Someday

I will post again!

I will not update. It is too much trouble.

Yes, my baby is four months old now.

Soon I will pick up where I am now.

You can catch me on Facebook too!

Sorry little blog. I haven't meant to be so neglectful!

A few updates

OK. This is so not my style, but this post is in bullet form of sorts. I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted. Oh, well. Not top on my list these days. With 6 days until the scheduled c-section day when we get to meet our sweet baby boy, I am not motivated to do a whole lot.

First on the list - from the sewing corner!

Baby hats that I might make to sell someday. Aren't they the cutest. So fun and easy to make.


A precious pillow made from Holly Holderman's Cherry Baby fabrics. So much fun to make and Nicole even stuffed it herself. I have another pillow to make and a quilt for her wall.


Then there are the Nursery photos. Brian painted it the most lovely shade of green for me. This room has been empty since we moved in a year ago. Feels nice to have it occupied soon. Couldn't love the color more. Bought a new dust ruffle, all blue sheets, a new lamp, a blue valance, etc. It has been fun to know and plan the colors. Of course, the idea behind the green was that it could go with pink too!


A dear friend made these wonderful Peter Rabbit quilted wall hangings for the room, as well as some cute little storage cubes. I picked up the little sign at Hobby Lobby half price.


On the wall behind the rocker are my babies, all at about 3 months. These used to hang in the stairwell in our other house. I reframed them and just love how they "belong" here.


And, of course, the crib is ready too. I made a pillow and ordered this sweet little Peter Rabbit. And then there's the sweet outfit Nicole picked out for Baby to come home in.


And then there's the new thing in our lives - football practice. Jacob just began last night and loved it.


I guess you will be hearing from this blog soon when Baby arrives. My doctor told me to take it easy over the weekend since she would be out of town. I surely want her to do the surgery. So I will try. And if nothing happens before Thursday, then that's the big day!

Blessings.

And of course

Me and my beautiful Nicole on Easter.

Baseball Boys

Three Amazing Boys! Hard to believe we will be adding one more soon!

The White Sox Baseball Jacob

The Cubs T-Ball Andrew

The Wanna Be Michael

Hard to say goodbye!

This is my first attempt at string piecing (see the center part). I absolutely adore how this turned out. Even if I do say so myself, it is even lovelier in person. I think it has to do with the fabrics - some old Ava Rose I have been saving for the perfect quilt - plus, all the pretty, sparkly white!

I hope it's new owner adores it!

What I couldn't reveal

I think I mentioned in a post the other day that I had completed another quilt that I couldn't show just yet. That's because it was a baby quilt that I was giving to one of my best friends at our joint baby shower. Well, we had our shower last weekend so now I can show you the quilt as well as share some details of our lovely shower.

I made this using Moda Blush fabric and patterned it after a quilt kit out there using the Moda Verna fabric. It was easy and fun to make I love the chocolate brown!


Kayse and I had a lovely shower given by two of our dearest friends, Michele and Robin (and Kayse too since it was at her house and she had to clean and decorate). The brunch was lovely and delicious. I am thankful my friends are such good cooks! Michele made the best egg dish and coffee cakes - yum!



Robin made an outstanding and beautiful and delicious cake for us! Look how precious!



And then of course how cute are these little "thrones" that Kayse set up for the two of us to perch ourselves on. She even bought us each a soft color coordinated minky blanket at Target!


It was a lovely morning. I felt so loved and honored by everyone's presence and by all the sweet gifts I was showered with. Thank you dear friends!

Well, the c-section is five weeks from today! It is hard to believe. This weekend we are going to focus on getting the nursery painted. Pictures will follow when it is all set up.

Nine Patch Quilt Top done!

