Crafting and Quilting in 2010

I've started working on my lists for 2010 (posts to come)....the lists of all the things I'd like to do/change in the new year.

I have several very specific things that I need/want to get done this year:

~*~Quilts~*~

#1 - Mom's 50th Birthday Memory quilt
I'm still hoping I'll be able to get this one done. It's only 5 months away and I haven't even started on it. I think once I have a day or two at home, hopefully with Matt here so I can focus on it. The part that is most daunting to me, and will take the longest, is getting all of the pictures together and onto fabric. I had hoped to make this a queen size quilt, but I think I'm going to work on it being a large wall hanging, around 42-50" square. I know my mom won't actually use it as a quilt and she doesn't have room to hang a HUGE quilt in her house.

#2 - Kate's graduation quilt
I haven't even given any thoughts to this as I have no idea what I want to make or what colors she wants. I kind of have to start feeling her out as to what colors and styles she likes, but it will be a full size quilt.

#3 - Falling Leaves quilt
I started before A was born, but didn't get too far. My goal is to finish it. I think the pattern is for a 100"sq quilt, but I think I'll be happy if I make it twin size. We already have a "fall quilt" on our bed, so it would just be nice to have this one for the living room. Knowing me though, it may end up a wall hanging lol











#4 - Christmas quilt
I've already bought the fabric for this. It's a very easy pattern and I REALLY want a Christmas quilt on our bed for next winter. I'm hoping I can struggle through and get it done.















~*~Crafts~*~

On my to do list I have "Learn Counted Cross Stitch/Embroidery". I think embroidery may be out of my league just yet, but I can manage the counted cross stitch (or CCS). I'm buying a couple of kits from Herrschner's:
Mary Engelbreit Mini Ornament Pack
Believe in Magic Sampler
Christmas Tree Sampler

I doubt I'll get the samplers done, but they're really cute and are on sale now. Even if I don't get to them for a couple of years I still have them (or can gift them).

Now let's see how much of this I actually get accomplished...what is it about "the road to hell...."

Christmas Conundrums

We're trying to be productive around here...what with Christmas a week away. Tomorrow we're driving to Maryland for Matt's cousin's wedding (yes we're driving into the storm for a wedding...yes we're crazy).

Today A and I got more Christmas cookies made...actually 2 different kinds (for a total of 5 kinds now): We now have fudge, nut balls, linzer cookies, magic cookie bars, and chocolate kisses. I'm hoping to get at least 1 more kind made.

The other thing I was working on is a doll for A. I cannot believe how much a DOLL for a baby costs! It's ridiculous: $25.00! I flat out refuse to pay that much money for a doll. So, I did what anyone would do...made my own. I found a pattern online for a rag doll and set to work.

The pattern I found was an OK one...I know if I had looked a bit longer I would've found some better ones (because I've looked since and have found better ones). It actually isn't too hard to make a doll (if you have the right pattern). Mine wasn't hard, but it was a bit frustrating because of the way it's constructed. BUT, it's done and that's all I care about.



I'm relatively happy with how she came out. The hair is something I still need to perfect and then next one's head will be made a bit differently....the shape is weird....but A's getting a doll for Christmas, I made it, and it didn't cost me $25.00 :-)

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." John Quincy Adams

Today we went to B.ton to do some shopping...yes, Avelyn went along. We had to get things for the store to do the gift baskets and what not for Christmas. We actually managed to get to BRU, Christmas Tree Sho.ppe, and Kohls. We could have actually managed a few more stores, but mom and dad were too tired and wanted to go HOME.

Matt wore the mo.by (he LOVES that thing) and she went in it in every store. I was giving him a hard time because all these women (young and old) kept coming up to him and asking about A...I told him I might have to be a bit worried about sending him out with her and not with me ;-)

Things are going well with A. We're still having poop issues, but after a couple of days of prune juice (per the doctor's orders) we finally got her to poop! I was, of course, reading online what can cause issues...some people say it's because of formula, but everything I was finding said that formula doesn't cause the majority of poop issues. One website explained it as thus: A baby's sphincter muscles are so tight from months of preventing poop, that it may take several weeks and poops for the muscles to get to a relaxed enough state that it allows poop easily. Now, that makes sense to me.

