A New Member of the Club

...which club? The "Grandma Club"!

On Dec. 30, 2009 I became a grandmother for the first time! Jay William Barnes entered the world at 2:22 am, weighing in at 7 lbs 4 oz.

Below is the first picture I saw of Jay. It came over on my cell phone (via text) from my son-in-law. It was love at first sight! (check out that blonde hair!)

Jay was born a few weeks early. He had a little bit of a rough start and had to be under the bili lights in the NICU. I called them his "disco dancing" lights!

Daughter #1 and her Sweetheart, Jay's parents, live in Utah, near the Idaho border. As soon as we heard the great news that our grandbaby had arrived, we jumped into our car and drove as quickly as we could. 12 hours later...the picture below is my husband meeting his grandson for the first time. Notice Jay holding is grandpa's finger!

Here he is looking at his mom. "Are you my mother?"

Two new happy parents with their little baby, ready to leave the hospital.

I returned to Utah 3 weeks later to spend a week with the little family. Here they are with Jay. Look how much he's already grown!

He's now almost a month and half old! He weighs over 11 lbs! (yes, I'm one of those grandma's, who shows everyone pictures of the cutest baby ever! I show everyone...the people at the grocery store, the bank tellers, the ladies at the quilt shops...everyone!

And what kind of quilt did his grandma make for him? A fleece blanket to keep him warm up there in the snow. I chose a fleece with surfboards...to remind him of his grandma down here in sunny California!

Now back to quilting! Lots of little boy quilts to make for my grandson!

What Will Be in THIS Grandma's Kitchen?

As I did the machine quilting on this quilt called "Grandma's Kitchen" (from Bee In My Bonnet), I wondered what kind of kitchen THIS grandma would have. Yes folks, that's right! I'm going to be a grandma!!! I'm going to be the proud grandma of a little baby boy, mid-Jan. Daughter #1 and her Sweetheart are expecting their first! We are thrilled!

What kind of kitchen would THIS grandma have?

Well, it may not be too much like this darling quilt...too many quilts--too little time--to bake! Shopping? Baking? Ok, there will be shopping, but baking? Not too much here at THIS grandma's kitchen! Perhaps I will be a grandma that will say to her grandkids..."Let them eat cake!" (of course they would have strawberries on top!...after all, this grandma is from Orange County, CA!) Can you see what's embroidered below? "Give us this day, our daily bread." Well at THIS grandma's kitchen, we'll have daily bread, but it'll probably be made in the bread machine!

Bowls? Yes. This grandma's kitchen will have bowls. Mostly for decoration of course! Will there be a juice squeezer for lemonade? Probably not. But we'll have lemonade from a mix. It's not so bad. :) Will there be cookies? Absolutely! THIS grandma's cookie jar will probably filled with Oreos. A rolling pin? Yes...again for decoration!

An apron? Yes, because they are fun to make. Fun to wear too! There's our lemonade below.(from a mix of course!) A scotty dog? Probably not! THIS grandma has a purse dog!

Cherry pie? Yes, THIS grandma will go pick one up at Marie Callenders.

I just hope that no matter what, lots of grandkids will love to come to THIS grandma's kitchen. My first grandbaby will be in Utah, so to get to THIS grandma's kitchen, he'll have to travel a bit. This makes me a little sad, but thank goodness for videochats via Skype! I've got mine all ready to read my grandson bedtime stories at night! And of course THIS grandma lives near the "happiest place on earth!"---Disneyland, here we come!

Now it's time for THIS grandma to make some baby quilts...back to work, Vivian!

Sometimes I Remember, Sometimes I Don't

Sometimes I remember...

Last Tues. on the KTLA morning news here in southern California, they were talking about how young people today aren't familiar with terms and names from even 20 years ago. This reminded me of a story about Daughter #1 when she was about 16. So during the news broadcast I went to the KTLA website and emailed the following story to them. And before the broadcast ended, one of the newscasters, Sam Rubin, read my email!

"Your water-cooler buzz topic this morning reminded me of a time when our daughter was teen. A friend of ours had the first name John and middle name Wayne. Once he was trying to get our daughter to guess his name. He gave all kinds of hints like, 'I was named after a famous western actor, etc. etc.' She could never figure it out. Finally he told her, 'My name is John Wayne!' She looked at him completely serious and said, 'You were named after an airport???'

They all had a good laugh. I called Daughter #1 immediately and said, "how many people in your neighborhood can say they had a story about them read on a news station in LA?" I'm glad I remembered that story!

Sometimes I don't...

Every now and then my quilting customers ask me to... "quilt mine like my friend's." Well, to be honest with you, sometimes I don't remember how I quilted their friend's quilt! It's a good thing I take photos for reference. These are 2 Christmas quilts I quilted the same. I looked at my photos for reference.

Quilt #1

Quilt #2

Here's 2 Block-of the-Month sampler quilts that I quilted exactly the same. They are the same quilts, but different fabrics.

