Quilt done

I got Abbie's quilt done this afternoon despite Abbie's "help" and telling me that it was done because she wanted to play with the quilt. As soon as I actually got it done and was taking a picture Abbie had to bring her pillow out and do a test drive.

I just stuck the quilt into the wash while Abbie was not looking hope she doesn't notice :)

Of the original pile of fabrics I have just a small amount left. I really had to get creative in order to make this quilt completely from stash. When I ran out of the solid cream background fabric I switched to the second choice fabric. When I didn't have enough of the multi colored polka dot fabric to make another row I made the piano key border with the leftovers. When I realized that I had cut a zillion 4" squares and had no yardage of background fabric left I pieced the inner borders. Lastly when I used the red fabric for the binding rather than the blue I would have preferred. I am very pleased with how this quilt turned out and hope that it gets much use over the next several years.

Drafting a block

Ever since my good friend S made my son a taggie blanket as a baby shower gift I have adapted the idea and make mini quilt taggies to give as shower gifts. I have two showers coming up in the next couple of weeks so I decided it was time to get a start on the gifts. The babies are boys so I didn't get to have as much fun with the pretty fabrics but I am pleased with how the quilt block for the front side turned out.

I found this block today on the crazy mom quilts blog. There were not construction instructions so I decided to draft it myself. Let me tell you this is not a beginner block! There are a heck of alot of quarter square triangles to deal with. I must have unsewn a half a dozen seams before I got it together. The taggie for the second shower this month will be identical to the first. I put minkie on the backside so it will be nice and soft. All the fabric and trims for this will come out of my stash.

Too Stinkin' Cute

A friend gave me this fabric a while ago and I put it aside with the intention of making clothes for the kids. Now that it has gotten warmer Alex needs some new shorts so I pulled this fabric out and made him a pair. When I got Alex's shorts done I had just (barely) enough fabric left to make Abbie a dress. I started this about 6:30 took a break to put the kids to bed and I finished at about 10. I still need to put buttons and button holes in the dress but I need to go to the store tomorrow to pick up some. The nice thing about the dress is that it can easily be worn as a top as she gets bigger. The friend that gave me this print also gave me a blue polka dot fabric that matches so I think that this winter I'll make some pants for Abbie to wear with it. And yes, I do plan on making them wear the outfits at the same time.

A quick finish

I know I have been chatty tonight but I have a lot of catching up to do. Saturday I went to a baby shower and this is the quilt that I made up for her over the last 2 weeks. Some of this fabric was given to me by my friend H when she cleaned up her stash and the rest I pulled from my scrap bins. Instead of a paper gift bag I made a cloth bag out of some fabric that my other friend S had given me. I made one improvement on this bag though, I put a pocket on the inside of it so the bag can fold into it's own pocket.

Small Quilt Auction

Tomorrow night is the annual Small Quilt Auction at my quilt guild. I have donated a chicken pincushion in the past but have never made a quilt so tonight I decided to make one. I used the "waste triangles" that I double sewed when I was making Alex's big boy quilt and that I had previously trimmed to 1 3/4" and sewed into 4 patch pinwheels. Tonight I sewed the pinwheels together and put on a couple borders and bound it. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

I have also included a couple more pictures from our trip to Zion. The picture of Abbie is of her in our Ergo Baby Carrier, this is how she saw Zion and I was very pleased with how comfortable it was and she got alot of attention from people when she was in it (although she gets attention wherever we go.

UFO Finish

I have made it a goal of mine to get some UFO's finished before starting new projects. Tonight I finished a UFO that I started in September/October of 2004. It was a Christmas block exchange for a bee group called The Cut Up's. I organized the swap and the rules were that the blocks had to be 12" finished in the quilter's choice of pattern and the colors had to be red, green and gold. After exchanging the blocks I had a hard time deciding how to set them and I finally found the print that I used for a border and sashing. After I got the top completed it sat around for a while again waiting to be quilted then I got in on Judi's 30 quilts for $30 and she just returned it to me about a week ago and I finished binding and putting the label on it tonight. The back is pieced out of a bunch of Christmas fat quarters that I had that I wasn't really in love with, but they made a great backing.

A Few Stashbusting Projects

Well this is the second time that I am writing this post since my window crashed the first time. Hopefully I can remember everything.

I completed a stash busting and scrap busting quilt last week and gave it to my sister on Saturday for her baby shower. This is a string-x quilt a-la Bonnie. This is pretty much identical to one that I have made before. I have been making the string blocks as leader/ender pieces and before I know it I have enough to make a quilt. I intend this to be a quilt that gets used and abused. I used my favorite batting for kids quilts, dream angel batting. It is flame retardant and I just feel better that they are sleeping with something that could help them in the event of a fire.

The other two finishes are both bags, one for me and one for my son. The one for me is from a pattern in the Winter 2006 Quilts and More magazine. I used recycled corduroy for the outside and a reproduction 30's fabric that I just love for the inside. I am using this bag for my knitting. the other bag is for my Cars obsessed son so that he can carry his own toys, drink, snack etc. The bag is made out of some Cars fabric that I bought from Walmart to use for a tablecloth for his 2nd birthday. the inside and handles are made from a worn out pair of my husbands pants. I decided to use the heavier pants material so the bag would have some body without having to use interfacing.

My daughter had her 4 month check up today, she currently weighs 15# and is 26" long. That is 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. I apparently don't make small children, my son has always been big for his age too. My daughter remains an avid breastfeeder and has not been showing any interest in solids, which is just fine with me. My son didn't much want solids until he was over 7 months old also. Today she got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. I feel so bad for her, she has been fussy all evening, I am sure that she is not feeling so well. On top of that she is getting two teeth in the bottom front. The teeth have not broken through yet, but you can see that they are there. Developmentally she can roll from her back to her belly and my husband says that she can roll from her belly to her back but I haven't seen it yet. Also, when she gets on her belly she has been pulling her legs up like she is trying to crawl. I am so not ready to have two mobile kids.

My sons is doing well also. In the last month or so his vocabulary has just exploded. it is so amazing to watch him learn. For Christmas we got him a book about potty training and he has been showing a lot of interest in using the potty so we have been letting him use it when he asks. I figure as soon as it is warm enough here for him to wear training pants and a t-shirt I will make a more concerted effort to get him to potty train.