Christmas Gift Quilts

I made 2 queen size quilts for Christmas and had to make a decision on which one to give to Tony and Kendra and which one for Dane and Jeff. Thanks for your help with the decision, Julie!

I chose this one for Tony. The pattern is called The Cut Up by Pieced tree Designs. I mixed up my pieces after each step, for a more random look.

 A cozy cream flannel for the backing on both:

This one for Dane and Jeff. The pattern is Patchwork Chevron from Moda Bake Shop and I blogged about it here. (Wouldn't recommend it!) The fabrics are Little Black Dress and Kona cream.

Both are quilted with Feather Me Panto, Hobbs 80/20 batting and Omni lite tan thread.

Ahh, Spending Time With Family!

Memorial Day weekend we drove down to Ekron, KY to visit with Jeff, Dane and Calise. We wanted to spend some time with them before Jeff's deployment. We had a great time, although there just never seems to be enough time.

Calise loves to be outside and she especially loves to swing with help from her daddy.

 It appears that she likes the rocking chair we got her for Christmas, although I have heard that she likes to stand on it also.

 What a sweet smile!

 Nana's purse is just her size, although the handle is a bit long.

Jeff's unit right before they left last Saturday. Their deployment was move up a week, so they didn't have quite as much time to prepare as they thought.

 One last hug for daddy!

See you in 9 short months, daddy!

Christmas stockings

Last year my daughter-in-law asked me about making them some Christmas stockings and I didn't get them made. Calise was only 3 months old for Christmas last year and it really wasn't that important to have them.

I finally got them made last week and took them to Jeff and Dane at our Thanksgiving dinner at Julie's house.

Dan and I had a discussion about who's name should be on which stocking. My thought was that Jeff should be the reindeer because, well, reindeer are most likely male, in my mind anyway. Since there isn't a Baby Jesus on one of the stockings, the next star of the season would be Santa Claus and Calise should have that one, leaving Dané as the snowman. Hmmm, I guess the snowman should have been a snow woman.

Dan's thought was that Jeff should be Santa Claus, Dané should be Santa's helper, the reindeer, and Calise should be the snowman.

As you can see, I went with Dan's suggestion.

These ended up being 20" from top to toe and 6.5" wide. If I make them again, I will probably make them a little wider.

I purchased pre-quilted fabric and machine appliqued the design. I had these cute tiny buttons for the eyes, mouth and snowman's buttons.

The lining fabrics coordinate with the front design.

Design Wall Monday

This is what it looks like, but not for long as this wall hanging made for my son Jeff, needs to be shipped out today because his birthday is later this week.

The design of badges he has earned was his request and he plans to hang it in his office at West Point.

The half-square triangles are just leftovers.

The quilt hanger is another purchase from the quilt show that I forgot about when doing my purchase pics.

Mary Helen's Shirt/photo quilt

This one just got a meander. I looked at it for days before deciding. There were so many spaces to avoid and it's for a guy, so I didn't want to do feathers.






I finished putting together the Army badges wall hanging for Jeff and stitched the binding on. I'll do the hand stitching on the bus tomorrow on the way to Cincinnati.

Jeff Skydiving

WOW - My son Jeff went skydiving on Wednesday and when I watched the video, I must admit that I held my breath. Since I have never done this myself, I have nothing to base my opinions on, but I think he did an awesome job. Waytago, Jeff!