Cold Weather = Lots of Sewing & Stitching; February Update

 I made a whole quilt since the January sewing update! Well, I did show this photo in January, which is as far as I had gotten:

the first two blocks

Those are the first two of 21 paper pieced crossed canoes blocks that I had planned for a baby quilt that goes to the daughter of one of DH's cousins.  This young lady is extra special to DH & my's family.  She is just a few months older than DD2, but has always been very close to DD1 (three years her senior).  She was basically raised by her grandpa (the brother of DH's Dad, he had stepped in as surrogate Dad to DH when DH was 24 and lost his father).  Last Spring, her grandpa died, which was a huge blow.  That summer, she found herself expecting her first child and basically estranged from her own mother (due to her mom's life choices; an issue the entire 25 years of this young lady's life that escalated again after grandpa's death).  

 

Long story, but it's how I decided that I needed to make this particular baby quilt.  I don't make quilts for just anyone.

Crossed canoes is very symbolic, as the (late) grandpa had been a huge canoeing enthusiast and had been a significant partner in a white water canoe livery down in Arkansas where he (and his granddaughter--the expectant mom) lived.  He had been a key part of DH and my family being so much into canoeing and kayaking, and all my kids had gone on float trips with him as young as age three back when he used to come up to Michigan in the summers.  So this quilt, was a nod to our love for him, as well as a special gift for his granddaughter and her baby: his first great-grandson!

I chose blue and green batiks for their 'watery' feel to make the canoe blocks out of.  

six more blocks

I was a little afraid it would all be a choatic looking mish-mash, but they actually came out well.  Especially how I set them with solid blocks; when I had made all 21 canoe blocks, I sewed them into rows alternating a solid block of sand-colored blender fabric with each canoe block.  The blocks finished at 7" each, so I adjusted my typical baby quilt of 9 rows of 7 blocks each (when using 6" blocks) into a quilt of 7 rows of 6 blocks each for the 7" blocks.  Once all the rows were sewn into the top, I added a 1" border of a light colored fabric that looks like small pebbles (again the water/river/canoe theme) and a 3.5" border of a swirled green fabric.

 Then I had to remove all the papers from piecing.  That is my least favorite part of paper piecing, but the end result is so worth the hassle.

removing the papers; tedious but kind of like scratching off 

the gray blobs on a scratch-off ticket to reveal what you won

I did a matching binding with the green border fabric.

picture day was kind of windy

For the quilting, I used green thread on top, and brown thread in my bobbin, and stitched in the ditch around each block, then outlined each canoe.  The stitching around the squares pretty much blends in with the backing fabric (which looks like the type of fabric the grandpa's shirts used to be), but the quilting around the canoes is fairly visible 

the back

Did I mention that the baby was born a little early, in December rather than January, and was given his great-grandpa's name as a middle name?  It sounds like rather than being called by his given first name though, that his parents have settle into calling him Little middle (great-grandpa's) name.  May he grow to be as big hearted, responsible, and outdoors loving as his great-grandpa was.  

When I wasn't sewing on the crossed canoes baby quilt, I stitched quite a bit on a cute wintery fox (pattern purchased here) counted cross stitch.  I love it; just the seasonal thing to work on right now.  The design is approximately 6" x 8", so a nice size for a project that won't take months to stitch.

Notice the little fox shaped needle minder?  That's new too (purchased here).  I'd never used one before and I'm definitely loving how easy it is to secure my needle--without worrying about distorting the fabric-- when not in use.  I've even had three needles on it at once when doing sections with lots of color changes and it holds them without slipping, tangling, or--horrors--falling off and getting lost in the couch cushions.  I'm for sure a fan of a needle minder.