A is growing that's for sure! On Saturday I went over to the store for a couple of hours, I had to check some orders in and start looking at things for Christmas gift baskets....she was great the entire time. My mom and I were curious to see what she was weighing, so we threw her up on the scale: 8.98lbs...that was fully clothed and a diaper...but we figure without the clothes and diaper she was probably over 8.5 lbs, which means she's gaining well.

We actually had to buy some new clothes for her when we went shopping. We received some newborn sized things (which she doesn't fit in...she's too long) and a lot of bigger sizes, but not a lot of 0-3 months...which is fine. We also have a better idea of what we like: Snaps, legs, and footed outfits. So we bought a bunch of sleep n' play outfits in polarfleece and a couple of sleep sacks with sleeves (they're awesome because they're one size and are too big, but keep her hands covered and warm).

We're no longer swaddling A: She hates it! This kid wants to be able to move and get her fists to her mouth. So that's what we're doing.

I had a realization last night, that I have only two weeks until the beginning of Advent (11/29) and that is my last weekend before the holiday-crazies begin (we're going away almost every weekend before Christmas). I then thought about the fact that A's Christmas stocking was not yet done....so my goal for this evening was to get it "finished". TADA! It's done. I just have to stitch down the mesh in the front and then put a loop of ribbon to hang it from. There may be some other touch up stitches I have to do too.

I like how it came out, but I'm not keen on how the name looks. My stocking and Matt's have the name needlepointed right into the rest of the stocking....this one wasn't designed like that and I didn't realize that was their game plan when I started it...so I just started and never left room at the top for me to do her name: oops! Also it's a lot harder to center a name with an even number of letters. I might tear it out someday and redo it, but for now it works.

Things to share....

I need to throw some FUN things on here!

On Sunday Matt and I worked on our "baby favors". I know a lot of people hand out cigars, but that's not our style...instead we're handing out BEER!!! Matt brewed a Pumpkin Ale in honor of Avelyn's birth. When we see people during the holidays we'll give them a bottle.



And I ordered our birth announcements. It wasn't too bad....I got them from v.istaprint.com and it was around $65 with priority shipping, envelopes, and 100 announcements. Depending on how they look I might just use them for our Christmas cards.
I designed the image through scrapblog.com (an awesome site for digital scrapbooking!) and then you pay to download a high-res image and go from there. We'll see...

PS I set this to autopost in the morning :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13th!

"Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead!" - I Peter 1:6

I don't like when weekends come to an end...it's always sad.

Yesterday I got out of working in the store (yay!). My parents were out of town and we had 2 people, other than Matt, scheduled to fill in. It was a slow enough day and the one guy's girlfriend stopped in and she helped with the cleanup. I was free to do what I wanted...which entailed about 6 loads of laundry (all Matt's...that boy has more clothes than anyone I know!), cleaned the house a bit (mopping mostly) and made a pot of apple sauce from the apples we picked.

This morning we went to church for the first time since the end of June (pathetic, I know): We've had something going on every single Sunday since then. Of course we didn't have a restful nights sleep and it was a bit tough getting out of bed to go to church.

Matt was up brewing until after 1am last night...then at 2am the dogs started barking. I got up to take them out, but could tell it wasn't their typical "I need to go pee/poop!". Somehow, in my half asleep stupor, I had enough sense to not just open up the backdoor and let them go out (like I usually do).

I had them on their leashes and opened the door and was going out with them...when I noticed a fluffy white tail next to the garbage can on the back porch and the dogs were heading straight for it: A SKUNK! I grabbed their leashes and quick hauled them back in and shut the door. I think the skunk was as startled by us as we were of it...because it never sprayed. That's not to say if I hadn't been paying attention it wouldn't have.

Out the front door we went and all the time me checking to see that it hadn't moved out front. The dogs barked almost constantly the whole night because of the darn skunk outside, so we didn't get much sleep. Could you imagine if that skunk had sprayed?! It would have been the whole back end of the house, me, and the dogs...Matt would have just moved out for the next few weeks. I'm so thankful the skunk didn't spray.

