"Just Ducky"

Technically, I made this last year. But I wasn't able to finish it with a label until just this week as I have been waiting for baby to arrive. So I'm counting it as my first quilt finish of the year. Woo!

It is a simple, very cute pattern called "Play Pen" from the book, Crazy for Baby by Me & My Sister Designs.

This is the second quilt I've made from this book, and I should have another to share soon (that baby is due next week!). Having made three projects from it so far, I'm calling this book a winner! Fast, simple projects, great instructions... what's not to love?

I also appreciate that the projects are a bit larger than the typical baby quilt. This one finished at 54" square, a nice size for playing on as well as for bundling-up with and snuggles.

I used Aurifil Mako 50/2 thread for the quilting. The yellow areas are all done with #2130 (Medium Butter) and the rest with #2600 (Dove). Inspiration for the double-loop quilting in the yellow areas came from Natalia Bonner's book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.

The super cute ducky print has been in my closet for many years (P&B Textiles, c2000). It felt good to finally have a special project for it! All of the rest of the fabrics came from the stash as well, including the happy striped binding and the pieced back.

I had to put a ducky on the label.

Hopefully, baby Graydon will enjoy his new quilt!

A Skylanders Birthday!

Big Bear turned 8 on Sunday! This year he wanted to celebrate with a Skylanders-themed party. So, of course, mama had to get her craft on!

His favorite Skylander character is Gill Grunt, so I made a poster. I started by tracing a coloring page image of Gill Grunt onto posterboard using my neighbor's nifty projector:

Then I used acrylic paints and filled him with color:

Here he is all painted up:

Finally, I finished him up by using a Sharpie to do the lettering and outline of the image:

While the paint alone looked okay, I think the outlining gives it a nice, finished look.

There had to be a Skylanders cake:

The symbols on the top represent the ten elements featured in the game. I mixed and piped 11 different colors of icing, which was time consuming, but the effect was worth it. I didn't have room to actually write "Happy Birthday" on the top after doing the elements, so I just put his name and the big "8".

We played two games-- Twister and Bingo. With my husband's help, we created a Skylanders-themed bingo game for the kids to play. I found a bunch of images, sized and edited them. Then he wrote a program to create 5x5 bingo cards that would all be unique. Here's a sample:

So cool!!! Then I went and had them printed out for the party.

The game was a hit!

Balloons, snacks, games, more snacks, cake, presents... it was a fun party.

Here's the birthday boy holding his Gill Grunt figure in front of his new poster.

I just love that smile!

Happy birthday, Big Bear!!!

Quality crafting time

It has been a good few days, with lots of crafty goodness!

I spent some time catching up on my Sea Breeze Quilts "Chocolate Marshmallow Sampler" quilt along blocks:

Blocks 7-10 are now complete, and I am all caught up! Only two blocks to go in this one, I believe.

I also got all of the pillowcases washed, ironed and packaged for donation.

And I received a fabric order from Gorgeous Fabrics. Yum!!! Remember how I said I wanted to do more garment sewing? My plan at this point: tops from the b/w stripe and the purple, a skirt from the coral stripe, and not sure about the brown. They were actually sold out of the one I originally ordered and I chose this as a replacement, but I'm not sure I like it for the cardigan I had in mind... so it might turn into a skirt. Not sure yet. The next step though is to get them pre-washed, which with long swaths of fabric that need to be air dried, is kind of a process. Hopefully I'll fit them into the laundry cycle here soon.

In addition, I've been working on some party prep for Big Bear's upcoming birthday. He's turning 8! Crazy!

Pillowcase frenzy!

Woo!

This week I cut and sewed up 19 pillowcases for donation to ConKerr Cancer. I'm feeling good! It is a great cause, there was some solid stash reduction (20+ yards!), and I feel like I accomplished something. All that is left to do is wash, iron and package them up in quart-size ziploc bags so they're good to go before I take them to the next quilt guild meeting for donation.

I also got that baby quilt all done excepting the label which I can't do until baby's name is announced. But it is prettily folded up and ready to go-- so I'll be ready when baby arrives.

Now to decide what to work on next...

Last week in the quilt mines...

Since my last post, I have made progress on my latest project:

One baby quilt pieced and basted! The recipient is due at the beginning of February, so hopefully there will be a finished quilt to share soon.

Lately, I have found myself exploring the world of podcasts as I craft. One of my favorites is the Hip to Be a Square Podcast. I like it because I feel as if she is a kindred spirit-- I just dig the same kind of stuff she does. In her most recent entry (Episode 210), she talks about busting some stash by making pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer, and I came away inspired. I totally need to do some of that! So I've started gathering fabrics out of the stash and matching them together. Maybe I'll even get some assembled. Woo!

2015!

Woo! Another year. But before I jump into that, I want to take a second to remember 2014:

I hesitated to make a collage initially, but I am glad I did. It was a rather productive year for me-- and seeing it laid out like this makes me feel pretty proud. There is some good stuff on there! It also reminds me of a couple of things. Like the quilts that aren't on there but that were so close-- one just needing a label; one with a nearly completed binding. I gotta get those finished! And then: I want to make more clothes! My sewing projects this year were really good ones and I learned a lot. I love wearing me-made things, and I need more!

Looking back to my 2014 goals:

• Use more fabric than I buy.-- Woot! This is a win. And an improvement over last year:
  
  
  • Fabric In: 64.417 yards
  • Fabric Used: 94.292 yards
  
  
• Finish at least 2 UFOs.-- My "Harrington & Hannah" quilt is one; and I'm considering using up the roll o' fabric from 2009 a big UFO win as well. Unfortunately, the one project I listed by name, "Bargello Reflections", did not get completed. But technically, I did meet the goal!
• Finish at least 1 kit quilt.-- Yes! "Vehicles Vroom" is one I consider a kit quilt.
• Blog once a week.-- Alas. Not so much. But I did manage to blog at least once a month. There's definitely room for improvement here.
• Lose that last 5 pounds.-- LOL! Not so much here either. I made a conscious decision back in February that for my 40th birthday, I was gonna eat and enjoy it. And I totally did! And it was awesome! And then I couldn't stop. Doh! So I've gained. Not so much that I can't fit in my clothes. But enough so that some of them are not very comfortable at this point.

My goals for 2015:

• Use more fabric than I buy.-- Yep. It's good goal, and I'm sticking with it!
• Finish at least 2 UFOs, including my Bargello Reflections quilt.-- I'm getting hard core here, putting a specific project in the goal.
• Finish the recent WIPs pile.-- This includes:
  
  
  • A little kit quilt that is basted and ready for quilting;
  • An Edyta Sitar wallhanging that is basted and ready for quilting;
  • My Fall 2013 mystery quilt that is ready for basting;
  • My nine-patch quilt that is also ready and waiting for basting.
  
  Yikes. I'm already kind of feeling overwhelmed by the quilting required here. Hopefully the little baby quilt I just started will kick me into quilting mode and help me get these finished.
• Complete the 26 Books in 2015 challenge.-- When I saw this challenge, it really spoke to me. I read a fair amount, and love doing it, but I often find myself getting stuck in a rut. I like the idea of pushing myself a bit out of my comfort zone and trying some new book-choosing strategies.
• Get back on the self-care/fitness train.-- This is going to take some conscious effort. At 3:30 today, January 1, I weigh 175 pounds. Losing 20 would put me back where I was at the beginning of 2014. It seems like a reasonable goal. And I want to feel fit again and comfy in my clothes.

I think I'm setting a high bar for myself here. But I'm feeling it. It's going to be a good year.

Happy New Year!!!