Sewing Sadness

On the whole, I have very little to complain about.  The move has been good.  We're doing fine.  The kids are adjusting well.  My only true sadness is a petty one.  JoAnn Fabrics is 35 minutes away.  yep.  There you have it.  No more quick trips to get something to finish a project.  Can I get a moment of silence?  I totally took for granted her proximity to me in Columbus.  So, after a moment of depression, I looked things up and found a Hancock Fabrics really close, so I bounced back a little.  I headed there only to find an empty store.  All Hancock Fabric stores closed in July.  This is when the true depression set in.  Gratefully, there's at least a  Hobby Lobby close by.  The fabric selection is small and expensive with very few good sales/coupons, but at least I have some options when in a pinch. 

I went to make a last minute quilt when I realized I didn't have any batting anymore.  I keep forgetting how many things you have to replenish after a move.  Anyway, I had one day before a baby shower, and I wanted to do something for her, because she and her family are adorable.  They sit behind us in church and entertain my baby.  Luckily, Hobby Lobby pulled through for me and I found some cute flannel to make a receiving blanket.  I guess it's not all bad in the world of sewing.

 I always like an excuse to use a different stitch.  Today I chose a wavy line.

Snow in August

Technically speaking I was supposed to have made these blocks in July, but the month got away from me.  Also, these are supposed to be beach balls, but I like to think of them as snow balls since it's over 100 degrees outside right now.

July Peace Circle:  Beach Ball Block

It's the only sewing I've done the entire Summer.  Maybe when school's back in session I can start back up on my list of things to quilt.

Extended Family Pictures

Lisa Ruth Photography

The Joys of Unpacking

I don't like boxes.  I'm too Type A to just let them sit there.  They've got to get unpacked!

The front room is basically a microcosm for my whole house in terms of boxes.

I tried to unpack some boxes while the movers were moving things in, because they were willing to take any boxes I had with them at the end of the day.   The movers were great and put boxes in the rooms we asked them to.  Joel did that while I corralled children and got to work on the boxes. By the end of the day this is what I was left with in the front room with absolutely no furniture.

Some of our furniture got delivered, and Joel spent a lot of the day putting it together.  I continued to unpack.  By the end of day 2 we had 2 chairs to sit on, but we were still eating on the floor.

Day 3 was Sunday, so we tried to unpack all the clothing in hopes of finding church clothes.  After church I got a few boxes unpacked, and then we went to dinner at a friend's home.  It's so funny, but at church I realized I knew someone from my church where I grew up in Syracuse.  I was really good friends with her sister.  We went to dinner at their home and they have children around the same ages as mine.  It's such a small world!

Day 4 we got more furniture, including kitchen chairs, so we were finally off the floor during meals.  I got just about all of the boxes done.  The front room was starting to look great, but I confess I had moved some of the boxes into the other room.  ;)

By day 5 I was determined to never have to look at a box again.  I powered through every single last box until I reached the final one!

He's still putting things together after work...

Everything had a home, but nothing was really organized per say.  I was just grateful that all the boxes were broken down and in the garage!  Now if only we had some couches...

Scrappy Stars

Today is Stina's baby shower, so I can finally show you her quilt. 

For the quilting I added stars in with the loopy lines.  The back is a flannel that I had in my stash.  It matches perfectly.

Baby Joshua Quilt

I managed to finish the quilt the day before the movers showed up.  Phew!  I probably should have been packing and cleaning and stuff, but uh, the quilt is done!

I went with a huge, organic swirl quilting.  It's not perfect, but it's different and fun.  I had the perfect flannel fabric from my stash for the back.

Baby Quilt Top #2

My sisters are due within a day of each other.  I really had a goal of trying to get both of their baby quilts done before moving, so I have been squeezing in as much sewing as possible this week.  My sister, Angie, is having a boy and his bedroom colors are green and brown.  With that in mind I pulled all my baby boy fabric that was green, blue and brown.  I saw a quilt tutorial here that I really liked, and went to work on a quilt top.  I'm making a smaller version and leaving off the border.

One fun thing about this quilt is that I used leftover scraps from Ethan's baby quilt from over seven years ago, so the brothers will have companion quilts. 

The true test will be to see if I'm able to finish this quilt before my sewing machine is packed away on Saturday.  Wish me luck!

Quilt Inspiration

My sister sent me a picture of bedding they're going to use for Baby Alice's room.  It's gray and gold yellow, and then instead of the green they're going to use a girlie color like pink or purple. 

I was looking through a bunch of my pins on Pinterest looking for quilt ideas when I came across this quilt.  It was really cute and it fit the theme of stars.  After looking at it for a while I realized all it was was a wonky star block connected to a nine-patch.  Since I'm ever trying to reduce my scrap pile I pulled all my pink, purple, and gray scraps, and then added in the gold yellow for the stars.

Gratefully, it came together quickly, because I just found out the movers are coming two days earlier than we had originally planned.  Once again my timeline for everything has been moved up.