Week 9: A wedding gift

Ben's beautiful cousin Julie and her love Anthony were recently wed in JAMAICA! How cool is that?!?! Since we obviously didn't make it down for the nuptuals, I wanted to send a little something to say congratulations. (And I'm realllly hoping it arrived in the mail and I'm not ruining the surprise!) Eek!

 A very simple tablerunner in a zig-zag pattern using half-square triangles. I think it sort of looks like hearts too, which seems fitting for a wedding gift. There ended up being more "background" than I realized when I started out.

 The yellow and the green each have a bit of a pattern, giving it a little extra. I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I found the background fabric and then spent some time with my mama during the fabulous SuperBowl sale at Material Rewards finding just the right yellow and green.

 The back is from the Sunkissed line by Moda. Lots of bright, sunshine-y colors. Yellows, greens and oranges. It just seems happy. I also did my first fold-over binding where you just bring the back around and create the binding on the front. I think it turned out pretty well and will definitely be using that method in the future with smaller projects.

Here's a close-up of the back. More straight line quilting. Someday I'll learn to stipple and FMQ. Not today though! I should keep an eye out for a good class to take while I'm off work next year. Let me know if you hear of one!

In other news, I'm getting super excited about my first shows for Thirty-One. I'm now an official Independent Consultant and have FIVE, count 'em, FIVE parties scheduled. The first 3 fall under my 30 day mark, which is awesome because it'll help me earn the first level of incentives. The other two fall  under my 60 day mark, so I just have to get one more scheduled to get the second level of incentives. Then I'm taking a BREAK for baby and starting back up once things have settled down.

 My consultant kit full of goodies was delivered on the same day as the two boxes of products from my party. I gotta tell you, I was a little giddy with excitement.

 I'm a dork. Yes, I took a picture of the box. Why, you ask? Well, why not.

Here was the aftermath of going through all three boxes, sorting out everyone's items into individual bags, checking out all MY free stuff, and starting to work through the consultant kit. I promise, my living room no longer looks like this. But I do have tons of goodies to show people who are interested in Thirty-One and some cool new bags for myself!

Six more weeks until baby, and 5 more working at school. I'm glad the marking period ends right before Spring Break so I can get my own progress reports done and some things finished up. (I say that, why do I always act like MY plans are unbreakable?) I guess I should say I HOPE I'll be able to get my own reports done, etc.

Ben & Quinn just finished making a leprechaun trap for Quinn to take to Kindergarten for St. Patrick's Day. Ben suggested painting the rat trap green. I gave that the thumbs down so they had to start over. Poor guys.

Week 8: A little wall decor

Wow! I've actually kept this up for two whole months now! Woo hoo!

This weeks project I've actually had in the works for quite a while! I got the main part done months ago, but it was lacking something. After some awesome advice from you all (thank you!!!) I went and got a little strip of brown to add an extra narrow border. It was JUST the right touch. I love it.

My camera skills are limited, at best, and the colors look really washed out in these pictures.

The plan is to hang it the long way (as pictured above) in the dining room to the right of the windows facing the driveway. For Ben's birthday last year I made a framed wall hanging of guitar bodies out of fabric that hangs on the other side. I think they'll complement each other nicely. Now to decide HOW to hang it! Plus I still actually have to finish staining that window, and put up the rest of the trim. Oy!

The pattern used was "Disappearing Nine Patch" and it went together really quick since I started with a charm pack of Fandango by Kate Spain. I love, love, love precuts. You get a great variety of coordinating fabrics, all cut and ready to go. Plus, Kate Spain is my favorite. For real.

I really love the backing fabric. Too bad it will be up against the wall! The size of this would actually be perfect for a Toddler bed, so maybe someday it will actually get seen. It just seemed wrong to put a boring back on it.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and can't wait to get it up on the wall.

Happy, happy!

I have a few more projects still in the works. I'd really like to get some "baby sewing" done soon, too. I know this little sweetie doesn't need much, but I'd really still like to get some things together that are just for this little one.

