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 :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #8

Hi everyone.  I am still staying with my daughter Rebecca and looking after her little girl Maisie, who is two years old.  Rebecca's baby boy is still in the hospital, since he was born 8 weeks early.  He is healthy, just needs to develop a little more.  I will be posting pictures of them on Wednesday, make sure and check back then, the photos are really cute!

I left my Baby Brit blocks at home, the sashing is cut but I neglected to bring them with me.  I will be returning home on October 3, and the "Baby Brit" quilt along will resume on Monday, October 8.

Here is Lindsay's last block.  I love the color combinations.  

The dark green contrasted with the striking gold :)

My Baby Brit Quilt Along will continue on Monday, October 8.

Thanks for being patient :)

Paperdoll Block

REBECCA 

goes on a 

camping trip

with her whole

family.....singing

old campfire

SONGS...

roasting hot dogs

and making

S'MORES

are her

favorite...Mmmm

I love this block, it is the first one I made.  

Look at the buttonholes on the shirt, don't they look real?

The compass was really difficult to applique, the green circle and then the off white circle, the red needle is embroidered and  N,S,E and W are drawn with permanent acid free marker.

Aren't the hiking boots cute? The eyelets, laces and scalloped souls are embroidered.

Each one of the marshmallows was appliqued, and the stick was embroidered.  That took a while!

I also really like the hot dogs in the ziplock bag :)  The hot dogs are one piece of fabric appliqued, and everything else is embroidered.

All I can say, is that this paperdoll has a really nice camping outfit :)

Unfortunately we never went camping as a family, but Rebecca and Lindsay went to girl's camp every summer and had great camping experiences there.

Laptop Cover

A couple of years ago, I made a laptop cover for my daughter who loves owls!  

I liked the little owls that I machine appliqued so well that I added a little padded one that dangles, sort of like a bookmark.

The owls have button eyes backed with white and black felt, and their wings are soft brown minky fabric.

This is the back of the laptop cover, with the flap open. The flap has a long velcro closure.  I padded the cover with cotton quilt batting.  It was a really simple project.

If you make a laptop or ipad cover, just make sure to add 1" all the way around so that the laptop or ipad can slide in and out of the cover easily :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #7

This should really be the post about sashing the Baby Brit blocks together.  I told you in week #6 that my daughter's baby was born eight weeks early, and I am staying at her home, looking after her 2 year old daughter, keeping the house clean, and giving moral support.  Baby Benjamin is back up to his birth weight, and is beginning to nurse a little.  We all hope he can come home from the hospital soon.

This is Lindsay's block.  I love all the roses, it has an antique look.

This is Rebecca's block, love the stripes and the bandana fabric.

I hope you are all working on your blocks and thinking about what kind of sashing you want to use.  

I finally found some fabric I think will work for my posts, the squares in between the sashing :)

Paperdoll Block

LINDSAY has a birthday party

... REBECCA gives her a HULA HOOP!

There isn't quite as much embroidery in this block as there is in some of the others.  The orange ribbon around the blue present was difficult to embroider because it is all satin stitched.  I like the birthday invitation and the birthday cake the best!

Dots on Dots Blog Hop and Tutorial

Hi everyone, I am participating in the "Dots on Dots Blog Hop", sponsored by Quilt Taffy.  

The challenge was to make a 12" block, but you had to use one or more polka dot fabrics. 

I went to my fabric stash and learned something about myself, I love polka dots!!!

 I wanted to try something new, so I went to Pinterest and looked at my Quilt Blocks board.

I really liked the Rocky Road to Kansas quilt block.

It is paper pieced, and I have never tried that technique before.

There was a great tutorial by Fresh Lemon Quilts.

Here is the photo tutorial of my block.

I printed the template from Fresh Lemon Quilts, very easy!

I wanted a scrappy star, so I cut all my polka dots strips to sew together.

I arranged the polka dot fabrics strips in the order I liked them best.

Then I sewed each stack together.

You set your stitch length to a low number so that the stitches are really small, and the paper will rip away from the stitches really easily.  You just sew along the line on the pattern.

This is what it looks like on the back.

The yellow fabric is pressed back, all while keeping the paper pattern intact.

The paper pattern is meant to put on a light box so that you can place the fabric with a l/4" seam allowance.

You sew the fabric pieces on in order, starting with attaching 2 to 1 and 3 to 1, and so on.

This is sewing piece number 3 to piece number 1, while watching the tutorial on my ipad.

After the piece is sewn on, you trim the seam allowance to l/4".

Finally, piece number 4 is sewn onto piece number 1.

All the pieces are sewn together and pressed, now it is time to trim.

Trimming is so easy, you just cut along the outside lines.

It is so easy!  The inner line is the sewing line.

My square is complete, just need to make 3 more.  For each square, you will need a paper pattern.

Since the square is complete, it is time to rip off the paper pattern.

I am thrilled, my square looks perfect!

Here is my unfinished 12 l/2" square.  

Paper piecing was fun, I am going to make some more projects using this method!

I added a l l/2" border to my square.

I tried "pebble" quilting, and it looks like polka dots!

Since this block was so little, it was perfect to try a new quilting design.

A scrappy Road to Kansas Star looks great with a scrappy binding.

It's all finished, do you like it?  It is a 14" decoration for my tabletop.

Even the back is dotty :)

These are the rest of the blogs who are on the blog hop today.

Thanks for visiting mine, now if you want to be dotty, take a look at all the others.

September 12th

It's Sew Kiki

VroomansQuilts 

Kathy's Quilts

Quilt Doodle Designs

A Quilting Sheep

selinaquilts

Jane's Quilting

The Peach Patch

If you want to visit all of the blogs on their respective days, just click on my dots to dots button on the right of my blog.