A blanket for Granddaughter Caris

This little blanket barely qualifies as a "quilt". The large squares are made of things that babies love to TOUCH. Flannel, satin, cuddly furry minky and soft cotton. I hope she likes it! The nurses at the hospital where she was born loved it! When she is a bit bigger, I will make a more traditional quilt for her.

Welcome to the family Caris Rose!

A trip "up north"

We made the trip "up north" to be there when they opened the grave for my dear MIL. The use of May Houses to store bodies awaiting burial until the frozen ground melts enough to dig a grave is a necessary evil. We stood in a wet snow storm to see Mom to her final resting place. Rest In Peace Mom Wills.

A trip "up north" also always means a trip to my niece's quilt shop! Jenny and Janelle are the proprietors of Two Sisters Quilting in Bear Lake. This little shop is a glorious place to visit! And, even though I have enough fabric and enough quilt "kits" on my own shelves to last me a very long time, I could not resist signing up as a member of their Civil War Tribute Quilt Block Of The Month group.

Judie Rothermel & Marcus Fabrics created this Civil War Tribute in anticipation of the 150 year commemoration of the US Civil War in 2011. Marcus Fabrics is partnering with Homestead Hearth Quilt Shop to create a special project to use these reproduction fabrics. Each of the blocks in this quilt represent a significant battle of the Civil War.

The blocks are full of pointy stars, large and small. This quilt will, no doubt be a challenge to complete! The first three months were ready when I visited the shop, so those three blocks came home with me. We will make another trip "north" when the next block is ready.

Laptop Computer Bag

I don't have a case or a bag for my laptop, and I really don't like taking it with me without some kind of bag, so I decided to shop for one. 85 BUCKS! For a bag! So, I went down to my sewing room and got busy. This really, really neat bag is the result of an afternoon of sewing. But.............my computer doesn't fit into it. :-( Back to the drawing board.

More "Quilts For Kids"

The little quilt for the "Quilts For Kids" project is quilted, bound, washed and dried - ready to put in the mail. But wait.... there's room for at least one more little quilt in that box! So, I dug around in my fabric stash a bit and viola! - another little quilt. If I can find suitable backing for this little guy, I can get it quilted and ready to do tomorrow. Now, two little people will have a special quilt to snuggle with when they are not feeling so good.

Quilts For Kids

This is the quilt that I made today for the Children's Miracle Network. Tomorrow I'll get it quilted and sent off.

Each year in the United States, children account for more than six million hospital stays and must confront the challenges of overcoming illness while staying in unfamiliar hospital environments. In January 2009, Quilts for Kids, Inc. kicked off a partnership with Downy fabric softener to launch the Downy Touch of Comfort program - bringing a "touch of comfort" to hospitalized children in Children's Miracle Network hospitals nationwide along with "Grey's Anatomy" star and mother of three, Chandra Wilson. Now, Downy has developed a special documentary to raise awareness about the cause and Quilts for Kids' mission. The documentary shows the heartfelt effort that numerous people have put into helping these children feel close to home; from our quilters to the Downy Touch of Comfort spokeswoman, Chandra Wilson, many people have made a difference in the lives of children such as those seen in this film.

We encourage you to view the film and share it with others by sending them the links or by sharing this on your FaceBook page.

Link to Quilts for Kids: www.quiltsforkids.org

Link to Downy.com: www.downy.com/helpingkids

Link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igraIvlADEs

As mentioned in the film, each purchase of a specially marked bottle of Downy will go back to Quilts for Kids to help us create more quilts for the millions of children that are hospitalized each year. The new specially marked bottle design features a "quilted" label and the Downy Touch of Comfort logo on the front, and five cents from each of these specially marked bottles will help Quilts for Kids, Inc. and Downy reach our goal to deliver 10,000 more quilts to these children this year.

TA DAA! It's done!

The "Long Weekend Bag" is done. It wasn't nearly as difficult as some I have done. It turned out really nice. The outside front of the bag has two large pockets, the back another pocket and there are pockets on each end. The inside has a large open pocket and a zippered pocket. The bag has both corded (padded) short handles and a longer, detachable shoulder strap. Now that the prototype is done, I can move on to some smaller "Sleep-Over" bags for the grands.

The Long Weekend Bag

The Long Weekend Bag project continues. Day 1 was spent cutting out all of the pieces - 52 or 54 of them. Day 2 was spent fusing the appropriate stabilizer to each piece and making sure that each piece was labeled. Day 3 was the first day that any actual sewing was done. Pockets, zippers and handles! I also needed to insert the cording into the handles and was absolutely POSITIVE that the pattern just had to be wrong! After making sure that I had enough fabric left in case I needed to recut the bag handles, I decided to try it the way the pattern directed. It worked - perfectly! My arrogance almost got me into trouble!

Well, I'm on page 18 of the pattern booklet and today, I needed to add the side panels to both the bag lining and the outside of the bag. The pattern instructions said that you would need LOTS of pins for this step. This really means that you are going to have LOTS of opportunities to stab yourself and should try to keep the blood off the bag. :-)

That is enough for today! I don't think my shoulders will take any more until tomorrow. I do have Band Ais on 4 fingers, but I did NOT get any blood on the bag! Tomorrow I will move on to putting the bottoms in both the lining and the outside of the bag.