After we got home from church I made some butternut squash soup, which came out really good and was REALLY easy. We had squash in the freezer from last fall...and I figured since we hadn't eaten it as squash, maybe soup was the answer. It's certainly an easy and quick meal!

Matt cleaned the basement today and got the furnace ready for the winter...we now have room in the basement to store some wood. After he had a nap we worked some on the bookcase: It's too tall, in my (wrong) opinion. I had wanted it to be 3'x5': Only to realize that 5' is a lot higher than I thought it was (I'm 5'5"). I tried to get Matt to cut it down shorter, but he absolutely refused and I could not get him to change his mind....so it stays.

This week I have to sand the whole thing down and prime it with a couple of coats, then paint a couple of coats as well. One of the shelves could be a bit more spaced, but Matt wasn't waiting for me to come back from upstairs with the book I wanted to test it with (can you tell he was being a poop-head?). The book fits, but it's a bit tighter than I would like.

We had dinner at my parents' house, but before heading up there I wanted to do an impromptu photo shoot...it was a beautiful afternoon. We decided not to spend the money on a photographer and are just going to do a couple of sessions by ourselves. Hopefully we'll be able to get my sister or my mother to come down and take some of the two of us. Matt did a really good job! I'm very proud of him! While the frame positioning isn't always perfect, at least a couple of his pictures came out looking quite professional. I will leave you with these...have a good week everyone!

Maternity Shoot - Session 1

“We shall neither fail nor falter; we shall not weaken or tire...give us the tools and we will finish the job.” Winston Churchill

I'm still sick, but it's Friday. My cold seems to have migrated from my head to my chest/lungs...I have a wonderful cough that doesn't seem to do much other than cause me to lose my voice. Last night I spent about 30 minutes in the steam-filled bathroom coughing, trying to get something up...not happening. I often wonder if my colds following the same routine and my having a really hard time with breathing is because of the cystic fibrosis gene. I'm hoping for a lot of sleep this weekend, but we'll see...we have a lot that we want to get done.

Anyways...we've gotten a lot done in the room, but it's not finished yet, so I'm not showing you :-P I'm a brat, I know. I do have a couple of teaser pictures that I've taken, just to give you the general idea.

We're waiting on the quilt to be sent back (should be by the beginning of October), Matt has to install the doors in the closet and room, we need to build the bookcase and paint it, get pictures on the walls, and finish putting away a few things. Once that's all done and I can say that the room is finished....THEN I'll show you all the finished product.

I've finally finished the Christmas stocking: YAY!!!!! You have no idea how excited I am to have that thing done! It's wonderful to know that I somehow have seemed to get almost everything done this month that NEEDED to be done. Of course, there are the apples that we picked from our tree that I need to make into sauce, as well as the couple of sewing projects I wanted to do....we'll see.

Here's something else I'm showing. Last year at the harvest festival I saw a wall hanging that I absolutely loved, but it was $65 and I didn't really want to spend the money on it. All year I've thought about it and wished I had bought it.

I visited the quilt stand again this year and was scoping through things, not really seeing anything that blew me away (being able to make most of the stuff yourself kind of puts a damper on it). I digging through the piles and I find some fabric that I really like.

I pull it out and low and behold it's the wall hanging that I liked from LAST YEAR! Well, since the thing sat around for a whole year without being bought I decided that it was holding out for me and bought it. Now it's hanging quite nicely in our upstairs hallway, where I can see it every day!

Even the quilt lady said I was meant to have it, since it had been sitting there waiting for me. Someday I would love to make a lonestar quilt (that's the pattern in the middle)...there's so many points and angles that have to be perfect, it may be a few years before I get to it :-)

Another finish...

Look what I got done! The letters are all finished and ready to hang...we have to get the hardware to make the cabinet knobs screw into the wall. The other thing I got done today was the dining room (aka sewing room) has been cleaned up and cleaned out...which means first thing on Monday I can start working on the quilt.

I also got all of the baby clothes washed and away...went through some of the things we were given and sorted out what we wanted/needed and put the rest of the stuff in a pile to go to the church rummage sale (these were hand-me-down things).

Tomorrow we're going to Albany to do some shopping (for me...I need some clothes)...hopefully we can pick up the last few things we're going to need in the room.

