Roscoe's Ma

I have done a little sewing for the grandkids.  First up are pillowcases for my two oldest grandsons.  I found this great Monopoly fabric at Miller's Dry Goods and the rest is history.  These two guys love to play games...Monopoly, Scrabble, Wii...and they seemed to like these pillowcases a lot.  They are more age appropriate than the superhero pillowcases I made the boys a while ago.



I also found a printed fabric panel to make an outfit for my oldest granddaughter's American Girl doll.   It is from a collection of panels called "Let's Play" by Firetrail Designs for Andover Fabrics.   I have finished the jacket and the dress but there is still a coordinating lined purse to make.  Here is what the outfit looks like.  I wasn't able to fit the dress on the doll as I made it, so I sure hope it really does fit.




Here are the pieces of the panel for the purse...to give you an idea of how the pattern is printed on the fabric. 


There are instructions printed right on the panel, as well as more construction info at this website.

I won a Charm pack of  'Ruby' fabric in February 2012 in a giveaway from Connie at Freemotion on the River.  In the summer of 2012, I bought some more fabric in the 'Ruby' collection, and I pieced a throw-size quilt top.





I quilted it this winter and, finally, it is done.  I used my favorite batting, Dream Wool, and I quilted with straight lines about an inch apart to keep the quilt warm and fluffy.
 






It has been SO COLD in the Midwest this year and 'Ruby' quilt ended up being the 'go to' quilt.  It is so toasty.

I saw some quilt blocks over at Exhuberant Color last week.  Wanda had made them to send to Kevin over at Kevin the Quilter.  Kevin invited quilters to send five blocks to him to be used in some quilts to be given to the Quilts of Valor project.  If you are interested, here is the link to Kevin's invitation.  He added further important details here.  He will accept blocks until June 1.  He gave a palette and did a tutorial on how to make the blocks.  They are easy peasy to make and I was able to put together 20 blocks from leftover stash in an afternoon.  Here are some of them:


I need to do more sewing like this.  It felt really good.  Thanks to Wanda for sharing and spreading the word. 

Hello, my dear blog friends!!  It's been three months since I posted.  I have had very little free time since the beginning of the year for various reasons.  I had to choose between blogging and sewing when I got a minute.  I chose sewing.  Now things might be slightly less crazy, and I am trying to get some balance back in my life.  I am hoping to post more often.

I have a new grandson!  The little guy arrived on his February 25th due date, and I got to spend over a week with him and with his family.  He is such a good baby and, of course, he stole our hearts from the beginning.  His mommy (aka, my daughter), his daddy and his two older sisters are quite happy to have him in the family.

I took lots of pictures of his quilt in the making of it but never got to my blog to show you.  So here it goes.  If you recall, here are the fabrics I used.


I first cut squares of some of the fabric and arranged the basic layout of the quilt.


Then I added the pizzazz...the red corners


The fun backing...


The multi-striped binding...


And voila!


Taking pictures in the winter...finding natural light in the house...


Recording the obligatory 'crinkly after the first washing' look...


And finally making the matching little pillow!


I am happy with the results.  Baby's mom and dad are too.  The finished size is 42 by 48 so the quilt can be used in various ways for a couple of years hopefully.

Thanks for stopping by!  I've missed you!

I made a new pillowcase for my 6 year old granddaughter to help ease the pain that occurred when her little sister received this case for her 3rd birthday a couple of months ago.  (Yes, there were some tears.)


The newest case for my oldest granddaughter is shown here.




She loves it and uses it every night.  I told her I think it is a little more grown-up from her lollipop pillowcase shown here...


that got lost in their move (to a new house) last summer.

It's been forever since I have posted.  And I am weeks behind on my blog reading.  Life happens!  But currently all is well and I have been sewing!

I've been thinking to myself that I need to get busy and make quilts to giveaway to people who need the comfort of a quilt.  I have plenty of scraps to make a few quilts so I just began working a little bit at a time, cutting here, piecing there.  I am at the design board stage with this quilt.  Here is what I have so far although I am not done with the arrangement.


I just had enough scraps to come up with this 55 by 65 throw.  It has a fall/winter feel to it.  I found some coordinating fabric online to use for the back, and it's been ordered.

I hadn't made pillowcases yet for my smallest grandchildren.  So I got busy and rectified that situation.  This is the monkey pillowcase for my four year old grandson.


And I made two of these birdie pillowcases...one for my just 3 year old granddaughter and one for my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter.  My six year old granddaughter couldn't hold back her tears when she saw this one. She wants one too.  So maybe it is time to make new pillowcases for the three oldest grandkids.


Did I mention there is another one on the way?!?  :o)

I found this cute owl fabric at Hawthorne Threads.


It looked like great fabric for making a pillow for my daughter who loves owls.  While my machine was being serviced, I cut out the fabric, batting, and a backing to make a quilted fabric for the pillow.


I made an envelope style opening on the back of the 18 inch pillow cover I constructed.


Voila!  A cute pillow!  So cute I made one for myself too!    :o)

Did you ever take your machine in for its yearly check-up only to discover that one of the service technicians has recently quit and the wait time for the machine is 3 1/2 weeks?  WHAT?!?  I had pushed the machine to its limit, and the service light was on.  I had to leave her.  I was out of town one of the weeks.  For the rest of the wait, I did the only thing left I could think of to get my quilt fix.  I went shopping...

Remember this?


This is a curtain I made for our guest bathroom.  It was a stretch for me because almost every other curtain in my house is a very conservative white.  I ended up liking this bathroom curtain so much that I used this


and this

to make this for a small secondary foyer window.

Remember this quilt?


I finally finished the binding and just put the quilt on the bed.  It is just as I envisioned it which is rare for me.


I added shams to complete the look.


It feels so good to have this one finished!