Why Does It Have to End?

We went away for Labor Day Weekend, as has been our tradition for the past seven years, since our oldest started college. Pictured is Adam in the surf at Assateague, VA. We were lucky...Hurricane Earl was a no-show and the weather was perfectly spectacular all three days.

Now it's back to my routine which hopefully will include more blogging and definitely will include more quilting.

Mills Lake in Colorado

I have gotten horribly behind on my blogging this month. We just got back from a week's vacation at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Wonderful trip! My brother and sister and their spouses joined us there for a week of hiking and good fun. No quilting was done, sad to say, but I did visit two quilt shops in Estes Park, Colorado.

We returned home on Friday and son Adam came home from camp on Saturday. I enjoyed being an empty-nester for five weeks but am very happy to have him back. On Sunday, a violent thunderstorm hit Washington, DC, and many trees and large limbs came down, with resulting power outages. We lost our power on Sunday at 5:00 pm. Fortunately, it came back at 3:00 this morning - yippee! What I missed most: 1)air conditioning, 2)garbage disposal, and 3)hair dryer.

Eliza Jane's Nine-patch Doll Quilt

I joined Kathleen Tracy's American Schoolgirl Club so each month I receive a pattern for a doll quilt - this is the first installment. I have decided to try to match the fabrics in the original and was able to use some antique fabrics from my stash.

Baby Quilt (Tied)

It's been awhile since I've posted. Life has intervened! But in a good way. One son was home from Israel and the other finished school. So I've been busy with doctors' appointments, shopping trips, a visit to the DMV (yes, my youngest now has his learner's permit!), and then a 3-day trip to the Poconos and the Berkshires to drop them off at their respective camps. Now we are empty-nesters for 5 whole weeks! Woo-hoo!

Thank you all for your kind comments about my Strawberry Fields quilt. I had great fun working on it and like the way it turned out. For those of you considering hand-quilting, go for it! I think you will find that it goes a lot faster than you think it will.

Pictured is the baby quilt I made for a woman who works for my husband, at his request. Instead of hand- or machine-quilting, I tied it. I used a higher-loft batting than I usually use (Quilt-Lite which I found in my stash). It's so fluffy and snuggly. The baby shower is on Friday...I finished just in time!

Strawberry Fields, Finished

My Strawberry Fields Doll Quilt is quilted and bound. I stayed true to the original and used a red paisley fabric for the setting. This is the first time I have done a zig zag setting. It was not hard and it was fun to try something new.

For the quilting pattern, I went with my go-to, "when in doubt" the tried-and-true Baptist Fan. It's an allover pattern which I marked using a blue washout pen. I hand-quilted it using Mettler quilting thread, #514.

I mixed reproduction and antique fabrics. It's easy to use antique fabrics when the pieces are so small - you don't need much! The setting and backing fabrics are reproduction. All fabrics came from my stash. Thank you, Lori!

Mini Housewife

My Bernina is fixed and I am back in business - yippee! To celebrate, I made myself this mini "housewife" or needle case. The pattern comes from Kathleen Tracy's book, American Doll Quilts and the fabric is from Rural Jardin, the new French General line by Moda.

I love handmade sewing accessories!

End of May

The month of May is almost over and I am sad to see it go. School is winding down, the weather is beautiful and not hot yet, flowers are in bloom, and the summer months stretch out ahead. My second child was born in May and I have such happy memories of that time in my life. Now we are on the verge of Memorial Day Weekend - I will put out my flag tomorrow.