New, New, New

I {heart} baby moose feet

Just a little message to let you know I'll be blogging very intermittently over the next few weeks as my little guy has arrived.  My mom may step in a little bit, but don't get your hopes up too high, cuddling babies is very time consuming!  Be back soon...

Changes

Hello again!  I've been doing a little bit of playing around and am working on a bit of a blog redesign.  Since I'm doing the design work myself, the changes will be intermittent at best.  Suggestions are welcome and I hope you like the new look!

Time to Organize

{Photo: Outside our house, because no post should be without at least one photo!}

I've been a very distracted blogger the last few days!  I had heard that pregnant women "nest", but hadn't experienced any of that myself.  I had no strange or strong desires to clean, declutter, or do anything of the sort.  In fact, I think it was starting to make my mom and Josiah nervous how behind I was {no hospital bag packed, hadn't sent in my preregistration, and hadn't installed the car seat}.  However, all of that is behind me...I am now nearly caught up and have even finished a few extra projects {and started organizing my fabric stash} in the last couple of weeks.  So, if I remain a little absent, you'll know I'm digging around in my upstairs attic cleaning out things like TV antennas and old CD players {or maybe having a baby...}.

Fall-Inspired Mini Quilt Swap: Sent

Here is the mini quilt I made for the Fall-Inspired Swap.  I had a bit of a difficult time coming up with an idea for my swap partner as she likes bright colors and red, white, and blue quilts, but none of those things felt like much like fall to me.  However, on a trip to a quilt shop with my mom, we found a dessert roll of The Morris Workshop by Barbara Brachman for Moda and the oak leaves, vines, and colors seemed perfect, especially the reds and blues. I will be honest though, my mom designed and pieced the main block, I was just so stuck!  However, once I saw it together, I knew exactly what it needed, some falling leaves.

Instead of doing a regular applique, I put each piece on some white flannel and then quilted them both down using my darning foot.  I thought the flannel would help separate the leaves from the block a little bit, and give some added texture as well.  I then quilted the veins on the leaves free motion as well, to give them a crinkly look.  Finally, I washed the quilt, it just isn't the same to me before all the fabric shrinks and puckers a little bit!

I really enjoyed making this quilt and hope that my swap partner, Jessica, enjoys it just as much.  For more lovely Fall-Inspired mini quilts, visit the Flickr group.

P.S. My mom participated in this swap too, I think she's even willing to blog about it, so check back!

Yum

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Delicious

I can only drink so much water, but I happened to discover a new love for fruit juice and sparkling water. If you've never tried it, you should, what a nice, refreshing way to get some liquids!

Baby Project: Diaper Bag

Maybe you remember this photo {if you don't, you can check out this post}:

Well, as promised, though long overdue, here is my finished project:

I just loved the Cotton Blossoms line of fabric by Bonnie & Camille, so I had to make something out of it.  Since, right now, I'll never be too far from my car {or home for that matter}, I didn't see the need to have a large diaper bag to carry around in the stores, restaurants, etc, which will be my primary outings for the first several months.  While I will have a second bag available, I will most likely not be going through several diapers and/or changes of clothes in one trip, and therefore see no need {at this point} to carry a bunch of stuff with me.  Besides, this is a great opportunity to seriously downsize my purse {we'll see how long that lasts!}.  I also made a few modifications on the inside, since I will probably not use it as a reversible bag:

Just a little pocket for my cell phone and a couple loops to attach things too, in case I should need them.  And it only took me five months to complete!  Talk about procrastination...

Fall-Inspired Mini Quilt Swap: Received

I received my quilt from the Fall-Inspired Mini Quilt Swap the other day and I love it! My swap partner, Sara, made me an amazing little quilt. The fabrics for the leaves and borders are hand dyed!  Can you believe it?  They have an amazing textured appearance and the colors are just lovely.  But, that is not the end of her handiwork, she also hand quilted the echo quilting.  I cannot say that I've ever hand quilted anything.  The cream fabric is also not just solid fabric, but has little leaves and bushes scattered about.

There was also a sweet note included with the quilt {and it has a Scottie on it!}, which I'll be saving as well.  I now just have to figure out where I'm going to hang it in my sewing room, so I can enjoy it all the time.  What a great way to take a little bit of fall with me everywhere, especially since that is one of my favorite things about the northeast.  So, a big thank you to Sara for such a lovely piece.  Now to finish my quilt for my swap partner, I'll have photos soon!

