the flip side . . .

May I make a confession? I've never pieced the back of quilt I've made. Ever. With the exception of the quilts I've made in the quilt-as-you-go method, all my quilts have had whole-cloth backs.

Until now!!! I wasn't sure what I wanted to do on the back of Ellie's quilt. At first I thought I wanted to do it in flannel or minky, but I didn't have enough of anything in my stash, and I really, strongly wanted this quilt to be made with fabrics I had on hand. So I decided to piece it (yikes!) with the leftover fabrics from the nursery.

Tah-dah!! When I'd first seen the pink and white fabric Joc had selected for the curtain panels, I fell in love with it immediately! It made me think of a fancy, gilded bird cage ... which was the perfect compliment to the exotic birds in the fabric that was part of her nursery bedding. So I pieced the back to give that look of the birds in the cage, bordered by that beautiful solid pink.

Here's a shot from the nursery of the pillows, the lampshade and the curtains. The quilt will be perfect in this room!

I will bind it with this dark purple piece leftover from Joc's wedding quilt.

Can you see the hearts in it?! It's just perfect for this quilt!! I'm so excited ... I can't wait to get quilting on it!

And I can't let this post go without acknowledging my new favorite number . . .

ROLL TIDE!!!

(And happy Tuesday!)

:)

stash report #2 and nursery tour . . .

I made good progress on the Ellie's Got My Heart quilt yesterday, though I didn't finish piecing the top. I'd planned to, but I got a visit from this little fellow . . .

(And his mommy and daddy, too!) I had the opportunity to spend the evening with them at their house, so I gratefully took 'em up on it! I got to give Sawyer his little fleece hat. He doesn't like new hats (he has to see them on his head first and get used to them), but I could put it on his baseball cap. Which was pretty cute, too.

He's such a charmer! I imagine my grandchildren will be able to get me to do just about anything for them. LOL!

It was so funny ... Kim pulled out this chair (for herself) and also Sawyer's little brown chair (for him). He climbed into her chair so she went to sit in his. "No, no, no, mommy!" He said as he pulled her away from his chair and sat in it. As she went to sit back in the bigger chair, he dove for it. It was quite amusing (to me, anyway)!

Jocelyn texted yesterday afternoon and said she'd finished all the final touches on the nursery and there's a nursery tour on her blog! It's *so* cute! If you want to check out a complete scope of Ellie's darling digs, you may do so HERE. I really loved the little pillows and the deco lampshade. What a bright, fun, and happy room. :)

Stash report!! I'm linking up with Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times for stash reports in 2012. We'll see how I do. For this week, it's not so bad. My intake was all fabric given to me, by Jocelyn, for specific usage -- so it will also be outtake, shortly.

Used this week: 0.5 yards
Used year to date: 0.5 yards
Added this week: 4.0 yards
Added year to date: 4.0 yards
Net used for 2012: -3.5 yards

This afternoon I'm headed back to the quilting bunk room to finish up the heart flimsy. Time to get a movin'!

:)

giving the boot the boot . . .

 

Well . . . booting it for night time wear, anyway.  Which is enough!!  I was rather counting on be able to sleep without any restraint when I went back to the doctor's office two weeks ago, but that was not to be.  I don't think I spoke much about that appointment.  I was rather disappointed with how it ended up, and I didn't really want to talk about it.  But yesterday, finally, I was able to go back to limited weight-bearing (in the boot) and to TAKE IT OFF to sleep!  Best night's sleep EVER.  (In the last fourteen weeks, at least!)  I go back for xrays and a check at the end of the month and during that time I'm to work toward becoming fully weight bearing in the boot.  Pain is the indicator -- if I have it, stop doing whatever I'm doing that's causing it.  And when I've able to get in a shoe and press on the accelerator and the brake without pain, I may drive.  Whew.

Sawyer, James and Kim came over for a visit yesterday.  Sawyer had not seen his Paw-paw since Christmas Eve and he really wanted to see him!  When his Paw-paw asked him if he wanted to go for a ride, Sawyer didn't need to be asked twice -- he was at the door!

In fact, he wasn't just ready to go, he was ready to DRIVE!  I wish I'd captured him holding onto the steering wheel.  He's not even two and he's ALL boy!

James had to physically move him so Todd could get into the driver's seat!  And it was a very cold day, so they bundled in coats, hats, and blankets.

And more blankets . . .

But they came back happy and red-cheeked and ready for naps.  LOL!

Today Joc is picking me up and we're headed to her home to work on curtains for the nursery, as well as a couple of pillow covers and another minky changing pad cover.  It should be a fun day.  The nursery is looking awesome!  She and Jason put a lot of work into it over the last week/weekend, and it's darling!

