Monday, September 16, 2019

The College Quilt

My "baby boy" is a high school senior. Can someone explain to me how that happened? I'm an emotional disaster. LOL. Trying to keep my head above water which I am failing miserably at these days....the days are jam packed with kids, work, sports, remembering to do all the things, etc. You know the deal. And in the middle of all of it my oldest is preparing to apply to college. It's mind boggling to me.

When I was first married, I took a quilting class in Doylestown, PA. I learned the basics and made a small lap size sampler quilt. My kids all love it. It barely fits over them, but they fight over it. It's 20 years old and still a well loved quilt. One night over the summer, my oldest asked if I could make him a quilt like that to take to college with him. Ummmm yes. Yes I can do that. I have not quilted in many, many years. I think my last quilt was for my sister's wedding and that was over 10 years ago. I was excited to get back to quilting! I found this pattern on Then Came June's website. I fell in love with the pattern when I saw it on instagram. There was a size option for twin size so that was the one I decided to make.

My son went with me to the fabric store and helped pick out colors. He likes burgundy and grays, so that's the way we went. He picked out a few novelty fabrics and we make them work. So....I got to cutting and piecing over the past two months. Little by little it was coming together.

Yesterday I sat at my machine and pieced all of the little square together and finished up the top. I love it. Dalton loves it. So win, win!

Now I need to get the batting, backing fabric, baste it and start the long process of hand quilting (which is my favorite part of the process). I don't really enjoy sitting at a sewing machine. I am much happier sitting on the couch using my hands as the tools and not relying on a machine to do the work. But if I hand pieced this one it wouldn't have been done in time for college graduation!!

So here it is so far....my boy's college quilt. Now someone get me tissues. It's going to be a long year.

One of the big squares




Final top is complete!



Thursday, September 12, 2019

The Wishing Tree

A few weeks ago I took my littlest and two of my nephews for a long bike ride. 
Commonly known around here as "the bike path", we made our way from my house down to Manasquan and back. One of the stops along the way is something called The Wishing Tree. I don't know who started it but it's a beautiful thing to see. Located at the parking lot on Bailey's Corner Road, you'll see a few large evergreen trees with white tags hanging. Below the sign explaining that it is a place to make a wish, is a container with tags, string and markers.

The boys and I took some time to read the wishes of others. Some were cute and funny, some brought tears to my eyes. We all filled one out for ourselves and hung them on the tree with the others. Here are some pictures of the day....

















Chase wished that everyone stays healthy (and to win a million dollars). Of course...


Tuesday, September 10, 2019

NJ Sheep & Wool Festival 2019



























We had a great morning at the NJ Sheep & Wool Festival. We saw friends, found some great yarn and goodies. My nephew Shea came home with an adorable dwarf lionhead bunny. So cute!!! I found more yarn to finish my Leaves of Grass blanket. YAY!!! and finished the day with some outside knitting, wine, food and football.

Cheers to fall and festivals!

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Festival Season is Upon Us!!!

Hello!!!!!! I know...it's been forever since I have posted here. Blame it on instagram. It's so easy to quickly share what I'm up to over there. And we also talk so much about what we're working on through our YouTube channel that I have neglected my poor little blog.

But I have a few minutes today so I thought I would do a post.

Festival Season is upon us!!! AKA, my favorite time of year! This weekend is the kick-off with NJ Sheep & Fiber Festival.

It's our very own NJ fiber festival. It started out small and is now growing year by year. We love it. My little guy loves it too. Only an hour drive from our house and we feel far away. I'm looking forward to visiting some friends and shopping some favorite vendors. I always keep my eye out for some new things too. This festival has something for everyone.

Of course I like to have a few project ideas in mind when going to a festival. So here are some projects I have been eyeing up lately.

















So there's a few ideas!

We'll be there sometime on Sunday, so if you see us come say hello!

Cheers!