I'm on Grams' leave

I'm off this week on Grams' leave. New moms and dads get maternity and paternity leave, so I think my time can be designated as Grams' leave without any problem.

Ellie and I have got to spend a little bit of time together. Well, along with her Mom. ;) But we get some quality bonding time when Mom's taking a nap or I feed her. Yesterday we hung out together while she got some tummy time in. To give credit where credit is due, Elizabeth took this picture, but since it was appropriate I snagged it to post.

And I've been able to get started on the grandkids' Christmas presents. I've decided on quilts for the older kids, and have made a good start. Here's the fabric so far. I found the Spiderman fabric on line, since I was having a hard time finding anything locally. This was my first time to order fabric this way, and it's certainly more convenient, but I would have preferred to feel it first to know the quality of the material. If they would put the thread count in the description, that would certainly help. Anyway, Spidey will be a shadow quilt, similar to how I did this t-shirt quilt. The puppy dogs are checkerboard, and will have one or two dogs appliqued on the back side. I'll probably pick up my third print in the next few days. I plan on doing the quilting myself on Maggie (my new little Janome Magnolia), so I'll certainly get some practice in!

she's here!

We welcomed our newest addition to the family last night. Meet Elise Rose! She's wonderful, and Mom and Dad are doing fine. She didn't want to wake up enough to pose with her eyes open, but I have a feeling we're going to have plenty of waking moment opportunities soon enough. ;)

And because its my blog, here's the now-traditional Grams-and-the-baby picture:

My son-in-law does have a sense of humor. They didn't have her name firmly in place until after she was born. In fact, when I left the hospital last night, still no name. This morning as I got on the elevator to go up to see them, along with David's sister Kathy, we each got a text, simply stating the name: Elise Lowes (first and middle). We were actually kind of excited, and thought how appropriate, knowing how he loves shopping at his favorite home improvement store. Leave it to him to exercise his privilege of choosing the middle name, and come up with Lowes...ha ha ha, lol! But no, she's Elise Rose, and it fits her just fine.

Happy birthday, Little One.

a good weekend

I took off work yesterday to go to the Trinity Valley Quilters' Guild quilt show in Fort Worth. It's always a nice one, and I try to make it every year. They had lots of pretty quilts to look at, and several vendors. I think the number of vendors was down a bit, but I attribute that to the economy.

The theme this year was Log Cabins - Timeless Treasures, so there were quite a few log cabins to look at. They're pretty, but I can't say they're my favorite. Now this moose up here...that one speaks to me! But I'm partial to mooses anyway. The other two just caught my eye.

The find of the day however, was this nifty little cover to go on a tv snack tray. It's made with the insulated material that's used for ironing board covers, and is so convenient to have handy at the sewing machine.

This morning was yard work. We've had so much rain lately that it's gone kind of crazy. I mowed and edged the front, pulled a few weeds, and pulled almost all of the marigolds out. I decided I needed to take a picture of my geraniums (edited to say "begonias") at the front entry, as a reminder to plant them again next year. I've enjoyed them all season, they did so well.
That's it for now. I'm hoping the next post can have baby pictures on it!

don't have to say darn it anymore

Since my little Singer gave out on me, I knew I needed to do something fairly quickly. After all, this is the busy time of year for most people who sew. Without going into detail, I've got at least 3 projects on my list that I need to get going on.

Sooooooo.......

I did it! I jumped out there and bought a new machine! One of the ladies on the HGTV quilting message board recently bought a Janome Magnolia 7330. Every comment on her post was positive about the brand. I took a look at the same model, found the price to be in my range, and feel like it will fit my needs nicely.
Now I just need to get busy and get past that learning curve!

darn it...

My sewing machine messed up today, and now I can't sew. It was doing fine until I tried to do some of the decorative stitches. Maybe reading the instructions would have helped. Anyway, some of the material dropped down in the little hole that the needle goes down into, and I had to tug to get it out. After that, I can't get the bobbin thread to come topside.

What to do? Spend $80 for a service/repair job on my inexpensive little Singer that probably cost $150 to begin with, and that was 10 years ago, or break down and get a new one? Hmmm, that's really kind of a no-brainer, isn't it? Alright, I talked myself into it. Now to see what's out there, without spending an arm and a leg.

There. I feel better already. It feels good to be able to have these little chats with myself. :)

On other news, no baby yet. Of course, Elizabeth's not due till the 20th, but I still think Little One will be making her entrance early.

much needed rest

Ah, Labor Day. A day of much needed rest for the working masses. (My last year to fall in that category!)

I finished the Little Cowboy quilt last week, and my mind is turning to see what other projects I want to move forward on. Let's see...I've been working on Christmas crazy quilt type blocks since about February; I'd love to try a paper-piecing challenge that's going on over at the HGTV quilting board (didn't sign up for it, but I'm taking copious notes so I can try my hand at it as it's convenient); my poor little leaves-blowing in-the-wind wall hanging is more reminiscent of an occasional gust of wind the way it gets worked on in spurts; some burp cloths are calling to me; I really could use some placemats and maybe a table runner; and Christmas is just around the corner. What else? Of course the sewing room could stand to be straightened up quite a bit, I have a dress form that I want to put in a new stand and put on Craig's List, there's always a bit of ironing to do, and I won't even mention that my room could use a good vacuuming.

But it's Labor Day, a day of much needed rest for the working masses. I think it can all wait another day, don't you?

quick little blanket...finished!

I finished little Isaiah's quilt, and washed it so it would pucker up the way a quilt ought to. It was my first one to machine quilt (other than Wild and Free, which was just stitching in the ditch), and I'm real pleased with how it came out. I purposely chose a simple layout, partly so it would come together quickly, and partly so I could try my hand, er, machine, at doing the quilting. Here it is:
I used Sharon Schamble's technique for basting the quilt, and really like this method. Takes a bit longer, but lays out so smooth, using no safety pins. I set my stitches a tad longer for the stitching, and that helped too.

Think little Isaiah will like it? (Shhh, they haven't got it yet...hopefully today.)