NICU Quilts and Sunsets

I’ll be out and about tomorrow running errands so I will pick up a slightly smaller box and get the NICU quilts sent off.  I finished the quilting and binding on the last of the three today.  This one was the easiest since it was just a large panel.  Here are all three that are going to WTIL:

Bazooples Panel

Bazooples Panel with Backing

Rail Fence with Bazooples

Rail Fence with Backing

Baby Bunnies

Baby Bunnies with Backing

And here are a few sunsets that I have been seeing on my evening walks.  Sometimes the reflection in the eastern sky is as pretty as the western sun setting …

International Picnic Day

Yes, today is International Picnic Day …

Do you remember the famous Hanna-Barbera cartoon character, Yogi Bear, that cleverly worked up many variations of stealing pic-a-nic baskets from campers in Jellystone Park to the consternation of Ranger Smith?  And his almost-as-famous humble sidekick, Boo Boo Bear?  Often Yogi spoke in rhymes and always proclaimed himself to be “smarter than the average bear”!

Over at Little Birdie Quilts, she made an interesting variation of a Picnic Quilt using old denim jeans and a vinyl tablecloth.  The object of the vinyl is to avoid the seemingly continuously wet grass in the Pacific Northwest, but it would also be useful to easily shed sand at the beach.

Check out the four parts to her tutorial at:  http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/03/making-denim-picnic-quilt-wanna-join-us.html

Where would you go on your picnic?

Public-Domain-Photos.com
Jon Sullivan

Meadow, Mountains or maybe the Beach?  How about the backyard?!  Works for me…

Public-Domain-Photos.com
Jon Sullivan

Another NICU Top

Since these are smaller and can be put together so easily, I finished another neo-natal intensive care (NICU) top today.  Now I have three to quilt and send on to Ellen at WTIL. Guess I'll have to get over to a fabric store and get those backings ...what a shame (not!).  So many cute fabrics, so little time ...

Busy Day Today

Well, I guess I could say that it was a busy day yesterday, too, but that was just housework!  Today I was busy quilting and having my kind of fun...

I finished putting on the last two side borders on the Posies top and I have to say that I love the way this top turned out.  I see so many beautiful scrap quilts on-line but I definitely have trouble putting together scraps to make a pretty top.  I think succesful scrappers often use hundreds of small pieces so everything melds together and looks great (like Bonnie Hunter) - but I'm never likely to have the patience for that!

Or they have lots of scraps from one fabric designer (think Ami Butler or Kaffe Fassett), and all of the scraps look coherent.  My stash is just too eclectic.  I have brights and greyed-tones and reproductions (both 30s and civil war) and kiddie-novelties and calicos - all of those together just make for a muddy looking top.  I don't have so much of any one of those categories to make big scrap tops ... but I'll keep an eye out for patterns like this Posies one and keep moving those scraps on out!

Finished top and detail (all of the posies have prints
 - they might look solid in the pictures,
 but they have interesting fabrics):

Ellen, at Wrap-Them-in-Love (a non-profit organization), has an opportunity to send quilts to a neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU), and that type of quilt is great fun to make.  They are slightly smaller, so as to cover the isolettes that premature babies are first placed in, and work up quickly.  The quilts over the isolettes keep the lights and noises at a minimum for these more delicate babies.  I have worked with a LQS to make these before and have donated some locally.

I had some fabrics leftover from a previous quilt I had made for a friend's premie grandchild, so I worked up this fast rail-fence top today.  I also have a panel with these cute little zoo babies (called Bazooples by the designer) so that will be two NICU quilts.  I need to get some backing material for this one, since I don't have enough larger scraps to piece one, but I'll do that soon and get these on their way.

Needs ironing!





So I have been busy!

Flag Day in the USA

On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress pass the Flag Resolution that stated “…that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation…”.  The Resolution did not designate any particular arrangement for the stars and their number has now grown from thirteen to fifty representing the 50 current States within the USA.

Flag Day has its roots going way back to 1885 when the idea was developed  by schoolteacher BJ Cigrand.  Other teachers, children and school boards soon joined in, celebrating the flag with parades, pageants and local patriotic programs.  After 30 years of unofficial celebrations, and on the Anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777, President Wilson officially established Flag Day in 1916.  An Act of Congress was subsequently signed by President Truman in 1949 that designated National Flag Day would always be on June 14^th..

The following is my favorite *Flag* song … feel free to sing along today!

You're a Grand Old Flag

by George M. Cohan

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.
You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

Posies in the Garden Top Grows

I'm still working on the Posies ... I decided to make a few more and make it longer.  And yes, I know the bottom three colors aren't laid out correctly and fortunately, they aren't sewn together yet!  I'll fix that ...

