Here's the quilt I'm giving to my nephew, Karl, for his 21st birthday. I thought we would see him Sunday but didn't, so we'll give it to him this coming Saturday, his actual birthday. I wrote up care instructions for him, hoping that he would see this as an heirloom and not just another bedspread that you use for a couple of years and then wrap around the dresser when you move to the new apartment! At the end, I wrote: " P.S. Karl, if you ever use this quilt as a moving blanket, pet bed, or picnic blanket, somehow I will know!"

Since this quilt has been finished, I have done almost nothing but hand applique! I definitely won't be machine piecing any stars for awhile.

The Good News Is...

that the Star Struck quilt for my nephew, Karl, (mentioned in my previous post) is finished and ready to deliver next Sunday. I'll post a picture soon. Fortunately, my hands are recovering from the breakneck pace I set for quilting it.

The bad news is that I forgot I had a blog! I was reading a friend's blog and noticed a link to my blog that said I hadn't posted on it for four weeks! You know what I was doing, though.

As breaks from the hand quilting, I made the first two blocks from Sindy Rodenmayer's new BOM series, "Baltimore Bliss". You can find them at www.fatcatpatterns.com

My Hands Hurt...

...my wrists are sore, and the fingertips on my left hand are raw, but by golly my nephew, Karl, is going to have this quilt for his 21st birthday on April 11!





The pattern is called "Star Struck" by Bonnie Hunter. Bonnie's patterns really help you use up scraps. I kept the gold and ivory fabrics consistent in all of the small quarter square triangles, but the quilt could be done completely scrappy. I was inspired to use this pattern when I saw Val's version on our quilting forum. She used Christmas reds and greens, and I'm sure it'll become an heirloom in her family.

Karl is a great young man. He's a junior in college right now in Fulton, Missouri. He and his parents moved up here from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and it is really great to see more of him now. I pumped him for color preferences at Christmas!

From now until April 11 I will be hand quilting this quilt! I haven't made a queen-sized quilt for a long time, so it's quite a change for me.

And now an invitation...

A very sweet friend of mine, Kimberly, has started a new quilting forum on Delphi, The Quilting Bee. I already know a lot of the quilters there and have even met some of them in person. They are good people! However, we welcome new members with open arms and look forward to what we can share with them and learn from them. Click on the logo at the right to join us!

Four Guys Went to the Hospital and...

...made someone happy! At least, that was the goal of making this quilt, "Sesame Street Quartet". He went to the hospital as a Project Linus donation last week.

This is my second quilt with these applique patterns. The first was ready to donate when my first granddaughter went into that very hospital with RSV two years ago. Of course, I took it to her since she was crazy about "Mo-mo" (Elmo). She still sleeps with it.

I didn't have to buy these patterns. I found them as coloring pages on free internet sites. The pages take some time to search, but they are great pattern sources.

Mitten Match

On Friday I finally delivered this quilt to the hospital for Project Linus. It had been hanging in my closet for three years, and I couldn't let go of it! For some reason I just really liked it and thought I would have some special use for it. I finally decided that three years was enough--that it was aged to perfection! Hopefully, it is doing good work on a hospital bed today. It's not just a quilt--it's a game, too! Each mitten has a mate on the quilt, and it could take someone a while to match them up.

Blog Award

Thanks to Debi at Quilting with Debi (see link at right) for giving me this blog award! (I better post more so I deserve it!) Debi says that I have to list five addictions that I have, so here they are (in no particular order):

1. Granddaughter smiles and "I love you, Nana"s

2. Hugs from DH

3. Iced tea with lemon or lime

4. Hand applique

5. Chocolate

Wear Warm Clothes

It's about 15 degrees here today and snowing, so it's a perfect time to hang up my new wall hanging for the first time. Yes, I actually made a quilt that I am going to keep, and I finished a UFO that I think I started in the 90s. This quilt is from the Country Threads book, "Wear Warm Clothes", and is an abbreviated version of the one shown in the book because I had to make it fit in a certain spot in my home.

When I started this quilt, I enthusiastically made all of the applique blocks and then faltered when it came time to piece the cabin, the boots, the trees, the mugs, and the snowman. This month I made myself piece them and used Bonnie Hunter's "Leaders and Enders" technique to make it possible to string piece all of them. At the same time, I pieced several blocks of a new scrap quilt I'm making for my nephew from Bonnie's Star Struck pattern. I know it saved a bunch of thread, and it helped me enjoy the piecing more since I didn't have to stop and start so much.

Penguins to Make Kids Smile

These little penguins are ready to fly to the hospital with me for donation. Isn't that a cute pattern? It's from a Fons and Porter magazine called "Baby Quilts" which may still be on the newsstands. I bought the penguin border fabric in Dallas when I visited the DFW Gang from the Quilting Passion Forum in December 2007. I found snowflake prints on sale at JoAnn's for the backs. (I was so excited that I used up the penguin print by making the binding out of it! Yay, I used up something!!!)

I always seem to do this--start three or four projects at one time and finish them all within a couple of weeks of each other! It's wacky but it works for me.

