Late Christmas

So yesterday Jana finally got around to giving me my Christmas present. I know, she's lame, because I only gave her "the best present ever" (her words!) the Our Best Bites cookbook. But it's OK, I forgive her tardiness. I mean, how could I not forgive a one month slide, when she and Colleen "made me a quilt" for my birthday a year and a half ago, and I have yet to see the finished product! :)
But she made me this "jelly roll" It is made out of bunch of Riley Blake fabrics that she got last fall when she went out to the Riley Blake headquarters as part of the design team for the Quilted Fish. It's lovely. I spent the rest of the day yesterday thinking about what I wanted to make with it. Part of me is tempted to make a Bargello quilt, since I've wanted to make one of those for a while, but I also think it would be nice to make my "headboard" out of it. I don't have a headboard for my bed, and I was thinking of making a quilt and hanging it above the bed to give it the illusion of a headboard.
She also gave me a cute wallet pattern, and these M&Ms. When I looked at them I said that I had the perfect person to give them to! (Cause I'm a joker like that.)

And here is what I have started to work on. I'm making a scrap quilt, like I had mentioned before. So far I know one thing for certain- it's going to take me forever! This is just a small amount of the fabric that I have to use, cut into 2 1/2, 4 1/2, 6 1/2, and 8 1/2 inch pieces.

I am working on this only because I hate sewing the binding onto things- especially small things like place mats, which is where I am with my place mats. The binding is made and ready to go on, I just have to pluck up the courage and do it!

Confession

OK, so it's confession time. Sometimes I think in Facebook status updates. Does anyone else do that, or am I way too plugged in? (OK, the obvious answer is that I AM way too plugged in, but just humor me for a minute.)
For instance, last night it was 5:00, and the boys were fighting, Olivia was crying, I was trying to change laundry, and get dinner on the table. In my mind, I though, my Facebook status right now would be, "It's 5:00 and the world is falling apart." Fortunately, I had the sense, at that moment, not to hop right on the computer, ignore the falling apart world in my house, and update my Facebook status. I really do try to sensor myself, and not let the Facebook community know every time my children to any sort of thing ('cause I'm THAT Facebook updater- all about my kids.)
But am I the only person that tries to come up with clever status updates to describe the events happening in current time? Perhaps I'm just too much of a nerd who thrives on simulated human interaction, as opposed to real human interaction because I'm so socially awkward in real life. (Not that I'm any less awkward on Facebook, as my friends can attest to.) And on that note, am I the only person out there that thinks there ought to be a designated sarcasm font? Right there on your tool bar next to bold and italic. It would make my life so much easier! (And that is nothing to be sarcastic about!)

cake pops

For Christmas this year I got a cake pop maker, and when I haven't been sewing, I have been making cake pops and donut holes. YUM! I recently did a shower for my friend Julia who is having her first girl after 2 boys (I know what that feels like!) And I made some cake pops for the occasion. After making them a few times, I think I finally have gotten the process down. First, you need to dip the stick into melted chocolate before you stick it into the cake ball. Then you need to freeze the whole thing. When they're frozen, then you can dip them in chocolate. This worked so well! It made for a beautuful dessert spread!

This week's finishes

This week I finished my watermelon place mats. That binding was a pain! Mostly because the amount of white that the kit gave me to make the binding was only like 10 inches long, so I had a million 12 inch strips to sew together, in addition to the green ones, and then I had to sew the green to the white, and all of that before I was finally able to sew it on. Since it was on the bias though, it was not too difficult to get it to go around the curve.

And I finally finished the angry birds. Except that the boys both want crowns on their big pigs, so at some point I'll probably make those. I only made one of the big white ones because I ran out of white fabric. And of course, now there is the new orange bird, and the boys think that they need some of those too.

I have another set of place mats that need to be bound. The binding is already sewn, but needs to be ironed and sewn onto the place mats. Originally they were going to be birthday place mats, but I'm thinking I may use all except for the cupcake one on a daily basis. Olivia has figured out that it is neat to bang her fork on the table, and it's taking a beating!

Then I have one more project that I am thinking about starting, but I'm not sure about that yet, and then onto my scrappy quilt. After that I think we'll focus more on the packing aspect. We have finally agreed on a price with the bank, so now we have to see what the home inspection says...

Progress

So I've made a little progress towards my UFO goals of 2012. But first, a non UFO, but it's OK, because it's not like it's a quilt or anything. But I made a wreath that I'll hang either in Olivia's room in the new house, or on her door. I made it now because I'm doing a baby shower on Saturday, and I wanted to have it to use as decoration. Some of the fabrics that I used for the flowers were from Olivia's quilt. I'm crafty like that. And then there is this:

I think that Jana and I got these kits and pattern about 3 1/2 years ago. We started immediately. There are 12 blocks, and they are kind of month themes, so we were going to do one block each month. There is a lot of applique and blanket stitching, etc. It was quite an undertaking. We got through the first few blocks, and then stalled. And eventually I picked it up again, and got through a few more blocks. At one point I'm pretty sure that I finished all of the blocks. I then sewed them all together. In one "cleaning out my sewing table" episode, I cut the borders. And there they sat. Probably for a year. Last night I sewed the borders on. This is going to be a big undertaking to quilt it too, but I hope to do that in the next month. It will of course depend on Jana's schedule, because I could not do this with out her mega quilter.

