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

Quilting Design Wall & Christmas Carol Countdown 2014: 3 Days to Go!

My vacation quilting began on Saturday. I worked on a Christmas gift for my granddaughter who will be born in January. I can’t say anything now, because Chief and Noel Heart don’t know what it is.

Noel Heart is the pregnant one! My granddaughter is
hiding behind her Mommy's sweater. At right is Hubby and
at the bottom is Firstest

Tomorrow I’m going to quilt with my friend, JP. We’re both excited for being able to quilt almost every day of the vacation! I will be doing the “final stretch” on the Mystery Quilt “Cascadia.”

Lori from the blog “Humble Quilts,” started a QAL on November 7. It was to be a wall-hanging and end up about 17” x 19” square. When she mentioned using up 1.5” squares, I was hooked. I have a box of those little squares and it would be fun to use some of them. On November 26th, Lori did the reveal. It’s an adorable quilt. She copied it from an antique quilt she found.

Here’s my progress so far. The center strips are seminole piecing. It’s my first experience and tomorrow will be my third day trying to get it right. I believe I got it figured out at the last quilt-together. I’m anxious to see what I can do tomorrow!

We’re in the final stretch for Christmas! I miss the days of having the kids home for Christmas vacation and doing fun activities with them. Young moms, believe me, there will come a day when you miss having the kids under your feet at Christmas!

Quilting Nonnie with my three young kids.
In front, Nancy Drew  3 yrs, Noel Heart 5 yrs
and I'm holding TGS, 1 yr

I have told stories of our Advent Calendar activities when our kids were at home. My crazy son, TGS, and his lovely OSLW, have finally dropped over the cliffs of insanity. I thought it was cute when OSLW told me she painted the husky’s toenails. Of course, I helped things along this year by sending my granddogs an advent calendar. Now they’ve gone around the bend! TGS excitedly told me just a bit ago that Ginny and Gandalf (my granddogs) had done the Jello Slurping contest. Once Hubby had brought me back with smelling salts, I got the second-by-second description of the contest. A video is forthcoming. TGS said he wouldn’t spoil it by telling us who won. I think it’s Gandalf; Dale thinks it’s Ginny. I think we should make a bet!

OSLW with Gandalf (left) & Ginny (right)

 Now that Nancy Drew suggested a song, TGS, whose name might be changed to Crazy Geek Son, sent his Christmas “carol” into me.

TGS was totally absorbed with Dr. Demento when he was a teen, which might explain his personality now. He’d record each show from the radio. Actually, it was fun! I learned some goofy songs during that time!

TGS sent me a Christmas “carol” he heard on a Dr. Demento show. It is by the great comedian, Stan Freburg. He was well known in the 50s and 60s for his satire and parodies of many common themes of the day. TGS’ request today is “Green Christmas,” which TGS loves because he agrees with the jist of the spot.





Because of the Design Wall, this has been a little bit longer post. I hope you enjoyed the quilting, the music and the stories.

Don’t forget to come back every day to see the next Christmas Carol Countdown. If you’ve missed any so far, click on the badge near the top of the right sidebar!

Christmas Carol Countdown: 4 Days to Go!

I thought I’d start off today with a big chuckle. Many families like to re-enact the nativity story for Christmas. Our family has been no exception and you’re so lucky: I have Pictures!

1986 Family Nativity: Nancy Drew as Mary,
TGS as Joseph

I’ve never been this late in my life! I still have Christmas shopping to do. Here’s the kicker…I don’t know who I still need to shop for!

I’m knuckling down this afternoon and delving into the Christmas gift box. I am going to find out who’s getting a present and who’s getting an empty box!

Tomorrow promises to be a busy day of buying…and I’m sure I’ll be kept company by hundreds of others like me. **Sigh**

I found a real gem for today’s carol. I can guarantee you haven’t seen this before. And, no, it’s not a video of my children singing when they were young. It’s “Go Tell It On The Mountain” but played in a very different way.




I’ve been nattering on about gifts and I love to get them. Still I always keep in mind the gift that was given to all on Christmas Day.





Don't forget to come back every day to see the next Christmas Carol Countdown. If you've missed any, click on the badge near the top of the right sidebar!

Christmas Carol Countdown: 9 Days to Christmas

Each time I type the title with the days left till Christmas, I have this inward shudder. Many of you probably share this dreaded countdown with me. How many days left until everything has to make it in the mail to get to the __________. These past few years the blank has been filled in with "East Coast." My son, TGS, is living on the "opposite" coast with his new bride. Up until October of this year, my daughter, Nancy Drew, lived on the east coast also.  The gifts have made it every year with some room to spare, but it's always a gnawing in my stomach until I leave the post office with their packages on the way!

My current situation is, admittedly, much better than four years ago when the same daughter as above was deployed and in Germany. But that was still fairly simple because of the military mail system. I only had to mail her things to San Francisco!

By far the worst location and, unfortunately, the worst turn-out was the year my son was stationed in Korea (Army) and same daughter was serving a mission for our church in Japan. (Is it just me or does it seem that the two of them are in "cohoots" to live far away?) 

It was getting close to Christmas and time to mail packages. My son's were easy, he was in the military, but my daughter's had to go through the regular mail system, and that is very, very expensive. I decided to send my daughter's Christmas box via military mail to my son in Korea. From there he could mail it to Japan, just a hop, skip and a jump over the little bit of ocean! 

The plan proceeded well until Christmas Day when my daughter got to call home. She reported that no Christmas box had arrived from me. That was truly dreadful. Here she was far, far away in Japan. First Christmas without family. And no Christmas presents from home. It was agonizing.

Then January came and went. No Christmas box. February, the same. Finally the Christmas box shows up...at my son's "doorstep" in Korea. I don't know where that package had been for almost three months; I hope it had a good time.

Now the best plan was for my son to mail the package through military mail back to me. I then sent it through U.S. mail to Korea. Into the next month...Easter arrives in Japan. My daughter finally receives her Christmas box...the same day the Easter box arrives from home!

I'd like to believe that it was "all for the best." But it's going to be a hard sell!

Here is a carol I discovered a few years back and it quickly made it to my favorites list. It's done by a group called MercyMe. This carol, written by a member of the group, reflects on Joseph's feelings towards his newborn son.

I searched through all the videos I could find for one that I liked to illustrate the song. None of them were perfect. Each one had something beautiful and right, each one had a part or two that didn't fit for me. Here is the one that I finally picked. The song is so tender and filled with the love of a father. Here is "Joseph's Lullaby."

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!

Under Construction

I've been struggling for a couple of hours to get a slideshow of my quilts on here. Why does everything new with a computer take 4-5 hours to figure out? And I'm pretty savvy about computers! If you look down the left hand side of the blog, you'll see a heading "My Quilts." It says it's loading. It really isn't. That's insulting. Computers should not be able to lie to you.

I wanted this post to be about my BIG project I'm currently in the middle of. And for that, I need a slideshow. I've seen it on other blogger sites, ergo it must work. It's obviously time to call Talented Geeky Genius Son (TGGS) and have him throw me a rope.

This is the third time I've mentioned this project. It's almost like watching TV and seeing the same commercial over and over and over...telling you about an upcoming show. After a while it gets annoying rather than exciting.

We'll just play a little game. I'll give you hints, you try to guess. (Those of you related to me already know...no posting the answer in the comments!

1. There's more than one.
2. They are smaller than a breadbox.
3. It involves electricity.
4. I'm doing it with a group.
5. It also has something to do with a book.
6. It uses a lot of paper.
7. Projected finish date: August of 2013!

I'll call TGGS tomorrow. With any luck at all (because of his brains) I'll share tomorrow.