Gifted, Shared, Loved...

i've been absent from bloggy land, and missing my RSC friends. i'm back with a plethora of catchup posts! mostly from RSC23...

 

 

granddaughter L turned 5 in late October. i mailed her 2 of my favorite quilts from RSC22. 

just 2 very simple designs; i like to focus on color and contrast, rather than fiddly piecing. 3" squares, and 3" HSTs. she loved them!  no pics of the colorful backing, though...

my favorite DIL turned 30 (!!!) the end of July. P had commented in RSC21 that she really liked the scrappy twinkly stars that i was making- so obviously, the quilt needed to go live with her! (full picture of this quilt in my header photo, but now it's finished, not just a flimsy...) youngest grandson T had to get in on the happy occasion... 

Daughter #2, A, turned 17 June 29. (see, i'm really behind!). as a budding young writer, the Full Stop quilt seemed like she was the best one for it to be loved by... she was really happy! 

sharing and gifting a favorite quilt to one of my loved ones is the best ever. it's great when they find a home to go to; where they'll be appreciated and used. 

June 30 my youngest son passed away tragically and unexpectedly in a motorcycle accident. although i kept sewing along with you all, i just didn't have the energy to blog for awhile. 

i'm doing ok, and so is the family, though it was quite a shock, and so sad. 

 

the above 2 quilts were not pieced as part of my RSC shenanigans. the first one is for a great niece's baby in CA, the second (Baby Shark; inspiration found here, although now that i revisit Katy's post, i realize she used HSTs, not isosceles triangles... ) was pieced for the Nebraska MCC quilt sale, and is on its way into the world...) 

i appreciate the friendship and camaraderie of all my RSC bloggy (and Instagram!) friends! go see what every one else is up to- you just might be inspired! 

Christmas Traditions: creating layers of memories and meaning

hey! Merry {almost} Christmas! are you here visiting from Betsy's Christmas Blog Tour? thanks for stopping by! i'm happy to share one of our family traditions with you- and while you're here, leave me a comment and tell me what's YOUR favorite tradition? 

for longer than i can remember, it's been a tradition in our family to celebrate Jesus' birthday with a birthday cake. we often do this on Christmas Eve, but there is a lot of flexibility on when we actually do this celebration. 

in fact, while talking with my Dad this week, i realized that i don't actually remember the beginnings of this family tradition. (kind of like cutting the tail off your Thanksgiving turkey. why? because that's what grandma always did...) i'm still researching in the recesses of my brain where this memory came from... (the cake, not the tailless turkey...) 

i'll keep you posted! 

meanwhile, here's a lineup of some of our Christmas Eve/Birthday Cake for Jesus Celebrations and Gatherings. 

throughout the years, the gatherings changed- some were quite elaborate (hoards of friends and relatives smashed into our tiny house along Penn's Creek) and some very simple (just our immediate family and a small cake.) when my oldest daughter, M, was 8 years old, she made a blue pottery angel one summer at Camp Susque.  thereafter, the birthday cakes feature the angel holding the birthday candle. 

also throughout the years, you can see that our family has grown! if you look closely, you can see the progression and growth of my 6 children, and my family! with 6 children, several now grown and married, along with the addition of 7 grandchildren, there are many happy faces celebrating and anticipating the arrival of the Baby Savior on Christmas morning! 

1990

the above picture would have been the very first Birthday party for Jesus. we lived in a very small house, and i would not doubt that there were 40+ people at this gathering! my oldest daughter, M, (1½) is the girl in the blue (aqua?) overalls, being held by her Aunt Esther. the twins, D & N, were asleep on the sofa. being only 3 months old at the time, i guess they were too little for cake! all the other children around the table are random 1st & 2nd cousins. 

1992

same small house, another large gathering. M, now 3½, is in the bottom left corner of this picture. D, the oldest twin, is 2½ and he's in the red sweatshirt. G, my 4th baby, is due in March, and he's actually born in the Blizzard of '93. 

