Bee Patriotic Sew Along, week 1

I'm so excited to be making the Bee Patriotic quilt.

As I've mentioned before, 

everything that Lori Holt does is so much fun!

I purchased a few fat quarters to add 

to my Lori Holt collection of fabric.

Here's my selection of reds and pinks.

Here are my navys and aquas.

Here's my background, sashings and border fabric.

I'm going to be using a red border 

instead of a navy one.

I have a confession to make...

I made these blocks ahead of the sew along, 

because we had company visiting.

I didn't use the same fabrics as Lori used,

but my color values are the same.

Are any of you sewing along too?

Awesome Ocean

I am so excited to make this quilt!

I love Elizabeth Hartman's patterns, 

all of her animals are so cute!

I'm making this for one of my grand daughters 

for Christmas.

Here are all of my Preppy Whales...

There are eight of each underwater animal, 

in eight different color categories.

I am using fabrics from my stash.

Luckily, I had a fat eighth bundle of Elizabeth Hartman's "Reef" fabric.

I just chose fabrics to go along with that.

Here is Mr. Manatee, I just love him!

The background is Kona Oyster.

It's kind of blah but it also doesn't outdo the animals.

I thought of using blue, but it clashed with the colors of some of the animals.

Look at the Manatee with the seahorse fabric!

The brown one's body is made of safety pins.

I am having a great time making this quilt, 

I can hardly wait to get started on Octavia,

the octopus!

Vintage Block Along Finish!

My Vintage Block Along quilt is all machine quilted and bound!

It's so big, it has a perfect overlap for a queen sized bedspread.

For these photos, I put the quilt on my king size bed.

I began this quilt along, created by Lori Holt, 

January 2019 through December 2019, a whole year.

I really looked forward to seeing what each block looked like.

I fell behind a few times, but quickly caught up.

The blocks have a wide range of sizes,

 I had no idea how it would come together in the end.

I  used Lori Holt fabrics, 

and often substituted a similar print in the same color family.

 I love that the quilt is so vintage looking!

I love the scrappiness of the quilt and the variety of colors.

There are lots of little surprises throughout the quilt, 

such as the house block, some flowers, a basket, maple leaves,

the flag, and many other pretties.

 I used the same border fabric as Lori used,

I had to buy fabric for it anyway, and it was just so perfect!

I chose a different fabric for the binding, 

it's a bandana print in one of Lori's lines.

The back is one of the cutest fabrics I've ever seen!

It reminds me of when I learned to embroider 

when I was 11 years old.

It's called Granny Chic Vintage Embroidery in teal.

The fabric also comes in brown and corral with a white print.

This fabric would be so beautiful as a tablecloth too.

It's a wideback fabric, at 108" wide.

Because this quilt is so huge, I had a friend do the machine quilting.

She quilted it with a roses motif.

These blocks were all free on Lori's blog.

I think they'll only be free for the rest of the year and then the Vintage Block Along will be published in a book.

At that time,  Lori will take all of the instructions for the blocks 

off her blog.
The quilt along was so much fun, partly because Lori told stories about her grandmother and why each block had its name.
Thanks for following along!

Birthday Cake Banner

I have made so many of these birthday cake banners :)

This one is for Riley, my grand daughter will be two in June.

She has a soft, easy going personality, 

so I chose a pastel pink (soft color) for her cake.

It could be a strawberry shortcake flavor.

I bought this "sprinkles" fabric specifically for 

these birthday cake banners.

Here's a photo of Riley, she's my youngest grandchild.

I made a tutorial on how to make the birthday cake banner,

you can see it here.

Different cakes are here and here.  

These belong to Riley's three older sisters.

This is Jacob's and Bridger's & Maisie's banners.

These are cakes I made for a table runner,

and Charlotte's birthday cake banner.

A Celebrate cake and Neo's cake.

This is Kylie's birthday cake banner.

Rebecca and Isabel's birthday cake banner.

Kennedy, Lindsay, Lucy and Ben's cake banners.

This one is kind of hilarious!  

I took special care with Kennedy and Lindsay's, partly because I know they especially love color...

I was so proud of how they turned out but it wasn't until they untied the bow and hung it on the wall that I saw my mistake!!!

I sewed the bow and the platter upside down!!!!

They politely said they loved it the way it was and 

it made for a good memory :)

Well, I think that's it for the parade of Quilty Fun Birthday Cake banners that I have made for my kids and grandchildren, 

using Lori Holt's free pattern and making it my own :)

Thanks for following along!

