It's A GIRL!!!

On Monday, January 25th, our son and his wife found out the "Lil Bean" (their name for the little one since they found out they were pregnant) is a GIRL!!! I thought it was a boy but, as usual, I was wrong and thrilled to be wrong. They have a name picked out and per my son's qualifications it must have the initials "J. V." after his brother. Had it been a boy, it would have had his brother's name but if a girl, his brother's initials. I hurt for my son and daughter without their brother almost as much as I hurt for myself. Lil Bean has been a good distraction for our son and family.
Once I found out, I couldn't put down the sewing itch for even a whole day. I leafed through quilt patterns and shopped the stash and here is the happy result. I've made a lot of quilts and I've liked almost all of them but there are a few that jump out and just grab me. This is one of them. I really, really, really, like how it turned out. Except for the white and yellow, it is stash fabric. Even the flannel backing I purchased on sale in a quilt shop some months ago for a mere $3 a yard. Quilt shop flannel for $3! I made a fleece blanket like this 3 years ago for our first baby granddaughter. It was so much work and I had to purchase so many different colors of fleece, I just went ahead and made two hoping our daughter would soon get pregnant. Well, she did get pregnant, with triplets! And there wasn't fabric for 3 of them, I didn't want to go back and do two more, and I had something else in mind for her little ones. So the unfinished blanket lanquished in the UFO pile...until this week. I had enough flannel left from the quilt to back the fleece and so Lil Bean now has two blankets for her crib.

I tried a new hobby this week. Beading.

My daughter and I have a bead stash that was mainly gifted to us. She's tried it and now I have. It is not destined to make it onto my hobby list. While I like the stitch markers I made, it was tedious (and knitting isn't???) and detailed (again, knitting/crocheting isn't?) and I just didn't care for it (unlike knitting/crocheting/sewing/cross stitch). So I made 22 stitch markers and gave the beads back to my daughter with some of the completed stitch markers. If I want pretty stitch markers, I'll check out etsy.

The weeks are flying by with so much to do and so much to keep me occupied that I'm surprised I'm still getting some things done. It's still hard to focus and work on projects so the excuse of having to get ready for Lil Bean has forced my hand a bit. I've learned much from the Grief Share group. One thing is not to rush myself or let anyone else so I'll just celebrate when I do finish something.