Here he is!

Andrew David was born on 2/24 at 8:39am.  He weighed 2 lbs, 9 oz and was 14"  long.  He is perfectly proportioned and looks like a tiny doll.  He is in the level two nursery at the hospital and is doing remarkably well for a 28 "weeker".  He was only on the ventilator for 12 hours and then put on CPAP.  After only 18 hours on CPAP the unit was removed and now he just has a little cannula (those air tube thingies) in his nose.  He is sucking on a tiny Binky and is just amazing.  His nickname in the nursery is "Baby Magic"!  His mama got to hold him for the first time last evening and it was a joy to see.  We are truly blessed.

Away for a while

I know my posts are sporadic but this time I am giving advance notice.  My grandson will most likely be making his appearance today.  Amy went into labor yesterday which they managed to quiet temporarily.  Very early this morning labor started again but she had not dilated any further so they gave her something to stop the contractions again.  If she starts real active labor again, they will do a C-section as the baby is transverse and with very little amniotic fluid he cannot turn.

I am in a bit of a holding pattern since things are so up in the air, however, snow is due to fall tomorrow and if I am traveling, I need to travel today.  I am packed and ready to roll.  I am just waiting to hear the next update from the doctor to have an idea of when the baby will be born.

Thanks to all of you who sent preemie patterns for Andrew!  I discovered some wonderful sites and have a lot of ideas for making things for our little guy.

I know that Amy has carried Andrew for these additional weeks because of prayer and the grace of God.  Thank you for your prayers, positive thoughts and kind words.

Creative? Not so much…

I had some big sewing plans for this weekend but ended up spending little time in the studio.  I stayed busy, just not doing what I had originally intended.

My oldest son and his wife were expecting their third child in May. Amy’s (DIL) water broke at 24 weeks into the pregnancy and has been in the hospital since that time.  The baby is now at 28 weeks and we are praying that he hangs in for another six weeks though that is probably not realistic.  As you can imagine, this has been a difficult time for their family.  The hospital has strict rules about no one under the age of 18 being allowed to visit.  Amy misses her children terribly and they miss their mama.  She did have one 5 minute visit in the lobby with security standing nearby.  (Don’t even get me started on the importance of the mother’s mental health in addition to her physical well being!)  At first there were a lot of phone calls and visits from friends but as the hospital stay has lingered on, fewer visits.  Thank goodness Amy’s mother has been able to stay with Chad and the children which has been wonderful. I will go down after the baby is born and then I will be in Virginia for two weeks in June to take care of Andrew so that Amy can go back to work and finish out the school year.  Since I can’t visit, I send lots of emails and sent her a package on Saturday.  I want to send something again next weekend so I whipped these up

I love making burp cloths.  I used a piece of fabric from my stash and backed them with chenille.  No quilting, just some simple sewing and top stitching.  I think I will make a couple of matching bibs before I pop them in the mail next weekend.  I have some flannel left over from Alex’s baby quilt and a piece of Minkee from another project.  I am going to whip up a quick little quilt.  I know Andrew (new baby) will not be able to have it in the isolette with him after he is born but I wanted to make something for him. 

Speaking of which – does anyone know where I could find a pattern for preemie baby clothing?  I just want to make some little, tiny onesies and maybe a diaper shirt or two.  Best case scenario, Andrew will be around 3 lbs when he is born.  If he is born in the next couple of weeks only in the 2 lb range.  I can’t even imagine how tiny he will be!  If they release him at 5 lbs, he is still going to be way too tiny for a standard newborn clothing.

I also did some mindless stuff

I needed labels and it is easier to just make up an entire sheet, iron them on ribbon and do all the cutting at one time.  (My cutting mat looks disgusting!)  I have no excuse now to start working on bags…but I will probably think of something!

Sick of snow

There, I said it!  I never thought those words would come from my mouth (or my fingers) but I have had enough for this year.  I am tired of shoveling, salting and slipping!  I am longing for green grass, warmer days and an electric bill that isn't ridiculous.  Thankfully the weather warmed up just a tiny bit today and lots of snow melted off my porch roof and sidewalk.

Now that I have the whining out of the way...I got nuttin'!  I still have not picked up the bookcases from my sister so I still have stacks of fabric on a card table in the studio and that's just annoying the heck out of me.  I have so many projects that are in the "half baked" stage.  It is time to start my spring/summer collection of bags and goodness knows I have the fabric.  I honestly think the weather is just getting to me.

I will do something terribly creative tomorrow and share photos and everything.  (My best friend just mentioned that I had not posted in over a week.)  I respond to guilt...

Oh dear...

