Sweet Baby Girl Quilt

Being a mommy of three boys with 4 nephews and only two nieces, it's not very often I get the pleasure of making something girly.  In fact, when the opportunity came up to make a friend of mine at work a baby girl quilt, I jumped at the chance!  I do have some pinks and purples but they are very dated and mainly scraps.  What's a girl to do?  Go shopping!!

 

 Aren't those just yummy?

There are a handful of traditional patterns I have yet to make that are on my "bucket quilt list".  I have always wanted to make a double wedding ring and the dresden plate.  Those two patterns are high on my list to make at some point in my life.  The dresden plate pattern has always felt overly girlie to me so I haven't chosen it...until now. 

The plates are machine appliqued with an invisible thread so it went together quickly.  I kept the quilting very simple.  A sweet flower in the center of the plate, a quarter inch stitching around each petal, a repeat of the sweet flower with a leaf vine connecting them around the plate and a simple zig-zag thru the pieced sashing. 

Many of my projects in recent years have seemed to have a need for speed.  I have always been a girl for tradition.  Especially when it comes to quilting.  Hand quilting and hand applique were the only way to go.  Insert three young men into my life with a career that keeps me hopping and there just isn't time if I ever want to complete a quilt in less than a year...or several.  I started machine quilting after "Thing 2" was born and haven't looked back.  I hope that someday in my future I will be able to get back to quilting my work by hand.  For now pieces will need to be done for speed, and functionality. 

I hope this quilt sees many spit-ups, diaper blow-outs, drool and many, many washes.  It's just as sweet as the baby girl who will use and abuse it.

Absent

As anyone and everyone can witness, I have been MIA for a while.  There are stretches of time in one's life where life takes over.  Time for simple pleasures like this blog, sewing, peeing, are just not there due to being over-committed.  The amount of hours needed for work has increased dramatically over the past several months.  Kid activities and volunteering for said activities has taken the rest of the hours in the day.  It has been months of running from sun up to sun down every day, all day long.  I know we are all busy and say yes to more than we should. This has just been a stretch of time that got a little out of hand.

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel however and am excited to post about some of the great things that have happend over the past few months from closing out the Farmer's Market to a finished baby quilt and new projects! 

Travel Bag

When we decided to take a family trip this summer I started giving much thought to the logistics of course.  I'm a planner and list maker.  The logistics of traveling with 5 boys and 4 adults was the first thing that needed my attention.  How to pack for 3 boys ages 13, 8, 3 plus two adults was at the top of my list. 

Since we were flying I needed to figure out how to consolidate items and pack only the necessities. One of the easiest to combine was my purse and the all important diaper/snack bag.  After perusing the closet of bags I realized all the backpacks were, well, manly.  Most of them are logo'd bags from work so they are designed primarily for men and to hold a laptop.  All the other bags were tote bag style.  Anyone that has traveled with a three year old boy will know, you absolutely must have both hands free.  Not one hand free and the other trying to hold your tote from swinging and hitting your kid in the head. 

What's a designer to do?  Make your own cute backpack of course!

I found this lovely pattern for the backpack.  I did add the side water bottle pockets for mine that a drafted.  There must be a spot for the sippy cup after all.

I made this matching clutch for my wallet and lipgloss. 

Cute and functional.  Win win!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

Shop Hop

Shop Hop.  One of my absolute favorite days of the year!  My bestie and I have participated in the old lady road rally, or Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop for several years.  What could possibly be better than spending an entire day driving from one quilt store to another until you drop! 

For those of you that have never experienced a shop hop, let me explain.  All quilt stores in a certain region participate in Shop Hop.  Each store creates a block all using the same line of fabric.  At each store you receive the block pattern, and the fabric to make the block.  You have a passport that gets stamped at each location.  If you visit 16 stores you can turn in your passport to be entered in a drawing for multiple prizes. 

For us it's not about the blocks, it's really not about the prizes.  It's about spending time with my bestie.  Having time for girl talk.  Visiting some fantastic quilt stores and being filled with ideas and inspiration.  It absolutely feeds my soul.  I wish I could run thru these stores snapping pictures of everything we found, but they tend to frown upon that.
This year I managed to keep myself to three new projects.  Two of which I already had on my list of upcoming projects.  I just found the inspiration and fabulous fabric for them.  I only picked up one new project that wasn't on the project list.  This adorable fabric just jumped out at me to make a travel sewing case. 

This was a leisurely year only making it to about 13 stores in one day but it was filled with wonderful conversation and creativity.  I'm inspired to lock myself in my sewing room and not come up for food or screaming kids outside the door.  No matter how loud they or my stomach are.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

A Special Birthday

Thing 2 just turned 8.  Now you might not say that's a special birthday, and I would agree with you.  It's not hitting double digits, or becoming a teenager, or being old enough to drive.  It turned into a special birthday because we were able to celebrate in a unique way. 

