Little bitty baby quilt

Rainbow in the clouds quilt

I haven't been to a baby shower for ages!
Well, now that my eldest has entered her mid-20s, the baby showers are back in the picture.
This is a little stroller/carriage sized quilt for a little girl who is due to arrive in early February.
This is small size was perfect for finishing with little details like the hand appliqued clouds and rain drops, the swirly curly cues in the clouds and the outline quilting around the raindrops.
Doing the rainbow sections was a fun trip through my stash. And the sky blue was discovered on a trip to the Keswick ON Fabricland with Sandra. It was perfect and $3 per meter so I got enough for backing as well.
I was really pleased with the way it turned out, and the mamma to be liked it very much.
The idea for the quilt came from the book All Sewn Up by Chloe Owens.
I bought the book for the projects, not the fabrics used. There is an extensive use of "vintage" sheets. Or as I call them, sheets (the ones that I used to sleep under before I myself became vintage.)

Now, maybe I am just a cranky old broad with no sense of style, but every time I see vintage sheets in a project, I am reminded of hanging out four sets of bedding every Saturday morning on our family's clothesline. This had to be done PERFECTLY, with no wrinkles -- and to my mother's satisfaction, using three pegs per sheet -- two pegs either end and one in the middle. She was quite specific about it. I have no idea why. I never did. Frankly, I didn't care. This task was virtually impossible for me to do correctly -- and I wanted to be doing ANYTHING else on a fine, fair Saturday. Every time I see a sheet from the 1970s, it reminds me of the task.

Nope, I much prefer to use the beautiful cottons currently available.

I also wanted to share a photo of a Tilda sewing kit I made for Leanne in Australia. She has also blogged about our swap, and has some lovely images about Spring, which is nice to see in the midst of our impending winter.

This week in vintage shopping, I dropped a donation off at the thrift store.

Well, I was there, wasn't I? Naturally, I had a tour around.
I found some bottle brush Christmas trees (dearly love them) and more old buttons -- love, love, love  old buttons! Once I have sorted them, I will post a shot of the booty.

Swapping the love!

Stitching envelope by Leanne

The great thing about stitching, creating and writing about it all is "meeting" up with like-minded folks from all over the world.

Teacup dolly 1

I am very lucky to have the opportunity to chat almost every day with a lot of really lovely people, most of whom I have never actually met, but I am getting to know through our shared love of creating.
Recently, Leanne of Lizzie the Quilter fame, wrote asking if I would like to do a swap focused on our shared love of Tilda by Tone Finnanger.
We mulled over what we could swap, based on the fact that postal rates in Canada and Australia are both insane and -- dare I say -- usurious. We settled on something that was fairly flat, and from any of our favourite Tilda books.

Teacup dolly 2

I settled on the retro-inspired sewing kit from the recent Tilda's Spring Ideas book. Fortunately, it was not only flat, but also lightweight.Leanne sent me a lovely sewing envelope bag which is made from Tilda fabric inside and out. It is so nice to have this lovely bag to stash my stitching projects when I am on the go.
Thank you so much, Leanne! I will think of you doing your stitching on the other end of the world, while I am doing mine here, all because of the pretty envelope bag you made just for me.
In other news, the snow has started to sprinkle down from the heavens here. That can mean only one thing: time for the menfolk to make the ice rink frame
It was ridiculously warm on Sunday, so the boys were out framing the ice palace pad in preparation for the arrival of the giant plastic liner. After that, it's the start of the flooding and the thrill of the freeze.
As for me, I am staying inside, near the sewing machine, to make some little teacup dollies for Christmas gifts. They are but the first in long list of makes. How does Santa do it?

Framing the rink, 2012

Oh yeah, I gotta get me some elves....
Have a wonderful day everyone, and remember to share the love that comes from creating.