I just shoveled the sidewalk in front of my house.  A lovely man at the end of the block came through with a snow blower about 4 hours ago.  Unfortunately, just as he finished the pass by my house, the snow blower broke.  I thought I would go out and shovel a bit just to try to keep up with the snowfall.  I dug down roughly 6".  We have had more than 15 inches since it started this morning.  It is supposed to snow through tonight.  I don't even want to think about trying to dig out my car tomorrow.  I may be here until the spring thaw...

Snow day!

I know, you’re tired of snow, tired of winter, etc.  Me, too!  However, today is an official “snow day” at work and I don’t have to go in or do any work related stuff and there is no guilt.  Since I am salaried, I don’t have to take a vacation day and I don’t have to make up the time.  It’s a GOOD thing!  I probably will not be dug out by tomorrow so I have permission to work from home on Thursday.  I love working from home because there are no interruptions and I get so much more accomplished.  I am very disciplined so I really do work.  I do take the occasional break and throw a load of laundry in the washer or do another small household task but mostly I work.

Today I will be working on a new bag design for Hazelnut Hill.  It is my “Lunch Bag” and so much prettier than brown bagging it.  Here’s a little preview:I am using some lovely Moda fabric that I had in my stash.  It has two pockets across the back interior and a little pocket that holds the juice box size frozen cooler container.  It is lined with fleece and thermal batting to keep things cool.  I am going to make a matching purse and I think that will be my bag for the rest of the winter.  I love my black leather Coach bag but it’s boring.  I need a little “zippidy doo dah” to finish out this cold, gray season! 

There are a couple of other little sewing projects I want to finish today.  One is a gift that needs to get in the mail by Saturday.  You know how I like working under pressure!

Weekend recap

Let’s see…I dug out my car, shoveled my sidewalk 3 times, cleaned my bedroom, watched 7 DVDs, soaked beans that never softened, made cinnamon rolls, finished quilting the Halloween wall hanging but still have not bound it, quilted and bound the Valentine’s Day table runner, cleaned the studio and made a twin sized quilt flimsy.  (I also fell off the porch, twisted my back and wrenched my knee!)

Oh my goodness!  I am looking at the photo of my quilt and see that I put a row on upside down.  Thank goodness I only have one border on it.  Darn!  I was so proud of myself.  (Pride goeth before the fall…)  At first I thought I hung the quilt upside down because I noticed the roses were upside down and then I realized that pink points do not touch.  By the way, this is my favorite quickie quilt pattern.  It’s called “Four on the Floor” from The Quilt Connection.  You can honestly make a baby quilt start to finish in about 2 hours and a lap quilt in 4 hours.  Anyway, I just looked at the quilt and it is the second row from the bottom that is turned upside down so that should not be too big an ordeal to fix…but I can almost guarantee it will not be fixed anytime soon!!

Snow Day

I live in the area of Pennsylvania that is predicted to get between 10 and 12” of snow.  About 3am there was a little over 8” on the ground.  It is expected to snow all morning and then taper off to flurries this afternoon.  Since I probably will not dig out the car until tomorrow morning as the road conditions will be questionable today, I am going to sew all day…except when I have to take some time to clean and organize my bedroom.  (It looks like a 16 year old boy is sleeping in there!)
Last Saturday I picked up a pack of charm squares to make a quick table runner for Valentine’s Day.  You know, charm squares = fast and easy, right?  Well, not necessarily.  I chose the “Jingle Jolly Runner” from Happy Zombie as I like the hidden stars design.  I had thought about just sewing squares into a simple rectangle but wanted something with just a little more pizzazz.  I took it with me to S4 and thought I would have it finished by the end of the day.  I should have actually read over the pattern BEFORE I packed up my stuff to take with me.  Why it never occurred to me that I would actually need fabric to make the stars is beyond me.  (At this point I blame everything on menopause and lead in my china!)  I ended up being my sister’s “assistant” which was nice for her but I was totally frustrated!  This past week every morning I have worked on the table runner before leaving for the office.  I finished it Friday morning so today I will layer and quilt it.  Here it is in flimsy form

(I know – you are loving my design floor – right?!)
I have a pile of projects that need completion so I am also going to finish quilting this cheater panel with a couple of borders added for interest.

When S4 was on retreat last summer I made this using part of my batik collection

You can see that it has been folded and in a drawer since August!
I also have two large totes that I started months ago and never finished.  I needed lining fabric for both which I picked up last weekend so they are in the “need to finish” pile

Both of these will have box bottoms so the emphasis will be on the larger prints at the top of the bag.  I really like using stripes for bag bottoms.
I just made a pot of coffee, have dough in the bread machine and there are beans soaking for soup.  This is gonna be a great day!