Madison's Quilt

Our fourth grandchild was born the same year as our third.  Madison.....

is the oldest of our middle daughter, Celeste's kids.  She loves bugs, frogs, snakes, plants, rocks, anything she can find, and she is always exploring the outdoors.  She's been a "dirt daubber" since she was a little tike.  She is growing so fast I need to put a rock on her head to slow her down.  Here is the quilt I made for her....

I named it butterfly garden since she is such an explorer.

Here's a close-up ----

I love this last picture of her----I caught her in mid-air when she was jumping and twisting around.  It's always been hard to get a still picture of her.  She's a busy girl with a mighty sweet heart.

She loves to draw and make books and she's good at it, too; she has quite an imagination and very creative.

Cole's Quilt

This is our third grandchild, Cole......

As you can see, he's our entertainment----one fun kid!

Cole is the youngest of our daughter, Jennifer's kids.  He enjoys sports and being with his cousins.  He plays electric guitar with his dad and brother playing theirs.  He and I enjoy playing piano duets---usually chopsticks.  Here is the starting of his quilt....

All cut out and ready to sew.

And here's the final product.  I named this one "Yankee Stars", because he is our Yank--born in Ohio.  I finished this one just in time for Christmas  2008.

Here's another shot of it.  This one was kind of a pain to quilt because I avoided the white stars while quilting, but it was worth it.

Cole is a joy to be around, and we're looking foreward to the next time we can all be together----Cousins and all.

Cyle's Quilt

This is Cyle, our second grandchild......

He's gonna be a tall drink of water.  He's getting ready to turn 14 and he already 5'10.5".

Last time I saw him he was close to the same height as I am --5'8".  He's a sweetheart--grandma's can say that--and it's true.  He plays the base guitar.  Here he is with his dad and brother...

He's the one on the far end.  He plays basketball, and I think their team just finished up real well.  He plays foreward and center--that's what I used to play.  (I used to be young--that's hard to imagine now.)

Here's the quilt I made him---

I named it "Solar Twist".

And here's the close-up.

Here he is snowboarding.  Maybe sometime I will show you the picture of him when I painted his face for trick-or-treating.  It was a real hoot.  His mom-(Jennifer-our daughter) and I couldn't quit laughing.

Brit's Quilt

We have eight grandchildren as of now, and I have made quilts  for each of them.  Starting with the oldest I will show their quilts.

This is Brittany ----

She is a sweetie, and I enjoy her company.  We've had some fun times when Grandpa takes the boys trick- or-treating and we get to answer the door..Actually she does that usually, but we enjoy the sights together.   We have also carved pumpkins together with her brothers--that's fun too.  Brit has always been a girly girl--she really loved dolls when she was little.  She likes to cook, and craft--she makes her own jewelry!  She enjoys hanging out with her friends--she always has lots of them.

I made her quilt for her 14th birthday, if I remember right.

Here I had cut it out.  I love the way we cut out quilts these days--it's so fast.  (Is my age showing?)

Here the blocks are being sewn.

With the blocks assembled and borders on, the quilting begins---I love my Janome.  Best present my hubby ever gave me. (I did get to pick it out though.)  I almost didn't get it because of the pricy price.  My hubby didn't mind the price, but I did.  Every time I sew, I say,"I  LOVE my Janome!"

It's almost completely quilted here.  The toy chest/ottoman is the right height for me to do my quilting without back strain.  And ......here it is.

I named it "Laffy Taffy".

This isn't such a great picture of it.  I like to photograph them outside when I can.  There, the lighting is better than a flash.   I think the flash just washes out the colors and texture.

Under The Weather

I'm sooooo ready for Spring.  We had a small  ice storm yesterday, and I have been feeling lousy as well; This is what I'm ready for---

and this,

And, some of this----

Ahhh--Nice.  Can't wait.

Bags and Totes

I am something of a "Bag Lady" in that I like to make bags and totes.  A couple of months ago I found some material that looked like leather.  It's actually some type of polyester.  I thought it would make a nice bag. Although it's a little small for my needs, I like it anyway.  The pink and tan tote I made from a tutorial I saw on someone's blog.  Sorry, I can't remember where I got it.

I sewed some felt balls to the ends of the drawstrings, and it's held up pretty good.

The felt balls are actually circles of felt stuffed with fiberfill and stitched closed.  I've enjoyed carrying this brown one.

Chenille Doll and Pin Cushions

When I'm inbetween crafts or quilts sometimes I make things that I can finish quickly.  I made this doll not too long ago.  I made it for when my small granddaughters come over, so they will have a doll to play with. 

