I’ve been cutting quilts out for Mom. For one of them we pulled fabric to make one of the Animal Appliqué Quilts that she’s done in the past. She now has the GO Dinosaur die and I had a cute Dino print for the center and some bright coordinating scraps for the dinosaurs. These are quick easy “panel” like quilts if you like appliqué.

Here’s one she did with the Elephant GO die.

This one was made with the Zoo Animal Die and the Elephant Die

This one from the GO Critter Die. Of course you can use your own appliqué patterns too. Mom just has those dies so it was easy to use some fusible web and then cut them out with the die. She machine appliqués them using a blanket stitch.

I wrote down the measurements we use if you’re interested in making one of your own. She likes them to fit on one width of fabric so she doesn’t have to piece the backing but you could make yours wider. Animal Applique Quilt

Here are a couple others that she made.

Mom got another top assembled and if Adam was here he’d fuss at me for working his GrandMom too hard (this is the 3rd top she’s finished so far). It was from a kit I’d bought for her to make but it’s a good thing she brought it with her … it was a bit fussy to cut out so it was good that I was here to do it. I’ll keep it here and get it quilted for her. It’s a big one!

I’ve got a few more Plus blocks to make and should finish them up tomorrow. I’ll wait until after Mom’s visit to get both Jelly Roll tops assembled so I can use the design wall to arrange them first (it’s downstairs and we’re working upstairs).

Mom finished assembling her Dash top and she’ll leave it here for me to quilt. Pattern is from Fabric Cafe and we used a small amount of a 4th fabric and had extra yardage of the print too so we made that border wider. Its easy to adapt these 3 Yard patterns to meet your needs using more than 3 fabrics, changing the borders, or adding more blocks.

While Mom was finishing that top, I finished all the blocks for my lantern quilt and I’m going to set them aside until after Mom’s visit because I’ll want to throw them up on the design wall and arrange them before I assemble the top.

Next up – Mom started piecing a quilt from a kit and I decided to make another Plus quilt. This was my first one made in 2016.

The one I’m making now will be larger so I quickly drafted it out and did a few calculations then I grabbed a Jelly Roll and started sewing. This one never made it to the website so when I’m done I’ll write up some brief notes and add it.

Tonight I also machine stitched the binding on the last of the 3 yard quilts I quilted during the Maine sew along and I’ll hand stitch it down tomorrow night. I’m going to crochet a while now before I head up to bed to read.

I hope you all had a good weekend. We did! Mom and I sewed some both days … by tomorrow Mom should be finished with her 3 yard quilt top, I made progress on my Lantern quilt, and I machine stitched the binding on the Turtle quilt but since I’m going to give it to Mom to give away, she’s going to hand stitch that one down.

We also went downstairs for a little while on Saturday to rummage through my fabric. We chose a backing for her sailboat quilt, I shared some of my novelty prints from the masks bin for another one of her projects, and we chose some fabrics for couple more quilts. She’s going to go home with lots to work on and at the rate she’s sewing, she’ll be leaving more tops here for me to quilt too.

We watched the Ryder Cup too. Keith and I don’t watch a lot of golf anymore but the Ryder Cup is always fun … even more so when we win! Mom was a golfer so she enjoyed watching too. Does it look like this around your house when everyone is watching TV? All of us sitting under quilts!

We also started another 5 Crowns “tournament” … we decided on a 3 day timespan and are playing 2-3 games per day (it’s quicker with just the 3 of us). I’ve won 2 of the 5 games so far but overall I’m in last place because of some bad luck …. Mom’s in first place but tomorrow is the last day of the “tournament” so we’ll see who comes out on top.

We did take a break from sewing, cards, and watching golf to enjoy the porch this evening before dinner. We’re thoroughly enjoying our visit!

It’s like grand central station out back … these are just a few of the videos from this week. That fox is a different one than I posted earlier in the week too. Is it any wonder that Finn gets too distracted to go potty with all the different smells out there?!

Mom brought a kit with her to work on after the Sailboats but I sidetracked her by having her look through the 3 yard quilt books and my bundles. She chose 4 and decided to make one before starting on her kit.

We also looked at some blocks my cousin sent me recently. Teresa’s not sure but she thinks they might have been pieced by my grandmother. They’re old and several of them have bad stains but I may be able to do something with them.

I don’t have photos for you yet but I started a new quilt today. The pattern is Beaded Lanterns and it’s a free Jelly roll quilt.

Mom and I made one a couple years ago for my sister.

And it just so happens that Stephanie pulled Jelly rolls out of the hat for our October Precut challenge … I’m just starting a little early.

My brother left yesterday and we got our sewing space set up. Keith is going to work downstairs while Mom is here and we’re taking over his office

Mom worked on her sailboat quilt. She pieced the blocks at home and we laid them out here.

Before I knew it, she had her top together!

While Mom was working on her Sailboats, I started a new quilt too. (See the next post).

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to be sewing with Mom again!

It’s been raining non stop but that’s ok, we’re enjoying our visit and are in the middle of a multi day 5 Crowns tournament! Does your family play games?

In between games, there are runs to the store, cooking, eating, napping (Keith), and reading! Even with all the rain we can sit on the porch and Mom and I carried our Kindles and quilts out there for a while this afternoon. Mom and I are both reading the CJ Box books featuring Joe Pickett – I think it was Nancy who recommended this series to me. I’m on book #8 of 22 but Mom is about 3 books ahead of me.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 2 years since Mom came to visit and stay with me a while. The last time was in Oct 2019. I’m so looking forward to this time with her.

I don’t have photos from today but she arrived at dinner time along with my brother Kevin and his wife Hilary and she’ll stay for 3 weeks! My brother’s visit will be shorter … just 4 days but I’m glad to see him too.

And last night caught on camera … sometimes the cameras just catch a glimpse of an animal and I can’t tell what it is but luckily I have 3 cameras in the back and often an animal is picked up on all 3. I had just told Keith I hadn’t seen a fox in several months … and on the first two videos I couldn’t tell what this was but on the third, I could see it was a fox.