All Decked Out: April 2010

Too cute for (many) words!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 4 Comments »

Talk about talented! Take a look at some of the pictures on this photographer's web site and blog. And yes, that's Miss Maddy Rose.

DIL Jamie said it was a tough shot to get -- she actually held Maddy's head up, then her hand was edited out of the picture. Can't wait to see the rest of the pictures.

Catching up

Saturday, April 17, 2010 4 Comments »

I may be a faithful reader, but when it comes to posting, I'm erratic at best. All of the more recent posting have revolved around our new grandbaby. I have been sewing however. Really I have.

Nancy, Near Philadephia was kind enough to get me started on Civil War repro fabrics. A blessing and a curse. Now I'm fully addicted.

The first step on the road to perdition was involvement in an "Indigo and Caramel" block swap. We are basing the blocks on a Batik Baskets BOM Nancy found on The Quilters Guild of Plano website. If you are interested, the links are half-way down the page here. We each chose a different month's basket block, making 12 to swap, using CW repro fabric in indigo and caramel. Half of us are using indigo backgrounds with caramel baskets; the other half did indigo on caramel. Mine is the March block, with an indigo basket.

Well, I'm going to need more than 12 blocks for a potential quilt, so I decided to make my own additional set consisting of a block for each month, using the opposite color scheme. So if Nancy is making the April block using blue background/tan basket, I'm making the same block for myself but with a tan background/blue basket.

Here's what I have so far. My swap block is in the center. The swaps aren't due until June so I have plenty of time to finish my reverse set. And yes, all my swappers are done and mailed to the Swap Maven. Finished block size - 10.5"

Then a number of us discovered a book called The Farmer's Wife during a quilting retreat in Lancaster. Not wanting to go totally crazy I agreed to swap 12 FW blocks with Nancy. They are interesting, though challenging, and the "patterns" in the book are not for the faint of heart. Here's what I have so far. More than half of the blocks are Nancy's -- at one point, I was doing a block for her & a block for me, but then I stopped matching and just did hers. I was afraid if I didn't get hers done & mailed, I'd never get them done. The finished size of these babies is 6". Yep, more CW repros.

Coincidently, I got interested in a BOM that my LQS was doing. It's Marcus Fabrics' Civil War Tribute quilt. I posted about it when I first started, and again when I did the first month's block. Here is an update on what we've done so far. There are 2 each of the light blue blocks, one each of the blocks with the dark brown corbnewrs, and 4 each of the lot-of-HSTs block. Big blocks are 18"; smaller ones are 12". The HST block is 15", with spacers on the top/bottom.

Then I saw this cute little table-topper in the June issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. Designed by one of the Repro Fabric Queens, Jo Morton, I had to make it. Those little star blocks are 3".

My wedding anniversary is 4th of July, so this will be my gift to us.

That's the end of my show-and-tell for now, but before I go I want to share a nifty tool that I found. I'm almost as crazy about tools as I am about fabric. This one looks as though it will really help my just-say-no-to-math brain figure out the setting triangles for the on-point settings I will be doing. It's called The Setting Triangle, by Lynn Gravia, and is distributed by Little Foot, Ltd. I can't wait to try it.

Wow, that was a long post! It's turning out to be a beautiful day here in Eastern PA, and hubby Rod-o and I are off to meet out newest grandbaby. I hope hope your day is as blessed as mine!

love and pieces, Pat

I can't help myself

Friday, April 16, 2010 1 Comment »

Someone save me? Please? I'm turning into one of those obnoxious grandmoms who foists pictures of her grandkids on anyone and everyone. How can I help it though, when they are THIS CUTE????!!!!!

I know, Nancy. I am taking Nate's picture with me when I go see her tomorrow.

"Maddy, this is Nate. He's a very nice young man with red hair and a penchant for music. Comes from a spectacular family......"

I promise to post quilting stuff tomorrow. Or Sunday.

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 2 Comments »

My daughter Kate is a 5th grade teacher. She's got a great class, with some very creative students. Last week was her birthday. Today she wrote me an email that made me laugh out loud. Hope it makes you laugh as well.
She writes:

Okay, so this is hilarious………

I am CONSTANTLY losing my dry erase markers in class. I walk up to the board to write, only to find that my markers are across the room or who the heck knows where. My kids are always chasing them down for me. One day, in frustration, I told them what I really needed was some sort of belt so I could Velcro the markers to my body so I wouldn’t lose them. They all got a good laugh at that….and at me.

Fast forward a few weeks. In walks one of my students this morning with a beaming smile a little gift bag in hand. With outstretched arms, he presents the bag to me as a “belated birthday present”. Wouldn’t you know it? I open the bag to find that he had made me my belt (a fashionable one, at that) with Expo markers velcroed all around it! He even had the forethought to leave a few blank Velcro spots for me to add miscellaneous items (this child obviously knows me too well)!

To say the least, this made my day!

Do you think we should publish the pattern on Moda Bakeshop??

Just in time for Opening Day!

Monday, April 12, 2010 5 Comments »

Finally!! Miss Madeline Rose Deck took her own sweet time, but when she decided she was ready, she was READY.

The phone rang at a 5:05 this morning, and sure enough, it was the call we had been expecting. Son Andy shared the joyful news that our new grand daughter had been born at 4:29 this morning, after a short and uneventful labor, at Reading (PA) Hospital. 6 lb, 13 oz; 19 " long; blonde hair & brown eyes. Andy says she's the spittin' image of her older sister, Annabelle. Both momma Jaimie and Miss Maddy are doing just fine. Annabelle and brother Ian will get to meet their new sister this afternoon. GG and Pop Pop will wait a few days to let Jamie catch her breath before decending on Reading.

Andy is taking credit for bring on Jamie's labor because HE worked hard all day yesterday refinishing the deck. He's thrilled that Madeline made it in time for the Phillies Opening Day! We're just thrilled. Period!

And now, through the wonders of cell phone technology...........