Craft-A-Little

So, I might be away for a while.  Both away from my sewing machine and away from the blog. 

Little Helper has a little sister now!  She was born yesterday morning.  She is  a sweetheart and we already love having her as a member of our family. 

I do have a few things that I have finished and not talked about on here, so maybe I will share those in the coming weeks- no promises!!

I am so frustrated!  I have been trying to upload some photos of the things that I have been working on- which is a ton of stuff- and I can’t upload anything!  I have been crafting away, trying to get things done before this baby is born in August and I have been so productive!

I am working on my doll quilt for DQS9, I re-quilted a quilt that the quilting wasn’t great on, did new binding on that and another quilt (I still have to hand sew these, but I am taking them with me to the lake this weekend), I cut fabric for a color wheel quilt that I bought fabric for AGES ago, finished my portion of the blocks for the quilt that my sister and I are making for our mom, finished up a bunch of gifts for a friend and a cousin, made some blocks for bee quilts- that is all I am coming up with right now- but I had pictures to show!

I also was lucky enough to win a giveaway!  I had entered Jaquie’s Spring to Finish challenge this year and I was a winner!  I won fabric that Cheryl of Naptime Quilter was giving away!  I was so excited to win!  She sent 6 fat quarters in greys and yellows.  One of them is yellow birds on a grey background and I just love them! 

Anyway…someday I will be back with photos of stuff.    I just have to get my IT department/husband to take a look at things and figure our what is up.  But right now he is way too busy applying a screen protector to his iPad. 

Well, I have been home.  Doing nothing.  Well, watching TV and not cooking and not cleaning.  And not sewing.  And not knitting.  So seriously- what have I been doing??  I have been growing a baby!!  Is that a good enough excuse for laziness?? 

I am 16 weeks along.  I am due August 20.  I am very excited!  If Little Helper understood, she would be pretty excited too! 

I do have a couple of things that I finished for some quilting bees in the last month.  Not a lot- 3 blocks.  I have 2 more that I need to get finished soon!  I will share those photos with you, just so that this is not a photoless post. 

(this one is -sadly- possibly lost in the mail.)

I have been having trouble choosing a costume for Little Helper this year.  I am leaning toward not dressing her up- even though I feel like when she is 25 she will tell me how she is emotionally scarred due to me not dressing her up for Halloween.  Maybe I will win one of these http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/10/queen-of-hearts-and-alice-in-wonderland.html costumes and then my problems will be solved!

These are really AMAZING costumes- I kind of wish the Queen of Hearts dress would fit me! 

What are your kids dressing up as?  Do you think that I should dress up my 23 month old?  Any inexpensive and easy ideas for me?

Sorry that I have been away for so long!  I have been doing some sewing and some knitting and I am just about to get into some baking!  My laptop broke this month so it hasn’t been as easy for me to blog.  Having no laptop has made it really hard to upload pictures.  I will utilize my husband’s USB drive this weekend to get some pictures up here.  I finished my doll quilt and sent it off (a little late- sorry partner!).  She has it now and says that it was worth the wait, so I feel a little better about it.  I have also been knitting away on my scarf.  I feel confident that it will be completed before it is cold enough to wear it.  Although temps dropped to the 40’s this week- YUCK!  I like fall, but 40’s is a little colder than fall, I think.  Let’s see, what else have I been doing?  I made 2 buttercup bags because I needed a purse to carry with me at a wedding a couple of weeks ago.  Anyway- I have pictures of all of this stuff and I will get them up this weekend! 

I am also hoping to do some baking this weekend.  I just go the Cake Bible from the library yesterday and I am excited to give some a try!  I even bought 3 new 9 in aluminum cake pans today! Oh the excitement!!

I will leave you with a link to my DQS7 partner’s blog- she has pictures up of the quilt that I made!

Have a great weekend!

In my last post I showed you the doll quilt top that I had put together.  Well, I was started to get concerned because I have never done any sort of applique or embroidery.  And I was going to have to learn how to do one- and quick!  So I brainstormed again.  And came up with a new idea.  I am not done with it, but I am making really good progress!  So here is a sneak peak of a small part of what I have completed.  So far, I am liking it quit a bit.  I hope my swap partner does too!