 Cute grouping of photos, frames, and art work over the changing table.

 The adorable bedding she got (via Kim's win) from Coochicoos.

And I love this vinyl wall art and the cherry blossom mobile over the crib -- Joc made the mobile.  It's so precious!

We'll have fun today, putting on the finishing touches!! 

:)

all over the place . . .

As in, that's where this post is going to be. All over the place.

It starts with my results from the Occupy Your Sewing Room event (sponsored by Cat Patches), from this past week. I had a couple finishes and one almost finish. First were these darling poinsettia flowers. They were so much fun to make and relatively fast and simple.

And my near finish was my Holly Jolly topper.

My other finish I forgot to capture a photo of while it was still in my possession ... though I did manage to capture a 'sort of' shot of it later on. You'll see. But do be sure to head over to check out what others did this last week, in occupying their sewing rooms -- there are already quite a few blogs linked up!

Next I'll move on to one of my favorite subjects (after my husband): Sawyer managed to make it by this weekend for a couple of quick visits! James brought him over Friday evening to say hello . . .

And he also came with his mommy, Saturday afternoon, when she came to pick me up for our girl's night out! Sawyer didn't come with us girls, but James had come up earlier to take a Christmas card photo of Todd and I for the Camp MACOBA newsletter, and so Kim & James traded out. Me for Sawyer. Heh.

This is the winning shot taken down at the pond. As of now it's the unedited shot. James will go home and do his magic and it'll look GREAT! It was a beautiful day, but it sure was COLD!

The girls were all meeting at The Melting Pot, at Bridge Street in Huntsville. We were have a "Celebrate Ellie" night over chocolate fondue! We had so much fun! It was a small, more intimate gathering of girls. Joc is going to do a big "Sip & See" event a couple of months after Ellie is born.

Kim and I shared a pot of S'mores Chocolate. Oh. my. gosh. It was so good! They brought us a plate of bite-sized portions of pound cake, bananas, strawberries, graham crackers, cheese cake, brownies and marshmallows to dip into the chocolate.

From chocolate to PRESENTS!!

Kim had made several of the most darling hair bow bands for Ellie! She really has a talent for baby bows and headbands! But she got Ellie some darling little outfits. I mean, really. Baby girls are so much fun to shop for!

Okay, see the pink blob in the middle of the picture? That's the other finish from my sewing room jaunt -- a minky changing pad cover. I didn't have a pattern, so I just kind of winged it. It turned out pretty well, I think!

This beautiful print is a gift from Jason's sister, Jenna.

She's an incredibly talented artist! I wish I could show you Jocelyn's baby bedding -- this picture is *perfect* with it!! Oh wait ... maybe I can ...

Isn't this darling?? And speaking of baby bedding, there's quite a story here. Jocelyn designed this herself on Carousel Designs' website. Well, shortly after she designed her look and realized it was a bit pricey, they had a contest... you guessed it ... for free bedding! Well all of us entered -- Jocelyn, me, Kim, James, Jason and even Todd. And wouldn't you know it? Kim WON! And she very graciously picked Joc's design. Such a sweet thing! Anyway, the bedding arrived and Kim delivered it to a very surprised Jocelyn last night!

Here's the group shot . . .

It was a lot of fun -- especially is you like fondue, chocolate, and ooohing and aaaahing over darling little baby girl things!! I do.

Joc, Kim and I went from there to see The Nutcracker. I have a photo, but it's not very good -- it's very blurry. Joc had one taken on her camera. I'll share it as soon as I get it!

Today will be a quiet day ... just me, myself and I. Hmmmm....I wonder what kind of trouble I can get into . . . !

:)

owl finish . . .

I took optimum advantage of being laid up yesterday. The benefits?

My knee feels much better . . . and Everett's Owl Quilt! is finished! Labeled and everything!

The binding went on nicely -- you'd have never known I had trouble with two of my four corners! Thank goodness for that.

All in all, I think it looks fun, and it will be a wonderful finishing touch to all the darling nursery!

Tomorrow night Todd & I are meeting Joc & Jason for dinner. I'll bring this to her so she can put it up. She's due ONE WEEK from today! Oh gracious!!!

And since I had been holding off doing any other project until the nursery project was *completely* finished, when the last stitch was in on the label, I went straight to my orange & purple BOM and sashed it off . . .

I LOVE this orange!

I'll square these off at 12", but not until I've quilted each of the sixteen squares. I'll back & bat these soon, so I can go ahead and quilt them. And my timing is great -- I have to take these to Patches & Stitches on Friday to pick up my next two. And I got a sneak peak -- they're flying geese. Yikes!

Owl-in-owl, I'd say it was a good day!

