{WiP} Wednesday ~ 11/52

Hi there! I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I hope you're doing well, and enjoying Spring a bit. It's been snowy then sunny, and windy then beautiful, and blizzardy then glorious here. It's March in Colorado -- predictably unpredictable. :)

The best thing I've finished lately is a pair of pajamas for my oldest. Tuesday was Pajama Day at school, and even though she's almost 5, she has a size 3 waist. We have a hard enough time keeping her belted jeans up at school, I just knew store-bought pajamas would be Droopy from Guadalupe! :)  So I got out my old Bedtime Story Pajamas pattern from Oliver+S, and modified it.  When I made the first pair for her 3 years ago, I cut the pattern at 18-24 months, so I had to do a fair bit of modifying, but they turned out pretty good!

And the best part? Her pants didn't fall down all day! :)

Other than that, I've been making some bee blocks, catching up from January and February. :-(

Mod Mosaic - January (the bee is now finished, whew!)

Faith Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee - January

Faith Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee - February

 

The final layout of this quilt is stunning. Debbie J of A Quilter's Table is in charge of this quilt, and WOW!!

Faith Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee - March (2 of the 9 I have made so far)

 

Bee Happy - February  (haven't started yet, but aren't the colors cool and refreshing?) :o)

I've also been playing with the layout of my Mod Mosaic quilt again. I realized that I wanted it a bit wider, but didn't want to have to make the blocks, so I took this picture and posted it on Facebook and Instagram and Flickr and asked for everyone's opinions. The overwhelming response was to go with solids in the open space, but place them in a random order. The solids should arrive any day now, and then I can commence to piecing! :)  It'll be really nice to finish this one FOR MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

I've never made a quilt for myself. Or my children. Dave has one from before we were married, but it's hideous and I hope you never see it. Yes, it's really that bad. :o)

And lots of laundry, lots of other projects just screaming to get out of my head. As usual, right? :o)

I've linked up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her regular WiP Wednesday post. Go on over there and be inspired by everyone else linking up today!

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 31/52...and 32/52

(I actually wrote this last week, but never uploaded the pictures, and here we are, a week later, just like that! Poof! So, I'm gonna cheat and just use the one from last week, and intersperse any changes or finishes or new starts. :) )

So...Anna Maria Horner.

AMAZING!!!

On SO many levels. She is personable, she is kind, she is whip smart, she is genuine, she is funny, she is fiercely talented, she is adorable, she is beautiful, she is hard-working. She is what we all want to be when we grow up.

I was blessed to spend some one-on-one time with her on Friday before her first event, and then she spoke to our guild on Friday night.

Let me just say. If you ever have the chance to hear her tell her story? GO! Run like the wind! Pay the money! You will NOT regret it. I'm cheap, and I'm not an artist, and I don't aspire to design fabric. But her talk? Was ridiculously inspiring. For pretty much everyone that came. SO worth every penny.

(and every exhausting minute put into getting her here!)

You can see the exhaustion in my face here on Saturday. I was SO tempted to crop in a better picture of my face, but that might take another week. Or a year. :)

So Friday night was her lecture/trunk show. We saw her creative process, we saw pictures of her as a kid, we saw (and touched) some of her most beautiful quilts, we got to know HER. She was exhausted, I know, but she never showed it. She's all class. :)  And Saturday she taught her multi-tasker tote class. Which, I am SO glad I took as a part of a class!! I'm s...l...o...w..., and I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to reading patterns, but, to me, it was SO worth it!! For one, Rocket Man and I got to hang out with my best gal pals ALL DAY. That was such a treat. And for another, Anna held him pretty much every time he made eye contact with her.

Lemme just pause right there. Just exactly HOW many people can say that Anna Maria Horner held their baby while they sewed??

And for another, it was so valuable to me to have the pattern designer right there at our beck and call. And she was so gentle and democratic when we asked dumb questions. :-) Well, it was mostly only me asking dumb questions, but still. :-)

I really and truly believe that everyone who attended both events found it to be well worth the time and money.

