Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Blooming Tuesday...


Things have been quiet around here lately. Last week my mother-in-law passed away, so we've been doing a lot of reflecting on the sweet memories we have of this lovely lady. A number of years ago I wrote a post about her. {You can find it here.} She was wonderful in so many ways.


Right around the same time we heard of her passing, these hyacinth bulbs we have in our home started flowering. This isn't the first time in my life there has been an association between death and life. One of our sons was born the day after my husband's grandmother passed. On the day I came home from the hospital after giving birth to a stillborn baby, I opened the car door and the smell of freshly mowed grass wafted over me. The comforting thought that came to me in this time of grief was, "Life goes on, and it will for you too." Years ago my father passed away the end of May, and I spent the next several weeks planting flowers and watching my garden come to life. Every Spring, when flowers are beginning to bloom and the earth is coming alive, the Savior's resurrection is celebrated.


These recollections of life being associated with death have real meaning to me. I've learned that along with death there is always life, and often something incredibly beautiful and unexpected happens to shore us up in our grief. Our flowering bulbs are evidence of this truth. I bought them right after Christmas and they happened to blossom at just the right time. How amazing {and comforting} is that?


I know it's a little thing, and some might call it coincidence, but I know better. A favorite quote of mine is by Neil A. Maxwell. He said, "...This word (coincidence) is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by 'coincidence' but ... by divine design."


By recognizing these incidences as tender mercies from a loving Heavenly Father, we can see His hand in our lives. I'm grateful.

Thursday, January 11, 2018

January...


January is always a relaxing month for me. Even if I have things to do they are done in a more leisurely way. After the busy, hectic pace of the holidays, I welcome this change. This month I want to go through our home, room by room, and do a little Spring Winter cleaning. I'm not one to hang onto things I'm not using, but this year I want to purge in a more deliberate way. The last few years I've helped others move and realized I don't want to hold onto unnecessary "stuff."  I want the items in our home to be meaningful and used on a regular basis. So... this month will be a low-key blogging month since I won't be doing anything of interest to anyone else. I do, however, have a few quilt tops I'm taking to the longarm quilter tomorrow. {Eeek!} Two of them are crazy quilts and one is a quilt for a baby for someone special. Here are a couple of pics...


Monday, January 08, 2018

Adult Children's Christmas Quilts -- Part 5...


Here's the last installment of quilts I made for Christmas for our children and their spouses. These two quilts were for my son Ian and his wife Andi. Andi requested pinks and grays for her quilt. I love the fabrics I bought for Andi. The damask, polka-dot, and swirls are beautiful. They are from Moda's line, "Lily and Will Revisted."



The fabric on the back is from the same line. Those bunnies... {so cute}



Ian chose blue and lime green for his colors. That was a challenge, but I found fabrics from a line designed for Windham called "Desk Job."  Ian spent a lot of time on his schooling and now sits behind a desk, so...


I loved the playfulness of these fabrics, because this kid of mine is nothing if he isn't playful.


That's the end of the show and tell for all the Christmas quilts I made for family members last year. I'm looking forward to getting back to other types of crafts and sewing something other than quilts. However, I'm kind of hooked on quilting now... {an intervention might be in order}.

Thursday, January 04, 2018

Adult Children's Christmas Quilts -- Part 4...


Here's one more look at a couple more Christmas quilts I made for our adult children. Meghann and Justin have a beautiful home with whites/creams, grays, and wood tones. It's soothing and relaxing and beautiful, so I wanted their quilts to be in neutral colors so that it would compliment the surroundings instead of standing out like a sore thumb.

Once again I chose a travel theme for our son Justin's quilt. He spent two years in Italy and has traveled extensively across the globe, so I built a quilt around this beautiful creamy airplane and stamp themed fabric...


I paired that fabric with three other neutral fabrics that were so beautiful together. I love how this one turned out, and it looks beautiful in their home.


Meghann actually chose a couple of her fabrics. I asked her for some suggestions and she came up with the gray leaf fabric and the adorable sweater fabric. I used the leaf on the front of the quilt and the sweater fabric on the back...


A leaf motif was used for the quilting on this quilt...




It seems like it's taken as much time to write posts about the quilts as it took to make them! Only two more quilts left to blog about. I can't wait to get my sewing machine out, but I promised myself when we came home from California that I wouldn't start a new project until I packed up all the Christmas decoration. Tomorrow the machine comes out!

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

Adult Children's Christmas Quilts -- Part 3...


Only two more posts and I'll be done highlighting all the quilts I made for our children and their spouses. These next two are for our son, Cameron, and his wife, Kisa. They live in Germany and from the photos we've seen this last month, no one does Christmas like Germany. My daughter-in-law is an incredible decorator, so I knew I wanted to do her quilt up right! When I saw the fabric for her quilt online, I knew immediately I'd found the right print. Here's what the top looked like before I took it to the longarm quilter...


Kisa loves pink and red, so this print was perfect. It's a Cotton and Steel fabric entitled "Wonderland." Love it. I paired it with a blue fabric for the border and back from the same line.




Our son, Cameron, has crossed the globe many times, so I thought an airplane theme would be good for him. The inspiration fabric was one I'd used before, but I paired it with different complimentary fabrics...



The next two quilts are Mia's and Joe's. Mia has always loved owls -- rightly so because she is as wise and bright as they come. I found this beautiful owl fabric and knew I was looking at her quilt...




Funny thing about her husband's quilt. The day I finished putting the top together on Joe's quilt I texted Mia with a photo. She wrote back saying that anchors are very symbolic in their relationship. I knew they'd had a nautical themed wedding, but I didn't put it together until she brought it up. I had chosen the nautical theme because they live in Florida! Sometimes, in spite of ourselves, things align in a perfect way as it did with Joe's quilt...




Have a nice day!

Monday, January 01, 2018

Adult Children's Christmas Quilts -- Part 2...


Here are four more quilts I made for our adult children. The first one is for our daughter Shannon. She asked for navy and coral colors, so I made a quilt with many different fabrics with those colors. The one plain fabric I love to put in quilts is white. In this particular quilt, it's really pretty...




Shannon's husband, Seth, is a football enthusiast. I found this fabric in Utah over the Summer and knew I had to get it for him. He sent me this photo on the Saturday after Christmas with this caption, "My comfortable view right now is so appropriate!" Considering how cold it was last week in his neck of the woods, I'm glad he was comfortably warm while watching his favorite past-time.


Here are a couple more photos of his quilt. Note that the quilting has a football theme...



Two more quilts were for our son Forrest and his fiance Derek. Derek loves bears, so I had to buy him a fabric that reflected that interest. I found this delightfully handsome bear fabric. I love the scarf around that stylish bear's neck...


Here's a couple of photos of Derek's quilt made up. He said he liked shades of gray. I don't know if you can tell, but the quilting is a bear's paw print...



I wanted our son Forrest's quilt to reflect a similar woodland theme, so I chose these fabrics...


I love the way his quilt came together. Note that the quilting on Forrest's quilt is different paw prints from woodland creatures...



More to come in a day or two...