Back in the Game!

So I haven't posted in a while! I had about a two week period where I didn't get any sewing done, but it was over Thanksgiving, so there was great family time in there!

I finished Kelly's quilt - she loves it! It lives on the back of her couch and we pull it out about once a week to play I spy. :)

We got to witness a couple of young bucks practice fighting out our back window a few days ago! It was really cool. There were two you ones and an older male, and about 8 female deer! The young ones were just kind playing and prancing around, and whenever the older male would walk near, they would skitter away. It was pretty cool! And one thing I will miss about living in this particular apartment!

We are moving in January! I'm so excited! Back to SLO and being close to everything again! Two full bathrooms, and a washer and dryer in our house!

Brett came over Friday and Saturday and we quilted all day! My new machine is wonderful! (I'll have to take a picture of it later, I'm at work currently!) I finished my parent's quilt top - it looks amazing! I kinda wish I was keeping it! :P (I don't know what I did to this picture and it wont center anymore!)

This is the first piece of Peaches' double wedding ring quilt! Oh man! This is going to be a difficult project! All those round pieces! But it'll look great! It'll take a while to finish so I'm considering making her a pillow for Christmas as a preamble. :D

My mother requested a photo of our tiny Christmas tree. So here it is! :D The picture is a little fuzzy, but we have our cute little decorations and the only two holes we put in the wall right there for the stockings. :D

Merry Christmas! :D

Aaahhhhorganization!!

So I cleaned my house, and did a little organizing on tuesday. My house looks pretty great!

But some of it is still very messy.  We don't have a ton of storage space in our little place...but really its more than we need. So I spent some time (or like three hours) looking for ways to organize online. I found some really awesome - and cute! -ways to organize.

Now to have the time, energy and motivation to work on my plan! The goal: 20 min every day. I can usually carve that out, and in small portions, our house will look amazing and cute and crafty!

Wish me good luck!

Where

Am I going?

Apparently I'm not the only newly wed wife who feels this way. Married life is wonderful, growing, challenging and fun! There are new experiences with your best friend every day. God knows what he is doing and he put us together and he has a wonderful plan for us!

But with that, for me at least, are a few feelings of uncertainty. I'm not really sure what I want to do. Going back to school and working to get my credential doesn't seem like something I'm that interested in anymore. And the things I'm actually interested in either don't pay well, or don't pay at all.

I'm loving both my jobs currently. But neither are careers, and even with two jobs I'm not working full time. They are not forever jobs, so while I love then...what is my plan? What do I want to do?

God knows. He'll guide me. All I need to do is be patient and trust.

Finished/Nearly Finished!

The post I've been promising for about a week now...

I finished Brett's quilt!

I'm never really sure what to do with the back of quilts. Solid is great, but expensive, and piecing random pieces seems weird. I tried two fabrics with a few extra blocks from the front thrown in. I don't really like the crookedness of the two main fabrics - our three minds (Brett, Andrew and I) kept trying to think of good ways to keep the large quilt straight in the small living room, and we thought we had it, but apparently not. :P I do really like the look of the extra blocks thrown in. If it was just one other fabric pattern on the back, it would look like a modern quilt front. :D (this is the picture before it was bound.

Top bound!

Detail of my super fun new toy - my free motion quilting foot! Just loopty-loos the whole way through!

I did a somewhat scrappy border. I used the two fabrics from the back and did about 2 ft before switching colors.

The day after I finished Brett's quilt, she came over and we had a sewing day and I finished the curtains Alyssa was making for the infant room at our church. She did all the shopping, calculating (or not calculating- cause neither of us are perfectionists) and buying, but doesn't have a sewing machine, so I spent a couple hours helping her iron and pin, then just did the quick rectangle sew all the way around, and voila!

Rebecca suggested the super cute polka dot ribbon loops.

Brett decided her 1-4-16 quilt was too busy with four green/blue fabric patterns, so I suggested borders. It's gonna look so great! I love my borders. I think that might have helped her quilt(the one I just finished) take so long. :P Nothing mixed up the blocks! But good to get outside my comfort zone at least.

