Back from a hiatus - Brayden's Quilt

Yes, I know it's been months since I've last posted something. But I promise you that more things are coming!! I've been on hiatus since having the baby, the holidays, then a crazy hectic schedule with some church events and work. But I promised myself that I'd find time to work on a project during my down time.

I had little bits of down time last week and have been intermittently working of this quilt. This quilt has a story...

My good friend, Mary, was having a baby boy and I had offered to help plan her shower along with her friend. Needing inspiration, I looked towards fabric and found this super cute Michael Miller fabric called "Silhouette Boys." It had coordinating fabric and everything! So I started pulling together some ideas and came up with the inspiration board below:


So the party ended up revolving around the blue and brown color and this "Boy" fabric. I even made invitations to match (A brown ribbon was tied to the top):


I bought the blue boy fabric and the brown fabric with the blue dots to use as decoration for the party. I turned them into table runners and wrapped some cylindrical flower vases with the fabric. Unfortunately, I was so busy at the party that I forgot to take pics!!

I had the intent of using the fabric to make a quilt... and I actually did - in record time!! This came out to approximately 36" x 46" - a good crib quilt size. I had the blue "boy silhouette" fabric, the dots and even the white fabric was the tablecloth at the party. I went to my friend, Pam, again to dig through her stash and found a black fabric with gold printing for my border. I was afraid that it wouldn't really match up since the silhouettes were a very dark brown but I think it worked out quite well.

I machine-quilted this bad-boy with my 301. It was the first time I tried stippling (thanks to Crazy Mom Quilts for giving me courage to try it). Some areas were looser than others but overall it turned out okay.

My favorite part is the back. I messed up my measurements, cutting 2.5" strips instead of 1.5". So I had a whole bunch of 1" strips laying around after fixing my mistake. I pieced those strips together to make the band on the bottom half. I pieced the rest of the leftover fabric and I nearly used up all my fabric! I love it when it works out that way. The quilting really stands out on the black fabric - you can see my stippling and crosshatching on the squares. Oh, and of course, I had to label my quilt. I finally bought muslin and freezer paper - now I have to label Mya's quilt, too.

Well, this was quilt #3 for me. I'm getting the hang of it. I still have to work on pinning my "quilt sandwich." I had a few areas that were bunched up and was real frustrated with myself. One day, I'll have a totally flat quilt... one day.

Oh, I have to add... Brayden was born this past Monday, March 30th. The quilt was finished on the 29th. Good timing, eh?

Next up on my project list:

• Easter's coming!! It's one of my favorite times of the year since I can make Spring treats!
  
  
• I went to an awesome garage sale and bought a Bernina serger for $50!! I'll show you an easy grocery bag using one piece of fabric (no serger needed for it, but having it is nice).
  
  
• Mya needs jeans. Pam recommended a good pattern and I'm going to face my fear of making pants (story on that to come).

What?! A new post?!?

Yes, I haven't posted in a while. A lot has happened since the last post. Let's see...

BIG NEWS - I'm pregnant with #2! It's a girl and I'm doing fine. We figured it was a result of our anniversary month - which means she's due around Mya's birthday. (Mya was a result of our honeymoon. Hence the name "Mya" for the Mayan ruins that we visited.) I'm currently 34 weeks along, due on November 4th and can't wait to meet her. Mya's quite excited to have a baby sister. She's even thought of some names while we struggle for just one!

After finding out about the pregnancy, we started our kitchen/whole downstairs remodel. The kitchen/bar/laundry room part of it wasn't bad at all. We had a great contractor who finished the work in two weeks and a few days. Thom's cousin helped put in floors about 2 weeks after that and then helped with the crown and baseboard downstairs. We're currently working on the fireplace and furnishing the house with stuff we found on Craigslist. I'm quite happy that we have a dining table now. I feel civilized eating dinner at a dinner table now instead of sitting in front of the TV.

Thom has been flying out of town since the end of April to help his mother with her double knee surgery recovery. So I've been left to my own devices quite a bit (with Mya in tow for 3 of the 4 visits). Between my mother-in-law's surgeries, we went to Missouri to celebrate Thom's grandfather's 80-1/2 birthday. This last time Thom left, he took Mya with him so I had the house to myself - happy me!

Thom threw me a surprise 30th birthday at Costco this past July. Yes it sounds funny but it was quite a unique event.

Mya started 5-day a week / 3 hours a day preschool late in August. They moved to a nice renovated building on the church campus. It's been quite an event for the whole parish.

One of our cats nearly died from eating thread from a sewing machine that I got on Ebay. It was a huge ordeal - at one point I thought I would have to put her down. But she's perfectly fine now.

During all this time, I've done a few projects here and there - some of which I'll post about. I threw my best friend, Phoung, a 30th birthday party. I finished my sampler quilt and made a quilt for Mya's "big girl" bed. I made a dress that accomodates my growing belly (and that I can wear postpartum). I also made a couple of interesting cakes - one is a chicken. Look out for these posts! I'll start in chronological order.