I made for my new grandson Benjamin.  The yellow is leftover from some pants I made for my grand daughter Kennedy when she was two.  The red rick rack is leftover from the "Slide Show" quilt that I made for my daughter, Lindsay.  I bought the British fabric to use for posts in my Baby Brit quilt, but changed my mind.  The yellow Japanese fabric was used in our girl's sewing night, and I made a "smarty girl book bag" for my daughter from the Heather Bailey red and green fabric.

It seems as though fabric has lots of memories!

I bought double fold bias tape in a package at Joann's and pinned and sewed the pennants.

There is one side of the double fold bias binding that is shorter than the other.  You sew on that side so that the side that you can't see will be stitched because it is a little longer.  Was that as plain as mud?  LOL

Well look who's taking a photograph!

My husband says it looks like a birthday party. 

Why not, it feels like happiness to me:)

The colors compliment my scrappy great granny quilt that is on the back of my red couch.

Now I want to make a fall pennant banner to hang in front of the fireplace.

Kennedy's Quilt

This is the first wall hanging quilt that I made.

I made it for my first grand daughter Kennedy, and she is now 

5 years old.

This quilt was a lot of fun putting together, deciding which fabric goes where.

I hand appliqued "Kennedy" with a blanket stitch.

There a lot of "peek a boo" embroidery on the quilt.

I also made Kennedy "Ellie" the elephant.

My daughter Lindsay, made the pillows and quilt on the back of the chair.

I cross stitched Rainbow Brite for Lindsay when she was three years old, about 27 years ago.

Lindsay modernized the cross stitch, but painting the frame aqua.

The colors in the room all match the quilt perfectly.

I love the little embroidered pieces that Lindsay made for her

 2 year old daughter, Charlotte.

I hope you've enjoyed the photos of Kennedy's quilt, and the mini tour of Kenned and Charlotte's bedroom decor.

I go back home today, after being away from home for a month.

I will miss all my children and grand children but will be happy to return home to my poor husband who has been alone all this time.

The "Baby Brit Quilt Along" will resume on Monday.

"Swooning" into Autumn

Hi everyone!  I am participating in the "Fall Leafs Me Happy" Blog Hop.  The button is located on the right of my blog.

This blog hop is being hosted by Cherry, and Madame Samm who is a cheerleader for blog hops.  Thanks Madame Samm and Cherry :)

The theme of the blog hop is to make a 12 l/2" block using fall colored fabrics.

I made the "Swoon" quilt and loved making those blocks.

They were huge, 24 l/2" each.

Here is the pattern, showing off the blocks I love so much.

I decided to make this block for the blog hop but I had to make it half the size, converting it to a 12 l/2" block.

I call this block "Swooning into Autumn".

I chose an orange fall leaf color for the star.

Unfortunately the background color in the block is not true to life, because it is actually a sage green. 

The outside points are black (in autumn we turn our clocks back and it gets black outside very early) with green and orange dots.

This block is a little more true to color.

I added the next row.

Now the miniature "Swoon" block is complete.

I sandwiched the batting between the front and the back and safety pinned it together, preparing it for machine quilting.

I shadow quilted the star, with a l/4" stitch, and stitched in the ditch on the rest of the block.  

I used an eggplant mini check for the binding.

I thought of black, but the eggplant colored binding made the colors in the block "pop".

Here is my finished block.

"Swooning into Autumn".

Here is the back of the quilt.

I love this fabric.  Hallowe'en always means "fall" to me :)

I had to be careful with the quilting so that it wouldn't take away from the print on the back.

Here is a list of the other blogs that are participating in the

 "Fall Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop" today.

Visit them and leave a comment!

The Fuzzy Hat Quilter

The Cuddle Quilter

Quilts My Way

Country Cabin Thoughts and Crafts

Why Knot Kwilt

Needled Mom

On the Go Quilting

Sunshine Girl

Pam 

Meadowbrook

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial today.

I have really enjoyed making this block and being part of this blog hop.
For more information all the other blogs that are participating through October 10, click on the "Fall Leafs Me Happy" button to the right of my blog.

Maisie and Benjamin

I have been staying with my daughter Rebecca, and son in law Dave, since September 6.  They go to the hospital to be with and feed Benjamin, and I am looking after Maisie and keeping the house clean.  Benjamin weighed 4 lbs. 15 oz. at birth, and is still in the NICU.  He is healthy, he just needs to do a few things developmentally, like nursing enough to gain enough weight and go home  ♥

Maisie is 2, and Benjamin was born on September 5, 8 weeks early.

Two kids with lots of personality, who still need to meet each other.

I made Benjamin a quilt, the fabric is really cute.  I bought the kit about 4 years ago and have been waiting for a grandson to make it for, all this time :)  Benjamin is our seventh grandchild, our second grandson.  

I fussy cut the little baby heads and they are surrounded with scrappy yellow and blue prints.  The border is a soft, soft, minkie, and so is the back.  Isn't the quilting beautiful?  I didn't do it, my friend Cindy did with her long arm machine.

I made little burp pads for little Benjamin and added some ribbon loops for him to play with when he gets bigger.

On the back of the burp pads, I put some really soft minkie.  The burp pads are 9"X14" and sometimes Rebecca covers up Benjamin with the burp pad because they are so soft and the perfect size :)

This is Rebecca with Benjamin on Sept. 8, 3 days after giving birth.

I made this little pendant banner for Benjamin's crib, so that there could be something homey and colorful in the room.

The pendants are 4"X6", and I put heavy pellon in the middle so they would have some body.

It is difficult for Rebecca when Benjamin's oxygen gets low after he nurses, and the buzzer goes off and the red light blinks.  The nurse runs into the room and tells little Benjamin to breathe.....It is a little disconcerting.....

This is Dave, holding his precious little Benjamin.  

Hopefully Benjamin will come home soon and Maisie will be able to meet her baby brother :)