And I have a new great-grandson!  Max is the son of my grandson Alex and his wife Yan.  Needless to say, I had to make him a baby quilt, and in honor of his ancestry, I used a whole bunch of my Asian fabrics.  Using half-square triangles, I had a lot of different choices for a layout, and I thought this was the most interesting.

Whilst traveling in Ireland (good British term, no?) a couple of years ago, we visited Blarney Castle and strolling the grounds I was delighted to see some examples of yarn bombing on the trees.  I guess I never realized that it was international, but why not?

My faithful companion Derek traveled with me from California to Florida.  Here he is in some of his ever-changing outfits.

When it has been eight (!) years since your last post, you have a little bit of catching up to do.  Since my last post, I have moved across the country from Northern California to the Space Coast of Florida to move in with my gigolo, Bob Godwin.  We travel a great deal so my quilting has slowed down considerably, but I have found that doing applique blocks allows me to create while on the move.  I joined a small quilting group in my community, which keeps me in touch with fellow fabric artists.  We make small "cuddle quilts" for children who are sponsored by a local charity.  Here are a few I have done recently, using the same basic design:  one in black/silver/white, one in brights/white, and one in blue/silver/white.

Joseph's Coats

I've accumulated quite a stack of nickel (5") squares, mostly textures, but a lot of metallics and balis mixed in.  I decided to make some lap quilts for Christmas presents, and started divvying up the squares in three groups:  1) harvest colors in browns/yellows/oranges,  2) light/medium/dark for a shaded effect, and 3) brights, for a stained glass look.  At 12 x 12 (a 55" square quilt) that used up 432 squares, but I still have an amazing amount left!  And each quilt is a charm quilt--all the squares are different.

Doxies

I don't usually do commissioned quilts, as between what I do for friends and family and my guild work, I have more than enough to keep me busy, but a close friend asked me to do a quilt for her relative's birthday.  She wanted to feature her cousin's dachshunds, and a little questioning revealed that they were long-haired doxies at that.  Fortunately, there is a website that has fabric featuring every breed you've ever heard of (and many that you haven't!), so I checked Hot Diggity Dog and found not one, but two pen-and-ink depictions of what I wanted.  I did the star points in paw prints and dog bones, and Joanna Collins did her usual fine job of long-arm quilting--she always makes me look good.

Two at Once

I recently had a friend visit me who was expecting TWO great-grand babies at just about the same time.  So while she was here, we produced two baby quilts for the new little ones.  One request for for a monkey-themed nursery, and the other said it didn't matter.  Here's the results, and both young mothers seemed pleased.