Last May I joined a quilt along to make seven nine patches every week. It was started by a favorite quilter online. It was a lot of fun to make all the nine patches from fabrics in my scrap bin and on my shelf. It is truly a scrap quilt. And in many ways it is also a memory quilt since so many fabrics I have used on various projects over the years are included. Of course I finished all the blocks last June, but I am sure I got distracted with another project and I set them aside in a project drawer. Last week I completed another quilt (which I am not at liberty to show yet) and decided to pull out a work in progress. This was my choice. It was very easy to put together. If you look back at the original quilt along post, it shows the quilt with white sashing. I decided not to do sashing. In one way, it just seemed like a lot of work for me right now. But most of all, I was struck by how wonderfully colorful and fun it looked when I initially laid them out right next to each other. I really like mine much better this way. It is all done and hanging in my closet waiting to be quilted when I have more stamina and energy.

We opened the little envelope

We have had an envelope in our possession since our 19 week ultrasound that revealed the gender of this next baby. We finally decided to open it this past weekend!

And it's going to be another precious


BOY!!!!!


We couldn't be more excited. We are all looking forward to meeting him!

Words Worth Reading

Elizabeth Foss always has something good to say. Something that prods me to desire greater holiness. She did it again today with the help of a few fantastic saintly quotes.

Go read!

Yeah!

Today I received my doll quilt in the mail for DQS8! I have been so excited to check the mail each day, hoping my little quiltie would arrive soon. Oh, the suspense! I couldn't wait to see which one of the amazing quilts I've been seeing on Flickr would belong to me.

And here it is.......


You just can't believe how beautiful it is. The photos do NOT do it justice. Debbie's (Marblesbestfriend) piecing is amazingly precise and her quilting is perfect. I am in love. She could not have chosen better colors and fabrics for me. I am so excited and thankful. A funny side note is that when she had posted a sneak peek photo on Flickr, I had been the first to comment on how much I loved it. And to think it would be mine!

And here it is below next to my own quilt on the family room wall. Perfect!


On another quilting note, below are the photos of the diaper carrier/changer I made to give to my friend who is about to have her baby girl. I shortened this final version 2 inches in both length and width from the prototype, but left everything else the same. It turned out even better. I was so excited to give it to her yesterday afternoon. I hope it is fun and useful for her and her newest baby.

Doesn't get much prettier

I love the UPS man.

Some Little People Get Big TOO Fast

I can't believe it. February has come and gone much faster than I realized. And during that month two of my precious little ones had birthdays, within a week of each other. It is hard to fathom that they are growing up so fast. It was always hard to hear other moms say, "Enjoy it while you can. It'll be over before you know it." When you have your first one or two and you are in the thick of this new parenting thing, that is the last thing you want to hear. But oh, how true it is.

My sweet second born, my lovely little ballerina, Nicole is SEVEN! When did that happen? She is too precious for words, my only little girl thus far. I so want to treasure her and build a loving relationship with her. She is tall and so pretty. She dances with such grace and seems to have a beautiful singing voice too. She reads voraciously and colors up a storm. She is all girl, but doesn't take any funny business from her brothers. She is a wonderful young lady and I can't believe my years with her are zooming by.


And they Mikey decided to keep growing up too! One week after his big sister's birthday, he turned THREE! He'll be three and a half almost when baby arrives. And what a big brother he will be. Mikey is hillarious and loud and amazingly self-sufficient. If any child in our family is Italian in any way, it's him. He is bold and bright and doesn't just walk into a room, he bounds in with energy and life! He makes our days crazy and happy all at one time and we love him dearly. Even with his extrovert personality, he is very cuddly and sweet and loving. The best of both worlds. Our cutie Mikey!

Just a little sewing!

Yeah, right! I don't know how to do just a little sewing!!!! Although my production levels have been a bit down from normal considering all my pregnancy aches and woes (poor me). But when I feel good and have enough energy I quilt. Yes, I choose to quilt and sew over blog - that's why blog posts are way down in number!

A few months ago I entered another Doll Quilt Swap online. I enjoyed DQS7 so much that I knew I wanted to get in on DQS8. It has been lots of fun to watch all the activity of these wonderful quilters. Once I was assigned my partner the wheels started turning. She likes simple and modern and bright colors - similar to me in some ways! So I set about making my quilt. I had just begun to do some applique and was really liking it (all on the machine, of course - no hand work for me!), so I decided to do an applique garden based on some inspiration from other sources out there. There are some real quilting geniuses! And this is what I came up with.


