Thaddaeus....Thadeus

I just got off the phone with my sister (who got to hold the baby for 25 mins, I'm sooo jealous!) and she says they're spelling baby's name Thadeus. Jody (my brother) said this morning that "it was like the apostle in the bible" so I assumed that meant they were spelling it that way. Apparently not. lol

And now I have pictures!

This last one is my brother with his new baby. I'm sure he's just yawning here, not crying. ;o)

How to make a quilt in 24 hrs

Friday 5pm - Phone call from mom to say a cousin, Tim, that I haven't seen in 4or 5 years is coming to visit. Tim has a baby girl who turns 1 in Nov.

6pm - I decide I want to make baby Jessica a quilt. Decide on a design and go check out my stash of pink

6:30pm - Start cutting random strips of pink and sew them together.

8:30pm - Decide that just plain strips are boring and think of something I could applique on one of the strips. Elephants come to mind.

9pm - Find a elephant outline on google images. Print it out and get the elephants cut out and fused on. Do a blanket stitch by machine around each elephant. There were three. Finish piecing the top.

10:50pm - Go to weekend job. (not to worry, I get to sleep there)

Saturday 9am - Leave work and go buy a backing fabric. Bring it home and wash it.

11am - Start basting. Take phone call from Mom. Realize that Tim has a step daughter who's six that came as well. Crap. Forgot about her.

12pm - Decide to make a My Little Pony tote bag for the older sister Madison

1pm - Go buy ric rac for the tote bag. Finish tote bag. It looks great.

2pm - Start quilting the quilt. Loopy meander with a flower here and there.

3:30 pm - Attach binding.

4:15 pm - Throw the quilt in the wash.

4:45 pm - Take the quilt out of the washing machine and take it to mom and dad's to dry because that's where we're having supper.

4:50pm - Realize you don't have your camera to take pictures of the quilt.

5:30 - Give the nice warm quilt to the baby. :o) And the tote bag to the sister.

5:31pm - Realize that you may just have to make a quilt for the older sister after all!

The quilt pictures were taken with Dad's camera and he was kind enough to e-mail them to me. Thanks Dad!

It's a boy!

Looks like I finished the baby quilt just in the nick of time! Yes that's right I'm offically an auntie now. Thaddaeus Edward was born Sunday morning around 4 am. He's 7lbs 13oz and it sounds like it was a pretty smooth delivery. No pictures yet but I may phone my brother and see if he'll take a picture with his phone and e-mail it to me.

The quilt was finished late friday night and yesterday I took it to Mom and Dad's so they can take it to Winnipeg when they leave today. I think it turned out really well. I just did random lines across the blocks. They were supposed to be straight lines....but most of them are a little curved. lol Oh well, we'll just pretend I wanted it that way. ;o)

I must say I'm pretty excited about being an Auntie. I feel like I should go shopping for boy clothes now. lol

Another gifty

I decided last night that I needed to make a gift for a little daycare girl who turned 2 in Sept. She had just started coming here when her mom unexpectantly had to take two weeks off work. Her birthday was in those two weeks so I kind of missed getting her anything.

So I wanted to make her something educational, fun and cute. Hmmm a doll? Stuffed animal? Think, think, think. Bean bags....with letters...and numbers on them! And ric-rac! Perfect!

So at 11pm I started these. I found a nice font on Word to use as a stencil. Fused everything on and then did a bit of a stitch around everything with embroidery floss just to make sure the letters stayed on...and to make it cuter. I didn't have any blue ric rac and I wanted to try the piping to see how it would look. I like it. I finished them up this afternoon while the kids were sleeping. :o) They're so cute! My poor photography doesn't do them justice. I'm going to give them to her tomorrow with a printout on activities to do with bean bags.

And now I must, MUST, MUST get that baby quilt finished! Baby's coming any day now. Ack!

Mom and Dad's 25th Anniversary

Moneik has posted about the signature quilt she made for her parents 25th anniversary. I found it funny/interesting that MY parents had their 25th less than a month after hers and I also made my parents a signature quilt!

I paper pieced all the blocks, bought the special markers and then mailed them out with the instructions to all the relatives. Everyone mailed them back promptly and I finished it in time to give it to them at the party. It was a lot of work but totally worth it. It still has a place of honour on their wall nearly 4 years later. :o)

Weekend update....on a Tuesday. :oP

I managed to get three and a half things crossed off my October to-do list this weekend.



First I managed to replace the weather stripping on the side door. I'd only had the new weather stripping for a year! lol It's still drafty under the door though so it looks like I'll have to do something with the threshold bumper yet.



