More flannel

JoAnn's had A LOT of their flannel on sale for $2.79 a yard!  Wow, that was a lot less than I paid for the last batch of baby flannel I bought.  So... after meeting my friend, Loretta, for breakfast, we headed off for JoAnn's just to check it out.  It has been years - YEARS - since we spent a Saturday together browsing a fabric store.  I was able to use multiple coupons and saved even more money, so I bought several pieces of flannel and fabric in order to make more receiving blankets and burp cloths.  So here's the stack:

I fell in love with the pink baby clothes hanging on the line!  It ended up being $2 a yard, which I couldn't believe, so of course, I had to buy two yards!  I just loved the selections I made.  The green chevron print really made the green lizards pop.   The whale fabric is a cotton with the flannel "wave" on the back side - these are for burp cloths.

I already had the Mickey Mouse fabric but needed something for the back.  I am thinking the Mickey Mouse fabric will be used for burp cloths.  Teapots?  Little girls like teapots, right?  I had a great time with Loretta.  We are now in the process of finding a Saturday when we can get together to spend the entire day sewing!

My Saturday

was spent helping my friend, Pat, with her garage sale.  She spent a lot of hours getting things ready, sorting through things, and pricing each item.

You have to understand that I volunteered to help.  I really like working garage sales.  I like the interaction with people and even the "bargaining" with the buyers.  It seemed to be either feast or famine - a lot of people or none - but she did well.  She got rid of a lot of things.  It was actually a fun day with Pat and Gretchen.

Kim's Bed

Well, the quilt finally made it to her bed and here's what it looks like...

It looks really nice on that white bed frame.

A Baby Shower!

There was such a great turn out for Jackie's shower!  I only took a few photos of Jackie opening mine and Kate's gifts.

I didn't have a baby boy gift bag and decided to get creative with what I had at home.  I had plenty of little boy paper, so I covered the front and back sides of a kraft paper bag.  I thought it turned out so darn cute.

Here's the mom-to-be opening a book from Kate, "Where the Wild Things Are."  We were asked to bring a book (instead of a card) to start building a library for the baby.  She received a lot of books and amazingly, there wasn't one duplicate!

 

I picked out a Little Critter book - "All By Myself" - which happened to be a favorite of my daughters.

A lot of the girls in the room must have grown up with Little Critter, because they definitely recognized the character.  There were a lot of "aaahhhhhs" when she pulled the book out.

And now the finished blankets.

She received so many nice gifts.  Their little baby is going to be the best dressed little man around.

Another sewing project

One of Kate's friends, Jackie, is expecting a baby in just about 7 weeks.  I helped Jackie, just a tad, with some things surrounding her wedding a few years ago, so she is one who has become near and dear to my heart.  In preparation of her baby shower, I decided to make her a couple of receiving blankets.  I started off by buying coordinating flannel.  This first picture is of the back sides of two of the fabrics.

I sewed them, right sides together, except for about a six-inch strip.  I then turned them inside out and stitched 1/4" around the edges.

After that I decided to quilt/sew straight lines so the blankets would be more like a quilt.  I used the pencil below to mark the straight lines.  

You can see the light line on the fabric.  I sewed over that.  The pencil has the consistency of almost like a crayon.  To remove it, you simply iron over the lines and they magically disappear.  No joke.  It worked beautifully.  This is one of the items I picked up at the quilt show in January.  I have to say I loved it and it made my life a little easier.

One quilt was a jungle print with a polka dot back side.  The other is what I would call "baby words" with a pastel animal print on the other side.  Both of them turned out nicely.

I rolled them up and wrapped each in tissue paper before placing them in the gift bag.  

It probably took me about 1.5 hours for each one.  Not too bad.  I made these for my daughters when they were babies and they were my favorite receiving blankets.  Hopefully, Jackie will like them as well.

National Zoo

Kim and I went to the National Zoo during my visit to D.C.  Did you know it's free to get in?  But parking is another matter - they charge $22 per vehicle to park at the zoo.  Parking is close, so at least it is worth it.  If you had a van full of kids, it would be a bargain.

Early on, we saw a panda bear eating his breakfast.

I have not seen one that close before.  We also saw gorillas.  When we first walked up to the gorilla pen, we saw the momma gorilla pound on the plexiglass but, of course, she wouldn't do it once I got the camera out.  This clip is cute because the baby seems to want to pester the momma.

And a lot of different types of birds...

We also saw lions, elephants, snakes, all kinds of critters.  Again, the weather was beautiful.  Perfect weather for a day at the zoo.

