For Tickles

My niece asked if I could make something for her daughter Lily's favorite stuffed animal, Tickles. Lately, Lily insists that Tickles needs to be wrapped up in a blanket at naptime and bedtime. If Tickles comes unwrapped, Lily calls out, "Mommy Tickles blanket!" You can imagine, responding to this call every 5 minutes can get old fast. Hopefully this little sleeping bag for Tickles will be helpful. Tickles' sleeping bag is being modeled by Julia's Mommy Bear.


Julia's hair was blonder and curlier when she was little, and she looked a lot like Goldilocks. She happened to have 3 white teddy bears in different sizes which became Daddy Bear, Mommy Bear and Baby Bear. When she was about 3, she created distinctive voices for them. Our favorite was her Daddy Bear voice, which was adorably gruff for a 3 year old.

I'm not sure why, but Mommy Bear didn't get played with as much as Daddy Bear and Baby Bear. I guess mommies aren't as much fun as daddies and babies. Mommy Bear must have been busy doing laundry and cooking the porridge!

BFF & LOL Wall Chat

A couple of weeks ago, Peggy Ackfeld called me out of the blue and asked if I could make some little quilts to hang from the decorative wire hangers that her husband makes. Sounded like fun to me, so she shipped me some hangers.


How cute are they?! Ackfeld Wire calls this new line Wall Chat. Peggy was having a hard time finding someone to take on this challenge. The lovely people at Fons & Porter recommended me (I had a similar design published in their magazine in 2001).


The original plan was for me to make 3 quilts for a magazine ad. Since I finished these two a little earlier than expected, Peggy asked me to ship them to her hotel in Houston, so she could display them in her booth at Quilt Market. Woo Hoo! I wish I could be there in person, but I'm thrilled to have sent my little quilts.


The patterns will be in my Etsy shop as soon as I can get them together. I think I'll try a PDF pattern. The 5" blocks are paper-pieced, with a vinyl pocket pieced in. The pocket allows the flexibility of changing out photos as kids grow.


Thanks, Katie, for emailing photos of Lily and Anna last night. They are the cutest girls ever and perfect in the LOL quilt!
Thank you, Leah, for making free motion quilting look so easy.
Thank you, Peggy, for the opportunity!

A Fun-Filled Weekend

A high school band concert, a baptism and a birthday. And a blooming peony! They are my favorite flowers, but I'm not very good at growing them. I suffer from intense Peony Envy this time of year!


We traveled to upstate NY for Anna's baptism. My cousin is a priest, so he performed the baptism at his church. Tom does a Lion King thing at the end of every baptism to present the baby. She's looking down at her daddy for help!


The party afterwards was awesome, with great food, family and friends, and bocce. Lily and her Pop (my silly brother) played in her little tent. She is almost 2 and talking up a storm and she's so smart!


We also celebrated Bill's birthday. He was happy to spend some time with his parents and shoot hoops with Pete on their backyard court.


My niece asked me if I could make something out of the little hats the babies are given at the hospital when they are born. She has 2 for each girl. She also gave me a couple of onesies in case I need some extra "fabric." We're thinking about some little teddy bears, maybe with a pocket for a lost tooth. Got any other ideas?


Look what came home with us? My mother's Necchi had been living with my niece, unused for a couple of years. They ran out of room for it in their house, now I need to make room for it in mine! I'll show you the neat cabinet when I move it in from the garage.


I won a giveaway at Alderwood Quilts. Thanks, Sue! I'll add that to my list of things to make. I love the name Bella Nonna. It means Pretty Grandma!


On the list this week: a pile of charity quilts to finish by Wednesday (if I can).


I'd better get to work! Have a great week,
Tina

Quilt Along / Quiltathon

For today's Quiltathon, I'll be sewing up my half square triangles for the Quilt Along. I cut out all of my squares last night and drew a diagonal line across the lights. When I'm ready to sit at the machine, I'll sew 1/4" on both sides of the line, cut them apart, press open and trim. It works for me.

When I was at my sister's house this week, I photographed the table runner I made for her last Fall, in situ. The tumbling blocks are made from woven tubes of fabric, so it's reversible. It was fun, but I haven't made one for myself yet. I was happy to have the Turn-it-All tools to turn all those tubes. The pattern is from Dream Weaver Patterns.





And I never took a picture of the matching game I made for Lily for Christmas. There are a dozen pairs of squares with novelty animal prints on one side and they all have purple fabric on the back. There is Peltex interfacing on the inside, one row of stitching near the edge, and I cut them out with a pinking blade. Super fast, easy, cute and fun! The drawstring bag holds them all. The best part is that Lily already knows all the animals and she actually plays with it. For now, they keep the squares face up for her to find the matches. When she gets a little older, it can be a memory game, with the pictures face down. The tutorial is on the Michael Miller blog.This is the first day in a week that I have woken up without a headache. My nose is still running, but I feel much better. I won't be making the trip to see Mark Lipinski, though. There's too much to do around here.

Ciao,
Tina

Two Annas, plus a Lily

I missed Two for Tuesday, so here are two Annas on Wednesday.
Baby Anna with Great-Grandma Anna (my mom). Anna is so cute and so tiny! Babies grow so quickly, it's hard to remember when ours were that small.Lily is a bundle of energy. It's hard to get a good picture of her while she is in constant motion. Elmo is her favorite! So why didn't I add some Elmo fabric to her quilt? I'll need to make an Elmo pillow, bag or pajamas for her birthday.

I need a nap.
Ciao,
Tina