WiP Wednesday: Just Keep Trimming!

I carved out some time for quilting this week. I am at that stage where there is a lot of work but not much to show for it -- trimming. I am now ready to put this bad boy together this week. I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

My sweet hubby got me this smaller ruler and it has made all the difference in my trimming world! I used to have to use my 12.5" square and it was a pain! I also put them out on my cutting mat 24 at a time and it seemed to make it go faster. I would do two sides and then flip them all and do the other two. I had 144 of these to trim.

Here are my HST all trimmed up along with the fancy pile of trimmings. I love how, dare I say, perfect they come out after trimming. It is a lot of work but it really makes a difference.

I also cut all the dog ears off my flying geese. There were 108 of these so it took a bit of time but not too bad.

Now all of my pieces are ready for assembly! This will become the Star Surround quilt from Happy Quilting. LOVE!

So to build the block you start with the centers. I love this, especially how the fabrics play off each other.

I laid out all my pieces so you can see the block. Isn't it fabulous?! I can't wait to put this one together. The fabric is PB&J by Basic Grey for Moda.

This week I hope to put this together, well, at least the centers. My hubby has vacation time so I'll probably have more time for sewing! Thanks for stopping by!

WiP Wednesday: Progress and Planning

After a while of only dreaming of sewing and working on stuff I finally feel like I'm getting my groove back. I worked on my quilt this week and got the fabric for a two more! I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

I'm working on the Star Surround Quilt-a-long with Melissa over at Happy Quilting. I seriously love her designs and am loving this quilt-a-long. I also recently won four of her patterns in a giveaway she had on her blog and I can't wait to try them out!! I finished making all the HST and flying geese for this quilt and now I just have to trim them and put the whole thing together. I was behind on each of the assignments but the finish linkup isn't due until September 15th so I think I can make it!

Check out these lovelies that I got in the mail today!! I've never bought a fat quarter bundle of Moda before because I could never afford or justify it but today was the day! This is Simply Color by V. and CO. for Moda and I'll be using it to make a double wedding ring. I was inspired by this Pinterest pin. I am so exciting and just can wait to get working on this one!

I won these DWR templates in a giveaway and they will make the quilt so much easier! I made one without the templates nearly three years ago and it's taken me this long to feel up to it again. My hubby and I will celebrate ten years of wedded bliss in April and I hope to have it finished by then. Well, I actually hope to have it finished by Dec. 1st so I can enter it into the NYC MOD quilters Double Wedding Ring quilt challenge!

Also this week I got these three charm packs. My sister is having a baby girl at the end of the year and I thought these High Street by Lily Ashbury for Moda would be perfect for her.

This is the pattern I'll be using for the High Street fabric. It is one of Melissa at Happy Quilting's quilt-a-longs. It's actually the original (you have to scroll to the bottom) and I'm excited to give it a try. Like I said I really love her stuff!

Now I'm off to press some HST while the baby is still napping. Hurray for progress!

Chevron Maxi Skirt

The lack of sleep with the new baby has finally caught up to me. I know I have the same amount of time in a day but between feedings and no sleep I spend most of my time in a daze. So, when I found time AND energy to whip up this chevron maxi skirt I was so excited! I'm linking up with Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Here it is. Please ignore my one month post baby body and just look at the adorable skirt. I love it! It's nice, flowy, and so comfy! The fabric is Simply Color by V and Co. for Moda and can be found here.

I should have taken pictures on the way but I was just super excited to find the time to make it and taking pictures would have taken longer. I'll share the process and hopefully at some point I'll make another one and write up a tutorial since I thought this up all on my own.

The process:
- 2 1/4 yards of fabric and enough 1" elastic to go around your waist plus one inch.
- Fold the fabric right sides together with the selvage on the top and the bottom. - The cut edges should be touching.
- Sew along the cut edges creating a tube.
- To create the waist you'll need to fold the top edge over 1/2" inch and press.
- Fold over 1 1/4" and press again thus creating a casing for your elastic.
- Sew along the edge of your fold nearly all the way around leaving a hole for the elastic.
- Insert elastic - sew ends together - close up the seam.
- Hem the skirt and voila!

Several Small Finishes

I feel like super woman even though these are just small finishes they are a big accomplishment for me having just had the baby. I'm linking up with Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

I made the baby and I matching bracelets. It's amazing how tiny her little wrist is and this is a fun way for me to remember her tiny size.

Here are our bracelets together. These are glass beads and so fun and sparkly.

Her bracelet is so tiny it fits on my thumb! I just had to include this picture as a size comparison.

Since this is my third little girl this is the third set I've made. I thought it was fun to take pictures of all of them together. It's hard to believe my oldest girl, who is now seven, was ever this tiny!

I saw the pattern for this one on Pinterest and fell in love with it and I just knew the baby had to have it. It came together really cute and quickly.

 Now for a little baby photo shoot...

So cute on her! I love her expression in this one too.

Here's the headband from another angle. I love it because it's not tight so it doesn't squish her little head but it stays on just right.

I was in my local quilt shop with my mother while she was here and we saw the pattern for this little box and I knew I had to have it. You can find the pattern here. It came together in just a couple of hours and it is so cute! I'm not sure of the fabric but it is from Riley Blake.

It has a bunch of fun pockets in the inside to hold all my goodies and two zipper pockets on the outside.

The directions were clear and easy to understand and overall it was a great pattern.

Thanks for stopping by and celebrating my little accomplishments with me!