The design is by Caroline Reardon and appeared in an old issue of Quiltmaker Magazine - she called hers Rows of Posies.  As you can see, hers had a medium blue background, but I'm using up stash and the black and white is one of the few larger size pieces that I had for the background.

Scrappy Saturday

On my walk the other day, I saw that a development had put mixed flowers at their entrance that were gorgeous. 

So when I came across a quilt pattern in an old magazine that had mixed scrap posies I decided to make it.  [I'll post the details and the designer's name in the next post - I don't have the magazine here with me now]

This is what I'm working on today.  They go together quickly even with the partial-seam sewing, so I might even finish up this top this weekend!

Note that each posie has a yellow center ... that's so I can say I'm using yellow for this month's color in the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Yes, there's method to my madness - tee hee hee.

Challenge Blocks

A member of one of my on-line groups issued a Challenge to make 12-inch blocks that she would assemble for sampler quilts to be donated to a children's charity.  She sent us a piece of printed fabric that was to be used in each block.  Any block design was acceptable as long as the Challenge fabric was used in it in some way.  These are the blocks that I came up with.  The Challenge fabric is the print shown in the detail picture.

Detail

I did the Southwest Bunny first and then made the other blocks to go along with him.  The challenge fabric makes up the sunburst in the bunny block.  The pinwheels are the leftover triangles from the flying geese in the Dutchman's Puzzle block.  I just saw a picture that another member made for the Challenge that had colorful gila monsters in the blocks.  I wonder if these will go with them?!

My thanks go out to Sindy from FatCat Patterns for the bunny design.  Check out the other templates she offers at: http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/Ethnic%20Flavored%20Designs.html

And thanks also to Marcia at the Quilter's Cache for the patterns for the other blocks.  Her website is at
http://www.quilterscache.com/
What a treasure to find these free block patterns that I use for donation quilts.

National Donut Day

Yes, I waited until pretty late to post this just so you wouldn’t be tempted to run out and get some of these tasty treats!

But it is true that the first Friday in June has been designated as National Donut Day and you can give your thanks to the Salvation Army for that.  The day was set aside beginning in 1938 to honor the women who handed out the delicious orbs to soldiers in World War I.

The original recipe that includes lard and evaporated milk can be found at this link.  Many lighter recipes can be found on the internet, but the easiest way to get your fill is to stop by your local Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kreme or most bakeries (and yes, I know where the closest of each is to my house…).  If you can’t resist – go ahead and have one tomorrow – just remember the generous volunteers in WWI and they won’t have any calories at all!

Not Really Quilting

Yesterday and today I was busy reorganizing my previous quilt pictures.  I am NOT a scrapbooker and really have no creative talents in that direction, but I knew I had to do something with the many quilt pictures and memorabilia that I have collected for my Friends and Family quilts and my donation quilts.

I found several inexpensive 3-ring binders (so they can be expanded) that were made for 12 inch scrapbook papers and this is the mess I am making:

I hope to put all of these quilt pictures, fabric swatches, notes and baby pictures in order and move on to making more quilts!

And the good news on the gardening front is that I put down some new mulch this morning and now it is raining!  We really needed the rain and it looks like this will be enough to actually soak into the ground.  Good news indeed.

Memorial Day in the USA

 Monday, May 30^th, is Memorial Day in the United States.  This national holiday commemorates U.S. soldiers who have died while in the military service.

 It was first enacted by former slaves to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War – it was extended after World War I to honor all Americans who have died in all wars.

 Many people observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries and memorials. The flag is traditionally flown at half-staff from dawn until noon local time.

Volunteers often place American flags on each grave site at National Cemeteries.  Here in our region, special thanks goes to the Boy Scouts of America for placing 30,000 American flags on gravesites at the Bay Pines National Cemetery in honor of veterans.

Buddy Poppies for Memorial Day

The red poppy is the traditional flower to honor and commemorate veterans in North America, Europe and Australia.

The red poppy was made famous by a poem - In Flanders Fields - written during World War I by Canadian army surgeon Lt. Col. John McCrae.

In Flanders Fields

            In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly.
Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Because of the poem's popularity, the red poppy was adopted as the Remembrance Flower for war dead of Britain, France, the United States, Canada and other Commonwealth countries.

On Memorial Day, many US veterans wear a red lapel poppy to honor their fallen soldier buddies.

Buddy Poppies are still made today and given away around Memorial Day. The donations received for Buddy Poppies go directly to support disabled veterans and the families of fallen veterans.

