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!

Merry Christmas to All...

                             No snow this year, but it cools me off just seeing it.

                                                           A traditional picture.

                                              When this (now 9 year old) boy was smaller.

                                                      My hometown at Christmas.

A December Finish

This finish is one I am so excited to share today. I had to wait until I gave it to my daughter before I could share it here. This last year it has been very difficult to sew. I had started several projects back when I had energy and the motivation. But since about May, both were lacking. My creativity is finally back and I am enjoying sewing again. I am slower than before, but the more I sew, the stronger I get.

I made this wonderful quilt for myself last year from a pattern by Lee at Freshly Pieced:

My eldest daughter saw it and wanted me to make her one, so I said sure. She bought all the fabrics in February. She wanted the colors of hers just a bit different. I started cutting all the pieces and keeping them organized in zip bags. But after sewing a few blocks, I couldn't sew for such a long time.

 I slowly began putting in time in the sewing room. Making myself sew something for 20 minutes at a time. It became easier and I started to enjoy it again.

I love the shadow of the leaves here.

 I showed my daughter a picture of a few blocks early on, but then nothing. I made a baby quilt, but never mentioned this one.

 I love the Nordic chickens fabric she picked for the back. She's good at stuff like this.

 I kept plugging away and finished the quilt top. I am still kind of weak in places and crawling around to pin baste was really difficult. It took me probably twice as long to do it for this quilt.

 It took me a week or so to quilt. I used a silvery grey Aurifil thread. It shows up just enough on the top. I quilted it in all over swirls, just like I did mine. It took most of a large spool to quilt.

Before quilting

Before quilting

Before quilting

 I love the way it turned out. The reindeer and the berries being the only color really pop.

So last night I surprised her with it. She wasn't quite as surprised as I thought she would be. She said since I hadn't mentioned it in so long, she thought I might be working on it. But I am glad it is done in time for her to enjoy it for Christmas. That was my goal, and I did it!!

Chickpea's First Quilt

I have decided to only post finished quilts here for now. It is my way to keep track of them. Maybe at some time in the future I will return to regular blogging. This is the quilt for the new grandbaby due in January.

Ten Years of Quilter's Newsletter

Last March my daughter helped me clean up my sewing room and we put 10 years worth of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine in a box. Then, I let it sit. It sits there still today, and I wonder what to do with it.

 I bought a few issues and fell in love with the magazine in the late nineties. Then, I got so into quilting I treated myself to a subscription. I don't have subscriptions to anything any more. I had a subscription for ten years and I kept every issue to use as a reference.

 Now, I am trying to get rid of stuff I don't use. But I hate to just put all of these in the recycle bin. So what do you, my readers think I should do with them? My library doesn't take magazines like this. Does anybody want them? Or maybe just some of them? I will give them away but I can't afford to pay postage on them to mail them.

I am hoping someone wants to give them a good home. If not, recycle it is. I need the room.

To Blog, or Not to Blog

Hello friends. I know it has been a long time. I am much improved and actually hoping to return to work in a few weeks. I have had my chemo and my surgery and am getting read to start radiation treatments this week.  I have not been sewing for the past 2 1/2 months. I have had no energy for it, and now that I do have a bit of energy, the neuropathy in my fingers makes it difficult.

What does that have to do with blogging you might ask. Well, this is the thing: I read blogs for awhile, until the fatigue became too much. I had nothing much to say so I just read. I had no idea that this whole process would take away my creativity as well as my desire to create or blog.  Now that things are beginning to return to normal, sort of, I can't decide if I want to continue blogging.

When I first discovered blogs, it was exciting and fun and fueled my creativity so much. People shared pictures of their projects and tutorials of how to make things. The blogs I read and loved so much have changed. Some seldom post any longer, some have changed direction, which is certainly their choice. But I miss the way it used to be. What I see now doesn't inspire me much, with a few exceptions.  Is it just me? Maybe it is. Maybe I am just looking at the wrong blogs, for me.

I would love it if you are a blog reader, if you would please weigh in on this. If you have blog suggestions, I would love those too.

Thanks. Hope to see you again soon.