My other adventure for this week has been my new business adventure! A few weeks ago I held a Thirty-One gifts home party for Ben's cousin Angie, and I just fell in love with their products. I'm totally hooked and all my consultant related goodies arrived yesterday. More on that to come. :)

And just a reminder of my goal. I'm hoping to reach 25 followers by week 10. I went from 6 followers to 12 just last week (thanks so much!!!) so keep it up! There will be a giveaway of something I've made when we get to 25. C'mon!

Week 6: 100th Day of School!

Project of the Week: Week 6!

Quinn has been getting very interested in my sewing. He comments on fabric, tells me how beautiful things are, and asks a ton of questions. When I asked him what he wanted to collect 100 of for the 100th day of school, he just said "money". Since this was NOT exciting to me, I kind of dropped it and told my mom how not amused I was at the thought of 100 pennies. In her infinite wisdom, she realized what I hadn't. He just didn't have any other ideas. When we started brainstorming, he was suddenly interested in doing all kinds of things. But, to my delight, he stopped me when I mentioned 100 pieces of fabric.

"Oh yeah, I want to do that. Let's do fabric." Love that sweet boy.

About 10 years ago, my mom and I were at a quilt show in Cape Cod and I bought a set of 9 fabric squares, all bug themed. I set them aside, and pretty much forgot about them! Quinn liked the bugs idea so I used the rotary cutter to cut each block into 9 smaller blocks, 1.75" square. We found some other fabrics to throw in too, and quickly had 100 pieces of fabric compiled.

Then I took a 22" x 22" square of solid white and used a quilting marker (disappears when you spray water on it!) to draw a grid of 2"x2" squares for Quinn to place his fabric into.

I pinned the back and batting to the top before we started so it'd be all ready to "quilt" when he was done placing his squares.

He was very methodical. He started in one corner and worked his way around the outside edges, making sure he didn't put two of the same fabrics next to each other.

He was pretty adorable. I know, I'm biased.

It was just the right size to tape down to his play table.

At this point, I put one straight pin through the center of each block so I wouldn't disturb his pattern when I moved it.

For "quilting", I just sewed on top of the squares of fabric, long straight lines that caught each side of each square until each block had been sewn down. It was pretty quick, but there sure were a lot of lines!

 I had some green glittery fabric left over from a banner I was asked to make at church many years ago, and I used that to make some quick binding.

He was so sweet when he woke up and saw it with the binding finished. "Oh mom, it's perfect!" I'm keeping him. Forever.

My beautiful boy with his 100 Days of School project. Thanks for letting me make it with you, Quinn!

I've also been working on little girl birthday presents for upcoming parties. So far I've got one down, one to go. I am most of the way finished with a wedding gift, and have a bunch of machine quilting that needs to be done. I'll get there eventually. The baby does NOT like when I lean over the table or the ironing board, and with all the ironing, cutting, pinning I have to do, baby has not been amused. I may have to figure out a way to either make the table taller or postpone some of my projects until after baby is here.

This week is a short one, as we have Friday off from school. I'm looking forward to a four day weekend with my boys, and hoping that it can be a productive one around the house. Especially since Friday marked the 31 week mark for this pregnancy. We're getting closer every day!

Project of the Week! Week 5!!!

Every year during Super Bowl weekend, my local (and favorite) fabric shop has a big, huge sale. Last year at this time, I headed over to Material Rewards and bought a slew of beautiful threads. Yesterday, I finished up my last project using these very fabrics. That did, of course, mean that I had to head back over for the Super Bowl sale THIS weekend and get my hands on some new beauties. 16 yards of beautiful fabric to be more precise. I have lots of things in mind and can't wait to get cutting into my pile.

This week, I finished up another baby quilt. This is for a yet-to-be-born baby, so I won't give any specifics. It's very, very simple. I just used width-of-fabric strips in some coordinating colors and did very simple straight line quilting on either side of each seam.

I feel like it's really gender neutral, even with the little flowers on the binding.

The back is a white and blue check pattern in flannel.



I especially wanted to use a combination of blues and oranges together. It's really plain, but I do like how it turned out.

Final dimensions: 41"x47"

Both of the boys are really interested in my sewing, both the cutting process and the actual sewing machine. Quinn wanted to help me cut out my next project... umm, no.