In the spirit of the owl curtains, and from a pattern on a blog I read, I created the little yellow and blue strawberry owl. They suggested filling him with beans or rice...so I did, but I didn't really like it. His bottom and his top pieces are the same and he is just too flat and doesn't sit up very well. So I tweaked the pattern a little and created an actual bottom piece, so he has an actual base to sit on. I also stuffed his ears with batting (because on yellow his years kept lying down cause the beans would sink into the body), then i did a layer of beans (actually, split peas), then some more batting, then a layer of beans. I really like the way he turned out! He sits up well because he is heavy, but he also holds his shape due to the batting! It is just a little sad to stick pins in his cute little face. :P (each of these little guys took only about 30 min each, and I hand stitched their faces and wings)

And since then I haven't had a ton of time, but I am getting closer to finishing the top of Kelly's quilt! It's looking so cute! A few little snaffoos with running out of red fabric, but I decided to change up the pattern a little, and I think I'm going to be very happy I did! Can't wait to finish!

Well, once again I am writing late and I think my hubby just fell asleep on the bed next to me. He was in here working and I was sewing, but I came in to keep him company...and then he rolls over and falls asleep!

Which I think I will do in about 5 min!

Button holes!

While I haven't gotten to do any quilting since monday, I did sit down for a few min today for a simple project. And I think it was fitting that I made my first button holes for a little whipped-up button pouch! :D The sewing machine Tandy gave me, while coming without a manual, did have about six extra feet and I'm slowly trying to figure out what they are for! One, for button holes! Makes them super easy! The pouch itself is simple and not very exiting, but it gets the job done and the button holes look great!

I'll show a picture hopefully sometime tomorrow, along with the other projects I finished last week. Gotta hit the hay now as I work at 8!

Night everyone!

Halloween

So I guess halloween with no kids around doesn't do much. :P We had some good friends over for dinner (a normal monday tradition for the past couple months-until I have to work mondays starting in dec!), ranch chicken, rice pilaf, zucchini. Yum! Then the five of us played our Settlers of Catan for the first time since we got it for our wedding, and part way though had mint brownies with ice cream. :) Not even a mention of halloween! Since our apartment is in the back: no kids came by. Still a great night though.

I actually have quite a few pictures and quilting to blog about, but I have to do that another time. :P should probably be turning out the light.

But I got a new job! Quit my 10 hour a week job just a few weeks ago because I wanted to work with kids-and starting friday I get to! I'm going to be working 10 hours a week to start, then possibly some full days! A cute little 6 child montessori in Templeton. I'm so excited! And I am already fingerprinted so I don't have to pay to do that again, and tomorrow I am going in for my tb test, and hopefully get to start monday! God is so great!

And our car is in the shop again, but the $4000 hybrid barry is under warranty! :)

Andrew and I started walking last week. We walked ten miles in the four days we walked. My goal for us is to build up every week. Today started this weeks-and its a good start, but probably a little too much. We dropped off the car and walked home. Thought it was only four miles, but turned out to be five and we had to hurry-my hips bothered me a lot. We did the five miles in exactly an hour and 23 seconds. I remember when it took me an hour to walk a 5k. haha. Tomorrow we'll probably only walk two miles. I should turn out the light so we have time to before work.

G'night y'all!

Sew Close!

All I have to finish for Brett's quilt is the binding...and I have to go to work! It's a good thing I like my job. :D

Actually, before work I have a play date with Ana, so two pluses, and I'll finish the quilt tomorrow. :)

And then I get to start one of the two quilts I designed last night!

Of Quilting and Exercising

Well, I've been working away on Brett's quilt. I have put all the pieces together, and been quilting the top! Free motion quilting is so much fun! I was a little worried that I would be terrible at it, and worried because I hadn't tried it at all...and I was just going to jump in on Brett's quilt. Finally I decided just to do a little practice...and it wasn't perfect, but I'm having so much fun and getting better! I'm almost done quilting the top! I'll show pictures soon. Hoping to finish it (binding and all!) on Friday.

