Where Does the Time Go?

What a year indeed!!  I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I posted her! I am still here.  Still sewing!  Still quilting!  Still a wife, Mom and Grammy!  Our family grew by one last early August!  Sweet Elle Angeline was born to our younger son, Anthony and his wife Leah!

She is simply delightful in every way!  And this family sure did need some more estrogen!!  She does resemble her older brother Neal, but has smaller features, light blue eyes, where Neal’s are brown, and lighter hair and skin tone, as Neal has olive skin!

Although spelled. Elle, we call her Ellie!  And she has a determined spirit and a curious nature!!  Neal is quite the older brother and is generous with sharing and teaching her new skills.  They adore each other in every way, which is so nice to see!!

                                           

Anthony, Leah, Neal and Ellie came to stay with us in March, as the kids’ daycare closed down and both Anthony and Leah had to work from home like the rest of the country, so I was able to help watch the kiddos while they, and my husband, worked here in the house. 

 They stayed with us for 10 weeks, then moved on to stay with Leah’s parents in western Pennsylvania, until they finally got back to their home in Philly.  The kid’s daycare reopened and so far, so good.  It was an adjustment for us all, but oh so lovely to get to spend such quality time with them all!!   Neal and I read LOTS of books and he had fun mastering our Alexa devices! LOL!! Ellie was on the cusp of crawling and beginning to pull up on stuff!  



Meanwhile, our older son, AJ and his wife Meredith are expecting their first child- a boy!!  Her due date is August 11th, which is right around the corner.  We’ve all been social distancing and self quarantining , so we’ve not been around them to see the baby belly grow!  That are both, also, working from home since March.  

                  

I had a pile of small utility quilts, each made from a singe charm pack, ready to bind, when the kids moved in.  So they waited patiently in a pile, until the kids had moved on.  They are all bound and given to Meredith and AJ for the new baby!  

                    



                    



                   

                   

                   

I also made them a larger quilt, with a requested lion theme, in blues and greys, that they can hang on the wall in the new nursery.

                         

I also made them a matching lion pillow for the rocker, and gave all these quilts to them with a really big patchwork tote bag that matches one of the small utility quilts.

                   



So, we all have babies on our minds these days!! Just waiting for the call that labor has started.  We aren’t allowed to go to the hospital to see them there, but hope to see them all when they get back home.


So, that’s enough for now.  Hope you all have stayed safe and healthy in this weird new reality.  What has kept you sane these days?  Are you sewing up a storm? Reading? Reorganizing stuff?  Finding new ways to get some exercise?  Trying new recipes?  If you and your better half are spending so much more time together with working from home, like my hubby and I are, how’s it going?
It’s certainly a better commute, right?  Ya gotta laugh, right?

Take care and stay healthy and safe! More to come!

                         God Bless!!  Polly

Catching Up!

I've been keeping busy since I last posted a few months ago.  I would definitely post more often if I could do so on my iphone or ipad... the downloading of photos taken on my iphone from the cloud to my laptop is a royal pain. Anyway, my younger son and his wife are expecting their second child, our second grandchild the first week of August.  And this is the first girl baby in my family in years- almost generations!!  I am BEYOND excited for our family of males to get a little injection of ESTROGEN!!  So, I've been making some little charm pack utility baby quilts for her!!

I take a charm pack with 42 five inch squares and arrange them in a 6 by 7 layout.

Sometimes, I add a bit of fusible machine applique in one of the corners for a bit of whimsy!

Although I don't think my daughter-in-law is big on pink, I've been waiting FOREVER to sew quilts for a girl!!  

So pink and purple is happening!! 

My son and his wife found lots of uses for these smaller baby quilts, so I hope these will get used allot, too!!

So you can see they are not ALL pink!!  LOL!!

Grandson Neal is excited about getting a new baby sister!!

He is growing up so fast!!

 He is into trucks and baseball!  And we are into HIM!!  

Sooooo, what are you into these days?

February Already!!

As I write this, my hubby and I are watching the original Ben Hur movie from 1959.  One of my favorite Bible type movies.  Do you like to watch the old epic movies?
My husband and I had just gotten over a bout of bronchitis and sinus infections when he brought home new germs from his office!  Ugh!  Now we are both coughing and sneezing again!!  Yuck!

I have a few projects I can show you and many which are gifts, that I can't yet!!  I made up a very old fabric panel into a little Christmas tree quilt that my grandson Neal can decorate and undecorate and redecorate. 

We put it up on the end of a lower kitchen cabinet with command strip hooks.  I think he enjoyed playing with it over the Christmas holidays. I had the panel a long time!!

My dear bee friend Linda gave us all cute bee notebook cover kits for Christmas.

I love making little things like this up, in between bigger quilts.  Sometimes, it's so nice how quickly some things can be finished up!!

I bought this kit from Laundry Basket Quilts over a year ago.  I love to put out blue and white quilts in January with my snowman decor.  When I put away my red and green Christmas decor, I am ready for something different, for sure.

I especially love house quilts and find several of mine are in the wintery blue colors that I put out in the winter.  

I put out my snowmen and winter blues in January and keep it out until spring in late March/early April.

I was sooo glad to get this kit on sale, as the pre-fused laser cut applique kits needed for the quilt are quite pricey, and you need three!!

But I am very happy how it turned out!  I cut out and made a few houses each day, so it was a fun project for a little over a week!!

I also took a cool class offered by our local guild chapter on how to use rulers while quilting on a domestic sit down machine.  It was eye opening!!  

I can see possibly using this technique on a wall quilt or table runner, but not on a larger project.  It was very time consuming and tedious, although I'm sure with more use, one would get faster...

Our grandson, Neal, is growing like a weed and talking more every day!!  So cute and smart and curious!!

So, what are you up to these days?  Are you sewing on something wonderful??  Do tell!!