I named this doll Chenille because of her hair.   I made her hair out of the selveges of some flannel material.  I twisted the strips real tight, and then folded them in half to make a twisted cord then I tacked it down here and there on her head.  I got the pattern for the doll out of a couple of library books.  The head from one pattern and the body of another.  Our little Evie really enjoys this doll. 

Another project was chicken pin cushions.

The small chicken pattern I actually made up.  After I stuffed them with polyster fiberfill, I put B-B's in the bottom before I sewed them up so they would sit up straight.  They are like Weebles, if you remember those, they wobble, but don't fall down.  Here's a close up of them.

Night of the Twister

When our first two girls were 10 and 8, and I was 5 and a half months pregnant with Erin we had an extraordinary experience.  The sky looked stormy so we all went to get groceries together.  While we were there a tornado hit the grocery store.  It destroyed our car too, but we weren't harmed physically, just terrified.  Our house was just one block away from the damage of the twister.  We didn't know if we had a home to go to, but our sweet neighbor walked to the store to tell us our home was fine.  He had seen us at the store as he was leaving.  What a blessing from the Lord.  We had to wait in the basement while they cleared a path for us and turned off the gas to make it safe for us to leave.  While we were walking home through the depris the storm siriens went off again.  It was scarry, but we made it home safe.  We wouldn't have been able to drive home even if we still had a car.  There were trees and wires and debris strewn all over the roads.  A neighborhood church was completely gone--nothing but the foundation was left; it was two blocks from our house.  I was terrified of tornados for years and years before this happened.  After this experience I realized that God protected us because it was not our time to go, and I had not been trusting Him.  Had we been harmed, or killed I know it would have been our time to go, and God would have given us the grace to handle it.  The point I'm trying to make is:  now I'm no longer terrified of storms.  I highly respect them and get to safety, but I'm not terrified, because I'm trusting  Him no matter the outcome.  Our girls might have had a different experience though--I'm not sure, I just know they are a little more nervous about them than I am now.  We each have our own journey with God.

When Erin was still at home she bought some purple material to make a quilt, but never got around to it, so for her birthday one year, I made this quilt for her from her fabrics.  I named it "Night of the Twister".  That's better than naming her "Stormy", don't you think?

Speaking of Erin, I have a little story to tell you.  When she was small I was trying to teach her how to be still and be quiet in the church services.  One Sunday evening at church she was really having a hard time doing that, so I asked her if she wanted me to take her out and spank her.  A few minutes later she tugged on my clothes and said, "Momma, take me out and spank me".  She was serious!!  I was so stupified that we just sat there.  I think she thought a spanking would be less painful than sitting still.  Now we tease her alot about that.  When I'm having a bad day, I say, "just take me out and spank me".

Our Girls

I love our girls!  I pray for our girls to honor God in their daily lives.  I thank God for the time when we had them in our home.   We are empty nesters who enjoy their kids and their eight grandkids.

I had some fun with a few pictures here, but I wanted to show their current pictures with their "sister quilts" I made for them.

Here they are when they were little--seems like yesterday.  Jennifer is 1 here, Celeste is 1and 1/2, maybe 2, and I think Erin is about 1.  I love pictures of when they were little.  Cute, huh? --- I love babies.  Our camera wasn't so good when the first two were little, and the pictures were a bit faded, so I had to enhance their pictures a little.

I spent the day with my nieces yesterday, who lost their mother/MIL/my sister last year.  I enjoy my time with them.  You know, life is short. Our days are numbered, and we don't know when the Lord will call us home.  We have today to glorify Him in our lives.

Erin's Quilt

Eleven years after our first daughter, Jennifer was born we had another daughter, Erin.  It was almost like a second family with a gap of eight and a half years between her and our middle daughter, Celeste.  What a blessing to have a child when you are a little older.  She keeps us from getting settled into the "old" category as quickly.  If it wasn't for her, I would know absolutely nothing about the computer.  She's a whiz in this area.  She uses this gift in her job.  I homeschooled Erin from second grade through High School.  I learned alot in this process.  I homeschooled Celeste eleventh and twelveth grades also.  Celeste is the one who got me started in that,  poor kid, she wanted me to do it starting in Junior High, but I was slow to come around.  I do have some regrets here and there.  I actually wish I had homeschooled all three daughters from start to finish.
I made Erin a "sister quilt" (actually, I made hers first, as I recall).  I named it Cherry Cheesecake.

I was inspired by a quilt in a magazine that had pieced cherries rather than appliqued ones.  It also had vines all over it and I didn't care for that either. 

Erin wound up being my helper for a lot of my projects when she got a little older.  We painted backdrops for church cantatas, Sunday School classrooms that were kind of crazy, and even a Baptistry.  She also helped me teach art classes. 