One step at a time...

I've been trying to get as much done as I can. I finally got all of the thank yous done from our shower...they're going out in tomorrow's mail...there's only one more that needs to be written, but it's in German and my mom has to translate it for me (I don't speak/write German).

I got some more done on the wall letters. Between Monday and today I got them primed and sanded. Tonight I got the fabric cut for the tops of them...tomorrow I'll iron the fabric and do the first few coats of mod-podge on them.
We have a couple of ways to hang them. I bought black ribbon to tie to the tops of them. Either I can just put some tacks in the wall and hang the ribbon (with a bow) OR Matt's grandma gave us some porcelain door knobs that have roses painted on them that we could mount and hang the letters off of....just have to see.

"To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment." ~ Jane Austen

We're not quite to the point of being able to relax...Matt's not home yet from tearing down and once he is we have to head up to his parents' for dinner (doesn't that sound restful). I think, if I let him, he would sleep for a week solid. He's so exhausted, and tomorrow starts his normal work week. He won't have a day of reprieve until Saturday. I'm hoping he won't fight me this week when I'm trying to send him to bed early.

I got a wonderful package in the mail the other day, one that made me happy and over the moon: Can you guess what it is?

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have my camera back...I really, truly did miss it (as ridiculous as that may sound).

Now that I have my camera back and I can do a bit of updating from around the White House.

~*~The Garden~*~
The garden is crap: Plain and simple. If you can find the vegetables among the vegetation you're doing better than me. Last year we tried to grow pumpkins, so that I wouldn't have to buy them for decorations in the fall: It didn't work.

Well, guess what we have taking over our garden (besides the weeds)...Hint: It's not something we even planted this year.....PUMPKINS! Lots of pumpkins. There are at least 4 or 5 good size pumpkins and a couple of smaller ones coming along.

Our tomatoes are doing all right. There's supposedly a blight going around, but it hasn't hit our plants yet. I thought I had planted some regular tomatoes, but it looks like all I planted was cherry tomatoes. I certainly won't complain about the size of the tomatoes, as long as we get enough to eat fresh!

There are also a couple of rogue yellow squash out there...of course the ones I prefer are acorn and butternut, no sign of them poking through the weeds, but I guess that it's not that big of a deal...I looked in our freezer downstairs and I still have the ones that I blanched and froze LAST fall.

I'm actually really embarrassed by the current condition of our garden. My mom's cousin from Germany is coming over to dinner on Thursday and my uncle is staying with us this weekend. If there's one thing about Germans it's how fastidious they are about gardens and perfection.

It's because of that anal trait that I weeded the front and side flower beds this morning. They look a lot better, I just need to mulch them and they won't be too much of an embarrassment.

~*~Crafting~*~

I started working on the wall letters for the babies room. I printed the letters out, traced them onto the wood, and then went to saw them out (with the scroll saw I bought last September, but haven't used once). I used to be pretty good with a scroll saw (in high school shop, 12 years ago).

I botched the letter A so badly that I gave up, came upstairs, went online and found someone to order the letters from. Now hopefully they get here soon. I would like to have them finished and on the wall before the weekend....same as I'd like to do with the curtains.

I did receive one of the samples that I had chosen for the curtain fabric...I like it, but I want to see what the other one is before I finish the curtain. I think the one I'm still waiting on is THE ONE I've been looking for, but I don't know because the picture on the website was absolutely horrible.

I finally made the Cupcake Bath Bombs: The first batch fizzed like crap and I ended up throwing them out. The second batch (which I made this morning) came out a lot better and the fizzed and dissolved nicely. I even got them iced! Once they harden up I'll print tags for them and put them in the gift bags and they'll be done!

One thing I did get a lot done on this week was the Christmas stocking: No, it's not finished yet, but it is getting MUCH closer. Of course, once my fabrics arrive I'll be putting that aside (Christmas is a bit further away than this kid's arrival). I seriously can't wait for the room to be done...it's nice now, but it's nowhere near DONE.

