This baby quilt is for my niece's soon to arrive baby boy.  Months ago my sister-in-law Felicia asked me to make a baby quilt for her expected first grandchild and after hunting around in my stash, she fell in love with the Colorfully Creative line from Riley Blake. 

She gave me free reign to use whatever design I wanted so I ultimately decided to make a modified Rail Fence quilt.  Since we already knew the gender I didn't use the Pink prints. The only problem was that once the blocks were made and laid out, I didn't like them all blending together.  Luckily I had some leftover solids from my Friends Together Forever and Our Own Art quilts that worked perfectly to give this quilt design some added pizazz.

For the quilting I again chose the Happy Times panto as it had the right scale and feel for this quilt.  I used a pale Yellow Glide for the top and a matching pale Yellow So Fine in the bobbin.

While chatting with Felicia about this quilt I learned that it's been a family tradition to sing "You Are My Sunshine" to the babies so I freehand added in the first line of the song between the quilting.

I didn't tell my sister-in-law or my niece that I was doing this.  When they folded it I told them they had to find the special message I added. They were beyond thrilled with the surprise.

For the backing I shopped my stash again and used layer cake squares of the same fabric line.  The binding is scrappy pieces of leftover jelly roll bits alternating with solid bits.

Baby Rory is due any day now and his quilt is all ready to surround him with snuggly goodness.

The binding was finished during the car ride to and from our annual China travel group reunion and I was able to get my quilt holding helpers to cooperate for a few minutes so that I could snap the pictures before the quilt was gifted.

Creating special quilts that show our love for each other is what it is all about and I can't wait to hold the new little one who will undoubtedly bring lots of joy and laughter to his parents and grandparents alike.

I became what us leaders affectionately call ourselves....a Green Blood.  Little did I know when I started my troop 3 years ago that it would stuck up so much of my sewing and designing time.  

Of course part of being a Girl Scout is participating in the annual cookie sale.  My troop was clamoring to do this from the very first troop meeting and that first year they exceeded any possible expectations I had. As kindergartners we were the top selling troop in our community (service unit) of 70 troops and we've maintained that title for years 2 and 3. This was our first troop cookie order.

Girl Scouts has afforded me some unusual sewing opportunities.  Ror our cookie booths we couldn't use just any old tablecloth!  I had to create a custom one of our own.  This is my creation that is not only a tablecloth that works for both a 6 foot and an 8 foot table but it also morphs into a parade banner with a few simple changes.

Along with running my own troop, just a few months later our local council asked me to take over the volunteer job of Troop Organizer for our service unit.  What this means is that I kept the list of girls wanting to join a troop, coordinated new troops being formed and kept track of all 70 troop rosters.  Our service unit has almost 700 girls and over 300 adults and we typically add 125 new girls and 10 new troops each year.  In addition for the past 2 years I ended up taking over the Leader Recruiter duties which mean that I guided new leaders through the formal steps and mentored them as they got their troops up and running.

What all of this has meant, in regards to my quilting life and my sewing time, is that there hasn't been nearly as much of it.  I haven't been happy about that at all and even unhappier when I had to turn away quilting customers last fall because I couldn't be sure I would be able to complete their quilting in time for Christmas.

I knew I had to do something to get my quilting back on track and moving forward.

One thing that happened is that I've purchased a bigger and better longarm machine and frame.  A full introduction post will come out soon but here is a sneak peak. I've known for a little while that I needed to upgrade and the right machine finally came along so now she's all mine. 

My Penelope is still looking for her new owner but to be fair I haven't had a lot of time to get the word out that she's available.

Just for perspective....this was first cupboard delivery of 620 cases last March (7,440 boxes).  All told just under 15,000 boxes came and went out of my garage.