ambitious

Yesterday Joe and Noah went to do Christmas with his grandparents but I stayed home (sick!) to go to the doctor and "relax".

However, I can not sit still, so I got to work piecing a baby quilt top for an old friend (who is having her baby AS I TYPE THIS!). Once it was pieced, I though "why not baste it?" and then once it was basted I thought "might as well quilt it!" and before I knew it, the binding was on it and I was hand-stitching it on the back while watching "Lost" reruns at 1am.

I did eventually go to sleep.

I tried two new things with this quilt- Kona coal for the solid squares and binding (which it seems I am the last to discover, but seriously? It looks GREAT with anything!) and straight line diagonal quilting (which Jessica did on a table runner the other day and, holy crap- it was cute AND fast!). I'll only show a bit of this right now, since it hasn't been gifted yet.

Oh, and that Christmas quilt is finally finished and has been used for ample snuggling in the past week.

So this is new...

I got a job.

"Oh, you were looking for a job? How exciting!"

No, I was not looking, that's the weird part!
A principal (who, interestingly enough, interviewed me 3 years ago! I guess I made an impression- then again, it could have been my hair... it's hard to miss.) called me and asked me to come interview (I said "Let me talk with my husband to see if we're interested and call you back" and then the husband says "YES YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A JOB!"). I interviewed at 9am Wednesday morning and they called me at 11am asking me to come to the district office the following morning to fill out paperwork.

Not sure yet how I feel about going back to work (probably because it wasn't my idea- ha!), but I do think it will be great once I get used to it. The job is only until May and I can re-evaluate then to see if I even want to continue teaching full-time (and see if they'll offer this position to me on a contract!).

So the sewing (and posting) will probably slow down (can you imagine? Even slower than now!), but I will post soon about all of the gifts I've been busy making/embroidering/wrapping/hiding from Joe! :)

what do Santa's elves do late at night?

make big crayons for little hands.

tricks up my sleeve

In the short time that I've been quilting (and more importantly, reading quilting blogs), I have learned a few tricks that have help make the binding process easy. So easy, in fact, that tonight I realized that this just may be my favorite part of making a quilt!

Trick #1

(are you tired of looking at this stupid quilt yet? I sure am!)

Serge the quilt sandwich before binding- genius!

I can't rember where I read this first (Cluck Cluck Sew, maybe?) but it's so smart!

I have a tendency to leave much more than the recommended 2-3" of batting and backing on while I'm quilting a sandwich and it was always sort of a pain to lay it out and trim all that when I was done quilting (oh, and it made me nervous that I was somehow going to cut my quilt in half. No really, I'm a spaz like that.).

Serging the edges kills two birds with one stone- it cuts off all the excess batting/backing AND holds the edges together so neatly for you to sew your binding on!

See? The 6.5% of myself that is a perfectionist loves that.

I almost don't want to bind it.

Almost.

Trick #2:

(source: Know What I Love?)

The second trick I got from Know What I Love? who said she got the idea from The Sometimes Crafter (I couldn't find her mention of it though!). When I iron the binding in half, I roll it up as I go. When I'm finished and the binding is ready to go, I slip a measuring tape (oh so stylish!) through the center and there you have it- a way to keep your binding on hand without it all strewn about!

Tomorrow night will be a rarity: Joe and I have NOTHING planned (the only night from December 5th until December 22nd where that is the case!), so we're going to make fish and chips, turn on the fire and watch a movie while I bind my quilt! Fun!

dipping my toe in free-motion quilting

the good,

(for me anyway)

... the bad,

(I didn't quilt low enough on the top row so there was random big puffy areas- therefore I did a tiny loop-de-loop across the seam)

.... and the GOOD LORD THAT'S UGLY!

Eh... It's a Christmas quilt. I'll only have to look at it one month out of the year. :)

This free-motion junk has a definite learning curve!

Quilters: What do you do when you have to let off the petal to reposition- how do you avoid the jerky, sharp motions that ruin your nice curves?

little bits of Christmas!

Char over at Crap I've Made is hosting a Nativity Parade- I don't have my "real" nativity yet, but after I took a picture of what we DO have, I went on a sort of rampage taking pictures of the Christmas stuff in our house- which I will now bored you with! :) Yay Christmas!

I bought this nativity piece in 2007 from an artist in York, SC. It's all one piece and has a cute little light that switches on under the star. It's not really my "Christmas style", persay, but I didn't have any sort of navtivity (or anything else Christmasy, for that matter) so I got it! I think it is so cute!

This sweet little crowd is currently residing in Noah's room for the Christmas season. We had a small light up tree in there to use as a night light, but it was too bright and he would stay awake at night to stare at it.... thus, it was replaced by these guys!

