A Grandson's Birthday Quilt

Grayson is one of our "city slicker" grandsons.  That means he isn't into farm equipment, but he IS into garbage trucks and construction equipment.  That's what he sees in his world.  His parents painted a neighborhood along the bottom edge of one of his bedroom walls so he could drive along and pick up garbage.  Another wall has the garbage dump and the big equipment.  Sooooo, he needed a new blanket.  Nana to the rescue......

The center is a "cheater" panel.  For you non quilty people that means it is all one fabric.  No piecing to it.

I used three different quilting patterns....meandering, loops, and a stencil on the white.

I've been wanting to use a stencil for a while, and I thought this was the perfect pattern for the white.

The back is pieced out of the leftovers from the front.  The symmetrical me would have liked the top pieces to meet up, but the frugal me just couldn't waste that much fabric!  Now, if it were for a fancier quilt the symmetrical me may have won.  :)

As always, I hope Grayson loves it and uses it for many years!  Do you think it will look good in a dorm room? :)

A Barn Raising!

My grandson Nate had a birthday that I missed as I was too sick to sew! FINALLY, I got it done.

It all started with this pin on Pinterest.


I knew I wanted to make one and turn it into a barn! Bud bought and cut the PVC pipe following the direction on the blog Angry Julie Monday. I however, purchased fabric and began the task of making it look like a barn sans pattern! Here it is with the roof completed.


Of course wouldn't you know that without a pattern to follow I didn't buy enough fabric. Luckily they had more to match when I went back. I spent a lot of time measuring, sewing, trying it on, and tearing out.:(. But in the end he loved it!


I put hay bales and a kitty on one side. Along with a window. You can see the pitchfork on the front, but what you can't see is the window and cornstalk behind Nate.


And on the other side there are more cornstalks and another window.


If you could look closely you would see John Deere fabric above the door. That was added just for Nate as he is such a John Deere kind of guy I wasn't sure he'd like it without it! (He only wears John Deere clothes.).

I hope Nate enjoys it for a long time and then keeps it for his kids to play in someday.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Sleeping Bag for a Boy

Grayson celebrated his 3rd birthday on February 13th. I wasn't feeling good for his party and didn't have his gift made yet, so we went up the night of his birthday to celebrate with him. We went bowling and out for pizza. HereGrandpa gives him some bowling tips.


Nate went with us since he was celebrating a birthday in February too. We had a great time!

I made Grayson a sleeping bag for his birthday complete with a matching pillow.


It rolls up into a nice little package.


I quilted it with some straight lines.. I used a pattern from Moda Bake Shop. It calls for a layer caked, but I choose my fabric and cut it into 10" squares.
Grayson tries it out.....only pretending to be asleep!


And he's ready to go with it all packed up.


I hope he enjoys it for many years. Happy Birthday, Grayson!

Horton Hears a Who!

Trina and Tanner decided to use The Horton character from Dr. Seuss for Maddux's bedroom. Tanner painted Horton on the wall, (which you can see here) and they put the saying, "A person's a person no matter how small" on the wall.

This left me with a dilemma for the quilt because there is no Horton fabric. Don't get me wrong, Horton is on some fabric, but there are always other characters with him. I decided on these fabrics by Robert Kaufmann--















And I decided to use a pattern from Moda Bake Shop. You can see it here. I didn't follow it exactly but pretty much.

I had to fussy cut Horton out of the middle two fabrics which made for a lot of waste. I guess someone else is going to get a Dr. Seuss quilt in the future!






My sewing machine was just back from the shop(which is a story in itself), and I meandered over the entire quilt UNTIL I got to about the last six inch square and MY MACHINE QUIT AGAIN!!!! Luckily a friend with a dependable machine brought hers in for me to use so I could finish it.

Maddux gets his first opportunity to use it.



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Blue Baby Blanket

Travis had several blankets as a baby.  He wasn't particularly attached to any, but this blue one was well used.  You can see that the satin sashing is coming off.

Chance got Travis' other blanket, so it is only fair that Colby gets one too.  I took off all the satin, washed the blanket again, and put on new satin.  I wrapped Colby in it on Sunday, and it soooo reminded me of Travis.  (Colby really looks like his daddy!)  Gee, I thought I was 21 again!

Colby has really filled out and shared some great smiles with us on Sunday!

Meet Our New Grandson!

Meet our new grandson:

Colby Bruce

7lbs. 8 ozs.

20 1/2"

 Born 12-12-11

Chance, the proud big brother!

The Happy Family

We went to the hospital as soon as we could get out of school on Monday, so we could meet him and cuddle!  He is another redhead!  Chance loved him that night, even giving him some impromptu kisses, but I hear maybe tonight he was saying, "No baby, no baby!!" :)  We're thrilled that he is part of our family and everyone is doing well.

Sewing With a Grandson

Several weeks ago I spent the day sewing with my oldest grandson, Payton, who is 11.  Payton is crazy for anything International Harvester or Case IH--I think its interchangeable.

Several years ago I made him a quilt for his bed.

The next year I made him a lap robe to snuggle up with while he watches TV.

