Coping Mechanisms

Sometimes the stars align and the kids play beautifully together, and sometimes the kids are fighting on their way down the path from school before they even reach the car.  When that happens you just know it's going to be a long evening.  This is when I intervene with craft therapy.  They craft and I avoid therapy.  This gives me at least 30 minutes of peace, and that's priceless.

 BB painted a sun burnt Santa and then ran off to tear apart something, but here's my proof he can create instead of just destroy once in a while:

A Little Progress

After a 5 year hiatus,  I decided to pull out my Christmas quilt and work on it.  I was thinking that I didn't have any required quilting projects for a bit since Stitches takes a break during December.  I thought I could at least piece together my leftover Christmas fabric to form a back.  It didn't take very long, and before I knew it I was laying everything out in the front room and pinning it together!  I kind of like that the Christmas tree is peaking out in the corner of the picture.  It makes the quilt even more festive.

I'm still planning out the quilting, so I haven't started that part yet.  This week is crazy, so I won't be doing much quilting, but I like the thought that I've actually made some progress.  At this rate I may actually get it done before another 5 years pass! 

Square in a Square

Today is my quilt club and I've finished up my row.  Technically speaking, this one is 4 blocks that she wanted us to leave apart.  She's going to arrange all of the blocks at the end.  The only stipulation she had was that the blocks needed to by 8 inches out of her fabric.  I chose a Square in a Square block.  It's not the most creative name for a block, but it fits.  I love the colors in her fabric, so I enjoyed working with these.

Another Finish

I forgot how much I love rainbow quilts.  This is a bit more in the pastel category since it's for a baby girl.  She's set to arrive next week, so I've got to hurry up and get it in the mail.  I seem to always manage to wait right up until they're due. 

 I did a large stippling for the quilting.  It's been so long since I've stippled anything, so I was a bit rusty, but I enjoyed it.

The backing comes from my stash from a previous project.  It was the wrinkliest piece of fabric I had ever seen.  It obviously did not fare very well when stuffed into a box during our move.  I made a noble attempt at ironing it, but it was nigh unto impossible to get some of the creases out.  It led to some puckering in the back when I quilted it.  I like to think of it as texture. 

5 Little Hens in a Row

My quilting club met this week, and gratefully, I finished my row with a day to spare.  I had Rebecca's Americana and Civil War fabric.  The only stipulations were that the row needed to be 42" long, and no block larger than 8".  I found this adorable tutorial for a hen, and decided that's what I wanted to do.  They are surprisingly easy to piece together. 

 I pretty much love my row.  I almost wanted to keep it!

You can see Rebecca's row of flags that I'm adding on to.  I think her quilt top is going to be adorable!

Scrappy Quilt Top

I was looking for a cute quilt top that I could piece together quickly for a baby who's coming in the next 2 weeks.  I saw this quilt top and knew I could do it quickly.  There wasn't a tutorial, but I decided to just make everything 2.5" in width, and it was very simple, but nice. And of course, I love that it came completely out of my scrap bin.

All in a Row

I finished my row of Dragonflies with one day to spare.  Phew!  Tomorrow night I'll pass on my fabric to another woman in the quilt group and she'll add another row of whatever block she wants.

This is going to be fun.

Carrying the Banner

This weekend Newsies came to OKC, and my loving husband took me to see it.  He's not much of a fan of this particular musical, but he knew I really wanted to see it.  The highlight of this musical is definitely the dancing.  It's insane!  The tap dance number in King of New York was ridiculously amazing!  I know the music inside and out, because I grew up loving the movie.  The musical adaptation is a bit different from the movie, but the changes didn't bother me.  The plot is not the deepest thing on the planet and the musical moments themselves are alright, but it's definitely the dancing that makes this musical good.