A New Convert and more FLW

One of my colleagues at work, Sam, has a niece who will soon be celebrating her first birthday. Several months ago, she expressed an interest in quilting so I invited her to come to my house and make an I Spy quilt for her niece's birthday. The first night, Sam picked out fabrics from my extensive collection of I Spy fabrics and cut out 6 1/2" squares.  She laid them out on my design wall and moved them around until she had the arrangement she liked.  The second evening, she started sewing them together to make her quilt top.  Then, there was a long lull before she and I both had time to get together again...  

Over this past week, with the birthday quickly approaching, we got together three evenings to get the quilt top finished, basted and quilted.    Sam did much of the quilting herself and then I finished it off so that I could teach her how to make, attach and then hand sew the binding.

Sam took the quilt home to finish off the binding before the birthday party next week.  I know what she will be doing for the next few evenings...  Great job on your first quilt, Sam! I'm sure your niece will love it! I wonder what Sam will make next???

My husband and I went to visit our daughter last weekend--this involved a long drive to get there and a long drive home at the end of the weekend.  If you have read my blog before, you know that I do most of my counted cross stitching in the car. This past weekend was no exception. When we left, my picture looked like this..

I made a lot of progress, using up almost all of the grey thread (DMC #318) I received from Carole in the mail.

The lighter sections of grey are actually not quite finished yet--the threads are only going one way and I have not finished the second stitch to make the crosses yet.

Tonight, we went to visit my MIL and I started on the outlining at the top of the picture.  This is done with a silver metallic thread.  The pattern calls for double threads for the outlining.  I wondered if it would be too thick initially, but I like it more now that I have a bit done.  I hope you can see it along the top grey section of cross stitching.

I also made a little mug rug this week.  There was hand stitching involved in the single fold binding.

The back includes some calorie free treats...

We got to see Finn last weekend--our new grand-puppy.  So cute! We went for lots of walks and got to watch his puppy class.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers this weekend.  Take care and have a good week.