motivation!

nothing like a lot of this:

keeping you snowbound, to feel extra productive!  We've been getting a lot of snow this year.  It's nice when I don't feel like I have to go anywhere!  I put dinner in the crockpot and had the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted!

So I got a little cutting done:

a long lost project finished up (this had been languishing in my UFO pile for years):

Really, why do I wait so long, it took me less than 30 minutes to iron this up again and stitch up.  I forget how tricky rayon is to work with, though.

and this little guy turned 2 on Sunday!

That cake was delicious! Duncan Hines Lemon (made with milk instead of water), lemon curd filling, homemade cream cheese icing. Mmmmmm.

At the moment he's really into trucks, Elmo, Veggie Tales, cake, smarties, and well, food in general.  He's also talking up a storm, having an opinion, and has learned to crawl out of his crib.  Uh oh!   He's such a happy guy, he's always excited to start the day. Makes it easier for me to want to get up too!  He is our sweet little guy and a true snuggle bug.  We are so lucky to have him in our family!

What do you do all day when you are forced to stay at home?

april's quilting bee block

April was a really busy month. Now that my pity party is over (well mostly) I'm geared up for the next three months while hubby is gone. Thank you everyone for your well wishes and support. It was very sweet to read all of your comments the other day. I totally appreciate it!

Everyone here has been sick at one point and now it's my turn. I don't recommend piecing a block while drugged up on sinus infection meds. I only had to rip out and resew four or five times. And the border got chopped because I made the block too big on accident. I need sleep.

This is my block for April. I hope Russ likes it.

I was going for a pinwheel thing and realized after it was put together that the pinwheels don't pop like I wanted them too. I still like it, it's just not what I had in my head.

I've been wanting to try something new each month and I've never done half-square triangles, but they were pretty easy. But you have to be really precise when you cut that diagonal line or they don't all end up the same size.

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I started this bag months ago in an attempt to rescale the Paisley Garden Signature bag, which is rather large. This was way too small. So now my little parrot/monkey/copycat has her own bag to wear. Just like I wear mine. It was sad to see her try to "messenger-style" everything in the house (including some baskets) and not have it work. This strap is perfect - I just used some left over 2" wide grosgrain ribbon.

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Did you want to know how cute the shoes are that I mentioned the other day? You'd better not be surprised at the color!

Never mind the pasty legs. I got these from Land's End. They are super comfy but were actually a little too big. I went in today and exchanged them for a half-size smaller. Did you know that Sears has Land's End shops? They have great customer service and even though I ordered these online I was able to return them to the store, order a new pair, and not pay shipping! Wow. Can't wait until they come back so I can wear them!!

a recovery group for procrastinators anonymous

I was glad to hear that I'm not the only one who tends to put things off!

I was heartened to see Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio inspire us to finish up some of those unfinished projects!! Thanks for the motivation! You can go to her blog and grab her button.

I already finished a couple of unfinished projects this month. One of them being this scarf. (which I can't seem to take a decent picture of...)

I first saw it on Penny's blog late last summer. I purchased MKCarrol's pattern and took it with me on my trip in September. Then I realized I had taken the wrong hook - so the pattern was too big. So I had to take it apart and start over.

Then I made another huge mistake and had to take it out and start again. I had put it down for a while because I was frustrated with it. I picked it back up again in October when my mom came to visit. We were looking at the pattern and we realized that I had been using US stitches with a UK pattern. So again the size was off. But I had just finished off my first skein of yarn and wasn't about to do it all over. Again.

So it's sat sad a lonely all winter instead of keeping my neck warm. It's still been cold here so I decided I needed to finish it so I could still wear it this season. So, if you are still reading you will see how good a procrastinator/rationalizer I really am!


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Amy at Park City Girl is hosting a Bloggers Quilt Festival. Post your favorite quilt through a Mr. Linky on her blog starting this Friday! Fabric shops are lined up for some giveaways as well!

Maybe I'll host a giveaway too. . .

it's about time

I mentioned this little unfinished project a few posts back. Actually, it's been almost a month. I finally finished up the binding yesterday and got it nice and crinkly in the washer. There were a few frustrations in working on it, but, in the end, I'm pretty happy with it, considering it's the first quilt I've ever designed and pieced, quilted, and bound all by myself (with a few tutorials from my mom!). That being said, if I were to make a quilt for my friend for her birthday this year - it would look nothing like this. Even if her birthday is on the 4th of July.

Since this was the first thing I have quilted with a walking foot I wasn't ever really sure I was doing it right, because it just seemed like there was something off. That it should have been easier than it was. My stitches were uneven and the fabric wasn't feeding well. I was borrowing my mom's foot and remembered not having this much trouble working with it when she was here.

So I was on the phone with her working on those minky baby blankets, with the walking foot and expressing my frustration - being the day AFTER I finished this quilting. Our conversation went a little something like this:

my mom: Do you have the little black arm attached to the presser foot screw?

me: what??! what little black. . . . (looking closer). . . oh, you mean that one. (attaching the foot properly - and grumbling)
Well that's interesting - it works just fine, NOW.

my mom: I didn't know you didn't know how to attach it.

me: you mean the way I also didn't know that a fat quarter measured 18"x22" until last fall?

my mom: (chuckles)

me: The problem here is that you know so much you just assume I've learned it all through osmosis! I'm totally going to blog about this. A post entitled: Things my mom thought she taught me, that I wish I had known.

my mom: Oh no you're not!

me: we'll see.


I guess we know the outcome of that one. (Thanks, mom!)

I love how the binding turned out. I think the stripes really complete it and make it a little fancier. I used to think I hated sewing on binding, but I knocked this out during a viewing of this. And it's not as hard as I used to think. I reccomend running your thread through beeswax to keep it from tangling. I learned that from Bend the Rules Sewing (and yes, I think my mom knew about that trick too).