2002

our lives changed quite a bit in the gap of the 10 years between these pictures. now i'm a single mom, homeschooling my 4 children, working a few odd/part-time jobs, and we live in the tiny town of New Berlin in central PA.(i'm sure there were more birthday cakes for Jesus, but no pictures, i guess...) M is 13, D & N are 12 and G is nearly 10. 

2003

this year we're celebrating with our friends, who have graciously invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner and some small gifts. with 8 children of their own (6 gathered at home in this picture) and my 4, we've a big crowd, so good thing it's a big cake! 

2007

big changes again, as shown in this picture here. i've married Dave, and with the addition of A, we're at a handful of children around the table this Christmas Eve. my scrapbook journaling tells me that A was fascinated with the hole in the middle of this green angel food cake. 

2008

this Christmas Eve, baby B has joined our family. she's 1, and anna is 2½. we've also moved to Bradford county, and begin farming {small scale} and growing our CSA. we're also working at renovating/completing the colonial farmhouse we purchased, which was built by the Rockwell family in 1807. 

2012

more changes come along: (see- the kitchen has drywall AND paint now!) the children keep growing, and we're adding new faces all the time now it seems! M is now married- that's husband K alongside her. N is home for Christmas, and G is too! A & B are 6 & 5 years old now. and just for fun: seems we're having a Birthday Pumpkin Roll- merely to keep things interesting! 5 of my 6 children are home around the table this year- making the celebration just that much more special! 

2016

big brother D (the oldest twin) is home this year, and is the only brother to join A & B for cake. (good thing, too! that cheesecake is so tiny!) there were 2 grandchildren added this year as well: a boy AND a girl, born 6 days apart! they must be at home, tucked safe and snug in their beds. 

2017

here we're having another cheesecake for Jesus (and look, it's so much bigger!) good thing, too, since we have even more precious people gathered around: K and grandson C, N and his wife P, along with granddaughter E. ( C&E are both 13 months old) A is 11, B is 10.

                                       

2018

son D is back for Christmas, along with daughter L. L is our second granddaughter, born just a few months ago. Joining the girls and C at the table is C & P, my niece and nephew. (cheesecake seems to be popular!)  and we're a bigger crowd now, so the celebration has moved into the school room...

2018

we had 2 different birthday celebrations this year, i guess to accommodate traveling and/or working children. grandson #2 has joined us, in the highchair, and L is a sweet and cuddly baby. he brings the grandchild count to 4. Aunts A & B are thrilled! (Grammy and Pap are too, of course!) 

2019

with our 2 youngest daughters still living at home, of course A & B are at every Christmas Eve celebration. M & K live locally, so we're blessed at having them nearly every year, too! grandsons C & L are 3 and almost 2. we're thrilled D, along with L (now 13 months old) are here as well. 

                                                                                 2021

our most recent Birthday Party for Jesus was last year. we celebrated Christmas as a family early: we went right from Thanksgiving, to Christmas Eve and then rolled directly into Christmas day. it was a crazy, noisy, messy but FUN time! and now we're at 7 grandchildren! having 5 (6, if you want to be super technical...) at Grammy & Pap's house at one time is a big deal! 

from L>R, in the green jammies: L (he's 3). A (she'll be 2 in May. i made her a very special quilt; you can read about it here) C (5) E (also 5) T (he's 6 months old) M is holding baby T, but also pregnant with Baby S. (who was born in April) Daughter A is 15, and holding a niece and nephew on her lap. granddaughter L (now 3) lives in California now, so wasn't able to join us. 

as you can see, throughout the 31 years of Birthday Cakes for Jesus that are represented here, we've had many changes, some losses and lots of additions to our family. But one thing that can always remain consistent is those traditions that we hold dear, the extra effort we make to ensure that Christmas is celebrated in a memorable and meaningful way, and the memories we make with our family- those we love the most, and hold the closest in our hearts. 