Sadly, I did not finish my tote. And I have not picked it up again, either. I am just now, 4 days later, starting to feel human again! That whole thing just wiped me out! Shattered! Knackered!!

I hope to work on it this week. Once I get my mojo back. :-)

*Update: I finished it this week! Here's a pic:

OH!! Before I forget! Her new line, Field Study, is beautiful and vibrant and fluid and full of character. I love it on MULTIPLE levels. I've already designed a quilt that will feature each print, now I just need to get my mitts on it! Fancy Tiger in Denver has it already, so I may drive up there and buy some. Or all. I usually don't go gaga for collections, but I'm going cuckoo for this one!

*Update: I went to Fancy Tiger and measured the repeat on each one so I know how to use it in my quilt. I also picked up an extra sales brochure of Field Study so I could cut it up. This isn't what the quilt is going to look like, merely a picture so I can remember what prints I want to use.

 

I didn't touch anything from Sunday to Tuesday when I cleaned off my sewing table hoping to kick-start my motivation.

*Update: It's a mess again.

But then I filled it back up again. I'm gonna start small by sewing a banner of little triangles for the girls' room. My friend Amy, of Stitchery Dickory Dock, suggested it as a way to use up wee scraps, and it's darling (just like she is, by the way!), so we're gonna give that a shot this week.

*Update: Here's my oldest girlie helping Mama sew a banner for her room:

And I've got some bee blocks to finish. And others to start. :-)

*Update: I finished my Melissa block. Well, almost finished. I still have to put a strip of aqua across the top and the bottom, and then I've got to do a word that describes our Bee Happy bee. Hopefully I'll get that done this week.

We are going to be putting the girls in the same room soon, and little Buzz will go into the nursery, so I've got some domestic labor in my near future. Blending two closets is not my idea of fun. :-(. And I'm really scared about how they'll do in a shared room!! I anticipate very little sleep for us all in the near future. But it has to be done, so I will go bravely toward the challenge. :-)

*Update: The bunk beds went into their room yesterday, and last night was a "trial run"...that turned into a Papa Left The Room dance party, and ended with a Mama Found Out pity party. :-)  I'm praying tonight goes better.

That's all I can think of for now. Have a great week, and good luck getting some WiPs done!

(I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced's WiP Wednesday spot, hosted by Cindy, this week.)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 28/52

Laundry. Does laundry count as a WiP? Because I can't ever seem to get that one done!

And somehow I missed posting last week's WiP post. Well, let's be honest. I didn't even write it. Busy isn't a word I thought I would be using to describe the summer, but that's the way it has been!

Here are a couple of finishes from the last few weeks.

1. I bought some of that pre-smocked fabric at Joann's and sewed a seam and some ribbon to it, and made dresses for the girls. Of course my 2 yo won't stop moving to get a good picture. She's just a wind-up toy!  And my 4 yo wants to wear hers every single day. Over and over again. It's part cute, part annoying. :o)

2. My aunt called and asked if I wanted my great-grandmother's treadle sewing machine. Um, YEAH!! It has seen better days, and it's seen a bit too much sunshine, but it is stunningly beautiful on the inside.  It's not perfect, and it doesn't work right now. I don't plan to restore it anytime soon, but I guess I could put it on the WiP list. :) I hope to take some good pictures of it someday soon. It is really breathtaking.

3. I finished Nicole's blocks for the Bee Happy Bee. She sent us a handful of shot cottons and asked us to make a large block inspired by the quilts of Gee's Bend. While I had a hard time getting out of my habit to design and organize and engineer a block, I found it liberating that there was no end goal, you know? It didn't even have to be square. She just wanted us to enjoy the journey, and let the block evolve. Love that.

Here are a mere few of my Works in Progress.

