My good friend Susan's 2nd daughter Samantha get married recently (the 1st daughter Liz was  married a year ago) and of course another wedding quilt was created.  Sam's style is more subdued than her older sister's and she requested an all gray and white quilt.  This is the result.

All that pretty texture just danced across the top.

Susan again chose the Hubby Love panto but she wanted the quilting to show a bit so she requested Glide Medium Gray thread for the top.  So Fine 408 Silver was used on the back.

It's tough to tell from this picture but the backing is a white tone on tone print.

Given that this wedding was a mere 9 months after her sister's wedding, Susan had to work fast to get this done on time and she did a fabulous job.  I know that Sam and her new husband will cherish it for many years to come.

Susan is busy working on another quilt that will be ready to be quilted soon..... her oldest daughter Liz recently made her a grandma by giving birth to a baby boy.  I know that Susan is over the moon thrilled and I can't wait to see what she created for the precious little one.

When someone a quilter knows is diagnosed with a serious illness, that quilter gets to work immediately to make a quilt to comfort them over the coming days, weeks, months and hopefully years.  That's exactly what I did for my husband's friend, fellow firefighter and coworker Pete when we heard the news early this year of his cancer diagnoses.  This is:

Courage Under Fire

I'm embarrassed that I've neglected my blog for the past 6 months but between a insanely busy cookie season, family vacations and multiple Girl Scout troop activities, I've been really busy.  I've done a small amount of sewing, other thank Girl Scout badges and patches, so I'll be posting about those projects in the coming weeks. 

The most recent customer quilt completed was for Colleen.  She made this sweet, simple little quilt for her grandson's 2nd birthday which is coming up soon. 

January brought 2 more birthdays for girls in my troop.  Here are their mini totes.

 First up was a mini tote for a girl who's favorite colors are bright Orange and Purple.  I don't have much Orange fabric in my stash so I was happy to find this piece to fit the bill.  The handle fabric guided the choice of the Purple print for the front pocket.

 There's no doubt that this one is bright and colorful!

 I even extended the brightness to the lining with a rainbow print.  She loved it!

 The 2nd mini tote for January was a bit more subtle, for a girl who likes Blue and Green.

 A few fat quarters in the coordinating prints (I can't remember the name of the fabric line) and a green mini polka dot for the handle worked well together.

 I had one more fat quarter from the same line available that I used for the lining.

Both girls were thrilled with their gifts which made me happy.

There are 2 more troop birthdays in February so you'll be seeing those mini totes soon.

I haven't been very good lately about writing blog posts as the Girl Scout cookie season is underway but I'll try to catch up on what's been going on lately in my studio.

I'm continuing to make the mini totes for the girls in my troop as their birthday gifts.  These are the ones that were gifted for December birthdays.

Do you have tops that need to be quilted?  If so, I'm here to help.

This is the current state of my longarm frame.
I have way too many larger scrap pieces of batting that were just being stuffed into a bin and now I'm sorting and measuring it all so that I can piece it together as needed and get it used up.

Lesson learned!  From now on I will mark which brand/type and the size it is immediately to avoid this mess in the future.

There hasn't been much sewing going on at all over the past month due to the usual December craziness plus a lot of extra stuff. Thankfully life has calmed down with the kids back in school and the regular routine has returned. Added into the mix of holiday bedlam was the monumental task of  helping my boss pack up and clean out his office space. You see....after  45+ years he closed the business to retire and we had to vacate the space at the end of the year. It was a ton of long intense days but it's all done.


I have a bunch of badges and patches to sew onto a few Girl Scout vests and I'm behind in making the mini totes for troop member's birthdays.  These are the fabrics in line for the next 3.

Plus my house still needs to be de-Christmased which hopefully will get completed over this coming weekend. Hauling all those boxes up and down the stairs isn't a thrill but it has to get done.

So......
 A lot of people, including my hubby, have been asking what's next for me? I've got some things in the works that I'm keeping my fingers crossed will work out as I hope.  I've been researching and working out details and will be making it all official very soon.

Until then, I hope your 2019 has started off well and I hope that this coming year brings lots of sewing and happiness to your life.