Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

 Most years I try to give as many homemade gifts as possible.  I love when I know someone spent their time making something special for me because as a crafter I know that's much easier than ordering on Amazon (although I also love when people give me gift cards to shop at the local quilt shop guilt free!) Some years I can do a lot of hand made gifts (one year both my mom and my mother-in-law got hand quilted throws) but this year isn't shaping up to be one of those years.   When I signed up for this blog hop I had grand intentions of making a whole list of homemade gifts-right now I have maybe two small gifts finished.  I did get a few prototypes done with items I made myself (after all I don't want to show the actual gifts yet) First I wanted to make some soup bowl cozies.  I don't know why but these things have intimidated me for years but at the same time I'd see them at craft shows and talk myself out of buying them because I should be able to make them. ...

Long before I met him, my husband was in high school with two of my cousins. One of them actually shares his birthday so it's become a bit of a joke that I never forget her birthday anymore.  Earlier this year I knew I'd have her memory quilt from our grandpa's shirts finished in time for their 50th birthday and I knew if she was getting a quilt and he didn't I'd never hear the end of it (granted she's never gotten a quilt before and he'd already gotten 3). I have wanted to make him a memory quilt of his Dad's shirts as well so I made their birthday my deadline.  Most year's sewing a semi-secret project for him wouldn't be a challenge at all due to my summer vacation.  However with Covid, he's always home!  I hid in my sewing room to prepare the pieces and sewed non-stop when he took him mom for a procedure but I still had to bind it and couldn't finish that step until days before their birthday when he went camping with the "manly m...

This week was the first I've felt like I had time to sit at my sewing machine and relax.  I have been doing some hand quilting in the evenings while my husband and I watch tv because I know it's important to spend time with him even with the stress of this school year (or maybe even more so) and I can do hand quilting in the living room.  I even made a quilt top that wasn't on my list! So how did I do with the actual list???   1. continue to work on hand quilting a present-I finished the length rows and started on the widths and they are going much more quickly! 2. post about the two birthday presents I gave this week-which means my husband needs to give me some ideas where to photograph one of them.-We're still trying to decide where to photography my husband's present 3. baste a baby quilt before the baby arrives-I have the quilt clamped to the table but I need to finish pinning.   Our anniversary is this week and we have plans to return to our wedding lo...

I forgot to post my Sunday Short list last week.  My husband had been away and got home Sunday, we had to clean out the garage at our old house before closing Monday, and then we were relaxing and it just slipped my mind.  I still haven't had much time for my projects but I did accomplish some things, and gave away two quilts this week!  So how did I do with my list from two weeks ago 1. Continue working on hand quilting a present-I'm making some progress I'll soon be ready to start stitching the other direction.  2. Post about camp from Labor Day -done 3. Work on some Christmas presents-I have decided that I'll finish the ones I have started but it's just not feasible to have a handmade Christmas.  I'll support local businesses instead 4. Post in the Hello Fall Blog Hop-done and the responses were overwhelming.  So what's on the list for this week?  It’s still been a real struggle to have time for my projects so it’s really short.  1. continue to...