The Silver Scissor

A sneak peak

2011-09-29T10:19:00.001-07:00

Here is a sneak peak of the cupboards. They look really yellowish in this picture. I am debating about painting the wall also. My husband has tomorrow off, so hopefully we can get the moulding on top and touch up.
I wasn't positive about the glaze at first. I don't ever like a lot of glaze. I don't like it to look messy. It is growing on me though. I also need to decide what curtains to make. I was going to do Roman shades and had bought a kit with all the stuff to make them. Then it got recalled. I'm trying to decide if I want just short ones that hang down, but our table is by the window you can see in this picture and my kids don't have the cleanest hands. I need something that will cover the window since they face west and it gets warm as I'm making dinner in the summer.

Ok, so I showed the bathroom wall awhile ago. I need a color to go with it. It usually looks gray, but around 5pm it looks kind of blueish. I really like apple green, but I'm not sure how that will look during the blueish time of day. We'll have to see... I'm open to suggestions!

Roomspiration Dining Rooms Party!

2011-09-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

I know I've showed the dining room before, but today I'm linking up to the Roomspiration Dining Rooms Party today. I'm not totally finished in this room, but I'm working on it. Here is the before picture. Pretty boring, right? We decided to paint our dining room Tobacco Road by Kwal. It's kind of a goldish tan. We added box moulding to the bottom and also chair rail and crown.

Here's the semi finished product. The curtains are from Home Fabrics. Have you been there? I love it! These curtains were $10 a panel in the clearance section. You can't make them yourself for that price!

I would love to get a new dark wood or black table. This is an inherited one and there is a family debate about what to do with this one. Since this picture was taken I have painted some black shelves that are now on the wall on the left side of the picture. i can't find my camera though to take a new picture of them. I also need to work on a centerpiece for the table.

This week I've been working on painting our kitchen cabinets. I'm almost finished. Hopefully I'll start glazing today and this weekend we can put the doors back on and add the moulding. Then of course I need to make curtains and paint the walls- probably not in that order! Hopefully next week I'll something ready to show!

A New Quilt

2011-09-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

We just put our two year old in a big girl bed. She loves it. I'm not completely sold on her 1- being old enough for one and 2- that this is all going to work out. When my husband and I go up to bed at night we usually find her sleeping on the bed, but with the light on. She claims there's scary guy in the closet. I can handle the light on though. The other thing is that there are several times when she wakes up with different pajamas on. She must decide she wants different ones and then switches after we go downstairs. The other day when she woke up from her afternoon nap she also had pjs on. Today at nap time I could hear her moving around. I went to check and she had the baby wipes and was pulling them out. She loves to pull them out. I'm sure if we gave her a package for Christmas and let her do as she pleased with them she'd be thrilled.

Anyway, a new bed calls for a new quilt, don't you think? Her walls are Kwal's English Sage. I had lots of scraps and quarter cuts in that color, pink, yellow and blue. Let's hope my quilting bug keeps up and I finish before I'm ready to repaint!

Painted Cabinets

2011-09-12T09:30:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my kitchen. My messy, messy kitchen. Don't fret, the dishes in the sink are clean. I can't stand the smell of dirty dishes.

I have been thinking about painting my cabinets. Here they are, in their true 80s glory. A year ago our dishwasher broke. It was a lovely almond color. As you can see on your left, there is an lovely almond stove top. The ovens and fridge are on the wall I'm standing against to take this picture. Also, a beautiful, 80s almond color. I hated them. When the dishwasher broke I got a black one. Recently our double ovens broke. My friend had double ovens in black. She had totally remodeled her kitchen and was getting rid of fairly new double ovens. I snatched them up, along with a black gas stove top.

When I went to go pick up the ovens I got to see her brand new kitchen and fell in love. She had beautiful cream cabinets with a slight glaze on them. It was the push I needed to go buy paint and all the supplies to paint my cabinets.

This is the color, although I hope it's slightly darker on here then it will be in real life. It's Kwal's Sunkist Ridge.

It's all been sitting in my garage for a month. I'm a little undecided on the color (I know, a little late now). But I'm wondering if it will look ok with the counter tops. I prefer dark counter tops with light cabinets, but that's not in the budget now. These are light with a creamish and black flecks.

The thing that is holding me back the most is the cleaning of the cabinets. I've heard I need to use TSP and that sounds like a huge job. The kitchen isn't that big, as you can see, and I plan to use a paint sprayer for a smooth finish. I just need to get started and do it. I really want it done, the actually doing it part is the problem. Now for a little motivation...

Model Homes and Up

2011-09-08T09:53:00.001-07:00

On Monday we were visiting with my mother-in-law and some other family members. She mentioned that the Up look alike house was just down the street. She said it was closed now, but we decided to drive past it. Now, I haven't seen the show (um... I also haven't seen Star Wars). My kids have seen the show and liked it. Maybe I'll have to rent it this weekend. Is it weird to rent an animated movie just to see the animated house in it? We were pleasantly surprised to see that it was open. Maybe because it was Labor Day. Anyway, we went inside to take a tour. Now, I like the house on the outside... except the colors. I'm more of a traditional girl than a bright green/ pink/blue/ yellow, but I do love the style.

This was a bedroom in the basement. I didn't get any more pictures than this because there were a lot of people in there, but I wish I would have gotten a picture of the kitchen. I loved the white cabinets and the turquoise appliances.

If you want to see more pictures of the Up house, check out Hooked on Houses.

Because this was in a neighborhood that is not finished yet, there were three model homes. My husband hadn't believed me when I told him that wallpaper was coming back. I also had to take pictures of some of my other favorite things.

I loved the frames hung on door hangers here.

This is the wallpaper in the powder room. I loved it!

It was a small room, but so fun!

I need curtains for my kitchen windows. These Roman Shades didn't look like they actually function, but I thought they were cute anyway. I also like the tassels hanging down.

I loved the checkered wall in this and also the tassels on the curtain.

This is wallpaper in a different powder room in a different house. I've seen stencils that are very similar to this. It's just so much fun to see pattern on a wall.

I thought this was interesting and fun. The lines in this wall are real ribbon. It is just tacked on with thumbtacks. You can't really tell in the picture, but where the ribbons intersect is a flower with a thumbtack in the center, holding it all on.

The REAL Stencil

2011-08-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

So I had to switch stencils. I was cheap and bought a cheap stencil at Hobby Lobby. BIG MISTAKE. The registration marks were so small it was hard to line up, the stencil itself didn't move well around the corners or top of the wall. It was a mess. I broke down and bought one from Royal Design Studio. So much easier. The registratoin marks were huge and also part of the pattern. It was so easy to line up. It also came with a smaller stencil to do along the top of the wall. Here's the finished wall. I couldn't get the whole thing because it's a small room. I just did one wall. I still have to paint the molding and door. I also accidently got gray paint on the cupboard. I was going to paint that anyway, just not now. It will now be painted a little sooner than planned.

Now, to decide what to hang on the wall.

The cheap footstool

2011-08-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

You probably shouldn't ask about the powder room. It's been rough. I was cheap and bought a cheap stencil. The border is way too thick and I can't get all the way to the bottom, top, or turn a corner. Also, I broke it when I was cleaning it. I either need to fork out the money and buy a more expensive one, or do something else totally different. Until then, I have another project to work on and one less bathroom.

When I saw this in the Ballard Designs Catalog I knew I needed one. However, I didn't have any desire to pay $129-$205 for it. I remembered that when I was little my dad made some for our house. I could totally do that, right? I went to Home Fabrics in Salt Lake. They were having a half off sale on all their fabric. I bought this for $3 a yard. I also got enough to make curtains for my kitchen. The fabric appears a much brighter red than it really is.

I wanted it bigger than the ones at Ballard Design, because I wanted more than one person to be able to use it. I'm about 5'3 (although I think I seriously may have shrunk) and my husband is about 6'3. We needed a wider one so that we could both use it. I bought a foam pad that was 22x22. I'm also lazy so I decided that that would be the size to cut the wood. That way I didn't have to cut the pad. Then I just layered the fabric, the pad and the wood and stapled it all together.

I bought the legs at Home Depot. They were the most expensive part of the project. I painted them Heirloom White by Rustoleum. They may turn black later. Anyway, now we have a super cheap foot stool!

Powder Room

2011-08-10T10:36:00.001-07:00

Yes, this usedto be a sewing blog. Now, I have a two year old who loves to push buttons on my sewing machine while I sew and is very interested in the iron. I am making a quilt for her new bed, but it's slow coming since I have to do it while she is sleeping. That time is getting shorter too. In the meantime, I'm redoing my powder room. Here is the before. Are you bored yet?

The paint is a putrid 80's color of some sort. This bluish splotch is me testing some oops paint I bought for $1. It wasn't this blue in real life. It was more of a dull, wet cement color so it didn't get to stay.

I painted the bottom white and I'm in the process of stenciling over the top in a light gray/blue called Cloud Nine from Kwal. It's slow going, but so far I love it.

Not quite sure what to do at the bottom though. It doesn't go all the way to the sides or bottom and the stencil doesn't bend very well.

Hopefully this bathroom won't make you want to die of boredom anymore. Ignore the ugly, putrid door. I ran out of white paint.

Full DIY Mode

2011-08-05T15:00:00.001-07:00

The last few days I've been debating. Do I stencil our powder room, or do I wallpaper. I love this from The Mustard Ceiling.

My Favorite Yard Sale Find

2011-06-15T07:32:00.001-07:00

I love yard sales. I love to redo furniture and make it my own. I've showed pictures of this hutch before, but I've linked up to the Best Yard Sale Finds Ever at the Nesting Place. I bought this hutch at a yard sale for $40. I didn't really want the top part and it's now being used as a garage for our vast collection of Tonka trucks. I wanted a sofa table. When I put it on the back of our sofa, it was a little too high so I decided I'd put it in this corner of the room that is kind of a waste of space. It may not be a usable space, (there are stairs that come down in the bottom left corner) but it's a decoratable space!

The hutch sat in this boring state for a few months. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. At the time we were looking for a new sofa and in the stores I had seen some colored furniture that I loved. Did I dare to go that bold though? I thought of doing it antique white and glazing it, plain black, but I then I gave in. I decided if I hated it, it was just paint and I could always repaint it. I decided on this teal color.

I restained the top in a darker mahogany color. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but I was glad I didn't have to do the legs!

Here is that corner of the room now! That black frame is also a yard sale find that was brass. Thanks for coming to my little sewing/ decorating site!

More Pillows!

2011-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

When we bought our couches last year I didn't like any of the pillow choices. We decided to just have the pillows match the couch and I would recover them later. Well, I am now on the third pillow recover and I think I've found what I like best. I did an orange cover before and didn't love the fabric. Also, I used quilting fabric and it kind of slipped around on the pillow form when we actually used the pillow. I went to Home Fabrics and found this fabric. It wasn't quite what I had in mind, but it's the right colors and it doesn't slip around when you lay on the pillow. I kind of wanted a bolder fabric, but this allows me to make other pillows in bolder fabrics to go along with this one.

Picture Frames

2011-06-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

I love picture frames but they can be expensive. I want to do a gallery wall going up my stairs from my entry way to the second floor. For that I need a lot of picture frames, but I don't want to pay$10-$40 each. So I've discovered the joys of yard sales and spray paint. All these frames were bought for $2 or less at yard sales. I have bought some at DI in the past, but they are getting too expensive for me. Once I find a picture frame I just paint it the way I want, get cheap prints at Costo and I have a decoration for super cheap.

Pillows!

2011-06-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

I'm all about short projects lately. Short meaning projects I can get done while a certain 2 year old sleeps. Have you seen all these pillows in the stores lately? The ones with the felt flowers? They can be expensive. I've seen them for as much as $40 each. I believe I showed one earlier that was all felt. Then I found this Amy Butler tutorial and made this one. It was easy and fun. Now I want to make more for every room!

Home Improvements

2011-06-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

When we moved in we knew we had a lot of work to do. Over the past few years we've realized that is an understatement. Here you can see our front doors. They look ok, right? I haven't loved the double doors. Sure, it was great on moving day, but it looks weird if you only put one wreath on it. Also, I've found people get confused about which door is the one opens. Who knew? The worst thing about these doors is they only have those four tiny windows at the top for letting in natural light. They open into an entry way with a formal living room on the left and a formal dining on the right. There is no light and very dark entry.
(I can't get this picture to go below the other, but we've replaced the double doors with this. Hopefully our door guy will be back soon to finish. We love it and it makes for a much brighter entry.) In this picture you can see the banister going up to the porch is missing at the bottom. Well, a week after we moved in we took out the carpet in the formal dining room and added wood floor. My husband, dad and I worked on it ourselves. As my husband had a long piece he took outside to cut he hit the rain with the tip. Barely. The whole thing fell off. It was rotten all the way through. This was just the beginning.

