Thursday, November 23, 2017

Why I haven't yet discovered the mysteries of the universe


Daughter 2 came up with Granddaughter the Youngest for a few days, which was LOVELY. This gave me the incentive to finish her cot quilt. The colours were chosen to match her bedroom, which has white walls, crimson curtains and a bedside rug of stripes of various reds, lilacs and blues.  I decided to try quilting the middle part in an  overall wiggly pattern, which was quite labour-intensive but worked fairly well. I'm not sure I'd do it again - possibly it detracts from the patchwork design? - but I quite like it. I wanted to do hearts around the edge, though, because (obviously) I love her.




On a whim, I did the back in random patches, though I now wish I'd used fewer of the darker red fabrics (although the red isn't nearly as scarlet as it looks here). Still, it was an interesting experiment. Of course I hadn't really thought it out and it was more of a fiddle than I'd expected to get the back oblong corresponding to the front one, which it needed to do for the quilting. Also, I discovered that my (hand) quilting stitches tend to look more even on the front than the back. All this is possibly why most people don't do this... .


Generally speaking, however, I liked the patchwork design and might use it again in my next, bigger, quilt for Granddaughter the Eldest. (I keep thinking that I should try triangles but keep not doing so.)


 Anyway, the baby! So lovely!




She met her biggest cousin, who was surprisingly excited about it considering that he already had two little girl cousins: Granddaughter the Younger and a cousin on his dad's side. He does think that the next baby - due in a few weeks to his dad's brother and sister-in-law - should be a boy, though. Well, there's a 50/50 chance.



Son, Daughter-in-Law and Granddaughter the Younger came down too, as did Mr Life's cousin. This was lovely, though Granddaughter the Younger was possibly less impressed by the baby than the rest of us were. In fact she was extremely unimpressed when her mum and dad cuddled Granddaughter the Youngest!



I like this picture: a family scene.



And here's G the Y inspecting with apparent astonishment her Auntie Daughter 1.

It was so wonderful to see them all together. I hope they grow up to like one another - I know cousins aren't always close. I myself have no cousins and always wanted some. I've always been glad that our children get on well with their only two cousins, though they don't see all that much of them because of distance.

15 comments:

  1. A beautiful family, love the quilt. Were the hearts hard to do?

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  2. Anonymous5:45 pm

    Such a lovely family!

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  3. Your quilt is lovely. You've come a long way from the first one you made.
    Love seeing the pictures of your grands....all are beautiful. The two eldest are so BIG! So nice they will grow up with their cousins. My dad is from England (mom from Belgium) and my sisters and I grew up in the states. We feel we missed out not being with cousins and grandparents. We did visit England but not often enough to feel comfortable with family. The distance was too great. You and your children are blessed. Patty Mc

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  4. Your quilt is beautiful! The colours are lovely and the effect of the hand quiltingi makes it very soft and welcoming - hand quilting is very special, and not just because of the time involved! And your grand babies are pretty special too :)

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  5. See, Daughter 2/Sister? Everyone looks double-chinned when looking down adoringly at a baby.

    Or I hope they do.

    K/Daughter 1

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  6. Wonderful photos! It looks like a lovely time. I am not close with my cousins, although I really like my Grieve cousins. Most of them live in Seattle though, thus it's hard to get together. The cousins on my mom's side are crazy. Literally.

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  7. Your quilting reminds me of the ones I saw in the American Museum in Bath many years ago. Very accomplished! I'm getting quite confused about your grand daughter names, but they know who they are so that's alright. I have only one cousin, lovely woman, but ten years older so we didn't meet much as children.

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  8. I'd expect they will be friends. I was always astonished at the way our son (only child) got on so well with his (female) cousin who lived at other end of the country, seemingly picking up conversations months later as if they'd only been apart an hour of two. They're now late thirties and still great friends.

    I love your quilting, the colours and the contrast in quilting stitches work so well. A great job!

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  9. You are definitely ready for triangles - go for it!

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  10. You are definitely ready for triangles - go for it!

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  11. Lovely quilt for granddaughter the youngest....(But if you have another granddaughter what will you call her?) I only had two cousins that I knew, and now one has died. But my children grew up with many cousins around and are close to them!

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  12. I have 24 cousins. None of them are soulmates, but there is a connection there, we swap stories of our gran and the mad uncles (I have 11 of them). And they speak fondly of my mum, who was the matriarch of our family. Families are such a mix of personalities, some good, some not so.Your little family is lovely.

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  13. Ohmygosh Pam -- the back of your quilt is like a whole new front! I've always thought it was very hard to get the fronts and backs lined up like you've done - and it's hand-quilted -- Bravo! It's beautiful! Next time you're in London, you'll have to take a picture of it in her room for your adoring public. It looks like you all had a wonderful visit -- so fun to have everyone together!

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  14. Well done with the hand quilting. The back is always a bit different unless you have 20 years experience.
    Your growing family is delightful. The train set up looks good for the young engineer.

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  15. Hello!
    Lovely work...my quilt for my granddaughter got finished last minute too!

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