Now they have a new house and he wants curtains for his bedroom.  He is in 4-H, so I volunteered to teach him to make some out of IH fabric of course!

First he had to cut a straight line.

I had him use my trusty old Kenmore.  He wanted to use my Baby Lock or my serger, but I told him that would have to wait until he was more experienced!LOL

Sewing straight seams can be challenging!

He learned the value of pressing.

We had to quit before they were finished, but they will soon be hanging in his room and will make it to the county fair next summer.

He enjoyed sewing with me, and I'm sure we will have many other projects together!

Happy Birthday, Payton!!

Our very first grandson, Payton, turns 11 today.  It's hard to believe he is that old already!

Payton is a Case IH lover.  His whole room is decorated in IH stuff, including a pair of curtains he and I are working on.  He is a farmboy through and through.  Spending time with his animals and being outdoors are his favorite things to do.  He loves to go hunting, fishing, and camping with Grandpa.  Payton is a big softie and a wonderful big brother too.

Happy Birthday, Payton!   We love you!

Happy Birthday, Chance!!

Two years ago today our grandson, Chance, was born.

Then

Now

We celebrated yesterday with lunch, and of course cake and ice cream.

One gift we gave him was a little tool set which included a little drill.

He was very busy "fixing" everything!

Who would have guessed he would be so full of energy and spunk! 

Happy Birthday, Chance!!  

Happy Birthday, Chance!

A year ago we welcomed our little red headed grandson Chance into the world.

We celebrated his birthday with a party yesterday.

He wasn't too sure about digging into the cake.

He got a few tractors.

He loved the balloons!

Happy Birthday, Chance!  We love you!

Road Trip

WARNING:  LONG POST!!

We took a little road trip this week.  We started out by heading to Northwest Iowa--Fort Dodge.  We had to take an antique music library up to be worked on, we hung around all day waiting for it, but it didn't get done. (long story)  So, we headed for Des Moines for the night.  Our first stop, of course, was:

Oh, the things you do for your hubby!  But then he returned the favor as our next stop was Homemaker's Furniture where we purchased a new 8 x 11 area rug for the living room.  Both of these stores are usually on our list when we are in Des Moines.  We crashed at a motel for the night.

Thursday morning we headed west to Walnut, Iowa, billed as Iowa's Antique City.  We browsed around town checking out all of the many antique stores and one little disappointing quilt store.  If you love antiques this is a great town to visit.  We added a 5 gallon Red Wing crock to our crock collection.  As we headed east we decided to trek down to Winterset to visit John Wayne's birthplace 

 and see a couple of covered bridges.  

These are on the National Register of Historic Places.  They are most famous for being in the movie Bridges of Madison County. While we were in Winterset we stopped at the Fons and Porter Quilt Shop.  Fons and Porter have had a show on Public Television for years.  It's the first quilt show I ever watched!  I was a little disappointed in this store.  I guess I expected a huge store with tons of fabric--that's not what I found.  I did manage to purchase a few fat quarters and a pattern while I was there.  Madison County Courthouse is in the middle of the square downtown.  It is a beautiful building. (I love big old courthouses)

We hadn't eaten since breakfast so next on our agenda was a little lot of food!  We headed for Joe's Crabshack by Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines.

We started with this scrumptious crab dip.  YUM!

Between the two of us we had crab stuffed shrimp (my favorite), a crabcake, coconut shrimp, haddock, deep fried shrimp, fries, onion rings, rice, and broccoli.  This was all in just two dinners!

It was FANTASTIC!  I highly recommend it if you like seafood!!  We rolled out the door and back to the motel.

The next day we started out at:

The Brass Armadillo is also a frequent stop.  We found that they had done some rearranging and cleaning up since we had been there last.  It is full of antiques and some collectibles.  Check it out if you are in Des Moines!  After that we stopped at another antique shop which I can't remember the name of.  I was tired of antiques by then so I sat in the car and messed with photos on my computer!  

Finally some 

Creekside Quilting was well worth the stop!  It is full of great patterns, Moda bolts and precuts, Robert Kaufman fabrics, notions, and Baby Lock machines.  Since I didn't have unlimited spending at my disposal, I had a hard decision.  I did manage to purchase a few things.  Then we went to Ankeny to Quilter's Cupboard.  This store also had a lot of fabric to choose from.  Since there was a quilt show in town it was rather crowded, so we didn't spend much time there.  (And, no, I didn't get to go to the quilt show.)  In between quilting stores and antique stores we did a little shopping at Kohl's, Younkers, and Catos.  

We headed to Pomeroy to spend the night so I could attend two wedding showers for our nephew Kevin and his fiance Kristen.  Bud visited other relatives during the showers!

We arrived home late Saturday night and got up early this morning to head over to spend a little time with Travis, Kerry, and Chance.

He was lovin' those Cheetos!! (And see those two teeth)

It's nice to be back home to sleep in our own bed.  I have a busy day tomorrow to get ready to leave again EARLY Tuesday morning.   Thanks to all of the relatives that put up with us for a few days, and to Trilby and boys for taking care of the dogs and cattle while we were gone.