Number 13

The number 13 is not an unlucky number in our house. My husband's birthday, his mom's and brother's birthdays were the 13th and my eldest daughter got married on the 13th. 

I became a grandmother for the 13th time on June 15th. It's a little boy and he broke the tie. I did have six granddaughters and six grandsons but now, I have seven. Both mom (my youngest daughter) and baby are doing fine and at home. This lucky little guy has a 4 year old brother and twin 2 year olds. While the twins weren't too sure about him in the beginning, they are accepting of him now.

No name yet but he was 6 lbs. 12 oz.

Another baby quilt to be made soon...

Just a bit of cross stitch

Whenever a new grandchild was born, I always gave a cross stitched card to go with the gift.

This was the very first card kit that I cross stitched. I made one for Luc and then four years later, I had acquired an identical kit and made it up for Teemu.

This was the second card kit that I made.

I changed the colour a bit because it was for baby Patric's gift.

This one I did when the twins were born in 2014. It was hard to find a 'welcome twins' cross stitch.

Here's the beginnings of yet another card. I took this photo to show just how important the black outlining is. It just defines everything.

Here's the finished card. It was for Esme's gift.

And this last one, the same design but a slightly different colour palette, I made for Darcy's gift. These last two are cards that I cut a window out of and finished myself.

It has been hard to find cross stitch card designs for babies. I remember when cross stitch was the thing to do and there were several stores devoted to cross stitch but now, there is very little and almost nothing for babies. After exhausting the internet and my own cross stitch booklets (I had nothing in way of baby designs), I emailed my friend Judy and she found a booklet that she had. She scanned it for me and these last two are from that booklet. 

I then (finally) thought about the library and, after doing a search of the catalogue, found and borrowed two books on cross stitch card designs. Both books have a couple of designs that I could use. About a week ago I also found the newest Cross Stitcher magazine and not only did it have a cross stitch of my favourite flamingo, it also had several welcome baby designs. So, I'm all set now.

More Pink

It looks like there will be more little girl sewing in my future. I became a grandmother again for the sixth time early this morning. This little one evened things out and there are now three grandsons and three granddaughters. Little Teemu is now a big brother.

Since I didn't make a quilt yet, I wonder if the little one will like pink?

Or maybe something bright?

Or just perhaps something neutral. So many ideas to choose from.

I do know that the other grandmother will be very excited to have a little granddaughter. New mom, my daughter Maili, proud dad, Casey and baby are doing fine. The little one has quite a bit of dark hair and it may just be curly - like her dad's. She is ever so pink and weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. Everyone is home already and resting while I look after Teemu for the day. He'll go home after his nap and maybe I'll get to hold the little one again. Oh yes, one more thing - she arrived the day she was due.

Something new

I felt like knitting.

So I decided to finish this little sweater and make the hat to go with it. It's for Teemu.

Last weekend we were at Sears and I saw a couple of things that I liked so I bought two shirts and two pairs of pants for the little guy.  I liked Big Bird.

I'm off to post at The Needle and Thread Network. Pop on by to see what others have been up to lately.

Introducing...

the tie breaker.

This little guy, Teemu, said hello to the world early Thursday morning weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz. He is only 3 hours old in this photo. The whole family is thrilled and we here had a wonderful time holding him as he slept - not even one day old.
The paternal grandparents are also very excited as this is their first grandchild. They will meet little Teemu later this summer as they live in California.
Luckily, there is skype for them and also for his aunts in BC and England.

Another Champagne Quilters Update

My ride last night was stuck in traffic so I didn't make it to Marg's at the regular time but, we did manage to get the top put together.

It was tricky but we took it slow and didn't have to use the seam ripper. It feels good to get this together but we don't think we will be doing another one. I think I will sew a small border around the cutting lines before I cut the points off to square it up.

I had given Marg some ends of yarns that I had and it looks like she kept busy. Eleven hats were made in two weeks and now she needs more yarn. I old her I had lots so I will have to go through my bags to find some that are suitable for baby hats.

I hope you all have a great weekend. My daughter's baby shower is on Sunday so I will be busy sewing today and baking tomorrow.

Tuesday Treat

Here's a photo of my new little grandson with the cocoon I made for him and a matching hat.

Patric Gilles, born March 22nd and weighing 7.0 lbs.

Here's what I have been up to creatively. I am making more baby hats to donate to a hospital. The one on the right is the one I am donating and the one on the left is a close-up of the one in the previous photo. There are so many great free patterns on the internet. The leaves are crocheted. I used the same basic pattern as the leaves on the cocoon but I just used a couple less stitches to make them a bit smaller.

This is the matinee jacket I made. Newborn size, for little Patric.