Here's a better picture of the railing. The part that isn't falling off.

This year is the year we've designated to help out our overgrown yard. We've replaced the rotton railing with a vinyl one. Hopefully we can get our drip system working and I can plant flowers in my flower boxes soon!

I'm Back... I hope

2011-06-02T07:57:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the wrinkled fabric below, but I wanted you to be able to see what the fabric looks like up close and took a picture of the scrap. Obviously, I didn't iron it first. Just keeping it real!

Maybe I'm back. I hope. Three little kids are really keeping me busy. I've been doing projects, both sewing and home related, but I haven't been posting them. I'll try to better. Maybe blog at least once a month?

In April I decided I'd had it with my plain white Roman shades. We put them in when we first moved in because I wasn't sure what to put there and they were cheap. It looked like white sheets hanging in my door. I decided to cover them. I went to Home Fabrics. Have you been there? I love that store. Cheap decorator fabric. This fabric happened to be on sale for $3 a yard. It's thick, heavy fabric. I debated. I kind of wanted a bold floral, but I also wanted to do pillows and other accessories and I didn't want it to all match. I went with a teal and tan stripe. Kind of boring, but better than plain white, right? Sorry you can't see the fabric very well in the pictures.

It's kind of a dim day outside. Anyway, I measured the existing shades for the pattern and then sewed the new fabric right on top of the old. These do have wooden (at least I assume they are wood) dowels inside the folds. Every time I got to one I backstitched and then didn't sew over it so they'd keep their shape.

Here is one down. They are so much thicker and darker. Before I wondered if people could see through the other ones. Not anymore!

Today I have plans to make my boys ties. I'll post pictures if that actually happens!

A project finished (almost)

2011-03-30T09:57:00.001-07:00

Once again the time has slipped away from me since my last post. Part of that is because my 4 year old had a septic knee and was in Primary Children's Hospital for 5 days. Three surgeries, two weeks of picc line and one week of oral meds down we are toward the end. Only one week of meds to go and hopefully all this will be cleared up. Last time I posted I showed pictures of our newly painted dining room. I am now in the process of decorating it on a dime. I love to find cheap ways to decorate so that when I'm tired of it, I don't feel guilty finding new decorations. I saw this in the Ballard Design catalog. I loved them because they take up a lot of space on a blank wall, but as you can see they are not exactly decorating on a dime worthy. So I made some myself for about $5. We already had this wood laying around from when my husband fixed our sun room a few years ago. I had him cut it in 12x12 squares for me. Then I painted the edges black.

I found 12x12 scrapbook paper I liked and used spray adhesive to attach the paper to the wood.

And then attached alligator claw hanging things to the back. Of course, this idea wasn't mine. I saw it on several different blogs and one of my friends did it as well. Again, I love the space it takes up!

To the right in the picture you can see the curtains. Curtains are also not decorating on a dime worthy. These ones I found at Home Fabrics for $10 a panel. I went there looking to buy fabric to make my own and found these on clearence. Now I need curtains for my living room. I still kind of want to make them so I can get exactly what I want, but it's looking like making them is as expensive as buying them! Do you have a store that you love that sells home decor fabric? What online stores do you like?

My Current Project

2011-02-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

Our house was built in 1979. We wanted an older house because we liked larger bedrooms and living room. Our old house (that was new when we moved in) had a tiny formal living room. It fit our piano and our couch in it and that's about it. It was kind of a waste of space because we couldn't really use it if people came over. I also really wanted a formal dining room. Well, because our house was older it also came with older decorating. It had recently been painted, but it felt cold to me. When we first moved in we took out the forest green carpet and put a wood floor in. I've been slowly painting the inside of the house and it was time for the dining room.

I've been loving molding for awhile now and really wanted to put some in. My husband cut it and put it up and I painted.

The top is Tobacco Road by Kwal. My husband installed crown molding on Saturday. Hopefully we'll get it caulked tomorrow and painted soon too, since we have people coming over on Wednesday. And as I'm thinking that I'm realizing it's probably not going to happen. We'll try! I'll post the finished product later!

Dogs

2011-01-27T14:50:00.000-08:00

I'm not much of an animal fan, but for some reason this fabric was the first in a long time that I got excited about. Maybe it's because it's "boy" fabric. Maybe because I'm obsessed with orange and teal lately. Who knows, but the last 6 months there hasn't been any new fabric that I'm super excited about. Whatever the reason I decided to buy a charm pack of this and just spent the last 45 minutes making a disappearing 9 patch. I was thinking I'd make a baby quilt as a gift (for nobody in particular), but both my boys have already claimed it. I may be making another.... and adding extra fabric to make it a little bigger.

It's a Witch!

2010-11-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

Having a girl is so much FUN! As I was looking at Halloween costumes for her I noticed a theme. Almost all of them had tutus for the skirt. So I decided to just make my own. I found the purple witch hat and decided we'd have a purple witch instead of a black one. It helped that the jacket came in purple too. Then I made this easy tutu with black and orange tulle with purple ribbons and just added leggings underneath. She loved it!

Skirts!

2010-11-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

Going along with quick, easy projects I've discovered a new sewing love- SKIRTS! Not for me, for my 18 month old. The first one I made was this easy wrap around skirt. I lined it with coordinating dots. Let's face it, she's not going to keep those chubby knees together so the inside is going to show.

Then I got on a roll. I discovered that I could make an easy skirt in about a half hour out of scraps I had from other projects.

How many skirts does an 18 month old need? I want to keep going but I should save some fabric for another size. I also made two coordinating skirts for my nieces with just the main color and the band fabric switched. I forgot to take a picture though.

I'm a Carpenter!

2010-11-16T08:46:00.000-08:00

Ok so I only did the painting. Saws freak me out. I'd like to keep all my fingers. About a year ago my friend saw these shelves in a catalog. For a three foot shelf it cost $99. Each. She made some herself for her living room. A few weeks ago she wanted to make more for her kitchen and I joined her. She cut, I painted.

Here is a close up of one of mine. I made three and they cost about $60 for all three. Much better than $300. The most expensive part was the corbels.

Here are all three on the wall in my living room. I need to figure out a better way to decorate them and I need to put something behind them, especially the lowest one, but I'm happy with the way they turned out.

Remember when...

2010-11-15T07:38:00.001-08:00

I used to quilt? Remember how I used to actually post? I feel like those days are getting few and far between. I haven't quilted since about June. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I have a super busy 18 month old. I feel like I need short projects because it may be awhile before I get back to them. I need projects I can finish in an afternoon.

Also, I'm to the place with quilting that I don't know what to do with the quilts I make. I've thought of making baby quilts (short and sweet and can easily be finished quickly). Do I really need a lot of baby quilts? I thought of selling them on etsy. Do people really pay that much for them though? Also, none of my quilts are perfect and I'd feel bad if people expected perfection and I had made a mistake... which is the rule and not the exception.

All that being said I have been working on several projects in the past month. Keep checking back this week as I will post them here. Most are craft things, but the biggest project that I've recently finished is not a craft item, but the longest and most important one.

Back in June my husband and I bought new couches for our family room. Our old ones were falling apart. I loved those couches when we bought them, but over the years my tastes have changed dramatically. I wanted something neutral that I could update through the years with colors and pillows. We went with boring beige. I'm in the process of making and buying pillows to brighten up the room.

Have you seen all the cute ruffly pillows out there? The ones that cost anywhere from $20-$60 each? Even when they are only made of felt? You have got to be kidding me! There is no way I can afford that. I need about 4 of them. Again, do people really pay those prices? So I did what I had to do. I made it myself.
This was my project yesterday afternoon. Notice the boring beige couch in the background. I plan to recover the pillows in the same boring beige fabric as the couch in a not so boring fabric soon. Anyway, this pillow cost about $4 for the felt at the most and the pillow insert cost maybe another $4. I'm not really sure since I had the felt from another project where I way overestimated the amount I needed. I bought the pillow insert a long time ago as well.

I found a similar pillow I loved for $45. I didn't have a pattern for this as I was just borrowing the basic idea, but here is my version. It took less than an hour to make. I'm not sure how long as I stopped to answer the phone, comfort a 7 year old who was worried about his French report today and stop my 4 year old from hugging my 18 month old too much (yes, that's a serious problem in our house.)

Anyway, check back over the next few days to see what else I've been working on!

Jalapeno Jelly Recipe

2010-10-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

I've had a request for my jalapeno jelly recipe. This makes about 5 half pints.

3/4 pound jalapeno peppers
2 cups cider vinegar, divided
6 cups sugar
2 pouches liquid pectin
green food coloring (optional, but recommended)

Wash peppers; drain. Remove stems and seeds. Puree peppers and 1 cup vinegar in a food processor or blender. Combine puree., 1 cup vinegar and sugar in a large pot. Bring to a boil; boil 10 minutes stirring constantly. Stir in liquid pectin. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam. Stir in a few drops of food coloring (I forgot to do this once. The jelly turned out a more yellow green color than brighter green. It looks more appetizing with the food coloring). Ladle hot jell into hot, sterilized jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Use 2 piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

I also made some yellow pepper jelly. Green, red or orange peppers can be substituted for yellow peppers.

Sweet Pepper Jelly

7 sweet yellow peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar, divided
1 1/2 cups apple juice
1 package powdered pectin
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 cups sugar
yellow food coloring (optional- if using another color pepper make sure the food coloring matches the color of pepper you are using)

To Make Juice: Wash peppers; remove stems and seeds. Pureehalf the peppers and 3/4 cup vinegar in a food processor or blender. Puree remaining peppers and vinegar. Combine puree and apple juice in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Strain pureed mixture through a damp jelly bag or several layers of cheesecloth. Measure 4 cups juice. Add additional apple juice to make 4 cups if necessary.

To Make Jelly: Combine juice, powdered pectin and salt in large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar stirring until dissolved. Return to a boil. Boil hard 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam. Stir in a few drops of food coloring. Ladel jelly into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust two piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

More Pillows

2010-09-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time for quilting lately. I need short, easy projects that I can start and finish during nap time. Over the last few days I've made some skirts for my daughter. I think I'm addicted. I can make one in less than a half hour. I recovered a lampshade. I made these pillows: I needed some pillows for my living room couch. The fabric is by Sandi Henderson from her line

Meadowsweet. I love the fun, bold pattern. I made four. Two for my couch and two for my chairs in the same room. The orange pillows were bought at Ross for super cheap. I'll post the skirts and lampshade another day!

Pillows

2010-09-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

I saw a pillow very similar to this when I was shopping this weekend. I wanted to buy it, but it was $30. I'm too cheap to spend that much, so I made it myself. It's a fun way to add color to a room without spending very much money. I need to make another one for this room and then also a red one. I need to experiment with different shaped petals. I used the basic idea from this tutorial. The one I saw at the store was all felt like the one I made, but I also like the flower in different fabric than the pillow cover. It stands out with all felt in real life much better than it does in the pic.

I finally finished that hutch!

2010-09-08T15:33:00.001-07:00

Remember this ugly orangish wood hutch? Well, I finally decided what to do with it. What I wanted was a sofa table, not a hutch. I got such a good deal on it that I originally planned on putting table part behind my sofa and figure out what to do with the shelves later. Well.... then it was too tall for behind the sofa. After months of debating back and forth about what to do or just sell it I decided on Saturday to paint it.

Here is the finished product. I restained the top and then painted the bottom an added a glaze. I think I'm going to like it. The top is now housing a fleet of Tonka trucks.

Now, I have some lamps that need refinishing. They are currently an ugly 70s brown. I had wanted to pain them teal, but I'm thinking that will be too much when placed on top of my "new" table. So do I do black or white? The fireplace in this room is white and I have a few picture frames that are black.

Tomatoes

2010-08-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

I don't ever want to look at another tomato again. Yesterday I had 25 lbs of tomatoes that needed to be used. It took about 7 hours. What did I get? 8 pints of salsa and 6 quarts of spaghetti sauce. And I did something to my back when I was pulling the spaghetti sauce out of the canner. I think I just turned the wrong way or something. Was all this worth it? NO!!!!!!! Maybe I'll think differently on a night when I don't have time to cook. I had my husband pick up some refrigerated tortellini on his way home from work. I made different pasta sauce for that. Jeff wanted to try what I had just bottled. NO WAY!!!! We aren't going to be digging into this for a long time. I wish tomatoes came already peeled.

