{Thanksgiving & a Quilt}

We're home from our {Thanksgiving} celebration in North Carolina. It was a wonderful two day gorge on the turkey and all the usual fixings, as well as some {lasagna}, garlic bread & salad on friday night. Having the {family} together for a holiday is wonderful and a little painful. It's so hard to leave everyone, knowing we won't see each other again for six months.

I did the big unveil of {Nebraska Farmhouse c.1953} on friday. Everyone seemed to like it. I did notice some layout errors but I learned a lesson from them. Oh yeah, the name....The {Strawberry Fields} fabrics remind me of a 1950's era farmhouse. I love the soft, vintage colors.  I can picture curtains hanging in the kitchen made from any of these fabrics.  Some of the fabric designs would make perfect bed sheets and others I can picture the farmer's wife using  to make aprons for herself and jumpers for her girls.

I'm really happy with this, my first full sized quilt. It finished up at 65x82, a very generous lap quilt. I'll be sure to use it this winter.

{Giveaway}

There's a great giveaway going on over at {Lily Pad Quilting}. Make sure to check it out. One of the goodies is the Accuquilt Go! Baby.

{Ouch}

Last night I dreamed about hedgehogs. Reason one...Steph just added one to her household. A little boy named Stitch. He really is cute, but I prefer an animal you can pet and not get stuck. Maybe I'll feel differently when I get to meet him.

This is Sonic, Steph's first hedgie, who passed on to

Hedgehog Heaven.

Reason two... I started hand sewing (ouch) the binding to the back of my {Nebraska Farmhouse c. 1953} quilt. That's the one made from the {Strawberry Fields} fabric line. I'll explain the name choice in another post. Anyway....this hand sewing thing looks better than I expected for a first-time attempt but my right index finger is sore! I mean really sore! I was hoping to have it all done over this past weekend but I had to take breaks. So....hand sewing the binding is carrying over to tonight. I'm hoping  to have it done and the quilt into the wash this evening. I can't wait to see it, and feel it, in all it's puckery goodness. Once it's washed and dried, on goes the quilt label and Wednesday it will make it's first road trip to NC so I can show Mom. Hopefully, I'll get some nice photos to post here. I'll have the tall son with me to help with holding the quilt.



{Strawberry Fields}

Last night I dreamed about strawberries....the plump, red, juicy ones. There's nothing better than those strawberries dipped in white chocolate. Today I received a package I've been waiting for impatiently. It's my first full sized {quilt} back from the quilter! I haven't really had a chance to examine it yet since I'm at work but I did take it out of the box. I'm in love. I used the fabrics from the collection {Strawberry Fields} by {Fig Tree & Co} for Moda. The colors are lovely and soft with a vintage feel. The quilting was done by Carol at The Quilt Studio in Nebraska. I'm so new at this that I never specified what color thread I wanted for the quilting. I figured it would just be done in white. Nope....Carol chose a soft green thread that matches the fabrics beautifully. I'm so happy with it!

Now begins a new adventure....binding. When I made my first traditional quilts that are baby sized, I was able to quilt them simply and bind them the quick & easy way by wrapping extra backing around to the front of the quilt and machine sewing it to the front. This will be the first attempt at making and binding a full sized quilt. I already know that both front and back will be machine stitched. The thought of hand sewing gives me the willies.

I'm not going to post any photos yet. I'm going to wait until the quilt is completely finished. Tonight's plan is to make 312" of 2 1/4" binding. I'll keep you updated.

{Little Green Fairies}

Last night I dreamed about little green fairies. One of my favorite places to buy pre-cut fabrics is having a great giveaway until Tuesday. Go check out {Green Fairy Quilts} and be sure to enter.

{The Boys of Fall}

Yesterday we drove to PA for the Lehigh-Holy Cross football game. It was family weekend at school so instead of taking a historical tour of Bethlehem we opted for the football game. We stopped at the staduim to pickup our tickets then drove to the other side if campus to pick up {Danny}. He's such a great kid.....he picked up some brown & white pom-poms for his Mom to cheer with.

We couldn't have asked for more perfect {football}weather. The skies were blue and the air was crisp. We had really good seats somewhere near the 50 yard line. The stadium was packed and the crowd was lovin' it. These kids play with so much heart.  Final score..... Lehigh 14- Holy Cross 7.  A great day for football.

{More to Swoon Over}

Last night I dreamed about butterflies. They are certainly one of God's most wonderful creatures. We don't see them often in Brooklyn, but we see them all the time during the summer in {Mattituck}. They always catch my attention and always make me smile.

The Swoon blocks are coming along. I've got four of them done so far. I really don't want to post any photos yet since I don't want to spoil the surprise. I'm using {Chrysalis} by Sanae for Moda.

I've had these fabrics since last June and was waiting for the right project to use them on. I'm getting more comfortable with the pattern and the blocks are coming together much quicker now. I'm hoping to finish another one this weekend. I may only have Sunday this weekend to work on it since we're heading to PA for the Lehigh vs. Holy Cross football game.  The weather will be perfect for football!