In other news...since I quit my second job, I have been looking for something working with kids. I have applied to many, and a few positive responses! Hoping for an interview with a montessori in the next week - it's looking very promising! Hopefully it pays more than $8. :P

Andrew and I are trying to get more exercise. We walked three miles this morning. And this is the fourth morning (not in a row, but in the last week and a half), and the first that we've added some jogging! I love being married to that boy! He is so encouraging and willing to do so much for me! I like my jobs of personal chef, personal shopper, housecleaner...and now adding personal trainer! :D If only I could find a way to quilt while exercising...now that would be great!

Brett and I have started an Etsy shop. Not much on there now, but a few things from the wedding. The prices are a little high, but I'm a little worried about how much the shipping will cost and I put the shipping kind of low for what I'm estimating it'll be. There will eventually be lots of cute and comfy things from me, Brett and Megan! If you want to just take a look, here is the link!

Lots O' Pictures!

I know I haven't updated in a while, but I brought you a lot of pictures!

My new quilting buddy!

Last week when I helped Brett cut out her blocks, I also finished the top of her quilt! Isn't it great! So full of color and very unique! I love it much more than I thought I would!

When I was at the conference in SF, Danny and I walked around and visited two fabric stores. Fabric Outlet and Discount Fabric. Fabric Outlet was having a 40% off entire store sale...and so I bought the green and brown trees in 3 yards for the back of my parents future quilt. :) Wanted to, and didn't buy anything from Discount Fabric! Proud of myself, thankful for Danny's help. :) But then when driving home, stopped at Joann's for the first time and bought these other five! The dark red and blue in jewel tones for the yo yo quilt, the bright red for Kelly's future I Spy quilt...and the others just for fun. :P

This past weekend in Auburn...I visited two quilt stores while Andrew and the boys were busy getting ready for Rob and Allison's wedding...

The first one I visited was called Runs with Scissors. Very cute, pretty new. A little ridiculous in their many signs for not allowing anyone to use their five parking spaces, but the shop was a Moda lovers heaven! For all the quilters who love Moda, it had many, many of the lines and designers I've heard about. Not seen that in a quilt store before, and it was pretty exciting (read a lot about those designers in my other quilt blogs...). :) They had a class going on. There were four older, overweight women sitting around and sewing...didn't seem super open to younger people. However, the woman was very friendly! I generally liked the vibe. Bought three fat quarters. I haven't ever used words before, but I've seen these prints and envied them a little, and the green one...just loved the little hummers!

I also visited The Tin Thimble. It was a wonderful little vintage place. Didn't have as much fabric as others, but had vintage and previously used patterns, as well as new and old fabrics and other crafty things. :) They had a class going on as well, and a nice big room set up on the side with wide tables, and there were about 8 women making these fun new scarves. It had both a modern and a vintage feel, and very friendly. Bought a couple fat quarters as well. Spent less than $10 in the two stores!

Oh man! I need to start dinner! But one more picture! My wonderful mother in law visited a quilt store for me while she was visiting Seattle! Brought me lots of things!

Upcoming Reviews

I have visited several quilt shops recently, and plan to review them here, as well as a couple that I plan on visiting tomorrow! But I haven't had a ton of time this week.

Brett is back and spent the day with me yesterday! I got her into quilting and we cut out her twin sized top, as well as finished the quilt top I've been working on for her! It was a good day. I have a quilt buddy!

I am currently in Roseville with Andrew and Jason for our friends wedding! We are heading to the rehearsal in a few minutes. The boys are groomsmen, and I going to try to spend some of tomorrow morning driving myself around looking at the quilt shops!

Tomorrow for the wedding, then sunday with Andrews parents!

A Week of Colds

Andrew came home from the bachelor party with sore shoulders and a terrible cold. So I didn't get much done at the beginning of the week with taking care of my boy...and thought by Thursday morning I was safe...but then Thursday night hit and I was just down for the count. Still worked Friday...

Anyway. I finished little Layman's quilt! :) I'm quite proud and Kate was happy. She loves polka dots, so it was perfect.

