What I've been doing ...

My brother and sister-in-law were blessed with twin grandchildren in September 2012. No, they are not identical twins.  Actually they have quite different plumbing.  I decided I wanted to make a quilt for each of the twins.  I picked some gender neutral fabric and it quickly arrived at my home from fabricworm.com .  This is a Tim and Beck line available at the time.

 I added one print with a bee from a Winnie the Pooh line that I found at Hobby Lobby.  I just liked the yellow print.  The white sashing and backing are Kona Cotton - some variety of white. I hope the bright colors and the same fabrics being used in each quilt is a hit.  My brother told me that my niece does not like pink.  My nephew and niece's older daughter has never had much, if any, pink.
I own half a long arm and have never used it much.  It lives 60 miles from me and by the time I make the trip there...  So, I decided to hand quilt the baby quilts.  Yes, hand quilt. (My first thought was to make needle turn Sunbonnet Sue and Sam quilts - that's not happening for babies!)  So, I started and eventually got the quilting finished.  I showed the quilted, not bound, quilts at guild Show and Tell and had all intentions of getting them in the mail before the next guild meetings.  I've lost count of how many monthly guild meetings have come and gone since then.

I finally did bind each quilt.  You can see the stip in the picture above.  It resembles the lined paper I had when I learned penmanship.

Then I decided the twins' older sister who turned 3 this March needed to have a surprise in the box for her.  I decided to make her a little bag.  I had planned to embroider something on the front.  Then, one idea lead to another.  When I was cutting fabric to sandwich for a machine quilting class this past Friday, I cut the fabrics for sister Ilona's bag.  I sewed the bag together in approxiately 1 1/2 hours this morning AND I am not a morning person.

Ilona's "bow" bag

 

 

The bow started out as an "I."  In my great wisdom and the fabric face down, I decided which was the top, etc.  Once you put the outside pieces right sides together, you don't see them until the bag is almost complete.  So, when I turned the bag right side out and saw what looked like a dog bone, my heart sank.  My perfectionism was out of control.  Then I thought - this is for a 3 year old and meant to be well used.  So, I studied it and decided to put a button on the bow.  The bow is black and white gingham, so I found a red button and white button in my stash and EOS (end of story!)

 

Now, the FABRIC (that's what I always declare being in the box) is on its way from Oklahoma to Maryland.

 

Oh, yeah!  More pics follow - backs and labels.  Baby Elias' label has red and blue stitching around it - both my nephew's grandfathers (my dad and my SIL's dad served in WWII).  The label mentions that.  Also the meaning of Elias is included on the label.  Baby Elina's quilt has a scant few daisies embroidered on the label.  One of her names is Lynn, my SIL, her paternal grandmother.  One of my earliest memories of SIL Lynn is her love of daisies.  The meaning of Elina is also on her label.  Along with some sappy rambling about who made it, where, machine pieced, and hand quilted, and commeration.

 

That's about it.

The twins' quilts on my neighbor's fence

The fabrics are the same in each (often large rectangle/small square in opposite quilts).

Elias' label with red/blue running stitches

Elina's label with embroidered daisie

 

The quilts on my front fence (soupy yard)

A front and a back of quilts (and back of neighbor's house)

 

I definitely need to give some credit for the free patterns:



Michael Miller Fabrics' Citron-Gray Nursery: Patchwork Baby Quilt with Monogram

I hunted for the Citron gray fabrics and could not locate enough to make the quilts.  I also did not do an initial block as Mom and Dad were not sharing names or initals prior to the birth.  I could have put a "C" for their last name, but I decided against it.  (I have some Amy Butler prints in my stash for a queen size quilt from this pattern.  Yep, I plan to put a stripe of one of the fabrics down the back. I'm thinking of using aqua for my solid with it.)

To get the pattern for the mini tote (including the alphabet - it's all one PDF!):

http://schoolhousepatterns.wordpress.com/free-patterns/the-mini-tote/

 

I hope that I have properly credited each and every individual who has very graciously given freely of his/her talent and enabled me to make these quilts.