Sewing with Nana

Kenna came to visit Monday and we spent some time in the sewing room. She thought it would be fun to put the pins in her fingers. Not quite so much fun when she stuck one straight in while sewing. At 10, she still loves to arrange my pincushion and make all the pins neat and orderly.

We made a silky pillow together and had fun dressing it up. Where does she get these ideas? I never know what we'll be sewing on until she tells me - not interested in the projects in quilting books for children. But I'm glad she's so creative! In just a few short years these sewing days will not be cool for an almost grown-up teenager so I'll enjoy them while they last.

I love my pillow!

A tiny quilt

One of the quilt guilds I belong to has issued a challenge for the fall show - we are to make small quilts to be donated to Ami Simms' Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative - http://www.alzquilts.org/. Here's my second small quilt, approximately 8 1/2 x 11 1/2. I'm calling it "Don't worry, be happy" in honor of my mom who is in assisted living and has Alzheimer's disease. She doesn't worry about much anymore - she lets me do that for her! Thankfully, she's happy, too - at least most of the time.

Another stacked posie completed!

I've been busy for the last week working on this stacked posie for myself. I used a pattern called Keyboard Kaleidoscope by Quilt Moments for the setting. I changed a few blocks to make it my own. It has been good entertainment while I've been preparing for the dreaded "big c". I'll be glad to get that behind me tomorrow! Thanks, Jill, for your help in selecting the fabrics for this quilt. It's approximately 64" square and will make a nice nap quilt for summer.

A finished top

I finished this top last week, finally. It was started in January 2007 in a Judy Niemeyer class and has been put away and brought back out several times. The applique was by machine using a Sharon Schamber technique for preparing the pieces. The prep was a bit labor intensive but the sewing went so fast it was worth it. The double wedding ring center was made using paper piecing and Judy's methods are excellent also. I'm planning to machine quilt it myself after I have it professionally basted. I'm so excited to have it this near completion. My goal for this year in quilting is to finish the things I've started and stop buying more new projects. We'll see how successful I can be with these lofty goals.

Ta Da!

Just a bit of applique and the block meets my standards. Two more blocks and row A will be complete - 13 out of 169 blocks. But who's counting!

Back to Dear Jane

I spent the day at Maureen's house yesterday and we had a great time working on our projects. She got a lot more done than I did though. Most of my time was spent on this Dear Jane block and I was so frustrated with it. Was it a senior moment or was making the block like the one in Jane's quilt an impossibility? I finally gave up and re-drew it. Looked at my original Jane quilt this morning and discovered I had appliqued those large squares on top - so... I'm re-working it. More later when I finish. Thanks, Maureen, for a fun quilty day!

Mom's 2008 quilt

Not much happening lately with nappinnana but I remembered this pic I took of Mom with her newest quilt. Her last quilt kept disappearing in the laundry so I thought it was time for a new one. Some kitty pillow blocks, pics on fabric of me & my sister and my daughters, some ugly fabric challenge fabric from the LQS, and a large scrap from Paula turned into a happy quilt with lots of stuff to look at for mom. She was pleased. The kitty in the pillow blocks looks like Baby Cat that she enjoyed having after my dad passed away. He was her little man and she treated him royally - just as she always treated my dad. They were kings in their castle. Well, I'm off to work on using up the stash!