For my Sous-Chefs

2010-08-25T11:25:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy week so far. The first day of second grade for my oldest, more canning, dental appointments, back to school night and FSA stuff (I'm the co-chair for our office). I did manage to get some sewing done last week though.Sorry, I can't move the pictures around and I'm too lazy to retype stuff. This is the apron I made for my oldest. My boys always want to help me cook and are quite the mess makers so they needed aprons.

I love boy fabric. It seems like it's becoming more available now too!

I decided to make one for me while I was at it. I still need to make one for my four year old, but I just couldn't resist this fabric any longer. Ignore the way it looks totally misshapen on my floor.

Remember the dilly beans I posted last time? Well.... I realized an hour ago I need to make more. They are suppose to sit for 2 weeks before you eat them. We opened some today and I was thinking my 4 year old would maybe eat 4 or 5 with lunch. Nope. Between he and my 15 month old they ate the whole jar. They are a little on the spicy side. Why knew a 15 month old would like them so much?

Canning

2010-08-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

I will admit it. I'm one of those strange people who like canning. I don't really like cooked fruit or jam (except very rarely on hot homemade bread), but my kids like jam. I like to can different things. This week I've done pickles and dilly beans. I forgot to take a picture of the dilly beans until they were already on the shelf in the storage room (next to the Western Family canned pineapple). Behind the beans is jalapeno jelly, which I love on crackers or tortilla chips with cream cheese. I can't wait to make more later this season when the jalapeno peppers are ready! I also am excited to try a few new things like red and yellow pepper jelly and possibly peach chutney later this season.

I'm not really sure why I like canning. It does make me feel domestic. I only canned one thing last year ( I had a newborn + the swine flu), strawberry jam. Last year was the first full summer in this house and when I put the canner on the stove I realized I had a problem. The canner is too high for the microwave. It was on a Saturday when my husband was home and I realized I needed two extra hands. Two to pull the canning pot out and my two to put the caning basket in and out of the hot water bath. This year I have been using the burner on the BBQ but that presents another problem...... it takes FOREVER to boil and then when I put the cans in it takes another 10+ minutes to get to boiling again. Any suggestions?

Anyway, since no sewing has taken place at my house (think 15 month old) I thought I'd post my recipe for dilly beans.

Dilly Beans

2 lbs green beans snapped and washed
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 sprigs dill
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
4 TBL course salt

In 4 one pint jars put one clove garlic, 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper and one sprig dill. Turn jars on their sides to add green beans. In heavy pot boil vinegar, water and salt. Add to jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process for 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yield: 4 pints

The past few days I've had two sous-chefs that help me snap beans. I see aprons in their near future!!!!

We All Sew

2010-07-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

I'm being featured on weallsew.com this week as a favorite blog. Make sure to check them out for lots of great sewing ideas!

In a Sewy Mood

2010-06-15T11:12:00.001-07:00

I finished painting my sewing/laundry room yesterday afternoon. Today I'm doing about 2 weeks worth of laundry. I hate laundry. I don't mind the putting in the washer and then transferring it to the dryer, but I hate folding and putting it away.

Having not really sewn in about 6 weeks I'm itching to get back to it. We still need to put new linoleum down in there, but I can start putting fabric back in the cupboards and drawers and start setting things up.

Of course, I have about 10 quilts in progress and fabric to make ties for my boys when I figure out what I'm going to line them with. However, I also have fabric for a few quilts that I haven't started I'd like to get working on. Plus I've seen several quick projects recently I would like to do. One of them is this:

Petal Pillow Tutorial

Don't you love it! I want to make one for a chair I have in my entry.

I also bought this Amy Butler fabric at the top of the page. Blogger won't let me pull it down. I'm thinking it would be a super cute apron. I need some fabric for ruffles first though.

I also have a pillow pattern (but no fabric yet) for a super cute pillow for my daughter's room that has flowers made of ric rac + tons of ric rac trim. Can't wait to do that one!

Now.... to finish the final clean up of the laundry room so I can get started.

It's about TIME!!!!!!

2010-06-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

It's about time I finished a quilt, don't you think? I made this one for my newest niece. I've had it quilted for about 6 weeks, then the laundry room situation happened and it didn't get bound. My niece was due on the 18th of this month, but surprised us by coming last Thursday. I hurried and bound it on my garage sale, $20 Bernina and took it up to the hospital.

I love the velvet ric rac. This is it after it's been washed once. No rolling!

I ran out of backing so I had to piece a little.

I think this is the last quilt I will be making as a gift, at least until my kids are older. I'll be working on other things, but with three little kids, one of them not quite 13 months I can't handle having deadlines to finish. It was a nice thought though!

Quilt Festival

2010-05-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

I joined Amy's Creative Side's quilt festival. Here is my entry!

I don't know that I have a favorite quilt, but this is one I love. The is the first quilt I made for my baby girl one year ago. I love the bright fun colors of Bubblegum Basics. I had had the pattern for several years just hoping I'd have a baby girl to make it for someday. I always love to use ric rac. It's just a fun, happy quilt.

Don't forget to check out the other quilts in the quilt festival!

Garage Sale End Table

2010-05-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

This table was another garage sale find I found last Friday. I think I paid $8 for it. I forgot to take before pictures until I had primed the legs. They were forest green before.

Here is a close up of the top.

I decided to paint it turquoise. Apparently I can't get enough lately.

Then I put a faux glaze on top.

And here it is in my house. Not sure what I'm going to put on top.... or if I'm just going to end up painting it black, but I do need to add more color to my room.

Framed Pear

2010-05-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

One thing I'm always on the lookout for at yard sales is picture frames. I found these cute chunky frames and there were two of them! I didn't know what I'd use them for and then saw this. First I spray painted the frames. They were a flimy white color. Do you know the one I'm talking about? White washed or something? Anyway, they're black now. Then I got some scrapbook paper I liked and just glued it to the cardboard in the back.

I cute the pear in half. About 2/3 of the way through the knife wouldn't go any further. Yes, there was a huge "pit". A little cement disk to give it weight. I had to carefully peel one side of the pear off so that I could peel out the "pit". The I glued the good half of the pear down with E6000. No, this one is not centered. It was at one time and then I accident picked it up too soon. It left a small glue trail and I ended up positioning it slightly off to cover the glue. Oops. Then I didn't totally notice until it was very dry.

I think I like the red pear better. Never mind the recalled infant Tylenol on the counter and the phone cord in the background. My husband thinks the whole thing is somewhat strange. His question: "why would you have half a pear hanging out in a picture frame?" He didn't have any better ideas though..... I think he secretly likes it though!

Hidden TREASURE

2010-05-16T21:27:00.001-07:00

My first sewing machine was a Bernina 830. When I was growing up my mom had a hateful White. She also hated to sew and this just aggravated it. It never worked the way it was suppose to and finally when I was 19 she decided it was time for a new one. She just wanted one to make mending not as frustrating. She called a neighbor of ours who was a home ec teacher at a high school and asked what she recommended. She swore by Bernina and also told my mom that the school she taught at was in the process of getting new machines. She said they were trading their machines back to Nuttalls but were able to sell the machines to people who wanted them for the cost Nuttalls would pay them. My mom decided to buy one and I did also. I bought my Bernina for $250.

I didn't sew at the time, but I had taken sewing classes when I was growing up. I had always liked to do crafts and decided in the future when I wasn't so busy with collage I might like to sew and it was a good opportunity buy a good sewing machine at a good price.

Fast forward 7 years. When I was 26 I was looking for a quilt for my then 1 year old's bed. What I really wanted was super expensive. I had always gone into quilt shops because I liked to do embroidery and make it into pillows of frame it with fabric in a picture frame. I decided I would try to make my little boy a quilt for his bed so I could make just what I was picturing in my head. I found I loved to sew. I think it was transforming beautiful fabric into something useful and loved and also providing heirlooms for my children.

Although I loved to sew, I didn't love my machine. It hadn't come with an owner's manual and I never felt like I knew how to really use it. Whenever I would go to Nuttalls for any sort of sewing machine pieces I would eye the other machines, thinking there was no way I could ever afford a computerized one. I knew that for some reason the Bernina 830 is in high demand and maybe I could sell it and use the money toward another machine, but I knew I was still really short for what I wanted. I did some Internet searches and found a Bernina Virtuosa 150 on ebay. I had checked a few local Bernina dealers and found that this machine was selling for about $1400-1500 used. I found it on ebay one night for $450. The auction was just closing. I showed it to my husband who got on another computer to look at it too. I put in a bid not knowing that he did as well. He outbid me and won it for $456.

To say that I didn't stalk the UPS guy for the next few days would not be true. It even arrived during nap time and I accidentally woke up my kids with shrieks of joy. True love. It was so smooth. There was no guessing about the settings. Everything worked perfectly. I sold my Bernina 830 on KSL.com for $454 about 4 hours after it was listed and have never looked back.

Over the last 3 years whenever I have mentioned I used to have a Bernina 830 and sold it people have questioned why I would ever do it. Honestly, I have never once missed it. Never.

This weekend my husband and I went to a garage sale. We went to one that we hadn't planned on going to, but was on the way. When I got there the first thing I saw was a Bernina 830. Guess what they were asking for it........$20. I'm totally serious. I asked the lady if it worked and she assured me it did. Of course I didn't need a sewing machine... I do have three already, but could I really pass this up?
I felt guilty. Did this lady know what she was practically giving away? Should I alert her? I decided to buy it. I am now the proud owner of another Bernina 830. I used it tonight. It runs like a dream. It is super smooth. It only has the basic foot, but it was definitely worth more than the $20 I paid for it by far. I don't know what I'll do with it....... but who says there is no such thing as hidden treasure!

Back to the Shutters

2010-05-13T08:27:00.001-07:00

Here are my finished shutters. I'm thinking we are going to hang them up a few inches.

Sorry about the open entertainment center. My three year old would not have appreciated me pausing his Talking Word Factory show so I could close the doors. This picture is to show how much space we have between the top of the shutters and the ceiling.

I have two sets of these shorter shutters, bought at the same time. My husband thinks if I hang these above the others it will look like a portal though.

I also make this seed ball out of dried pinto beans and then spray painted it the same color as the shutters. This is the color I was thinking of painting the hutch, but I'm leaning toward not that color now. Not that I'm leaning toward any color right now.

I have a few more non sewing projects to show later. Hopefully I can get back in my sewing room soon......

Hutch

2010-05-12T08:59:00.001-07:00

I found this hutch a few weeks ago and a garage sale for $40. I feel like I got a steel. Since then I've been looking on KSL.com and have seen them for much more. I do have a delima though.....

We just ordered a new sofa and loveseat that are beige, these red ones are falling apart. We also have a beige wall. I'd like to paint the hutch. The wood is kind of an orangish color in real life and I need to add color to my family room. When I bought this I had planned on using the bottom half as a sofa table and painting it blue, like the color of the shutters. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the top half. Use it as shelves somewhere. When I got it home though the table top is higher than the back of the couch. Although I still like the idea of a blue hutch, I think it would take from the main focal point of the room which is our fireplace. I'll post pictures of that soon... when I get around to posting the finished shutters. So my question to you is this: What color should I paint this hutch? Black, white or something I haven't thought of?

The State of the Sewing Room Address

2010-05-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

See this cute laundry room? Remember it. It's not mine. I can't move the picture where I want it. It won't let me copy and paste or slide it down so now I don't know how to move pictures again just mere weeks after I mastered it. This one is from Apartment Therapy.

My sewing/ laundry room is not in good shape. A week ago this Thursday was the last time I did laundry. A week ago this last Sunday I noticed some water coming from under the dryer.... yes, it had been 4 days since I had done any laundry. Prior to this I had smelled mold. I thought it was coming from the washing machine and had done several things to see where it was coming from but couldn't find the source. Once my husband started investigating the water situation this is what he found:

Here is my cutting table. Water had been slowly building up under this counter. I had to empty it of all my fabric. Fortunately nothing got wet.

Here is mold coming out of the wall.

Here are the pipes after my husband cut into the wall to see where the leak was coming from. It was the kitchen sink. Apparently over the last few years it has been leaking 2-3 ounces ever time it was used. Finally there was enough to make it seep out of the wall.

And no, the insurance won't pay for this. They said it was a maintenance issue. The plumber we hired to fix the pipe even called the insurance to tell them that unless we hacked into the wall once in awhile to check on our pipes there is no way we'd have ever known. Apparently they only cover pipe breaks. This same insurance company also paid when my brother left a hose on and running down my parents outside stairs to the basement and it flooded, but it won't cover this. We are switching insurance companies...... for next time.

So now that the pipe is fixed we (meaning my husband) have to replace drywall and rebuild the counter. Then we will have to replace moldy linoleum and paint. I want to paint a fun, clean color for the laundry room, but don't want something too bright for fear it will make my fabric look off. I really am wanting to do a tangerine color (now is the time to see the first picture.) Whatever I do it needs to coordinate with ugly 80's blue. That's what color the sewing counter and cutting counter are.

