July 22, Wednesday.

So this is how I've been spending lots of my time these days....adoring my new grandson, Luke. He's 6 weeks old now. This photo was taken when he was only 2 wks. old, but I really like to look at it. He was so tiny then. He weighs 10 lbs. now.

Westerville was voted #15 out of 100 small towns that were the best to live in in the United States. This is one of the reasons I love going downtown (which people call Uptown). They have the most beautiful hanging baskets and pots. So charming.

Don't you just love pink hydrangeas? This is one of mine and I can't quit staring at it. It truly is an amazing creation with all the tiny individual flowers gathering into one large flower.

Here's the quilt that I entered in the United Quilt Guild Biennial Quilt Show. I put it together with 36 of the 50 blocks I received from my friends. They made me the blocks when I moved to Westerville. It really is awesome up close. The quilting was done by Janet Amlin of London, Ohio. She did a super job. The quilt won 2nd place in the Group Quilt category. I was very pleased with that. I feel so lucky to have such good friends...I miss being a part of that group. I sure wish you could see this quilt really close up because all that yellow/gold you see on the black background is a massive amount of machine quilting done by my good friend, Linda Henderson. She won Best Machine Quilting in the same show! That's quite an accomplishment considering that she uses a regular home Janome sewing machine to do all of her quilting!! She also won 1st place in the Mixed Category for Bed Quilts. I'm so proud of how she's grown so much as a quilter. She and I started with the same machine quilting classes and she has surpassed me by miles.

Mark and I went to the Dayton Air Show on Sunday the 19th. What fun those shows are. Makes me think of my dad who was in the Air Force. The two photos below show the Brazilian Smoke Squadron creating a design for you to see.

A heart!

I have been knitting, but haven't been taking photos. Dishcloths aren't too exciting to see...I've been cranking out quite a few of those lately because they are quick and I can't post one photo of the main project I'm working on because it's a surprise for someone.

In the sewing room I've been working on curtains for Luke's bedroom. I'll take a photo of those once they are all hung. I have not started quilting his quilt yet because there's another baby who may be making her arrival as I type this that needs her quilt made. So many babies this year!!! I love it!

Quilt photos as promised....

The colors in this quilt were much more vibrant in person. The background is brown and the light blue color is actually a wonderful aqua color. This quilt was made by Linda Roy of Knoxville, TN, who is known for her hand applique of tiny bias stems sewn in a celtic pattern. She won a Judges Choice award.

This quilt is just downright beautiful too. It won for Best Hand Quilting in the Quilt Odessey Show in Hershey, PA, but didn't get a ribbon at the NQA show here in Columbus, Ohio. It was made by Barbara Clem of Rockford, IL.

This was just one of my favorites of the whole show. It won an Honorable Mention award in the Pictorial Quilt category. It was dye painted and machine quilted with lots of colored threads to create the wrinkles and creases in an elephant's skin. Very well done! It was made by Pat Rollie of Los Angeles, CA.

Another pictorial quilt that happened to win Best Of Show in the Wallhanging category was made by Gina Perkes, Lynn Drennen, and Marilyn Smith of Payson, AZ. Good job ladies!

This was the Best of Show Bed Quilt made by Renae Haddadin of Sandy, UT. I've been watching her quilts in each show as the years have gone by and this one was obviously her best yet. I believe this was her first Best of Show. She's young, so I hope we'll get to see her in many quilt shows in the years to come. Her machine quilting is incredible! Be sure to click on each photo so you can see the close-up version.

I'll place some from our United Quilt Guild Show in the next post.

Off to the golf course to walk 18. Good exercise!

Birds and Babies....Oh my!

Here's one of Mark's favorite birds, a yellow finch.

Here's one of my favorite birds. By the way, my granddaughter, Maya, wrote a book called Henrietta of Hummingville. She's 8 1/2. She told me the book got published. Her teacher gave her a blank book and she wrote her story and put pictures and drawings in it. I think that's what Maya calls, published....cute.

Mark made mint juleps and they were good! We usually have them during the Kentucky Derby, but this day just screamed mint juleps! Our mint we grow is loaded if you want to come over for a drink. Mark also makes Mojito's with the mint.

This is my new grandson, Luke. He's outnumbered by big sisters and I think he wants to get his 2 cents in.

Here's our author, Maya, who adores her new little cousin, Luke, in one of his quiet moments.

