A place for baby Abigail...

I have spent the last few months since the baby was born reorganizing my craft room to make room for baby Abigail. I know it sounds like I thing I should have done before she was born but it never happened. She has been enjoying life in bassinets, swings, and rock n plays. A baby with no bed of her own!! So sad. As she has been getting bigger it's become apparent that we could not keep her in a bassinet much longer. Last week my mom was visiting so I utilized the time to get things done so we could get the baby in her crib. 

My ironing board used to be here and my rod to hang my quilts.

I also moved around my craft table/desk and sewing table. So now this is what it looks like. Sooo clean and organized at the moment. I figured photographic evidence was necessary.

oooooooooooooh

aaaaaaaaaah

I have also been working on a string quilt to slash through my scraps. I have finished up all the string blocks and just have to trim up about half. I scored some new blades for my rotary cutter at a black friday sale at Joann fabrics. So I should have them trimmed up shortly. It turns out one quilt is not going to make a dent in my scrap stash.

I have been debating on the layout of the blocks. The star layout would have low volume blocks in the corners. The quilt would have 4 stars. 

It would be similar to the quilt I made for Mirabelle about a year ago. Although the individual blocks were only 5" and the current quilt has an 8" block.

I also looked at a zig zag pattern or a string block diamonds

 I'm not sure of the final layout. At present I have enough blocks for the 4 star layout.

Last but not least I wanted to remind everyone about the Santa Stash Swap.

I haven't had a chance to spread the word too much. You can still sign up until 11/28!!!

Linking up to crazy mom quilts

I'm so crafty it scary!

Just a quick post about something I whipped up for my little girl this weekend. I started thinking about making trick or treat bags long before I had kids. I bought the fabric and it has been in my stash for some time now. Either that or I caught it on clearance. 

When Moda came out with "Candy" charms I did an "I want Candy" charm swap. I enclosed a piece of the candy print at the time with each pack I sent out to the people who were my swap partners. It was also about that time that everyone was taking on the scrap vomit quilts and granny squares. There really is so much you can do with a 2.5" square! 

So in conclusion it looks like this fabric has been in my grasp since 2012, and I am pretty sure its not the oldest stash fabric. Some day I will get help for my fabric buying..... You can catch a glimpse of my fabricy shame in the background of the picture. At least now it is well organized by color. 

So the day before the trunk or treat I decide that I want to make a trick or treat bag for Mirabelle. I was up with baby Abigail and surfing around the internet. I found this pattern and decided it was a better option than trying to reinvent the wheel or work out some of my half baked ideas. 

I think it turned out pretty good. I didn't get any actions shots of its use though. Hopefully I will be able to soon. 

What's great about this pattern is that you can make any size you would like. I scaled down the pattern from a 15" square to a 12" square. I also cut my fabric into 2 rectangles (12" x 24") instead of 2 12" squares. Mostly to save me the headache of having to line up one more side. I still stitched the side so there would be a seam to line up things. 

The bag is reversible an it comes together very quickly. I waited until the day of the trunk or treat and was done in less than an hour. It might take you longer to pick fabrics from your stash! I just happened to have one of the fabrics in my collection that she used in her tutorial.

October blocks Nurture circle, do.good.stitches

A quick post of my October blocks while one baby is sleeping and the other is with daddy.

This month we are doing a block with a modified half square triangle. Little nip of the corner and a smidge of grey is added. I don't think I am giving justice to the design so I'll go right to the pictures. 

The colors selected were a light yellow,  burnt orange and a coral. I did the best to find close colors in my stash. The request was for solids or prints that read as a solid. My stash is definitely lacking solids, and also orange fabric. So the chance of me having a solid orange wasn't very good!

This is our last quilt this year. It has a fresh summery feel which is appreciated as the days get shorter and cooler. 

On an unrelated not we went to trunk or treat this Sunday and the babies seemed to enjoy it. And we gave away most of the candy so I won't be eating 6 bags of sugar!

One wild flamingo (Mirabelle-15 months) and one confused monster (Abigail-2.5 Months)

Getting the blocks off in the mail. Almost time for my maternity leave to be over :(

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!!!

Nurture circle quilts finally done!!!

I have finally finished the two quilts for the Nurture circle of Do.Good.Stitches.

I have a couple good reasons for why these are so late. In August I had a baby girl named Abigail Grace. She is a cute distraction that has been sucking up most of my free time and sleep. She is 7 weeks old now and starting to sleep a little better. Fingers crossed!!!

My other daughter Mirabelle turned one in July and has learned to walk and is running a muck.

The other thing that has been taking up my time is this crunchy masterpiece that we bought at the end of July. It needs many things and we are in the process of tearing up the inside.

And we are also finishing up a kitchen remodel in the house we are living in. Here is the awesome back splash we put in. God willing we will get this kitchen done soon. We started it back in 2015 when before Mirabelle was born!!!

In March we did this block by Patch the Giraffe called Picnic Pinwheel. I blogged about it here. I am not sure what about this quilt that caused me such trouble. But it seemed like I hit so many snags on this one. First I cut the backing wrong, so I had to piece it. Not a big snag but annoying to have an extra seam. Then I quilted it and bound it and right before I tossed it in the wash I noticed that there was a HUGE pucker. I tried to smooth it out but it was just too big. So in the end I had to unstitch oh so much of the quilt and quilt it again. Let me tell you that unquilting is much more time consuming than quilting. Especially when  you have the helping hands of a toddler. 

For the backing I used cross stitch in teal by Amanda Jean Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts.

For the May quilt I put together a scrap square that I called Hollywood Squares. I blogged about it here. This one was less trouble but I was holding onto it so I could mail both quilts together. 

For the backing I used a combination of solid Kona fabric in a dark teal (glacier) and a complimentary fabric that I dug out deep from my stash.

Both of these quilts are on the way to covered in love, the charity that we quilt for. I am linking up to crazy mom quilts Finish it up Friday,