fabric boxes

Another project completed for a friend + another good-bye.

She loved them, as I thought she would.

edit: tutorial here

my boxes are about 7" wide and 6" tall

slumber party craftiness

Amy and I had a slumber party the other night, which was a blast.

We had one incredible card making marathon.
Above are all the cards we managed to crank out.

Amy's-final total 29


Mine-final total 28

Not too shabby considering we actually did sleep (a few hours).
And we had 5 kids here, too.

sewing for sanity

After drooling countless times over Kirsty's log cabin blocks, I decided to join up with the scrappy log cabin challenge on flickr. Timely, as my scrap buckets are starting to overflow.

a few more numbers for ya'

I don't know if y'all were being nice, or what, but I thought I'd give you the measurements for the future's so bright quilt. This isn't really a tutorial to make the quilt, but you at least will have all the measurements of the pieces if you want to make something similar.

My quilt was 67.5" x 90".
The setting is 6 blocks across and 8 blocks down.

Use a quarter inch seam allowance throughout.

You will need 48 of these blocks. The little squares in the 4 patches are cut 2.5". (Cut 8 for each block.) The larger squares are cut 4.5". (Cut 2 for each block.)

You will need 35 of these blocks. The center square is cut 4.5". Two rectangles are cut 2.5" x 4.5". The other 2 rectangles are cut 2.5" x 8.5".

Cut 2 squares (from white) 6 5/8", then cut those to make half square triangles. (Cut on the diagonal once.) These are for the 4 corners.

Cut 6 squares (from white) 12 5/8", then cut those to make quarter square triangles. (Cut on the diagonal both ways.) You should have 24 of these.

Now, sew it all together. If you make one, I'd love to see it!

Happy sewing.

my life in numbers

13 months 22 days: little A thinks it an appropriate time to start throwing temper tantrums

10 days til I see my husband

5 days til my sister comes to visit

1 day til a slumber party with Amy and her boys

2 hours and 15 minutes until bedtime

1 bump on the forehead today for P, caused by a concrete step

1 sweet letter (for each of us) from my hubby today in the mail

0 crafting in the past 2 days

1 extremely tired mommy

today....

I am...

sewing a purse for a friend that I will miss dearly.

shedding tears because I have to leave my dear friends soon....


sending treats and pictures to dad

missing my husband so much it hurts.

the future's so bright quilt

Made for a friend who just graduated from high school.

Her personality matches the colors in this quilt.

(I finished the quilt about a half hour before the party started.)

Thanks to all of you who cheered me on as I raced to complete this.

quilted

The quilting certainly wouldn't win any awards,

but it's one step closer to being done.

I love summer vacation

I took a much needed break from quilting.
I'm going cross-eyed. Literally.

Spending time with the kiddies-enjoying the beautiful day. It's warm...but oh so lovely.

Reading.

Cloud watching.

Wrestling.

What are you up to today?

fyi...the quilt in the last several photos wasn't made by me....it was the first quilt that my huband and I purchased after we got married. It's one of our favorites. It's aging now, so it's super soft. Love that.

the top is done

ready for assembly

Finally, I've made some progress on my bright quilt.
My math calculations for the triangles seem to be accurate. I'm amazed. (A lot of math goes into figuring out what size to cut them.)
Now, I am holding my breath to see if I can actually finish this entire quilt by Sunday.

big week

My son graduated from Kindergarten on Thursday. (I cried.) He got the positive attitude award for his class. He had a great first year of school. The poor kid was heartbroken that he had to say good bye to his wonderful little school and his friends.

My husband had his last day at work on Thursday. We went out for supper to celebrate the end of school and work and the beginning of a new job.

Our baby kitties are a week old. They have been a delight. There are 6 of them. (One was born about 10 hours after the rest.) The little orange one has his eyes open already. My friend and neighbor Rhonda is taking the whole lot of them. Have I mentioned that she is a great friend?

My son learned to ride his bike without training wheels on Friday.

The boys and I picked wild strawberries. Delicious.

Today was spent preparing for my hubby to leave for Wisconsin. (He leaves bright and early tomorrow morning.) Some of the fun things we got to do: lots of packing, laundry, repairs on the vehicles, oil changes, running errands and making the most of our last day together.