Neo's quilt is finished!

Neo finished making her quilt top quite a while ago,

we finally ordered the spring green minky for the back,

and the quilt batting.

Layering the quilt pieces is a tricky procedure!

I tape the minky to the floor, to keep it flat.

Then we add the quilt batting and trim with the back.

My son Addison is helping with that, as Neo watches.

Then they centered the quilt top over the other two layers

and pinned them all together.

It took me three days of machine quilting, to finish.

I used an allover floral design.

Neo has never embroidered before, 

and it took her one evening to finish her work.

She was excited to have her quilt finished!

She sewed the label to the back and her quilt was ready to snuggle!

 This is what happiness looks like and 

the feeling of accomplishing a new skill!

 Great job Neo!!!

Neo's sisters like the quilt too :)

Stars and Stripes

This is the second and last quilt I made at the beginning of quarantine, I have wanted to make this quilt since it came out, maybe four years ago?

I love the process of going through my stash 

to find fabric to make a quilt :)

Luckily, I had enough navy blues, 

and now my red fat quarters are running low.

I had lots of Kona white for the background too.

The flags are coming together, 

this is such a fast and simple quilt to sew together.

I chose a Kona solid for the sashing which I think looks pretty.

I would have preferred an aqua with a subtle print but just didn't have any and was still happy with the Kona solid.

 Thanks for following along :)

Snowflake quilt

One of my quilt groups, which I haven't attended for very long, wanted to make this "Snowflake" quilt together.

I looked at all the different color combos that people were making, some were scrappy, there were so many creative options.

I just kept going back to the color option on the pattern.

I love the bright colors, and it's really modern looking.

I went to the store and found a great choice of solids.

I would have preferred if the aqua was a little lighter.

I made this quilt at the beginning of the virus quarantine.

I love it, and am thinking of backing it with some soft minky!

Unexpected Health issue, caught offguard!

Hello all my dear blog readers!

This post should have been about something I've been making, 

but instead it took a twist.

I went to the doctor complaining of shortness of breath, 

although I knew I didn't have the virus!

Turns out my left lung was completely full of fluid, 

they didn't know how I could breathe.

They sent me straight the the ER with CT scan results in hand, 

this was last Monday.

Tuesday morning, I had the fluid removed from my lung 

(over 2 l/2 liters!) and some biopsies taken.

All this without my husband or anyone else besides the health care professionals because of the Covid virus.

Later in the day I got the news...my breast cancer which I reovered from 17 years ago returned.

It's Stage 4 breast cancer in the chest wall.

Whenever there's cancer in the chest wall, it's immediately Stage 4.

Here's a cute photo of me, lol, going for a walk.

I've had so many kind acts since then...

flowers, notes in the mail, emails, facebook messenger messages, Instagram messges, chocolate, and many acts of kindness.

One of two facemasks that were made for me :)

A beautiful mug rug embroidered on a fellow quilter/friend's machine.  Judy said they are Gladiola Tulips and they are known as the flower of strength :)

 I was heart attacked, don't think you're ever too old for that :)

Chocolate and flowers and notes.

 This is my grand daughter Kennedy, she's 12.

Those who follow my blog know her :)

Kennedy's been wearing this necklace I gave her every day since she found out I have cancer, in solidarity!

It has a little quote on it, something about the love between a 

grandmother and her grand daughter :)

As you can see, I'm very blessed with family and friends.

I know that God lives and that he loves me and knows me by name.

I know I can beat this.

It won't be fun, but I have the strength and determination to do it.

I can't let my family and friends down.

I'll try and do some sewing, but still have some things to show you.

I don't mind if you share this, if it can bring hope to someone.

Fabric baskets for any occasion

We broke protocol at our Farm Girl Chick's quilt meeting a while back and made something that wasn't Lori Holt!

These cute little baskets are made from two 10" squares of fabric,

and a layer of quilt batting.

I made 3 for Valentine's Day and 14 of them for Easter, 

one for each of my grandchildren.

They are pretty quick to whip up.

Here's the link to the tutorial.

Here's me with my friend Nedra, at Farm Girl Chick's,

making the baskets.

Here are two families of my sweet grandchildren,

not including the photo bomber!!!

(That's my son Addison who has been photo bombing for years!)

 Three more cute little grandchildren.

Four more cuties, but I forgot to get a photo of them 

holding their baskets.

Isn't living this part of our world's history,

aka the Covid - 19 pandemic crazy?

Hope you're all keeping safe and sewing through your stash :)