Anyway, I won't be sewing for awhile. Or doing laundry.... at least not here. I do have a few other projects to share though. I'll post those over the next little while.

Shutters

2010-05-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

Lately I'm into quick projects that I can do in an afternoon. Mostly because I may have an afternoon today and then not again for a few weeks. In a few weeks I have usually lost some steam to finish a project and am wanting to start a new one.

A week ago I went garage saleing. I found these shutters for $1 each and bought all four of them. I've seen people doing cute things with shutters on other blogs and thought it was a great way to take up quite a bit of wall space. The Nester used shutters HERE and HERE. Here is another use of old shutters.
I forgot to take a picture before I took the handles off. I did decide to spray paint them with oil rubbed bronze spray paint, but I'm thinking I'm not going to put them on again.

I need more color in my family room so I decided to do a lighter teal color. I spray painted them first.

They were a little shinier than I was hoping for so I decided to add a glaze.

I'm not sure which I like better. The glaze gives them more of an antique look, but I felt like the plain paint was a little too bright. Since they are already glazed I will hang them like this for now and if I don't like them a quick spray of paint will cover it back up again. I'm going to hang them above my mantel. I'll post pics as soon as they're up.

I've been doing a lot of garage sale shopping for cheap ways to decorate my house. I found a great deal on a hutch. I can't decide if I want to paint it white with a glaze, black or possible the same teal above. I'll post pictures when it's finished!

Ties!

2010-04-26T08:47:00.001-07:00

On Friday I set out to make ties for my boys. Have you ever looked for ties for little boys when it's not Easter or Christmas? They are quite difficult to find. I decided to make them myself.
Here is the finished product. I haven't made the second tie yet because some changes need to be made to the pattern I used. It called for light weight, one sided, fusible interfacing. This tie is super thick. When my 6 year old wore it to church yesterday the points of his collar stuck up. The knot was super thick. So my question is this.... if I leave out the interfacing will it make the tie wrinkle super easy? Will it be way too thin? What would you do?

National Infertility Awareness Week!

2010-04-26T08:45:00.001-07:00

Do you know someone who is dealing with infertility? Well.... if you are reading this blog you sure do! I thought I'd post one of my favorite articles dealing with infertility for National Infertility Awareness week. Here's the link:

http://www.resolve.org/support-and-services/for-family--friends/infertility-etiquette.html

If you don't have time to read the whole thing it is a list of etiquette rules for the fertile. If you read it you'll laugh and wonder why anyone would say such awful things. These things aren't way out there or over exaggerated. Jeff and I have almost every single one of these things said to us at one time or another. If we haven't had them said to us we know someone who has. There are several versions of this out there, but here are the highlights:

1- nfertility is, indeed, a very painful struggle. The pain is similar to the grief over losing a loved one, but it is unique because it is a recurring grief. When a loved one dies, he isn't coming back. There is no hope that he will come back from the dead. You must work through the stages of grief, accept that you will never see this person again, and move on with your life.

The grief of infertility is not so cut and dry. Infertile people grieve the loss of the baby that they may never know. They grieve the loss of that baby who would have had mommy's nose and daddy's eyes. But, each month, there is the hope that maybe that baby will be conceived after all. No matter how hard they try to prepare themselves for bad news, they still hope that this month will be different. Then, the bad news comes again, and the grief washes over the infertile couple anew. This process happens month after month, year after year. It is like having a deep cut that keeps getting opened right when it starts to heal.

Don't Tell Them to Relax

Everyone knows someone who had trouble conceiving but then finally became pregnant once she "relaxed." Couples who are able to conceive after a few months of "relaxing" are not infertile

Don't Minimize the Problem

Comments like, "Just enjoy being able to sleep late . . . .travel . . etc.," do not offer comfort. Instead, these comments make infertile people feel like you are minimizing their pain. You wouldn't tell somebody whose parent just died to be thankful that he no longer has to buy Father's Day or Mother's Day cards. Losing that one obligation doesn't even begin to compensate for the incredible loss of losing a parent. In the same vein, being able to sleep late or travel does not provide comfort to somebody who desperately wants a child.

I would also add don't be quick to jump on the infertility band wagon. Just because you have been trying for 3 months, 6 months or even a year does not make you infertile. It makes you normal. It takes an average person about a year to get pregnant.

Sometimes people are seem to want to join in the "infertility misery club." If you complain about your "infertility" and you haven't been trying for a few years it will make your infertile friends want to run the other way. It's being insensitive to their struggle and minimizing what they are going through.

Don't Say There Are Worse Things That Could Happen

Along the same lines, don't tell your friend that there are worse things that she could be going through. Who is the final authority on what is the "worst" thing that could happen to someone? Is it going through a divorce? Watching a loved one die? Getting raped? Losing a job? Different people react to different life experiences in different ways.

Don't Say They Aren't Meant to Be Parents

One of the cruelest things anyone ever said to me is, "Maybe God doesn't intend for you to be a mother." How incredibly insensitive to imply that I would be such a bad mother that God felt the need to divinely sterilize me

Don't Complain About Your Pregnancy

This message is for pregnant women-Just being around you is painful for your infertile friends. Seeing your belly grow is a constant reminder of what your infertile friend cannot have. Unless an infertile women plans to spend her life in a cave, she has to find a way to interact with pregnant women. However, there are things you can do as her friend to make it easier.

The number one rule is DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT YOUR PREGNANCY. I understand from my friends that, when you are pregnant, your hormones are going crazy and you experience a lot of discomfort, such as queasiness, stretch marks, and fatigue. You have every right to vent about the discomforts to any one else in your life, but don't put your infertile friend in the position of comforting you. Seriously, if ugly maternity clothes is the worst thing in your life, you are in good shape.

Your infertile friend would give anything to experience the discomforts you are enduring because those discomforts come from a baby growing inside of you. When I heard a pregnant woman complain about morning sickness, I would think, "I'd gladly throw up for nine straight months if it meant I could have a baby." When a pregnant woman would complain about her weight gain, I would think, "I would cut off my arm if I could be in your shoes."

I managed to go to baby showers and hospitals to welcome my friends' new babies, but it was hard. Without exception, it was hard. Stay sensitive to your infertile friend's emotions, and give her the leeway that she needs to be happy for you while she cries for herself. If she can't bring herself to hold your new baby, give her time. She isn't rejecting you or your new baby; she is just trying to work her way through her pain to show sincere joy for you. The fact that she is willing to endure such pain in order to celebrate your new baby with you speaks volumes about how much your friendship means to her.

Don't Treat Them Like They Are Ignorant

For some reason, some people seem to think that infertility causes a person to become unrealistic about the responsibilities of parenthood. I don't follow the logic, but several people told me that I wouldn't ache for a baby so much if I appreciated how much responsibility was involved in parenting.

Don't Gossip About Your Friend's Condition

Infertility treatments are very private and embarrassing, which is why many couples choose to undergo these treatments in secret. Men especially are very sensitive to letting people know about infertility testing, such as sperm counts. Gossiping about infertility is not usually done in a malicious manner. The gossipers are usually well-meaning people who are only trying to find out more about infertility so they can help their loved ones.

Regardless of why you are sharing this information with someone else, it hurts and embarrasses your friend to find out that Madge the bank teller knows what your husband's sperm count is and when your next period is expected. Infertility is something that should be kept as private as your friend wants to keep it. Respect your friend's privacy, and don't share any information that your friend hasn't authorized.

Support Their Decision to Stop Treatments

No couple can endure infertility treatments forever. At some point, they will stop. This is an agonizing decision to make, and it involves even more grief. Even if the couple chooses to adopt a baby, they must still first grieve the loss of that baby who would have had mommy's nose and daddy's eyes.

Once the couple has made the decision to stop treatments, support their decision. Don't encourage them to try again, and don't discourage them from adopting, if that is their choice. Once the couple has reached resolution (whether to live without children, adopt a child, or become foster parents), they can finally put that chapter of their lives behind them. Don't try to open that chapter again.

The Power of Paint

2010-04-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't been sewing much lately. I can't seem to get into it lately. Not sure why. Hope it comes back. I have been working on my house though.

The following took place two weeks ago, but I wasn't ready to talk about it until now. We ordered new carpet in the bedrooms and before it was installed I had to paint. The boys room was a pale yellow color. I've come to terms with the fact that I don't really like yellow. It's fine as an accent color, but I don't love yellow clothes or to decorate my house in yellow. This room was yellow and it had to be stopped.
I didn't take the before pictures until I had taped and moved furniture to the middle. The picture is kind of dark and shadowy, but you can kind of see it.

I wasn't super sure about the color. The boys picked it out and really, really wanted blue. I'm fine with blue, but this blue was pretty intense. It is their room... right?

The old carpet in this room was a light blue. It wasn't hideous, but it wasn't good either.
Here is the prime reason we were replacing carpet. This old, ugly cheap stained carpet (please excuse the abandoned, dead dinosaur). This carpet is the "brown room." As you see the following pictures of the room you will feel the life and happiness being sucked out of you. It was a dull, boring, plain room. The baby has been sleeping in a tiny room until we could get this room done. Nobody should have to sleep in the brown room.
To match the ugly brown carpet was the ugly brown walls. I am a fan of beige walls with white trim, which is what this picture looks like, but this was off-white of some sort. The beige was dirty everywhere too. I also think it was wall paper that was painted over because it had a different texture.
Another dismal picture of a dismal room.

I dreaded painting the brown room because I knew the doors and trim all had to be done. It was a big job. I wanted to wait until the carpet was out to do it because I didn't want to get carpet fibers in the baseboard. As we thought it through though we also didn't want to live carpetless for a week while the paint dried so they could install the carpet. One day while Jeff was at work and the baby was taking a nap I decided to pull up the carpet around the edges on a suggestion from my dad. It worked! I got all the trim done in about an hour. It was wonderful not to have to tape!
I didn't even cry when I had a huge paint spill on that awful carpet. The white paint totally brightened up the room, even with the gross carpet and dirty walls.

I let it dry for two days before I began on the color. For some unknown reason I decided I could get both rooms done during the baby's morning and afternoon naps. That's a total of about 4 hours. Shouldn't be too hard..... right? After all... I used to practically be a professional wall painter!

I taped the boys room the night before. It wasn't too bad since I only had to tape the ceiling and the top of the chair rail. Then I painted during nap time and turned on a show for my 3 year old.

My dad came over in the afternoon to watch the kids so I could paint. Two hours later I finished taping.... but that's all. I hate taping. I had big plans to do molding on the bottom of the wall under the chair rail. With all the taping I decided it wasn't worth it. When I went to repaint later I would have tons more taping. I'll wait until I do a more neutral, non fad color.

I spent the afternoon painting the room a bright green. It was amazing to see the difference from dull and depressing to bright and happy. I spent the rest of the afternoon painting the first coat in Olivia's room. I ended up calling Jeff and telling him he would be doing the second coat in the boy's room that night. He also brought home a pizza.

12 hours from start to finish (not including the time it took Jeff to do the second coat) I was done. It was worth it. No more yellow.

I still don't have anything on the walls. I'm working on that. And yes, this is my three year old's bed and yes he did make it all by his three year old self. And yes, the dog he told his primary teachers about is sitting on the bed. They thought he was telling about a real dog. Harry. Who is about twice the size of him.
Here is the baby's room with a glimpse of the new carpet. The green is brighter in real life.

Overall it was worth the effort, but I won't be painting for a long, long time... except the dining room and the kid's bathroom and possibly the family room. I still have 2 coupons for free paint.

I'll post the decorations as I add them.

Lots of TV but still didn't get much done.

2010-04-05T08:59:00.001-07:00

I had a lot of time this weekend to do hand work. I had hoped to get the baby quilt I'm working on bound, but I didn't get it quilted ahead of time. This was all I got done. Only the purple part. Better than nothing... right? I like making the flowers for the Grandma's Flower Garden quilt, but I'm not sure that I like doing the white path. We'll see what happens.....

paint, Paint, PAINT

2010-03-31T07:13:00.000-07:00

I was looking through the camera today and realized I have not been keeping up on the blog. I had quite a few pictures that I have not posted.
I have been feeling a major redecorating (or just finish decorating) mood. We bought our house from some investors who had bought the house on foreclosure. The house was built in 1979 or 1980 (we have two different official papers that say two different things). Apparently when the investors bought the house it was COVERED in wallpaper. They set out to make the house more appealing thinking they'd get rich because of the rising housing market at the time. Well.... about 2 months after they bought the house the housing market started to tank. They had done quite a bit of work. Thanks to them we live in a wall paper free zone. We did find wallpaper remnants under our stairs in the basement and are very glad our living room is not decorated in bird houses, and our dining room is not decorated in a barn theme. Seriously, that's what we found.

