Easter

Oh gosh...somehow I forgot to post these pictures from Easter. 

We hosted Easter at our house this year which was fun, and also a lot of work.  We had a total of 14 people here including Joey/Andy and the kids, my parents, Dan/Ellyn and Erin and her new BF, Will.  It was wild and crazy but oh SO much fun!!

We ate lots of food, drank many drinks, played cards, laughed and generally had a great time.  It was so fun to have everyone out here to spend the holidays with us.  We have such a good space for entertaining (though...we DO need a new dining room set to fit everyone).  We're so thankful for a full house and family that loves us.

Maybe the best part of hosting Easter was that we did it on Saturday instead of Sunday meaning I decided we were going out to breakfast on Easter Sunday and a nap was mandatory for me, and the kiddos, a perfect Sunday, right?

A New Baby, A New Quilt

There are quite a few babies lined up for 2018 so I started early to try and get a head start.  This quilt is for my very best friend Dan's new baby daughter.  She's due in April and I was slow getting her big brother's knit blanket done a few years back so I knew I needed to do better this time around.

I have been wanting to give hand quilting a try, so when I saw this super fun panel from Cotton and Steel, I knew it was finally time to figure out how it worked and give it a try.  It's hard to see in these two pictures but at the end, there is a closeup of the quilting.  The nice part about this quilt is that it came together pretty quickly.  Since I wasn't piecing the blocks together the process started with quilting the three layers together (top, batting and back).

I used embroidery thread and a pretty big needle to just and stitch around each of the little characters on the front.  I used a sewing hoop and did this almost completely from the couch while watching TV.  I could watch all of my guilty pleasure crap TV and be productive at the same time, win win!

After finishing the quilting I made the binding and machine quilted it to the front...then hand stitched it to the back.  This is how I bind all of my quilts and I've been really happy with the results.  I added a little label to the back so she'll always know where it came from, grabbed a few pictures and packed it up to be mailed.  I can't wait to meet this sweet baby girl when she gets here!

1 Family x 12 (April)

It's rare that I get TWO good photos in a month, so I'm posting them both.  The goofy one is just too good to pass up.  Happy Easter from the McGraths!