WiP Wednesday: Small Projects

I am focusing on a few small projects right now, well, and a quilt. since my little girl is two weeks old today and I have four other ones to care for it seemed like a good idea to stick with small achievable goals. I find myself sleeping more than crafting lately but I enjoy what little time I have to spend. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

 First I'll start with the finishes. I can't believe I even have any!

I made this triple zip pouch for my mom. This is my third attempt and I love it just as much as I did the other two. It was even more simple this time and I didn't even have to look at the directions for most of it.

Here's the front/zipped up view of it. I love her fabric choice for this, it's so fun!

 Also, remember this dress from this post...

I crocheted it and it was so fast and fun!

I got to put the baby in it for her first day of church. She looked fabulous and I adore her little bird legs sticking out the bottom.

The teach my mom to crochet mission went well again this week. We worked on self-folding crochet hot pads. I wrote a picture heavy tutorial here.

My quilt is going slowly but surely...

I got all the fabric cut out on Friday. I made a few HST in the top right corner but I haven't pressed or trimmed them yet. I have been spending most of my sewing time drawing the diagonal line on all the white fabric. There are 216 of them so it takes quite a chuck of time. I hope it will go fast after this step.

This week I hope to get at least some sewing done on my quilt. I also hope to make the tote that I cut out the fabric for on Friday. If I'm not feeling up to that I may just crochet some more hot pads or sew on my hexies, We'll see. Thanks for stopping by!

Cutting Like Crazy

I have a few of projects that I bought fabric for over the past week or two. As of this morning I had started to cut out the quilt but that is all. Well, now I have them all cut as well as some projects for my mother all in one day! I feel like a crazy cutting machine!

Here's the fabric for the Star Surround Quilt-a-long hosted by Melissa over at Happy Quilting. It was supposed to be done last Monday to keep up but hey, I had a baby on the 24th so I think I have a good excuse. ;)

Here's all the things I cut out today. I figured it out and I cut 7 3/4 yards of fabric today. There is the quit in the middle. Then the triple zip on the bottom right. Then the other three are all this cool basket organizer that sits on your sewing table. I will be making the quilt and the two on the right. The ones on the left I cut out for my mom.

I seriously feel like super woman getting this all done while caring for a newborn and the four other kids. Not to mention the fact that we also did school clothes shopping today! I may need to take it easy tomorrow to recover a bit.

WiP Wednesday: Getting Up to Date

I have had a very eventful past few weeks which accounts for my absence on the blog. First and foremost I had the baby!!! Ruby Anne was born on July 24th. I share pictures further down. My mom is also here visiting and in between all that excitement I've actually done a few projects that I haven't had the chance to blog about. This below represents the past three or so weeks of work. I'm linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced because heaven knows I have a bunch of works in progress.

First, the baby!

This is Ruby Anne and me the day of her birth. She was born July 24th and was 7# 6.5oz and 19 1/2" long.

Here's my now giant family. I didn't think five kids was that many until you see them all together. We love it!

This is my favorite picture of the two of us so far. I couldn't resist sharing it here.

Here's Ruby with her quilt made from the fabric line Ruby by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. For more on this quilt go here.

 I actually managed a few finishes in the last few weeks as well. Here they are...

I made these 32 hats for the NICU babies and made cute little tags for them. On the tags I wrote about why I made them and how they could contact me if they felt the need. They were pretty cute. I dropped them off when I went into the hospital to have the baby. I didn't have the time to add the little embellishments like the ones found in the pattern but I think they are still cute.

It occurred to me that I didn't make one for my baby. Also that I didn't know if the pattern for the newborns would actually fit a newborn. It seems like the easiest thing to do would be to whip one up for the baby and see how it fit. It was a perfect fit! I ran out of yarn so I change color differently than the pattern but it's the same size overall.  For the hat pattern go here.

For her birthday, which she will be celebrating while she's here, my mom wanted me to buy some yarn and teach her how to crochet.

Here we are just starting out. It was pretty easy going since she knew how to crochet at some point it had just been so long she forgot how. Working with that base made it quite easy to whip something up.

We made these cool wrap and button scarves. You can find the pattern here.

Here's my mom with hers. We finished the same night we started and she had a nice sense of victory. Looks pretty cute too!

Here are the scarves together without our cute faces to distract you. I love how my mom did so well that if you didn't know hers was green you couldn't tell.

I also updated with a ton of pictures my self-folding hot pad tutorial. I bought six little balls of cotton yarn to make some for myself and teach my mom how to make them too. We have one done so far. We'll see how it goes this week.

Finally here's what I'm trying to work on now in between caring for myself, the newborn, my family and house. It's slow going.

I've made quite a bit of progress on my little 1.5" hexies. They look so good coming together! This is a long-haul sort of project.

I also must be a glutton for punishment because I joined up with a quilt along. The fabulous Melissa from Happy Quilting has done it again, made a pattern I couldn't refuse. The Star Surround quilt-a-long started this month and should be finished in September.

I took my mom to my favorite local quilt shop in order to buy some fat quarters to make her a triple zip pouch. That's the fabric on the bottom right. She got so excited while she was there and was loving so much of the stuff it was cute. We also got this cool little tote pattern for organizing stuff. She planning on making two (one of each size) and I will make one with the fabric on the top right. It should be fun!

 I am trying to keep my goals small and realistic. I hope to cut out the rest of the fabric for the quilt along. I only have the white left. Maybe do a few HST for that too. I also want to make more hot pads and cut out the fabric for my little tote. Maybe that's over-reaching, we'll see. Thanks for stopping by!