Speaking of Christmas: I have 1/2 my shopping done! I cheated though. Remember the Sock It To Me sock exchange that Kym was doing. Well the slippers that I got were so awesome that I decided to order everyone, on my side of the family, their own for Christmas. Suezee2 on etsy.com was awesome. I finished my whole family for $135...I still might order BIL, PP, and Niece matching ones for their Christmas gifts (haven't decided yet). Here's the pictures of the slippers/socks I got.

How cute are they?!

I'm sure there's more going on, but I honestly can't think of it.....Matt just got home, so I will say "toodles" for now :-)

"Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun." ~ Christina Rossetti

I've haphazardly joined up with Kim, and a bunch of other ladies, at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure to finish several projects before the end of August: I'm trying my best, that's all I can say. Most of you know that August is I N S A N E for us...what with the fairs and now the store...I guess the old saying "Make hay while the sun shines" is just as true now as then.

I have no pictures of what I've completed, as Matt has the crappy camera and my nikon is still in the shop (WOULD YOU PEOPLE HURRY UP WITH IT PLEASE!).

Saturday I was in the store all day and then we went to a party for friends of our's that got married a few months ago. Sunday I did get some things done...Matt was down at the fair grounds working from 10am-10pm last night (that will be his shortest day this week). We went and had breakfast together at my in-laws' stand and then he went to work.

I got home and my sister was there, so I asked her if she wanted to make the first batch of the bath bombs with me. I thought for sure they would take AGES...we had 24 done in about 20 minutes! We didn't ice them, but she's coming back over next Sunday for us to make another batch and to ice all of them at once (we're making them as favors for my shower - my mom is only letting me get away with that kind of involvement because my sister is helping:-P)

After she left I worked on a roadside sign for the front yard...with it being fair week several HUNDRED cars drive past my house every day (a lot more than normal). We thought it would be a good place to put a temporary sign for the store...so there it is...nothing fancy, but it gets the word out there.

The rest of the afternoon I did some things around the house and went swimming at the pool with my mom. I spent a couple of solid hours working on the Christmas stocking and actually got quite a bit of it done...I'm thinking if I remain diligent I might get it done this week.

I haven't made it any further with the valance. I know what I want to do, but I don't have the fabric to do it, and I can't find the fabric I want. I have a fat quarter of the perfect fabric, but of course it's not the piece with the designer's name and description. I've ordered something else from another online place, but it'll probably be a week before I get it. I just want the valance up before next weekend.

I finished the quilt shelf I was making, but now Matt and I decided that it's really rather too big for where I want to put it...on to plan B for that. Of course, I don't have another idea.

Life is a great option, albeit the only alternative is death.

Once again I've been rather remiss in my crafting; it's not that I haven't wanted to do anything...I seriously just have not had time. I have been plodding along at the Christmas stocking, but still haven't made that much headway with it: I definitely can get a quilt done faster than can a tiny little Christmas stocking. Here's what I've got done so far, I'm probably about a 1/3 of the way done, once all of the intricate stuff is done it shouldn't take me too long to finish:

I haven't sewn anything since SIL's baby quilt...that was 2 months ago! I think I'm going to try a new block: I've always liked the look of houses and I have a Block of the Month (BOM) for a Christmas quilt, but it's so detailed it scares me. This block is a lot simpler and I think maybe a good starting place, plus I could always frame it and hang it up too.

Last night was rather an "exciting" night at the White House: Matt cut his hand on Tuesday, ended up going to the Walk-In Care at our doctor's office. They bandaged him up, gave him a prescription for antibiotics, and a tetanus shot, and sent him on his merry way. I helped him re-wrap his thumb yesterday morning and it didn't look too bad.

Last night Matt got home around 7:30 and was complaining about a headache (he NEVER gets headaches), so he took some ibuprofen. About 45 minutes later he starts with cold-sweats and mild body shakes. Now it's 8:30 and we're wondering what's going on. He's been on the antibiotics, there's no sign of infection (red streaking up the arm), his thumb is not tender or anything else. We call the doctor's office, they call back and basically tell him to come in in the morning. Long story short: I sent Matt to bed, covered him in lots of blankets, and he woke up this morning fine.

My "professional" analysis of the situation: He had a reaction to the tetanus shot. None of what he was feeling was listed as side effects for the antibiotic, there was no sign of infection. I googled side effects of tetanus shot and BAM! there it is cold sweats and mild body shakes.