1. Bee blocks galore.
Black and white blocks for Shelley in the Mod Mosaic bee. I think this will be a striking quilt.



Word blocks for Alison in the Bee Happy Bee. These are already looking really fun. I can't wait to have the brain cells to start on mine. :)



Scattered Jewels blocks for the {Faith} Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee. I haven't even started to pull fabric for that, so I don't have a picture. I just wanted to put it down here so I don't forget! :)

2. Project 10-4 I can't say more about it, but it involves onesies. :)



3. Multi-tasker Tote Anna Maria Horner is coming to speak to the Front Range MQG on Friday August 3rd, and she's teaching the Multi-tasker Tote class on Saturday, the 4th. I've decided that I'm going to try to cut my fabric out ahead of time, and try to make 2 bags during the class. Yes, I know I'm insane. So, since we're aware that I've pushed my sanity aside, I've got to pick out my fabrics for the two bags. For one, I think I'm going to sew scraps together and "make" my own fabric, then for the other, I'm not sure. I'm thinking of using my beloved Calypso Ovals in blue from Blend. (Love!)  My alternate fabric will probably be a solid. Or maybe a coordinating polka dot. I don't know. :o)  I don't actually know how to pick fabric for things! :o)

4. Mookie's Quilt
We cut the printed fabric for my 4 yo's Heather Bailey summer quilt, now I just need to get the solid to go with it, then we'll cut that and sew, sew, sew. She's got the attention span of a 4 year old, so she might be 8 by the time we finish, but we're going to try! :o)



And dinner. Every day they want dinner. Strange creatures. :o)

Hope you have a great week!

(linking up with Freshly Pieced's {WiP} Wednesday post, hosted by Taryn this week.)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 24/52

Man, these weeks go by fast!

I don't have much "in progress" to show, but I've got a lot on my list, that's for sure!

I was pretty productive this week, though, and got a few finishes! Woot woot!!

I finally  finished Audrey's wonky house block. It's not as cool as the others she has gotten, but I did my best for right now. :-/

I also made a bunch of 9-patch blocks because we make baby blankets for new babies in our guild, and right now we are expecting 6 more babies! I decided to make it easy on myself and got 9 pieces of Sock Monkey fabric and just strip-pieced 9 blocks rather quickly.

And in the end, I decided to make a bag for our Front Range MQG grocery bag swap. It's definitely different than everyone else's, but that's okay. :-). I made it out of a pair of my old jeans that had a hole in the knee, and almost didn't give it away! :-). (tutorial coming soon)

You can see that it's really handy to carry plastic vegetables. :o)

This week I'm working on catching up on all the bee blocks I've got to do.  My goal is to finish Natalie's bookshelf block, and then finish the 2 mod mosaic blocks I have to do for June. Then I'll go back and do Nicole and Alison's blocks for the Bee Happy bee, and then I'm done with those. I hate being this far behind.


I wonder how long I can use the "I've got a newborn" excuse...

(I'm linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced for her regular WiP Wednesday blog party)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 21/52

Happy Wednesday!

Hopefully you've had a great week - in your crafts and everywhere.

Mookie, my oldest, has just wrapped up her first year of preschool, and as much as I love her school and her teachers, I'm glad we are on summer vacation now. Whew!

(This isn't the best photo I took that day, but it's my favorite. I don't want to forget the sound of her laughter.)

As an added bonus, Dave is home for a little bit, too! Life just seems more leisurely right now, and that's just a good feeling. :o)

Another good feeling?

FINISHES!!! Woot woot! :-)

My mod mosaic block for Yolanda.

That's 18 1/2" of mod mosaic goodness right there, folks. Big, yes, but also a treat since I could fit a bunch of special fabrics in there. (if you click the picture, you'll go to Flickr, and can see the notes on the block.)

My Ohio Star blocks for May for the {Faith} Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee.

Kelsey asked for simple, red and white stars to make a quilt for an elderly couple at church, using this tutorial. I really love the crisp look of red and white together. I asked Kelsey if she needed extras because these were so easy to make! They are instant coffee compared to the slow-brew of the mod mosaic block! And I am a slow sewer. :o). Swoon, these are not!

