Pink Elephants

So, of course I have been sewing for little baby N. Lots of those fabrics in my last post have been cut into. The ideas are coming fast and furious and I can hardly keep up. I want to make some little dresses too. For today, here is what I have done:

 I am calling this Pink Elephants. I remember the Elmer the elephant quilts from a few years back that people were making and I wanted a pink version for this sweet baby girl. All the strip pieces around the elephant are what I used to make the elephant.

 Sweet little one inch finished squares that I quilted in one inch cross hatch. I did not quilt over the elephant. The rest of the quilt is done in wavy lines.

 For the back, I used this sweet elephant print in twill that I bought when I first knew baby was coming. I knew it would be perfect for either a boy or a girl. We didn't know the gender until she was born.

 Some of these fabrics have been in my stash awhile. A few are newer, like Amanda Jean's Good Neighbors pink with the Vs on it.

 The binding is a dark pink print from one of Sarah Jane's lines. I think it is the perfect finish.

I loved making this. It was pretty quick to make from idea to finish. Now, on to more baby sewing!

It's a Girl!

 I have been saving these fabrics for such a long time. I love all of them, but I thought they were too girly for the grandsons. And now, I have a reason to create with them. In fact, I have a plan and have already started cutting.

 Then there are the pinks. I have lots and lots and lots of pinks. I have one quilt top finished and you can bet there will be more soon.  I love being able to use these pinks.

 Then there are these two Sarah Jane prints. I don't know if they will be quilts or not. They would be adorable dresses. Have to think on that. She's still brand new and tiny.

 I love this print too. I think it would make a great quilt back. I hate the thought of cutting it up.

 More pretty pinks and flowers. I am over the moon to have a granddaughter to sew for, can you tell?

I love the old fashioned look of these Heather Ross Tiger Lilly prints. Something good will come out of these too.

 Remember this? Well I got busy last week and quilted it up in just a couple of hours. I always felt it looked pretty girly. I love the way it turned out.

 And I used an Anna Maria Horner fabric for the back. It's from the Innocent crush line. This quilt came out so soft.

 Then there's this one. I know it's sideways, but anyway, I pieced this a couple of years ago and had long hoped to quilt it. So last week I decided to get it done. I love how it turned out.

 It's soft and sweet and not too girly, but maybe just a little bit girly. I was hung up on how to quilt it, so I went with straight lines and I think it worked out great.

And I had a bunch of the dots, so that became the back and the dark blue Squared Elements made the perfect binding. Stay tuned. Lots more baby girl quilts to come.

Strawberry Lemonade

I know, it sounds like a post for summertime, not the middle of January, but this bright sunny quilt is just the thing for a grey January day.  I started this quilt last spring when I first received this book.

I ordered the complete series to save money. It was a good deal. Also, I used it as a treat to myself for getting through the year of cancer treatment. One book came every other month and they were each a joy to page through and dream of the quilts to come, once I was ready to sew again. Now, the first one is done and on its way to the new owner.

 Vanessa calls this quilt Lemonade. I fell not only for the color, which is my favorite color, but I loved the slices of lemon and the way they were quilted.

 The quilt was easy enough to piece, and went together pretty easily. It only took so long because I wasn't sewing at all for several months.

 It was a chance to use a lot of yellows that were sitting on my shelf waiting for such inspiration.

 I would only have wanted to quilt it exactly the way Vanessa did. It was perfect. The quilting, however, was a challenge for me for several reasons.

 First, I hadn't quilted in quite awhile and I was rusty. Second, I hadn't had my machine serviced in two years and it was dust inside and had a couple of other issues. Once I had it serviced and talked to the technician about a couple of things, I was back in business.

 My stitching was still way less than perfect, but I just kept plugging along. Nothing in life is perfect and this was okay with me. I had a big chunk of Sweetwater's Wishes yellow for the back, and I added another off white print from that line, as well as this cute strawberry print from my stash.

 And that's how it got the name Strawberry Lemonade. And the imperfect lemon wedges are organic lemons, never perfect, but always tasty.

 There wasn't enough of the strawberry print for the binding, but a search of my scraps unearthed some lovely Heather Ross strawberry scraps to make a scrappy strawberry binding. It adds the perfect pop of color.

 A too cold, but sunny day yielded these pictures in my bedroom. I am very happy with the way this came out.

So, even though she might see it before it gets there next week, I am sharing this here. Sally, I love you and I hope you enjoy this quilt.

Monkey Business

Happy New Year to you all. This is the year I get back on that horse and ride it for all it's worth. I feel good, my cancer is gone and especially important to me, I am loving sewing again! I don't know if I will blog as much as I did before, but I am certainly sewing a lot! Here's what's going on at my house:

I made this quilt top from the pattern Suburbs by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew. I did the top before Christmas, in Christmas fabrics. Now I am going to get it quilted for my middle daughter so she will have a Christmas quilt at her house for next year.

I enjoyed putting this together so much, I am making another one from non-Christmas fabrics. Here it is in process:

I am using some of my treasured Heather Ross fabrics in this one. I love how different the two look with such different fabrics.

 I am in the process of quilting this quilt for a very special person. I had to take my machine for service, as I was having a difficult time with the quilting, but it is fixed and smoother sailing now.

The pattern came from this book by Vanessa from V and Company. A great little series of six books that each focus on one color. I love many of the projects in these books. I cut out all the pieces for this quilt and started piecing it last spring, before the Chemo got to me. Then it sat for months. I knew my sewing mojo was returning when this quilt started to beckon to me to get back to work on it and now it is almost finished!

So I guess you are wondering about the title of this blog post. Well, ever since I finished my treatments, I have been thinking that I would love to find a way to give back to the hospital community that took such good care of me. Then a way was presented to me. There is a group of lovely women who make sock monkey dolls for the children's hospital here that is a part of the over all hospital complex. My daughter met them, and got me in contact with the leader of the group. So now I am learning how to make them, all by hand. I feel like this is only the beginning of my journey to giving back. There will be more, but for now, this is what I do.

The one on the left is the example monkey that I was loaned to copy after my first lesson. The middle one is my first one I made, but it has no ears yet. I still have to have my lesson on how to make the ears. The one on the right is my second sock monkey. I think I'm going to like this!