A Pink to Beat Them All...

i've pieced several more of my {Kona school bus} house blocks (finishing at 6") in pinks. i've started on the browns, grays and blacks for November, too. this brings my total up to 12 little houses. 

but who wants to talk about quilts, when we can talk about BABIES! our 7th grandchild (4th granddaughter) was born last Friday!!! She came a couple days early, a surprise to all of us, since my daughter, M, is typically a week late. 

of course, we're all just smitten with baby Sadie Ella, and love her to pieces! 

her baby quilt, Hop Skip, was finished (and washed to crinkly softness) just in time, too! 

M, (Sadie's mama) bought the deer fabric and i combined some muted Kona pastels for a subtle, but cozy quilt for our newest little one. 

Aunts A&B are also always thrilled with a new niece, and we've tried really hard to all be polite to one another and take turns holding the new baby. ha!

Sadie has a big sister, Addie Kathleen (who will be 2 this week!) and i'm sure they'll be the best of friends!

here's the whole family: M and husband K, along with C (5½), L (4), A (2) and newborn Sadie. as you can imagine, their household is busy and noisy! 

in other exciting news: A and B talked me into going with them to a for King & Country concert in Bingamtno, NY. (it happened to be the same day that Sadie was born, and also my first in-person, real live concert. i'll readily admit I had fun, and wasn't as bad, boring or loud as i thought it would be...)

we made a weekend of it, staying overnight in a hotel, and doing some shopping, too. it was  a lovely time, and we made some great memories. 

in more quiting news, A decided that she wanted to make her piano teacher a quilt. (free pattern here) this was truly a labor of love for A, as she really doesn't enjoy sewing. Mrs. Weed has taught  A piano for 7 (?) years, and last week was A's last piano lesson from her for a while, since the Weeds are going to Italy for a mission trip. 

I'm almost done quilting the top, and we'll put the binding on and gift the quilt early this upcoming week. We've found a new piano teacher for A (Mrs. Davis studied at the Cleveland Conservatory!) and we're all confident that although we'll miss Mrs. Weed, A will continue excel in her piano endeavors. 

 and since it's Saturday, and the RSClinky party, I'll close with just a *bit* of green for this rainy May morning: obviously, i have lots of green in my crumb jar, and I'll be busy making some green crumb blocks this week. (in my spare time. ha!) 

a PEARY good time... was had by all...

second son N & family live in a charming Craftsman house in Baltimore. in their back yard is their beloved pear tree- it was planted years ago by previous owners, but N & P really love the tree, as well as the children E & T. we get lots of pictures and updates on the blossoms and pears, and how they're doing. N also has a hive of honey bees.

on a recent visit down to Bmore, N was happy to show me how his bees are doing. i was impressed at all he knew, and how he was very knowledgeable in caring for the hive of bees. we're all looking forward to the day when he has enough honey to share!

currently, we have 6 grandchildren- 3 boys and 3 girls. of those 6 birthdays, 3 of them occur in an 11 day time span! (AND: i think i forgot to mention, but #7 is due early May!) L is the daughter of my oldest son, D, and she starts the party with a birthday on October 30. they live in CA, so we were only able to face time on her special day, but she's sure a sweety! she just turned 3. 

Next up is C. he was 5 on November 4. he's the son of my oldest, M, and has a younger brother and sister L & A. wee baby sister is in the wings, and will be joining us in May. we can't wait! Grammy and Pap gave C a "coonskin" hat. he seems to like it...

here we are at C's picnic- my 2 youngest daughters, A & B, as well as his siblings L & A. 

then, just to keep things interesting, i headed down to Bmore that weekend, to celebrate E, who was also 5, on November 10. if you're wondering why i started this grandchild birthday celebration post taking about N's honeybees, I'm going to tell you! 

