Crazy Summer

Wow, it has been a crazy summer.  I have not forgotten about my blog, but have had so much going on that all my sewing, scrapping and anything creative has gone the wayside. Even this blog.  Now that school is back in session and I am down to one child during the day, maybe I will get down to the basement and clean all the legos off of MY table and get back to the things I love.

I have also started running again.  Oh my, I am absolutely in love again.  I don't know how I went so long since I have done it on a regular basis.  I even managed to run a 5K road race in August.  And signed up for an Adventure 5K in October.  So fun!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Wow, I can't believe I am doing this.  I am going to enter my latest quilt into the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

I am trying so hard to put the Bloggers' Quilt Festival button here but just can't figure it out.

I have had so many people recently ask if I sell quilts (I don't think they are that good).  But, wow, what a compliment!  I have only just begun sewing.  Made only three quilts.  And two dresses.  I guess maybe someday I could sell them, but for now I just love making them for family and friends.  I haven't really made any for family yet though.  Not even one for my house.  There is one in the works though.  And more that are in the design stage in my head.  Hehe

So, which of my three quilts will I enter.  Haha.  Actually, it is an easy decision.  My last quilt.  And what perfect timing, I need to post about it finished.  Here it is.

This is a baby quilt for my son's teacher.  When we found out she was expecting, I asked him if he wanted to give her something for the baby.  Of course he said yes.  She is the most amazing teacher.  She is understanding, caring and one of a kind.  My first thought was a quilt, and again he immediately said 'Yes'.  We found out her decor for the nursery was polka dots, mostly pastel greens and pinks.  Searched different fabrics and my son picked this bundle.  It is perfect.  He also choose the pattern and the layout. 

And he chose this flannel for the backing.  He loves frogs...

I followed this tutorial. So easy...and we love how it turned out. I think Holly sewed more lines but I left it up to my son. He liked it this way, so I stopped. I like it too. I think gives a water effect on the back, with the frogs. 

  

 
That yellow wall is much prettier in person.  I promise.

 I hadn't given a thought to the binding until it came time to do it.  Ugh...what do I do.  I found some strips of the fabric fat quarters that I had left over...thank goodness.  Cut them and thought I had enough.  But I was wrong.  So I used a piece of the frog flannel.  Wasn't sure how combining the two types of fabric with work out.  But it ending up being fine.

I think what amazes me the most about this quilt is how long it took.  Not counting cutting the fabric (cuz I don't remember how long that was, not long obviously) I did this quilt in 5 days!  I never thought I could do that.
 

He is so proud of it.  And my other two love it to.  And so am I.

And that is one of my favorite photos!

We gave her the quilt on her last day. (We didn't realize it at the time) Phew!
And it made her day.  And ours, to see her so happy with it.  She said it was perfect.  It matched her room beautifully.  She even said she wanted to carry it around with her all day.  Another teacher saw her with it and asked if another teacher made it for her.  My son's teacher replied "No, you will never guess who made this for me."  She then proceeded to take it out and unfold it to show it off.  Hearing this story made me feel even better than I already did about giving her the quilt.

Thank you, Mrs. Stanhope!  We love you!

And the list grows

I just found out I am going to be an Auntie again!!!  Yay!  But that means I now have another quilt to make.  My list keeps getting longer and longer.

In no particular order, here it is:

Twin quilt for son's bed

Twin quilt for other son's bed

Halloween

Christmas

New nephew/niece

Everyday use for couch

Old t-shirts

Twin for Little Miss (thank goodness this one doesn't need to be done anytime soon...till we get a house)
Table runner
Mug rug
(dying to try the last two, but don't NEED them.  hehe)

Guess a list of my finishes would make me feel better about the list of to-dos:

Baby quilt for friend

Baby quilt for friend

(both of these quilts were much larger than baby size)

Baby quilt for son's teacher (ok, it is not finished but only needs rest of binding done and label)

Little Man is home sick today.  And I am ready for a nap.

  

Polka Dots & Frogs

Where do I start?  I can't believe it is May.  So much has been going on in our lives.  So much I can't even write about it all, there would be now possible way.

The yearbook I talked about in my last post is currently under production.  I can't wait till the kids get to see it.  I truly believe we made the best possible one we could.  There are lots of new faces and lots of school activities as well as extracurricular ones.  When we get a copy I will be sure to post a pic of it.

