In the Sea

This past week I managed to get all of the December Wish Circle blocks put together.  I asked for a Gold Fish Cracker block - they could be any color, patterned or solid with a blue background.

Funny story- I thought I had everyone's blocks, so I started piecing them together.  I got the rows all completed and then went out to my mailbox and there was another block in the mail that very day.  I ripped a bunch of blocks back apart, rearranged them, and added another row.  In the end, it wasn't a big deal, because luckily I hadn't sewn the rows together yet, but I thought the timing was rather apropos for the kind of week I was having.

Deflated

This is what happens when you forget to put yeast in your bread: It also pretty much sums up the week I've been having.

Our computer decided to stop working this week- 3 days before our backup external hard drive arrived.  Ouch.  Basically my whole life is on that computer, and I've been floundering like a fish out of water without it.  Even simple things like making dinner has been difficult, because all of my usual recipes are saved in a folder on my computer.  Who knew I depended so much on it?

The backup won't work, so my husband has been painstakingly trying to pull things off one file at a time (he's been at it for several days now).  I'm going a little crazy with panic that I'll lose things I can't replace like family photos. Luckily, a lot of the photos are on the blog.  Thank goodness for small things, right?

Not the Point

These blocks are not my finest hour in piecing, but I keep reminding myself they are for a good cause for someone who isn't expecting anything to begin with, so who cares if they're not perfect?

January's block for do. Good Stitches is the Half-Square Triangle.  She wanted the colors to be the same as the tutorial, but in whatever order we wanted them: Mustard yellow, olive green, navy blue, and turquoise with a white background.  I like the look of the blocks, but they were time intensive, because I had to cut all of my triangles down to the right size.  For some reason using the alternative method given in the tutorial my blocks were all about a 1/2 inch bigger than they should have been.  Even with the cutting down, my points didn't all line up the way I wanted them to, so I was a bit frustrated.  They not bad enough that I feel like I need to redo them, but I'm not exactly waving my banner in pride over them either. 

On a happier note,  I'm feeling rather proud of myself that they're done this early in the month! 

It Takes the Cake!

Are you a cake or a pie person?  My husband and I had this debate one evening: If you could only have either cake or pie for the rest of your life what would you choose?  My husband emphatically stated that he would do cake, because it has more options including cheesecake and ice cream cake.  He also happens to not like the crust on regular pies, so I don't think his decision is very hard, but that discussion is for another day.

I mention this because when Little Lady saw me putting this quilt together, she said, "Mom, I love cake.  Do you think I could have this quilt?"  Uh, sorry, Little Lady!  The quilt is already claimed.  When she found it is was for a baby with the name Sophia (anything Princess Sophia is currently adored in this house) she thought it was a great idea to give the baby the cake quilt. 

I decided to keep things in the cake family with a flannel cupcake fabric on back.  It happens to be one of my stash finds I was waiting to use for something special, so it was fun to use it.

The paper-pieced cakes are from a tutorial here.  She made a table runner of cakes and I decided to use them for a baby quilt.  Teia (pronounced Taya) should be making her debut early March, and the baby shower in her honor is this weekend, so I got it in the mail yesterday just in the nick of time.

New Year, New Project

It's been a while since I've worked on an actual quilt, so I needed to rectify this situation.  My best friend from high school is having her first child - a baby girl.  The baby shower is this month, so I need to get moving.  I didn't just want a regular quilt.  Is that strange?  I wanted something different than I usually do.  I decided to make cake only this time on fabric.  I love Jennifer's cake pattern.  I'm going to make 2 cakes with opposite layers with a lot of negative space on the quilt front.  I didn't want the entire thing to be filled.  A little cake goes a long way.  Here's the first of two cake blocks:

The nursery is painted lime green, and the purple is the color of my bride's maid dress at her wedding.

Merry Christmas!

Share the Gift!

2014 Ornaments

Every year we get an ornament for each of the kids that is representative of the past year, and we always try to get an ornament when we go on vacation.

Little Man:  He chose this ornament over the summer during his intense aquatic phase, and he still absolutely loves it.  Orcas are still his favorite animal in the ocean.  I tried to remind him that Killer Whales are mammals (since he's always complaining mammals are so boring), but he was unimpressed by my technicalities. 

Little Lady: She was most adamant that she have a Princess Sofia ornament.  This fits her and her princess obsession perfectly.  Her ornament came in a set, so she decided she wanted to give some of her cousins ornaments as well.  (She said baby's don't need ornaments and that boys don't get to have Princess Sofia, so sorry, Ethan and Kiersten - I promise she still loves you). 

BB: I really wanted a Hungry Caterpillar ornament in keeping with his 1st birthday theme, but I could only find outlandishly priced commemorative ones.  I love my son and all, but I was not going to pay that much for an ornament he will probably break anyway, so I settled on a Hungry Hippo instead.  He is in the 90th percentile for height and 97th percentile for head circumference and weight, so he is most definitely a rather large, but well proportioned child.  He would eat all day long if you let him, so the Hungry aspect applies very well to him.

My brother's wedding in Texas: We chose an ornament from the Alamo.  San Antonio was our favorite city we visited and it also has special meaning since it is Grandma Thompson's childhood home.









Stuetz Family Reunion in Outer Banks, North Carolina:  This ornament was absolutely perfect, because the kiddo's favorite part of the entire trip was fishing for blue shelled crab. 

Looking at the ornaments each year always makes me so nostalgic of all the wonderful memories we've had as a family.  This year in particular was a lot of fun as we put up the Christmas tree ornaments.  The kid's were so excited to see which ornaments belonged to them and what the story was behind each one.  I love that all of the ornaments have some meaning and/or are connected to a memory.  It is a tradition that I cherish.

Pillows Galore

Ok, maybe "Galore" is a slight exaggeration since I only made 2 more, but it feels like I have a lot more to go.  At least the ones I need done for this week are completed.

Mel:  Requested hot pink and flowers

 Bri: "Requested" (by mom) purple and flowers

Something interesting I learned when searching for fabric is that it's actually pretty hard to find a decent floral fabric particularly when dealing with purple.  They either look like they're straight out of my Grandma's old decor or it has characters and other weird things on it.  It was actually a lot easier to find the boy fabrics.