The birthday cake has turned into quite a tradition in our family.  My bestie taught me the basics of cake decorating shortly after Thing 1 was born.  This is certainly a frustrating craft for me but I'm determined at every birthday to make something special for the boys.  Sometimes I fail, sometimes I nail it, but it's always a dramatic experience in the house.  The kids know to leave me alone when I'm working on a cake because I get so frustrated when it doesn't cooperate!  Frosting is nothing like fabric!  I can make fabric do almost anything I want it to.  Frosting and cake seem to have a life all their own.  With this cake tradition, there must be a family dinner to celebrate.  This year it was a small gathering due to a few conflicts and last minute scheduling, but the cake was a hit with the boys.

This might not make much sense to many people, but this is a creeper from the game, Minecraft.  Minecraft is a game that has taken off and they older two play it whenever they possibly can!

The special celebration came during our vacation.  We certainly didn't plan our vacation around Thing 2's birthday.  It just happened to be the only week during summer break that worked for both families.  So Thing 2 had the amazing experience of spending his birthday at Disneyland!  We visited Town Hall on main street where he received his special Happy Birthday button and all the boys received a I'm Celebrating button.  What a day!  He counted.  He received 18 Happy Birthday wishes from Disneyland workers thru the day, rode every ride in the front seat, and was the rebel spy on the Star Tours ride. 

Of course you have to top off your amazing 8th birthday with a large piece of chocolate cake!  This truly was a birthday to remember.

Family Vacation

I know many families that take big vacations several times a year.  Their kids are very well travelled.  Much more so than myself, that's for certain!  Being a family of 5 on one income, large vacations are rare.  We have done our best in the past to do small car trip vacations to have new experiences and spend time together, but big trips haven't been in the budget.  Well, this year was different. 

Conversations about this vacation started this past Christmas.  I had mentioned to my sister-in-law that I thought this might be a good year to take the boys to Disneyland.  Before I knew it we were planning a trip for both our families to travel together.  Five boys, four adults, one week, two theme parks, one museum, and a beach!  My hubby thought we were nuts, and maybe we were, but we had an amazing vacation!

There were many firsts for the boys.  First plane trip for Thing 3.  First rollercoaster for Thing 2.  First time at Disneyland for Thing 2 and 3.  Many first foods tried from calamari to a mint julep.  Virgin of course.  First time seeing the open ocean.  Many firsts indeed.

My head is still full of all the experiences and memories created on this vacation.  Watching the boys faces as they walked into Disneyland for the first time.  Their excited stories as they would come off a ride.  Watching them have wonderful moments with their cousins.  Chasing the waves on the beach and squealing as they got wet.  Trying to dig a hole to China.  Being inspired by the Lego creations at Legoland.  Getting a special behind-the-scenes tour to see how Legos are made.  Watching Thing 3 light up seeing a giant Tigger or riding It's A Small World. Yes, we tourtured the entire family with that ride.  It truly was a vacation I don't think any of us will forget.

First Day at Market

Every experience in life is a learning opportunity.  No matter what the experience is, there is always something you can learn from it.  After many long nights, we pulled together a decent showing of items to sell and at 1am the morning before market, the quilt was completed. 

 There were baskets of candles, a small assortment of soaps and a few beautiful beaded golf counters my mom put together for us to sell. 

Lessons were learned on the logistics of loading up all the gear we needed to take, what gear we needed, how to set up and tear down the canopy, etc.  The main missing ingredient was customers.  The weather was less than perfect, but was dry.  It was the first day of market.  Schools are still in session.  There were many reasons the turn out was light, but it was still dissapointing to a 13 year old that has large ambitions of making money to attend national Jamboree next summer.  Many times thru the evening I reasurred him that things will pick up when school is out, the weather turns around, etc.  It was still a bit dissapointing to make a grand total of 9 dollars in 4 hours. 


Other lessons were learned around what we have to offer and how it showed.  There were two other vendors with candles and one other with soaps. 

The raffle quilt certainly set us apart and was the main draw of attention, so this weekend I will start working on a few other items that will be unique to other vendors.  Patterns have been poured thru and printed from the web to make some table runners and placemats to add to our inventory.  If nothing else, everyone will be receiving homemade candles, soaps and table runners for the holidays this year.

T-minus 1 Day

Candles, tags, quilts, signage, displays, soaps, oh my!!  The house has been bustling with activity for our first farmers market for the past several days.  The quilt needs it's binding sewn around the edge.  Tags need to be attached to the candles.  The soap base and molds just arrived.  Display baskets need to be found around the house.  Just a few things still to do before our first farmers market on Wednesday.

Boy, the lengths we go to for our children.  To teach the value of a dollar and working hard for something you want.  Who's learning these lessons...him?  Or us?

