Monday once more!

Good morning friends!  I didn't get much sleep last night so I apologize for any incoherance.  Our little Lady Face doesn't seem to be feeling that terrific, and woke up a whole lotta times last night.  So we're going to snuggle on the couch and have a Buzz Lightyear movie marathon, poor girl. 

I did have a pretty productive weekend though!  Here's what went down.

Books and Blocks Bee Too: I was a little stumped at what to do for this.  The queen of February chose the book block on p. 126 and I wasn't sure what I had in my stash that would fit what she was looking for.  She wanted the block altered a bit so she could do her own sashing thing, so we left the strips off of the top and bottom making it 12.5x8.5, and wanted the spine to be white so we could all sign our names.  After a trip to Joann's for the fabric pen, I found the green Nicey Jane print that I used as background and then received the Japanese fabric in the mail with a bundle of Pezzy Prints (yay!) and thought that would be cute. 

I'm quite pleased with how it came out, even if the spine is a touch long...

Thanks to an almost blizzard (windstorm with some morning snow) we stayed home all day Saturday and that gave me time to put this together!

 I got the fabric from Hawthorne Threads, isn't it cute!  I'd been looking for something like this and couldn't find what I wanted.  This was it!! I tied it so it would go even faster, and because I wasn't sure what I would do to quilt it.  I didn't want to obstruct any of the gorgeous images on the fabric.

 The nice people at Hawthorne Threads cut it so nicely that I could immediately sandwich it together without having to cut it and none was cut off in binding either!  Truly an easy project.

The kids like it, and it is filled with all sorts of fun and educational things.  A win win for me!

I have also pulled out one WIP that I've been meaning to finish for some time now.  It should be done this week (fingers crossed). Remember that Drunkard's Path quilt-along?  I finally finished the top and then it sat and sat for a couple months on top of the washer...I had the backing fabric picked, and it was all ready.  I was a little bummed with it initially because it wasn't as big as I'd hoped it would be and so the border I had added to it wasn't what I thought it'd be.  It just didn't add up to what I'd hoped.

But then I pulled it off the washer yesterday and gave it an ironing, and what do you know, I love it again!  I think it's a great size and will look wonderful over the couch.  I'm doing a simple hand quilting to it, and used an old sheet I picked up at my parents house over thanksgiving that is the perfect rosy, dusty pinkish color that I wanted, and so soft!  It will be wonderful to have it finished.

I will take a better picture when it's done.  The quilting is looking really awesome so far, and should look even better after it's washed and crumply!

I'm linking up to Sew Happy Geek for the Manic Monday Linky Party and at Canoe Ridge Creations Head over and see what everyone else is up to this Monday morning!

I think I'm going to make some hot chocolate!

One down and vacation on the mind...

We are going to grandma's (my mom's) house on Friday! It's all the kids can talk about and it's all I can think about. It's been a busy year and it feels like we haven't had a chance to relax in a while.

I'm excited for grandparents to distract my children so I don't have to be "on" ALL day long (does that sound awful?). Also, the whole family will be there, which is particularly exciting for me as we haven't met the two newest editions to the family and most of the family hasn't met Lady Face.

We are driving from Idaho to California and might be bringing the dog. We will stop at the first In-N-Out we come to and every one after. I will eat an entire Chocolate Rum Cake from Prolific Oven in Palo Alto and delight in the familiar places I haven't seen since before Lady Face was born...not to mention friends, family, and Thanksgiving.

Maybe some shopping? Yes please.

But.....it's Tuesday. Before we leave at 4am (yeah right) Friday morning I have a long to do list. Baking, cleaning, packing, sewing and I'm about ready to just sit on the couch and let my kids watch Cars 2 over and over again and just fast forward to Friday.

On a totally different note, I finished quilting the blue Ohio Stars quilt and it's a great snuggler but not the greatest looker. I LOVE the binding. It's my favorite part.

I learned a lot making it. We will leave it at that. However it does get bonus points because Monkey pants likes it. He has a Linus type attachment to a blue blanket and is very "selective" about what blanket can keep him warm. When I finished this one he wanted to snuggle under it! WIN.

I'm also desperately behind on the drunkards path quilt along but have finally gotten some of my squares sewn and am hoping to get them all done and trimmed before we go as I'd love to finish it by the 28th to link it up with everyone else's.

Don't let them fool you, either. Sewing curves IS scary. But now, I can do it! And it's fun. I like it.

Afraid of...

Machine quilting! It terrifies me. Sooooooo much room for mistakes. It's like the icing on the cake. So what if you made the yummiest cake in the world. If it looks like crap nobody's going to eat it.

That's the pressure I feel when I go to quilt a quilt on my own machine on my own...scary. And seeing how I am quilting a quilt right now that falls into the "look how much I learned making this!" category...the quilting isn't going that well.

So it is NOT getting gifted. It will live on the couch hopefully crumpled up around somebody that is too cozy to care what it looks like.

Included is a nasty picture of my make it work workspace that is next to the laundry. What you can't see, and what I forgot were even in there, are the two goldfish encrusted car seats right behind the table that need a cleaning...makes me want to scream "why does everything have to be so clean?!" (is that from something? Movie maybe?)

Oh the woes of a Monday...