Jacob's Ladder: Done

It is finished, bound, and labeled, so now it is in the hands of my wonderful son, Tony
this picture is of Tony and Jonathan, his youngest, (Daddy's boy)










Tone loved all the symbolism in the quilt, the three fabrics/his three children, the label was made from one of my Mom's shirts, the thread was my grandmother's, and I buried a button that was my great-grandmothers, so altogether, six generations were represented in the quilt. Hard to do and make it safe for tiny babies, visually pleasing, and still manly enough for a 31 year old son.

My Elly Loves to Sew

The minute Elly and Liberty walk in the door at Granny & Papa's house, the first thing out of their mouth is "Granny, can we do a craft?" their mom and dad always chastise the girls, "Say hello first, girls..." but I really take it as a compliment, since I"m the one who does crafty things with them all the time. Usually, they come on Friday after school and stay till Sunday after dinner, and that isn't long enough for them, they want to stay "Just one more hour...Please Granny?" So, we have done a lot of crafts! and, of course, Elizabeth and Jakey want to come, too, and play with their cousins. Jonathan is a toddler, and still gets anxious leaving his Mama, so he only stays for a couple hours, till nap time. Does any of this sound familiar? I remember loving to stay at my Nanny's house, too. I tell my kids not to take it personally, I don't have to do laundry, I don't work on the weekends, Leashie (my daughter, still at home) and I will "tag team" them with sewing, beading, painting, Barbies, etc.

Elly is the oldest of this crowd, being 6, (almost 7) and she is usually the one who wants to be the leader. When their "other Papa" (my x-husband, though we are friendly and I love his wife, she has been good to my kids through the years) got sick, my kids decided to throw a fundraiser to help with the $10,000 monthly treatment costs. So, all the little ones came for a weekend and each picked out a fabric, and we made a quick quilt, each one sewed a strip of two fabrics, then I made four-patches while Leashie played Barbies with the ones who weren't sewing. It was great! By the time Sunday came around, we had most of the quilt top done and each one of them were so proud!

By the end of the week, I added the sashing, backing, quilting and binding, and it was wonderful!

James (my son) came to pick it up at work on Friday, and while i was showing it off to him, the whole place was astonished at how well it looked for the babies picking the fabric, piecing, etc. I made the remark "I just hope it brings in at least $40 at the auction." Well, my boss went out to the showroom, grabbed $250 tool off the shelf, handed it to Jame and told him to give the quilt to his dad and auction off the tool. I was so proud of my boss at that moment!

So, now when Papa gets out of his bed, God bless him, he always has that quilt with him. I'm so proud of that.

It was at that time that Elly wanted her own sewing machine, in fact, she wanted mine to take home, tee hee. So that's what she got, her own machine for Christmas.

And she'll always remember her 6th Christmas, when Granny got her a sewing machine.

Have fun with your babies/grandbabies

Lyn

Jakey's Ladder

I'm almost done with the Jacob's Ladder, and I love the movement! all that's left is the Border, I'm doing it in the rust color. Don't tell Aunt Biggie, but I machine quilted it, but, hey, it's not a UFO...right?

Am I the only one who tapes a button to my finger instead of using a thimble? (Don't tell Aunt Biggie this , either.) I glued the holes shut, and roughed up the surface, the I tape it to my finger with surgical tape, I used to use bandaids, but that got expensive. I am as coordinated as a soup sandwich with a thimble, I have tried all kinds, but either I can't bend my finger, or I can't "feel" the needle, or the darn thing won't stay on! So, anytime I'm doing hand sewing (like the border on this quilt) I just tape my handy-dandy button to my finger and I'm good to go! Yes, I guess that makes me "thimble impaired" but at least I have the button to be my "crutch." Wish all my problems were remedied that easily.

Have a creative day, gals
Lyn

Jacob's Ladder

I'm starting a new project, a Jacob's Ladder for my son, Tony, because his son's name is Jacob. Tony is such a wonderful father, his heart is so good. I am amazed at the genuine-ness of him. So, I have some of my Nanny's fabric, and will somehow incorporate that into the quilt. Nanny was the most wonderful grandma of all times, to all of us, so that will be special to him.

