DianeLoves2Quilt: WIP: Spring is Here but Autumn is Gone

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

WIP: Spring is Here but Autumn is Gone

In my last post I was fussing over my granddaughter and children's visit. I had a wonderful extended weekend and here is what all the fuss was about. The weather was gorgeous and here we all are in a backyard photo – from left to right: my husband, my younger son, me, Autumn, my daughter, her husband, my daughter-in-law, and my older son.

And here is my younger son meeting his niece for the first time with Autumn's proud daddy watching on. (Notice she is wearing the sweater I crocheted and blogged about in an earlier post (Aug 1, 2012).

Before my older son and his wife arrived from Southern California for the weekend, my daughter and I took Autumn to a session of Kindermusik (even this young she absolutely loved the singing and activities) and visited two quilt stores. Autumn charmed all the ladies in the shop with that ear-to-ear baby grin of hers and did her own bit of fabric selection as well. I seem to have a thing for burp cloths and The Cotton Patch has a great selection of flannels. I asked my daughter if she need any more burp cloths and she said she was well stocked. I spotted a bright turtle print flannel however that was so cheerful I just had a buy a 1/2 yard for some baby out there. Autumn kept staring at it and reaching for it. Once the 1/2 yard piece was cut she promptly stuffed it in her mouth. "Ha!" the sales clerk laughed, "She sure is marking it as her own". I think the fabric gene must run in the family. My daughter quilts and my mom was an extra-ordinarily talented seamstress, knitter, crocheter. Of course, before Autumn left, I made up two burp cloths for her with the turtle flannel and she sure hung on to them. Even though she is barely five months only she knew what she liked and clutched one tight in her little hands. Another fabric-aholic has been born!

Before the visit, I had wanted to make up some 27" square floor pillows for lounging in the living room. The fabric is an embroidered denim that I've had for quite a while.

The fabric was taking up space, the pillow forms were taking up more space, so voila, space taken up is now useful. I did need to buy zippers but I was able to finish the pillows before they arrived and here they are. They got used, too.

I also finished the flannel cover for the changing table pad. The pad did not arrive until the night before my granddaughter so there was some quick stitching in the late night to complete it in time.

While company was here I snuck in a bit of sewing. I made up two more burp cloths to gift to a friend of my son and daughter-in-law. I could not pass up the doggie print since the mom-to-be is a vet. I sent them back south with my daughter-in-law who is hosting the baby shower.

The balmy weather from the weekend held up after they left so I took photos of the finished Doll Quilt. The weather was quite breezy. Those are my husband's fingers you see at the top of the quit and his legs spread wide at the bottom so the quilt stayed somewhat vertical for the photo. The dolls' aprons are still fluttering in the breeze.

Here is a closeup of the back stitching. You can just make out the outline of the dolls and you can see the loops and hearts quilting pattern. The backing fabric was made by seaming together several strips of a border print fabric.

That's it for this week. Here are my stats.

Completed projects:

Doll quilt
Two floor pillows
Four burp cloths
Cover for changing table pad
Cooking - spiral ham, prime rib, spaghetti with sausages, sloppy joe, pancakes, fluffy egg casserole - whew!