Ha!

When a pattern tells me that it should only take an evening to make, I laugh.

And Minkie (or however you spell that super soft fabric with bumps) is not easy to cut.

Luckily, my two year old won't care or notice that he's not getting his Easter basket, etc, actually on Easter. (I'm thinking Tuesday.)

Sneak peaks

The past couple of weeks have been ummmmmmm.....crazy. Yeah, crazy. So I wasn't able to work on the first border for my mystery medallion quilt until a few days ago, and even that has been hit or miss between LC not napping and my allergies kicking in more than normal. (Oh, allergies, why must you dominate my life so?)

But here's a little sneak peak at what's been happening sewing wise. LC and Momma wise has been full of friends and activities. Today we played cars, and later on when he was playing by himself he used the same sorts of voices that I had used earlier. Deeper voice for the bigger truck, etc. This kid cracks me up!

To sew or not to sew...

I've had to take a break from sewing the last couple of weeks because of a crazy busy life and boy have I missed it! I'm hoping to get some in tomorrow, but we'll see.
I've been going through all my piles o' projects.....I'm not sure what to say about them. 'Cept there's a whole lot. I slashed my fabric stash in half (we needed the room), which actually felt amazing. And today when I went to a fabric store with LC I was super picky about fabrics and ended up not buying any of them because they weren't worth it to me. LC looked at me like I was nuts when we didn't go to the cut counter. Poor kid. That was his favorite place to go as a baby. He loved sitting on the counter and flirting with the people cutting our fabric.
Here's hoping tomorrow brings some stitching and fabric loving time!

Send in reinforcements!

This is what a reinforced seam looks like when you have a wiggly two year old on your lap......

Done!

The medallion is done! Just in time for tomorrow! Phew! (Can you tell I'm happy about it? !!!!!!)

Goodnight, Day!

I am grateful that today has come to its end.
I am grateful that I was able to mostly stay calm with my oober whiney and tearful son today. (LC has never been this whiney when he's been sick before, so I'm wondering if something else is going on...sore throat? Needs more sleep? Where is that owner's manual?)
I am grateful for a husband who understands that sometimes retail therapy is completely necessary.

I woke up underneath the bed today (not literally). Not just on the wrong side. So not only was I unaccountably cranky, I was unaccountably sad as well. No reason for it whatsoever. Just one of those days I guess.
So LC and I went shopping to get out of the four walls that house us. And Mommy got some comfy new jeans (that are not skinny jeans! I'm going to call them my lounging jeans) and a couple of flattering shirts. Love ma new jeans. I am a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl. In junior high and high school I was a flannel shirt and jeans kind of girl. Oh, and don't forget the perm. Oh, the perm. Wow. And the huge glasses! Ha! The memories! Wow.
Anyway! Coming back from memory lane.... I thoroughly enjoyed wearing one of my new pairs of jeans today. I haven't thoroughly enjoyed wearing jeans in a long time--for many much reasons, which I am not going to get into. Any who, tomorrow I am going to test drive the other pair :)

(Side note: played Just Dance 3 tonight at a friends house. I'm so bad at it but it was so much fun!)

On the sewing front. There has been a lot of assembly line sewing going on. I'm trying to get my mystery medallion done in time for my quilt guild on Saturday..... Ha! (Why do I always design super complicated things?!?)

Lots and lots of this has been happening:

Sick :(

LC's sick today so we're watching lots of movies and cuddling. The worst part of the day? There's no groceries in the house. I'm running low on chocolate :(

Here's a some bad pictures of the finished jumble skirt. I wore it to church yesterday. Soooo comfortable! The waistband is still a mess :) Ah, well.

Adventures with clothing...

I decided yesterday that I needed to make myself a skirt. I looked at a couple of tutorials, and decided on a sort of maxi-skirt. Did I follow a pattern? Of course not! That would make sense! Why do something rational like that?

Nope I just bought some super cheap knit from my least favorite store..... (I won't mention names, because, well, that's kind of rude. They are a necessary evil, and they really aren't that bad. I just don't like the store.). Measured my waist and the length I wanted the skirt to be, drew up a sketch, and had at it. The skirt is ok, but I've been trying to figure out the best way to create the waist. I'm on attempt number 3.....

LC is watching "The Aristocats" instead of napping. And I'm trying to sew something that looks even remotely presentable..... Sigh. That's ok. I keep telling myself this is just the first in many adventures into sewing clothing for myself (something I haven't done in many, many years). Eventually I'll get better and I'll laugh at these first pitiful attempts :) Heck, I'm laughing now--why wait!

Now I must waist away :}

Repetition.....

My Valentine's Quilt is pieced, sandwiched, and basted. Now I'm thinking about how to quilt it. I was planning on doing some big stitch quilting (or utility quilting, whichever you prefer to call it). But after seeing it all pieced, I just don't think the big stitch quilting will look good.

My local Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) is working on medallion quilts over the next 6 months. At first I was a little hesitant, because..... well, I just wasn't drawn to them. But then I started looking at medallion quilts on Flickr, Pintrest, and other blogs. And then it hit me. While there are still some medallion quilts I am not that drawn to, I found some that fit my aesthetic beea-utifully. They are so busy and so almost chaotic that they sing! Our house could never be considered minimalist, as much as I love that aesthetic as well. I love layering artwork and tchotchkes and books. But I don't like them to look like a jumbled mess. I like a little organization in my layers. They have to work together aesthetically. And that's what some of these medallion quilts remind me of. I've been working on a design for the medallion for one of the quilts I want to make. And it is buuuuusy. I love it!

I'll try and get pictures up soon of both the medallion and the Valentine's Day quilt.

Right now I'm just trying to survive busy and chaos spreading LC's transition out of napping..... Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.......

(This is a sneak peek of the V day quilt back)

Blue

At last! We have blue skies at last!!! Hurrah!!!!!!

(This makes me unbelievably happy :)

And something a little fishy happened....

We're visiting the Grandparents so a certain asthmatic (me) can breathe.... The air quality here is much better. And the company is great!

(And my MIL has the best fabric stash in the world! And a great sewing room!)

Exploding

Don't mind me. My brain is just exploding with all kinds of amazing ideas to try on the Mystery Medallion Quilt my quilt guild is working on this next session. How many can I feasibly make......hmmmm..... I don't need to work on any other projects at all, right? HA!
Ah, well. One step at a time.

Blegh

I was able to finish up the stack of napkins yesterday and we started using them at dinner. Living with boys, there were no comments about how fun the fabric was or anything like that, but LC did have fun playing with his :) (pictures tomorrow? Maybe?)

I'm taking a break from sewing this afternoon and crashing instead. I don't know whether I'm getting another cold :( or just having major allergy problems (allergies in the winter?!? Hmph!) but I feel yuck today. So I'm just going to relax and maybe take a wee little nap.

Achoo!

Rough and ready

There are times when I don't care how the sewing looks on a project.
I.just.want.to.get.it.done.
I've been sewing some napkins for us to use during the never ending rounds of meals that happen in this house. And I'm taking this project as a chance to learn how to use my rolled hem presser foot. Sounds great right? Ahem. Rough. Ver-ver rough. My machine and I have been having some words. Heh.
Ah, well. At least as we wipe our super sticky faces and hands on these roughly hemmed napkins I can stop feeling guilty for using so many paper towels. And maybe my machine will forgive me some day for my grumbling and words. (I can just hear its robotic voice saying, "User err-rror, Fool.") We have a great relationship. Really.
Gotta run. The LC just decided he was done with playing contentedly up here while I sew...and type.