1 down...

...8 to go!

My only tip so far is to trim your HST's to 3.5"

It doesn't say this in the instructions so I did lots of unpicking yesterday...

Fabrics used are Curious Nature Arctic French Quarter (blue), and Stars and Stripes Red Small Stars.

Hexagons Galore

Tonight I bring you a whole bunch of hexagons.

This is my collection so far.  I swapped for the ones on the right, in sets for making flowers.  The others on the left are what I've made while watching Twin Peaks over the past few weeks.

Needless to say I got a little distracted with the show and wasn't very productive...

I got some good mail today though, more hexagon materials and some fabric for two other charm swaps.  The melon solid and polka dot on the bottom are for the matchy polka dot swap, and the two other fabrics are for the Sherbet colors charm swap.  I Instagramed this so the colors aren't very true to life.

This time I'm using 1 1/4 inch pieces to make hexagons for Chelsea for two of the bees that I'm in.  I whipped up a bunch watching Twin Peaks tonight and now just  need to piece them together.

 I think I like this size better than the 1 " pieces.  That 1/4 inch really adds up.  Chelsea's going to have a beautiful bunch of hexagons from everyone.

 I love this elephant.  He's from one of the Birch organic collections.  Great color and the fabric feels so good.  I am hoarding all my Birch fabrics and waiting for just the right project for them...

And these cute girls were from a layer cake swap.  I cut it into 5" charms and then used one to make this 3" square for the hexagon. 

I also got to do a bee block that had some handstitching.  This block is for the June Books and Blocks Bee Too.

I like this version of the pinwheel better than most.  mainly because most pinwheels make me thing immediately of swastikas and that's just not good.  The circle in the middle, and having the whole pinwheel inset into the block here softens the unfriendly look that most pinwheels have for me.

The middle circle is appliqued in place so that's where the stitching came in.  I wanted to secure it a bit more so I put some fusible stuff (can't remember it's real name right now) under it and then stitched it down.  Hopefully it will be durable.

Linking up this post with Katie at There and Back.  If you haven't already you should check out the other posts in the Handmade Parade this week!  And get out some of your handwork so you can share your projects too!

June's Just Three

I am so tired.  I don't mean to complain but I feel I could sleep all week long!  I took a class at the gym today (first in a few days since we pretty much halted everything with Matthew's surgery last week).  It kicked my butt all across those darn mirror walls.  Then I hear the instructor say she does one in the morning too.  Then I hear myself asking what time.  Then I hear her say 8:30 and ask if I'll be there.  Then I say yes.

WHAT?! I am insane.  And I just want to go to sleep...

But back to the fun stuff.  I am jumping back into Tracey's great idea of the Just Three linky party.  Head over to Tracey's blog if you don't know what this is yet.  And then check out her patterns.  She makes great quilts!

So.  My Just Three for June are as follows:

1) Make a Swoon quilt for a friend's wedding.  The wedding is the end of THIS month and I only have the fabric cut.  Haven't sewn anything yet.  We're flying out to CA on the 23rd and the wedding is on the 30th.  Fortunately my mom has a sewing machine that's pretty sweet so I'll be able to catch up if I fall behind.  My goal is not to fall behind but to get it done before we go.  Get ready to see a lot of swoon blocks this month friends :)

2) Keep up with the bee's and other required-to-be-done-by-the-end-of-June commitments.  Yes.  I may have joined too many things.  But how can you say no to so much awesome swap-ness?  I have been trying to limit myself a bit more to less intense swaps, but I think I'm going to take the entire month of July off just so I can breath again.  But they're so fun!!!!!

3) I'm following Tracey's lead on this one and am going to make my 3rd goal to relax a bit.  I want to take some deep breaths and be able to enjoy the things I get to make.   I am going to indulge and plan a great quilt to make for myself this fall, and then I'm going to get really excited about it. 

I recently got the first issue of Quilty magazine and it's so cute.  I love the projects, the wording is awesome, it's like someone's talking to you.  Reassuring you as you read the directions in the projects and the articles.  It's just a lovely magazine.  I think I'm going to pick one of these two for my Fall quilt.  What do you think?  Which would you do?

Blonde Redhead - This just makes me want to take a nap under it.  Which is totally the goal I aim for in all the quilts I make.  They should make you want to snuggle underneath them (being awake is optional I guess). But I love this one.  The colors aren't me, really, but I love how bold they are and was thinking something in browns, blues and greys would be good.  But then I was also thinking I should be brave and try some different colors. 

Firefly - This one is so pretty!!  I couldn't get over it when I saw it in the magazine and so I read through the instructions until I figured out how they did it.  Now that I've figured it out I really want to go make it, right now.   Mainly to see what the back looks like.  There isn't a picture or even a hint of the back in the photos in the magazine, and given the way it's put together I think it would make for a pretty cool looking back.  This is the front runner.  Since this will be a fall project, I do like the colors in the photo here.  Makes me want some Apple Cider immediately!


 And I didn't even show you the wonderful box I got for the Modern She Made swap!!  This was so exciting.  A great pick me up of perfect fabric goodies!  My lovely partner was so generous.  I really lucked out. 

