my first antique quilt!

My mom sent this to me (I forget who made it, someone in the fam, I think) and I was SO excited. Of course, my first instinct was to run to my stash & start trying to make one just like it (except, not hand appliqued or quilted, and not quite as big). Don't ask me why. The plated are appliqued onto the white background, then each one was hand quilted around, and there was hand quilting in between. Some of the pieces are worn through, and it needs some cleaning. I LOVE the fabrics! My great camera and even better photography skills would not allow me to take close ups of my favorite fabrics though.

Headbands

Here are some of the headbands I've been making. 3 of them are already 'in circulation' on my neighbor Erin, niece Emily, and her friend Emily. I have 3 more made for Darby, Presley & Masie, and of course a couple for Zoe.

bedroom color

Remember these? I love this simple abundance fabric, and especially love it in the bedroom. I made 3 valences for our bedroom windowsAnd 2 pillows for our bed. I can't tell you how in love I am with this pillow!
This is the other one I made, and (don't tell the pillow, but) I don't love it nearly as much. I like it on the chair next to the bed, but I really just love the other one so much as a loner on the bed. I quilted diagonally across the middle in an 'x', and then around the outside. Some night when I am bored, I will sit there and pick out all the quilting around the outside... or maybe all of it. They are both 'envelope' style pillow covers, so it's too easy to get the pillows out. Also, they both have old pillows inside of them, so I didn't have to buy pillow forms.

I also plan on getting some red pillowcases or shams for the 2nd set of pillows in the back there. And maybe some red sheets too, I might just go crazy with it.

When I finish cleaning up the bedroom, maybe I'll take a picture of the whole thing. So... don't hold your breath or anything.

surprise!

Surprise! It's me! I know, you thought I had quit blogging forever, but fear not. Here I am. Not quite sure what my deal is, but I'm obvs in quite the blogging slump. Anyway, here's the latest...

1. I'm super excited to have won a giveaway on a blog I like to read and never get around to making any recipes from. I just envy her recipes and pretend I'll cook like that one day when I have lots more time, money, and adventurous eaters. Here's what we won!

2. I have been making stuff. Shocking, I know. Here's the stuff I've been making, modeled - as usual - by my neglected children; and photographed by a non-professional with a Superbad camera.

Wanted to make more legwarmers for Zoe, so I used the sides of this sweater tank top. Then, made a hat out of the bottom... I found this sweater for $1 at goodwill, so it was NOT a high stakes project. I got it to make the legwarmers, and didn't want to waste the rest of it

And made a bag out of the rest, since Zoe LOVES to carry around a purse, and what girl wouldn't want matching purse, hat & leg warmers?!! The beginning of a pillow I made for our bedroom, to go with the new valences

New valences in the living room. I know, we have a lot of valences. The deal is that Craig doesn't like curtains, and I needed a little color in ye olde living room. Hence, valences. Yeah, we compromise.

I have more pictures on our other memory card, so hopefully there will be more blogging soon!

Friday Finishes

Yay! It's Sew & Tell Friday!

I realize I haven't been here in a while, but I've been stockpiling projects to blog about! I just got a new camera battery today, just in time for Friday! Here's what I've been working on...

Obligatory folded quilt photo. This is Zoe's quilt. I had lots of fun making it, and it's my first quilt using 'real' fabric (fabric I bought specifically for this quilt, rather than repurposed from something else). It's 4' x 5'
Here's the back. I really Really cut it close with this. When I trimmed the backing & batting, the most backing I trimmed was 1/2".
I was also pretty excited that it came out squared up, all the seams met up where they were supposed to, and I quilted it without any puckers. All in all, a success. I suppose I should quit while I'm ahead and never make another quilt. Unfortunately, it's too late for that since I'm already 3/4 through another quilt top.

I went with stippling and had a much better experience than the first time. I used transparent thread on the top & white in the bobbin. The transparent proved a little tricky, but I like how it turned out.
Zoe likes it too. And she likes her feet.

Other little projects have included making flowers & ruffles with scraps from our neighbor Maddie's pants that I hemmed & embellishing Zoe's shirt with them.

chocolate face!And a new little obsession. These are so quick, it's hard to stop making them! The black one was for my neighbor Erin, the bottom one is Zoe's, and the pink one is for Maddie. I've also made 2 headbands in the past hour. I can't stop!!!

I've been working on adding a little color in our bedroom & living room also. I got some Simple Abundance fabric and have made these valences for our bedroom (expertly hung by my wonderful husband!) and similar ones for the living room, of which I have yet to take a picture... you'll have to wait!

hanging on the wall here is my Grandma's little 'herbs & spices' cabinet. I hung it on the wall in the bedroom above my sewing table (not photographed because it's a Disaster!!) and put all my thread, ribbons, and whatever other little notions I could get in there.
So, no, I didn't finish all of these today. I think I did finish them all this week, though... so it still counts. I have more cute pictures of the kids to post, etc etc. Stay tuned... and don't forget to check out all the other finishes at Amylouwho's sew & tell Friday!

Projects!

We're working on our projects around here. Zoe and I are a little sick so we've been hanging out at the house. Craig has been installing some pull up bars in the garage gym, I've been finishing some unfinished sewing & crochet projects, & mending. Yesterday, I mended 2 pillows, Zoe's fabric lined basket, used up some scraps making super cute jersey flower pins, made some leg warmers for Zoe out of an old sweater, and continued working on the binding on Zoe's cherry quilt. I also got to a stopping point on a crochet blanket... because I ran out of yarn. Now I have to figure out what to do with that. I've made a couple pair of baby booties and made a pattern to make some Zoe size fabric shoes too. Who knows what I'll do today... I still have tons of unfinished crafts, both on my sewing table and in my brain. Oh, but I did already make some laundry detergent today. It smelled SO good when I was grating the soap (I used Dr. Bronner's lavender) that I am looking forward to seeing how the clothes smell. I actually WANT to do laundry, but I have to wait a torturous 24 hours for it to set. I'd post pictures, but we're waiting for a new camera battery to arrive in the mail.

I know, I know...

I realize it's been about a month since I've done anything but lurk... Here are all the pictures I have uploaded so far.

We celebrated Joshua's birthday when Craig got home. Zoe had fun helping him open all his gifts. Here they are playing with Lincoln Logs from the Suttons. Thanks Joseph (& RM), these are played with daily.
Joshua's new John Deere bowl.
A personalized camo pencil case & pencils from Ma & Pa
and his airplane card from Ma & Pa. He's doing sound effects while flying it
all bundled up
Joshua drew this helicopter all by himself. He called me over to look at the helicopter he drew and I was expecting to see a blob. I was quite impressed!
Zoe likes to lay around with her bottle.