 He's using paper scissors and some scrap fabric.

He was one happy camper. I really can't wait until I can teach him how to sew. 

My work-in-progress list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter.

1. Quilt/bind/hang the wall hanging for the dining room.

2. Quilt/bind the "Buttercup" baby quilt.

3. Quilt/bind the "Brown" baby quilt.

4. Finish the top for the purple/white quilt.

I have all 72 blocks done... now to put them together. I'm pretty excited about this one.

Plus I have about 4 non-quilting little projects I'd like to tackle. We'll see. This week should be pretty busy so it probably won't be as productive as some. I'd rather spend time enjoying the kiddoes and Ben anyway. :)

Off to fold some laundry! Hope everyone is enjoying the Superbowl. I sent Ben off to watch it with his sister. She's much nicer than I am anyway, AND she made chicken wing dip. It was a no-brainer. :)

Project(s) of the week! Week 4!!!

It's hard to believe that January is almost over. Time is flying by, and the arrival of this little one gets closer every day! We have used the same bassinet for both of the boys, borrowed from my cousin's family (it's super old, but fabulous) and my grandmother brought it home this weekend. I feel like I'm slowing chipping away at many of the pre-baby tasks - phew!

As for projects this week, I was really productive! I have four "works in progress" going right now, and all got closer to being finished this week.

1) A baby quilt. Kind of "different" colors. It has a place where I might applique a name, but I'm not sure who it will be for. Also, I need to buy fabric for the back and binding. The top is completed and I like the way it turned out.

2) A wall hanging for our dining room. I started this a while ago, but was waiting to find just the right brown for a narrow border. I adventured to my favorite local fabric store this weekend and found a quarter yard of just the right shade. The top is now finished, and I just need to sandwich, back and bind. I even prepared the back and binding already so I really hope to finish this one this week.

3) Another finished baby quilt top. It is darling. Lots and lots of white, so maybe not the most functional, but the colors are lovely. Pale pinks, blues, yellows, greens and browns. Back and binding are ready to go, just needs to be quilted. Not sure if I'll save it to give away, or see if I can sell it. It's really sweet.

4) ANOTHER baby quilt. This one has an intended baby. I just need to get that sweetie's name appliqued on the completed top, and it can get to the back and binding stage as well. I made the binding weeks ago, so I really could be finished with this soon too.

Hopefully ONE of these will be done by next week. I hope!

My real "projects" of the week are much smaller, but still things I'm glad are ready to go. I started getting things ready for the boys Valentine's Day parties weeks ago, but I think they're actually finished now.

For Quinn's class, I used this tutorial:

 Instead of using traditional pinks and reds, we decided to use these bright colors. You print right onto your own card stock and cut out the butterflies. They were super simple. Quinn picked out stickers and put four on each butterfly.

I wrote on the back, and Quinn filled in his name. You're supposed to put googly eyes on the butterfly, and although I bought them, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to take the time to put them on. Maybe another year.

For Nolan's class, I used this tutorial:

The background is supposed to print black, but... I was apparently running out of black ink. The top one is how it's supposed to look, the middle one was mid cartridge fail, and the bottom one was after the black was pretty much gone. I decided they all look fine! For the little ones, they just got 3 Hershey kisses, one of each color foil. For the teachers, I decided to fill the bags up.

Pretty cute, right? And super simple. I think they print out 2 per page, and then I just had to cut them out and staple to the bags. I didn't take a picture of the back, but it's mostly white and I used that space to write the To:/From: info.

Here's some other stuff I made this week, although I've got lots more I want to do with my large fabric scraps.

 I had a little scrap of fabric left over from the first baby quilt, and decided to make it into a tissue pouch with a little handle on it. I was thinking about  how sometimes purses have a key ring inside and thinking that the tag part would hook nicely onto one of those. I really have no idea if I'm right, but in my mind it keeps the tissues more accessible and not sinking to the bottom of the purse.

Here's the view of the back. I don't really need this one, so if anyone local is interested, it's yours for $3. Tissues included.  Sold to Betsy!

Here was my second round of the day.