I worked and worked and the more I worked, the more I loved it - I mean REALLY loved it. These were even some of my favorite fabrics. I was torn. I wasn't sure I could part with it. So I didn't. I rationalized that it wasn't quite modern enough for my partner - good, huh? So now it proudly hangs on my family room wall. Then I made a second rainbow colored applique quilt (forgot to take a photo) which I decided just wasn't right for my partner. I'll save that for someone else. Then it was time to start my third and, hopefully, final attempt. I must say I was pleased with this one and I sent it off to live with her last week.


Well, my next project was something I had been waiting quite a while to work on. I think I mentioned a while back that I had fallen in love with Amy Butler's Love fabric line, especially one called Bliss Bouquet Teal. I had been wanting to make myself a bag. I had made several Charm Party Tote bags for others as gifts and wanted to make one for myself. I knew this fabric was the one. So I ordered my fabric (got 2 yards of the other color way free by mistake) and anxiously waited for it to arrive. This past weekend I made the bag out of single pieces of fabric instead of charm squares. I finished it up on Sunday and I couldn't be happier to have MY NEW BAG! It is beautiful, even if I do say so myself!




Next I embarked on a design adventure. Once upon a time at the quilt festival in October I saw the cutest pattern for a diaper and wipes tote/changing pad thing. I did not buy the pattern. I have never ever been able to find it again. But I have been wanting to make one for a gift for a friend. I searched and searched and reviewed lots of patterns, both free and not, online. I never really found "the perfect thing". So based on what I had seen and what I knew I wanted, I decided to create my own. I used some fabric I had in my stash to make a prototype (recognize it, Robin?). I really like how it turned out. I wanted it to be big enough to hold a travel wipes container and at least 3 diapers. It needed to fold up and close easily. And I wanted it to be a big enough changing pad for larger little behinds. I think I got it good, but I will run it by some quilting friends for thoughts and suggestions before making an actual one. I ordered some lovely fabrics at fabric.com and can't wait for them to come. (Yes, you need to click on each word for the links). So here is my prototype.

All folded up and ready to tuck in the diaper bag.
(This was my first time ever in all my years of sewing to do a buttonhole - imagine!)

A peek inside - wipes and three size 5 diapers.

And all laid out and ready for a quick diaper change on the go.

Well, on to other projects. I have one in particular in the que that I just also ordered fabric for. But that will have to wait for a later date. Now I must go rest before I fall apart.

Blessings!

Red and Aqua

Well, I finished the quilt top for this red and aqua quilt I started a while back. I remember loving this Dutch Pinwheel block when I saw it and just knew it would be the perfect way to showcase all the reds and aquas I had been collecting as I began my love affair with this color scheme. I really love how it turned out.


It was a frustrating quilt at times. When I began this quilt, I was using scraps of a "good" white muslin I had used on my stacked coins quilt. It was frustrating then as I watched it stretch and pull this way and that. You'd think I'd learn, but in my effort to be thrifty and resourceful, I decided I would make use of the scraps. Towards the end I had to add some other miscellaneous white cotton because I thought I had run out. The blocks I constructed with this "other" cotton were soooooo much better.

I'm in Love

Well, I knew Amy Butler was coming out with a new fabric line and if it's hers, its guaranteed to be a show stopper. I had seen snippets of it and thought it was lovely.

But it wasn't until I saw this bag that I knew I was in love with "LOVE" and had to get my hands on some yardage. I have made some bags for some people and I have wanted to make one for myself, but nothing was working for me. I knew I wanted my bag to be a single piece of fabric and not patchwork.

So I placed an order for two yards of this teal floral and a yard and a half of another for the lining.

I got this lovely floral instead. It is the same motif in a pale green and lavender. It is too lovely for words. The flowers are huge and beautiful. It's just not what I ordered. I called up fabric.com and they said they would send me the correct yardage as soon as the next shipment arrived. Yeah! She also said I could keep the two yards they got wrong! I gasped. I argued. But after the third time she insisted I keep it, I succumbed to the pressure. It is oh, so beautiful and even though it's not the one I ordered, I am thrilled to have two luscious yards of it!