Alas, she only wanted 2, but I can definitely envision myself making a star quilt in the (distant) future. :-)

Alisha's mod mosaic blocks.

These are only 12 1/2" square, but are still time consuming! Alisha wanted red and aqua blocks, and I've still got plenty of that to spare! :o) While I was working on hers, I had planned to make some headway in to a red one and an aqua one for my mod mosaic quilt, but, alas, I got tired of the tiles and grout. Go figure. :o)  I calculated, and since the end of February, I have made 12 mod mosaic blocks...and not a one of them for me! Maybe in June...

And here's a picture of my little flirt:

(7 weeks old now...I can't believe it!)

Look at that smile - no wonder I'm not getting much done! :o)

I just realized that I left out my Pea-pie! My sweet pea, my little sproutling. She turned 2 a few weeks ago, and MAN, is she 2!! Wow.

(enjoying a little pancake with her chocolate chips) :)

And, back to my list:

1. Natalie's bookshelf block.
2. Audrey's house block.
3. Nicole's Gee's Bend block.
4. Leona's mod mosaic blocks.
5. Grocery bag for FRMQG swap.
6. Alison's word blocks.
7. Rocket Man's car seat cover.
8. Baby receiving blankets for my friends.
9. 2 baby quilts for friends.
10. 5 quilts for family members. Wait. 6. Maybe 7.
11. More and more and more.

For now, though, I'm going to concentrate on getting 1-5 done in the next 2 weeks.

Gosh, that makes me tired just to think about! I hope you have a wonderful, craft-filled week!

(I'm linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced for her regular WiP Wednesday blog party)

The BIG Finish of 2012! (...so far...)

(I hope there are more finishes in 2012!)

Even though Tucker (Kelly's son) was born on time, my baby quilt for him was not. I have loads of excuses...

But what matters most is that it. is. FINISHED!!

For the front, I used the Traveler Quilt pattern from the Oliver+S Little Things to Sew book. It is a very simple pattern, although I would like to announce to the world that I believe the fabric suggestions are grossly over estimated. With that said, though, I am making this pattern again. :)

I stepped out of my quilting cotton comfort zone, and used Essex Linen in white, because Kelly loves linen. Kelly also loves blues and greens, so I used solids and prints from my stash (actually, the abandoned "Bottled Rainbows" quilt provided most of them!). I spent a little time in limbo because I didn't order enough of the Essex Linen, and you would think I was asking for fabric made from moon dust the way the fabric stores in Colorado acted when I asked if they carried it! Sheesh!

Once I got the rest of the linen, I commenced to spending hours upon hours with my brow furrowed as I tried to figure out how to piece the back. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use the bits and pieces to make something truly modern, and I settled on the "Confetti" pattern from Block Party. I felt like I was Alexander the Great trying to solve the Gordian Knot! (here's an in-progress picture)

Oy. Good thing I love the back so much. It would really stink if didn't! I bet I spent at least 3 times as much time on the back as I did on the front. Here's the finished back:

(I took the quilt to the park the other day to take pictures, and as my oldest was holding it up, a friend surprised us all by sliding under it. I really love this shot!)

I was inspired to quilt it in waves thanks to the early doorstep arrival of Modern Minimal, by Alissa Haight Carlton. It was perfect for a lot of reasons, and I'm so glad I did the waves!

I used variegated green thread for one wave, and variegated blue thread for the echoing wave, and finished the quilting at the Front Range MQG (fantabulously awesome) retreat in late February. Unfortunately, I had some tension issues with the quilting that caused some tension issues with my attitude, and so the quilt sat.

And it sat and it sat and it sat and it sat and it sat and it sat and it sat and it sat and it sat and it sat and it sat. (who can tell me what that's from?)  :o)

I had to rip out and redo quite a few sections of the blue quilting, and I didn't like the way I was having to bury the thread tails. Finally, oh finally, I found this YouTube video showing a stinkin' brilliant way to hide thread tails, and I do believe my life has been forever changed. Amen.

