Sugar Sand top finished

For my great-niece whose baby girl is due in June.

She lives on a dune near Lake Michigan. So I used one of my favorites, a light brown linen that looks like sand[paper] with her favorite baby colors hot pink and yellow. The sand along Lake Michigan is so beautiful they call it "sugar sand."

Hanging next to it is the backing fabric. Many of the fabrics are from my stash sister Nancy, including the framing fabric with pink leaves (which I love!). Nancy loves pink, so she gave me tubfuls. I purchased the ones with pink and yellow combined. I must say I like this combination.

So much fuzz and fabric dust

I really love this book. I was inspired for this quilt by Jacquie Gering's alternate grid Scandia Crush (second photo below), using variable framing. The idea is to "float" the blocks in various positions within blocks. It was a very pleasant, creative, improvisational process.

Portofino placemats & napkins

My great-niece is getting married in Florida soon, so we Michigan aunts are giving her a shower, for which she is flying in.


I "shopped" for fabrics to make placemats and napkins in the stash Nancy has given me from her travels in South Carolina and Michigan. The bride and groom have chosen red accents for their kitchen. Their taste is elegant and traditional.

My love affair with printed linens like this deepens. It's like a toile, but is it?

I thought it would make magnificent napkins.

And I think I was right.

We'll see if I make it with these and the chicken salad to the shower tomorrow since I came down with a hum dinger of a cold last night. Don's chicken soup (from the chicken for the salad, yes) is soothing my raw throat. In fact, he is helping with all the prep and will even drive the stuff across the state in the morning if I am not up to going.

I hope Emma has chosen as much of a winner as I did nearly 36 years ago.