Eventless

I've got nothing to show for the last couple days. Well, essentially for this whole week really. It is really hard to focus on projects when Love is on his weekend, because I'd MUCH rather spend time with him than secluding myself with projects.

We've been playing Wii, and lots of it. That's all for now. Today won't be a day for projects either, too much laundry, dishes, and cleaning to do.

Blech.

Sneak Peek

Oh, For Pete's Sake!

Love and I bought a Wii today.

He spent a good amount of time trying to figure out all the wires that the crazy cable guy left us and set everything up!

BUT.

And why does there have to be a but?

When we cracked open the ONE game that we actually bought, we realize that it has been previously cracked open by greedy little fingers at the store and we don't have the controller piece we need for the game to work.

Jerkfaces.

Sidenote:

The store didn't have white Wii Remotes sold seperately, SO we have one white one that came with the Wii and one black one. My obsessive compulsions are frustrated by this. I thought I was saved by the fact that the black one came with a black sensor and two black covers. All good, right?

Then I found out that the recharger has to have special back pieces, and they only come in white.

addition: THERE WASN'T EVEN A DISC IN THE BOX THAT SHOULD HAVE HAD A GAME IN IT!

Life In Black And White

Sometimes...

... they just don't match.

Hit Them Up!

My great friend at Piecing It All Together found some bloggers that are having some giveaways!

***

First is Amber at A Little Bit Biased. She has three new patterns she's debuting through her company Gigi's Thimble that you can see on her blog or through her etsy store. Beautiful quilts!

***

Second is Jandi at Jandi In Stitches. She just switched over to blogger from wordpress and is looking for people to check out her work.

Saturday's Work On Sunday

After I made those blocks, or more of AS I was making those blocks, I noticed that I had strips of scraps left over, but really no plan for them.

And then I thought about it. If I just stick these in a stash somewhere, I'll NEVER actually get around to using them... which sucks.

So, I made a quilt!

The only downside is that since I just used scraps (including the Kona white as a remnant), I don't actually have enough to finish this or anything for a backing. I'll have to work on that later.

Not too shabby for a last minute quilt!

Secondly, I decided to work on Marissa's Blanket. Here's where I'm at:

Baby G's Blocks

Awhile ago, I found a picture online of some fabric baby blocks. I thought they were ADORABLE and set out deconstructing them from the picture. I sat there and stared at it until it all made sense.

I wanted each block to have a little bit different design to it, so we've got blue circles, green swirls, yellow stripes, and red stars. I found all of the bright fabrics at JoAnn's and added a secondary fabric to each block. Most of those were scraps that I had from other projects.

The only thing was that when I found the blocks, I couldn't think of any kiddos that might be interested. But now I do!

Enjoy Baby G!

Ode To Chips And Guac

Oh, chips and guac... Where have you been all my life?

Life In Black And White

Hmm... Polka Dots

I had decided awhile ago that for the last decorative pillow for the sofa, I wanted to try a Cathedral Window that I found on this tutorial from Hyena In Petticoats. This is a GREAT tutorial because it is put down step-by-step and because I'm a visual person, the pictures help A LOT!




I was going at a pretty good pace, but then got distracted by some other fabric that was sitting out. I really shouldn't leave fabric laying around becasue I'm bound to drop everything and start a new project.

At least I finished this one.

I picked up this fabic a few days ago and had NO idea what I was going to do with it. I didn't get a lot because it was just a remnant, but it turned into a 30 x 30 blanket. Small, but I imagine a cute little baby laying down on it.

I'll get back to my Catheral Window Pillow soon. Updates later.

Duckie Blanket

I said I'd share better pictures when it was light out. I'm pretty proud of this blanket. It might be my favorite if only because of the orange duckies. And a shout out to Love for holding it while I fiddled with my camera to take a picture.

Surprise!

This is my surprise finish.

I started working on this quilt last year. It is my FIRST quilt that wasn't just a practice in "I-didn't-use-a-pattern "quilting. I just never got around to finishing it because I was convinced that I'd have to hand quilt it.

Then, I got one of the best Christmas presents ever. (Enter stage left: the SEWING MACHINE)

It does a blanket stitch.

I machine quilted it and used electric blue thread. It's amazing.

I suppose that I'll put up more pictures tomorrow when I don't have the odd night glow of my work lamp and my camera flash. Oh, and this quilt is special. It is reserved for the first baby in a select group of people. I know... that's selfish. But I LOVE THIS QUILT.

