Pillowcases, RSC Pinks, & Baby Blankets

Whew! I’m almost worn out from writing the blog title! For someone who didn’t do much quilting this week, I certainly sound busy!


 My “designated” February UFO project is six pillowcases. I’ve made three. It was a little difficult using a different fabric for front and back. I’ve been fine-tuning as I’ve made each pillowcase:
#1—too short
#2—too wide, need to add 3 inches to the length
#3—way too wide, length good

Next pillow case fabric

I have one more guinea pig pillowcase to figure out the length. On the second pillow, I was able to take in a side seam. Unfortunately, the third one can’t be taken in. I will reveal all six this week and you can see all of them.

I have been enjoying the splash of color the pillowcases add to my bed!

I spent this weekend picking out the pinks for my RSC. I’ll post the finished block on Saturday, but here’s a peek at the fabrics I was trying out.

Warning: Cute baby pictures ahead! You have been warned!

Last weekend, I had a wonderful visit with my little Poppet, my newborn granddaughter,  I had gone to visit her on January 31 when she was 10-days old. Unfortunately, I went with her parents to take her to the ER. We’re very thankful she is now home and doing wonderfully. I didn’t get to see her for more than 10 minutes that time.

Poppet & Chief

  Last weekend I picked up my grandson, Firstest, and we went to see Poppet, Noel Heart & Chief. This was the first time that Firstest met his baby sister. He was so sweet with her; I almost had to drag her out of his arms to get a little cuddle time!

Firstest & Poppet

Happy Valentine's Day

Noel Heart and I finally got the design and color of Poppet’s baby blanket figured out. I am very excited; it looks like so much fun to do!

Up ahead this week:
1. Finish 3 pillowcases (hopefully tomorrow)
2. Finish RSC pink
3. Maybe get started on Vintage Kitchen or Sweet Sixteen.

Sent this morning from Noel Heart:

Sent this morning from TGS

Beware of bright-eyed grannies with pictures!

Check in with other bloggers on what they have done and are doing this week. Lots of fun and loads of quilt candy! The badges are listed by day of the week in the right sidebar.

Still working on a fix with Google+ comments, fiendishly added by Google without my permission! If you don't want to write a comment in Google+, email me at quilting_nonnie@yahoo.com

My Granddaughter Has Made Her Entrance to the World!

It’s true!! Noel Heart, oldest daughter, and Chief, her husband, had their baby daughter on the 20th!

I got to go to the hospital for the better part of a day and cuddle that sweet little bundle. It’s been four years since I had a grandbaby to hold. There is nothing better in the whole world!

Her blog name is Darlin' Girl. It's one of my terms of endearments I use with children. And it fits here beautifully.

I’m thankful that Chief and Noel Heart live nearby so I can get my fill of baby holding. It’s between 3-4 hours away. Much better than Massachusetts!

I feel like a grandma pulling out her brag book!

Christmas Carol Countdown: Four Days to Go!

Here is my whoop whoop for today...in fact it's probably the biggest whoopity whoop of the whole year of 2013!

Today is my last day at work for 2 wonderful weeks! Those who follow my blog know that I'm going to spend Christmas with my daughter, Nancy Drew, and her family. That means my two grandkids: Sweetie, who will be 12 next month, and Curly, who is three-and-a-half. I spent a Christmas with them when Sweetie was 5! I've never been there with Curly. To say I am deliriously happy is an understatement!

The two darlin' granddaughters!

I remember when I was a kid and either Grandma (my Mom's mom) would be at our house or we would be at hers. Every Christmas. Whenever we'd leave after a stay, Grandma would stand in the driveway waving and crying.

Now I know why. Fifty years later and I figured it out. Darn it's hard to leave those darlings.

I chose a couple of great Christmas Carols for today. The first one is a Raffi song that I heard when my kids were toddlers. It was so much fun. Back then I played guitar a lot and sang with my kids... a lot. When I went looking for a video, I was astonished to learn that it had been originally done by Mitch Miller. You've got to be my age or older to remember Mitch Miller! He was an accomplished musician and in the 1960s, he had a TV show called Sing Along with Mitch. It was a "community sing." He and his male chorale would sing a song and at the same time the words of the song would show up at the bottom of the screen. It was FUN! First carol today is Mitch Miller and "Must Be Santa." (I also learned the Bob Dylan did a version of this...you'll have to look that one up yourself!

My second is more current. The group, Pentatonix, is an a capella group of five people. They won the third season of the TV show "The Sing Off." I wouldn't know any of this except Nancy Drew. She followed the group through the third season on TV. She and I share a love of a capella groups, so she introduced me to them. When they were out here at Thanksgiving, she showed me a video of them singing "Little Drummer Boy." Fantastic! I know you'll enjoy this one!

God Bless.

I'm linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Click on the badge in the right sidebar and see some other craziness going on there.

Mother's Day in Retrospect

Whooppeee! I love being a mom and grandma!

The other day Nancy Drew, now 32, and I were going through a box of mementos she had left at our house. We were Skyping and I was showing her the things in the box so she could choose things she wanted me to send.

Lo and behold I found some awesome treasures! Mother's Day cards from the past. I confiscated them and put them up in my quilting room. I think I love them more now than then!

Feast your eyes!

1986: 6-years old. And a blast from the past of what wallpaper looked like back then. Yeech!

 

 

 

1987: 7-years-old with a huge heart!

