A Present from my Quilting Friends

At the last sew day, I was very surprised and pleased to be presented with this lovely quilt for my little boy. Several of my friends got together and put this together for me. They each did a block and their names were each written into the white of their blocks. I love the variety and the thought that went into it. I smile every time I see it. It was also quilted with a wonderful Star Wars quilting. If you are reading this. Thank you ladies.

Big Brother Monsters Blanket (and Pillow)

While I was visiting my mom in October/November I happened upon a large fleece remnant of a Monsters University print. At the time, Nate was obsessed with Monsters, Inc. I picked a green remnant that matched well hoping I would be able to make a good-sized blanket for him. After using my mom's accuquilt die for an 8 inch finished fringe square, I realized I needed just a few extra squares, and luckily I had the purple remnant that I had picked up to use for rat hammocks, which was the exact right color to match Mike's hat. That even allowed me to have enough that I could pull out the squares with Mike and Sully well visible to put on a smaller pillow, so he would stop dragging the one from his bed all around the house when he wanted to watch Monsters.

I was thinking I would give it to him for Christmas, but was quickly convinced that I should save it and give it to him when his little brother was born. This worked out really well. He even tried laying down on the floor at the hospital with it when we gave it to him. He sleeps with both parts every night, and frequently carts it around the house to play with it.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how well he has handled being a big brother. Some of his new learned phrases are "Kyle sad," "Kyle wake," and "Kyle asleep, shhh." It has been cute. He also likes to kiss Kyle on his head, and tries to give him his binky all the time. He gives him hugs when he is in his swing, or on a blanket for floor time. He is also way too smart for Mommy. He knows it is harder for me to come after him if he is acting up while I'm holding Kyle.

A Good Bouquet of Flowers

For Valentine's, my husband got me flowers, an Amazon gift card, and we got to go to the arcade together without the boys thanks to my mother-in-law being here and watching both boys.

I always give my husband a hard time about the flowers on Valentine's Day. He doesn't like to get me roses because they are what everyone gives. He is really good about picking out a pretty bouquet that lasts for about 2 weeks every time. I don't know how they manage to live so long. One thing I love about the flowers he does get me is that there is always a wide variety to them. In this picture you can see at least 4 different kinds while still not counting the baby's breath and fern. He is so sweet to keep giving me flowers. I hope he realizes I do love them and smell them frequently while he is away.

Crazy Busy

Well this week I thought I'd try something a little different. I was thinking that if I had 20-30 minutes of time to work on craft stuff then I would add a little to a post that I would then wait and post on Sunday. The problem became that I was just getting way to much done in the little time I had. So as you can tell from the last post I ended up with a fairly long post for me and that only covered through Wednesday. Part of what helped me get so much done this week was the fact that I had a day that I declared a sick day (I was running a fever but seemed completely fine otherwise). That meant I exempted myself from folding laundry and working on dishes and instead let myself work in my craft room. And thus, I got a lot done.

One of the things that has started to fester in my mind is the mess in my craft room. That's where everything ends up when I don't have time to put anything away, that includes all the important papers for the family, any shopping purchases for the house or crafts or even the boys, and the odd present or two. Having tried many different crafts it is also cluttered with a lot of craft supplies for crafting I don't do anymore (or never had time to do) so my goal is to try and consolidate, get rid of excess, and just generally make my room a more pleasant place to be in. This includes the desire to get a better desk/cutting table. My husband even seems to be getting on board with it this time. He even took our little family up to Ikea (40 min drive), so that we could compare some desk/tables that I had seen online and was considering. I'm glad we did because one of the corner desks I had wanted was too small in my opinion to be good for much except claustrophobia, especially if paired with another table for cutting. So now I know how much I need to save up for, which will also give me some time to work on cleaning up/out my craft room to have room for those tables.

If you have craft room storage ideas that you love please let me know. I would love input on this topic.

Quick Projects

Monday- My Celtic Solstice is all ready for borders.
I love how it has turned out.