He's fine now, tired and a bit sore from shaking and the shot, but he'll live...and he didn't go back to the doctor this morning...nothing they can do anyways. I asked Matt if he was ready for the excitement of this with a crying baby who can't tell us what's wrong :-)

Random Updates

This post is going to be a whole lot of everything. There's fun stuff, I promise...toward the bottom....


Last night I had a pampered chef party: My BFF from high school  now does it. I saw her in March for her Lia.Sophia party and asked her if she would want to do a show. Last night it was...It was basically my mom 2 of her friends, and 2 of my other friends from high school: It was actually quite a bit of fun!

AND, my HS BFF is 14 weeks pregnant! The first month trying. When she called me to finalize details last week she was going on about how she didn't expect it to happen so quickly and they were hoping to be due the earliest in April 2010 (she's due January8): I just told her to be glad that it happened that easily, that it took us 3 years.

I'm happy for them, but I'm just kind of numb. She's the first person that I went to high school with (we were friends from 4 years old on) that's pregnant. I think she's genuinely excited though that we're both pregnant at the same time (none of her other friends are pregnant). I know when we were kids we planned on being each other's maid of honors, etc etc...so I guess this is the round about way to being friends again.

~*~

In yesterday's mail I got the most recent JCPenney bedding sale catalog....and the cover REALLY caught my eye: How about those colors?!

I've been wanting to do a "English Garden" nursery if it's a girl, but I keep looking for the fabric I have in mind and I CANNOT find it anywhere. I thought this was a really cute look and not too pink (which I want to avoid too much pink). So I started looking around...headed for one of my favorite quilt fabric websites www.fatquartershop.com and there on the top of their website is the listing of their new fabrics. Amongst them is this collection. I start scrolling through and what do I find but this, this and this: PERFECT!



The pattern (particularly of the green is almost exactly that of the fabric in the JCP bedding)...so I think I found my fabric!

There's something about working in the kitchen in an apron; it makes whatever you're doing feel like a special occasion. I've loved vintage aprons and have been asking for one for the past few years.


I had bought a pattern for me to make a maternity skirt (it's just a regular pattern that I'm going to add elastic too) and it has a very full skirt. I thought to myself, "Hmm, why couldn't I use that for the bottom of my skirt, and make the top by cutting a pattern out of newspaper?" So that's what I did.

It's not quite finished, but my sister was willing to model what I've accomplished so far. I may cut the neck down a bit further, and I have to put darts in at the bust (that's what she's holding on the side), the entire apron will be edged with a dark turqoise fabric that matches, and then it will have ribbons on the waist that wrap from the front to the back to tie it on. Hopefully it comes out all right.

New Projects

This post is going to be a whole lot of nothin' organized: Rather than writing it in an organized manner, it's bullets for ya'all.

Things We're Working On
* I've been diligently stitching on the kids Christmas stocking. My goal is to have it finished before the end of July: We'll see. There's a reason for my pushing to get this done, besides Christmas being 6 1/2 months away. I have to get started on this project:

*My mom's 50th birthday memory quilt. Her birthday's not until May 8th (lot of special people born that day), but I can't imagine I'm going to have too much time to work on a quilt with a newborn baby, so I hope to have the top done before October.

It's actually a pretty easy pattern, the hardest thing is going to be getting pictures out of my parents house without my mom noticing. The large "empty" spots in the quilt are going to have pictures from my mom's life in it: Her as a baby with her parents, her and her brothers, her and my dad's wedding day, some of her and her friends, pictures of my brother, sister and I as babies with her, picture of her and her grandbaby, my parents 25th anniversary picture....things like that.

*I also got back SIL's quilt, so I have to get the binding on that before MIL heads up to their house for the shower on the 20th. I do wish I were going, even if only to see her reaction to the quilt, but 10 hours in the car alone just isn't appealing (I'll post a picture of the quilt once it's done.

*We got a bunch of plants in the ground. I had to thin out some of the seeds that I planted and transplant some of my tomatoes to bigger containers. Matt's lower batch of hops didn't take so we're going to be planting the 25 strawberry plants we got there: Hopefully they do better.