Aurora's Blanket

Aurora's Blanket

I like this blanket. I used nine different and most amazing remnant fabrics for the blocks and then a solid cotton for the borders. And just because I LOVE a good fleece blanket, I quilted fleece to the back.

I'm also falling in love with my blanket stitch on my sewing machine. Pretty much AMAZING!

This blanket goes rather nice with my dining room...

Sofa Pillows

Ok, so I've made 5 new pillows so far for the living room. This is my beloved orange sofa. I don't think I could live without it. Seeing that it sees SO many heads, butts, and naps, I needed some sturdy pillows along with some decorative ones.

Love picked out some gorgeous deep brown cotton that has a slight sheen to it, so I made two pillows of solid brown cotton. Then I made two pillows with solid tan flannel. These are most likely going to get the bulk of the use.

The decorative pillow that I started with was the one from the Martha Stewart website tutorial. I am REALLY not one for following the directions, but I DID! I followed the directions just like it said, and this pillow will most likely not hold up to any possible use. Apparently, it is decorative only. My problem was that when I stuffed it, the more filling I used, the more the "pinches" came out of it and no longer had the deep creases I'd created. It still looks nice, but it isn't going to be one that will stand up to any sort of butt shuffling or drool.

I plan on trying the Cathedral Window pattern to make another solid brown decorative pillow for the sofa and I have a long narrow pillow I'm making with the brown and a slight gold patterned fabric in a colorblock. In the end, there will be TONS of comfy pillows.

In LOVE!

Yep, I'm totally smitten with my Love.

We spent the most wonderful day together yesterday enjoying Stam Chocolates on our way to the Symphony followed by the dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town. Afterward, we replicated our "dates" from our early relationship days and watched about 5 episodes of Law and Order.

*swoon* He's amazing.

Martha Martha

In my search to fix or buy new pillows for the sofa in our living room, I stumbled across a Martha Stewart tutorial for a "Textured Pillow" here.

I'm not going to start with a pillowcase, which might end up being more difficult, but I want to be able to make choices on the sizing of my pillows and also give myself a little practice opportunity.

I went with a solid 100% cotton and will hopefully be able to get this project done in the next couple days.


Love and I have a date night tomorrow because he works on V-Day. We're going to the symphony and out to a nice restaurant for dinner. I'm not sure I could have really convinced Love that this symphony was all that great except for the fact that we have a friend that is playing in it and it is a way to support our friend.

So, if I don't get the pillows done, that is where I'll be!

Have a happy holiday!

Completely

Unmotivated.

Life In Black And White

Oh, Projects.

Meet my new project. I'm much further along on this project than this picture makes it appear, but that is just because I'd packed up my camera before my sewing machine....





And do you remember this one? Yeah, it's officially finished.

My Best Girl

You know those special people in life that just INSPIRE you to be a better person?

Those people that make you laugh and smile every time you see them?

Those people that you wish you could just spend millions more minutes with because they are just WONDERFUL souls to be around?

Yeah, I spent my weekend with one. And it was her birthday, well, almost birthday. I love you!





Mmmm.... oreo ice cream cake.

Whoo! Fabric!

While I was snowstormed in visiting my family, I braved the terrible drivers and falling snow to hunt down some deals on fabric.

Deals be FOUND!

Stitchin' Foo'

I'm visiting family this weekend for fun, but also due to a Facebook message calling for help with projects at the church I grew up going to.

The church has been doing a significant amount of remodeling and the sad thing is, it makes me feel like I don't really belong there anymore, but I went anyway. They had a whole bunch of projects they were asking for help with due to the construction and state of everything; building a shed, putting up a couple basketball hoops, organizing and storing all the Christmas decorations, but MOST IMPORTANTLY they had tons of fabric to be turned into blankets to send to Haiti and quilts for Lutheran World Relief.

This meant, I brought my trusty new sewing machine with me on my weekend trip. It must say something about my new stitching interests if I travel without my husband, but have to buckle in my sewing machine.

Anyway, I also found out that one of their other projects was stitching up tote bags to fill with school supplies to go to girls' schools for LWR. My neighbor across the street and I finished a total of 40 tote bags! I think that's just amazing.

The group working on the Haiti blankets was making the tied fringe fleece blankets and they made 42 blankets!

And after I finished with my tote bags, the woman in charge of the quilts asked me if I'd stick around and just keep stitching for awhile. Sew I did (hehehe), and got a quilt top done. 60 x 80 inches for LWR. I'm just sew impressed!