Going, Going...

Sometimes I have to fight the urge to hoard fabric.  I am not going to be one of those people who has more stuff than they know what to do with, but I just might be one who has more fabric than she knows what to do with.  It is especially difficult when a favorite fabric is disappearing...like this line:

Perhaps you can tell from the covers to all the patterns in the shop, but I {heart} this fabric.  I can't quite nail it down specifically, but it is a favorite.  And now, it's becoming extinct...and I've been using up my stash.  I was almost hesitant to take the last two orders we received for bags because both were for Wonderland fabric too.  I'm thinking I may have to at least pick up a Honey Bun if I can find one, just so I have a little bit to keep...maybe I'll make something out of my scraps too {it's true, I've kept all the scraps!}.  But seriously, how can you not love this fabric?

P.S. I saw this at the Fat Quarter Shop and might be able to love it almost as much...we'll see...

Stash Project of the Month: January

I'm guessing you're not surprised that my first stash project is for the baby. I found a little fat quarter stack of Michael Miller's Messy Hands that I had to have {and I wasn't even planning on having a baby at that point!}. I planned quite a few projects with the fabric, but since most of them also required getting more fabric, they just seemed to sit on the shelf and look cute. But then I decided that by simply adding some terry cloth to the backs, I could make a few cute clean up cloths to take with me or use around the house. I also made a little pouch to hold the changing pad I purchased, that way it won't be floating loosely around the diaper bag {I know, it looks kind of large, but my thought is that is better than stuffing or having an object that has been on changing tables also touch everything else in my bag, it remains to be seen if it is actually practical}.

I was able to use up all six fat quarters without having any extra. They all seemed to wash well {I admit, I ironed them when they came out of the wash, probably something I'll never do again, but I had to for the photos}.

If you made a project out of something in your stash this month, feel free to leave a blog link in the comments so we can check it out!

New Toy

For Christmas this year Josiah and I decided that instead of giving each other individual gifts, we would just pitch in and give each other one thing we'd been wanting.  This year it was a DSLR camera.  I did a bit of research and we decided on a Nikon.  We chose a lower end camera body and can always upgrade later, but are going to do a little investing in lenses.  We started with the kit lens and have added one more to our collection so far.  I've been doing some reading and hopefully my photography skills will improve over time!  It will be nice to capture some adorable baby photos too!

Baby Project: Kimono Sweater

I've never knit a sweater...I've planned to knit one, stocked up the yarn, even cast on, but never even came close to finishing.  However, I concluded that if I was ever going to succeed on a sweater, a baby sweater would be the way to go.  So, for the last several weeks, I've spent my evenings knitting...

After many evenings of knitting the pieces and then sewing them together {I really hate sewing seams...I try to knit everything without seams if possible}.  Although I still feel a little skeptical about setting the sleeves, overall, I'm very happy with the finished project.  I stuck to the 3 month pattern, and the size seems about right.  My only modification was sewing little ribbon tabs for the inside flap to button to.  I noticed that the side-snap onesies I have a little tab for the inside snap, so I thought it would work well for the sweater too, and it turned out perfectly.  Now I'm anxious to see it on the little guy!

New Year's Resolution

2010...seems strange we're there already, doesn't it?  When I look back on the last year, it feels like a whirlwind, and I have a sneaky suspicion this year is going to be more of the same {but then, isn't every year?}.  So far the new year has only brought a lot of snow {and therefore quite a bit of shoveling, but not for me, I have a good excuse this time!}, but I know some great things are in store.

However, in the meantime, I do have at least one resolution to share {I don't usually make them for fear of not keeping them, but hopefully I will be able to keep this one}.  While looking at some of the new fabric set to debut in the coming months, I realized my stash is a little out of control.  So, to help make room for some of those fabrics I'm dreaming of, I'm resolving to make one project out of stash fabric each month.  I'd love it if some of you want to join in, so just look for my posted project the first week of each month and leave a comment with a link to yours!  And, of course, if your stash is yarn, paper, or something else, you're welcome to share that too, believe me, fabric isn't my only stash either.  Check back later this week for my first project, and feel free to add the button from the sidebar to your blog too.  Here's to creating a little bit more room in that stash for some new fabric.