*We also managed to semi-integrate the hens and chicks: They're all now in the same pen, but the chicks are still separate...they just didn't have anymore room in the cow trough...plus the porch was starting to smell.

*Still no advancement on the fence :-\ Coworker loaned us his auger, but it doesn't start, so we have to wait until he get's it fixed to dig our 51 holes for the fence (definitely not doing that by hand). I seriously can't wait until the fence is up, I'm so tired of having all these people driving past our house to go down to the community garden...and none of them drive slowly.

I think that's about all so I'll leave you with a picture of my peony (I would love a FIELD of peonies and poppies...all different colors...that would be heaven to me).

2009 Crafting and Quilting Projects

I certainly have my work cut out for me this year. I may even have put too much on my plate: We'll see.

Here's the list of projects that I hope to get accomplished this year:

4 (minimum) baby quilts
2 Block of the Month (BOM) quilts

1 memory quilt for my mom's 50th bday (5/2010)

1 needlepoint Christmas stocking

"Don't rule out working with your hands. It does not preclude using your head." Andy Rooney

I started last week on my tree wall hanging. I didn't get to spend much time on it until last night. It was really easy and [I think] it looks great!

This is how it started...just a bunch of triangles stitched together. Very simple. I added a couple of borders, some stars, and voila!

It still needs something more, I may applique a snowman or something on the bottom part. Any ideas? I'm really rather pleased with how it came out.

This morning I got up early (love the time change!) and made some scones for breakfast and also made a headband. The winter is horrible for my hair. Usually it's very wavy/curly and great, but once it gets cold it goes very straight (from static and heavier conditioners): Hate it! It doesn't help that my hair is too short to pull back.

I found this tutorial here on how to make a headband. Very simple and VERY easy. I popped this little thing out in about 10 minutes. For me, I need to make it smaller: I did 2- 3"x 19", 2 3"x6", and a 3" piece of elastic. A little to big for me.


Here's the other project that I plan on starting, once I get the above one quilted (which I may do by hand). I know it's hard to see...if you click on it, it's a bit easier. What it is, is a wall hanging. 6 blocks total, on to each block is a Christmas themed item: Mittens, snowflake, tree, peppermint candy, gingerbread people. It's all applique work, but it shouldn't be too hard. I finally figured out how to do a satin stitch on my machine. In one of the blocks I'll applique "Be Merry" or some other Christmas phrase.

Well I guess this posted turned into a Whatcha Workin' On Wednesday post :-)

Happy Hump Day!

PROJECTS!

Happy Labor Day! I fortunately do not have to go to work today, so that is allowing me some play-time. Do you know exactly why we celebrate Labor Day? Outside of the obvious of work. I didn't...so here is why:

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Here's my "labor" for the day:
Matt's quilt...I'm really hoping that I can get the top "finished" (meaning all the blocks squared and stitched together). I still have to add several LARGE borders to it, to make the quilt the size Matt wants (i.e. so he can wrap himself in it). Last night I had to cut two of the blocks apart so that I could readjust the pattern, but I think it looks a lot better now.

The first border will be a 4- patch border of a variety of fabrics. I had bought a bundle of 25 fat-quarters last fall, so far I've only used 8 of the fabrics included in that.

My wall hanging: In my recent issue of American Patchwork and Quilting (APQ) there is the coolest pumpkin throw blanket. I love pumpkins! I'm not making it throw size, but a large wall hanging for our dining room.

Here's the fabric: And the magazine cover:


The final project that I've created for myself is a Christmas stocking. My mom made all of our Christmas stockings growing up: They're all needlepoint (I'll be sure to post them this Christmas). Well Matt's family didn't have "fancy" stockings like we had, so I made him one...HAHAHAHA.

It took me 3 years to finish. In my defense I didn't work on it solidly for those 3 years...lots of breaks in between. I did finally finish it though; however, they don't make stockings like they used to. Mine is HUGE! Matt's not so much. I'm sure this one will be the same: Oh well, it will just look like I'm greedy.

I bought this stocking this past winter. I figure with our IUI on Wednesday (tentative) I should probably get started on it for whatever child(ren) we may have for Christmas 2009. Wish me luck!