Swap Quilt finished . . .

It is less than a month since I posted to my blog!  I am trying to keep in touch.

I have a picture of my Swap quilt to share.  It is all finished except for the label!

The Front and

the Back!

I hand quilted it in the ditch.  The back is pieced to add a little interest, I love the way it looks.  I stitched heart into the setting triangles at the corners and around the edge.  Originally I was going to use a stencil of a bunch of flowers and a bow, but that was hard to do and the hearts are cute.  I forget how big it is, I will measure it and let you know.  DH is napping right now so I don't want to make any noise and disturb him.   I am very pleased with the way it turned out.  It will have a place of honor on the back of my couch!  This was so much fun, swapping the blocks, we should have another swap of some kind.  Anyone have any suggestions?

We have had a busy week.  One day was a colonoscopy, the next was a dental cleaning and yesterday we were at a funeral.  DH was a pall bearer so we were busy from about 9:30 am until 4:30 pm with the visitation, rosary, Mass, honors at the cemetery and the reception at the widow's home.  It was a long day for us, I can't even imagine how hard it was for her and the family.  DH's former Sargent from the police dept. passed away, he was a great guy and had lots of friends.  He was a Marine, a member of the PD for 20+ years, after he retired he also worked for the school PD for several years and retired completely about five years ago for health reasons.  The PD provided an escort from the funeral home to the church, then a full PD escort from the church to the cemetery.  That was so impressive, they closed the entire route for the procession, including part of it on the interstate.  It was a wonderful tribute to Bob.  At the cemetery the PD did a special tribute, then the Marine Corp. color guard folded the flag and presented it to his wife.  It was all very moving.  Both DH and I are still tired from the long day.

When I showed this quilt in the last post, I forgot to show the back!

 

Since it is a doll quilt, I thought the fabric with the children on it would be perfect!  This is part of the huge amount of fabric my friend gave me when she moved.  So far this has backed two small quilts and a blue colorway was used on two more small quilts.  I am still finishing those but will show them as soon as I get them done and photographed. 

And, here are the clothes that I made for two of my grands.

Two dresses for DH's grand daughter.  These turned out so cute, I can't wait to get pictures of her in them.  The lace on the plaid dress is from another friend.  When his mother passed away right after Christmas, he had me come over and go through her sewing room.  There were a lot of things I couldn't use, she was a ballroom dancer and made her own beautiful gowns.  I did get some bits of old lace, needles, buttons and beads, some thread holders and other bits and bobs.  This piece of lace seemed to fit with the casual plaid in the dress. 

Here is the shirt and shorts I made for DH's grandson.  It doesn't show, but I made the pockets in the shorts from the plaid fabric to match the shirt.  I also stitched a small patch of the plaid onto the waist in the back so he could tell the front from the back.  He will be five at the end of the summer.   I am waiting to hear how everything fits, then I can make some more.  It has been many, many years since I sewed such small clothes!

My garden is growing really well, there are little tomatoes and peppers forming on the plants, the cucumber is blooming and everything else is doing well.  The weather is hot and dry, so I have been keeping a close watch on watering the plants.  We have been wanting to do a short camping/fishing trip but the wildfires in NM are near the areas we enjoy going to so, no camping yet.  It is just not worth breathing in all the smoke just to catch a few fish!  We haven't been on any good motorcycle rides yet this year, either.  It has been too dry, hot, windy or smokey!  We will just sit tight and wait it out.

Guess I'll go sew!   Hope you are, too.