Star struck progress

Finally managed to get a few blocks done for a quilt I decided I needed to do because I wasn't seeing any progress on the other. The pattern is Star Struck by Bonnie Hunter and is available on her blog Quiltville. Blogspot.com. The stars will be in a few Bright colors and not all purple.

Table runner

This table runner is completely done: bound and labeled. While I pushed to finish the top and quilting in a day, the binding took a bit longer. Since my current show us not kid friendly, my TV time has been reduced to naptime and the hour between the boys' bedtime and mine.

Kyle

Apparently my stack of rest hammocks looks yummy.

Vomit quilt progress

I'm slowly making progress on my vomit quilt, which was my January goal.

Leader ender challenge: Lozenges

Finally finished cutting my pieces for a lozenge quilt I'm doing for Bonnie Hunter's leader/ender challenge. That is 540 bricks at 3.5" by 6.5" and 2160 2" squares. I gave myself 10 minutes a day to cut them. And my mom sent me nearly 200 bricks.

January goal: revisited

Finally getting myself going on my vomit quilt again. It will be nice to be able to put something else on my design, or at least to have that option again.

Celtic Solstice in Purple and Blue

Well my April goal remains, unworked on. But on the plus side, I was able to start and finish my May goal between mid-February and the first weekend in April. This is Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice 2014 Mystery. This is the second colorway in which I did it. This is the one for my Grandmother-in-law. My oldest loved helping me with the borders, and would continue to measure while I was cutting the next one.

This was my first pieced back. This was caused by necessity. I didn't have time to hunt down a corresponding back because I gave myself a crazy insane deadline to get it done by. I had just finished piecing the back when my longarming friend came to get it. She was kind enough to come pick it up, despite the fact that I was asking to have it back within a week so I could give it to Grandma when I saw her 8 days after I gave it to the longarmer. (Thank again Konda.) I was really glad to have some jelly rolls and fat quarter bundles of these fabrics because I didn't have enough coordinating for the back otherwise. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

I bound it in yellow. And I am absolutely in love with the butterflies it was quilted with. I really like butterflies right now.

Easter

Nate was so excited to look for Easter eggs this year.

We each had a different color to look for. Kyle's was yellow and Nate helped him. Nate's was blue.

Kyle was not sure what to make of it all.

Scrappy Mountain Pinwheels

Made this for my neighbor's new little boy (OK not so new anymore he's older than Kyle) using Bonnie Hunter's pattern Scrappy Mountains Majesty. It was quilted by my friend Konda with lizards and frogs and bugs.

Table runner ready for quilting

This table runner has been planned since we bought the coffee table last year. I wanted to cover up some of the unpretty spots on it. I'm planning on just straight-line quilting the rows. Pattern is Jelly Roll Quick Step.

New Scrappy Square Hammocks

In my cleaning of my room, I discovered that I had a few more fleece scraps than I realized, for some reason. So I decided to see what else I could do with them. This led me to try and new rat hammock style, scrappy squares. Each of the pieces, is a square made up of squares, with a solid piece of fleece on the other side. I had to try a few different sizes to get them, so they could be swapped with any of the other hammock pieces I have in my shop.

I am pleased to say that I was successful. This way I didn't have to throw out the big pieces of fleece that were sometimes left over after making the other hammocks. And each piece can be different.

I love them. They look so poofy. They can now be purchased in my Etsy shop.

Hard to say goodbye

Sometimes it can be hard to part with gifts from others. This was a floss/bead container that my mom painted for me while I was still living at home. I brought it out to Utah with me on one of my trips home (I think long before I got married even). On that trip one of the corners got busted so that 2 of the compartments no longer held beads, which is what I was using it for. I have continued to keep it, with beads in all the compartments but those 2, since it was from my mom.

I finally decided that it was time to say goodbye, especially since, I am passing my beads onto my boys (just Nate until Kyle gets big enough to not put them in his mouth).

I made sure to get this picture, so that I have a record of it's existence, since it was a significant part of my life at one point. Now I have gotten a shoe box sized container and an open bin for my son to use to play with the beads. I hope to use them to work with him on colors and dexterity. For the dexterity, I bought some of the thicker plastic bracelet string for him to work on beading them with. I hope they bring him as much joy as it brought me.

