And now for something a little different...

This bit of productivity comes, not from my flourishing palms, but is none-the-less something to show off.

Our grandson, Tay, arrived Monday, September 28 at 11:57 p.m. (Sydney, Australia time), after DD and SIL endured 27 hours of labor ending with an emergency C-section. God's hands were surely protecting them.

3.26 kg, 48 cm

7 pounds 3 ounces, 18.5 inches

During DD's labor, I took my Macbook along with me wherever I went in the house, even sleeping with it next to me Sunday night to remain in touch with our SIL. Technology is wonderful, but I already know how difficult it is to be a half a world away. I'd have given anything to be at DD's side following his birth, let alone get to welcome that sweet bub in person

Pictures like these, and hopefully some Skype videocam calls once they get home from the hospital, will have to suffice until I can be there myself, October 23.

In the meantime, I hope you won't mind this Nana's flaunt.

Friday Flaunt - Quilting for a Mission

FMQ (free-motion machine quilting) accounts for most of this week's productivity. This quilt will be donated to a children's orphanage in Romania, through Stitchin' Mission.

In the December 1999 issue of Quilter's Newsletter magazine (That's why I save quilting magazines, as a resource.) I found several FMQ designs and thought this one would work well. It made me think of fire coming from a dragon's mouth, and suits the dragon focus fabric in this quilt.

I quilted with orange-colored, 50-weight Aurifil thread. The design shows up best on the quilt back.

At the fourth Stitchin' Mission lesson, this quilt will be used to demonstrate how to sew binding. When the quilt is finished, I'll post another picture.

Each Friday, bloggers who belong to Quilting Down Under chat group post a flaunt of their productivity. Visit Cinzia's blog to find links to all 19 Friday Flaunt-ers.

Esme and Her Quilt

A family member kindly shared this photo of Esme with the quilt I made her: "Esme's Flying Kites."

Precious.

The quilt label.

Stitchery Do-Dah

Something else to do... Help! I think I'm out of control, yet I want to start another project. I've recently begun embroidering by hand. But to justify it, hand-embroidery does make another great traveling project. So, why do I have the embroidery bug now? Blame it on the Aussies!

Just check out what's we can see in the blogosphere! It's jam-packed with clever quilters who come up with all sorts of ways to change-up quiltmaking. Have you seen what can be done with selvages!?

In Aus, Oz, the land Down Under, AKA Australia, it appears that, increasingly, hand embroidered pieces are becoming quilts. Just check out Gail Pan Designs or Cinderberry Stitches or the Janelle Wind Collection among others. Seeing this stuff... well, it's starting to grow on me. Oh dear, before you know it I'll have a boat load (well, a bin full, at least) of embroidery patterns.

Embroidering along with me, Miss Kim, a great friend and our favorite dog-sitter, is also making Crabapple Hill Design's "Snowmen from A to Zzzz." She already has several blocks to show for herself.

Since I'm unsure whether I'll ever embroider all of them, I'm working on them in order of my favorites.

An Aunt Martha' hot iron transfer of "Noah's Ark" embroidery arrived in the mail a few days ago. Just declare me a hopeless case. Sure, I can stick to just one or two projects, instead of ten, but how much fun would that be?

I had to sneak in this picture of Hogan who continually gives us reasons to chuckle. We could never have gotten him to actually pose like this!

What I Did This Weekend

This weekend, DH and I drove to Cedar Falls, Iowa, about two hours away to attend a retirement party for a friend who worked at John Deere Waterloo Works for 33 years. The next day we cheered the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) Panther football team to their 30-0 shut-out win against St. Francis (Pennsylvania). In the 1AA division, the Panthers are ranked #3 in the nation.

UNI is DH's alma mater. From 1972-74 we lived in married student housing while he went to school and I worked full time. To be completely honest, I probably wouldn't follow this team if it wasn't for the fact that they play all their home games in the UNI-dome.
In the dome, the temperature is a constant and comfortable 72 degrees (22 C), even when Iowa's nastiest howling winds and frigid temperatures - as low as -10 (-23 C) - cause us to make a mind-numbing run from the parking lot to the dome.

Panther fans wear purple and gold. And the marching band is pretty good, once you get past trying to sort out all the sounds reverberating from the top of the dome.

This year the UNI cheerleaders have taken to doing flips when the score reaches a certain number. I haven't quite figured out when it is they make the switch from push-ups to flips, but it's pretty impressive. Watch this video.

The rest of us are just happy to take it easy and enjoy tailgating with great friends.

Go Panthers!

Friday Flaunt - Apron and Stockings

From the title of my post, you might think I'm making clothes for myself! Perhaps I am making clothes if you call a handyman apron clothing. I do expect the apron to prove so useful it will be something I regularly wear. I came across the "Retro Handyman's Apron" pattern on the Olfa website.

Being a bit barmy for palm trees, this print, purchased last year at Rainbow's End quilt shop in Dunedin, Florida, proved perfect for the apron pockets. The blue tone-on-tone fabric is another favorite: "Satinesque" by Patrick Lose. I'm pretty sure I thoroughly own it... in eight colorways! Rick-rack adds a nice touch. As I often do, you'll note I made the striped binding on the diagonal.

I sewed several sizes of pockets on the front, customizing them to suit the tools I want handy: rotary cutters, snips, tape measurer, 1" X 6" ruler, wash-out marker, and Chaco-liner. I'll probably poke a pencil in too.
If you make this pattern my suggestion would be to cut the pocket as a single piece, then fold it wrong sides together. The instructions have you cut two fabric pieces and in the next step sew them back together again making a top seam onto which you top-stitch rick-rack. (Huh?)

As for the stockings part of my post, it's another of the "Season of Grace" BOM by author Emilie Richards and quilter Pat Sloan. September's stocking is "redwork." Stitched words could be anything we choose, so my BOM-swap partner Mary and I agreed on "Peace on earth" (her words), and "Goodwill to all". Instead of redwork, our work is DMC #3799.

I've learned that when you're embroidering small words, the stem stitch doesn't work so well. Yes, I completely stem-stitched "Goodwill" and then unstitched it. Small words such as these are more legible in backstitch. There's always something new to learn, isn't there?

A post script for those of you who may be curious about my "Friday Flaunt." Friday Flaunt is the brainchild of Cinzia White, an Aussie who belongs to the Yahoo chat group, "Quilting Down Under," as I do. Cinzia suggested that QDU bloggers post a weekly flaunt of their quilting projects. Knowing that every Friday other quilters will be looking for one's weekly quilt-y productivity is great motivation!

Find links to all 19 Friday Flaunters here.