One ready to be shipped and another on the work table

Jim's great secretary Connie has welcomed a grandson recently, so I've gotten a new African striped baby quilt started for him.  There is so much cute fabric for boys now. The trucks and tools fabrics are the borders and another flannel truck fabric for the back.

The blue striped fabric is for the binding.

Meanwhile, the quilt for Jack, another Single Girl pattern, is in the box ready to be shipped to Anna.  She's going to take it to Alexis when the baby is born.

Here's a close-up of the label.

A very special baby quilt begins

These are some of the lovely new fabrics I'm working with for a new Single Girl baby quilt.  They came from a quilt shop that opened recently right around the corner from me.  It's called Stitch Studio and they are also the Bernina dealership.

The expectant momma has decided on an ocean theme and this is a wonderful fish fabric from Pink Chalk Fabrics, one of my favorite online fabric store.

I noticed in the Tuesday Morning flyer that they were selling these giant mats, so I hustled over and got one before they were all gone.  It's 58 inches long and 38 inches wide which just about covers my work table and means I won't have that break between the two smaller mats I used to have.  The books are weighing down the corners since it was rolled up.

The background fabric features whales, crabs, octopi, turtles, and starfish.

When Anna was here earlier in the month, she pulled fabrics from my stash and then we went shopping and found the inspiration fabrics and thus the basic color palette of aqua, orange, green, and navy blue. By far the most fun fabric is smiling sharks eating chocolate chip cookies!

What I did during my four-day weekend

What a lovely long weekend it's been.  Friday was spent pin basting the new baby quilt and starting a new project for a toddler who loves dolls.

This is an old pattern that I used years ago to make a doll for my dear mother-in-law, Mae, who loved dolls and cats.  I love rag dolls.  My Mama made be a Raggedy Ann and Andy that I love and kept on my bed for many years.  The girl kitty has pantalettes, and a dress that looks like a blouse with an apron over it.

Here's the face all embroidered and bewhiskered.

On Saturday, I finished the body and got started on the clothes.

Here she is all finished on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday has been spent hand quilting the new baby quilt in the hoop.  This has been my idea of a great weekend.  

Snow Day!

Friday was a snow day, but here in North Carolina, that doesn't mean a vacation day for teachers.  Snow days are teacher work days unless you use trade time or personal time off to "pay" for them.  Since there was a big layer of ice under the snow and our driveway was pure ice, I used trade time to stay home.  The blocks beside the driveway are pavers waiting for our new driveway.  Once the weather clears we are getting, not only a new driveway, but new surface for the screened porch and slab patio.

The screens are down, so I got a clear shot of the backyard through the kitchen window.  We are going to have new screens without the view-blocking lattice.  I'm really excited about that part of the project.

I've taken lots of "before" photos, so when the project is completed, I'll share those.  

Climbing out from under

I have had a bad case of the OCD blues.  My house was a mess.  My studio was worse and I was feeling overwhelmed by the piles of undone things at school and at home.  This weekend, I feel like I climbed out from under the clutter both physically and mentally.  My house is clean (Thanks to Jim for driving the vacuum and the dust cloth in several rooms!) and things are put away.  The furniture is off the porch in preparation for our new driveway and new porch construction.  My studio is clean and I have laid out a new baby quilt for the newest addition to the UNC-G theatre family.  The photo above shows the backing fabric and the borders and bias binding.

This is the body ready to be sewn up.

The refrigerator is cleaned out and I have plans to reorganize the pantry after reading an article Anna suggested to me.  Last night I made chicken cacciatore that we will dine on tonight along with some pasta and our favorite romaine lettuce and mandarin orange salad.

Now if I could only finish the reading and writing the questions for the Battle of the Books and find the time to do all the cataloging at school, I would really feel good about myself!