Ok, so I could come up with these lame sewing puns all day, but that is the end of my story.

It was great to feel like I was part of a purpose for something bigger than just a church service.

To Be Young

Husband and I were having a conversation a few days ago that was a continuation of the house convo. This one was about the school districts. Ultimately, the only thing that it accomplished was that I actually never really appreciated how much I enjoyed high school as I do now.

I had so much fun in high school. I LOVED being with all my different groups of friends, travelling with the band, playing tennis with friends, going to EVERY sporting event the district had to offer for pep band and supporting all my friends and school,...

I also LOVED all the musical opportunities I had. At the time, it seemed like so much work and a complete drag to be in concert band, pep band, marching band, pit orchestra, and jazz band. I know it sounds like a lot, and it DEFINITELY took up a significantly large portion of my high school career, but I did it because I liked it. I really enjoyed it.

It was SO much fun.

And I miss it.

Le Pouvoir De Fromage

Meet Zoey.

Zoey likes cheese.

Zoey likes to steal cheese.

Silly Zoey.

Life In Black And White

Quilt In A Day

For the second time, check me out. LOL.

I was asked to put together something as a gift and I've done it!

As Husband left for work this afternoon, I took a little time to get ready, but I went out and did the bi-monthly grocery shopping, ran to the fabric store to pick out a backing for this quilt I was asked to make, and then came home. By the time I got home, it was almost time for supper so as I was boiling water and cooking chicken, I was also cutting squares.

I have to admit, I used mostly scraps or remnants that I managed to scour up, but I really like how it turned out!

After supper and the leftovers were packed into the fridge, I set out to knock this out. This is what I did in 5 hours.

Better pictures will come when it is not 2:30am.

Official WIP

Ok.

So, I'm putting the project I've been slowly working on the past few days ON HOLD. Ooof. That's almost hard to say because I think I'm very close to being DONE.

I'm switching gears for a short time because I've got a commission to work on. That's right. Someone asked if I could put something together for them and I've got a deadline; Friday. So let's pull this together, eh?

As for the project I've been working on. Here it is, ALMOST finished.

Family Planning

While I've been sewing or cutting or cooking for Husband, I've been watching a lot of HGTV. This, in turn, means that Husband has been watching a lot of HGTV with me. The not-so-scary-but-should-be-scary thing that has come from this is we've been looking into houses to buy in our area.

Now, we've brought up the buy-a-house conversation before, but at the time, we were NO WHERE near ready to even consider it. I think it is because we've really had time to work on this house, and again, watch a lot of HGTV that we've started to seriously think about it.

Which brings up the idea of family planning.

To me, a house symbolizes permanence. It is settlement. So, when looking online at houses in our area, we realized that we really could probably pull off a mortgage payment and still get a house that we could grow into. Grow into, as in, have kids in.

In the online home search, you can type in number of bedrooms and number of bathrooms. Husband thinks we need at least two bedrooms to start with, if not three. We want a yard for a dog, trees in the yard to provide fun and shade, and we've even considered proximity to shopping and school districts for our future kids.

Am I really this old?

Am I really old enough to start thinking about a house, pets, kids, school districts, taxes, and planning my life around how close the grocery store is?


I guess I am.




And I love it. I also love it that Husband is excited about it all too.

Sneak Peek

Even though I don't have any "big" projects to share, the little ones are just as interesting. Husband had his weekend and came up with more projects for me to make and editions to ones we've already created.




The first one was the TT 2.1. That's right, it has a name. Just some minor adjustments to the original that make it more durable, more fail-safe, and yeah, more durable. I think the intent was to make something that had would be able to be used one-handed, but I'm pretty sure that no matter what you do, you'd need more than one hand to make it functional.


The second project was harder for me to comprehend. I know what a rifle is. I know what a magazine for a rifle is. It is just hard for me to come up with a design for a pouch that will contain a magazine that is safe, sturdy, and easy to use in a tough situation. Enter: Ammo Pouch.


Hint: the scraps at the top are from my new project. It is just taking me a little longer to complete.

AND, I'm only finishing this blog after I sat down to write it and then after Husband came and curled up with me in which we both proceeded to nap for an hour. I love naps in the afternoon with Husband.

Jealous

Two things:

I've been blog browsing and have found TONS of the cutest fabric of all time. Why can't I find fabrics like that and put them together is such great coordnation?

Sometimes, I wish that people understood me. Like, really understood me.