Here she is at about one and a half years of age.  She was helping me here too.  Yum!

Erin and I enjoy gardening together.  She takes a week off in the spring to do yard work, alot of which we do together at her house.  And we always go shopping for flowers together.

Here's  a close up of her quilt.           

                                                                                 

Celeste's Quilt

This is the quilt I made for our middle daughter, Celeste.  She is the one who encouraged me to blog about the things I make, and actually got me going.  She has a blog too---it's at: cottagedreamers.blogspot.com--she is much better at it than I am.  It's nice to be able to call her if I have questions.  I know I should have many more questions, but I'm just not there yet.

I named this one Daisy Chain.

I love daisies, so I designed and appliqued  these,  AND I love yellow in quilts.  (It's a little hard to live with on the walls though.  I've tried patches of yellow on my walls and it just wears me out.)  I tried to make my girls quilts somewhat similar in color and borders--you know--sister quilts.  When the first two daughters were small I made them a lot of matching clothes. 

One Sunday afternoon my husband dressed the girls for evening church service while I was at choir practice, and-----

you would think he would notice something wasn't right.  The ladies in the choir got a good laugh.  This makes good memories.  Anyway-----Here is a close up of one of  the daisies.

Celeste is a wife and homeschooling mother to 5 busy children.  She enjoys gardening, interior decorating, blogging, and mothering.  She is a very busy girl, and knows where her priorities are.  She loves babies just like I do, and is always smooching their sweet little cheeks.

Please visit Cottage Dreamers

Jen's Quilt

This is the quilt I made for my oldest daughter, Jennifer.  I named it Poppy Patch, and I have the label for it here and she has the quilt in Iowa.  Nice , huh.  I'm not real good at making sure the labels are on before I give them away.  She quilts too, but she is real busy being a homeschool mom to three and pastors wife so she doesn't have enough time right now to do it as much as she would like to.

I had this one on the drawing board for quite a while.

I saw the poppy flower pattern in a book about 30 years ago and made a sketch of it, so I didn't really have a pattern, but I made one up from the sketch.  It wasn't terribly hard. 

Quilting is something she and I enjoy doing together. 

Once she and I made two quilts just alike together at her house for her boy's beds.  (I don't have a picture of those though.)  I took my Janome, which I love, and she worked on her machine.  We just cut and pieced them though, she did the quilting later.  I think it took us a couple of days, maybe three because we were doing other things as well.  Fun, fun, fun. 

Alice's Quilt

I made this quilt about a year or so ago for my sweet sister, Alice. 

She and I are best buds too; we both miss our dear sister, Paula.  Alice is the oldest and had lots of responsibilities while we were growing up.   I helped with the babies and she did house work --I am the number 2 child in the birth order.  Alice is always ready to go and do, she's a sweetie, and I love her dearly.  We go to Bible Study together on Tuesdays and just love it-- it really gets deep and I like that.  There are many, many riches in God's Word.  We've studied things that we have heard all our lives and we are continually astonished with more truths--amazing.

I made this quilt for her Birthday, and I named it "Georgia Pines"; they used to live there near her daughter.  Their beautiful home had a Grove of Pines in their huge front yard.  They were lined up in rows, and I loved to look at the trunks as you drove up their drive.  It was quite impressive. 

I took this picture in my home before I gave it to her for her birthday about a year ago.

This one was taken in our back yard.

Alice is getting ready to have another red headed grandbaby, maybe?.. Well, her daughter and son-in-law's  kids all have red hair so far --this will be number 4 and we will see.  I am getting ready to make her a baby quilt and I'm picking out colors that will look good with red hair, just in case.  So exciting!! I love babies.

Paula's Quilt

This is a quilt I made for my sweet sister, Paula about two or three years ago.  She passed away about 8 months ago, and I miss her so much.

Paula and I were best buds.  She and I were born 14 and a half months apart so we shared a lot growing up together.  We always shared a room and a bed.  We were two of six sibblings, and we had tons of fun together.  We double dated, had slumber parties, talked half of the night, we even had babies on the same day in the same hospital when we got older.  It wasn't planned--like you could plan that--she was due 3 weeks before me.

I named this quilt "Daddy's Irish Jig"  after our dad who was part Irish and loved to do a little jig.  Also because of the shamrock looking blocks.  Paula's middle name was Ray after our dad.  The cowboy boot on the back was the label, and our dad loved to wear cowboy boots.  Paula took after our dad a lot--she was outgoing like him, loved to talk and very fun to be with.  When she walked in the room I would tell  my mom, "The party is here".