Speaking of Jana. I'm headed to her house in a bit, and hope to make progress on my watermelon place mats UFO. I bought that kit like 3 1/2 years ago as well. At this point all that needs to be done is the hand sewing of the binding. Hooray!

Next up, my birthday place mats. I have 4 done (excluding binding) and 4 more to go. One will be the special "birthday person" place mat, with a cupcake on it, but I still have to figure out the design for the other 3.

After that I'm going to have to go through my work space and see if there is more to be found. If not, I have an idea for a scrap quilt. I need to go through the huge bag of scraps that I have and decide which ones were stupid to keep, and organize them and cut them for my needs. If I get ambitious enough I may even use up all of my scraps. Because I'd rather move a quilt than a basket full of scraps. And of course all of this is brought to you by packing denial. But hey, we don't even have a closing date, and are not 100% sure what house we are going to buy. I just know that I have 3 1/2 months left on our current lease, and we have to be out by then. That gives me plenty of time to quilt instead of pack!

baby girl quilts

So a week or two back, I was going through the mess that is my sewing corner, and I looked into a bag that had some of the fabric that I bought last year when I had my big splurge. (Something I do once a year or so, although I don't see it happening this year.) I started to love on it so much that I was trying to think what I could do with it. Since my favorite form of quilting is to make baby quilts, I was thought that I needed to have a friend have a baby girl. And then I thought- wait, I do have a friend having a baby girl! So off to work I went. I set out to copy this quilt that I saw on Craftsy, which was just simple strips on the diagonal, and it wasn't too bad to make, but I didn't know how many strips I was going to need, and ended up with several extra strips. So I was inspired by a quilt that Jana showed on her blog and copied the pattern. I had just the right amount of strips cut to make another baby quilt. I think that this is the one that I'm going to end up giving to my friend Julia.

So in case you were wondering what it takes to have me make someone a baby quilt, it really is mostly up to chance. I didn't feel like quilting last year, so none of my friends got quilts. I put so much effort into Olivia's quilts, that any friend who had a baby then didn't get a quilt. It really is a situation that I think, OK, I'd like to make a quilt, who can I make it for, and someone happens to be pregnant at that time. I have many friends that I would say are at the same level of closeness, and some have gotten a quilt from me, and others have not. It's all just luck of the draw!

2011 roundup

So you'll have to excuse the quality of these photos since they were all taken with my iPod. When I take them there, it eliminates a step before I can post them to Facebook. And sometimes the camera is just not handy!
This is a quilt that I made for my sister in law. It is a memory quilt, in honor of the baby that they lost due to complications at 18 weeks. This was the tutu for Olivia's Olivia the Pig Halloween costume.

Here she is on Halloween. I couldn't find a red tank top, so I had to dye a white one red.

And finally here are the ties that I made for the boys, using this tutorial.

I also made those little hair clips for Olivia. My mom made a Christmas dress for Olivia, and the ties and the hair clip are made out of the same fabric as the bodice. We were all matchy-matchy.

Lindy's quilt

So I never got a good picture of this quilt, which is a total shame, because it was a really cute quilt, but I made it for my friend Lindy who got married last year. It was one of the few quilts that I actually made last year! As soon as I get some photos uploaded to the computer, I'll post pics of the two baby quilts that I made this past week. I just finished the last bit of binding this morning.

I'm back!

So last year I ran a marathon. That took a bit of my time. :) As a result, I just really did not do much sewing last year. Also, do you ever find that you do things in cycles? I sew a lot, and then I get tired of it, or uninspired, and so I move onto something else for a little while, and then eventually something pushes me, and I'll get back into sewing? I think I got my push this past week. I've been sewing like a maniac for the past week, but more on that later. First, a few of the things that I have made in the past month.
I found an easy pattern for Angry Birds, so I made up a few. I have intentions to make more of them, but up until this minute couldn't remember where I put the patterns that I had already printed out. I think I'll work on the beaks a little bit, to make them wider, but other than that, it's a pretty easy pattern, especially if you are comfortable doing a little free motion sewing.

Then I did a little sewing for Olivia for Christmas. There were very few things that I made for Christmas this year. I made her this buttercup bag (free pattern found here)

And I also made her these hand puppets. These were made using the same technique as the angry birds, and were a snap to put together, once again, if you are comfortable doing the free motion sewing.

Then, a few years ago my good friend Jana gave me that cute star wall hanger, but I only had a hanging for Halloween and Thanksgiving, and Christmas, so I'm going to try to make a few more, maybe one that would be a good general one until I get one for each month. But I whipped this little guy up on New Year's eve, while the rest of my family was playing Wii (we still need a 4th controller before I can join in the fun and games...)

And then I started these the other day, and hopefully will finish quilting them in the next week. I have to remember that there are some things that are more important than sewing- like cleaning the house and taking care of the kids...

The fabric here is by Wendy Slotbloom, who is one of my favorite designers- I used her fabric for Olivia's quilts. I have more fabric in another line lying in wait for another inspired project, but it was looking at the fabric that I had of hers that made me want to start sewing again. Then I began thinking that I needed to have a friend have a baby girl so that I could use the fabric, and then I realized that I HAVE a friend having a baby girl, and how convenient that was for me! So yea for getting back into sewing. I have several other UFOs and my goal is to finish as many as possible before we move at some unknown time in the next 3-4 months.