Next I finished a puppy costume for a daycare boy (GH) to use for halloween. His mom has also commissioned me to make is sister a witch costume.

(Pictures posted with parental permission)

Isn't he so cute! :o) He liked it so much he would have kept it on all day but it was just too warm for that. I love the white tipped tail. Oh and ignore the mess of toys behind him.

Gh's 2nd birthday is on friday so I've made him a pillowcase with the fabric he picked out the last time we were at the fabric shop. He loooves tractors! I also had just enough to make him a little pillowcase to put on his napping pillow for daycare. The kids use little travel pillows for naptime here.

I also half finished the binding on the wallhanging panel I bought over a year ago. I finished it this evening. I'll hang it whenever one of the kids is having a birthday.



Then I pulled out all the summer shoes from the entrance way. No need for the lawn mowing shoes for a long time! lol Nor the soccer cleats, baseball cleats and all those sandles. Now there's lots of room for winter boots. ((shutter))
Now I have just 4 things to finish on my October to-do list.
1. Two pairs of pj's for GH (the pattern I ordered came today finally)
2. Baby quilt for my niece or nephew (need to finish that this week)
3. AH's witch costume
4. Special quilted bag to take projects in to quilting club

Only #2 and #3 HAVE to be finished this month but I'm optimistic that I can finish them all by the 31st.

Holy moley, guacamole! I can't believe that someone could be this generous but Liz of Pigtails and Snails is giving away a quilt! Not just any quilt a one of a kind, designed by herself quilt! It's sooo nice so head over there and getch'yerself entered in to win.
I'm feeling lucky today because I won TWO of the fall giveaways. I never win anything! ....but you know how they say things come in threes? I'm sure my third winning will be this quilt. hehe I can always hope can't I?

We have some winners!

I did the draw for my Fall Giveaway this morning. I had one of my little daycare girls pick the winner out of the over 150 entries in the halloween bowl.

1st place - a lovely tote bag and a kitchen towel - goes to Winona! Lucky you. :o)

2nd place - a kitchen towel - goes to Valerie!

I had a lot of fun with this so I just may do the Winter giveaway that Debi is planning as well. I think it'll have to be something I can make two of so I won't feel so sad giving it away. lol

Turkey Day!

Well folks there's just a bit more than 3 hours left of our Canadian thanksgiving and it's been a pretty good long weekend.

On friday I got this lovely thing from one of my daycare moms. :o) So nice!

Earlier in the week the kids and I made this for one of our thanksgiving crafts. They colored the leaves and then we wrote things that they were thankful for on them. My name made it on there twice. hehe Don't I have the sweetest daycare children? lol It's hanging in the narrow stairway so it's impossible to get a head-on shot.

Saturday I spent napping and not doing too much as I was feeling out of sorts. Pretty sure I was PMSing and I really wasn't fit to be in civilized company. Not to worry, I got over it. lol

Sunday after church we had thanksgiving dinner. Yummy, yummy! That evening I went out to mom and dad's for a heated Scrabble game. Mom beat dad by just a few points and I came in third because I got stuck with the Q. Normally my favorite letter seeing as it starts the word quilt. Alas it could not be used because dad was hogging the last U. lol

Today I've been puttering around. I slept in until 10! Whoot! Because of my weekend job there's only about 5 or 6 days a year where I can sleep in so I really enjoyed it.

I'm nearly finished the halloween costume for one of my daycare boys. He wants to be a puppy so his mom has commissioned me to make a puppy costume. All I have left to do is put a few white patches on the body and then it's done. I'm also making a witch costume for his older sister.

I've also cleaned out the exercise room. This involved moving the jumperoo from that room into the laundry room. I'll be glad when I can ship that off to my brother's house for his baby! None of my daycare kids are little enough for it anymore.

Oh and it snowed today. :o( But I refuse to acknowledge that with a picture. :oP

I hope everyone else enjoyed their Thanksgiving/Columbus Day!

D9P Baby Quilt

If you haven't heard yet I'm going to be an auntie at the end of the month! As the only auntie who quilts I'm in charge of making the baby quilt.

Sister in law picked out the fabric when I was in Winnipeg visiting, Sept. long weekend. She picked a plaid and a polka dot! The only thing I could think of that would work off the top of my head was a Disappearing Nine Patch. I showed her some pics online and she approved.

This is where I'm at so far. I really like it! It's only 28" by 39" though. Do D9P's usually have borders? Or should I make it bigger by adding more blocks? Hmmm Anybody?