 Another simple little tissue pouch (and the realization that my ironing board is really ugly!)

Shown here with the tissues inside. (Maybe my next project should be a cover for my ironing board!)

 This one I added a second little tag too, to attach an antibacterial gel holder. It just seemed like they might want to be found together, especially this time of year!

I think it turned out pretty cute. I want to make one for myself, and I'll probably make a whole bunch more at some point. If anyone wants this one, it'll be $3 with just the tissues, $5 if you want the gel and holder, too. (Gifted to my sweet MIL) Although if no one wants it, I could always just keep this one for myself. :)

Superintendent's Conference Day for work tomorrow, which means no school for Quinn. Luckily he gets to have a "Grammy" day and spend the day with Ben's mom. He is VERY excited. He's already packed his backpack full of goodies to play with, and asked Ben to make him a lunch to take along. I'm sure they'll have a lovely day AND she's going to give him a haircut while he's there. Woo hoo! I'm a lucky girl, for sure.



2012 - Project of the week! Week 3!!!

Another week down! This week was a fun one for us. Quinn was "Most Important Person" in his Kindergarten class so we got to put together lots of pictures and memories for him to share. He was excited since he got to "share" every day, and got to play on the computer during lunch time. He has lunch dates with his Aunt Eden, Nonnie, Nolan and me, and at the end of last week both his dad and Pa came into share their instruments with the whole Kindergarten. Good times, I tell ya!

On a crafty front, I did NOT finish a quilt this week. Now that certainly doesn't mean that I didn't start one! (Or two...) More on that in another post. :)

I think my title should really be COMPLETED project of the week because I really do have 4 unfinished projects in the works right now. One is ready for a little applique and then could be quilted and bound, another still needs borders before I'm ready to move on, and two are in the cutting/planning stages... so fun! I am swiftly working through my scraps and fabric leftover from other projects, and have spent a total of $11 this year on notions - mostly thread - so I feel like I'm in good shape.

Okay, so back to my project of the week.

Quinn likes to dress up. He's really into costumes - capes, masks, etc. But he does also like to dress nicely. We got the boys adorable seersucker suits for Easter last year, and he's requested to wear it about a half dozen times since then. The suit came with an adorable pink tie, which he's very attached to. When I mentioned that I could make him some bowties, he was thrilled.

I used this tutorial from A Lemon Squeezy Home (awesome blog, check it out) and it was super easy. She said she used both fleece and felt when making her bowties. I actually used fusible fleece, since I had some leftover from a Christmas project and it worked great. Since it ironed on, I didn't have to pin to keep it in place, and it was both easy to sew through and the right weight to keep the tie nice and fluffy. Highly recommend.

 First Quinn picked out this fabric and decided that he needed a bowtie for St. Patrick's Day. I thought it was a fabulous idea and the green makes his eyes look extra bright. It came together so quickly and easily that I thought I ought to make another one. Makes sense, right?!?!

 Next, he decided maybe he'd need one for Valentine's Day as well. (Side note: We made his Valentine's last week while we were off school for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. As he's putting stickers on the little butterflies he informed me that choosing a heart sticker means that you love that person. Oh boy. He was definitely intentional about where he chose to put those hearts. Cutie pants.)

Then Nolan saw them and decided that he needed his own ties. "Make Noley own tie. Noley need we tie, Mama!" Man, do I love that kid! And he doesn't really sound like a caveman when he talks. But he is pretty hysterical when he's trying to be serious. And he SERIOUSLY wanted me to make him a tie like his brothers. He was NOT, however, as excited to wear it as Quinn. I'm pretty sure it lasted about 15 seconds before he was yanking on it and biting it. Oy. At least one kid was happy.

Quinn got up Friday morning, ran downstairs to get his tie, came back upstairs and informed me that he would need "handsome pants and a white shirt with buttons" to go with his time. "Handsome pants" ended up being charcoal gray corduroys, although he made it clear he would have preferred black pants. Opinions, I tell ya!

All in all, I love the way the bowties turned out and I'm sure I'll make more in the future. The tutorial was super easy to follow, and came together really quickly.

