Reasons to celebrate

I received this lovely unexpected birthday card in the mail from one of my CraftMad friends, Merry. This card is just so pretty in real life - unfortunately, my photo does not do it justice.

I got to meet my Great Nephew, Riley, in the flesh for the first time yesterday ;-)

Great Grandad with Riley

Nanna (my sister) & Riley

Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of me holding him ;-(  he got restless when I held him

(most probably picked up on my nerves)

The quilts - finally finished and in the nursery ;-)

1st Quilt Ever - FINISHED!

Since we got word that the twins arrived earlier than expected (my post here), I have been working very hard to finish the quilt - going between the lounge where the quilt was laid out and the study where the computer is to do searches on quilting techniques and the spare room where the sewing machine and iron is - I should have been wearing my pedometer, I feel like I have walked miles & miles ;-)

One of the most helpful sites has been 1st Quilt Ever with lots of pictures and step by step instructions

I also found these videos How to make quilts  and they were most helpful with the binding bit ;-)

Here it is!  My 1st Quilt Ever - complete with unmatched squares and the occasional crooked line or two :-)

close up - all those lovely squares ;-)

the reason I picked this particular jelly roll - the lovely little hands

my first attempt at quilting on a spare block - didn't like the stitching on every square, so I decided to stitch down along the 9 patch block

attaching the binding

I am really looking forward to participating in the hexagon quilt along making up the hexagon quilt for Baby No. 2 (as soon as I can make up my mind which layout I am going to use).