Sweetie and her Quilt: A Valentine's Story

In the spring of 2008, Nancy Drew and SWH moved into a very nice townhouse. Sweetie was allowed to choose the color to paint her room. She chose blue, which was a surprise to all. Sweetie's favorite color has always been pink, but the room was painted blue.

That summer when I came to visit I made curtains for Sweetie's room. I also decided to make a quilt for her bed for Christmas. I bought more of the curtain fabric and some great butterfly fabric and was all set. That Christmas Sweetie wanted everything "High School Musical," including a bedspread. I put off the quilt for a year.

I made her quilt the following year and when it was finished had enough time to get it to the quilter and then to Sweetie for Christmas. Unfortunately (which seems to be a common word so far) I had been sick since Thanksgiving, and the quilt languished for a couple of weeks before I got it to the quilter. I got it back five days before Christmas and still had the binding to do. Thank goodness Sweetie's birthday is January 25^th. I swapped Christmas and birthday presents and sent Sweetie's quilt off for her birthday.

When Sweetie got her quilt, she called me. She was yelling into the phone, "I LOVE IT! IT'S SO PRETTY! I LOVE IT!"

Now there's a response you love to get when you give a quilt!

AL's quilting made the quilt. Instead of having a meander, I had asked her to quilt something inside each heart. She also quilted around all the butterflies in the alternate blocks and the border. The quilt looked amazing after she finished!

As a sweet P.S.—the summer I made the curtains I was looking at my shoes laying on the floor in Taylor’s room. Right next to my size ten sandals where Taylor’s go-aheads. A charming reminder of how little she was that year!

Life Quilt #20

From My Heart to Yours               

started: October 2009        

finished:  January 2010                             

Queen size 90x98

Pieced by myself, Quilted by AL

I'm hooking up with Val's Tuesday Archives. Her badge is on the right sidebar. Mosey on over and take a look at other heart quilts!

Happy New Years to All!

Happy New Years. And I hope you haven't spent it like I did!

Christmas morning I was "sick". New Years Day I was sick.

Interestingly enough (at least for you, my lovely readers) is that we have a family tradition of someone being sick on Christmas Day. Not every Christmas, but enough to make us sick of it (sick humor) (more sick humor) (...)

But let's just hurry past that and go to the happy news: I had the blessed opportunity to spend Christmas with Nancy Drew, SWH, Sweetie and Curly. I haven't spent Christmas with my family for six years. Phew. This year Nancy Drew and her family moved to Utah which is much closer to us. Hurrah!

I flew in on Monday. It was euphoric...only a 90-minute flight. Now contrast with the flight to the East Coast: 9 hours. I was doing the happy dance down the corridor in Utah.

That night we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It is always spectacular. The most beautiful, Christmas-y thing you've seen!

First stop: The two lovebirds posing in front of Joseph and Emma Smith statue.

Many nativities. This one Peruvian? I think. These were about 3 feet tall.

Japanese, so cute. These were between 4 and 5 feet tall!

Curly in front of the Reflecting Pool

Sweetie at other side of Reflecting Pool

Looking up at a lit-up tree!

Even a bag-piper playing Christmas Carols.

Nancy Drew and I in front of a Temple window.

Sweetie took a pic of us off guard!

We had a wonderful dinner that my daughter prepared after getting home from work. Home-made mashed potatoes! What a joy to stay up the next night, Christmas Eve, putting out presents and stockings!

SWH's family has a Christmas breakfast every year. It starts at ten, but he was doing the cooking and had to leave early. Christmas Eve ND & SWH set the wake-up time at 5:30 in order to get all the presents opened before the breakfast. Imagine my surprise and delight when I was woken up at 6:30! I think it was the first time I ever saw parents waking their children up for Christmas morning!

There is so much joy watching a three-year-old, with wonder in her eyes, walk out of her bedroom that morning! It was just as much fun with our 11-year-old Sweetie. She was ecstatic and enthusiastic about every gift! She got a bike and she was bouncing all over, eyes shining.

Sweetie with bike

Sweetie with Zebra (her fave!) bedding

Curly showing her Dad the Princess Sophia doll

Curly playing with her V Tech learning pad

New outfits

Sweetie trying out her new manicure nail dryer

For the especially observant, the Happy Birthday banner is for Nancy Drew. She was born on December 26.

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Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Random Superheroes

We've all known superheroes. In my youth it was Mighty Mouse.

 When I was heading off to college it was The Six Million Dollar Man. Who was the superhero you loved from your childhood?

Of all the superheroes I've known, my favorite is Superhero Curly!