My cousin Lorrin and I are working on quilts together.  I haven’t posted blocks in a while, so I thought I would share my latest.  I feel kind of bad because I told Lorrin that I was going to mail them last week.  And then I never got them in the mail.  And now I am in Hannibal, MO.  Not at home.  Until Thursday.  So- no mail (sorry Lorrin!)

So, in an effort to make up for my lack of mail, I am going to post pictures here- before Lorrin has seen them in person.  I usually like to keep her in suspense until she gets them in the mail, but I am going to make an exception this once!

This one didn’t turn out how I originally planned it.  I wanted to use the red and I wanted to use aqua, but I didn’t have enough of my first choice aquas and this is what I ended up with.  I don’t love it.  Actually, it is my least favorite of all of the ones that I have made.  Oh well.  They can’t all be my favorites!

I do, however, like this one quite a bit!

I made this quilt for me.  Yes, the first and only quilt that I have completed, and I selfishly made it for myself.  Apparently other people had other ideas. 

This was the view inside Little Helper’s crib just before I put her to bed tonight.  She insisted that I put this quilt in her bed before she would go to bed and go to sleep.  Do you think that I can make her another one that is smaller that she will accept as hers?  Or do I just have to make a new one for myself?  And if I do make another, so you think that it should be out of the same fabrics?  Or do you think that a new one will be ok.  It is funny watching her grow up and seeing her have preferences for things.  She also really likes her fairy princess pj’s. 

I have been working on an Oliver & S outfit for A lately.  I have the tunic complete, except for buttons and button holes.  But I haven’t bought buttons yet.  I need to put the shorts together before summer is over.  Not that we have really had summery weather for most of the summer…

I also went by my local quilt shop this weekend for some new fabric for a quilt that I am working on for my best friend.   I am still getting used to fabric shopping.  I am pretty good at yarn shopping now.  But being a new sewer, I still get pretty overwhelmed.  I really do like my local shop.  The owner is really sweet and they do carry some of the modern designer fabrics that I like.  But they don’t really carry all that many.  I really wish that they carried more, because I do prefer to shop in person, but I feel like I am forced to shop online because I don’t know where to shop in person.  Anyone out there know of any brick and mortar stores (other than Crafty Planet) in the Twin Cities area that carries these modern designer fabrics?  I know that Cia’s Palette is working on it- and they have a great selection.  I guess I may have to wait for them. 

Anyway, I am off to bed.  I will try to get up some of my fabric photos and the picture of the tunic that I made for Little Helper tomorrow.  I took those pictures on my fancy camera and my husband downloads those pictures on his computer since the memory stick slot in my computer is broken.

I am starting to find myself stressed out here and there about my lack of organization for my projects and what I want to do.  Since I am relatively new to the crafting world, I find myself constantly adding things to what I want to do, but I don’t keep a running list anywhere.  And then when it comes time to pick what I am going to start next, I can’t always remember all of the things that I want to make.  So I am working on putting together a list and prioritizing it.  Here is what I have (in no particular order) so far…

1. Lap quilt for husband (in more “manly” colors than I typically like to work with and using wonky log cabin blocks)
2. Christmas quilt for my Mom and my Grandma (to be done with my sister).
3. Puppet Show tunic and shorts for Little Helper
4. Bubble Dress for Little Helper
5. Sweater- for me!!
6. Um…another sweater for me
7. Hooded sweater for A.  In either this pattern or one from a Debbie Bliss book.  Or maybe both??
8. Socks for me- and maybe for Will?
9. A quilt using a pattern similar to this one.
10. A bag for Little Helper and me to take to the park.
11. Grocery bags…still looking for a pattern
12. A quilt for my best friend’s housewarming gift.
13. Cute bag for me
14. Another one
15. Fall/winter Oliver and S clothes for Little Helper
16. Quilt I am working on with my cousin Lorrin
17. Any other gifts that spring up between now and Christmas
18. Some sort of advent calendar.  I like this one and this one.  (I am leaning toward the mittens- then we can have candy.)
19. Baby quilt out of my “scraps” for my friend’s sister who just had a baby girl.

Seriously, how do I prioritize this??  Well, that is a project for tomorrow.  Goodnight!

And then I will REALLY go bind my quilt. 

I did a little more reading on Just for me and you and found out that they are doing another giveaway- for Wee Squeak shoes which are super cute.  So check out the giveaway!  And the shoes…