My oldest turned 9 this month!  Holy cow....9.  Where did time go.  He is such a great kid.  Smart, caring, funny, creative, loving...  I could go on forever.  He has his moments, but what kids doesn't.  They are stressful when they are in the moment but on a night like this, the eve of Mother's Day, I have a quiet house and after finishing the quilting to his teachers quilt (pics to come further down in this post) all I can do is think about how blessed I am to have him as my son.  And of course my other two also.  They are all so different, and I love each and everyone of them more than I ever could have imagined was possible.

The boys have been playing lots of baseball.  They are having so much fun and doing so well.  My middle boy (the one with the mohawk) is a natural.  He is trying so had to hit a homerun on the tball field.  My oldest does well too.  But he gets discouraged very easily.  His strong suit is school.   :)

Little Miss, will she is a true girl, and yet loves to get down and dirty too.  And a complete joy to be around (ok, most of the time). 

Alright, enough of that...I could go on forever, but couldn't all of us moms.

How about this quilt I have been working on.  I finished the top on Wednesday, basted it last night and quilted it tonight!  I can't believe how quick it went together.  It is a baby quilt, and much smaller than my first two quilts.

The finished top:

Quilted top:

 

Back

and a few more, just because

I followed this great tutorial that I had found a month or so back.  Maybe more.  I thought it was just perfect for this quilt.  My oldest did too.  He has had the final say on everything about this one.  From the fabric choices to the pattern to the quilting. 

My little man wants me to hurry and finish so I can get back to his quilt.  Soon, Dude, soon. :)

Oooo I almost forgot.  I used two layers of batting for this one too.  I wanted it to be nice and soft for the baby.  I was a little afraid as to how well it would quilt but I really didn't even notice.  Super psyched about that. 

I can not wait to be able to give it to my son's teacher.  I am hoping she is blow away.  She has been so wonderful this yr and I can't think of a better way to thank her.  Here's hoping she doesn't have the baby this weekend so she will be in school on Monday.

And this is just some of what has been going on...I went back to soccer...oh there is so much.

There is this blog that I just love reading.  Heidi is amazing.  Her work is beautiful and her kids are adorable.  And she is one of my followers too...hehe.  She talks about Google reader sometimes, and I never know what she is talking about.  So finally when she mentioned how many posts she has to read...she gets me thinking.  I havent been in blogland for a while, I wonder how many post I have missed.  I know that I have this google reader thing but I have never used it.  Well, I looked into it more, and now I do.  Ugh, I have 445 unread posts!  Oh boy.... I am in trouble.  But I love that I can read most of them right from google reader.  Duh.  Why didnt I know about this sooner.  Oh well.  Besides to sleeping in, and maybe finishing the above baby quilt, maybe I will sit with a great big glass of Mango Daquiri and read up on my blogs tomorrow. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!!!! 

Other things...

Haven't done much sewing lately.  Maybe two - three rows of my baby quilt.  I have been working on my oldest's school yearbook.  Once that is done, I will get back to sewing. 

Oh...I almost forgot!  I am going on a scrapbook retreat in June!  I am sooo excited.  Went on one last yr and can't wait to go again.  It has been so long since I got any pages done.  The ladies at the retreat may laugh at me if I bring the same album as last yr.  But unfortunately, I have to.  Yup, it's been that long.  And this time I got some friends to go with me!  That makes me even more excited. 

And it is baseball time in our house too.  I got both boys playing, one in farm and one in t-ball.  Going to be a long spring with 4 practices a week and then come May 4 games a week.  Oiy!

Design

With help from my son, I have a layout of my WIP. We tried a few layouts before we got one that he was happy with.

Please excuse the ugly brown rug beneath it.  I am hoping to have it gone this summer.

My son is thinking a solid blue for the backing.  I am a little bumming about that but it is for his teacher.  She loves polka dots and says that the room is mostly pinks and greens...maybe I can get him to do green instead.  I figure I will go with a flannel.  Hope it is not too hard to work with.  I haven't used if on a quilt yet.

 

WIP

I am being to feel like a real quilter.  I have two WIP.  Hehe, even using the lingo.  I havent touched this  in a while, but I will get to it, I promised my little man that I would.  And then there is my newest project...

Another gift...someday I will make a quilt that will be for our family to keep.  But this one is going to an amazing teacher.  This is the only way I can think to thank her for all she has done. 

And then there are these additions to my little collection that I have started... 

Not sure what I am going to make with them.  I've seen a bunch of cute things out there in blogland, and that is where I got the idea to keep my salvages.  Of course I don't remember where I saw the ones I liked, so I will have to go a search when the time is right. 

 

I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced, today.  Can't wait to check out what others are up too.