:)

one last week . . .

Today is design wall Monday over at Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times!

I'd committed to not having anything new on my design wall until the owl quilt was completely finished. Next week, there will be something new here! Last night though, during a rousing super bowl game, I finished up the hand quilting on the owl quilt!!! And since I was so close . . .

And the binding was right there and ready . . .

I thought, "Let's go for it!" I should have quit while I was ahead. Ugh.

When you were younger, did anyone ever get you to repeat the solemn, secret, magical phrase, "Oh-waah Tah-gue Siam"? For me, it was my Pop pop who taught me this little doozy. It ran through my head over and over after I got about halfway through sewing the binding on.

I was really pleased with how quickly it was going and how nice my corners were looking. In fact, I was so please, that just before I got to my third corner, I had the desire to stop what I was doing (stitching), and admire my handiwork. So I grabbed the second corner I'd finished, went to flip the fabric over that corner, and . . .

Fail.

I'd folded it down backwards, so I stitched the binding down into itself! UGH!! Luckily it was a relatively easy fix, and just a few minute spent with the trusty ol' seam ripper.

Finally, the binding is all stitched on (the right way) and ready to be pressed and hand stitched. But I decided I needed to put it down for the night. I never really do my best work after 9 pm anyway!

This owl perfectly reflected how I felt. Grrrr.

Oh what a goose I am!

:)

busy, BUSY day . . .

What a DAY! I am spent, but it's a happy kind of spent. Joc & I had a super productive day, and I have the photos to prove it!

First, we hit the kitchen and put up a total of 26 entrees in her freezer!

From meatloaf to pizza rolls to oriental chicken to chicken spaghetti (13 different entrees) we put up at least two of each entree (most of our recipes make for 6 to 8 -- since there's just the two of them, splitting each entree in half gave them twice the bang for the buck). It took us about five hours, and some finely tuned teamwork, but we ended up with this lovely sight to behold . . .

I know it will be a relief for Jocelyn to have this bounty after Everett's born!

And speaking of that darling little soon-to-be-here boy, after we finished cooking, we headed right up to:

Everett's room!!

First, we plopped the pillows in the rocker and got the curtains hung . . .

Isn't this a cozy little corner? I love the orange table lamp! We needed hooks for the ribbons on the curtains. She said she'd get Jason to put those in.

Next, the biggest labor of love -- installing the skirt and the bumper pads.

They look pretty darn cute (if I do say so myself)!

And here's Everett's bookshelf with lots of fun things.

And his closet is already filled with fun toys, helpful mommy tools, and cute, cute clothes!

And just because, here's another shot of the crib. LOL! I love her woodland creatures mobile!

Everett's Aunt Jenna, who is an incredibly talented artist, painted this darling owl . . .

And finally, the changing table. Isn't the vinyl decal on the wall just darling? Joc found this on etsy. It's perfect.

She's done such a marvelous job pulling the nursery together. I'm so proud of her! I know that having the accessories in place makes her feel a little more prepared. Her due date is in eleven days!! WOW!! I'm so excited!

And this is Princess Leia. She was very curious about what we were doing in her room.

She is in for a rather rude awakening in a few short weeks!

Now, the only thing left? Four owls to outline stitch on the quilt. The binding is cut and pressed and waiting for me. Whoohoo!

And now. BEDTIME!

:)

pillow talk . . .

I can't believe that Todd and I held our ministry's FOURTH annual board meeting today! It's been such an amazing thing to see how God's moved and used us through the last several years. The meeting was a good one, and I was left with a free afternoon.

What to do, what to do?!?

The final thing I had to finish (besides the quilt) for Everett's nursery were the pillows, so that's where I got busy today! Don't laugh, but I think it's so much cheaper to go to Big Lots or Dollar General and get a couple of pillows, than to buy pillow forms. Today I got two 18" square pillows for $10.

I did one out of the same fabric I'm using for the quilt. I wasn't even paying attention to which four owls I used, though. LOL! I had some matchie-matchie green piping--enough for one pillow, anyway--so I used it on this one. I think it adds a nice, finished look.

I backed it with the flannel I'm backing the quilt with. I like to do these as slip covers, especially for a nursery -- they can be pulled off and tossed in the washer/dryer, if need be. Also, the pillows can easily be tossed and replaced.

The second pillow I just made a 4-square from the curtain and bumper pad fabrics. It's a little bigger and floppier than the first pillow. This is like the backup pillow to the focal pillow. (Did I just make that up, or what?!?)

And I backed this one the same way . . . soft and cozy flannel, slip cover fashion.

See, don't they look fun together?!

Tomorrow will be the day we put it all together! Whoohoo!!

Happy Friday, ya'll!

:)