AURORA - It was sleeping beauty's name, real name before she was "Sleeping Beauty" which was a nickname after she fell asleep.
AURORA -Is a suburb of Denver, CO where my two little granddaughter's live, and who I visited during the Christmas holidays. And that is where my story begins actually, with my daughter Amber.
AURORA - Is the name of my sewing machine. She worked very hard the last few months and I am very proud of what this aurora accomplished so I am going to share it with you.
And she lives up to her name, Aurora, meaning the 'Dawn' or 'burning' because this little gal started every morning at 4:00 a.m. and burned all day until Christmas. (except the days that I actually went to work...) So the story begins when Amber came to visit and happened to look at my stash of unfinished sewing projects and piles of fabric. "NO MORE MATERIAL FOR YOU!" she said, "UNTIL THESE PROJECTS ARE COMPLETED!"She grounded me from all material stores until my projects were complete. Like the obedient mother I am, I started working really hard on that goal. This machine has a little feature called a BSR which helps free-motion the quilting.
My first project was a T-shirt quilt. Not for my husband, but for his best friend Keith. He has run some very impressive marathon races in the last 32 years with Rock. He has been Rock's inspiration all these years, as well as his good friend. I made it for him for his 70th birthday in November.
(This was the only one where the Quilting was done by a long-arm, not the Aurora)
This little princess quilt is for our 3-year-old princess SIENNA. It was a panel which I put lots of little 2 1/2 inch squares surrounding it.
The quilting was difficult because I tried to go around all the little figures which is hard to see in a photo.
This is the COWBOY RYDER quilt. (he actually has more interest in Sponge Bob and Thomas the Train, but his brother had a cowboy quilt so he wanted one too.)
These are the MCKAY quilt and the HUNTER Quilt. Two the same. They share a room and love outer space things.
(aside to any quilters out there; fabrics that go well with outer space are the Christmas fabrics. Something about the twinkling genre goes well with planetary motifs. And what a good time to buy Christmas fabric on sale right now! That is if you're not grounded from the fabric store.)
Butterfly MEIKA quilt. I made two quilts of the same pattern but different material. Thanks to my daughter Brooke who embroidered all the antennae. (a reminder that I only could use my stash, so this is really scrappy. Every piece of fabric in this quilt had butterfly's on it to keep the theme going...except the solid purple.) 
AURORA -Is a suburb of Denver, CO where my two little granddaughter's live, and who I visited during the Christmas holidays. And that is where my story begins actually, with my daughter Amber.
AURORA - Is the name of my sewing machine. She worked very hard the last few months and I am very proud of what this aurora accomplished so I am going to share it with you.And she lives up to her name, Aurora, meaning the 'Dawn' or 'burning' because this little gal started every morning at 4:00 a.m. and burned all day until Christmas. (except the days that I actually went to work...) So the story begins when Amber came to visit and happened to look at my stash of unfinished sewing projects and piles of fabric. "NO MORE MATERIAL FOR YOU!" she said, "UNTIL THESE PROJECTS ARE COMPLETED!"She grounded me from all material stores until my projects were complete. Like the obedient mother I am, I started working really hard on that goal. This machine has a little feature called a BSR which helps free-motion the quilting.
My first project was a T-shirt quilt. Not for my husband, but for his best friend Keith. He has run some very impressive marathon races in the last 32 years with Rock. He has been Rock's inspiration all these years, as well as his good friend. I made it for him for his 70th birthday in November.(This was the only one where the Quilting was done by a long-arm, not the Aurora)
This little princess quilt is for our 3-year-old princess SIENNA. It was a panel which I put lots of little 2 1/2 inch squares surrounding it.The quilting was difficult because I tried to go around all the little figures which is hard to see in a photo.This is the COWBOY RYDER quilt. (he actually has more interest in Sponge Bob and Thomas the Train, but his brother had a cowboy quilt so he wanted one too.)
This is the RIVER quilt, or as I lovingly refer to as the "MOTHER BEAR QUILT" because quilting free-motion on your sewing machine is like fighting a bear. This one was like fighting the Mother Bear, it was so hard to manipulate. River also loves outer space.
The fabric with the outer space pictures was a panel which I cut up into squares, and I had three of them for the 3 oldest grandsons who always like to be alike.
These are the MCKAY quilt and the HUNTER Quilt. Two the same. They share a room and love outer space things.(aside to any quilters out there; fabrics that go well with outer space are the Christmas fabrics. Something about the twinkling genre goes well with planetary motifs. And what a good time to buy Christmas fabric on sale right now! That is if you're not grounded from the fabric store.)
Butterfly MEIKA quilt. I made two quilts of the same pattern but different material. Thanks to my daughter Brooke who embroidered all the antennae. (a reminder that I only could use my stash, so this is really scrappy. Every piece of fabric in this quilt had butterfly's on it to keep the theme going...except the solid purple.) 
This is the KATHRYN quilt. All the fabric is Batik which I bought while working at Elaine's quilt store years ago. I don't know if any other quilt shops even carry it. Most of these are orphan blocks from a similar quilt I made for her sister years ago. 