Cloth Books

 While I have 2 little guys, and a bazillion quilts to work on, I've decided that I need to clean up, and streamline my sewing room. I have quite a few projects that have been sitting around waiting for me to do them since before I got married. This means that some of my friends are getting/have gotten yarn, Nate has gotten a good sized stack of coloring books, and a few of the quicker projects have resurfaced. These cloth books are part of that last category.

This first one was acquired when we visited and met my cousin in Texas.

I got this second one from Pine Needles in Gardner Village, which is fun since my sons have familial ties to Gardner Village.

Continuing Celtic Solstice

My expansion of my first Celtic Solstice is coming along slowly, but with Nate's quilt done, I can really focus on it again for the rest of March, or until it's done, whichever comes first.

While avoiding working on my March goal because I got a bit more done on my second Celtic Solstice. Here is part 2 completely done.

I love how both colorways feel so happy.

From April

This is a flannel quilt given to Kyle by one of my quilting friends, April. It is so soft and warm, we all love it. Nate even tried claiming it as his own during a recent trip to Nevada when he got to use it because his blanket got dirty.

I love all the animals in the star. I've been using them to work with Nate on his animals while we let Kyle enjoy some tummy time. Thanks April.

Kyle's Quilt

This is the quilt that my mom made for my new little one, Kyle. It uses the Dr. Seuss fabric. Every time I look at it it makes me think of her. When I was little she loved to read to us. She was sooo good at adding animation to things. Some of our favorites (and hers, too) were Dr. Seuss books. I don't think either of us can read Oh, The Places You'll Go without tearing up. She also always encourages me when I'm feeling worried about something, by reminding me that I'm Brainsy and Footsy. Thanks mom.

Nate's Quilt

This is the quilt my mom made for Nate the Great. I love this one. He sleeps with it every night. I had told her I wanted to do his room in bright colors. We didn't get a chance to paint his room when we moved in (6 days before he was born), but it still looks great in his room. Thanks mom.

March Goal: FINISHED

This finish makes me very happy. This is the quilt I chose to do for Nate the Great. It used 5 fat quarters and some yardage. Each of the fat quarters could get 2 full blocks, so to get the other 2 blocks I mixed and matched. I actually really love how those blocks turned out. Nate seems really excited to be getting it. Or at least as excited as a 2.5 year old gets when you tell him something is for him.

Once I prepare the backing, it will be the beginning of my stack of quilts to take home and have my mom quilt. I may be able to find 5 or 10 minutes at a time to piece, but finding larger chunks of time to practice free motion quilting is a bit harder.

My Boys

Here is the source of most of my joy, anger, tears, laughter, headaches, and exhaustion. These two boys are a handful some days.

The oldest is constantly running around, bouncing, and making noise. And now he can do all that while still staring at a tablet screen. This has led to more falls (looking at the tablet while running is not safe), and tears (for both of us) than I would like to admit. It is amazing to watch him discover the different apps and watch him learn from them. He is working on letters, and numbers, matching, and puzzles. He also has his own songs and even Monsters on it, so I don't have to bring it up all the time. He doesn't throw a fit when the battery dies either; he simply goes and plugs it in excitedly; he sees it as one more thing he now gets to do.

The second sprout is a handful in that he wants to keep my hands full. It is hard to believe that he is already 7 weeks old (almost 8 weeks when this posts). He smiles and giggles, and is curious about everything. I love that I can catch him staring intently at things. There have been times when while burping him I realize he is deeply focused on my hexie quilt sitting right behind us. He is getting better at allowing me to put him down for short periods of time, so maybe my productivity will increase.

March Goal

My February goal is unfinished. I did make good progress on it. My problem (besides having a 7 week old and a 2.5 year old) was that I decided I needed to make it bigger halfway through the month.

My goal for March is to sew the top for Nate's quilt.

And just so I can't try sneaking something else in early here are the rest of my monthly goals:
April-Kyle's quilt top
May-Second Celtic Solstice
June-My car quilt top
July-My car quilt quilted and bound
August-Giddyup in Gingham top
September-Citrus $29 quilt top
October-Pastel $29 quilt top
November-2013 Mystery
December-Konda Mini

In addition to these I am hoping to:
Bind Spencer's car quilt
Finish borders on the moose quilt
Finish January Goal of Vomit quilt Top
Finish February Goal of Celtic Solstice top
Bind Corbin's quilt when it comes back from the quilter
Cut and start lozenges for Bonnie Hunter's 2014 Leader Ended Challenge