Roscoe's Ma

Next up was grandson #3's quilt.  I was becoming more confident with my squares...yes, I would branch out.  A little twist on the Irish chain since his mama is Irish through and through.  I was just going to stick with a pure blue and white color scheme at first...some Kaufman basics.  But then I saw the Hey Diddle Diddle fabric and had to add it, too. This time I used Dream Cotton Deluxe as the quilt would be used more often as a floor mat.  Yes, I even mitered the corners and was shocked at how easy it is to do!






I made my first granddaughter two quilts.  I had purchased some fabric in bright colors a couple of years before her birth with her in mind.  My daughter liked bright and playful at the time and I thought this fabric might make a fun quilt.  But as soon as we knew the baby was to be a girl, my daughter and I started seeing pink.  So the quilt for the bed ended up being shades of pink and green.



And the quilt for the family room and stroller ended up being the original idea.  We called it our 'man quilt' so her dad could use it with ease!  He is not a pink and frilly sort of guy!  His daughter would have a tool box...and she does!

I love making baby quilts.  They are fun and give you a sense of satisfaction in completing something in a shorter time frame.  Mine are mostly made from simple squares and I love playing with the colors and combinations.   These quilts machine wash and dry like a dream...mostly made with Dream Cotton or Warm and Natural batting.  I prefer Dream Cotton now since the Warm and Natural is no longer 100% cotton.  They are all very simple, but fun to make as I s-l-o-w-l-y developed my skills and my comfort with mixing colors and patterns.  I am not an artist by any means and this has been a long process for me.  But in the past couple of years, I am beginning to feel like I am getting somewhere.  One of my goals with baby quilts is to be sure there are lots of little shapes and interesting things for kids to look at as they are cuddling with the quilt. 

This is my first grandson's quilt.  I didn't know how easy mitering corners was yet!  I made this 8 years ago!

Roscoe's Pa has a good friend who he worked with whose family is riddled with cancer...different kinds of cancer...but particularly serious varieties.  His friend has spent her life trying to defy the odds by getting routine check ups, eating right, exercising, and generally staying in top shape.  We were so upset when we learned she had breast cancer.  The only thing I could think to do besides obviously praying for her was to make a quilt for her to wrap herself up in when the illness was just too much and she needed a hug.  I used a familiar pattern that you've seen me post before but in colors of dresses that Pa noticed her wearing to work.  She loved the quilt, responded to the treatment, and has remained cancer free now for a couple of years.  This is her quilt:

My Amish neighbor, Anna, asked me for a favor recently.  She had made a queen-sized bowtie quilt that was inspired by the Amish wallhanging quilt that hangs in my kitchen and I use for my profile picture.  Anna pieced the bowtie blocks and assembled the quilt by machine and then hand quilted it on a frame set up in her living room.  The quilt was sent to an Amish school auction where the school kept 10% of the final bid and Anna got the remainder.  Anna asked me if I would mind taking a picture of the quilt so she could remember what it looked like if she decided to make another.  It was made of a solid white fabric and a tiny printed burgandy fabric which she said 'would pass for plain in the Amish world.'  Here is the picture of her quilt hanging from her back porch.  Notice there are no people in the picture.  The baptised members of her church avoid being photographed.  Sometimes they will give permission for you to photograph their unbaptised children.  But it would be impolite to do so without asking first.

I won a giveway a while back over at Ting Tong and Things.  Tong was one of the hostesses in the Placemat Party Blog Hop sponsored by Sarah Vee at her Sew Joy blog.  I won a placemat pattern which used the snowball block.  I found that interesting as I used that block with GD# 1's quilt and it was fun to see how someone else constructed it.  I also won two pretty placemats and some vintage sheet fabric Tong used to make the placemats.  There were other hostesses for the blog hop who made some nice placemats.  I particularly liked the placemats made by Nanette at Freda's Hive.

This pillowcase is for Linda's birthday who just turned 14.

Linda finished 8th grade last spring but is required by Ohio state law to attend school until her 14th birthday.  So she began school for the new school year on August 30th and now will stop since she is 14.  Her role these past two weeks was helping the two teachers at her K through 8 parochial school.  The teachers are most likely 5 or 6 years older than Linda.  There are about 25 to 30 'scholars'.

Now she will stay home to help her mother with the family chores for a few months (they pack NINE lunches every morning!)  She then will probably 'work out', as the Amish call it, at a bakery or grocery store, or maybe keep house for an elderly person, an ill person or a new mother.  The Amish children who are of working age usually bring home their wages for the family, but get to keep a small amount for their own savings.

Linda's favorite color is green. I pieced the band of the pillowcase with black, medium green, dark green, and lavender.  The fabric is Kona cotton.

I tried to take this picture with the flash, without the flash, in natural light, in artificial light and finally got the true lavender color to show up.

As you probably know by now, I live in Amish country.  There are pros and cons to this decision to live in such a remote place.  I miss Target.  I am pathetic.  I have tried for six years to get over this, but I still drive over an hour to the nearest Target every once in a while to get my fix.  HOWEVER, no 'poor me' is allowed.  I live within a couple of miles of FOUR quilt shops plus some other fabric sources as well.  And this is the view from my sewing room.  Seriously.  I can see 25 miles.  This is where I find peace.

I am home now from helping my daughter and her family get organized for life with a new baby girl.  They are doing so well!  Marina received this beautiful baby quilt from friends of our family from Minnesota.  Isn't it sweet?

Several years ago I won a raffle quilt at our national family reunion.  It was made by my husband's cousin, Wanda, and it is beautiful.  It was machine pieced but hand quilted.  It is queen/king size quilt with room for a pillow tuck at the top.

Beautiful hand quilting...


Wanda's son dropped $50 in the dollar raffle hoping to win his mother's quilt for himself.  It was her favorite quilt, and the one she put the most heart into.  So I lovingly cared for the quilt, using it occasionally, but being sure it didn't fade or become soiled.   Last week, I returned the quilt to Wanda and thanked her for sharing it with me for a while.  Yes, I won it fair and square. But now I feel it has gone home to its rightful owner.