Category Archives: Adoption

Basting

Posted on by
1

Last week I finished all the blocks for E’s quilt and started deciding the layout. Above is what I came up with and I thought something wasn’t quite there about it. Showing the picture to my mother, she suggested another dark border around the group of star blocks. Ah ha! So Tuesday I ran out to the LQS and picked an extra navy bit for another border, the backing, and the batting.

I switched the bottom right two blocks and made pieced the extra border. Much better! and more complete looking.

I finished up the quilt top Wednesday and now am basting the layers together (of course with a helper) and thinking about the quilting pattern. Any suggestions? The back is a light tan with blue and red flora (should show the stitches well!) and I have navy quilting thread.

Preparing with a quilt

Posted on by
2

Serena of Evan Wren Quilting asked if I was going to make a quilt for our soon-to-be-here 6 year old son. My first thought was I’ll never be finished in time! But as I pondered it I realized that if I pieced the top with my machine it might be possible to finish in time depending on when we get him. I suppose if I don’t finish the hand quilting by the time he gets here he might appreciate it more because he’ll witness first hand my efforts for a gift. LOL Hard to say with a little guy though. :-)

So urged by Serena, I looked through a couple quilt books and thought the Union Star Quilt in Civil War Sewing Circle, The: Quilts and Sewing Accessories Inspired by the Era (That Patchwork Place) by Kathleen Tracy was perfect for a young boy. It’s not too big and if I keep to similar colors of blue and red he’ll probably like it. When I first browsed the book it was one of my favorite patterns and I had started setting aside some possible fabrics for it. After some shuffling these are what I came up with.

The last day and a half I’ve spent sewing blocks and have 4 finished and one more cut. I made a mistake on two but I’m probably not going to bother taking it apart and resewing them. I’ve already done some seam ripping to get the first 2 blocks to the right size. The 1/4 inch mark on my machine must be slightly off and made the finished blocks much smaller than should be. Most people probably wouldn’t notice the mistakes anyway especially with 8 more blocks. Would you have noticed them if I hadn’t pointed it out?

Crochet Sheep Blanket

Posted on by
1

With our son coming soonish, I thought I should make him some special things just for him. I found a crocheted sheep blanket pattern in October that is just so cute. I started right around Christmas and have decided to crochet it something like this one with the sheep, stars, and moon appliqued on the top. About half of the blue night sky is finished (not terribly interesting yet, thus no photo).

I also came upon this cute granny square turtle that he might like. Have the shell finished so far and not quite enough yarn for the head and legs. Might use some of my handspun merino yarn for those with some of Eleven Hills handspun for the underbelly.

I’ll probably make a few more animals for him too. I was thinking the lion from Easy Crochet Critters would be good.

Happy New Year!

Posted on by
3

Merry 9th day of Christmas! In our home we don’t take down the Christmas decorations until the full 12 days are up, so Friday the tree comes down and we celebrate Epiphany with a hymn sing and tree burning at church in the evening.

My favorite Christmas card we received this year was this one:

I’m not a big on reflecting on the past, I like preparing for the future more, but I had a great year in 2011! Lots to be thankful for. I am looking forward to all that 2012 holds, particularly the arrival of our boy!

How do you feel about new year’s resolutions? I’m not a big resolution maker because I feel every day is a new opportunity to do better or try something new. This year, I will strive to be content with what God provides daily, will work on finishing some of my UFOs (especially before the boy arrives), and adding new download-ables to share with you.

Anticipation

Posted on by
Reply

We don’t know yet when we will travel to get our son in Taiwan but one of the best things about the wait is getting to write him letters! I have been looking forward to this part of the process for a long time, the anticipation phase.

We’re telling him about life in Texas, our pets, homeschooling, and anything we think he’d like to know about before he comes. We include pictures too. I hope the letters help him to imagine living with us and being part of our family.

The hardest part of writing him is that we have to write in Chinese! Good thing J knows how to translate from English, but we still have to look up many of the Chinese characters as neither of us know very many.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...