More of my trip back east...

I spent a week in April in the D.C. area and here are a few more photos of my trip ...

We spent the weekend with my cousin and his family.

We went to a T-ball game of four-year olds.  It was so much fun and the kids had a great time.

They were just happy to hit the ball and run the bases.

My cousin, Lantz, is giving a few pointers to his son.

The weather was nice but the wind had a bit of a bite.  

Erin (Lantz's wife) and Kimmy were watching the game.

We stopped at Mom's Apple Pie and picked up a pie for dessert.

Another picture of the cherry blossoms blooming.  They were everywhere!

And so beautiful!

Peaches! Peaches!

I met my friends, Nicole and Sam, and Myah and Kylee at the Peach Festival held at Schneph's Farm in Queen Creek, Arizona.  Highlights were:

A great smile from Kylee...

 I think I caught Myah looking at something other than me.

 Of course there were peach pies offered - they really are good!

 A family shot - lots of happiness - eating peachy treats.

 This one was picked by Myah.

 Nicole is looking for the perfect tree.

 Another big one picked by Myah.

 Mom and daughter looking for the perfect peach.

It was a nice time to spend with the girls.  They are growing up so fast.

Yep, I am still breathing...

I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged.  

So let's get to it!

I think I will do things in reverse order since I am so far behind...

Sunday was Mother's Day - a hard one since this was the first year without my mother.

I didn't even look at Mother's Day cards.

Thankfully, I have two beautiful daughters who brightened my day...

 I received these flowers from Kimberly on Friday, but they hadn't opened up yet.

 Here they are on Sunday.  I love irises because they remind me of my childhood.

My mother always had a fence row of lavender and purple irises.  

My other daughter, Kate, brought me this beautiful, gorgeous orchid.

It is one that can be re-potted and kept.  

(Say prayers that I can keep it healthy.)

Then Kate and I spent a good part of the day together, just doing fun stuff:

breakfast, Starbucks, movie, and church.  

We had a very nice day.  We definitely missed Kimmy.

A really nice Mother's Day - Thank you Kate and Kim!

Some photos... so different from home

It has been a nice change from the beginning of summer... in fact, a little rainy and temps in the 50's and 60's here in Virginia. But absolutely beautiful.

 The apple blossoms are in full bloom and are stunning.

 Remember dandylions?  It really took me back to my childhood.

And so very green and wooded - a nice change of scenery.

Here's something I did today

My town home only has a small patio with a few areas of "dirt."  They are planters, and this last year the tree in one of the planters died, so it was just dirt.  I decided I would like to put some sod down and thought Sophie and Jack might like it, too.

It just has a better feel.  Let me tell you, though.  This was hard work.  I had small areas and I could not imagine doing this for a living.  It is back breaking.

I think I will really like it - make it look a little "warmer" and inviting in the patio.

Wouldn't you love to be driving down the road...

and see this?

Happy Happy Easter!

Are you dying eggs for Easter this year?

That is something that I usually do with my girls, even as adults, but mostly with Kim.  She has always LOVED dying Easter eggs.  When I was growing up in Indiana, we would hang plastic eggs from a tree in our front yard, but it NEVER looked like this:

I can't imagine the amount of work that went into that.  And don't forget about taking them off.  That would be even worse, I think.  However, I am captivated by it.  Our tree looked more like this:

Maybe not even this good, but we had fun hanging them from the tree.

A little fun for Friday

I like how she thinks!

Washington DC in Cherry Blossoms

Soon I will be visiting my daughter in Virginia/Washington DC.  She recently sent me a picture of the Cherry Blossoms blooming right now.

Looking forward to seeing them for myself.  

Done! Done! DONE!

Yes, I am finally done with Kimberly's quilt.  I actually finished it last week and it turned out so beautiful.  I am extremely pleased with it.  You've seen it in pieces, here and there, but here's a re-cap and additional photos of my "journey" ...

You can see that I am using all of my concentration skills to work the quilting machine, intent on getting it done.  Here I am in action:

Now ... the finished quilt...

 I absolutely LOVE the colors of this fabric line.  I was skeptical at first, but let Kim pick her fabric.

I will admit that I am lazy when it comes to sewing on the trim.  On my first quilt, I sewed the trim on by hand, and decided - right then and there - that I am not patient enough to do that.  So I have been sewing the edges on my quilts using a long zigzag stitch.  I'm happy with that.

Since this quilt is large enough to put on her bed, I wanted to make matching pillow cases.

Of course!  They just add that finished touch!  Can't wait to see it on her bed!