Birthday Bunting

I made (and Neil helped) a bunting to be hung at our family celebrations, such as birthdays and holidays.  I made it a Moda Layer Cake called Make Life.  I think it was the perfect choice for us!

I followed Soulemama's directions in The Creative Family.  It came out to be 6 yards long and I used a decorative snowflake stitch to make it more sturdy.  

Neil is pinking the edges

In action at Arya's birthday party

One Lucky Lady

Arya is one lucky lady.  Grandma Oelrich is so crafty and we love getting the packages full of homemade goodies! Look at all these lovelies!

Half of her burp cloths

Itti Bitti Bibs!

Daddy's Favorite blankie

Mama's Favorite blankie

Cloth Books

A sampling of her receiving blankets

Baby Blankets

Sorry for the lack of photos, mom will have to take some pictures of the stuff when she gets home.

Back when I was first found out I was pregnant, I started looking for the baby blanket I wanted to knit. This was by far on the top of my list. I found the pattern in a book I had to special order from the library, got the yarn, albeit not the sandy color I was hoping for, but more of the gray color and the needles. Now, if I could just get past the first row. It's too intimidating....

My Google reader just pulled up a past entry from The Purl Bee of a blanket I remember seeing and liking, but forgot about. THIS is now the blanket I am going to be making. I'm thinking a dark green color, something that would look great for a boy (which is what I think it is), but something that won't look awful if it's a girl :) It's called the Forever Baby Blanket, which I hope doesn't mean it takes forever, but the pattern is super easy. Now, I just got to get the yarn.

Mom and I went to the San Diego Quilt Show yesterday and spent way too much money. I got 4 fabric book panels and 2 baby blanket kits. One is a Moda Alphabet Card panel kit and the other is a kit made by Lazy Dazy Cottage. The back is minky black and white zebra stripes (good for baby's eyes, not really my taste) and the front is flannel with lime greens, oranges, blacks and a jungle animal panel in the middle. Mom took both of those home to make for me! :)

Neil is coming home!

Woo Hoo! After spending the entire week by myself, Neil is finally coming home! He was up at Yosemite doing a refresher course for work. He left Sunday night and will be arriving in a few hours! I'm beyond excited. I've missed him a lot.

I did manage to get a lot of stuff done. Hopefully Neil will notice! I cleaned, did laundry, cleaned my car and also got everything cut out for the quilt I'm going to make when I'm back in Iowa. I also started cutting up some pastel fat quarters that I've had FOREVER! Since high school at least. I'm going to make one or two pinwheel quilts and one lattice crazy nine patch. I can't decide if I'm going to make them for charity or what. I really don't have a need for any pastel twin sized quilts.

I also listened to an audiobook, which I really enjoyed. It was called The Quilter's Apprentice. It's a part of a series of over 12 books, so that will keep me busy.

Also did a little shopping. I broke my iPod awhile ago somehow, so I decided to get a new one. I downgraded, because I never really needed that nice of one and got an 8G Nano and its green. i also got a Canon Powershot 1200 is?? and 2 memory cards to go with that. I also got a mini SD disc for my phone. So, electronically, I'm set. Luckily, I had an amazon gift card from mom and dad, so that was nice.

I'm dying for some new recipes. I hardly ever go to marthastewart.com, but I was bored and wandered over there....so many good looking pasta and chicken recipes. I can't wait to try some out!

New Quilt

I have finally begun a new quilt. It’s the zigzag quilt from crazymomquilts.blogspot.com. I got everything cut out and pieced together. It is super easy I’ll finish sewing it all up tomorrow on my day off. Here are some pictures!

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Labor Day

Yesterday, Neil and I had a busy day. I went to Joann's Fabric and bought 6 yards of batting at 50% off. I also got a larger cutting board, curved safety pins, a bobbin holder, and a thread holder. We also got 4 kits, one for an Adirondack rocker, Adirondack chair, a matching table, and one ottoman.

Once we got home I went to work on my project, which was to pin together my quilt and Neil started working on the rocking chair. Let me just say that we started around 10am and didn't get both of our projects done until about 6pm. The directions for the chair were horrible and nothing really lined up right. There were also hardly any predrilled holes. My quilt just took a long time to do. I had to clean the kitchen floor, and then began safety pinning the layers. I had to take several breaks because my poor finger tips were hurting. Eventually, I just put masking tape all over my fingertips and then it didn't hurt as bad.


Neil had a hell of a time getting that chair together, but eventually he got it. Then he brought it outside and he grilled some beer brats. Ooh, they were yummy.. And yes, it is about 8pm when we were doing this. You also get a view of our outdoor space!!


Have a good day!

Quilting!

Every Thursday, I have until 11:30 to get to work. So, I put holds on some Christmas CDs, so I can get them now rather than after Christmas when everyone is going to be requesting them. Then I looked at more quilting blogs and finally it dawned on me. I just need to make a list, work that list down and then start planning my next quilt. If I keep planning I'll never get anything done. So, I opened up all of my quilting boxes and found a quilt top that I have never finished because I didn't have the backing I wanted. After looking at all through the blogs, I realized that the new thing to do is piece together the backing. I had lots of left over fabric from the collection I used to make the quilt top, so I decided to try it out. The backing is a surprise, but here is the top



I know the lighting is bad, but it was the best I could do on a time shortage. The back is almost done, so I will post that when I feel it is time! It feels so good to get moving on some of the projects I've had for so long!