This week is the Knitter's Connection at the Columbus Convention Center starting the 17th and running through the 20th. Also at the same time will be the NQA Show...the National Quilt Show in the same building (how could I be so lucky to have two of my hobbies at conventions where I live??). A few of my quilting buddies are coming down for a visit and we're all going to hang out there for a few days. The quilt show runs from the 18th through the 20th. On the 26th and 27th of this month will be the United Quilt Guild Biennial Quilt Show in Sebring, Ohio. I'll be going up north for that one. I have a bed quilt entered in that show. I'll post photos of quilts in the next few weeks.

We're back from our wonderful trip to Italy for our 20th anniversary....did you miss me?

I almost don't know where to start. I took 564 photos while in Italy! I'll just post a few. We spent our first week in Florence in an apartment on the Ponte Vecchio which was the perfect location for walking everywhere. Here's a photo of the Duomo, which is a huge church with the Gates of Paradise painted on the inside dome ceiling. Let me tell you...I think we walked up about 1 million steps to get to the top (that may be a slight exaggeration). I was pooped with a capital P and my legs were shaky from the whole climb, but what a view of the city from the top with all the tile on the roofs. The Duomo is so huge I can't get it all into one photo. We were impressed with the workmanship considering what tools they may have had to build this thing back when. One more thing I want to say is that the statue of David (also in Florence)which was sculpted by Michelangelo is in a museum that does not allow photos. I was bummed because it was so awesome and I wanted a photo! You could actually see the veins in his arms that were carved.

Here's a view of the Gates of Paradise painted on the inside of the dome ceiling. Not painted by Michelangelo.

I'm smiling a little because we are on our way down now and the huge climb is over! Can you see how narrow the circular, stone staircase is?

We took a little day trip to Venice. We didn't visit any museums there, but I got many photos of the gondoliers....O Solo Mio!!!

This is just a cool window I liked.....

We also took a day trip from Florence to Pisa and a trip to a castle that had a wine tasting (not in Pisa).

We absolutely loved Siena which was built in the 14th century. It's a smaller village that is surrounded by a brick wall (seen below). The center of the village is the Piazza Del Campo where all of the events take place. Like the running of the horses in July and August. We went to Siena after our week in Florence.

After 2 nights in Siena we ventured on to Rome. My favorite building to visit was St. Peter's Basilica (the Vatican). The Pope was in Jordan at the time, but it was pretty awesome to stand on the stone plaza that more than 200,000 people stand whenever he speaks from the balcony. This is just one of the photos I took inside. It was filled with marble statues and paintings and gold and dead popes that were laid to rest in glass coffins you could see through.

Mark was continually gawking at the laundry people hung out from their windows on clothes lines...they have no dryers in Italy so they can save on electricity. He also thought of a great use for the bidets which we didn't use. He washed his shorts out with some liquid detergent I brought.

We left Rome after 4 nights and rode the train to visit my cousin near Arpino. This photo below is the oldest standing arch that was built in 600 BC. Can you imagine that? We were told that there was another arch in Greece as old, but it has now fallen.

This is the fort where the arch is located north of the town of Arpino.

OK....now that I'm finished talking about our trip, it's time for Family and Fauna.... Here's Jenny and B.J. looking very happy that their August wedding is right on track.

Here are the baby robins that grew up in our weeping cherry tree beside the house...there are 3.

and YAY....look here....we finally have a pair of bluebirds (my personal favorite bird) building a nest in our bluebird house at the back of the house. The male is standing guard while the female is inside.

and here he is in a tree waiting to fly over to her. I'm sooooo happy!!! June will be a busy, fun month for me. Our little grandson is due any day (mom is dilated), my friends from United Quilt Guild are having their annual Challenge Night on the 2nd, Knitter's Connection and the NQA show will both be at the Convention Center downtown from the 17th-20th and United Quilt Guild will be having their Bi-annual quilt show on the 26th and 27th in Sebring, Ohio. I have one bed sized quilt entered. Ciao for now!

I'm as ready as I'm going to be...

Now that the baby shower is over I can reveal alot of the items I've been making and not posting so they could be a surprise. Here we all are at the shower. That's Jenny, our youngest daughter on the left who is actually Mark's daughter from his first marriage, but I claim too since she's been a part of my life for 21 yrs. now, me, baby Mama Stef my 2nd daughter and Jen on the right who planned the whole shower and is my first born, wonderfully creative girl. That's Luke in baby Mama's belly. Did I mention that he's due on June 9th?