Since they stripped the wallpaper they had to repaint. For some unknown reason they chose dark, drab colors. The first picture is our front door (hopefully it's years are numbered). That is the only light we have in our entry from those windows. The investors decided a dark grey/green would be perfect for a small darker space.
Here is the entryway looking into our living room and up the stairs. We decided to paint a light beige color called chocolate froth. Well..... it's a little chocolaty and a little more like not quite white. I don't love it, but it's much better than this green guck. I don't have a picture.
Next it was on to the living room. I don't have a good before shot, but here is the during.
Here is the color up close. Is it it green? Is it grey?

And the after. It's called pecan sandie. Kind of makes me want a cookie.

Sassy Sue's Skirt

2010-03-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the super easy skirt I made for my baby girl. It's called Sassy Sue's Skirt and I bought the pattern at Material Girls. I tried it on my baby, but I don't have a top to go with it yet. I think it will be a fun summer skirt and I'm sure I'll make more and just change them up a bit. One thing I liked about this pattern is that it has sizes 6m - 12 years. As my baby gets more and more mobile I'm finding I really like quick projects like this to do during nap time. This one took less than one hour to finish. Sorry about the super shadowy pic.

What's wrong with this?

2010-03-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

The good news is I found my camera! Wait a minute, why is this underlined? I can't get the underline off! It's been like this a lot lately, but when I go out and come in to edit the underline is gone. Help!

Ok so now it's not underlined all of a sudden. Why? Also, while we are on the subject of not knowing what the problem is with blogger, why can't I move pics around anymore? Also, I have another pic to post of this quilt but it keeps deleting it without warning and when I try to repost it it tells me something about a path not available. AHHHHHH!!!!

Well, onto quilting. I've been making a baby (or rather smaller size quilt for a baby) gift. I'm not really liking it. I love the pattern. I was a little unsure of the fabric. It's not colors I would usually put together, but I thought it was cute. Plus, the mother of this not-here-yet baby is kind of a modern girl so I thought maybe I'd go for it.
I bought it as a kit. I shouldn't have used such a large print for the large flower. The small yellow flower on the bottom shows up better in real life than it does in the dark pic taken in my basement. So does the blue flower. I'm just not sure I'm liking it. There is still another small flower and some vines to add, but I'm not sure what to do to make them pop. I want to use an brighter blue with a bold pink flower or a lighter pink fabric, but it seems like something is missing. What is it?

I always stress about making quilts for others. I don't want someone to feel obligated to use it because of all the time I'm putting into it. I'm thinking this is my last baby quilt gift. I just worry about it too much!

LOST!!!

2010-03-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a few fun things......unfortunately we can't find our camera anywhere. I think my three year old (who thinks he's a professional photographer) may have something to do with the situation. I'm almost finished with a baby quilt I've been working on for a gift. I finished a skirt for my baby and I also started a new quilt out of fabric I've had for over a year. Hopefully the camera shows up.... before we REALLY need it next week.

Valentine's Quilt

2010-02-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

I started this quilt YEARS ago. I'm not even sure when. I used a charm pack (can't even remember the name now). It actually started as a table runner, then got a little wider. Then I was thinking it could be a table mat of some sort. Once it was quilted I decided if I ever had a baby girl I would use it as a little Valentine's Quilt for her. Well... that day has come. I just finished binding it. It's now in the washing machine. She should get to used it a few times before Sunday.

Helping Haiti

2010-02-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

Quilter's Haven in Bountiful is having a project to help Haiti. They will provide the pattern and fabric to make pillowcase dresses to send. All you have to do is sew them and add the ribbon on top. I also added the ric rac on the bottom.

If you want to participate just go into Quilter's Haven and pick up a kit and sign it out. By the end of February take the finished dresses back into the store and they will send them to Haiti. It's easy and simple.

This is the one I made. It's a size 7. I could not get my six year old boy to try it on and model it for the camera though. I did hold it up to him and it's quite long, but he's the shortest kid in his class anyway so hopefully on an average size 7 year old girl it will work!

I'm always especially nervous when I make things for other people. The scene from The Sound of Music kept replaying in my mind. You know the one. Where Frau Schmidt and Maria are in the bedroom discussing clothing. Maria tells her when she decided to become a nun she gave all her clothes to the poor. Frau Schmidt asks about the dress she was wearing that day. Maria tells her the poor didn't want that one.

Hopefully little girls in Haiti will be excited to get new, clean dresses.

Utah Adoption Tax

2010-01-26T22:10:00.000-08:00

Please sign this petition to support changing Utah's tax code to allow for a tax credit for families (like ours) who adopt children.

As I have talked about on here many times, all three of my children are adopted. Adoption is VERY expensive. The average domestic adoption costs between $20,000- $40,000 depending on if the adoptive family is paying medical expenses for the birth mother (which is the case more often than not). Not only will this tax credit help people be able to afford adoption, but it will help children find stable, loving families. Please take just a few minutes to sign this petition.

Thanks,

Elizabeth

New Year, New Quilts?

2010-01-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

I'm getting tired of seeing those stockings when I log on to check every one's quilt blogs so I decided I might as well update...... pictureless. My regular computer died. Good thing Mr. Scissors (he'd love that name) is into computers because we have a lot of them. Right now I'm on one of our laptops and it's not great. I don't know how to put the camera into it to post pics. Not to mention the fact that I have no pics to post.

I haven't been doing a lot of quilting lately. I've been working a little bit on my double wedding ring quilt. Well, I say I may have worked on it but it's probably been only once since 2010. Why? Well, the girl at the top of the page ( blogger won't let me move the pic) has started to crawl. I now spend most of my day chasing her. She's fast. Very fast. She doesn't want to play with her toys either. She wants cords and stairs. It may be awhile before I get back to quilting.

The Stockings Were Hung

2009-12-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

I haven't been feeling too sewy this month. It has taken me all month to get this candy cane stocking finished for my baby. The pattern is by Under the Garden Moon. I made the stockings for the rest of us about two years ago. I like having ones that I made so that as we add to our family I can make coordinating stockings for each person.
I do have a Christmas quilt in the works. It just needs to be quilted and bound. Hopefully I can get it done by next week.

Baby Shower Gifts

2009-11-30T08:54:00.000-08:00

Saturday my mother-in-law and I had a shower for my sister-in-law. She's having a baby girl at the end of January, but with the holidays we decided to have her shower a little early.
I made some burp cloths . I love these kind made out of cloth diapers. They are so absorbent. I made some bibs at the last minute too, but for whatever reason the picture will not upload.
The other thing I made for her was this kitten quilt. The pattern is from American Quilting in Orem. I love how it turned out. I think I need to make one for my baby girl!
Here is a close up of the cats. I embroidered the faces and then appliqued them using a running stitch and black floss.

More Bibs!

2009-11-17T07:25:00.000-08:00

I just can't stop making bibs out of my scraps, which is a good thing. My baby is now eating solids and if she doesn't like it (think canned mashed beef) she spits it out. Really can you blame her? Would you put that in your mouth? I have made about 10, but I feel like I need at least two a day if not three. I like making them because they are a quick project that I can actually finish. Finding time to finish anything lately is rare, so these are perfect.

I have 3 or 4 more in the works made from the leftover blocks from this quilt. I don't have fabric for the ties though but they are almost finished!

2009-11-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've finally hit the half way point with my Black Diamonds quilt. I'm ready to put it away for several weeks now while I work on something else. This quilt has acually been pretty easy, but I'm ready for a change. Now..... which unfinished project to choose?

Hey Diddle Diddle

2009-11-13T09:16:00.001-08:00

I finally finished binding this fun nursery rhyme quilt. I've had the binding on for about two weeks, but just didn't get to actually stitching it down. I love the fun fabric!

November RS Quilt

2009-11-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

Alright RS quilters! It's getting time to wrap up our monthly quilt class. I told everyone last month that I won't be able to do it this month as we are finalizing our adoption that day and sealing our baby later in the week. This month I'm posting two blocks for us to do. The first one is called Card Trick. Click on the word to find the page. This page has a pattern and tutorial.

The second block is called Corn and Beans. Both these blocks use the sub blocks we've already learned. I haven't had a chance to make mine and may not until the end of the month, but I'll post a pic when I get them done.

The plan for the rest of the class is that we will do two blocks in both January and February. By March we will have 12 blocks for a lap size quilt. We'll come in March with our blocks finished and set in a quilt top. In March I'll show you how to prep your quilt to quilt it yourself on your machine if people want to do that. Feel free to send your quilt out to be quilted though! In April we will learn how to bind.

Back to the Quilts

2009-11-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

I hope you had a Happy Halloween. My kids loved trick-or-treating.... well, 2/3 of them did. One of them fell asleep half way through, wrapped in daddy's coat. Maybe next year. I guess it's not so fun if you don't have any teeth to eat the candy.

After a thorough cleaning I'm back in my sewing room. I even made a block. Yes, just one. I am not loving making the blocks for my broken star quilt. I love the blocks, just not making them. There are LOTS of little pieces so I'm making them whenever I'm ready for a change in fabric or project. It may take a year... or more. I also finished adding the ric rac to this quilt and sewed on the binding. Hopefully tonight I'll have a chance to stitch it down.

Online Fabric Shopping

2009-10-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

This post ended up being much longer than expected. If you just want to read about online fabric shopping skip down below the picture. If you want to know why I haven't been sewing this week please continue.

I haven't gotten much sewing done this week. Mostly because of a mouse. Tuesday morning I woke up at six to workout. I started the workout and what do I hear in the corner? Yep... a mouse. Of course I ran up two flights of stairs, not stopping to put down my weights (at least they were only 5 lbs each) and wake up my husband. He was able to catch the mouse and my 6 year old insisted on taking him to the park to let him go. I saw no signs of another mouse and finished my workout.

During Sesame Street I was upstairs putting my 5 months old down for a nap. My 3 year old was downstairs watching Sesame Street when I heard a shriek and then him yelling "It's alive!" Yes, a mouse had ran right through the center of the family room. It ran through again as I was going over to rescue him. Chaos ensued. I called my dad who came over. We couldn't find the mouse and my dad and I set out for the store to buy mouse traps and D-con.

You may be wondering what this has to do with sewing and online fabric shopping. Well, I'll tell you. After a through search of the premises to look for mouse entries ( I had asked my three year old if he saw the mouse come through a crack in the door. He told me yes. Since I wasn't quite sure if he was just being agreeable I asked if he came through a crack or if he opened the door and walked in. He's quite sure the mouse opened the door and just waltzed right in. ) my husband decided the entry is in my laundry room which doubles as my sewing room. I have been avoiding the room ever since. He sealed up the possible entry. Last night two more mice were caught as we innocently slept. Hopefully there aren't any more and we are done with this. Most of my fabric is up away from mice or in sealed bins, but I do have two cupboards on the floor. I may have my husband take a look in there on Saturday and possibly move the bins.... just to be safe. I've never considered myself afraid of mice before. If we are outside and I see a mouse it's no big deal. However, I do not like them and their germs in my house!

Now, if you are still reading, this is where the online fabric shopping comes in. About the only thing I've done with fabric this week is to buy some online. Lately I have not really liked what I'm seeing at my local fabric shop. It's a nice store and used to be my favorite shop, but I think my taste and their buyer's taste have evolved away from each other. I'm just not feeling motivated. When I go to other shops I love what I'm seeing, but not at this one. Since it's really the only shop in my area I've turned to online shopping. I bought the fabric above from quiltshops.com I love that I can type in the name of a fabric line and see what shops have it available and also the price. I can usually find a great sale! I also ordered from American Quilting in Orem this week. I needed the wool to make a stocking for my new little one for Christmas. It's cheaper to buy the wool in the kit than to buy it separately because then I can buy just what I need instead of having to buy larger cuts for just a small little applique piece.

In the past I've ordered from Fat Quarter Shop and Hancock's. I still like to visit shops and see all the inspiration out there, however I just haven't been impressed with the ones near me lately. I'm really liking online fabric shopping for two main reasons. First, it's much easier than taking 3 kids to the quilt shop. Second, I can usually find exactly what I want, even discontinued fabric, on sale. Where do you like to shop online?