Saturday Andrew and I went on a date to Santa Barbara! It was a wonderful day. We were both sort of sick, but Andrew was getting over it and I was hopped up on daytime cold medicine...We went kayaking in the harbor (no pictures), had a nice lunch, sadly didn't make it to the zoo, but walked around State Street and got ice cream at Ben and Jerry's. :D

Sunday Jeff came to visit! Arrived 10 min after Andrew and I got back from SB. Went to church, then lunch with friends, then to the beach...then relaxed at home.

And I have gotten a little quilting done. Mostly my yo-yo quilt, but also have been cutting some pieces for Brett's quilt! (She is moving back to town! Whoot!) I've made about 300 yo-yos, only 2700 to go. :P

And another week has started...

Grown Up

I feel like an adult now. My husband is going on a business trip where he is presenting to a large audience where people have to pay $1000 to get in (he got in free as a developer)! The business is going places! Whoot. And he might also have another business trip to Austin in a couple weeks as well. I have to stay home and work both times. I really am grown up now.

He also just ordered business cards and I get to start reading a "how to" business guide for him (joy). :P

Done!

Finished the baby quilt in one week! :D

I was a little disappointed as I was finishing because it wasn't perfect. I was expecting to do better so I was upset. There are so many wonderful quilters out there and they are so much better than I am!

I was going to take pictures and show you all the horribleness of it all...

And then I realized this was the first time I have quilted a quilt as well as the first time I tried a binding...and for that, I am proud of my work! :D It looks great! I really like the binding. It is a nice finishing touch. And I really hope it gets a lot of use when the little baby comes...

No pictures. :-/  Maybe tomorrow

I Don't Like Quilting!

Andrew left yesterday morning quilt I was at work for Rob's bachelor party with Jason. Leaving me all alone! :( But I got off work at 3, picked up Ana, and we hung out with Josiah til about 5:15. :D So adorable! Then Ana and I picked up Kelsey and we all (including Chance!) came up to my place and I made dinner and failed (for the 4th time!) to make ice cream. I don't know why sometimes I do well with ice cream and sometimes I don't. I've used this recipe before, even made sure I saved it because I knew how to do it...and it still didn't work! :( But we had fun catching up and watched a girly movie.

So this is what the house looks like after the girls come over! I spent a little time cleaning up today...but going to dedicate more time tomorrow before Andrew gets home. :P

I took the girls back to slo at 10:30 and then stayed up til 2...quilting! :P I just love this sewing machine. My wonderful mother-in-law gave it to me and I had it cleaned this week, and now it is running WONDERFULLY! :D I got my free-motion foot and Andrew and I were trying to figure out how to put it on the other night.

The patterned flannel didn't quite fit the quilt top I made, so I added a strip of blue...which turned out perfectly because I was considering adding a bible verse and couldn't figure out where to put it...usually when I add writing, I find a style I like on my computer, print it, and then copy it in pencil.

Trying to make a "real" quilt...like I mentioned before, with batting and actually quilting the quilt instead of just tying like I usually do. I watched a whole season of The Mentalist while working on this quilt...

I bought 50 curved safety pins to put the three pieces together...and they still weren't enough! Had to use almost as many straight pins. And still things didn't go as I had planned! Ugh. I went through many emotions today while working on this quilt! Lots of floor time and my knee was hurting and cracking...my back was hurting, I was excited to piece it and it looked so good with the hand-sewn verse on the back...so cute! And pinning it went well...but then I started quilting.

 
In the three hours it took me to quilt this thing (I decided on a sort of grid pattern with green and blue thread), I went from being excited to hating quilting! Usually I get on Andrew's case for being a perfectionist, but today I realized I don't like quilting because it makes things look bad! Geez. Everything looked so great, but once I started quilting, everything bunched up and turned crooked...ugh. It was not cool. Still not...but now that it is done, it looks...OK.

This is me attempting to roll the quilt so I can quilt it...

Here is the front and back...they clash a little I guess...but they're fun!

And here is the finished bible verse strip on the back...

I thought I would include a picture of my "stash" of fabrics. :) For future quilts...