Batik is beautiful hand dyed fabric with very unique designs on it which is hard to see in this picture. Thanks again to my daughter Brooke again for embroidering all the antennae.
The LYDIA Quilt. This was a fun project! The circles were appliqued on very simply by just zig zagging the raw edges. I used a little stitch-witchery around the edges to keep it in place, but you could use glue stick too. If I had been allowed to purchase fabric I would have used more solid colors which I did not have in my stash. (This is definitely a quilt that looks better far away and not close up is my opinion.)
The LYDIA Quilt. This was a fun project! The circles were appliqued on very simply by just zig zagging the raw edges. I used a little stitch-witchery around the edges to keep it in place, but you could use glue stick too. If I had been allowed to purchase fabric I would have used more solid colors which I did not have in my stash. (This is definitely a quilt that looks better far away and not close up is my opinion.)The HAYLIANN quilt. This was fun to do, and she is a TEENAGER - YIKES. So she needed something a little girlie! I admit I had to sneak a few hot pink fat-quarters from the fabric store..(shhhh..) This quilt is made with only 2 different square patterns. 
The ALYSSA quilt was actually put together by her mother after I sewed all the half-square triangles, years ago. So, this was always ear-marked for Alyssa. It had just been resurrected from a pile of unfinished projects to show up bright and merry on Christmas day! (note to quilters; the half square triangles were done unsing a pre-printed paper roll that you just sew over - really fun and easy. In fact, i will need to make another quilt with these because I have tons more orphan rolls.)
These are the ADALYN and the MYLEE quilts. They are 11-year-old cousins, just a few weeks apart by birth, but they think they are twins. Addy's has a little more blue tones, and Mylee's has a little more of the green tones.
The ALYSSA quilt was actually put together by her mother after I sewed all the half-square triangles, years ago. So, this was always ear-marked for Alyssa. It had just been resurrected from a pile of unfinished projects to show up bright and merry on Christmas day! (note to quilters; the half square triangles were done unsing a pre-printed paper roll that you just sew over - really fun and easy. In fact, i will need to make another quilt with these because I have tons more orphan rolls.)
These are the ADALYN and the MYLEE quilts. They are 11-year-old cousins, just a few weeks apart by birth, but they think they are twins. Addy's has a little more blue tones, and Mylee's has a little more of the green tones.
the GINGER Quilt. She is just two-years-old, not sure she is even in a bed yet, but I only had one layer-cake (10-inch square packet) so I had to improvise on the borders to make it big enough. The back of this quilt is cute, a flannel with purple hearts. Flannel is really had to get through the finicky Aurora so I didn't try it again.
This is the EMMA quilt. This was made from lots of orphan fabric and blocks that i had used to make 4 other quilts just like it for some of the other girls in years past. I used part flannel too. The flowers should fray with washing.
These are the Brianna and Bethany Quilts, two the same. They share a room, and they love purple. (keep in mind I wasn't allowed to go buy material and had to use what I had on hand.)
This is the KAYLA quilt. It is a project that had a bunch of orphan squares from a different quilt I made many years ago. I didn't love the muted colors, so I picked a really happy fabric for the border to liven it up a bit. I backed it with a really bright yellow fabric probably from the 1970's stash, and I thought it looked terrible, but KAYLA loved the bright yellow on the back and decided to use the quilt up-side-down. So you never know people's preferences I guess.
These are the Brianna and Bethany Quilts, two the same. They share a room, and they love purple. (keep in mind I wasn't allowed to go buy material and had to use what I had on hand.)This is the KAYLA quilt. It is a project that had a bunch of orphan squares from a different quilt I made many years ago. I didn't love the muted colors, so I picked a really happy fabric for the border to liven it up a bit. I backed it with a really bright yellow fabric probably from the 1970's stash, and I thought it looked terrible, but KAYLA loved the bright yellow on the back and decided to use the quilt up-side-down. So you never know people's preferences I guess.
The JAYMA quilt showed up a few days after Christmas. I had to take my Aurora to the city of Aurora to get it done.
The HALLIE quilt didn't show up in time for Christmas either, but here it is finally done. Amber actually bought the fabric.
The HALLIE quilt didn't show up in time for Christmas either, but here it is finally done. Amber actually bought the fabric.And yes, this time I remembered to put the tags on.
(Was that 20 quilts?) Anyway, I enjoyed sewing them, and I hope my grand kids enjoyed opening them on Christmas Eve. They all seemed happy about it! i told them that if they wanted to know how much we love them to count the stitches because that is the thing about sewing, you do put all your love into every stitch and you think about that person the whole time you are stitching!
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Thanks to my husband for tolerating my obsession!
Our Brooke is a special person, she can do anything and do it fast! She is creative, motivated, and a great mother to her 5 children. She is a marathon runner like her dad, and a quilt-maker like her mother. She also is a voracious reader. Everyone in our family admires and loves her for her many talents. We all like to tease her that she is the "president" of the family. That just means she is really good at taking charge of things! We all look up to her!