This is the quilt top I made for Luke. I worked really hard to get it completed for the shower. The theme for his room is Under The Sea so I found this pattern by Java House Quilts at http://www.javahousequilts.com/

The designer, Karen Brow, has lots of cute patterns there, so take a look!

This is Otto the polar bear that I knitted for him too. I thought it related to the Under The Sea idea because polar bears swim alot and live near the sea. This pattern can be found at http://www.ysolda.com/

This is a little sweater I knitted for him. Let's hope there's a cool evening in June so he can wear it because it's 3-6 mos. size. This pattern is from the book, Knit2together. I loved making this! The shower was so fun! Stef got lots of great little items that everyone needs for a new baby. We're really excited for his arrival, but he has to wait until we get back from Italy! I made this little Ipod case for Maya so she can carry her Sanso in it. I call it an Ipod, but she keeps correcting me. I used my embroidery machine to embroider her name across it. This pattern was in the Winter 2007 Quilts and More magazine. This is a little Bunny Nugget that I knitted for Maya for Easter to put under her tree that holds all of her egg decorations. I think I'll have to make her a new one each year....we all know how bunnies multiply. This pattern is free and can be found at http://www.dangercrafts.etsy.com/ or http://www.rebeccadanger.typepad.com/

and this last photo is of my Kitty Pi. It's a felted cat bed that I made from all the leftover wool yarns I have used to make purses over the last few years. So far my 2 cats haven't bonded with it yet...surprising since they seem to want to lay on all of my quilt fabric during projects. You'd think they would really appreciate all the love I put into this bed for them. If they don't end up accepting it I may have to gift it to one of my grandkitties. Fun and quick to make...it's a free pattern that can be found at http://media.wendyknits.net/knit/kittybed.htm

That's it for now. I'm taking a few small projects to work on while flying across the Atlantic to Italy. I'll post some photos of that beautiful country when I return. Ciao!

The photos on my blog...

I just wanted to let you know that if you click on the photos I download (except for the photos on the right hand side of the page) you can see them enlarged which is nice for the detail of the applique and the Mourning Doves making out. You may also notice that I have done inking on the first three applique blocks but haven't finished the inking on the large center block and the last 8 1/2' block I just completed. For those of you who receive my blog through your email box, you'll get a much nicer look at things if you actually go to my blog website because I'm not sure you can click on the photos in the emailed version: www.bjkelly57.blogspot.com It just finished snowing here, such is Ohio...at least it didn't stick!

Birds & Bees

Saturday, April 4th, my friend from Salem, Linda and I sewed all day for the James Cancer Center Annual Sewing Day. We made quilts for the breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. This wonderful group of ladies who organize this project is called the James Stitching Sisters. There were over 130 of us there to sew these lap quilts. That's the biggest turnout we've had since I started sewing with them 5 yrs. ago. Since 2004, when this group was formed, there have been over 1800 quilts made for the breast cancer patients to chose from for their own. That's quite an accomplishment that we are all proud of.

Prizes were given away to everyone, plus some lucky person won this Pfaff sewing machine.

I'm dying to put photos of the little baby quilt I'm working on here on the blog, but my daughter reads my blog (she's the one who's pregnant right now) so in the meantime I finished one more applique' block to show you. Actually, I've put all 5 blocks here so you can see most of the idea I have for this quilt which is a Lisa DeBee Schiller pattern. This block is an 8 1/2" block to give you some perspective on size.

This is another 8 1/2" block.

And another.....

This is the 8 1/2" block I just finished (below)

This is the large medallion block that will be in the center. It's an 18" block.

As soon as the baby comes (around June 9th) I'll post the photos of his quilt and something else I made for him.

I was lucky enough to come downstairs yesterday in time to see these 2 mourning doves sitting on our bench out front contemplating whether or not they want to date.

This photo shows that they definitely wanted to pursue this idea as they started some serious necking and kissing! I thought it was soooo cute!

...and for the only knitted item that I can show you at this time......I made this little knitted Easter Egg for my granddaughter, Maya. She has a tree in her room that she decorates for each season of the year.

I also am making a Kitty Pi for one of my cats to use. It's a cat bed made from lots of my leftover wool from purses and bowls that I have made. I'll post the before felting photo and the after felting photo when I have it finished.

Also coming soon will be photos from the Equine Affair that was held here in Columbus. Hi yo, Silver....and away.......