Wedding Quilt

Here's the quickie wedding quilt I made for the Bride and Groom. I thought it would be fun to help them start a family tradition with a quilt and a couple Christmas books. They can add a new book to their collection each year.

I almost forgot to take a picture but, here it is.

I used a 120 different Christmas Fabrics without one repeat.

Here's the two books I bought for their new collection.

Here's the Quilt Label I put on the back of the quilt.

This is a copy of the letter I wrote and stuck in one of the books.

Christmas Family Traditions

Dear Skyler and Lauren,

As you begin your new life together I thought it would be fun to share a family tradition from our Family. Each year I add one or two Christmas Books to our family's collection and I also buy a Christmas book for my married childrens family's too. So, I thought it would be fun to start you both out with two Christmas books for your wedding and each year I would encourage you to add to the collection I've started for you today.

The first book has classic "Christmas Songs" that you can sing with each other at Christmas time and then as you welcome children into your home you can sing with them. The second book is a story book about Bob the Snowman. It can be a lot of fun reading Christmas books to your children and I've found some really special ones over the years.

Here's what we do with the books. Each year I wrap the books we have in different Christmas wrap and then put them in a nice box or container of some sort. Then depending on how many books we have we start reading them before Christmas Eve. So for example, if you have 10 books then you would let a child pick a book each day starting 10 days before Christmas. So each year as you add a book to your collection you would just add a day out from the previous years days before Christmas (example: 11 years before Christmas) and so on and so forth. This gives the kids something to open each day before bedtime and then they get to read it or have it read to them. I like to gather the family together, have hot chocolate, read the book and share special Christmas Memories. This is a great way to do that. The memories grow as the years go by. Another fun idea is to make a Christmas Binder that you add pictures, cards, family letters, document family service projects and neighbor gifts and whatever else you'd like. Make it your own! It's a fun way to remember and the kids will love looking at your family's book every year.

Start NOW to make your family traditions!!!

I've also given you a Christmas Quilt that you can use during your family reading time. You may have to add Christmas Quilts for each child as they come into your family or just take turns with the one I made you. Maybe the reader could be the one to use the quilt.

Another fun idea is to make Christmas pillowcases for each child that you put on their pillows at the beginning of the Christmas Season. My kids have really enjoyed this tradition and I made pillowcases for all my nieces and nephews a few years back.

We love making Sugar Cookies and giving out neighbor gifts. This can be a great family tradition and teach children about service and doing kind deeds for others. We have lots of wonderful memories when it comes to giving service to others.

I hope you will enjoy this gift for many years to come and will remember how much your family and friends love you!

With Love Always, The Walus Family

Mark, Kim, Natalie & Family, Mark, Ariel, and McKenna
Wedding Day August 2, 2008

Hexagon Stars

I had a great time at the wedding in California but the heat nearly killed me. I still feel a little wiped out and tired but, I'm better today than I was yesterday. My friend Suzette picked me up at the Oakland airport and I spent Thursday night with her and her husband Jerry. When I arrived at their house Suzette showed me where I'd be staying and I instantly caught sight of the quilt folded up on the bed. Suzette told me that Jerry's Grandmother made it and she gave it to them.

She didn't know very much about it but, I told her that each hexagon had been carefully cut out and hand pieced together to form the star along with all of the other little pieces found in the block like the yellow six pointed stars and the green diamonds and triangles that connect all the pieces together. I also told her that the most common usage of the hexagon shape is used in a quilt commonly called "Grandmother's Flower Garden" I also told her I had never seen a hexagon quilt made like this before. I asked her if I could take pictures for my blog because I thought that all of you might be interested in seeing it. She was more than happy to let me take pictures and share them with you. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I did.

I just loved the colors in this quilt!

What an AMAZING Quilt!

I love the detail on the stars. See the small green diamonds and triangles that frame each star and the six pointed gold star in the center of each block. It's pretty amazing, I think!

I love the pattern and the colors she used!
I know Nanette will LOVE this quilt~Right, Nanette?

A closer look at the details! It's all hand quilted too!

My friends Jerry and Suzette now have a greater appreciation for their Grandmother's quilt and the time and effort that went into making this wonderful HEIRLOOM Quilt!

I'm Off to a Wedding!

I'm excited to be flying to Northern California in the morning. Yippee!!! I haven't been away by myself for years and years. I can't even remember how long it's been. Too funny! Some of you may be wondering WHY!? Well, to put it simply my 9 year old daughter Kenna has Generalized Anxiety Disorder and she stresses when I leave ANYWHERE!!! She worries about my dying and I'm sure she'll stress until the flight lands and I call her telling her I'm okay!!!

