made with love

About two weeks before Cora was born I realized that I hadn't made her a baby blanket yet, so when I put my son down for a nap I spent some time cutting out enough squares to make one of the 5 square by 5 square baby quilts that I love so much. I pulled out my collection of Anna Maria Horner fabric that I'm also using for my Dream Punk quilt.

So much fun!

The fabric with the flying bird print is a JoAnn purchase that I've been saving - just hoping that I would have another baby and that I could use the squares I saved to make it. I love the free spirit of the flying birds and the fresh blue color.

I didn't have enough of the magenta fabric to make a complete border, so I used two different fabrics for that. I love the scrappy feeling of this quilt. It just came together and I know the story of how it all worked out.

The pretty baby sweater is called Korrigan. This one took a little bit longer to make than the quilt. I used hand painted yarn from Rivers Edge Fiber Arts. The colorway is Lilac. This pattern takes a fun twist on cables. It's knit from the top down, so you do the most difficult knitting at the start of the project, then the rest is stockinette. I have a feeling I will be making a few more of these for Cora as she grows. I just love this pattern.

xo Jill

valentines

The weekend before Valentine's Day. My husband had to work so the little guy and I stayed home and played with our blocks - his were plastic, mine were cotton. :) :)

We made some valentines too!

I read a good book on Saturday: "The Girl Before" by J.P. Delaney.

Hope your Valentine's day was sweet.

Jill

P.S. Linking up with Nicole at Frontier Dreams!

quilting weekend

Last weekend I went up north for a quilting weekend with my sister. My mom watched our kids so that we could spend the day together with no interruptions - just a hot iron, beautiful fabric and some taco chips.

I'm working on a quilt that will be a gift for my sister-in-laws wedding this September. It's made from Anna Maria Horner's fabric - my first time working with her designs. I ordered the entire quilt kit from Craftsy - it's called Mod Corsage.

It's Monday tomorrow - Happy work week!

xo Jill

nap time

During his nap time I hurry to pick up whatever project is utmost on my mind. This morning it was my bloomsbury sweater and I finished a sleeve. Then after he woke up I took him upstairs and he played in his suitcase while I sewed together the four large blocks that make up my single girl quilt top.

We zipped around town after lunch, from Minneapolis to St. Paul to look at potential rental houses for my brother and his family when they move back to Minnesota this September. Fingers crossed that I might have found something in one of the historic neighborhoods of Minneapolis with a wood burning fireplace and a park across the street for their little one. Hope that all pans out. (And we find the gold nugget.) Is that where the phrase "pans out" comes from?

Let's go with that :) :)

It's nap time again, that's why I'm blogging. When he wakes up my arms and heart will be full with one energetic nine month old.

Hope you have a great weekend.

xo Jill

evening at the falls

All done!

As soon as I started sewing on the binding for this quilt it practically finished itself. I know I've said it before, but I love sewing on bindings. The quilt top is complete, basically all the loose ends are sewn in, but you get to spend the time finishing by hand this lovely collection of fabric that you've been machine sewing for months. I bet that machine sewing on bindings is pretty slick and quick, but I would miss those final moments that I get with my blankets before they are given away as gifts.

You can follow my project progress here, here and here :) :) :)

I think this project turned out a lot like I had planned, but with some pleasant surprises along the way. Now I will be returning to my single girl quilt top. It's time to get to work on that again.

Last night we went to a park next to our house - Minnehaha Falls. There were lots of people out and about. The weather was perfect, the falls were spectacular. Logan loved riding around and people watching. He's really teething right now, so as you can see - everything is a chew toy.

:) :) Jill

the gentle art of baby corralling

So many projects, so little time.

My little one is perfecting his crawling technique. He's gone from that comical back foot in the air downward thrust to gain forward momentum to a very practical army crawl that gets him just about everywhere he wants to go.

He's currently on strike from all of his "toys." He'd rather chew on the very durable (and dirty) rubber mat in front of the door, any cord protruding from an electronic device. No teeth yet, but he's sucking on his gums like a little old man with loose dentures.

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to get some quilting done, so I stuck him in a rolling suitcase near the bed as I completed the final spiral quilting segments on my scrappy trip around the world quilt. He loved it. He was playing with all of the zipper and tags.

(As I write this he's scooting towards the very hairy dog bed.)

Time to sign off folks. More to come!

:) :) Jill

life in the fast lane

Life is streaking by. It's already the end of June. We're making plans to go up North near the Canadian border to go camping with my husband's family. We'll see aunts and uncles and cousins that he hasn't seen for years. I'm busy making lists and trying to figure out what to pack - figuring out what not to pack is probably the most crucial part.

I've almost got the quilting done on my scrappy trip around the world quilt. I'm trying to stay disciplined here, because I cannot wait to start working on my single girl quilt again, but I want to finish one before I start the other.  So far I'm doing good. I'll have to take some knitting camping, because a quilt is too big and I don't want it to smell like campfire smoke.

Hope June is treating you well!

xo Jill

hope

"Hope is one of the most important virtues that can be instilled in our soul. Many people think that hope has to do with the future, when in reality it has to do with the past. We develop hope as we experience pain transformed into comfort. When this happens enough, we begin to have faith that our pain will not do us in and that comfort is on its way." 

Cloud & Townsend

 

 Busy mornings and afternoons run into jamb-packed evenings spent with baby and husband. The kitchen sink is overflowing with pots and pans and weeds are peeking up beneath the straw in the garden - but all is well!

 

 Strawberries are appearing too, and tiny bean sprouts that the bunnies like to nibble on. Ten percent of all my garden plants either get trampled by the dog as she gallops for her frisbee or munched on by rabbits in the wee morning hours. That's a pretty good harvest. 

The peonies have blown, but they were gorgeous and fragrant for a stretch of ten days as May turned into June. Pretty rings of colorful fabric are appearing on bed in my studio. Now I need to find a backing and pick out the binding for this little quilt. 

I started a new little sweater made from my mom's yarn. The pattern is: Little Coffee Bean, so far it's an easy and fun knit. The aqua stripes really pop. 

I read this quote on hope earlier this week and it really struck me. It's so very true. 

xo Jill