Quilt #1

Quilt #2

Now back to quilting, Vivian! (And back to blogging too! I have tons of stories and quilt pictures to share!)

Three Angels

My 3 angels in Balboa many years ago.

We had a very quiet Christmas this year. The second one in a row. Daughter #1 was in Utah with her Sweetheart and his family. Daughter #2 was visiting Oregon with her Sweetheart and his family. So for Christmas it was just me, my Sweetheart and our BabyBoy. Ooops! Of course the PurseDog was with us too. (Forgive me, PurseDog!)

A few weeks later, though, we received wonderful news! Daughter #1 was given a plane ticket from her uncle and she was able to spend a weekend with us! (Thanks, Bob!) Her hubby was so sweet to let her come and see us. You see, it's been a year since she's been back to her 'ol stomping grounds...Orange County. They both have busy full-time jobs, full-time school, and a home in Utah they're doing work on. So we were thrilled that she was able to come and be with us for a weekend!

What a nice weekend we had! The first thing she asked for, after her plane landed, was to go to In-N-Out!The second thing she asked for was to go to the Huntington Beach pier. She and her dad and brother ate at Ruby's on the pier.We had a nice time visiting and hanging out together. Her last day with us, our whole family was together. Daughter #2 and her Sweetheart were in Reno and returned just in time to spend a day with Daughter #1. Here are my three kids together again after about a year apart. They really are angels. I have been so blessed to have three great kids!

On our last night together we played games. Here is Daughter #1 entertaining us. She cracks us up!
Can you tell she is very shy?

As you can see behind her, I left all the Christmas decorations up for her.

We had a great time together. I sure miss her.

Here is Daughter #2 and her Sweetheart. Everyone was playing Scene-It: Seinfeld Edition.

One of Daughter #1's friends from high school came by to visit too.

Here's my BabyBoy having a good time.

"Hey, Mom, do you always have to take pictures?"

And speaking of angels....

You know I'm not going to do a blog entry without including quilt pictures too!

Check out this darling baby quilt I just finished. The lady decreased the size of the embroidered blocks. The embroidered designs are of angel-kids. Isn't it cute?

Here is the top border you can see.

And this is a side border. I had lots of fun quilting this.

This block reminds me Daughter #1:

This one reminds me of Daughter #2:

And of course this one reminds me of my BabyBoy:

Happy quilting, blogging friends!

200th Post Blog Giveaway!

The Purse Dog is happy to be home after 5 days in the prison....oops! she means the dog motel! She looks like a furry bear, but really this is the Purse Dog! (shhh! Don't mention it to her! She's going to visit the groomer tomorrow!)

"Who are you saying looks like a furry bear???"

The Purse Dog is here to announce the "Quilts With Love" 200th post celebration! Read this entire post to find out all about it!While I was in Utah visiting Daughter #1, I had lots of adventures. I'll be sharing some with you soon. I made Daughter #1 and her Sweetheart stop in Brigham City at Village Dry Goods, a lovely little quilt shop right on Main St. Below is a view of Main Street as you head north through the cute town of Brigham City. Oh, and by the way, most locals just call it "Brigham." I learned that you don't always have to say "City!" It is a darling shop. I'm so glad it was open. During past trips to Brigham City, I never timed it right and they were always closed when we went by. This time we arranged our schedule to make sure we got in their before they closed. We spent the day in Logan and on our way back to Tremonton (where Daughter #1 lives) we came right through Brigham City...just to stop at Village Dry Goods.

Check out all these lovely quilts and fabrics below.

They have a great selection of notions and books, too!

I thought this display below was darling...an antique bed they change throughout the seasons! Right now they are displaying lovely Christmas quilts, kits, and fabrics!

Here is a clever idea below! This is a magnetized wall that works as a great design wall! How come I never thought of that?

I was happy to see a good selection of Moda's Prairie Paisley. I bought 6 yards. This fabric line is not easy to find where I live!

And look at what I found! It's a Threaded Pear quilt! I recognize those scallops! That would be Gina and Stephanie's Charming Log Cabin!

And look who's being a good sport. Here is Daughter #1's Sweetheart...a local who grew up near Brigham City...in Bear River City. He's keeping busy in the back text messaging! He was being so patient with us shoppers!

And here's Daughter #1 checking out the patterns for pin cushions. She wants to make some for Christmas gifts.

And speaking of pin cushions! Check out the darling pin cushion I picked up at Village Dry Goods! Well, this can be yours! It's a pin cushion on an antique-type "c-clamp". I clamped it to my antique sewing table. And I want this to be yours! Just leave a comment on this post before Sun. Aug. 17th midnight PDT. Just tell me what is your favorite quilt shop. The Purse Dog and I would like to know! (one entry per person...and to keep shipping costs down, it's open to US residents only.)

Leave me a post today! Tell me and The Purse Dog what is your favoirte quilt shop!