2 inches short

2009-10-21T14:36:00.000-07:00

I've been busy lately. Not busy quilting, but busy potty training a 3 year old and busy in general with a 6 year old and a 5 month old. Oh, and the 3 year old is busy too, even when he isn't potty training. In my spare time I've been working on this super easy quilt. If I had had a full afternoon I could have made it then... but it's taken me a month. I was sewing on the finishing touches of purple ric rac (rick rack?) . I was on the very last part. I'm about 2 inches too short. Of course. Fortunately I measured before I sewed on the last row and didn't start sewing it down. Now the problem.... finding matching ric rac (again, rick rack?). I bought this in Orem, but I live in Davis County. That means driving around to fabric shops here with a 5 months old and a potty training 3 year old until I find what I need. Sounds fun to me........

Another Jelly Roll Project

2009-09-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

I've actually been working on this quilt for a few weeks now. I've just done several other things in the process. This is Black Diamonds by American Jane. One of the stars is easy to see, but there are two other stars on either side of it. I'm loving the fabric as well, which is Snippets by American Jane. The black is just a random black with white dots that I can't remember what line it's from right now. These are the first four rows. There are 18. This is not quite a quarter finished. When I make quilts I like to do a block or two completely finished before I start chaining. This time I'm doing a row. Piecing blocks is my favorite part but I don't love sewing rows together. Since you can't see the patter until you sew rows together I decided to do this a row at a time. I chain a row and then sew it to the others. Hopefully that will make sewing the rows together more exciting!

A few people asked where I got the Rock-a-Bye Rhymes fabric. I'll tell you a little secret. I love looking for fabric on using this site:

http://www.quiltshops.com/

That way you can see which shops have the fabric you are looking for and then compare prices. I saw this fabric going for $16.99 a yard but was able to find it for something like $6.00 at a place having a sale. The site is great for discontinued fabric!

Finally Football

2009-09-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

We're not football fans around here. In fact, watching football for me is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Don't get me wrong, my husband and boys all love to play sports, it's just that we don't like to watch other people play them (except there is nothing as entertaining as watching your 3 or 4 year olds play soccer). In high school and college I did go to sport games. I probably didn't see much of the game, but I had a great time socializing with my friends though!

All that being said I have now finished two football quilts for my boys' room. One for each bed. They love them. I'm mostly glad to be done. Yeah!

Hey Diddle, Diddle

2009-09-23T14:27:00.001-07:00

I found it! A few posts ago I was saying I found some cute nursery rhyme fabric I liked but could only buy it in a kit. I found it online. It's called Rock-a-Bye Rhymes by Alexander Henry and it's from 2008. I ordered some (enough for the quilt and back too... I really like it). It came today and I couldn't wait to show you! Here we have Hey Diddle, Diddle, Little Bow Peep and part of The Three Blind Mice up in the left corner.

I love Humpty Dumpty. He's probably my favorite on here, Hickory, Dickory Dock and you can see the top of Little Boy Blue's head.

Here is the Old Woman in the Shoe.

And a side wise Little Miss Muffett. Now, away I go to make a cute baby girl quilt! I forgot that I used some nursery rhyme fabric to back a quilt for Jake. Maybe I'll post a pic tomorrow of that one.

Binding

2009-09-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've been busy sewing binding on. I actually kind of like binding. It's relaxing and when you are finished, you are finished with your quilt! There's a reward when you are finished.

Now I have two to bind..... and quite a few cats to finish. Good thing there are new things on tv.

My Favorite Applique Method

2009-09-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

This week I taught an applique class so I thought I'd post on here the directions to my favorite applique method.

The first thing I do is trace the pattern onto freezer paper. Cut out each individual piece separately.

Next, iron the shiny side of the freezer paper onto light cardboard (I use a cereal box or something of similar weight).

Next iron the shiny side of the freezer paper onto the back of the fabric you are going to be using. Then cut a generous quarter inch around your shape. You want to make sure you leave enough space for the tighter edges.

Once your shape is cut out move it to your ironing board and spray it with spray starch. I just use the cheap kind you can buy at Target for 99 cents.

Place the cardboard shape in the middle of your starched fabric when the starch is still wet. Carefully iron the fabric around the cardboard shape. You will want to clip the inside curves. Keep the cardboard inside the fabric until the starch is completely dry, then carefully remove the cardboard. Now you have the shape you need and your seam allowance stays under for you.

Next lay your pieces out on the background fabric and pin in place with applique pins. Stitch using your favorite applique method. Now, this method is certainly not the only way to prepare to applique. However, I think it is the easiest way to have a nice product that does not have raw edges.

My Favorite Quilt Shops

2009-09-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

I love living in Davis County. It's where I grew up and where home truly is. However, one thing I really miss about the almost 4 years I spent in Utah County is the quilt shops. Really, Davis County doesn't have anything great as far as quilt shops go. Utah County has three that I really, really love. We had a family reunion in Spanish Fork this weekend and I got to stop and visit my very favorite quilt shops.

When he saw me taking pictures of the outside of Broadbent's my husband questioned my mental stability. I told him it was for my blog. He asked if I'd be taking pictures of every shop we were visiting. I told him we would be, but then I forgot because I was too excited to get in and swoon over the fabric options not available closer to home. Yes, I did drag my husband and three kids into the quilt shops with me. Don't worry, they love Broadbent's because they have penny (OK let's be honest....nickle) candy. They went to stock up on root beer barrels while I went to see what Broadbent's had to offer.

I needed to look for an idea to make a cute quilt for my new little niece who will be here in January. I always worry when I make quilts for other people. The things I like are not necessarily what my sister-in-law will like. I had also been looking for a pattern to make a tree skirt for my formal tree in the living room. I was going to make a Star of Bethlehem using Quilt Smart, but I found this pattern instead. I think I'll make it out of the Christmas Three Sister's fabric. Broadbent's has lots of QuiltSmart. I had done my Christmas Lone Star Quilt before Broadbent's started selling it and wished shops around there sold more QuiltSmart. Of course just as I was getting ready to move they started selling it. I love traditional quilt blocks and love any short cuts I can find to make them. I had been eyeing this Apple Core pattern online for awhile now. They had the pattern there. I did promise myself I won't start it until my double wedding ring is finished though.

Next I went to American Quilting in Orem. I love all the quilts they have on display there. I also love 30's fabric and they have quite a bit. I really, really wanted to make a cute quilt out of some nursery rhyme fabric. I think the lady said it was called Hey Diddle, Diddle, but she didn't say the name of the company that makes it. They had some in kits, but I didn't want the kit, just the fabric since I already have enough fabric to make the rest of the quilt. They were out of it on the bolt though. If anyone knows which fabric I'm talking about and where I can get it please let me know. American Quilting was super busy as classes were just letting out and just starting. I saw a quilt I wanted to make for my sister-in-law, but wanted to think about it. I loved the quilt, but it was something I am not usually drawn to. I decided I'd come back on my way home from the reunion if that was what I decided I wanted to make.

We headed to Springville to check out Corn Wagon Quilt Company. I love Corn Wagon. They are huge and have a lot of variety. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did get lots of inspiration for the future.

I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law does not read this quilt blog... however, just in case I'll just show the fabric for this cute quilt. I ended up getting the pattern and the fabric to make the one I saw. I made the first block and it turned out really cute. I may need to make one for my baby girl........

One thing I've noticed since I had a baby girl is that there is tons of cute baby boy fabric and patterns out now! When my boys were born there was very little boy fabric and it wasn't that cute. American Quilting had several darling baby boy quilts and lots of fabric. I was very tempted to make another baby quilt for my 3 and 6 year olds! I also loved this Puppy Love pattern. I'm really, REALLY not an animal person, but I think this turned out so cute. I'm going to have to think about it.

Flea Market Fancy Freaks

2009-09-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

Do you love Flea Market Fancy? I do. In fact I have been collecting Flea Market Fancy fabric for only about 6 months now, but I sure don't dare to cut into it. It's been out of print for quite awhile now, but I really wish they would reprint it. The link is a blog to petition to get it reprinted. I sure hope it works!

Projects in the works

2009-09-07T06:49:00.001-07:00

I had hoped to have this quilt finished to show you today. I'm having a hard time getting the right tension on my machine though so I had to unpick quite a bit of quilting, which is never fun. The pattern is Sweet Cheeks by Thimble Blossoms, although I didn't do the circles with the flowers. I put them on and it looked too busy with the fabric I chose so I had to peel them off.

My quilting goals for this week include:

Quilt and bind Jake's football quilt (it's been a year)
Work on Black Diamonds so I have enough done I can post a picture on here.
Finish Sweet Cheeks

Ok so these have been my quilting goals for the last few weeks. We'll see how it goes. I also want to paint my living room. We'll see which gets done.

2009-09-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

I'm still here! Having three little kids is busy! I haven't gotten a lot of quilting done lately. I've tried a few projects that haven't quite worked out..... I tried to make some baby shoes with pleats similar to the ones from the Michael Miller baby booty contest last year. I am having the hardest time. I have a pattern, but can't get the top to match the bottom in size once the pleats are in. I'll keep working at it and keep you posted. Let me know if you have any special secrets to do this that I'm missing out on. My last post inspired me to start another hexagon quilt. This time I'm making my shapes into diamonds. I figure one jelly roll will make 20 diamonds and that should be enough for a baby quilt for my granddaughter.... that I'm expecting in 20-30 years. I figure that's about when I'll get this project done. It's been fun to work on though. I like to work on projects when each block is different. I think I just like variety! I used hexagons with 1 inch sides.

Hopefully now that school has started and we are in some sort of routine I can post more often... and get a little more finished!

Inspiring

2009-08-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

The other day I was looking at my husband's, cousin's, wife's blog (my cousin-in-law?). She is a photographer and we are in need of a new family picture. I was looking at her photos and came across this little gem. Really, I had no idea she quilted.

Are you drooling? I asked Marcene about this beautiful hexagon quilt. She told me that she pieced it while she was expecting her baby. The hexagons are 1 5/8 inches across. She used a Fig and Plum jelly roll. She hand pieced it and worked on it for 5-8 hours a day for about 3 months! Once it was pieced she and her mom hand quilted it. WOW! I am totally impressed. Look at that binding too. It would take forever to sew the binding around doing the mitered corners every inch or so.

Marcene told me that this quilt is now hanging in the Springville Quilt Show in Springville, Utah.

Now I am totally inspired to start another hexagon quilt in addition to the one I've already started.... I'm thinking I'll use my jelly roll of Mill House Inn. I seriously doubt I'll be done in 3 months though.

Thanks for sharing your quilt with is Marcene!

Save the Clothing!

2009-08-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

Has your family had a summer of sickness like my family has? We've spent a lot of time at home this summer because people have had some sort of ailment all summer long! In addition to our newest ones reflux we've had swine flu, 2 sinus infections, stomach flu, a weird fever thing, pleurisy and now I'm waiting for a call from the doctor to see if my 3 year old has tonsillitis. Seriously, isn't this suppose to be the season of good health?

Because we've been home all week with the sick 3 year old I decided to make some more baby bibs. I used my scraps from this quilt. I made a few of these bibs awhile ago and I love them. I think I'm even liking them better than burp clothes. They are super absorbent and do a better job of preventing the neck cheese we all love so much.

I have another bib pattern that I will be trying shortly. I'll post those pictures soon!

My Heroes

2009-08-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to make my boys capes for quite awhile now. Boys love to play dress ups just as much as girls.... they just need boy dress ups. I found the tutorial for these capes on Puking Pastilles. The capes are reversible. Superman on one side and Batman on the other. The boys love them.

They had a great time running around in the yard.

Trying to make themselves fly.

Then we had to go back inside because Superman needed a diaper change.

I WON!!!!!

2009-08-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

I entered entered the contest The Quilted Fish was having to guess where she was. In all fairness it wasn't too hard. We live in the same state and she was vacationing here so it wasn't too hard. In fact, the very first clue I knew where she was but I didn't put in a guess because I got distracted by my children and then forgot... I made extra sure to guess the second day and I was the second winner!

I won these great Utah treats, cinnamon honey and Mrs. Call's caramels. Who doesn't love those?

I also got to pick two of her darling patterns. I chose Giddy Bloomers and Whoopsy Daisy.

Aren't they darling? I love the yo-yos in Giddy Bloomers and I love the huge daises in Whoopsy Daisy. I feel like I've been given permission to make more girly quilts now that I have a girl. YEAH!!!! Thanks Amanda. It was a very generous prize!

A special blanket for everything!

2009-07-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

My project of the day yesterday was this car seat blanket. I've seen two people at the stores since our baby was born who had them and I was curious. I have always had a problem with the blanket in the car seat falling out. It's usually when I'm trying to herd the kids into the store and it falls out in the parking lot. Then it gets dirty and gross. Hopefully it's not raining. I decided to make one myself. I used Timeless Treasures Strawberry Field. for the fabric with a meduim pink ric rac. It was pretty easy to make. We haven't left the house (or the front porch) today because my oldest has the stomach flu. I can't wait to try it out though!