Each year I go East to visit my kids. When I get to Nancy Drew's house I have the most wonderful two days. Sweetie gets to stay home from daycare and I get her all to myself. This year when I arrived, Sweetie said, "On our day, can we make a cape for Curly? She loves being a superhero." This
 is one reason I call her Sweetie. Later that day while we were looking at cool stuff in her room she said with wonderful intensity: "I love Curly. I would step in front of a car to protect her." Excuse me while I wipe my eyes.


On our second day, off we trotted to Joann's to find the perfect material. Sweetie wasn't feeling well, but she was determined. Of course all the fabric was overwhelming and we went through the aisles twice. Sweetie was looking for something bright and cheery. I pulled out some fabrics here and there but they weren't "it." Finally Sweetie sat down on the floor, feeling worse. I started scanning the fabrics right in front of us. Suddenly I saw this fantastic fabric in front of me and drug it out and showed her. She looked at it and said, "I like it." Pause. "I really like it." We had found it! The cape was to be reversible, one down, one to go. Sweetie remembered that I had shown her dotted fabric that had glitter on it. Perfect!

Back at home, we laid out a "pattern" I had gotten from Craft Buds, a blog I found through Google. Instead of goofing around trying to devise my own cape and get the right design, I used her pattern. Sweetie and I laid it out, she cut it out and we pinned it.

I had given Nancy Drew a 1960's Pfaff that my Aunt Marie had. I do not have good mojo with that sewing machine. Yes it was a wonder to see. I had learned to sew on my mother's same machine. With it I had started my quilting journey. Nancy Drew does not sew, but she had this cheap (in both senses of the word) to do basic mending. Hence, the Pfaff found its new home with my second daughter. It was fun taking that 50 pound machine as carry-on luggage, but that's another story!

Four years ago, Sweetie and I made her first quilt. We used the Pfaff. Nancy Drew had inserted the bobbin case incorrectly. When we made the first stitch, the needle got stuck in the down position and wouldn't budge. Exasperation. Tugging. Bother. Tugging. Vexation. Calling hubby. Botheration. Breaking of bobbin case. My "swear" word: Snergen. I finally conceded victory to the pesky machine. Eventually we borrowed a machine from a friend of my daughters.

Hold on to your seats...fast forward. Pfaff all fixed and read to go. I couldn't find where the pedal plugged into the machine. Brilliant idea.  In retrospect, idiotic move. I plugged the pedal into the wall outlet. Press pedal. Pop! Smell of electricity dying. Machine gives a sigh and dies.

However, the machine did work. If you turned the wheel by hand. Which is what we did. Sweetie did the turning of the wheel and got remarkably fast with it. Not before I gave it a try. My wedding ring was hitting the metal wheel. I decided to take off my ring. Snug, no budge. Soap to the rescue! Two weeks later I still can't get the ring back on. Aggravating.

It turned out fantastico!

 Since Curly wasn't there, the only models we had were ourselves!

Up, Up and Away!

I Will Save You!

This is definitely saving the best for last: Superhero Curly!

  Off to save the day!

I don't know for sure, but I think Curly's smile was enough for Sweetie!

Hooking up with Really Random Thursday. Grab badge at right and see how random other people can be.

Another Thursday Thing: Sew Thinky

I've been wanting to join in on the Sew Thinky at Mommy's Naptime. This is Week 8 and the question this week is "Who do you like to sew for the most?"

My first thought was ME. The next was my family. But truly, the real answer is I love to quilt for my grandchildren and my husband.

I made a scrappy quilt from Bonnie Hunter's site at Quiltville. It's called Bricks and Stepping Stones. After the blocks were done, I did the layout on the floor and it looked so terrific. The "bricks" had come from my Aunt Marie's stash. I got very revved up!

Then something horribly, black magically went wrong. *gulp* You might want to remove the children from the room! I sewed all the blocks together just like in the picture on the left below. But when I put the finished top on the design board it wasn't the same! It looked awful. It wasn't cohesive. What had I done? What went so terribly wrong???

I see, I just clicked on the file right before this one! This is the Bricks and Stepping Stones laid out on the floor.

Then my hubby/hero walked in the room. He said, "That looks very nice. I really like that quilt." I managed to snarl out of the side of my mouth, "Then you can have it!" I'm nothing if not gracious.

He loved the quilt. He wanted my quilt. He said it was his favorite kind of quilt. It reminded him of his Great-Aunt Kitty's quilts (whom he adores).

So now you can see why I love to make quilts for my hubby.

Then there's the time I made Sweetie a quilt for her newly painted in a new house bedroom. I had made the curtains and later I made the quilt. I had to wait about a year before I gave it to her. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but she was in love with High School Musical and wanted a bedspread of that. A year later she got the quilt. Nancy Drew called me up and said that Sweetie wanted to tell me something. Sweetie shouted, "I LOVE THE QUILT. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. I LOVE IT." It melted my heart.

Sweetie on her first day of school that year.

And that is why I like making quilts for my grandchildren.