Bunny, Bears, & Butterflies

At last, the quilt is finished! It was truly a labor of love--took about 10 months, for most of which the quilt lay idle. Here's a glimpse.
You have to hold it and touch it to really appreaciate how awesome it is. I hope our niece likes it. We're giving it to her next week, as a birthday present. She'll be two at the end of the month. :)

Baby Gift a Success, Home Improvement in Process

I've been too busy to put out an update, though I've been working away on many projects. The collection of personalized onsies and t-shirts were a big hit with our friends.

In addition to baby gifts I've been doing some redecorating at home. Buying new pillows for the couch, to go with our new loveseat. Fabric to recover the dining room chairs. New blinds for the living room--where the old ones fell down. Scraping and repainting the bathroom, whitening the tile grout... it's been a grueling few weeks of home improvement and repair, but we're getting there.

Photos to follow soon...

My potted, balcony garden is thriving; all but my hybiscus. I think she's punishing me for keeping her indoors over the winter. Slowly, her leaves are coming back, but it's been a long road to recovery, from the mealy bugs, from being indoors without enough sunlight... I don't know if she'll make it through another winter.

All three of my star impatients died. Fungus, I think. I didn't catch it in time.

More news when there's more to say...

Latest rage: onsies!

A lot of my time lately has been taken up with needlepoint; counted cross stitch to be specific. I like to give them as baby gifts and right now, there are quite a few friends in baby mode or soon to be baby mode.

The pleasure of a finished product

With just an hour or so of cutting and sewing I was able to complete the Hawaiian applique pillow! My first pillow ever. Here it is, slightly pointed at the edges, but a very cozy companion for the couch. I can't wait to bring it up to Philadelphia for my Mom.

Mother's Day Weekend in Philadelphia

This past weekend we drove up to hang out with my parents and my aunts and grandmother; part birthday celebration, part mother's day pilgramage. There's a quilt in this story but its not finished yet and so no photographs at the moment. I should have some posted soon.

Here are three generations of Brotman women gathered together on Sunday. The boys were there too, of course, and the doggies...

Multi-Talented...

Just as much as I love quilting and other needle-crafts, I also love to cook and bake from scratch. The new stove is a huge help since now, things aren't getting burned. My favorite source of new recipes is Epicurious, the website for a bunch of food magazines. I also love Cooks Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen.

My husband likes to brag about my cooking. It's always nice to have an appreciative audience.

Baby Doll Quilts

I made this quilt for my adorable niece, Roxy. It was a Christmas present for her (and her doll).

Here's another photo of her with the quilt, sitting in the awesome crib that her Boppa made for her!

I swore I'd never do it...

I'm online. With a blog. I swore I'd never do it. But I have to admit, it's kinda cool. I guess it's just one of those things that catches on. I hope this blogging doesn't cut into my quilting time.

This is a photograph of the first queen-size quilt I ever made. It took me 18 months. It's an amish design. The fabric came from a cute store in Lancaster, PA and some place in Oregon that I'm sure I'll never find again.

Ciao for now,
JKL