For Baby Nora

This may be my favorite baby quilt so far. I made it with much love and prayers for Baby Nora, heading back to Asia with her parents after several months home in the U.S. They are missionaries doing their best to make the world a better place. We will miss you!



Fabric is from Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope collection. Sooo happy and fun -- gotta love the yellow and orange everywhere! I hope it makes you smile, too, sweet Nora.

Shopping for Sponge Bob

It is such a bonus to have a hubby who is a Creative Director/graphic designer/Photoshop genius. I am slowly learning more about Photoshop and preserving my memories in digital form. When I get stumped, I just call him over to the Mac to save the day. Like I said, BONUS.

Ali Edwards recommended Jessica Sprague's site today for digital scrapbooking tutorials, etc. Here is a link to her getting started page. I checked it out and it looks really interesting, especially if you don't have an in-house designer to rescue you!

On to another subject . . . my Yeebird labels arrived and I attached the first ever to a baby quilt I made for my friend, Nikki. A similar quilt will be available on my Etsy site (still hoping to get that going ASAP). Here's to feeling official. Who knew all it took was a fabric tag?

It's a Generational Thing

Recently I made my first, official, start-to-finish quilt. Quilting was practically a religion to my Ma-maw Huey, and she instilled in me a great respect for the craft. Ma-maw once told me two ladies in her quilting circle at the senior center got into a fist fight over one's stitches being too far apart on a quilt the group was putting together. When I broke into hysterics over the thought of women in their 70's resorting to violence, Ma-maw's face became serious and she let me know it was not funny.

Like I said, practically a religion.

My mother, sewing-extraordinaire-and-perfectionist-extreme (in a good way), taught me to sew. I cannot count the times she has arrived at my door and delivered me from my latest sewing catastrophe (think 'monkey Halloween costume debacle of 2007', mom). She is a gifted, amazing seamstress, and my plan is for as much of her talent to rub off on me as possible!

When I sew on my wonderful Bernina inherited from Ma-maw, using sewing supplies mostly given to me by mom, it means something special to me every time. Seriously. History is significant to me, and I feel each project is a way to say "thank you" to Ma-maw and mom. It's my way of making a statement that what is important to them is also important to me, because of them.

Here are some photos of one of those "thank you" projects, a baby quilt for a friend who was having a girl. I am currently working on a similar quilt for a baby boy.

How do you say thanks to past generations? In what ways do you quietly honor them?