Meow quilt progress

Abby's birthday is sneaking closer every second and is now only about 2 weeks away! 

I've finished 4 more blocks for her quilt, making a total of 6. That's only halfway, so I've got some work to do.  I spent some time this afternoon cutting out the rest of the block pieces so it'll just be a matter of sewing them together next.  

I said before how fast they are and they really are.  The longest part is the cutting.  I'm hoping I can sew these up tonight with a bit of Veronica Mars to keep me company.  

I've never seen the show before now and am a little into the first season now. Pretty fun to watch! And totally reminds me of high school (though I was waaayyyyy less dramatic) and a little bit of Twin Peaks, but much less creepy.  So that'll be fun.  

Next week is Bens spring break, and though he does need to work, it will be excellent to have the tiniest respite from the full time regular chaos.  Happy almost Friday!! 

More cat blocks

It's been slower progress than I'd like but things have been busy.  

Here are the next few cat blocks I have finished for Abby's meow quilt for her birthday.  I finished the top and now just need to do the rest. 

Fingers crossed I have an amazing week and can finish it this weekend, her birthday is this Wednesday!

You can call me Matt

"Mom, just call me Matt"

Um....and just like that he's practically grown up.  He will be 5 years old soon and the attitude growth has just showed up in the last week and a half. 

No longer does he believe that 100% of whatever I say must be true because nothing beats what Mom says.  We're at about 89% which is still awesome, but I can see that he's starting to come into his own, and the sparks of becoming an independent person are there, just flickering behind his gorgeous eyes.

One of the girls he has preschool with told me that he looks really nice when he smiles (after he was out of earshot of course), and it made my mom heart grin because she's totally right. 

I don't seem to do as much sewing for this man child as I do for the girls and there's a reason for that.  If I make something he doesn't like, he won't wear it.  No fighting about it, it'll just get lost at the bottom of the drawer never to see the light of day again, until it's too late...and he's too big for it.

So I'm particular about what patterns I try for him since he is our only boy (so far).  He saw me making two Bimaa Sweaters for Abby, and requested one with a red hood. 

And so it was done.  Probably not as quickly as he wanted, but he is always so grateful and excited anyway.  I love making things for him.  

Drawing class

If you guys are anything like me you already follow creative bug on several different places, and have seen many people talk about this recently.

If not, you should get yourself on one of those lists, follow them on one of their platforms, and go sign yourself up for Lisa Congdon's Line Drawing class.  It's the most fun I've had learning something in a while.

Lisa is so sweet, and teaches in such a wonderful way that is kind, exciting, and just wonderful.  If she ever does any more classes I will take every single one of them.  Seriously, I plan to.

Just look what I've been able to do with her lessons! It's so much fun.  

There are four lessons in this class spread over four weeks and these doodles are from weeks one and two.  Next week is week three. 

I just wanted to share because I thought you might be interested in doing something like this and it you've been wavering, consider this a friendly push from me to get you going! I hope you share your progress too! 

Red Scrap Basket

For the February Handmade Birthday Club, we made fabric scrap baskets from the pattern in Sunday Morning Quilts, which is a fantastic book with lots of creative projects and gorgeous pictures.

I picked red, though it's one of the colors I use the least, so I'm not sure why, but it worked out fine.

I've never sewn a 3D object like this before, and it was a little challenging.  The directions in the book were excellent, it was just tricky for me to do.

I used fusible interfacing to give the basket some standing up power instead of cardboard, and omited the label because I don't have any vinyl.

I imagine it will hold a good amount of red scraps!  My piles aren't well organized so really, this is a project I should do for myself someday!  But don't hold your breath : )

Meow quilt - the first two blocks

I've made quilts that my kids use, but none really specifically for them, with their wants in mind as far as design goes, so I decided this would be the year!

Abby loves cats and as luck would have it there have been some delightful cat related quilt things made lately.  As much as I want the kids to love their quilts, we are trying to find that delicate balance between total pink barftastic disaster, and things look good together happy place where moms live.  Make sense? Excellent. 

I'm using the Meow pattern from Aneela Hooey for Abby's quilt and a mix of fabrics from Lizzy House's new line Catnp, as well as some other prints Abby picked out of my stash. 

The blocks are really fast to put together, and I'm really in love with this cat fabric! Fingers crossed she likes it as much as I do so far! 

The Nessie Top

This might be the quickest turn around I've ever had between buying a pattern and using it.  Less than a week, I think? Anyway.

The Nessie Top, from Craftiness Is Not Optional, is just as amazing as anything Jess has made.  The part that took the longest was tracing and cutting the pattern in 4 different sizes.

I had only a small amount of the teal floral and wanted to stretch it. I'm still holding onto small pieces to use as pockets in another project. 

I sewed up two shirts lickety split last Wednesday night using the color blocked option and long sleeves in the 4T and 12-18 month size.  Yes, Sam is only 6 months olds and already wears 12-18 month clothes... 

Abby wore hers all day and loves it, almost as much as I do.  I'm quite pleased with how these turned out plan to cut out some more very soon!

Lest we forget that I do have a son, I have something cut and waiting to sew up for him also.  I haven't found as many boy patterns that I like that I think he will wear so I'm hoping this one goes well...