Flutterby Complete!!!!

2009-07-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to finish my Flutterby quilt. I ended up having to take my Pfaff into be fixed. It seems to be working well now though! Hopefully it will keep it up.

We have tons of big trees in our yard so everywhere I take pictures there are shadows. I'm not a great photographer in any way. I really like the colors in this quilt. I really like the way it turned out. Now it's off to the wash to make it wrinkly and soft!

So I have posted many times about how much I love 30's repo fabric. On Tuesday I had the rare opportunity to go to the quilt shop alone. I was actually looking for fabric to make a car seat blanket for my 2 month old (can you really believe she's 2 months?). Anyway, this particular shop used to have a wonderful selection of 30's fabric. In fact, when we lived in Saratoga Springs and I woulc dome visit my parents I had to stop in Bountiful every time to look through their 30's fabric. Anyway, I was looking at other fabric when I realized I was where the 30's fabric used to be. I looked around and didn't see it anywhere. I asked about it and they told me they are not going to be carrying it for a few years. Apparently they didn't like what was coming out and so they had a sale (not a great sale, I saw the flier) and got rid of what they had. They may not be carrying it for a few years! I am so disappointed. I really hope this isn't a trend. Please tell me that your local shops are still carrying 30's fabric!

Uh-Oh!

2009-07-17T08:43:00.000-07:00

I am currently trying to finish quilts I have already started or quilts I have fabric for. My goal is to not buy more fabric until I use what I already have. Because of this I pulled out my vintage Christmas quilt that was about half way done. I finished the blocks and put them in order. I had noticed that in the pattern there were blocks that were only half blocks on the sides. I rarely read the whole pattern when I make quilts. I figure out how to do the blocks and then just do the rest on my own. Well.... maybe I should start reading the whole thing. I threw some of the scraps away. I am trying to eliminate scraps that are not really big enough to use. Oops! This time I needed them to make the half blocks on the side. I was able to rescue some (others had just left on their way to the dump). Fortunately the trash can in my sewing room is just used for dryer sheets and fabric.... nothing gross. Hopefully this will make me read the whole pattern before I start tossing things.

You can see the half blocks on the end of the second row. What you can't see is that they are pieced with fabrics or the same color, but not exactly the same fabric. The pattern used this too.

Ok, so I did buy more fabric. I had a good excuse. I got some money a few weeks ago for my birthday and I've been wanting to make the Black Diamonds Quilt by American Jane. I've had my eye on this fabric since it was first posted on Moda's site on the Future Fabric Line section. I had waited to buy it though thinking I should use what I had before I bought more. Now it's starting to be gone in some stores so I decided to buy it while I could. I feel like that totally counts, especially since I used birthday money to buy it, right?

My First Quilt

2009-07-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

Here it is in all it's glory... the first quilt I ever finished. I actually starting quilting because I wanted a quilt for my oldest's bed. I couldn't find one I liked so I decided to make one (it's in the wash right now so no picture). At the time we had just moved to Saratoga Springs and my friend Kristen called to see if I be interested in doing a quilt block swap. There were quite a few of us and we each cut fabric to make five shoo fly blocks to swap with each other. We used white backgrounds. Although I had already started my other quilt I finished this one first. I love it. It is absolutely the worst quilting and piecing job you will ever see, but I love it. I didn't know how to square it up so I just made it into a square and some of the blocks are practically cut in half. A few people in the group had never sewn at all before. They cut their fabric by hand. Some of the cuts people made were not accurate. I didn't want to replace any fabric for fear someone would see it and feel bad because their fabric was not used. So I used all of what I had. I love the scrappiness of it. There is all kinds of fun fabric in it. I think if I had not been invited to do this swap I would have made my other quilt, maybe taken a class or two, but I don't know if I would have fully fallen in love with quilting.

Four years later this is my newest quilt for my newest child....

So there you have it. My newest and my oldest quilt. I've loved seeing all your first and last quilts this week. Thanks Camille for starting all this! Oh... something I learned along the way? Really, look at the first quilt. What haven't I learned along the way? I have definately learned a thing or two about matching up points. I've also learned how to cut more accurately, I've learned how to applique. I've learned to LOVE ric rac!

Ellie Fun

2009-07-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

This is not my typical style of fabric. I saw it several months ago and fell in love with it though! I love those cute elephants. Usually I like fabric for a baby that isn't necessarily baby, but could be used for a baby. I like novelty fabric in general, just not baby fabric. When Olivia was born I had to get some of this. This was the only piece that the quilt store near me had. I need to buy the other pieces online. I have no idea what I will do with it, but I love it.

So remember yesterday when I was getting ready to quilt my flutterby quilt? Well... I got it all set up on the frame and my stupid Pfaff would not work. It's been having trouble for awhile now. It has never kept the speed up very well. It's suppose to do 1000 stitches per minute. Well, yesterday I was lucky if I could get it to do 1. Then when it did the stitches were the length of my shin. Ahhhhhhh! There is almost always something wrong with my Pfaff. It is seriously less reliable then my mom's old White she hated when I was growing up! Thank goodness for my trusty Bernina, however it doesn't have a long enough neck to quilt on the frame.

Flutterby

2009-07-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

I know that in my last post I said that I was going to work on finishing projects before I started new ones. I should have added finishing projects or starting new ones out of stuff I already have. Yes, I started a new one. I had a jelly roll of Flutterby that I've had for a long time. I bought the jelly roll without having plans for it. At the time I bought it I also bought fabric for an outer border and binding. Well..... I was in the mood to make something out of it. So I started a new quilt. Another baby quilt. I am loving making baby quilts. They are quick. Sometimes I get tired of the fabric or block before I am finished and when I make baby quilts that just doesn't happen as quickly. The outer border has now become the backing. I am thinking I'm going to save the binding ( or use it as more backing if I run out) for another project. I think I'm going to bind in Moda's Essential Dots in brown. I'm loving the essential dots more and more lately.

I'm having to piece the back. Two yards was just not quite enough. I used some left over blocks in the back and now I'm doing some creative piecing to try to make it big enough. Again, some of the fabric that was planned for binding may show up here. In the picture I have the backing on top of the top so I can see what I need to do. You can see the top on the bottom and in the top right corner.

Baby Quilt and Burp Cloths

2009-06-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

I used my first honey bun this last week. It's Hello Betty from Chloe's Closet. I can't say that I loved working with a honey bun. There aren't many patterns out there so I made up my own. I was thinking I'd have a good sized baby quilt. WRONG! It's a small baby/ doll quilt. I haven't put a border on it yet and I'm not sure if I will. It's so busy that I don't really want one. I may just wait and she can use it now and then use it as a doll quilt when she is bigger than a doll herself.

I also made Olivia some more burp cloths. Really, can you ever have enough? I feel like I need at least two a day, especially if we go somewhere so that I don't have to take one that already has spit up on it.

This one totally clashed with the others so I took a picture of it separately. I still feel like I need a few more. I made some others earlier when she was very first born, but they were in the wash and I never got around to posting pictures. These are the most absorbent burp clothes I own made from cloth diapers.

I really, really want to start a new quilt. I would love to buy jelly rolls of American Jane's Snippets and make Black Diamonds. However, I'm trying to first finish what I've already started and second only buy fabric I need to finish what I've started. I keep telling myself that I can buy the fabric online after it's no longer in stores and also new fabric that I always LOVE is always coming out. Hopefully I can resist, but I just had a birthday and my birthday money is screaming to be spent on fabric.

Rs Quilt Class Rescheduled!

2009-06-23T12:57:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! Sorry about last week. I had the flu starting on Saturday 13 and lasting through this last weekend. It's good to be on the mend! Anyway.... hopefully all of you who are taking the quilt class got a call from my husband canceling it. Hopefully he also told you that it is rescheduled for tomorrow, June 24, 2009. I hope you can all come! Sorry about all this!

OOPS!!!!!

2009-06-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone! The RS quilt class is NEXT WEDNESDAY June 17, 2009. I forgot it's the THIRD Wednesday and not the second Wednesday. Don't go tomorrow! Here is a picture of the finished block. Here's the pattern:
http://www.quilterscache.com/J/JacobsLadderBlock.html

Also, we need to be thinking of what we want to do next. Do you want to keep doing piecing to practice your skills, or would you like to do applique or hexagons next? We will do it all eventually, but would you like to take a break from piecing and do something new? Leave a comment and let me know!

RS Quilt Class 6-10-09

2009-06-09T09:22:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we'll be having the RS quilt class at 7 at the church. We are going to be making half-square triangles and making a block called Jacob's Ladder. It will be helpful if you already have the fabric cut when you get there. Here's the pattern:

http://www.quilterscache.com/J/JacobsLadderBlock.html

GIRL stuff!

2009-06-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

I've been having fun sewing girl stuff. It's slow going, but I'm trying to find time to do it. A few months ago I made a smock and booties as a baby gift for my sister-in-law. I have enough of that fabric to make one for Olivia, but I'm out of the ric rac. I had all the stuff to make this one though out of Sandi Henderson's fabric. I love the way it turned out. I made the 0-3 month size. It's suppose to be a shirt to wear with pants or a skirt. This is more like a jumper on her. I love that's it's reversible. Here's the other side.

And the back.

I guess I'll be using it for a jumper for now and later it can be a smock over a cute onesie. I want to make the booties too, but the smallest size the pattern comes in looks huge for her. I may take the pattern and do it a quarter inch smaller all around. Her feet are only a little longer than my pinkie. It's so much fun to have a girl!

Giveaways!

2009-06-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

I always love a good giveaway. Lanie Jane is having one! Go check it out. Or check out the link in her logo in my side bar.

The Lovely Photoshop

2009-05-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

For Christmas Jeff gave me Photoshop Elements. I haven't taken the time to figure out how to use it... until today. I will definitely be using it again. Look how much better this quilt looks than in the same photo below! It's brighter and turned the right way!

Blossoms!

2009-05-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Finished! I finally finished the quilt I've been making for Olivia's crib. Sorry the picture turned on it's side. I don't know how to set it the right way. Anyway, this pattern is called Blooms for Annabelle. I made it using Bubblegum Basics fabric.

The pattern calls for two charm packs, but I just cut my own since this fabric is not by Moda. I started appliqueing the first row by hand, got it done and decide machine would be just fine for the rest! I did press the seam allowance under and then do invisible thread to stitch around. The pattern also said to use bias tape for the vines but I chose to use ric rac instead. Saved time!
Here's a closeup. Sorry about the dark picture, it was raining when I took it. I do love the bright happy colors! Cute for a little girl's room.

A New Diaper Bag

2009-05-25T07:29:00.001-07:00

I spent the weekend making this diaper bag. I've realized I'm really not much of a seamstress. Quilting is a lot different than sewing other things. The fabric is called Metro Blue Goes Green. The pattern is called The Nappy Bag by Amy Butler.

RS Quilt Class

2009-05-19T14:31:00.001-07:00

For those of you who are doing the RS quilt class, as far as I know there was not one scheduled for this month. We are going to change the day and place and I don't know what they have planned. When I got the calendar at the beginning of the month it wasn't on it. I'll keep you posted when I know what's going on!

Handmade Baby Gifts

2009-05-18T21:41:00.001-07:00

I've kind of been trying to keep Olivia home since she is so little. She was 5 lbs 1 ounce at birth and is still probably under 6 lbs. Our neighborhood has been so excited to meet her. Last night we went on a little walk. We kept getting stopped so people could see her. One lady came out with a gift.

She knitted these baby booties and brought the out to us. Aren't they cute! I can't wait until Olivia can wear them.

She also crocheted around this cute blanket. I LOVE the flowered fabric! And who doesn't love polka dots? The flowered fabric reminds me of my grandma's sheets. I just love it.

Aren't hand made gifts the best! They are the kind of gifts you know you will keep forever, to pass on to your children's children.

Busy, busy, busy

2009-05-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've been busy this week. Not only taking care of a newborn, a toddler and a 5 year old, but making stuff for the baby. I love having a girl! One of the things I've been doing is making headbands. I need people to know she's a girl! I made the above one. It's a little big, but she'll grow!

Here are a few I worked on last night. My husband thinks the korker bows look like fireworks. The green and pink one was my first attempt. It's rather large for her tiny head. I will need to wait to attach it to a headband that will fit her head later on.

Here is one I made of tights. I bought the green bow in a package of bows that have alligator clips on the back. I put a loop of grosgrain ribbon around the tights so that I can use the same headband and just switch bows. Can you tell Caleb is a proud brother?And here is a sneak peak of the quilt I'm making for her crib out of Bubblegum Basics. Hopefully I can finish it this week.