Kitchen Towel Tutorial

I thought I'd put together a little tutorial for those who asked how my kitchen towels were made in my Fall into Fall Giveaway.

If you need a quick gift that you can make in less than 20 minutes this could be your thing!

First get in your car and drive down to a store that sells kitchen things. Pick out a small towel with a coordinating pot holder. They often come as a set sold together.

Then drive over to your grandma's house and steal....borrow her button collection. If you happen to have your own button collection visit your grandma anyways and give her a hug.

You'll need a button with a shank like this.

Take your towel to the ironing board and fold it in half width-wise and press the fold with the iron. This will give you a guide on where to put your gathering stitches.

Next get about 40" of thread on a sewing needle. I used my hand quilting thread but any good tread will work. If you don't double your thread 20" will be plenty.

Either knot the end off or double your tread, put the cut ends through the eye, take a stitch and then put the needle through the loop that's at the end of the thread. Clear as mud right?

All you need is to make sure your thread is secure at the side of the towel and isn't going to come out when you gather the towel. Does this picture help?

Take some stitches all the way across the towel on the fold you made.

When you reach the other side of the towel pull the thread until the towel is gathered. You can either measure your pot holder (mine was 6") or just lay it on top of the towel and make sure the towel is gathered the to same width. Once you've got it the right size make a knot in the thread, close to the towel.

Center the middle of the pot holder on the gathered part of the towel. Take it to the sewing machine and stitch down the middle of the pot holder and towel. Back stitch at the beginning and end.

Snip your threads. If your gathered stitches show pull them out. They shouldn't show unless you used that bright pink thread you've been saving for something special. ;o)

Track down your button and sew it to the side of the pot holder that was opposite the loop.

Fold the pot holder up and loop the loop around the button.

Now go back to your grandma's to return her buttons and use her oven door handle to model your lovely towel. You were making it for her anyways weren't you?

My oven door handle is completely attached to the oven so these towels don't work for me but they make a great gift for others!

And there you have it, a lovely gift! Wouldn't these be great with Christmas towels?

A Crib Rescue!

One of my daycare moms found a lovely doll crib at a garage sale this summer. She bought it and of course washed the bedding before she let her daughter play with it. Much to her horror the crib mattress cover shredded in the wash! :o( So she brought it to me to see if I could rescue it.

The former mattress consisted of two layers of poly batting covered with pink satin. It was the satin that came apart at the seams. It was a mess let me tell ya! All I could salvage was a piece that I used as part of the top on the new mattress.

I didn't want to mess with the old batting so I went to the upholstery shop and purchased a piece of 2" thick foam remnant for $3. Add some pink broadcloth and a little time and voila! A new crib mattress that looks better than the original I bet. :o)

The little daycare girl has been waiting for hmmm ....at least 3 weeks for me to finish this. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she comes back from school tomorrow!

Fall into Fall Quilter's Blog Giveaway

Kudos to Debi over at http://debiquilts.blogspot.com/ for coming up with this great idea. There are 40 quilters involved in a huge fall giveaway. We've each come up with something quilted/quilt related/crafted to give away as a prize.

I decided on Sunday that I wanted to be involved in this and stayed up until after midnight last night creating this.

I'm quite proud of my efforts and to be honest it's going to be hard to give this away! lol

There's a little pocket inside.

And a nice vintage button taken from Grandma's button collection.

To sweeten the deal I made a couple of these as well. (Table runner not included)

They're made to hang on the oven door. Perfect for fall decorating!

The winner gets their choice of one towel and then I'll have a second draw to give the other away as the 2nd place prize.

Sooo, in order to be entered in this fantastic draw you need to leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite SMELL of fall is. Anyone can leave a comment but if you don't have a blog be sure to leave your e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you if you win! The draw will be done on Oct 15th to find out who the lucky winners are. :o)

Don't forget to check out all the other blogs for more great draws. Just click on the scarecrow at the right of my blog for a list of all the other blogs with draws you can enter. Good luck everyone!

New Fabric

On monday I only had one daycare child, G-man, so we went off to the fabric store to see what they had for new fabric. G-man spotted the tractor fabric right away so I HAD to buy a meter of it to make a pillowcase for his 2nd birthday that's coming up. He proudly carried it all the way to the till with a huge smile on his face. Sooo cute. :o) His parents own a tractor dealership so this is right up his alley. I've never seen John Deere, New Holland and Case tractors all on one fabric before.

The other funky fabric was a remnant. I'll likely use it for a backing someday.