Here are a few shots of my favorite things around my house at the moment:

Progress

So much to do, so little time...
(or should I say "Sew much to do..." ah forget it, I'm lame.)

Christmas Quilt:
Basted.... just sitting there waiting for me to come up with a plan for the quilting...

Honestly, I'm totally uninspired in this department at the moment. Thoughts on the quilting here? Playroom Bunting:
Finished. I learned today that it's hard to get a decent picture of something hanging in a window, even on a cloudy day (see Thanksgiving banner below). This bunting is made using V & Co.'s tutorial and a Punctuation charm pack. Love.

It was so fun and easy I started wondering if this would make a good gift... maybe for a baby shower? Or just for fun? Then again, maybe I'm just a little obsessed with buntings...

Embroidery:

I'm not complaining AT ALL, but embroidery for other people has taken up a good chunk of my time lately. I love the extra moo-lah and I love helping people come up with unique gifts for their family and friends. I don't however, love that icky orange thing on the bag on the right. Blegh!

(side note: GO GAMECOCKS! BEAT THE TIGERS! Joe and I will be tailgating with my Clemson-alumni parents for the big game this weekend... should be interesting!)

Thanksgiving Banner:
Finished! Ok, so I had grand dreams of coming up with something precious based loosely off this awesome Thanksgiving bunting (seriously, Laura? Let the buntings go...)- I even ordered a charm pack of that Moda Awesome used in the Elijah B. banner! Then, Joe, Noah and I were wandering aimlessly around TJ Maxx and I saw the letters below all tied together with a broken brown cord on a clearance table for $2. Umm... heck yes I can string those bad boys up on some brown ric-rac and call it a day! So I present to you, my $4 Thanksgiving banner.
YET ANOTHER Christmas gift for Noah:
I had a chance to run up to Mary Jo's alone (that NEVER HAPPENS! BTW, if you haven't heard of Mary Jo's, click that link and drool... a lot. Yup, that's near me. Be jealous. Be verrrry jealous.) yesterday and grabbed some of this Celebrate Suess fabric and orange webbing for straps- I'm planning to make Noah a library bag. I realize it seems a bit early, but we like the library! Also, my dad has started a Suess book collection for Noah so I thought the fabric was an appropriate choice.

Ok, so this isn't progress, it's just cute.
Noah enjoyed his first oreo this week.
Dang, my kid is cute.



Speaking of progress, I thought I would update you on sweet baby Sam Sartin's progress kicking cancer's butt (link to their blog is at the top right of the page).

(picture from Cassie's blog)

Sam was admitted today for his stem cell transplant. This handsome bald man will be in the hospital for a loooong time for this procedure. Please remember Sam and his parents Cassie and Alex in your prayers as they begin yet another step in this journey to Sam being well. Sam's birthday is also Thursday- Turkey Day! Happy (early) Birthday, Sam!

Seriously? He can't really be THAT big!

How on earth could it only take 14 months to go from baby-in-my-belly to making friends on the playground (actually, he just ran over to him yelling with his arms over his head in a "touchdown" motion and somehow the other kid miraculously understood) who have a football and then throwing it back and forth with them?

Too fast. This is all moving too fast.

etsy shop

You may not have noticed, but my etsy shop is currently on vacation mode. I'm not sure when I'll be back (hopefully not too long).

I've been told by friends that I don't owe anyone an explanation, but- eh- here are my reasons:

1. We are going to put the house on the market soon so the "sewing room" has been packed up and is now the "play room"- which is amazing by the way. To go from toys all over the den and the kitchen and oh, every other room in the house, to all toys in one room is AMAZING. It's also so fun to watch Noah explore a whole room without restrictions. He loves it!

2. I was so tired. My shop doesn't have a history of being uber successful, but you may remember that for Halloween I got very into applique and put up a few new things in the shop. These little witch shirts sold like hotcakes (you know, if hotcakes took you an hour to make from start to finish). I was finding myself sewing everytime Noah was asleep- nap time? SEW. Night time? SEW!

Most nights, 2am looked like this:

... and while I'm extremely grateful for the buisness and all the awesome moms who bought their kids such fun things, it was stressing me out. All that coupled with the pregnancy and subsequent issues with the pregnancy left me feeling exhausted. So I'm taking a break. I'm still making things locally for friends and friends of friends, but it's nice to sit around with my husband at night and watch tv shows that you wouldn't normally give a second glance to, but now I'm sucked in for life.

Ah, that's the life.

The one where Laura pimps out Shutterfly.

