Baby announcements

Have you checked out my profile lately? I am now the proud grandmother of nine grandchildren. The month of October saw the early birth of two little ones, a boy and a girl.

On October 8th my daughter Ayla and her husband David welcomed the birth of their son, Atticus Eliot Clarence. He was born prematurely but is doing very well and is now a whole pound more than his birth weight. I was in England at the time of his birth and got to see him almost every day for his first three weeks. 

Exactly three weeks later, on October 29th, little Wren Margaret was born to my son Eric and his fiance, Davina. She was due November 10th but arrived a tad early. I had returned from England just two days before. Here's a photo of me and my newest little granddaughter shortly after she came home from the hospital.

That makes four grandchildren born in this sesquicentennial year.

I shall certainly be kept busy sewing, quilting and knitting. 

Another tie breaker

Two years ago this coming Sunday little Teemu was born and he became a tie breaker. I then had three grandsons and two granddaughters. On May 3rd, his little baby sister, Esme, was born and she became a tie maker (three little boys and three little girls.)

Little Esme just a few hours old.

This past Wednesday, May 17th, the twins (tie makers since I only had two grandsons when they were born) became big sisters. Their little baby sister (who became a tie breaker) was born. She weighed a healthy 7 lbs. 10 oz. While mom and dad were in the hospital, the twins stayed with us.

Me and my brand new granddaughter just over one day old.

Having the twins here for a couple of days was fun but today they left.

Their daddy, my son, came to bring them home to be with mommy and their new baby sister. They don't live far.

Little quilts and family genes

This is just one of the quilts on the frame.

The other one is just boring straight line quilting but this one needed something extra in the border.

Stars.

The fastest quilt ever. I don't remember how long it took to piece but it wasn't a whole day and it only took two days to quilt (not full days.) My friend Marg said I could have quilted it by machine but I figure by the time I cut the batting and backing, pin baste or spray glue, and then quilt on the machine, I wasn't saving a whole lot of time. It was relatively quick to put on the frame and quilt in the ditch. I was going to quilt diagonal lines but this was quicker. I love its fresh look. It's also so much lighter with its polyester batting than if I used a flat batt.


On a more personal note:

These are little Teemu's aunts, uncles and mommy - my five babies. These photos were taken when they were all still in the hospital and are in no particular order.

This is little Teemu.

 So, who do you think he looks like? Number 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5?

 He sleeps so much that it's hard to see his little eyes. He is thriving though, and within the two weeks he has been here, he's almost gained a whole pound.

I love the pattern for this sweater and I love the yarn too. His hat yarn is the same yarn I used for my first grandson when I knit the same sweater and a matching hat (though a different pattern.)

I'm going to be busy sewing Teemu's little cousins some hoodies this weekend.
I hope you all have a safe and restful weekend.

Baby Sewing

During the summer I had been sort of silent on the blog. It's not because I had nothing to blog about; it's because I had to keep my sewing secret. Since the little girls are here now, I will show you all of the things that I was working on.

You've seen these as I worked on them but here they are all finished.

The one on the left is a 'Care Bear' panel and believe it or not, the one on the right is...

 'Chair Bear.'

 There were two stroller blankets knitted.

Identical flannel blankets.

Change pads trimmed in my colour scheme for the twins - green and mauve.

And some burp cloths - otherwise known as spit-up cloths.

This is the cross stitch I made for the card. 

I made cards for my daughter when she had both Luc and Patric. They were both different.

Well, as you can see, I have been busy, busy this past summer.

Truly Canadian

Did you know that there were three Canadian Prime Ministers with the name of Mackenzie? Yes, three.
William Lyon Mackenzie King 1921-1926, 1926-1930, 1935-1948
Mackenzie Bowell 1894-1896
Alexander Mackenzie 1873-1878

And did you know that the largest and longest river system in Canada is the Mackenzie River?

Did you know that the River Severn is the longest river in the United Kingdom? Did you know that here in Canada - actually in Ontario, we have a Severn River, Severn Lake, Severn Township, the Trent-Severn Waterway, Fort Severn and Port Severn?

Why all the Canadian trivia?

Well, last Sunday, the 28th of September, my son Mark and his lovely wife Kate had two little twin girls born to them. Twin A and Twin B as they were known in the hospital but the real names that were picked for them were:

Mackenzie Katherine

Severn Annikki

No one stayed in the hospital for long - 48 hours and that was it. Birth weight was 5 lbs. 5 oz. for Mackenzie and 5 lbs. 2 oz. for Severn.

Not bad birth weights for twins born at 37 weeks. Both were, and still are, very healthy.

The family is doing fine and the extended family is overjoyed.