 

It was so wonderful that this is the only picture I have of the goodies!  See that pillow?  Not the owl one, the pezzy print one. Yep.  It's mine!  It is perfect and so well done (my daughter thinks it's her pillow).  The colors are my favorites and along with it were some placemats and a matching pot holder that features some text fabric that is to die for!  My kids are very into letters right now so I'm going to break them in over under dinner tomorrow! She also included 2 jars of phenomenal buttons and a chocolate bar that didn't last the night!  This is why I have a hard time saying no to swaps...because they're awesome and 99% of participants are so thoughtful and so good at being a swapper.  It's wonderful :)
 
Final quilting bit.  This went out in the mail today.  My very first Dresden plate for the May Traveling Circles bee!  I've always been too scared to try these but it actually wasn't as hard as I expected!  I'd love to make an entire quilt out of these but....that's a project for another year.  I also think it'd be fun to do a Christmas quilt out of these.  They remind me of holiday wreaths!  Maybe enhance it to be a tree skirt where the circle in the middle would be partly for where the tree goes?

And finally, it was 90 + degrees today so we blew up the pool, filled it with the hose and went to town.  Matthew no longer sees his arm as an impairment and is back to normal.  Which means our neighbors heard a lot of "reminding" about not splashing so big and don't get water in your cast...

We are starting to get back to our regular selves here, so I'm hopeful that I'll have more to show you, and um...in a more organized way.  Seems like I've been a bit scattered lately but at least it's not boring around here! 

I can't remember the exact origin of this quote but I always like to remember it at times like this.

"If it wasn't this, it'd be something else!"

Ain't that the truth! 

Exciting news...and lots of pictures...

...I just opened up my very first Etsy shop! 

LadyFaceQuilts is my shop and you can visit it here!!

I have 3 baby quilts listed and 8 unique I-Spy charm packs of 56 5" charms. 

I've been working on these baby quilts in my "spare time" and have really enjoyed making them.  I hope they find good homes and get snuggled up!


In other news I must thank you all for helping me through Matthew's broken elbow.  I so appreciated each of your comments and thoughts, it is so great to have you all as a sounding board and support team.  I am so glad to be a small part of this online community and to have all of you as my internet friends :)

Matthew is getting used to his cast, and we slept a lot better last night than previous nights.  He is moving around and seems to know his way around it, how he can move it and how he can't.  We even went outside to do some bubble blowing today and he was very careful and enjoyed the exercise. 

I'm transition-less here but I wanted to share some pictures with you from the past week or so.

 For memorial day we had to go look for a new router thing for our internet problem and detoured at Old Navy.  Matthew got a hat and styled it himself like this.  Adorable.

 Abby got sunglasses and I found pants at a smaller size (yahoo!).

 I got some fabric back from the I-spy, dot and stripe charm swap and Abby helped me arrange them. Meaning she insisted on laying them out after I sorted them.  I like that she enjoys it anyway!!

 These yo-yo's were much easier to do than I thought, and are for the Traveling Circles Bee.  It was their April block but I was able to snag a spot in the Bee early in May and got to do this one also!

This is what I'm mailing out today to my secret partner in the

My little monkey is going to be ok!! He got 3 pins in his elbow and is going to have a cast for a while but he did great!!

Even the Dr's and nurses were impressed with how well he did at the hospital. He has to stay overnight for observation and can come home in the morning!

What a day...Thank you all for your support and kind words. It meant a lot and still does. Thank you!!

I love being a mom.

what the heck wednesday...?

I was getting ready to write y'all a post this morning and WHAM.  An unexpected emergency. 

My husband took the kids to the park this morning and Matthew fell off one of the swings and hurt his arm.  There's no blood and no bones sticking out (that is what I told the nurse on the phone a moment ago) but it looks swollen and dislocated.

So, Ben dropped Abby off with me and rushed off to the Dr.'s to see what's the matter.

I'm being updated by text message as I type and now they're going to get an x-ray as it could be a break and need pins (I want to throw up).

This is the first serious injury we've had in our parenting career of 3 ish years and I feel totally sick.  I talked to our little guy on the phone and he was hurting so bad and being so brave...I wanted to cry and hold him and make my arm broken instead. 

If this is how I feel about a broken arm (or whatever it turns out to be), how am I going to handle all the other stuff that comes along with raising children that will also rip my heart out?! 

Now, I know he will be OK.  It will be fixed and he will eventually not be hurting anymore.  It will pass. 

But, I was not prepared for such intense emotions to come from this, mom-wise, you know?   


...deep breath...


How do you other mom's handle this?!  I feel like a total rookie again...

I do not speak computer...

...or internet.  I let my husband figure that out.

We had some kind of internet issue this weekend and it was terrible.  I hate it when invisible stuff (like the internet) breaks. 

And after an entire (long) weekend of trying to talk to the internet, some ridiculous people who wanted to charge us $140 before we could even talk with them about how lame their router is, two trips to Idaho Falls, and two different mac airports later.....we have wireless internet again.

I don't really even know what some of those words mean...It's just not what I do...

I am not one of those super knowledgeable 24-year old hip kids that knows technology...I just know when it works and when it doesn't.  Holy smokes. 

Ben did a dance when he finally got it to work :)

Anyway. I am here and will be catching up soon! I hope all my new friends hang in there with me, I promise things are going to get pretty interesting. 

June is shaping up to be a lot of fun.  And if I can find my brain, I'll be sharing with you!! 

I hope you all had a great weekend!  We finally have sunshine again and I'm going to enjoy some leftover watermelon for dinner!!