I am making slow progress on the bright quilt that I need to have done in a week. The sewing machine is set up on the dining room table so I can sew and be in the midst of all the action. I have gotten a little bit of grief from my husband for the traveling sewing machine. (Last week it was set up in the garage.)

Tonight it's popcorn and movie night. Tomorrow starts the single parent 3 week adventure. Wish me luck. I am not sure I'm up for this.

what a bunch of scraps

This quilt top is 100% scraps.

The backing is all from my stash.

The only things purchased was the fabric for the binding.

I *heart* scrap quilts.

More photos here.

off the wagon

Since I failed not starting another project, I have also failed on my stash busting attempts. I told myself that I wasn't going to buy anymore fabric before I moved unless I needed it for a project. Well, JoAnn's was having a sale on solid fabrics, and I had a premeditated setback. I have been under an incredible amount of stress, and I have been working so hard-on both my sewing job and my house projects-so I decided to treat myself. I am sure you can't tell, but I restrained myself a little bit. So, Susan, you aren't the only one to fall of the stash busting wagon. Do you feel better now? (You see, it is very important to me to support my blog friends. hee hee hee.)

On another note: this little guy was out in our backyard last night.
Have you seen anything cuter? He was all wobbly legged and barely walking straight.

Here is another photo with the sand box, just to give you some perspective on the size of this little one. He couldn't have been more than a day or two old and maybe a foot tall, if that. My husband took these photos off of our deck.

He was soooo cute.
This is exactly why I will miss living here.

planning a quilt

I told myself that I wasn't going to start another quilt project while we were in the midst of our transition/moving, but I have a two week deadline to make a graduation quilt for a friend of ours. I am going to be using my blocks from Linda's quilt block swap, which I made back in March, so it isn't a new project, technically. It's amazing how I can rationalize.

So today I was reading up on setting quilt blocks on point. I haven't tried this technique in my 7 years of quilting, but it is on my list of quilt goals this year. It involves a lot of math. Pleah.

These are the bright fabrics that I pulled out of my stash.

And it just happens to match my outfit for today.
The exact word my husband used to describe my clothing choices for today, I believe, was "oy-eeesh". I must have been feeling sassy when I picked them out. I usually don't dress this loud.

I finally tried it

Freezer paper stenciling is as fun + easy as everyone has said it is.

I picked up a bunch of boys t-shirts on my last trip to MN (no tax on clothes) for $1.24 each. (Target clearance, of course.)

The best part: My son was so excited to wear it to school today.

what's going on

Thanks for all the comments on my quilt. Wow! You all know how to make a girl's day. By the way, did you know that Murphy's Oil Soap will get grease stains out of a new quilt? Valuable information to know, if you ask me. Yes, my sewing machine left grease spots on the white parts of the quilt. Thankfully the quilt shop owner that I have recently befriended shared that helpful tip with me.

We have had an exciting day here. Our kitty laid babies, as my four year old says. (Isn't that cute?) This is one of the 5 little ones that were born this morning. We got to watch part of the birth process, and the boys were so excited. The kittens are so little and their cries are so cute.

Beyond that, things have been crazy around here, as you can tell by my lack of posting. Our house has been on the market for 12 days. That should tell you how much stress we are experiencing in this household. No real showings yet, but hopefully soon.

This morning we re-did some of the landscaping in the front of our house. My husband and I don't do yard work together, if we can help it. It was not fun. It looks better than it did yesterday, but still it's not impressive. Our lawn needs lots of help, but at least now the landscaping is weed free.

I have been doing a lot of sewing, but not much crafting.
I set my sewing machine up in my garage and have been sewing patches on shirts for my side job. This is what I have been doing in between house projects. I have 7 rubbermaid tubs full of uniforms to sew. The boys have been playing outside while I sew and my husband is trying to finish siding the shed. The girl sits in the stroller and reads books.

I have my very own sweat shop. It's nice to sew outside for this huge project rather than secluded in my craft room. I told my husband that the garage would make a great craft room. Somehow he didn't buy that idea. Can you imagine?