Rainbow Challenge and Grasshoppers

The color of the month for the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge was Pink.  I have made several pink quilts this year for my various donation projects and I was getting pretty tired of pink.  But since I did have pink scraps, I decided to make a little pink pincushion.  I wanted to practice in case I decided to get into a pincushion swap.  I'm glad I did this practice run because this project wasn't any too special!  Next time, I'll pick a pattern designed to be a pincushion (not just pick a block design) and follow instructions ...
Here is my first effort:

And on my walk, I found quite a few of these terribly voracious plant-consuming grasshoppers:

These are called *lubbers* and they can eat you out of your garden and yard.  Fortunately, I saw these on the railings of a dead-end street and they have plenty of conservation and wetlands to eat up before they get to a housing development.  Sorry about the color of this picture, but it is brownish wet grasses in front and then very green scrub forest.  Just a buffet for the lubbers!

Still a WIP and Gardening

I'm still working on the lottery block top that I posted about last time.  One of the downsides of working with blocks that different people have made is that they often aren't the same size.  I decided to add sashing to the Box Kite blocks in order to attempt to trick the eye and minimize the size differences.  I'll be working on this tonight - they still aren't trimmed or sewn together, but I wanted to take a pic to see how the sashing looked:



Sashing is black with white polka dots

And for my garden report:
Today is appreciate the Zinnias day - I didn't know if these plants would survive the hot and humid days we are now having, but apparently they like it!  I do have to make sure they get extra water occasionally, but they continue to thrive.  Gotta love a plant like that!

WW Walk-!t Challenge

Every Spring, Weight Watchers sponsors a Walk-!t Challenge.

This year I had the choice of several 5-K walk locations and a 5-mile walk option.  Since today had been forecast to be very hot and humid, I selected a 5-K that was scheduled to begin in the early morning in a local park that has lots and lots of trees.  I thought about doing the 5-mile instead of the 5-K (which is 3.1 miles), but it would have been near the beach with no shade.  I had been to the very nice dog park part of this particular park, but I had never gone to the far back of the park that backs up to a long lake.  It was gorgeous back there!

Part of Trail

I knew there were tons of squirrels in this park, but I didn’t expect the colony of rabbits that were in the back near our gathering spot.  There was every color you could name … probably began with someone dumping pets, but apparently they are thriving despite the hawks and alligators.

The walk was great and everyone finished before the worst of the heat set in. 

I’m really glad I went, but of course, I came home and took a nap before lunch to make up for getting up so early!  Now that I’ve recovered … this is what I’ll be working on this afternoon:

This block is called the Box Kite and these are blocks I won in a block lottery.  I haven’t decided on a border yet, but will preview a few choices today.

Working with Flannel

Ellen, over at Wrap-Them-in-Love (a non-profit foundation) has received a request for 40 little quilts to go to the Philippines .  They asked for light weight quilts, just flannel on front and back, with no batting.

First, let me explain that I do not work with flannel.



Why I don't like flannel



But that having been said, I did once think I could make a baby quilt out of flannel and I bought a kit that was put together by a LQS.  It turned out the kit came with pre-cut small squares so that I couldn’t speed piece long strips then cut them with my rotary cutter and that slowed me down tremendously.   I had to sew together the little squares and make larger pieces so that I could pre-wash and THEN cut off all of the shreds so I was slowed down considerably more … At this point, of course, the solution was to quickly make my usual cotton (not flannel) quilt for the baby and put the kit away somewhere (wouldn’t that be your solution, too?!!).

I never thought I’d ever dig that kit out, but after receiving the note from Ellen, I knew I had to find it.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how far along I had gotten, so I just added two more borders, quilted it up and got it bound.

Quilted and Bound

With Polka Dot Back

It didn’t seem very light weight – maybe there are different weights of flannel – so I bought another piece of cute flannel with frogs and (after pre-washing) sewed a piece of whole cloth (regular woven cotton) to the flannel backing.  That seemed lighter to me.



Froggie Flannel



With another polka dot back

I’ll send both on to Ellen and see if either will do for the Philippines request.  I'm sure the one that might be too heavy will be suitable for her to send to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,  which they also support.  So I’m sure both will be put to good use somewhere in the world.

And the upside is that a long-forgotten UFO is complete and out the door.  Thanks to the 2011 UFO Challenge over at Patchwork Times, I’m now more likely to think of using some of my UFOs even if it means digging them out from their deepest hiding places!  I had already finished the number selected this month - #9 on my list was just to bind and send off a scrappy quilt that used up leftover binding strips.  I wrote about it in this post, so I was going to have to substitute another UFO and this fit the bill perfectly.   Glad to keep things moving along in the sewing room!