As she's gotten older she's learned to deal with it better but some days I want to pull my hair out!!! She has a hard time going to sleep at night and then it's REALLY HARD to get her going in the morning. Some nights I've been known to make her sleep in her school clothes! LOL! So, school is especially difficult for Kenna. I'm really not looking forward to the upcoming school year!! I'm going to have to gear up for this!!! We did have fun this afternoon buying new school clothes, shoes, a backpack, underwear and socks. I got a new outfit to take with me for the wedding, too.

This is a picture of the tags I made to put on the wedding lunch bags that you see behind the tags. The wedding party is about 50 people and later that night more people will be in attendance at the outdoor wedding reception. If I know my friend her daughter's wedding will be beautiful. I will post a few pictures of the wedding when I return. Have a great rest of the week and I will talk with you on Monday.

Kisses for Cade is Done!

Today I finished putting on the binding and the quilt label on "Kisses for Cade." Don't look too closely because I had to machine bind the quilt and also sew on the label by machine. I didn't have ANY time left before Tracy arrived and I was still sewing on the label when she rang the doorbell this afternoon. What a crazy day for me!! I'm leaving out of town tomorrow and as of this very minute I have one more quilt to bind for the wedding I'm attending on Saturday. If I can at least sew on the binding I can hand sew it while I'm flying.

Just a bit of insight. I have learned two very important words in my older age and that's "OH WELL" Sometimes you just have to let go of the little details even though it killed me to send it off like that. I'm a real believer in hand sewing the binding and the label but, OH WELL!!! Tracy didn't care, she loved it and just sobbed and sobbed and looked at it in awe!! Her expression was wonderful to see! I told her I was making her something special but I wouldn't tell her what it was I just warned her that she was going to cry. I just didn't expect her to sob!!! It was very sweet and very touching. I'd give away all of my quilts if everyone reacted with such love and gratitude, it made me CRY! Even my daughter Kenna was crying she was so happy that her teacher was happy!

Kenna's Teacher Tracy. She just had hand surgery on Monday.

Here's the quilt. As seen in the previous post, In case you're wondering I used the block layout where the red squares kiss each other.

Here's a close-up of the label I made for the quilt.

Another picture of the quilt!

Dear Jane Blocks

Well, I'm moving along like a very slow turtle or maybe I should say a sloth but, I am making some progress as you can see below. I sure hope I can do better once I get back from a friends daughters wedding and I get Kenna back into school August 18th. She starts fourth grade this year, I can't believe it. Maybe then I'll have some more free time.

Also, my two middle children move back to college toward the end of summer. I sure will miss them (not the messes though) and it will be pretty boring around here! It'll be down to Mark and I and our little sweet cream, McKenna. She's gonna miss her 3 older siblings. Luckily, she has a niece and nephew that come over and visit us 2-3 times a week.

Kisses for Cade

Warning! This is a LONG post but WORTH IT if you stick to the end of it...Thanks!

This is a picture of Cade. He's the first horse that my youngest daughter McKenna fell in love with and she learned to ride horses on Cade. He's the sweetest horse around. Her first teacher, Tracy, owned and loved Cade. He was everyone's favorite! He had a special marking on his behind just below his tail. On each side of his bottom was half a heart and together they made a whole heart. Tracy would smile and giggle whenever she would show you his heart. Kade had a big heart. Cade also met an untimely death due to a quick onset of Colic. It took him down way too fast and the Vet couldn't save him. We were all saddened by this news and Kenna cried for days over the news of Cade's death. She kept saying she didn't get to say good-bye or give him a hug. She had just seen him at her riding lesson which was just a few days before he died. Here's a picture of Kenna with Choco, another one of her favorite horses. I thought you might like to see a picture of her.

Anyway, my point of this post is a QUILT that I wanted to make for Tracy to thank her for being an Angel in our lives and to help give her some comfort since Cade's passing. Also, I wanted it to be a special tribute to Cade. Sob! Sob! Sometimes, it takes me a long time to figure out what I want to do. Infact, I had the strips cut out for months and then recently I decided to change the pattern while I was on the Quilt Shop Hop in June. My friend Diana had told me about a split nine-patch that someone had shown her using the popular "Charm Packs." What you do is you take the number of squares in a charm pack and divide it by nine and that will give you how many blocks you'll get out of a charm pack.