I'm off to my "studio", otherwise known as Leash's old room.

Lyn

Waste of time?

Barbie and Ken get a picnic quilt

My DH (see, I'm a big blogger now, with initials and everything) had to have surgery on his back, they go in with probes and zap his nerves. I don't know about you, but I get nervous and can't pay attention to a book while I'm in the hospital, so I brought some hand work with me. I am practicing my hand quilting, I have never done a whole quilt, and so I practice with the littles, that way, if I really mess up, people through the ages will think a child did it,,,,sneaky!

Why is the binding getting to be my favorite part of quilting? Am I the only one?

Have a wonderful night, I'm off to make supper for my DH and my DD...

Lyn

My Lovely Aunt Biggie

My Aunt Biggie called me tonight, she wanted to disagree with my blog, she said I wasn't an old fat Granny, she is a beautiful, slender, Great Grandma, so she has no idea where I'm coming from. When my first two grandsons were old enough to talk, they called me Grandma, they lived in Kentucky and had three grandma's, when their Mom said "Grandma's on the phone" they asked "Grandma Who?" ......that about broke my heart, I wasn't special, I was Grandma from Michigan, so the next summer they stayed with us for a couple months, and I paid them a quarter every time they called me Granny, they earned enough to buy fishing poles and tackle boxes that summer, and the Granny stuck and I have paid dearly for the special name. Now, the younger grandbabies have never known me as Grandma, they have other Grandmas, but I'm Granny, and as Liberty said, I'm "the only-est Granny!"

I have raised 8 kids, all the way through the two's, to the twenty's and I have earned the title Old Fat Granny, I'm proud of it, and I'm good at it, so...Sorry, Aunt Biggie, its stuck.

this is the quilt that Aunt Biggie made me last year, the first one was when I was a teenager, and it is still my favorite, She is the one who introduced me to quilts. My grandmother sewed, but not quilted. I'm not sure why.

Have a lovely night's sleep,

lyn

The Fat Girl Trifecta

I have hit what I think is the "fat girl trifecta"... in the last year, I have:
1. had a hysterectomy,
2. got an antibody thing that messed up my thyroid, and
3. quit smoking.
Now, besides pregnancy, those three things are the best way I know of to gain weight. So, now I have to watch all those sickening ads on TV about losing weight, getting fit, yada yada yada. I hate the fact that I have all this crap to lose, I hate the fact that it costs a lot of money to lose it, and I hate the fact that if I don't lose it, I'm going to have to use my stash to make a wardrobe of mu-mu's.

I can be happy about the fact that the darn blogger wont let me post a picture, ;-)

My Granny's Aprons

This fabric was my great-granny's apron material. This isn't a repro, it is vintage. Every time I look at it, I can smell her. Apples and White Shoulders. Granny wore an over-the-neck apron all day, every day, and she was up, dressed, and her bed was made by 5:oo am. By 5:30 am, she had the potatoes peeled for supper and cherry jello jelly-ing in the ice-box. Granny's house was never without fresh peanut butter cookies and jello. When my grandmother, Nanny, passed in 1997, I inherited some of her fabric, and I found this cut already in a dress pattern, sleeves and all, but never sewn together. I wonder why she never finished it? I used some of it for a baby quilt for my granddaughter, because I wanted her to have that same warm "family" feeling just looking at it. Some day when I'm gone, my granddaughters will find little treasures like this and wonder why I was going to make a dress out of it, and why I never finished it. And then they'll press the fabric to their nose and smell White Shoulders.

MMMM...Warm...Family.

happy blogging,

lyn

I am starting out with a picture of my Elizabeth giving Granny sewing lessons. We were sewing a quilt for her new little brother, Jonathan, not yet born. She was only three at the time, now a Big Girl of four.
You can just see how she loves it, just like Granny!
Hope you all enjoy my post,