In other news, this baby is fantastically wiggly and I'm just loving it. I got all the 0-3 month clothes out and put them in the dresser my parents gave us. Things are moving in the right direction, but I'm still glad I've got a few months to go!

2012 - Project of the week - Week 2!!!

So two weeks of 2012 down, and two projects conquered! It feels fabulous to be using up some of my stash, and I'm honestly realizing I didn't have as much fabric as I thought I did. Still... I have plenty, I know, but it's not going to be as hard as I thought it would be to work through some of my faves.

I am, of course, already eyeing what fabric I might just have to buy next. The Moda Bliss line by Bonnie & Camille is seriously speaking to me. Seriously. But I must refrain... for now.

This weeks project was the second little girl baby quilt for baby dedication at church in June. I used most of the same fabrics (with one addition) and the same sized simple squares. Instead of a "Trip Around the World", I turned the blocks on point and tried to place the blocks in a random pattern. I guessed at the number of blocks I would need (I know, smart) and had ONE (seriously, only one) block left over when I was done. Two narrow simple borders were added, and I just did straight line, stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. I really like how it turned out. It's not "girly", but I think definitely appropriate for a girl.

 The finished product. I think it's somewhere between 42" and 44" square. It ended up being JUST too wide to use a width of fabric for the back, grrr. But it needed the little border to set it off. The half-square triangles all around the outside edge are from the two darkest fabrics, and I think they frame it nicely.

 I finally used up the very last of my pink sanddollar fabric from my Verna quilt. Sadface. I love that fabric!

 Since I'm trying to use up fabrics, I didn't have a lot of options for the binding. I had to use whatever I had enough of! I like the brown polkadots, though, and they won't look dirty if it's well loved!

 Here you can see the other flaw in my plan to use up fabric. Being just wider than a width of fabric, I had to piece the back a little, but I only have a tiny bit of the green paisley left, soooo.... the back is pieced a little. I kind of like a pieced back (clearly, if you've ever seen my Verna quilt. Hmmm, have I ever posted that?).

The opposite corner, you know, how it's supposed to look! You can see the quilting here too. Really simple straight lines, and I outlined the borders to finish it off. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and even more pleased that I'm both using things up, and keeping up with my goals.

Martin Luther King, Jr. day is tomorrow, so no school for me or Quinn. Ben's taken the day off, and the boys are planning to do a little sledding now that we finally have some snow. Ashly's coming over to take some maternity photos, yay! Looks like it should be a lovely day.

2012 - Project of the week. Week 1!!!

I did it! I finished my first project of 2012 and it feels great!

Here's the back story, and then you can have a peek for yourself.

Every year our church does a baby dedication. When we first had Quinn, the baby dedication was always done in May on Mother's Day. Well since he was just born 5 days earlier, we decided to wait and have him dedicated the next year. A year later, Mother's Day happens to be when my brother is graduating from college and both my parents and grandma will be out of town. Soooo, we go to our pastor and ask him if it would be possible to move it to Father's Day. Since the father is supposed to be the leader of the family and God is our Father, it seemed like a logical move. Long story short, he agreed and we've had it on Father's Day ever since.

Our church's baby dedication is really more of way for the parents and other members of the church to affirm their commitment to the child - to take seriously the responsibility to teaching, loving, and guiding that child in the way that God has commanded. It's really a special, meaningful time.

And another way that it's made special is with the gift of a handmade quilt for every child dedicated. A few weeks ago I asked the woman in charge of the quilts if she could use any for this years dedication. She said she had a few quilts ready that were really more boy themed, but none for girls. Well we've had 1 boy and 2 girls born to women in our church since October so we definitely need some quilts for little ladies on hand! One of those little ladies is my own niece Lavera, so maybe she'll end up getting something made by me!

I used only fabric that I already had on hand, and in this case I already had the squares cut from back when I made my zig zag quilt. It's a very simple "Around the World" pattern, with two narrow borders. The quilting is super simple - just straight lines on a diagonal through each of the blocks. I really love how it came out. I think it's about 42" x 42", but didn't actually measure it.

Stay tuned for next weeks project! Not sure what it will be yet, but I'm really excited to make something new!