I also realized that I would need to adjust how much I have to cut out to make it fit on my Grandmother-in-law's bed. Not by much, but just enough that I'm glad I caught it now and can get extra pieces cut for part 1.

I'm wondering at the amount of extra fabrics I have for my Celtic Solstice. I'm thinking I have enough to grow it just a little bit more, so I can guarantee it will fit on my queen size bed. We shall see. I think I will just work on cutting the extra alongside the second one I'm doing.

 Tuesday- I finally managed to finish my tank that I replicated. All I had to finish was the straps. I wanted them to be detachable to I could still use the taking while nursing. I could not find the snaps I wanted anywhere. I finally decided to settle with swim suit bra hooks. I think it turned out really well.

While cleaning up my room and throwing all of my yarn projects into big buckets (since I only need one out at a time) I discovered a little bag kit that I bought a couple of years ago. I decided it needed to be completed finally. Well, here it is. Thank you naptime. Don't worry I also managed to get all my dishes done, laundry washed, and even had Marion come over to get grommets put into a bag she was making, so I wasn't just crafting again.

Wednesday- Slowly making progress. I finished cutting out the extra part 1 pieces I needed to expand the first Celtic Solstice and got them all sewn together. I declared today a me day since I woke up not feeling great.

Fairly Productive Sunday

 Today, I focused on getting the larger blocks of the Celtic Solstice attached to each other. I was sooo close to having all but the borders done on it when Kyle decided he could not let me do anymore because it was bedtime. I love how the pattern is rapidly starting to emerge. Maybe I will try to sneak down there during the week to finish sewing the rows together.

 My poor vomit quilt is waiting very patiently for me to work on cutting up the squares so that I can continue sewing it together. I think it has been very patient, especially since I believe it is one of the oldest projects I have right now.

I picked out fabric for another quilt this week. It was all from my stash again. This is actually going to satisfy two things that have been festering in my mind. The first is that I have been wanting to make a quilt for my grandmother-in-law. I considered doing one for her when I did the Christmas quilts, but decided I wanted to try and do a fancier pattern for her (I just didn't know what yet). The other thought that has been bugging me has been that I wanted to try and do another Celtic Solstice in another colorway, but I just couldn't justify starting another one without a purpose (I started thinking about it, just after part 2 went live). So these are the colors I chose for my second Celtic Solstice. I hope she likes it.

I gave in and let myself start it today. I cut out all the pieces for part 1. I told myself that it would be my reward for working on the things that need to be finished. So for every seam I finished on another quilting project I could do a seam on this one. It may make this quilt take longer, but the idea is that in the process I will make more progress on the ones that have been waiting longer. This means if I get the others done I can then work on this one without hindrance. Of course, this could just lead to more partially finished projects instead.

Until Next Week.

Side Project: Simple Swaddlers

One of the many extra side projects I have been working on are simple swaddling blankets for Kyle. I was given large blankets at Nate's baby shower that have been working great. Unfortunately, if I don't keep up with the laundry I can easily find myself without any. Since Kyle has a hard time sleeping at night unless he is swaddled because his hands bug him if they get free, it can be rather frustrating to be without one. So I chose to use some of the flannel I have to recreate those blankets. They are 39 inches by 4 inches. My mom helped me find a decorative stitch to use on the edge to make sure they don't fray while she was here. It was very helpful to get some more instructions on how to use my sewing machine.

January Goal: Uncompleted

Well, I'm sad to report that my January quilt will continue to be unfinished for a bit longer. I did get some work on it. All of the 5 inch squares have been pinned to my design wall. They have not been cut yet. With only a few minutes at a time, I have actually been working more on my February goal since it was spread out on top of my cutting table. I justified it by saying I was just working my way down to the cutting mat.

Here is the first row of my January goal, which is the pineapple I'm making using greys and the 5  inch squares from the vomit swap, my quilting friends and I did last year.

My February goal is Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery. I am currently putting together the big blocks using the little blocks. I hope to be able to finish the top in February. If I'm really lucky I will be able to get more work done on January's goal too. We'll see how much the boys will let me get done.