Quilt Day - Giving Back

There have been many quilts and projects completed in my sewing room thru the years.  Quilts to celebrate weddings, new babies, special milestones, and some just because I felt the urge to sew something.  There truly isn't anything that compares to making something in service of others.  In my sewing career I haven't experienced many of these projects.  There always seemed to be a birth, wedding, etc. that took priority, and frankly, comes with a deadline.  This past weekend two projects were started in service of others.  My bestie has begun a quilting journey I'm not sure she ever thought she would take.  A very close friend of hers passed away recently that was quite sudden.  I believe this has weighed heavily on her heart.  In her friend's memory and honor she has begun a quilt project that captures the heart of her dear friend.  She is enlisting other quilters to join her on the journey to create Hawaiian quilt works of art that will be shown and sold to benefit the Brain Aneurysm Foundation http://www.bafound.org/.  Take a moment to visit her blog where she captures the journey of the project and provides details for others to join her.
Taking on the challenge of making a Hawaiian quilt is not for the faint of heart.  It takes precise workmanship, a steady hand, and a leap of faith...or maybe the naivete of not having a clue what you are getting yourself in to.  I blindly jumped into the realm of Hawaiian quilting years ago when I made one for my mother-in-law.  After several years of hard work, putting it away for a year at a time, I swore I would never make another one.  Well, you know I can't let my bestie embark on this amazing project without me!  I will be joining her in a few weeks with my own creation to be donated to the cause.

My quilt day wasn't spent entirely helping my bestie with her project.  There was another service project happening this past weekend.  Thing 1 has been accepted to attend the national boy scout jamboree next summer.  You would be right to ask what this has to do with quilting.  Thing 1 has the daunting task of funding as much of the costs as possible to attend.  One of the grand ideas he had to raise funds was to set up a table at a local farmers market for the summer to raffle off a hand-made quilt and possibly some hand-made candles and soaps as well.  This was quite a lofty idea.  In an effort to not automatically shoot down his idea, I reached out to a local farmers market about doing this.  Certainly this idea wouldn't be accepted.  About two weeks ago we received the call.  Low and behold they LOVE the idea!  They love the community effect this will have.  Needless to say, our house has been full of frenetic activity trying to pull everything together for opening day.  Thing 1 has very limited sewing experience so there was a lot of education at each and every step of making the quilt.  I seemed to spend quilt day floating between advising on the Hawaiian quilt and teaching Thing 1 how to operate my machine and sew a straight line.  Although I did very little sewing myself, there was great progress made on both projects. 

The feeling of doing for others is truly a wonderful feeling and one I plan on repeating.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

Cupcake Royale

I don't necessarily enjoy giving people gift cards as gifts, but sometimes it's the best sort of gift.  When giving a gift card you want to make it special.  Dress it up a bit.  A few years ago I found THIS online tutorial on how to make a cupcake gift card.  My oh my, this is perfect!  I've made several for teacher gifts at the end of the school year and they have always been well received. 

The gift card slides right down into the slit you create in the foam ball.  The binder clip holds onto the card so you can easily pull it out of the cupcake.  I had to use a larger binder clip than in the tutorial because it was the only size I could find in the house.  Always make do with what you have.

My mother-in-law's birthday was a few weeks ago.  What do you give someone who has everything, and is currently downsizing to a smaller house/condo?  A spa gift card of course!  I had a cupcake holder almost completed from the previous school year so I put the final touches on and voila!!  She loved it!

Of course, Mor Mor always needs new picture for her birthday.

Teen Years Here We Come

I've been dreading this moment for some time now.  Being the parent of a newborn baby is definately challenging, the toddler years bring an entirely different set of parenting skills, young boys are certainly challenging but a teenager?  I don't feel prepared for this next stage of parenting at all. 

I'm in complete denial.

It's one thing to realize I'm actually old enough to have a teenager.  That brings it's own set of issues with it, but that's not what this is about.  It's about the frightening realization that I need to have the parenting skills to handle a teenage boy!  I grew up with an older brother and watched the relationship between my parents and brother during those years.  I also dated hubby and remember what he was like as a teenager.  Needless to say, I'm a bit freaked out.

To celebrate this milestone of officially becoming a teenager, and all that comes with it, it was a several day celebration.  Last Friday night we had a few of his friends over for a video game fest with pizza and cake.  How fun to see these guys hanging out playing Xbox.  The pinacle of the evening was at the end when they broke out Rock Band and started singing terribly off-key with the windows open for all the neighborhood to "enjoy".

Okay the cake.  Let me explain.  Thing 1 and his friends play this computer game called Portal 2.  It's the current "thing". In the game you have this machine that shoots portals into locations.  One portal (the blue one) is the "in", and the second portan (the orange one) is the "out" where you can use these portals to navigate around the game.  There is also this chocolate cake that has little mounds of whip creme with cherries on top.  The cake shows the chocolate cake from the game going 1/2 way into one portal and 1/2 way out another.  It looks pretty rediculous unless you understand the game...which I don't.  But I managed to pull off the cake!

On Saturday Hubby, Thing 1, his best friend and his dad, all went to a shooting range.  If you know me, you know how hard this was for me to let him go.  I paced in the house nervously until they came home...in one piece...with bullet holes only in the targets.  The family came over for BBQ that evening and enjoyed more of the funky cake.

It was a great weekend.  Bring on the teen years!!!  I'm ready!!  Okay, not really.