For example, "It's Snowing" Charm Pack comes with 37 squares, so, take that number and divide it by 9 (that's how many squares you need for each 9-patch). You will get a total of Four Split Nine-Patch Blocks out of each charm pack (see the picture below). So to make a quilt with Twelve Split Nine-Patch Blocks you would need to buy three Charm Packs. You'll understand more as I give you the instructions below. If you have any questions you can email me or leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

Well, I decided that I would make a split nine-patch quilt for Cade from the 3 1/4" strips I already had cut and since he's black and white with a heart on his buttocks I thought I would throw in a touch of red for love and kisses. Hence, Kisses for Cade is the name of this quilt.

Kisses for Cade
Designed by Kimberly Walus

Please note: I would have used an even number like 3" if I hadn't already had the fabric cut to 3 1/4" but I was lazy and didn't want to cut down every single strip. You can make your squares 2, 3, 4, or 5 inches but, I wouldn't go bigger than 5 inches. The 5" charm packs make a 13 1/2" block, unfinished.

Here's what I had previously cut for the quilt I was making before I changed my mind:

• Twenty 3 1/4" strips of a variety of black on white fabrics.
• Twenty 3 1/4" strips of a variety of white on black fabrics

In addition to the above strips I cut:

• Five 3 1/4" strips of a variety of red fabrics. These are the centers of my nine-patch blocks.
• Then I took each strip and sub-cut twelve 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" squares from each of the 45 strips of Black, White, and Red fabrics.
• Then I arranged them into groups of 4 blacks, 4 whites, and a red center (see the nine-patch photo below).
  

This is the picture of the Nine-patch block before you split (cut) it into four squares. Measure 1/2 way and cut down the middle horizontally and vertically. See below.

This is a picture of the split nine-patch that will be turned into a four-patch.

After you cut apart the nine patch block, keep two red squares kissing in the middle and the other two red squares are turned out toward the outside corners. See picture above.

Sew the four squares together as pictured above.

Here are four of the five piles of blocks I've made so far. Each pile has 12 blocks so when I'm done I'll have 60 blocks. I'm not sure how big I'll make the quilt but I'm going to divide up the 60 blocks and make 2-3 quilts. One for her teacher Tracy, one for Kenna, and one for my grand daughter, Kora Belle. Anything Black, White, and Red provides great visual stimulation for babies so I thought I'll make her one too while I'm at it. Anyway, I'm thinking the quilt with be 4 blocks across by 5 rows down which would be 20 blocks per quilt. I've included pictures of the two possible block patterns. When I sew them all together and add borders I will post more pictures of the finished quilt. I will also post pictures of the Christmas split nine-patch blocks when I make them into a quilt too. I hope you enjoy this fun and easy block.

Once you have the blocks done you can lay them out in two ways.

The first way is with the red squares and the black squares meeting in a group of four. This pattern creates more of a X and O pattern or hugs and kisses.

Here is another way of putting the blocks together.

Each block is placed in the same direction with the outer red corners touching a black square and then repeated the same way each time. This creates more of a random feel and all of the red squares kiss each other rather than creating a four-patch of red as in the layout above.

My problem is: "I can't decide which block layout I like better!!!!" Help! Which layout do you like better? Also, If you decide to make this block into a quilt I'd love to see pictures!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie. . .Oh My!

My husband loves to search the internet and find fun and interesting things to cook. I like to do that too and have found some great recipes from my blogging friends. Tonight we have two recipes from my husband that he made for dinner and I provided the dessert thanks to Bakerella whose blog I found on a blog of a blog of a quilting friends blog.

I'm pretty sure it was from Thimbleanna's friend Melly's blog that I went on to a link to Bakerella's blog, very very complicated, I know. The name of the dessert is Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie. . .Oh My! It's a recipe from the Nestles Classic Recipe Book printed in 2003.


It gets complicated when you start looking at everyone's blog. You almost forgot where you found something if you don't at least bookmark it. Bakerella has a wonderful website with lots of inspiring pictures and recipes. Go have a look, her pictures are beautiful. You can just about smell it cooking in the oven. Here's the recipe. The one thing I changed was I sprinkled chocolate chips and pecans on the top. Don't they look pretty?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

• 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell*
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Serve with ice cream (optional)

Preheat oven 325 degrees F.
Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high until foamy.
Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter.
Stir in morsels and nuts and spoon into pie shell.
Bake for 55-60 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm.
Recipe is from Nestle Classic Recipes printed in 2003

* If using a frozen pie shell, use deep dish style and thaw completely. Bake on baking sheet and increase baking time slightly.

Dinner deserves it's own blog post so I'll end it here and start anew. Hope you enjoyed tonight's dessert.