I'm sure I don't have to explain to anyone what Shutterfly is, but I want to talk about them a little today (selfishly). I love sending photo cards (LOVE!) for Christmas and for all of our married Christmases I will admit I have been a bit ridiculous. I mean, I'm sure that no one really studies the cards that I send out (and I'm well aware that they hit the bottom of the trash can on December 26 each year), but I spend a TON of time picking out the pictures and deciding which layout to go with (usually the one with the most picture spots on it!) - it's a little 4"x8" yearbook of all the cool stuff we've done that year!

The first year we were married, we did a Shutterfly card that had a collage of a wedding picture, a pic of Molly and Rufio and a random really cute shot of Joe and I at the Salty Dog Cafe in Hilton Head:

Last year, I was a bit preoccupied (hello, newborn baby!), so we did a simple, one-photo card with a pic of my little puddin' pop under the Christmas tree:

(umm holy crap. Look how tiny he was! *squish!*)

I have no idea what we'll use this year, but I do know that we will be using Shutterfly cards and thanks to their awesome customer service and suppot of bloggers, it will be on the cheap! Check out how they are making it easy for bloggers to get a great deal on Christmas cards!

wordless wednesday

I know I'm supposed to "Respect the Turkey"

... but I'm already thinking about Christmas.

I've been knitting a lace scarf for my Grandmama's Christmas gift on and off for about 4 months now. That's an old pic- I've gotten about 14" of it done so far... we'll see if it actually gets finished by Christmas.

I also started piecing a fun Christmas quilt yesterday using these cute fabrics: AND this week I am going to attempt to make a copycat of this Starbucks wreath: (don't worry, I won't hang it yet! I wait until the day after Thanksgiving, thankyouverymuch.)

Now, if we really want a good laugh and more proof that I'm an 80 year old trapped in a 25 year old's body, we can talk about my actual wish list for Christmas, which includes:

Elizabeth Hartmans' new book:

... an Accuquilt GO! Cutter (seriously? I'm drooling a little!): ... and cleaning ladies.

Seriously, I suck at cleaning.
There's absolutely no excuse for it.
There are just a thousand other things I'd rather do than scrub a toilet.

I am also SUPER stoked to have crossed the 3 hardest people to shop for off of my Christmas gift list: Joe (who may read this so I'm not risking telling what it is) and my parents (who can barely check their email, so I'm comfortable telling you we paid the sitting fee for a photo shoot of them, us and my 3 brothers with the wonderful Samantha McLaughlin of Reflections Captured Photography! I am so stoked- we haven't had family pictures taken since I was in HIGH SCHOOL!)

It feels nice to know that at least a few gifts are already taken care of. I think I already feel a smidgen more relaxed about the whole holiday season- and isn't that the point?

the post no one wants to write.

We lost our baby.

I had more bleeding (I had a good bit of spotting with this pregnancy) and went back for a 3rd ultrasound and internal check. The ultrasound tech told me what I could see for myself- "I'm sorry, sweetie. There's no heartbeat." and then "... it's only measuring about eight and a half weeks." when I was about 12 weeks along.

This whole pregnancy felt different. I told a friend just Thursday that I just didn't feel pregnant. Every time I've gone in with bleeding, the ultrasound tech has only said "there's your baby, there's it's heartbeat" with no explanation of the bleeding- which never really reassured me. The baby was measuring 2 weeks behind as of week 8, and that also always stayed in the back of my mind despite reassurance from the doctor to "be optimistic- you probably just have your dates off." I told my mom just the other day that I was so tired of this in-between. I either want to know everything's ok, or that it's over.

.... and now I know it's over.

While I am incredibly sad and yesterday was absolutely terrible, I am surprised at how quick and easy the D&E has been for me. My doctor is a close family friend whose wife went through this after their first child (they went on to have 4 more) and he was extremely kind and sympathetic. He quickly called over to the hospital and told me that we would have this all taken care of as quickly as possible. Thankfully, my mom got Noah immediately after we left the doctor yesterday morning and between her and Joe's parents, he was well taken care of until about 5pm today when he came home. Also, a great friend who is also a nurse at the hospital was there for me and Joe through the entire surgery, which helped put me at ease, as this is the first time I've ever been under anesthesia (I won't lie, I was terrified). My wonderful friends from church have brought meals for the past two nights and will continue for the next couple nights (which, by the way Jessica, is totally appreciated and above and beyond anything I expected) and I have been covered in prayer since the moment all of this started. I have had minimal pain and I have an amazing husband who has been so strong and taken such good care of me for the past 48 hours.

I also know that my Lord knows what's best for me. I am certain that God's plan for my life is better than anything that I could ever possibly imagine and this just has to be a part of it.

my little blockhead

I hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend!

Why I'm slack at blogging, in photos.

Yup... we've had a busy fall-

and are looking forward to a busy spring as well!

:)