Holes

I went for a walk this morning. I took my son's little dog for a walk and on the street we passed a young lady wearing jeans with holes in both her pant legs. It amazes me that some people actually pay money for jeans that already have a tear here and a hole there. Now, I don't know about you but I stop wearing my jeans once they have a hole in them. I don't even patch my own jeans. They become too uncomfortable to wear if there is a hole in the knee (which is where my jeans wear out) and they especially are a pain to put on. How on earth you don't make the hole bigger when putting on those holey jeans is beyond me. Anyway, it takes a lot of wear and tear to get denim to wear out, unless...

this is your favourite mode of getting from place A to place B. It really doesn't matter if the surface is soft, like grass...

medium-hard, like wood...

or really hard, like a rocky dirt road in the country, somehow, denim will eventually...

get a hole in it. Some holes start out bigger,

and some are not too noticeable in the beginning. 

So, you see, it doesn't even matter what size the jeans are... 

denim is not indestructible and will eventually, get a hole or two - even from a one-year-old.

Just a little sewing

This is an ongoing project. My quilting buddy Judy and I decided to exchange paper-pieced animals. They had to be North American mammals and we eventually will make a Canadian-themed quilt. We take turns making two paper-pieced mammals, keep one and give one to the other person. The last time I made one was July, 2009. I know because I just checked my archives. Since I am meeting Judy this morning, to go to the quilt show, I figured I may as well get a move on. The pattern has been sitting on my sewing machine for months.

My donkey. I haven't quite finished mine yet but it will be the same. It wasn't a difficult pattern at all but taking the paper off after was not fun. I forgot to shorten my stitch length.

I also decided to make more of the full body bibs for little Luc. Now that the big quilt is finished, Marg, Ann and I have been going through bags of fabric that have been donated to us. Most of it is quilt worthy but some of it isn't or else we just didn't want the pieces. We donated a lot to the guild. I think this fabric was waiting to be made into a baby quilt or the backing for a baby quilt. There really wasn't quite that much and would have had to be pieced with something else but it was perfect for me. Marg hauled this out and gave it to me when I mentioned that I wanted to make the little guy some bibs.

So, I used some of the double fold bias tape that I have and here it is. The dimensions are roughly 11" X 19" and the tie is 24". I used a saucer to mark the curve for the neck. Sorry for the quality of the photo but it's really dull out. We got a bit of snow last night - just a dusting.

There was enough fabric to make 4 bibs exactly with nothing left over. The first one I made only had a backing fabric but even though the top fabric was a bit heavier, it still needed something more. I had some flannel handy and cut it up and it worked well - not too thick and not too thin.

I think I'll go see if there is some other fabric I can use up. I want to make Luc a summer hat.

My current project - for real

Since we are still waiting for the backing fabric for the turquoise/brown quilt, I worked on this baby quilt.

I managed to find the fabrics I used for the nine patches and added a border. I think it makes the quilt more colourful.

I put it on the frame yesterday and will start quilting it today.

These are a couple of the clip art designs that I put in the plain blocks. They are all different.

These are quilting threads and I don't yet know if I will use them all. I may just stick with white. The baby is due in August and the parents don't want to know if it will be a boy or a girl so I am safe with using white, blue and pink. You don't really see the colour of the quilting thread when you quilt anyway - it's the quilting design that stands out. If you scroll down the page, you will see this quilt without the border because I showed it in a previous post.

I will be linking up with the Needle and Thread Network. Go take a look to see what other Canadians are up to.

Baby quilts - pending

I have a couple of tops that I made that are waiting to be quilted.

This was a case where I saw a block and wanted to try it out. The pale blue fabric in the squares was a fat quarter that had the word Baby written on it. The others fabrics just fell into place. It really needs a border but since it wasn't intended for anyone, I just put in the plastic bin with the other baby quilt tops. Most of the tops in the bin are pre-printed panels.

This is one that I am planning on finishing but I don't know what kind of a border to put on it. Perhaps I should see if I still have those fabrics somewhere in my stash. It will be hand quilted and the plain blocks will have cute things quilted in them. This will now stay out of the plastic bin and will go on the pile of "to be quilted."

All too short

Little Luc's visit was all too short. He left yesterday with his mommy and daddy. We took them to the airport.

Little Luc was tired and fell asleep almost immediately in the car ride to the airport. But his days were full and here are some highlights.

 On Monday he went for a walk with me and his Auntie Ayla.

Always on the move, he liked playing with the belt on my treadle machine.

He got to be carried in the Ergo by his uncle Mark when we went on the subway.

Everything was fascinating.

Having a cookie with great grandma and uncle Muggy.

Cuddling with Auntie Ayla.

Playing with uncle Eric and his puppy Arja.

Being fed by Auntie Maili.

 Wearing the sweater that I made him to keep him warm on his little visit to meet his daddy's old friends.

 Showing off a new t-shirt. "If you think I'm cute you should see my uncle." Little Luc was hungry even if the uncles wanted him to sit still for the photo.

 How many people does it take to get a little boy ready for bed? One aunt and two uncles.

Spending some time with the whole family on his last morning here.

 The last photo op at the airport with daddy, mommy and pops.