And what did I spy inside? Coupons that I never used. Darn! I told Nancy Drew I was going to redeem them right now...and I had a plethora of choices. (I love the word plethora. It's a cool word and I love the way it rolls off the tongue). But I digress. I figured if I redeemed all of them right now that Andi would be here, in my home, for eight lovely days! I'd even pay the air fare.  My coupon choices were:  Making a cake, running an erin, (dig that spelling!), making a pie, breakfast in bed, making dinner 1 night, an extra chore, a hug and a kiss, and a sholder masash!

I can't believe I didn't cash in on those! Dummy. The first thing was the masash, yummm.

Another Mother's Day Card

 And now the next, third, generation. Here are two cards sent from Nancy Drew's daughter, Curly. She is almost three. I had hinted, very unsubtly, that I would love "one of those hand-print cards from my grandchildren", this came in the mail. Curly didn't want to do a hand-print, so she did her version in the right hand corner.



And aren't I the charmed Nonnie? An art work done by Curly. Guess where they're at? Yes, on the fridge! Where else?


Here's a picture of my two precious granddaughters: Sweetie and Curly.

 Now dash over to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to savor other's whoopees! Grab the Whoop! Whoop! badge in right column. Also hooking up with Link A Finish here

Three-day weekend ahead! Whooppe-kiyi-aaaaaaa!

Whoop di doo

Lovely! Another Friday. TGS & OSLW arrived Wednesday evening--beauteous! Yesterday, I was like someone who had a nickel stuck in him...one of my mom's great descriptions. I chattered and talked and babbled all day. I definitely did the TMI ad nauseum. I was so keyed up, I couldn't shut up. Terri, I would mutter to myself, STOP talking. Terri, TMI. TERRI--SHUT UP!

Today we're going to Armstrong Woods, a favorite of the kids and I. It's a redwood state park and so enchanting. It has sublime picnic areas, shady and serene. There's an amphitheater that the kids loved to perform in when they were little and run up and down the benches. There's two trees that are spectacular: 310 foot Parson Jones Tree and the 1400 year old Colonel Armstrong tree. The Colonel Armstrong is a fallen tree and you can see the multitudinous rings. All this gloriousness just 45 minutes away from home! Now that you've seen a few pictures I know you are drooling and wishing you could come see it for yourself!

 I'm sharing my grand park news on Whoop, Whoop Friday. Click on their badge in the right column to see loads of Whoop Whoops, guaranteed to make the start of your weekend truly awesome.

I titled this post Whoop Di Doo because of an experience with my grandson, Firstest, when he was almost two years old. Here is the story from a book I wrote of Firstest Stories as a one- and two-year old.

Editorial Note: I do not know WHY the font is so big and the bold is in effect....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I've tried to change it but to no avail. I know others of you with blogger have had the same problem. Please bear with this ugliness. Maybe TGS can fix it later but, for now we're off to Armstrong Woods!

April 24, 2002

Bryce and I when he was around 9 mos old
He was around 18 mos old when the story happened

Noel Heart and I went shopping for material for the quilt I’m making him for his birthday. At one fabric store Firstest was about worn out with the whole shopping thing. I put him up on my shoulders and he started singing this song and messing with my hair. He was singing whoop di doo, whoop di doo. Noel Heart didn’t know what whoop di doo meant. Firstest was so happy messing with my hair, sticking his finger in my ear and singing. It wasn’t until he came to stay with me that I figured out what the whoop di doo was. When I picked up Bryce I'd say, "Up you go!" Translated into "Bryce-ese" whoop di doo.

Okay so you might have to be a grandmother...enchanted by everything your first grandchild says and does...but I think it's cute.

And here's a quilty reference, the first real quilt I ever made, for Firstest. I named the quilt, Chris the Fireman, after my dad. He was a fireman and captain of a fire station when I was very young.

Really Random Thursday

I have been so busy trying to clean house for when TGS and OSLW come for a 10-day visit next week, that everything else is falling into ruin. Now the kitchen isn't staying clean because I'm too busy trying to shovel out the guest room! My laundry isn't getting done because I'm trying to get my vegetable and flower gardens weeded...You see how it goes?

I feel like my life is dedicated to randomness lately. I have to really fight my tendency to "squirrel" (see explanation in  this post!). Start to clean guest room. Oh, here's a dish I need to put in the kitchen. Trot down the hall. Oh look! I didn't put away the cereal from this morning. Clean, clean, clean. Oh yes, I was cleaning the guest room. Start to amble down the hall. Oh dear, I left my sweater hanging on the railing of the living room, I should put it away. Stroll to MBR. Oh darn! I forgot I was going to put in some laundry. Drag laundry to garage. I can't believe I forgot to clean the cat litter. Carrying bag of "cat poopies" at arms length to garbage can. Look at all those palm fronds that have fallen with all the wind lately. I'll put them in the yard waste can. Oh shoot! I'm supposed to be cleaning the guest room.

Does this even sound slightly familiar?

But I digress...

My random presentation for this week are some awfully adorable girls. These are my two granddaughter, Curly and Sweety. I was having a Skype chat with them and captured these pictures.

Curly showing me her Easter loot. That's Nancy Drew in the background.

Sweetie and Curly on the egg hunt

Curly looking at picture of herself on Skype.

I tawt I taw a wabbit

Look at my egg!

Showing Nonny the candy in their mouths.

*Sigh* I sure wish they lived closer. Thank heavens, stars and moon that we have Skype!

I'm linking up with Really Random Thursday at Live A Colorful Life. Click on the badge in the right column and see what other random people are doing randomly.