How do you handle your quilt projects--One at a time or several in progress at once?

Happy New Year!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm glad the holidays are over! I had about shopped, wrapped, and cooked myself into a "Mom at the holidays" frenzy! It would be just fine with me if I didn't have to cook again for another year. (If only I could get the people at my house to stop wanting to eat.)

For me, getting back to normal means more time to quilt and start new projects. I've finished two more quilts for Project Linus--my second time to make the "Doggy Days" pattern and my fourth version of the "Wicked Easy" pattern. They went to the hospital with me today to do their good work. They said the Pediatric rooms are full--lots of cases of pneumonia and RSV. Poor babies.

I Haven't Been Blogging....

but I have been busy! Thanksgiving was great! There were ten of us here, including baby Addison, who got her dinner early and didn't come to the table for the big meal. Granddaughter Avery helped me cook by rolling up the crescent rolls and proclaimed, "Thanksgiving is ready!" when the oven timer beeped.

On Thanksgiving Day I sent home Addison's recently-completed Christmas stocking, shown here with Avery's. The angels are cross stitched from a pattern I found in a book on bread cloths.

This week I delivered the following two quilts to the hospital. We have a new Project Linus coordinator in St. Louis, so I can call them Project Linus quilts again! The first was made with the last of a pile of pastel scraps that have been living in my house since the 80's! (There were two other quilts with these fabrics that I put in previous posts. Both had teddy bears on them.) I am not sad to see these fabrics go! It is fun to actually use up something.The dump truck quilt is a pattern I have made once before. The backing fabric is one I've had for a long time and has roads and construction sites. Again, it's good to use up something! (Makes room for new!!!)

My final recent project was to make these two coats for tiny dogs. One of the security guards at the hospital where I volunteer is so nice. He's about my son's age and has a girlfriend and two itty-bitty dogs that are not enjoying their first winter! I offered to make quilted coats, so he brought in one they had purchased and I traced it for a pattern. I couldn't resist using that dog fabric on the right for the little male dog. A three-pound boy dog needs a little help with the machismo! Maybe this will help him seem a little tougher when they visit the dog park.

Three More Suz Guz Blocks

This is how I really look, for better or worse. My darling granddaughter, Avery, took this picture of me yesterday. I think she did a really good job, considering that she is only 2 1/2 years old! I can see plenty of things to criticize in my picture, but she must think I'm OK! She is so sweet and affectionate to us now. The baby, Addison, doesn't like us yet, but she'll get to know us in time.

For Christmas we got Avery the new Fisher-Price Kid-Touch Digital Camera. She should have a blast with it because she tries to make a camera out of everything she picks up. I just know that she will learn how to use it quickly, as all kids do with modern gadgets. She plays with an old cell phone, and I noticed yesterday that she was pushing the buttons with her thumb, just like her parents.

Here are three more blocks in the Susan Guzman BOM series. (If you get these patterns, you will see that I have streamlined a couple of them. The top two blocks had little squares dripping off the outside edges--well, they just dripped right off of my blocks!) I can see now that I will need to devise an on-point setting. Just one more block, and the series will be finished!

Long-Term Project

Oh, baby, is that an understatement! I have begun to make a king-sized quilt for our bed--the one we bought three years ago. It is using the Baby Honu pattern by Lisa Boyer that DS and DDIL brought back from their honeymoon in Hawaii (four years ago). They also brought back a three-yard piece of a gorgeous navy, purple, and green batik with sea turtles in the pattern, which will make a perfect border.

After years of producing kid quilts for Project Linus, this big quilt is a little daunting. I've deviated from the pattern to appease my preferences in quiltmaking. I'm doing the turtles in hand applique--not the 3D way that Lisa suggests on the sewing machine. I'm not paper piecing the wave blocks, because I can't bear that technique, but have figured out the sizes to cut triangles and assemble them the square-in-a-square way. Methods aside, the quilter side of myself is arguing with the critic side of myself about the color combinations, which are much different than Lisa's picture on the pattern!

Critic Sheryl: Those waves don't look like any water I've ever seen!

Quilter Sheryl: The fabrics are to give the impression of water.

Critic Sheryl: Don't the waves swirl in a counterclockwise manner on the pattern?

Quilter Sheryl: Well, yes, but I made the first two blocks the wrong way and decided not to look back!

Critic Sheryl: Still...some of them are awfully dark!

Quilter Sheryl: Ocean water looks pretty dark from the deck of a cruise ship after sunset. Don't you remember wanting to stand back from the rail and all the suspicious glances you gave DH?

Critic Sheryl: But that bright green? Where does that come from?

Quilter Sheryl: Algae?

Critic Sheryl: I don't get the red, either.

Quilter Sheryl: Shark-infested waters?

Critic Sheryl: I still don't think it looks like water.

Quilter Sheryl: Haven't you ever heard of Impressionism?

There...I feel better! No, I don't have multiple personalities...just a little conflicting self-talk now and then! Now I can proceed to make about 25 more turtle blocks and about 20 more wave blocks so I can assemble this monster and start the hand quilting. (Yes, you read that right!)