Vada's First Birthday!

Vada celebrated her first birthday today, at a party hosted by her parents. 

The birthday girl was all decked out in a pink and brown tutu.  Love the little pigtails that her mommy did for her.

 

 

Vada and her mommy - Stephanie

One year olds are so easy to entertain, blow up some balloons, and they have a great time.

Charlotte on the left, Maggie behind Vada.  And Great-grandpa Von Soosten watching them play.

Vada's quilt, made by her Great Aunt Kay.  Such a pretty quilt!

A close up view of the quilting.  This was quilted by Joan Westhoff.

Yours truly (Grandma Lorri) and Vada.  And yes, she is as cuddly as she appears in her pictures.

Happy Birthday Vada!

Bottle Cap BBQ Table

My husband loves to grill.  I love it when my husband grills.  Several years ago we were eating at a restaurant in Kansas City.  The tables in the restaurant were tiled with beer bottle caps.  It was fun looking at all of the different bottle caps.  So, we discussed several different possibilities for doing a project involving bottle caps.  We decided to make a table to put next to Mark's grill, so he could put his trays and whatnot (his bottle of Bud light) on it while he tends to his grilling.

And when I say "We decided to make a table" I meant Mark would make the table, and I would tile the table top with  bottle caps.  Fortunately several friends volunteered to save bottle caps for us.  I am grateful for this, otherwise we would have a table tiled only with Bud light caps. 

Here are a few photos highlighting our project. 

I sorted bottle caps for several hours.  I sorted them by color.

Mark building the table.  He used Thompson's waterseal on the wood.

 

 

This is a paper pattern I made of the area to be tiled.

Laying out the caps. 

Laying the caps in the mortar.  I was glad I put painter's tape around the perimeter of the tabletop.  I am a rather messy tiler.  Fortunately, my friend Debby helped me with this step.  She and I have done several tile projects together. 

A close up photo of the caps in the mortar.  Some of the caps are really pretty.

Grouting the tabletop.

Done!

A close up of the finished table top.

Next project, another table to sit next to the smoker.  I'm pretty sure my husband was a butcher in his former life.  I'm good with that.

Where's Waldo?

This is the sunflower that Sherry gave me for my birthday last year.  It is made from farm implement parts.  I have named this sunflower Waldo.  We have been experimenting trying to figure out the best place to put Waldo.  Since my husband tends to move Waldo around when I am not paying attention, it becomes an adventure. 

Last year the rabbits ate these; must not have been so tasty this year.  I thought these were pretty.

I spent several days in Iowa while Kristy and Derek went to a conference.  Becky (the other granny nanny) and I took the boys to the park one day while Adelaide was in school.  

If you look carefully, you can see Caedmon in the striped shirt.  It took him awhile to feel comfortable climbing up through the tree house to get that far.  Later in the morning, he climbed up another part of the playground but decided he couldn't get down by himself.  So, yours truly (Grandma Lorri) climbed up the through the playground equipment to help him down.  Fortunately, there is no video of this rescue.  

Charlotte and I at the Sedgwick County Zoo.

Vada at Botanica in Wichita.

Adelaide enjoying making smores at our house over spring break. 

Guess what I'm working on now?

Kay's Tale of Two Quilts

Last year I made a quilt top of star blocks that I had  leftover from a quilt I made several years ago.  My friend Candy and I decided that our friend Pam needed a quilt.  So we decided to have this quilt top made into a quilt for her.  Now all I had to do was make a back for it.  I still had some star blocks so I used some of them.  Then I decided that it needed to have her name and the year on it also.  I used the book Word Play Quilts by Tonya Rucci for the letters and the numbers.  I had the back almost done when I realized that I switched some of the letters. It was 2012 not 2021!  So I ripped it out and fixed it.  I thought about leaving it in there, because none of my quilts are perfect but this time it really needed to be fixed.  When I finished it I thought this was too  nice for just the back .  So after consulting with a couple of people it was decided to make two quilts instead of one.  Joan Westhoff quilted both of these quilts and she did an excellent job. On the Pam quilt she used a variety of motifs that were really spectacular.  From the back it looks like a whole cloth quilt.  Candy and I gave it to her recently.  I hope she likes it.  It was really fun to make this quilt.  I see more quilts with letters and numbers in my future!

Here is the other quilt which I  posted on the blog about a month ago.  I gave it to the ladies at church. 

Playing Catch-up by Sherry

OK. I really can't catch you all up since i last posted.  I apparently am a very bad blogger.  But finally here I am again.  2013 has been keeping me really busy.  Phil and I have moved two of our children and their families to new houses, not far from where they were living, but still, a lot of work.  I have decided I am never moving, ever, i am leaving instructions just to bury me right here, at home, cover me with fabric and I'll be quite content.  But everyone is getting settled in and happy with their new digs.  In the previous post, Kay showed you the doll quilts she made Kendall and Caroline, my granddaughters for their dolls. Here's a picture of my granddaughter with her new doll quilt.

Kendall loved her doll quilt. Purple is her new favorite color.  

I spent February taking a picture every day from a list I found on line and posted them on facebook. It was fun, but a lot of pressure .  It was also hard some days to get it done and to find a suitable picture to fit the prompt. I'd like to do it again sometime, maybe this summer.  I do have some favorite ones to share.

Something that starts with E:  Edgar Von Soosten, my dad

Walking:  two of my little guys going down the hall at school

Playing:  Gavin having a great time with the marble run.

Love:  Jesus died for us because he loves us.

Quiet:  road in front of our house after our first snowstorm. 

. Well, that's all for now.  you're caught up with me through the end of Feb.  March is a whole "nother post.  I promise to try to get it done sometime in April.  Oh check out our other blog, its listed on the right,  I have to update it to but may be another day.  We have a new exciting project to share and its a BIG one.  Later!

Kay's Doll Quilt

I recently made some doll quilts for my nieces Kendall and Caroline.  They both like purple so I made their quilts exactly the same.  I used a churn dash pattern and made them each 24" by 24" square.  I have been working on them since November and just finished them today.  I have had a focus problem and have not been able to get any of my sewing projects finished, so I was glad I finally finished something! 

Charlotte's 1st birthday, her quilt and a little bit of sunflower (posted by Lorri)

Charlotte turned one this weekend. The year has gone so fast.

Playing at grandma's house

She sure does like Ed

Charlotte with her mom and dad AND her new quilt

Charlotte's new quilt was made by her Great Aunt Kay.  The colors are so pretty.  Charlotte was more interested in looking at her quilt than getting her picture taken.

Charlotte Fay with Great Grandma Von Soosten

A whole lap full of babies!  Grandma Lorri with Charlotte Fay (1 year old) and Vada Catherine (10 months)

Vada sitting on her Papa Mark's lap

And, after our recent snow, here is a bit of sunshine:

I saw this sunflower quilted project on Pinterest.  It makes a cheery statement to our front entryway.

 

I also learned a new skill with this project. 

Here is a close up of what I learned.  The round quilting in the sunflower center is called pebbles.  I found a nice tutorial that show some pictures.