Quilts, Superheros and a Tip

Well, we do occasionally stay home.  And when I get in the mood I do manage to indulge in a little quilting time. It seems like it takes me longer than it should to get a little project done.  This little lap quilt was to be part of my DIL"s birthday present.  Her birthday was in May!  Since she lives in a house with three boys, I thought she deserved a little something "girlie"!  This little quilt kit had been languishing in my stash closet for several months.  It's made from Kate Spain's Verna line that came out quite some time ago.  The little ruffles and raw edge flowers were a fun variation.

There was enough fabric in the kit to make a little baby quilt for the "new kid" in the neighborhood!  Sorry, this photo is a kind of dull.  I used this one to practice some free motion quilting, something that still frustrates me. I guess it turned out okay but I still need a lot of practice! 

Mama got the ruffles, but little J wanted to be a Superhero!  So with a little blog browsing I came up with a tutorial for this reversible Batman/Superman cape.  It was a BIG hit!  But I think the true Superman in this family is the Daddy who does dishes!  

So being frustrated with the whole machine quilting thing,  I signed up for a machine quilting class over at the Smocking Shop.  It was a great class, but I came home realizing the only thing that I really need is to practice, practice, practice!  And maybe take another class or two!  I'm doing much better with the straight line quilting and picked up some new tips to help with that.  Probably the best tip was this, the Frixion highlighter by Pilot.

You must try this for marking lines! Use it instead of chalk or the disappearing marking pens that are sold for quilt marking.  It doesn't gradually disappear like those purple pens do. It disappears with heat and you simply iron it away when you are done!  It works great for embroidery too.  (Of course you want to test it on your fabric first, just in case.) I found mine at Staples.

Aren't you all lucky!  This makes two posts in one week and now that I've provided my one sewing/quilting tip for the blogging world, I'll call it a night!  Thanks for stopping by!

This Makes Me Smile!

This photo makes me so happy!  Finally, all three little cousins together and they had such a good time! We spent an afternoon at Grants Farm in St. Louis where the boys had fun looking at all the animals and the famous Clydesdale horses.  I'm not sure how we got so lucky to get them all seated and posing for this photo but it makes this Grammie so happy to have this keepsake of a fun weekend.  The oldest on the left just turned three, his "little" brother in the middle is 16 months old and the Indiana cousin on the right turned two in July.

It was a beautiful day with a gorgeous blue sky and the young Clydesdale provided a perfect photo op for us!

 I don't know how many goats were in the petting zoo but they certainly were all well fed!   J and D were not so sure about the friendly little creatures as they begged for more milk but eventually complied. 

 No real reason, but I just thought you all might enjoy this photo my husband took of one of the friendly llamas! And I don't really have anything clever to add.  Maybe someone else can think of a good caption for the llama photo?  

We enjoyed our visit to Grant's Farm.  We've talked about going before but I'm glad we waited until we had three terrific little grandsons to enjoy it with us! Thanks for letting me do a little Grammie bragging with you.

Escape to the Mountains!

We escaped to the mountains for a few days last week, loaded up the Harley in the trailer, hitched it to the RV and headed for the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It was cooler than here at home and most everywhere else we could think of to spend a few days.  We stayed at the Honey Bear Campground near Boone, NC and over the weekend it was a busy place with lots of campers, kids and dogs. But we did have a nice shaded campsite.

As usual, the mountain scenery doesn't disappoint.  Lately I've been fascinated by barn quilts and there were several along the roads.  It's a challenge to get good photos though, especially when buzzing by on a motorcycle!

One day we took the drive up to Grandfather Mountain.   

The mile high swinging bridge is the highlight near the top of the mountain.  We could have hiked the remaining  trail to the summit, but after noting that it was recommended for experienced hikers, changed our minds!  

It was  fun to venture away from the Blue Ridge Parkway and explore some of the adjacent areas of Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, Valle Crucis.  The little community of Beech Mountain is the highest town in the Eastern US.  I had to snap a photo of their snow depth pole as a reminder that these hot days of summer will surely come to an end soon!