Finished Ragged Quilt - Baby Girl

Love the way it turned out. Pinks and purples; one of my fave combos for baby girl quilts. This one will have to be named Kalleigh's Quilt, since it's for my niece's baby girl, Kalleigh. Here's the back:
Aren't stripes fun? These quilts are so much fun to make and, as I mentioned yesterday, FAST. You can easily whip one up for a baby shower even if you have just a couple of days notice (well, ok, unless you have to mail it). This one's actually way late; Kalleigh was born several months ago, but in my defense she was 6 or so weeks early and then I had the Christmas rush of projects for my digital scrapbooking business to handle, so the quilt-making got put off. However, I think baby Kalleigh will still enjoy it!

Just for fun, and so you can see how a variety of fabrics create different looks, here are a couple other ragged quilts I have made in the past:
Ryan's Quilt; his nursery is all decorated in safari theme so monkeys, giraffes, elephants and lions were the order of the day. The back, if I remember right, was done in the animal print.

Leah's Quilt. Another sweet baby girl; I thought she should have stars, moons, clouds, and pink gingham to encourage peaceful naps. I used the pink gingham for the back because I have a huge attachment to gingham, of any color.

One last baby quilt made in the past 2 years is Blake's Quilt:As far as I can tell, this is the only photo I have of it! Taken at Seana's baby shower, just after she opened it. It's not a flannel ragged quilt, like the others, but an actual pieced quilt with cotton fabrics, using a very easy pattern, an 8-patch block (and I can't even remember what it's called), combined with large squares, then I added borders and tied it with embroidery floss.

Are you a quilter? I'd love to see your quilts, send me a link or photo!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

A lovely cold and foggy day here in Benicia . . . perfect for staying indoors with a fire in the fireplace, a good book (I'm currently reading "The Brass Verdict," by Michael Connelly), lounging on the couch wrapped in a blankie and with a cat or two on my lap. Bliss!
However, I'll be spending today working on my queue of unfinished projects. I started to make a written list of them all (knitted baby sweater, crocheted afghan, raggedy baby quilt, cross-stitch project-Sunbonnet Sue, cross-stitch project-hummingbird, sewing project-apron, sewing project-advent calendar, sewing project-twin size quilt...) and then I started to feel panicky that there were so many, so I stopped. It's pretty clear I don't need to buy materials for another project for at least 2 years!

I will need to go get some more batting because I'm a bit short for the quilt I'm working on right now, which has actually turned into two quilts since I had so much extra fabric. (I'll put the extra quilt away in my "Baby Hope Chest!") The fabrics I'm using are shown in the above photo. Aren't they sweet for a baby girl? I've made several of these ragged quilts and they sew up so quickly that you can easily make one in a day, including cutting out the squares. If you'd like to try one, the best set of instructions I've found so far are written by Gayla Carlson of Jubilee Homespun Fabrics. To go directly to the website page with the instructions, click here.

Just a Note: In her write-up Gayle mentions that you should use only homespun fabrics for ragged quilts, never the regular printed cotton. Good advice re the printed cotton; however, I've always used flannel (so far) for my ragged baby quilts, and they turn out very nice also.

So, back to the sewing machine - whoohoooo!

What are YOU doing today?? Please leave a comment and let me know!

First Christmas for the Newlyweds . . .

. . . and we were there!
Dianna and Rodrigo in front of their first Christmas tree, in their little house in Oxnard, CA. It was fun spending a few nights there; we were the first ones to use their guest room so Mike and I felt quite honored. We had a super-comfy bed with thick comforters and we were toasty warm every night in spite of the cold snap that had hit southern Cali with a vengeance.
This is the cross-stitch wedding record that I made for them. It was a lot of work, and there were a few technical difficulties because I made some modifications in the pattern and kit, but I worked them out, and I think it turned out real nice.

Here's my fave gift:
Rodrigo and Dianna gave me (among other things) a cashmere sweater and, can you believe it at my age, it's my FIRST cashmere anything! Love the color, one of my favorites, burgundy - YUM. This will be a treat to wear. You can see how super-soft it is!

The "kids" have three cats. Two are identical solid black female kittens, about 6 months old or so, Meeka and Maddy. They are nearly impossible to tell apart. Here they are playing in a pop-up cube that Mike and I brought to them:
They love it! Pancho, the third cat, likes it, too, but he's a bit older (and more dignified) and preferred spending most of his time in our laps:
Isn't he awesome? Of course, I do have a soft spot for orange male tabbies, dontcha know. He has a curly tail, too, of which this picture doesn't do justice. It curls right up over his back just like a Norwegian Elkhound! I've never seen anything like it on a cat before. I really think he should be in the movies.

We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve because Dianna had to go to work early on Christmas Day, but Rodrigo was a great host and made us a fabulous Christmas morning breakfast; cinnamon french toast, hash brown potatoes, a fancy egg scramble, and french-pressed coffee.
What a guy!
I did the dishes - in my pajamas, of course!