Quilts and Family Traditions

I have a "Ta Dah" moment to share with all of you:

The top is done, now I need to gather fabrics for the backing and cut out the batting then think about how to quilt it.

This quilt pattern came from a magazine titled, "Australian Quilters Companion" and the pattern is called "Woven Squares in Squares".

Remember this and this ? All to make the above quilt.

So what does this have to do with family traditions, you ask? EVERYTHING!! This is for my grandson, Jacob who just completed 8th grade. My grandmother made baby quilts for us. I have the rag tag quilt I called "mine" as a child. Who knows if it was really made for me, but I'm the one who ended up with it.

Worn to a frazzle from time and lovin'.

Then there was the Family Tradition for both grandmothers to give quilts to the graduating seniors. Of course, I received one from each grandmother and have since passed those along to each of our girls.

What a satisfying feeling to be able to pass along the tradition of quilt giving. I have added my own twists to the mix: I give baby quilts, 5 year old quilts and 8th grade quilts. I figure by the time they go into high school, those 5-year old themed quilts have to go to the bottom of the stack and it's time for a more adult quilt.

Then when they graduate high school I'm sure it will be time for another quilt and then college and weddings. Whew! I won't run out of quilts to be making for a very long time!

I also started the tradition of giving Grandma-Aunties Quilts to newborns. Since I got my sis and sister-in-laws into quilting, we all put rows on the new one's quilt. Cool tradition.

Jack thinks I should save this for Jacob's birthday. But what is a tradition if you don't follow through with it? Besides, quilts need to be given at very special times. Birthdays are different "specials" and will need a separate gift this year. I just don't want to mix the two right now.

Company!

Yay! Company has arrived. Okay, it was only for a few hours one evening, crash for the night then a few hours in the morning....but better than nothing. My younger brother called out of the blue and dropped by! What a fun surprise. He used to always do that when we all lived in CA. I'd wake up in the morning, look outside and there he would be asleep in his Jeep....drove through the night and didn't want to disturb us. Yes, he is a kind hearted kinda guy, you just can't help but love him to pieces!

I have a OLDER brother, (only 11 months older) and a BABY brother, (11 years younger) and my "twin" sister (4 years younger). You can tell by looking at us that no one was switched at birth!

I hope to see the rest of the "clan" this summer. Hmmmm, maybe I can catch a hydro plane race.

13 Little Bags

It all started when one sweet little 7 year old at school was saving her good behavior tickets to purchase a tiny pink camoflage bag. I told her to spend her tickets on something else because I could make her an even nicer bag. Then I got sick and didn't return to that school.

I did make the bag once I was off the couch. I had someone take it up to her.

About a month or so later, I went to visit the kids and teachers. (Big mistake!) This little sweetie had told all her classmates I made her a bag. So all the girls wanted one.

I decided to make them all the same bag with different handles. There were 12 girls in the class so they all got one.

Now all the little boys are mad at me because I "like the girls best"!!

Oh boy.

Hairy Nest

A little Chickadee is busy gathering materials to make a nest. S/he has decided to line it with cat hair. To be more specific, my cat's hair. I keep a mat by the kitchen door and Hook grooms himself upon it, leaving clumps of cat hair for me to clean up. Well, lucky me... the Chickadee is doing it for me!

Distractions

I have so many projects started, I reall need to finish something. So what do I do? I decide to purge my fabrics! Anything less than 1/2 a yard went into plastic totes. I'm sure I'll come up with something else to do instead of actually finish something today!

It looks like I need to go shopping for more fabric.

I hate it when that happens.

Finished Hearts

So the hearts baby quilt is finished. The Juki is totally cleaned, oiled and packed up to go back to the co-owner of it. I won't be ready to quilt another quilt until June so all is working out well with sharing the machine.

We are loading the car to jam down to CA to help celebrate our "baby's" 40th birthday. How the heck did I get old enough to have a 40 year old "child"???? Somedays it feels like I live inside of a movie, not in my real life. I'm still 33 with the energy of the Energizer Bunny, I can run circles around the world! Then I open my wallet and my Medicare card and my desire to take cat naps tell me different. (sigh)

Good Morning, Hearts

I'm machine quilting this little baby quilt. I loved the way the sunlight hit the stitches.

I'll share a picture when it's finished.