Friday, April 11, 2014

my first quilt

i have always wanted to try making a quilt. inspired by my grandma of course, but intimidated because of her expertise. she hand stitches every quilt. always has and always will.

i will someday do the same. however, i was in a pinch to make something for my neices 2nd birthday. since i gave up shopping for lent, i knew i wanted to make something special from things that i already had in my craft closet.

i envisioned her all cuddled up in a soft quilt watching a movie. so i decided a quilt is what it would be. i wanted it to be big enough that she could use it for a long time. and it couldn't be too difficult because her birthday was the next week.
so i planned a twin(ish) sized blanket with a square pattern. and yes, sorry grandma, i was going to use the sewing machine .  .  .

i pulled some memorable fabrics together, an old favorite sheet from where my sister used to work, an old mattress pad for the quilt batting, and started cutting out squares from the tons of fabric that i have. i tried to get fabrics that coordinated with her room (yellow & gray), but also added in more colors. several of the fabrics came from my grandmas house, so that made it even more nostalgic. and maybe made up for the sewing machine part... right gram??

the next part went pretty fast. i had to keep reminding myself that it was supposed to be whimsical so the squares didn't have to be perfect. i cut out the size of the quilt  {front, back & padding} and layed it out on the floor. i used a washable yellow marker to make a grid on the top sheet. i made my squares 3 in so i made my grid squares  4 in. then i started using a glue stick to secure the squares to the sheet. the glue stick lightly holds them in place so you can decide the pattern and also holds so you can sew later. i ran out of glue sticks so i ended up pinning them. 



once you have all the squares in place, and the 3 layers pinned together, you can start to sew. this particular quilt is very easy because the edges are meant to be raw. i started on the long end and sewed from one end all the way to the other. this secures one side of all squares to the quilt. then you continue vertically along the entire quilt until done. next you rotate it and start horizontally. now you have quilted every square to the sheet.  don't worry about the lines, they don't have to be perfect, they just need to stay a half inch or so on the inside of the square. close up you can see that mine are very wavy.

i ran in to a little trouble at this stage. my sewing machine broke. i dragged in a very old antique sewing machine, the kind that folds down into the table… it didn't work either. so luckily my sister-in-law was kind enough to drop hers off so i could borrow it to finish. 




3 sewing machines later, i trimmed up and sewed the edges. selected a trim color and sewed it around the edges for a more finished look.





i made sure to wash it when finished to wash out the yellow grid marks and to trim up the fringe from the raw edges.

very easy & satisfying result. 

just don't tell the quilting community about all the corners i cut.... eeek.


Tuesday, April 8, 2014

my little S


my sweet little S

my fourth little flower

seven years old

on a spring afternoon

at the fair
































Monday, April 7, 2014

currently


thinking about: my hubs. getting old. life. love. joys. struggles. heartbreak. thankfulness.


reading: love & respect. depending on what mood i'm in it's ok. i want to push thru it but it's really hard. there is some good/interesting info in there . . . but idk, kinda boring i guess.

listening to: the sound of pdubs playing with his boys outside on a blanket in this amazing weather. it's his 40th birthday today. he took the day off work and he wants to just hang out and relax.

AND the new ingrid michaelson cd. it is streaming for free today on iTunes. i LOVE her!

watching: catching up on all the modern family episodes. man oh man do i laugh out loud at that show. so funny. also watching a video we are making for our school's staff appreciation night. which lead in to digging thru old photos to find pics of teachers. which lead into a trip down memory lane. we have been at that school for 6 years. i love it.

thankful for: my husband! we celebrated his birthday yesterday doing his favorite thing. hanging out with friends and family in the park. we had tacos, cervezas and soccer. we were surrounded by wonderful friends and family. the weather was amazing. the tacos were delicious. the children were wild. fun was had by all.







the kids were VERY excited to make him his cake. they were VERY excited about how big it was and that they did it all on their own.


we couldn't get him away from the soccer game, so i sent all the kids out to go get him. they succeeded.











these were our talented cooks. i told them to smile. i was even telling them to get cheek to cheek… but they wouldn't crack a smile. until after i had taken the photo.



A Mama Collective


Friday, April 4, 2014

nine





my baby boy is 9 months.

9 months!

wahhh. 
the time is just flying by.
he is such a JOY.


here are a few things about baby J @ 9 months of age:
he is always happy
99% of his pictures feature a giant smile
he is eating solids and hates baby food…baby led weaning
he just barely started sleeping through the night
he is crawling all over
he pulls up and cruises along furniture
he has "vampire" teeth

he has gotten an ear infection every time a tooth has popped through
(5 ear infections so far & usually double)
he is my only kid to have that many ear infections
he is my only kid to have vampire teeth
he has been wearing cloth diapers for nine months :)
he has a raspy little voice










oooh i love him. i think i'll go wake him up now.


Wednesday, April 2, 2014

wordless wednesday


baptized



8 months late….

here are pics from baby J's baptism.

this series of pics cracks me up

and makes me so

thankful

for my friends an family

who came to 

celebrate with us.