Been such a long time...

It's been a really long time since I have written for this blog.  Was not intended but when I starting working at Home Depot  a year ago...I got really busy and put some of my other " loves"  on the back burner.  I did a better job of keeping up with my Shared Smith Memories blog (http://sharedsmithmemories.blogspot.com/)  and the Needles in the Haystack blog( http://sharedsmithmemories.blogspot.com/) .  And I have to say that I have not been sewing quite as much either... I have been making reusable grocery bags...and giving them to all my sister and sister-in-laws for their birthday...I have several more cut out and ready to sew but...have started other projects so.....when I finish the next batch. I'll show them here.

Many of you, who are connected with me through Facebook know I have a new grandson...Jacob Ryan Tietz was born on April 2nd. A few days later, Kyle and Christa received a box with a few new presents that Jacob will make good use of.  I waited to show them here until they got to see them first so.. This winter I spent some time on an Alphabet Quilt for Jacob's crib. Kyle and Christa went to retrieve the Crib I bought for Caleb from storage and found that they were missed a few parts; screws and nuts.  On further investigation, Kyle found that the Crib had been recalled for safety reasons so a new crib would be necessary.  It gave my sister Sharon and I a reason to go in search of a new crib for him when I was visiting Michigan last month. And we found one!

 When I found this fabric on clearance at a Quilt shop a few years ago, I knew that one day a busy little boy would need this quilt. That day has arrived and the busy little boy is named Jacob.  Each of the red framed squares if an alphabet letter or two with the cutest busy characters.. The stripes at the top and the bottom show at old fashion games that I played when I was a child...and the middle stripe is a parade of the awesome animals used in the alphabet blocks. This fabric reminded me of the Richard Scarry books that I bought for my boys when they were little.  They were my favorite books to read and look at with my kids. We spent many afternoons at nap time looking at those books before they drifted off to sleep.

I could not help but fall in love with the "artist Alligator , or the fishing Fox, or the golfing Giraffe, the Joker Jaguar, the kite flying Kangaroo and all the other colorful busy characters" who belong to this quilt.  It will make a wonderful "I Spy" quilt when Jacob is learning his Alphabet! 

In the mean time, it will keep him warm at night and look really cute on his bed! 

Quilt Label for Jacob's Quilt

I backed it with a soft butter yellow minkee.  My friend, Julie quilted it on her Quilting machine which is computer controlled..so she could show me how it works.  One of these days, I would like to add a computer to mine but there just isn't money for that now, besides, Lucy and I are having fun learning to quilt .

Hope you enjoy!

Jan