I (machine) bound it in Maude Asbury's Calypso Ovals in Cool, which I am completely in love with and want to wallpaper my whole house with. Even though it's an oval, if you cut it right, it reads, and thus binds, as a stripe.

It was really challenging for me to not share pictures as I blogged about the process of the quilt. I'm fairly sure Kelly knew the quilt was coming to her, but I didn't want her to know what it looked like until she got it in her hot little hands.

But in her hands it is, even though not-so-little Tucker Man is (oh my goodness, Kelly!) 8 weeks old already. It isn't perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but Kelly knows to apply my "friend" rule when it comes to hand-made projects.  (My "friend" rule is that a real friend doesn't notice the imperfections, and if she does, she doesn't ever mention them to anyone!)

Kelly, I'm glad you love it. That's all that matters. It was made for you. I mean Tucker. :o)

(I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for "finish it up Friday" and I will remove it forever from my "{WiP} Wednesdays" posts! Hallelujah!)


(I'm also linking up with Canoe Ridge Creations for "Sew Modern Monday". It's nice to finish something!)

{Made} Progress ~ 12/52

(12 weeks already? Man, time flies!)

As you can see in the title, I have actually MADE some PROGRESS this week! Unfortunately, not as much as I would like, but, hey, progress is progress!

I had one BIG finish, but can't show you any pictures, yet.

Well, okay. I'll show you one. You knew I was binding the Sea Glass quilt with Maude Asbury's Calypso Ovals in Blue, right? I love, love, love that, if you do it right, it reads as a stripe. In order to see what I'm talking about, though, you'll have to take your eyes off that gorgeous little girl of mine and look to the left a bit. :)

I'll show you more pictures next week. Of the quilt, and of both my girls! There was a lot of fun and frolicking when I was taking pictures of the quilt. :)

Here. I can show you this, though, too. It's the Sea Glass quilt all wrapped and ready to be mailed.

I'm working, working, working on a few things that I MUST get DONE this week.

Still Cooking

1. The Harrison Quilts ~ even more progress, though not finished.
2. Car Seat Privacy Cover ~ I've got the pattern, I've got the flannel, now I just need to make it.
3. Bee Blocks ~  Back to 10, although 4 are really small and simple. I also have 4 Mod Mosaic blocks to do. And we all know that "simple" and "mod mosaic" do NOT go in the same sentence.

4. Receiving Blankets for Juice ~ Umm...I got the serger out. That's a step in the right direction, isn't it? It actually takes longer to trim the flannel to size than it does to make the blankets, I've just been spending my time doing things for other people. And since we induce in less than 2 weeks, I need to get done with that nonsense and get stuff made for my own baby! :)
5. Juice ~ Speaking of baby...here's a picture I took this morning. I'm 37 1/2 weeks along. 

We are going to start our Easter preparations around here, and I decided that Mookie is old enough to understand the real meaning of Easter and the Resurrection. I found this "plan" (it's not really a tutorial), and we prepped the egg carton yesterday and today. Mookie is pretty excited about it. :o)

Mookie learned about mosiacs in school last week, and so we covered the top of the egg carton with a mosaic. (We've only made upwards of 309 mosaics since last Tuesday.)  (Seriously. Between her construciton paper mosaics, and my fabric mosaics, I'm about mosaiced out!)

And, of course, there is QUITE a bit of prep-work to be done around the house before the Juiceman arrives on April 9th. So much. It's overwhelming, really, considering what I want/need to be doing (sewing), what my body wants/needs to be doing (resting), what my girls want/need me to be doing (playing), and what the households wants/needs me to be doing (feeding them, cleaning up after them, getting the baby's space ready).

The rest of my list will remain "on the back burner" until life settles down again after the baby is born.  Dave's mom is coming to stay with us for a bit, and she arrives next Thursday, so that will be really helpful.

I hope you have a very productive, crafty week...and I hope the same for me. :o)

I am, of course, linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her {WiP} Wednesday Link-up Party. :)  Have a great week, and I hope you're more productive than me!