And a picture of some squares of a quilt a friend is making for me and Andrew...friends and family signed it at our wedding and she's going to put it together for us! It's so great!

Quilting is Expensive!

Sigh. I need to start selling them to make back what I spend. Who knew a baby quilt was going to be so expensive! Simply because I chose to finish it the "traditional" way with batting! :-/

But...this is what I get to do on my job. Go to starbucks and read Boxcar Children! Kelly and I enjoy our warm drinks after shopping at Beverly's. I love my job. I may not make very much, but there are at least two of us very glad that I have the job that I do!

Baby Quilt!

I decided to use some fabric I had bought about 6 months ago for the baby quilt. It's super cute green, blue and yellow. Perfect for an adorable little boy! I spent about an hour designing this quilt, then got to cutting it out Monday afternoon.

Yesterday started sewing the blocks together and ironing open the seams (have never done this, usually I think it takes too much time, but I want this to be the most perfect quilt ever!)...

And today I have the whole top pieced! This is the quickest I have ever put together a quilt. Granted, it is smaller than my normal attempts, and the blocks are rather large, but it still came together really quickly! I'm proud of it.

Now I just have to decide what to use as a backing. Soft flannel or the super soft fuzzy fabric. I don't want it to be too thick and stiff, so if I use the super soft and fuzzy fabric, I don't think I'm going to use any batting. Jury is still out on whether I'm going to tie it or quilt it. And now that I'm looking at it, it looks rather large for a baby quilt...but I guess maybe that's a good thing and Jed can use it for more than just his first year.

I've also started working on a yo-yo quilt. No pictures yet, but I have 21 yo-yos sewn. Of course, it takes about 3000 for a good, queen-sized blanket. But it's a fun, on-the-go project!

Andrew worked 60 hours last week. And that's not even counting the time he spends at home working on stuff, that's just at the office. :-/ He does get a break this weekend though, going to Rob's bachelor party with Jason. :) They're leaving Friday morning. I'm having a girls night with Kelsey and Ana Friday, and not telling anyone I'm free Saturday cause I want to spend the whole day quilting! :) Just feeding my addiction I guess...

Sunday Working

After church this morning we celebrated our friend Alyssa's birthday by going out to lunch. :) She and her husband are starting the adoption process again, so soon I will have two little ones to take to Avila Valley Barn! This time around I get to be a reference! Probably because I hang out with Josiah so much. :) 


In church this morning our pastor encouraged us to use our gifts to bless other church members. Our new nursery director is due in october, and I am now going to make her a baby quilt! The first small one I've attempted. I'm excited! I'm going to use green and yellow (it's going to be a boy), and I ordered a free motion quilting foot, so I'm going to actually quilt this one rather than simply tying it! Trying lots if new things. I am also committing to praying for little Jed as I work on his quilt. :) 

Tonight is the Hot House final dinner, and Andrew has to present his work, so we are busy in SLO working. No quilting for me today. :( 

Getting into Blogging!

I decided I wanted to have a more "public" blog in case I ever do anything with it. I have been inspired by the blogs I have recently been reading (my favorite at crazymomquilts) to add more flare and color to my blogs about life and add more fun things instead of boring facts. Since I am very active in my quilting recently, that is going to inspire a lot of my posts!

My last post on my other blog showed a picture of my recently finished black and white quilt that I gave to my sister, which - in her honor - I am titling New York Buildings. I'm posting it again for anyone new to the blog. :)

The two quilts I am working on now:

One for Brett, who requested a crazy quilt

and one with some dark red/maroon fabrics that I bought over two years ago that I think I will keep for our bed. I just love these colors!

Today we got up at 7am because I had to be at work at 8. Kelly and I had a great day (aside for me leaving the headlights on and needing a jump from wonderful Ana), and I got off at 4. Joined Andrew (I dropped him off at work before I went to work) and he was being super productive so i hung out til 6, when we headed home. I worked on some other blocks for the maroon quilt from about 8-11. :)

Tomorrow we have church, lunch with friends, a three hour break and then a HotHouse dinner for Andrew's summer work/business starting. Busy, busy weekend, and the week starts all over again!