I'm BACK!

I know, I know, I've been AWOL....life has just been busy and I guess somewhat uninspired to write. I've had great intentions, but you know where that leads to.

Let's see, I have recovered from that nasty wasp sting, and even got another one, but fortunately not nearly as bad. School/work has continued into the spring mess, particularly with budget cuts. I'm facing next year in the library without my para pro so we have been trying to reinvent our procedures so the kiddos can check in and sort their own books. Still trying to figure out how the 1,500 books will be shelved each week!

On the more creative side, I've made a few quilts and can now show the bags I made for my sisters for Christmas (yes,  I know, I could have put them up here months ago!)...

So, here goes...these pictures happen to be in reverse chronological order!

This first one is a quilt I made for my niece's school's auction. It is a disappearing 9 patch done with Robert Kaufman cherry fabric. It measures about 40 inches square and is intended to be a table topper.

This one is done with a variety of batiks and is a Suduko pattern, done for a dear friend of mine who was going through some tough times - migraines as a result of surgery! Fortunately she is doing better after lots of testing and a change in meds. I don't remember its exact size but is a wall hanging. I'd like to make another one for myself (I never make quilts for me!)

Next is a comfort quilt that my sisters and I worked on together when they were here for Christmas for a cousin of ours who has been going through surgery and chemo, etc for cancer in the mouth/tongue. He is a vet and his wife is very active in DAR so we though the patriotic fabric fitting. My sisters, while they have done sewing in the past, are now sewers now, much less quilters. However, they were great 'sous sewers'!  While I did the sewing they did the cutting, pinning and pressing! Very efficient!

OK, how we are getting to the Christmas presents for my sisters...both of these are designs from A Time to Stitch. This is a bag for my sister's iPad. This one was easy to make after the one for my other sister....below...

this one, on the other hand, was a real challenge because of the fabric! Never make something like this with directional fabric! I did persevere and managed to get things lined up. Both sisters were very pleased!

This cutie is my grand nephew all wrapped up in his Thomas the Train quilt. It is a Take-5 pattern and I had enough blocks that I was able to make two small pillows to go with the quilt.

And finally, this little darling is my grand niece (sister of above). She was born in October and this is the quilt I made for her that I designed using Electric Quilt 7. She is snuggled under it here at Christmas, nestled in her other grand auntie's arms.

So that catches me up until the last week. I'll post again shortly with my most current efforts...and I'll try to not be so long between posts! Thanks for reading - and for checking back after such a long, dry spell!

Barb