E knows that Grammy loves her, and she also knows that Grammy loves to quilt. she asked me if i would make her some pear placemats for their {family hierloom} dining room set. of course, i didn't even have to think about that for one second! i'd be thrilled. 

i dug around in my stash, and found some long ignored and unloved tan plaid; that worked just great for the background. i also found some greens and yellows that would work well for the pears. 

but: such a special project certainly called for some "stash enhancement"! and I was thrilled to find some fabric that was just perfect! (i think you should be able to click on the pictures to supersize them, and see some of the fun fabrics i found) Belle, bees, pears, catapillars are some of the fun elements that made an appearance... 

i used the pear pattern from Lori Holt's book, Farm Girl Vintage. it was a gift from N & P a few years ago, but the first I've used it. (there are lots of fun block patterns in that book; i plan to make a few more blocks/placemats one of these fine days...) 

i made 8 pear placemats (so there would be enough to use for company,) and then i also made 6 "pear blossom"  placemats. using my accuquilt Studio2 cutter and my shoo fly {my favorite quilt block!} die, i loosely interpreted a pear blossom into more placemats. The white and pink represent the pear blossom, the brown is the twigs of the tree and the {Kona stratosphere} is the brilliant blue of the spring sky. 

each placemat finished around 13" X 17" if i remember correctly. i drove down to Bmore to deliver the placemats, and E (and the whole family!) opened them are were so thrilled! i was so happy that E had asked me to make something special for her, and it's also important to me that she know that Grammy was honored to fulfill her special birthday wish! 

we had a lovely afternoon together- not doing much of anything but spending time and chatting. i even got to rock the baby, T, to sleep and hold him during his nap. (he's a chubby, chubby sweetie!) 

thanks for stopping by- and listening to my little tale of grandchildren, pears, placemats and family! 

 

a rainbow for a beautiful little girl...

i posted about this quilt a few months ago, but as usual, i'm way behind in the Telling You Guys What's Going On Category.... many sorries... oldest daughter M, and her husband K, dropped off the 2 grandsons C and L at Grammy's house on May 11. M/K were on the way to the hospital- M was being induced for baby #3. Gestational Hypertension and all that... (and yes, in this picture M was a mere 36 hours from giving birth to her first daughter!) 

the quilt for my 5th grandchild was done and just waiting... COVID19 made things a bit complicated, but it all worked out in the end. i did the quilting myself, and i'm not very happy with it, but really, that's fine, too. the backing is a sheet from IKEA. it has the woodland animals on it that represent each child. (C: owl. L: hedgehog. baby #3: fox.) 

before basting the quilt, i took some beauty shots. never did this before, but i'm glad i did! it really helps the quilt to live up to its name: Luminary. the pattern is from Alison Glass. i used a moda brights honey bun. i pulled out some of the darker greens and browns, and added in more orange and aqua, as i knew those were the colors M/K wanted for the baby. 

more details on the quilt in a minute: BUT GUYS!!! THIS CUTE BABY!!! baby girl Addilyn Kathleen was born early Wednesday morning, May 13. (@3:40AM) no complications, perfect in every way, and dearly loved by her whole family, even though we had yet to meet her in person. 

Addie, as she will be called (except for when she's in big trouble) is the dearest little girl. she weighed 5lb. 8oz.  and her nose is smaller than a button. we call Addie our little tie-breaker- now we have 2 grandsons, and 3 granddaughters. 

i don't usually share the names of my family on the blog, but i made an exception this once. Addie's middle name was my mother's name: Kathleen. i lost my mother suddenly and tragically over 30 years ago. i was only 19, and not prepared in the least little bit to find myself motherless. 

so it's deeply meaningful to me that M and K named their first daughter after my mother, Kathleen. (my second daughter, Anna Kathleen, also shares my mother's name.) all babies are special of course, but dear little Addie will hold a special place in my heart. so also, her mother, Miriam, my oldest daughter, for honoring the memory of my mother in this way.