I haven’t blogged in a while because my website was being refurbished. I hope you like the new look.

So what have I been doing in the past few months? I’ve been getting ready to close one chapter of my life and open a new one. I’ve been doing the final clean out of the house I’ve lived in for 32 years – the deal is closing even as I’m writing this – and getting ready to welcome my new granddaughter.

What am I doing to get ready for Baby O’Grady? (We call her O’Baby.) I’ve bought another crib and another car seat base, planned and hosted another baby shower, and, of course, been shopping  for dresses. There are at least twice as many cute baby girl outfits as there are baby boy outfits.

But what I’ve been spending most of my time doing is making a quilt for O’Baby. Never mind that she’ll be born this summer and not in need of a quilt for quite a while. Making quilts is what German Lutherans do. We make them for births, for baptisms, for going off to college, for getting married, and for comfort in illness. I don’t know how this tradition started, but I do know it’s been going on for a long time. Years ago the quilts were made from scraps of old clothing. Not so today. Now we get brand new material, cut it up and then piece it back together. On the surace it doesn’t seem to make sense, but it’s so much fun to pick out some of this fabric and that fabric, and abra cadabra, you have a whole new creation. Here’s my latest creation. The design is called Sweetheart Fairies from Fons and Porter, and it was quite a challenge, but well worth the effort. One thing I like about quilting is that it lasts a lot longer than dusting does.

It shouldn’t surprise you to know that I have some friends and relatives that quilt too. O’Baby has two more beautiful quilts from my cousin Carol and my friend Shirley. Carol’s has green buttons in the centers of the blocks, and Shirley’s is an Irish chain pattern and quilted in shamrocks. So O’Baby will be resting in a sea of green and pink. Lucky girl to be so loved already.