WIP 20 – Workin’ Mama

i’m not gonna lie, i’ve got nothin’. between the in-laws being in town for the turkey holiday and starting the new job, well… i spend all my time at home either eating up every moment i can with the Little One, or trying to catch my breath once she passes out for the night.

so, in preparation for some quiet posting times ahead, why don’t you head on over to Freshly Pieced and find a few new bloggers to frequent? i’ll do my best to capture your attention when i get back into the blogging game.

see you later!

WIP 19 – Finished Before the Turkey Coma Hits

i’m really excited about the progress i’ve made this last week! i made good headway on my first couple of sampler blocks, i finished off a couple of projects (including one that will be gifted this Christmas!), and i re-started a couple of other back-burner projects.

there are still a lot of things i’d like to get done before the winter holiday season gets into full swing, but they may have to wait. i won’t have as much time for blogging anymore since i’ll be a full-time employee again! that’s right, i actually found some poor schmucks who’re crazy enough to hire me! but actually, they seem really nice and i’m excited for the opportunity, even though it means leaving my lovely Little One at home.

so this may be the last decent WIP post from me for a while (we’ll see!), but there’s always WIPs to be found over at Lee’s Freshly Pieced link-up! click on the WIP button above to see all the lovely projects!

prepping:

this is a section for projects that i plan to start soon-ish. i’m hoping it’ll be a way to keep my “mixing” section as a “new project” section instead of “everything that sounds awesome that i’m hoping to start this week” section. really, if you want to see the “everything that sounds awesome that i’m hoping to start this week” list, you should just go check out my pins.

– advent calendar – i’ve seen a few different ideas for these, but this one from So You Think You’re Crafty is actually the first one that made me think i SHOULD make one; but then Shanna suggested i check out this quilted one from Sew Mama Sew and i think i may have found my winner…. IF i can finish it quick enough!

– marble crinkle maze – as seen on pinterest (except i plan to add the crinkle feature), i think this would be a great game for our next plane ride with the LO

– handprint ornaments – also inspired by a pinterest find, or maybe this pin instead, i’d like to have these ready to give for the upcoming white winter holiday

mixing:

nothing new — is that a good thing or a bad thing?

simmering:

– sampler quilts – Minnesota Block is DONE! and the ticker tape block layout is figured out; more details here

– BSUQ – a quilt requested by my Hubby, how could i say no? it’s meant to look like Boise State’s blue football field, with orange end zones and a big bronco logo in the center of it all; i’ve finished the stitching of the bronco and next i’ll be cutting orange pieces for the “end zones”

– Comforter Q – i’ve been thinking about this one a lot, so when i finished off the couple of projects, and reached nice pausing points on a couple others, i decided to get this one going again; i’m so excited to finish off piecing the last couple of blocks and get them all squared up; after that it’s time to play with the layout!!

ready to serve:

– cathedral window pillows – YAY! finished in time to send off for Christmas!

– magazine pouch – another project requested by the Hubs – inspired by this and started quite a while ago and been off the radar for almost as long; we both like the fact that the magazines will no longer be precariously balanced on the back of the toilet tank — picture to come once Hubby does his part and mounts it on the wall!

back burner:

– memory game - about half the pieces are pretty much done except for tucking loose threads away; i’ve finished about 3 pairs of these and the LO seems to like grabbing at them and trying to eat them

– doll quilt – no progress; the binding is machine attached on the front with 2 sides hand stitched on the back

– Hubby’s tailored shirt – no progress; still need to hem the bottom

totals: 

new – 0
complete – 2
total in work – 6

what are you working on?

Samplers – Begin!

the samplers have begun! or, at least the first couple of blocks have started to come together… there’s plenty more where that came from!

but i thought i’d give you a run down of my plans, and expand on my previous post a bit. so here’s more details on the breakdown:

the blocks

copied from my previous post, here’s linkies to all the blocks that will be inspiring my samplers:

Quilt 1		Quilt 2		Quilt 3
disappearing 4-patch		spider web star		the letter ‘e’
interlocking squares		circle of geese		maple leaf
card trick		8 point star		bird patchwork
dresden		√ minnesota block		change the ‘noel’ to ‘love’
drunkard’s path		starburst diamond		ticker tape randomness
cathedral pinwheel		crossed star		airplane block

the minnesota block is the only one i’ve actually finished. but i’ve started on the ticker tape randomness block as well. plus, now i have all my block styles decided upon. (the airplane block on quilt 3 used to be TBD)

the colors

quilt 3 is sort of my family sampler. our last name starts with ‘e’, i love all maple trees and birds, Hubs and i are both aerospace engineers (hence the airplane block), and **the ticker tape randomness won’t actually be random. it’ll be scraps and snippets from all my favorite projects to date, like little snap shots from those times in my life and those loved ones who the project was gifted to. i took a picture of the planned layout already. see below. so anyways, as a family themed quilt, i’m going to use our wedding colors as the main scheme: red and yellow. i’m currently thinking white sashing, but i’m not completely decided on that. no matter what, my stash doesn’t have that many reds, so i’m toying with the idea of making this a “warm” quilt.

quilt 2 is my star sampler, incase you didn’t notice from all the “stars” in the block names. the color scheme for this one was inspired by my friend Amanda who is a very talented professional photographer. she recently shot a wedding with the colors kelly green and navy blue. i love those colors, both apart and together, and i have a decent amount (or at least SOMETHING) of each in my stash, so that’s the combo i’m going with for the star sampler. i think some bright white sashing will really help all those stars pop (as if they won’t already)! if quilt 3 is the “warm” quilt, this one will definitely be the “cool” one!

quilt 1, the geometric sampler, doesn’t really have any major underlying theme or heartfelt idea behind it. it’s got curves and straight lines, circles and squares and diamonds, an amalgam of block styles really. as such, i’m going to make it a scrappy rainbow of colors and just say “anything goes” on there. that should help keep it fun and cheap, because i’ve got plenty of scraps and pretty prints!

the quilting

i’m also hoping to use these samplers as a way to practice / perfect my FMQ technique. i’d love to have each quilt, or even each block, showcase a different FMQ style. there are definitely some great samplers and tutorials already out there, like the ones here and here. but honestly, i’m not really thinking that far ahead yet.

how do you get more practice and add to your abilities?

Week 25 – Up All Night

care of this week’s 52 in 52: things that keep me up at night:

• hunger
• obnoxious cats thinking they own the rights to my legs
• wondering whether the Little One is warm enough
• to do list for the upcoming day / week
• weather forecast for events in the upcoming day / week
• dreams that wake me up and leave me feeling angry / scared

really my list is pretty short. once you have a kid, sleep becomes a MAJOR priority and so you try your best not to cut it short because of piddly things like worries.

i used to be a major worrier.  one phrase that’s really helped me is “don’t borrow from tomorrow worries for today” or something like that. plus, with the recent re-release of the Lion King, i’ve re-adopted ‘Hakuna Matata’.

those and a healthy dose of reality from my totally super awesome Hubby, plus great big smiles from my LO, all help me relax a bit and enjoy daily life instead of dreading the worst that any day could bring.

how do you avoid excessive worrying?

First Camping Trip

camping has been a part of my entire life, and i despirately want to make sure it’s a part of my daughter’s life as well. i even bought “babes in the woods” to help me get prepared.

one thing it mentioned over and over was the importance of non-cotton apparel. but with the emphasis on organic everything, it’s difficult to find baby clothes that aren’t cotton. so i grabbed a too-small work out shirt from my (totally under-utilized) athletic apparel drawer and went to town. here’s the onesie i made next to the template onesie:

i finished it over the course of a day, during various naps, etc. and it’s a good thing i did, because we used it right away!  she’s almost 8 months old, but whether we were ready or not, we opted to take advantage of the long weekend and car camp at a local-ish spot. i think she had fun, despite the chilly weather. (she’s wearing my wool socks over her leggings in this photo:)

it got pretty cold though that first night (41F!) and we weren’t really prepared for that, so after some hiking and checking out the local springs, we opted to check out a little early. we stayed through dinner on the second day and past dark (which isn’t all that late anymore), until we were all ready to stop putting wood on the fire. then we did final packing and headed home.

it was fun, i’m glad we did it. and we definitely have a lot to work on for next time!

what experiences or traditions are you working hard to pass along to the next generation?