Olivia's First Quilt

2009-05-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

I finished my lady bug quilt! I finally had a reason to. Since I had no finished baby quilt for Olivia when I got home I needed to get cracking on this one. I had the lady bugs finished so I just had to add the outer border and then last night I quilted it last night and bound it today.

Sorry about the shadows. I took the picture outside and we have tons of trees in our yard.

I found the pattern years ago in Quick Quilts. Quilting Cottage in American Fork had a sample made and I loved it. I bought the fabric and it's been sitting around waiting for a baby girl until this summer when I pulled it out. This was about a year before Jake was born so probably a little over three years ago.

Now onto another quilt out of Bubblegum Basics.... I'm loving girl fabric.

Here's Olivia!

2009-05-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

Current Events

2009-05-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

I have an obsession besides fabric. Adoption. In fact, there are lots of agencies who post their available situations online each day. Every single day I check those listings multiple times a day hoping that my baby will be posted. I call about a lot of them. Lots of birth moms have seen our profile but we always know that we need the right one to find it.

Wednesday morning one of the agencies we are registered with posted a baby that I called about. I left a message for the owner of the agency to call me back about this situation. She called back about 20 minutes later to tell me the information. She also told me that the birth mom was already in labor and the baby was being born right then. We gave her the go ahead to show our profile.

At 2:22pm she called back telling us the baby had been born and that we had been chosen to be the parents! We rushed to the hospital (fortunately it's only about 45 minutes away from our house). We spent the rest of the day meeting the birth parents and got to spend a little time with the baby.

The birth parents signed relinquishment's yesterday morning so she is officially ours (well, technically she's the agencies until finalization in six months). She will probably get to come home this morning. We are so excited and feel so blessed. She's a tiny little girl, which makes me a little nervous. 5 lbs 1 ounce (she's a little over a month early).

I haven't really slept since we found out. I went to the quilt shop closest to the hospital yesterday during the nurses shift change. I was to tired to pick out fabric! Can you imagine that? I finally get a girl and I can't focus on matching fabric! I wandered around for quite awhile, but could not figure out what I wanted to do. Good thing she has grandmas! My mother-in-law made a cute fleece blanket as soon as she heard the news. I can't wait to get sewing on little GIRL things!

Right now I can't find my camera. I think it's still in the car and I'm too tired to look for it. I'll post a picture when I can. Check back soon!

Also.... sorry I can't get into more specifics with the blog being open. I hope you understand.

In other crafty news.....

2009-05-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my friend and I decided to cover canvas. She and I both moved into a new house at about the same time near the end of the summer. I was tired of my walls looking bare.

This lemon wreath is not permanant. I had another wreath there and put it on my front door. I need to find one I like for in here. Anyway, I had seen covered canvases at Target for $50-$90. Then I saw the blank canvases on sale at Ben Franklin for 50% off. I bought the biggest one they had. It looked a lot bigger until I put it on the wall.

I stapled the fabric on with a staple gun. I folded the corners like you would a bed sheet when you are making the bed. It turned out to be a really cheap way to cover a bigger blank space. I like the way it turned out, but I'm not sure if I will keep it there. I may end up hanging it in the dining room above the plates you can see in the back there. I wanted something with more color for the family room but couldn't find something I loved that had a big print. Now... what to put above the couch in the family room?

May Day and Spring Quilts

2009-05-01T09:15:00.001-07:00

I've not had very much time to quilt this week. We got a new furnace and new a/c and since my sewing room opens into the furnace closet thing it's I haven't been able to get in for a few days. Yes, it took a few days. They had to do some creative vent work. We also didn't have any vents in our basement at all so we were freezing down here all winter. Anyway, I started a dresden plate block.

I've used a layer cake from Sweet. I know what I'm going to use for the center, but I don't have that fabric. I did hand applique the first block and used the fabric I'll use for the center on that, but I only had one layer cake square. I'm not done, but I'll show a picture when I am.

I'm loving this line. It's so much fun and so, so springy! Just what we need at this time of year.

Outdoor Quilts

2009-04-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

We have a porch that goes across the front of our house. It's about 48 feet long. I'd like one of these to hang:

(pictures from porch swings.com)I'd like to put a quilt on my porch. I've thought of making one out of my scraps. I figure I don't need a complicated design, just one to bring some color and make the porch look homey. Here's my big question...... will it get ruined on the porch? The porch is covered so I'm not worried about rain, but what about sun damage? We have big trees in the front yard so there would be just a small part of the day when the sun was directly on it, but I'm still wondering...... What do you think?

If I could, I would decorate my whole yard in quilts!

More About Me (because I'm sure you've been wanting to know!)

2009-04-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

I just remembered that I had a list of 25 things I posted on my other blog as a tag. Here they are (sorry, some of them are the same as I already wrote).

1- Right now I'm sitting here in the dark. Why? It got dark as I was sitting here and I haven't bothered to turn on the lights.

2- Sometimes on Saturdays and Sundays when our kids don't get naps we put them to bed between 6-7.

3- I got up and worked out at 6 four times this week. The fifth time I had planned on it I was up for several hours in the night because Jeff was working and Jake kept waking up.

4- When I wake up after about 4am I can't get back to sleep for a few hours. It's always been like that. I had a love/hate relationship with sleepovers because of this growing up. I loved to go be with friends, but hated laying there awake at their houses.

5- I think the key to loving where you live is your neighborhood. If you love your neighborhood, you can make due with your house, even if it's not perfect. We absolutely love our neighborhood here and hope we never have to move again.

6- I'm better at updating my quilt blog then updating this blog.

7- I have always wanted lots of kids. I had planned on 6-8. It's looking doubtful that will happen though.

8- Because it's looking doubtful I've become passionate about adoption. I love talking to other adoptive couples.

9- If I ever went back to work full time I'd like to go back to school and get a degree in social work or something else so I could work for an adoption agency instead of teaching elementary again.

10- I honestly check several agencies available situations pages multiple times a day (can't miss a new posting) in case our next baby is posted.

11- I love helping at Caleb's school. It also reminds me of why I taught 5th grade instead of kindergarten.

12- I don't like to stop reading. If I'm reading a book I don't like to be interupped. I'd rather just read the whole thing straight through. This presents a problem as I have more obligations than time to read. I've had to limit my reading to one book every other week so my family doesnt' get ignored too much. Although last Monday and Tuesday I read a book and I've already started another one......

13- I can't stand to sleep with my elbows bent. I just find it irrating and uncomfortable.

14- I've mentioned this before, but I'm running out of new stuff..... There are three main things I can't stand in a movie: talking animals ( seriously? that is totally fake!), the Nazi's (too scary, although the book from Monday and Tuesday was about them), aliens ( again, who are we kidding? That's about as fake as it gets) and it seems like there is someting else too but I can't remember right now. I'll have to ask Jeff.

15- My favorite tv show used to be the Office, but I'm afraid it's going downhill.

16- If I ever move again I'm going to find a place where it only snows between December 15 and January 2. After that I'd like it to be at least 70. Actually at this point I'd settle for a balmy 45.

17- I just asked Jeff for an idea for #17. He said I refuse to call for pizza delivery.

18- The word cappillary grosses me out. I think of veins popping and blood squirting out. ( also supplied by Jeff)

19- Jeff again- I can't handle brushing my rubbing fingertips. It makes me picture the fingerprints rubbing together.

20- Growing up I HATED to call guys. In fact, I never did unless I was calling them back. I did not ask them out until we had reached the phase we could actually call it " dating" then I felt like I had to do something to recipicate. It made me way too nervous. In fact, I didn't even call the guys I was good friends with. I probably didn't call Jeff on the phone for a good two months after we started dating, as in seeing each other every day for hours on end and on kissing terms. Emailing or talking to them in person didn't bother me, but I refused to talk to them on the phone. In fact, in college my roommates and I stole all one of our guy friends food (ok, so he only owned peanut butter). We realized the next day was Fast Sunday and he was coming over to our house for dinner so he may not notice until Monday that his pb was gone. I was voted by my roommate to call him and invite him over to our apartment to make peanut butter cookies and ask him if he would supply the peanut butter. He told us he knew something was up the second he found out it was me on the phone because I never called guys as a general rule.

21- Caleb has just supplied that I like fabric.

22- Jeff says I think the sewing machine store counts as an electronic store (my sewing machine is computerized so I think it totally counts). I did tell him one day that I needed to go to the electronic store. Then I guided him to the Bernina shop. He didn't love that.

23- When I was an RA in college only one of my roommates (Becca) and I were home one weekend. I think it was a three day weekend or something because most people had gone home. Whenever I had to walk through the dorm I hadn't gone down the basement because the lights were off, plus it was a little scary down there. As I was laying in bed I started to feel guilty for not going down there when it was time to kick guys out. I was telling my roommate this and we heard a door slam and looked out the window to see a guy get into a car. We talked ourselves into thinking it could be a murderer or something. We needed something to defend ourselves with. I knew I couldn't stab anyone with a knife so we grabbed forks. It seemed more humane. Then we checked the basement together. Fortunatly, the dorm was murderer free.

24- Supplied by Jeff again...... I get grossed out by my own blood. I start to feel faint. I once cute my finger with a rotary cutter and about passed out. Literally. Not from the pain, but becasue I kept thinking of the way it felt as I was slicing through my finger. I really thought I was going to throw up.

25- I have terrible handwritting. In fact one of 5th graders tried to give me a compliment once. She told me she loved my handwritting because it wasn't perfect like all the other teachers. I tried to remember it was a compliment.

A Favorite Tool of Mine and a Little Bit of Info

2009-04-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

I've not been in a super sewy mood lately. I think part of the problem is that I've been working on a Christmas quilt and to be honest I've had it with the winter weather. The last four days here in Utah we've had spring like weather. I heard though that today we should get to about 55 degrees so that's all for now! I've had it and in protest I'm putting away my Christmas quilt. Yes, I started yet another quilt before I had the first finished. Why? Summery fabric. I am making it out of Sweet . I needed a change. I don't have the first block done yet. I was going to applique it by hand. We'll see..... it may be time to whip out the invisible thread and do it by hand. I'll post a picture when I'm done appliqueing the first block.

One of my friends does a Recommended Consumer Item of the Week on her blog. Probably not every week, but I love it when she does. She always makes me laugh with her love of products. Although I'm not witty like she is, I thought I'd post about the tools I like best when I haven't written for awhile.

Although this isn't necessarily my #1 favorite it really is quite handy. I was making my first apron one day and when I was turning the ties right side out it took me almost an hour for just one skinny little tie. Well.... that was not worth the effort. I remembered something about this that I saw somewhere so I went to JoAnn's and asked if they had anything to help. Sure enough they had these amazing turner outer things. I can't remember what they are called though. Since that one apron I have found quite a few uses for these. They came in a set of three sizes.

When I put away my double wedding ring quilt for the first time it was because I was sick and tired of turning the bands. Not any more my friends! This turns them right side out quick as a wink!

I was reading Sherri's blog today and she has some facts about her. I thought it was fun to get to know the person behind the quilts so I decided to add a few of my own.

1- Before my kids were born I taught 5th grade. I graduated from college when I was 21 and started teaching when I was 22. I taught until a few days after my 25th birthday, then school was out for the summer. I loved my class that year and was sad to see them go. They kept asking me if they could come help me the next school year. Although we had just been approved for adoption I knew in my heart we would be getting a baby boy that summer. Sure enough we did. I didn't tell anyone I was quitting or even that he was coming in the three weeks we knew before he was born. These things fall through all the time and I didn't want to talk about it if it fell through. Caleb was born in July. I hadn't bought much for him (in case it fell through I did not want to have baby stuff laying around and no baby to go with them). Jeff's mom came over and I needed a few more things so Jeff and I ran to the store while grandma babysat. I had planned on going in on Monday to talk to my principal and tell him I was quitting. Caleb was not quite a week old. Well.... we saw him at Walmart. He saw the baby stuff in my cart and I told him. Then Jeff announced that I was quitting. And so I quit at Walmart about three weeks before school started. Fortunately he was very excited for us!

2. I have sang and been in choirs all my life. My parents met in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and we were always doing some kind of music thing when I was growing up. When I was younger I was in The Salt Lake Children's Choir (there is a sample of music). I like very classical, but I also love to be in musicals. I hadn't had time to be involved with music while I was in college and I didn't want to take away time with Jeff when I finished and he was still going. As soon as he graduated were in Oklahoma together, which is not my favorite musical.
We are the couple in the back. I haven't been in anything since Caleb was born. Jeff has to be on call for work so he can't do it so I 'd have to do it without him, which would be fine but practices are usually every night and that's just too much time away from my family. Someday I'd like to do it again.

I'm late to meet friends to go for a walk, but I'll come up with some other things for later.