Three Hundred!

Last night, I hit 300 likes on Facebook.  I was absolutely thrilled!  For the rest of the night, all I could hear was Bill Cosby saying, "Threeee HUNdreeed!!!".  What?!  You don't remember that epidsode?!  You know, the one where he was bidding over the phone for Charlie Parker's "Night in Tunisia".  Well, here's the video to refresh your recollection.

Thank y'all for your support.  The next milestone is 500, so please share your love of Covered in Love Quilts with friends.

Butterflies and Giraffes

This was a busy weekend for me.  I had loads of fun, but am pretty tired this morning as a result of all the fun.

Friday, after work, I drove to my sister's house in Alexandria.  That evening, we went to see Liner Notes, which is a show conceived and directed by my sister's friend, Paige.  This show was a straight up party!  I can't remember the last time I had so much fun in a theater.  If you are anywhere near the DC area, be sure to check out the show when it returns on August 2nd and 3rd at the Atlas Theater.

Saturday morning, I got up early and did the DC lupus walk.  This was the biggest walk ever, with at least 2,200 people participating.  This year, I walked to celebrate the past year.  It was a trying one, but I think I'm on a great path of being able to keep my lupus under control. It's not too late to support my walk.  If you'd like to contribute, follow this link.

Here I am greeting my nephew, JC.  My sister was being nice and allowed me to touch her belly.  I know she's about sick of that by now.

And this is me at the finish line.

The lupus awareness movement uses purple as its color and the butterfly as its symbol.  There were lots of folks there with butterfly wings on, but this was my favorite pair. 

Her name is Ivy Phaire and she is the creator/owner of Purple Girl Clothing.  I am an instant fan of her tshirts and will be rocking them all summer long.  Please check out her site and show her some love on Facebook.  Tell her I sent you.

After the lupus walk, I went to my sister's baby shower.  My sister has a real thing for giraffes, so just about everything she received had a giraffe on it.  The quilt I made for the baby was no exception.

I found the giraffe fabric at Spoonflower and had fun making the squares.  I quilted this one myself on my domestic machine.  I am so proud of my (mostly) straight lines!

My sister and her husband loved the quilt.

My sister has never really been one to wax poetic about how she feels, so when we had this text message exchange the day after the shower, I was absolutely thrilled.

Her: I almost wanna frame JC's quilt.  I don't want him to spit up or poop on it.  I wanna frame it and use it as artwork in his room.  Do people frame quilts?

Me: You could, but I can put a sleeve on the back of it and you can hang it.  I wish you'd use it though.  It was made to be used.  There are a lot of little mistakes on that quilt.  If you want something to hang, I can make something and put his name on it and you could hang that one.

Her: Ok, well then I'll wait for one with his name and hang that one.  I just don't want him to mess this one up with his stinky because we like it a lot.


And this makes Aunt Kisha very happy.  :)

And Miles To Go Before I Sleep

I had a lot happening in my world on Monday.  It was LMM's birthday and I was excitedly anticipating her opening the present I sent her.  I found this quilt in an antique store when I went home for my sister's wedding last July.

It was still there when I went home in December, so I knew I had to get it for her.  She was really excited to have it.

Monday was also the deadline to receive blocks for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society quilt I'm making.  I received a total of 43 blocks.  The award for the most creative packaging goes to...

...well, I can't remember her name right now and the envelope is at home.  I'll update this later.

Finally, Monday was the day of my quarterly visit to Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Every three months, I drive to Baltimore to see Dr. Michelle Petri who is the director of The Lupus Center at Hopkins.  Dr. Petri is wonderful and has been critical to keeping my lupus under control.  I'm so grateful to have access to a nationally reknown doctor.  LMM nagged me for months to get an appointment there last year.  I'm so glad I finally listened to her.  Life is manageable now, but I still have my days that the pain and exhaustion put me in the bed for days at a time.

This week, I have to finish my soon-to-be-nephew's quilt, 2 teddy bears, and I have to come up with a lay out for the LLS quilt.  I'm tired just thinking about it...

Miles to go...

Scrappy bear

A few weeks ago, LMM found this bear while antiquing.

She intended for this to be her bear, but when Little Miss saw it, she claimed it as her own without any discussion.  I knew how excited LMM was about finding this bear and I was sure that she would want her bear back, so I made it my mission to create a fresh new scrappy bear for Little Miss that would make her forget about the antique bear.

I found Simplicity Crafts pattern 5461 and cut out all of the pieces in muslin to use as a foundation.

In trying to figure out how to make it scrappy, I decided that this bear would be more patchwork than scrappy because it was the easiest thing for me to accomplish with the tight and looming deadline of LM's birthday.

I picked fabrics in her favorite colors,

cut them into 3.5 inch strips and sewed them together,

turned the piece so that the seams ran horizontal and then cut 3.5 inch strips,

and ended up with strips that looked like this.

Then I sewed the patchwork strips down onto the muslin foundation.

I trimmed the excess and then started piecing the bear together.

The directions weren't entirely clear to me, so I just intuitively pieced things together...but couldn't figure out what to do about the ears.

A friend of mine that understands how to follow patterns explained to me what I had done wrong, and after ripping out a lot of stitches, taking the head off, and then deconstructing the head, I was able to put the ears on and finish the bear.  I am totally happy with the results.



I especially love his feet.

I hope Little Miss loves this bear enough to be able to return the old bear to her mom...although now I just realized that I've created a playmate for the old bear...hmmm...LMM, good luck!  lol!

Hopefully LMM will share pictures of LM with the bear that I can share with you all next week.

I've created a quilter, or two.

I always wanted to learn how to quilt because I intended to make the blanket in which my child was brought home from the hospital.  A few years back, I decided that I shouldn't wait any longer for a baby that may never come, so I dived in and made a few quilts for Christmas gifts that year.  One of those first quilts was for my godchild, Little Miss.

This is her first quilt, "Ladybug".

This is Little Miss on her currently favorite quilt.  She loves it because the quilting is pretty dense and in the shape of flowers.

By my count, Little Miss has four quilts that I have made for her and one that I made for her mom that she has kind of claimed as her own.  She's only four years old and already has told her mom that she will only sleep under a quilt.  Her Mom says that I've created a bit of a quilt monster.  lol.

A couple of years back, my best friend, Little Miss' Mom (LMM), decided that she wanted to learn how to quilt, but she didn't know how to use a sewing machine.  So, one day, we spent the afternoon at my dining room table and I taught her the basics.  She's been making quilts every since.

Recently, Little Miss decided that she wanted to make a quilt and LLM gave her some squares of fabric and allowed her to design the quilt.  LLM sewed it together.  When I got these pictures, my heart melted and my uterus went into contractions. lol.

It was somewhere between the final layout and the spray basting that she said, "This takes a long time, Mommy".    It certainly does, Little Miss, but the finish product is so rewarding, isn't it!  :)

She's getting a Hello Kitty sewing machine for her birthday this year.  LLM and I are beyond excited about teaching her how to sew.

And so, while I haven't had a child of my own to share my love of quilting with, I am overjoyed in the knowledge that Little Miss is learning the craft.