max and whiskers + hexigons

I think I'm in love.

Spring Break and the best mail day ever.

Holy Moly we made it! It's finally Spring Break! To quote my (used to be a football coach before he was a) principal- we're going with a 2-1-2 offensive/defensive strategy when we return! Two weeks before PASS testing, 1 week of PASS testing then 2 more weeks til SUMMER! I can hardly wait to be a SAHM again. I wish I could say that teaching has been wonderful, but that would be a lie- every day I leave with Noah still snoozing in his bed my heart breaks a little and I feel like I'm missing a day of his little life. He's growing so fast and learning so much I just can't wait to be with him all the time again! Whatever, I'm babbling.

Here's what I'm REALLY here to talk about today- best mail day EVAAAAHH!

The other day I went ahead and ordered more Amy Butler fabric (those green dots) to coordinate with the navy floral print. I think these are all the fabrics I'm going to use for one of those quilts I mentioned in the last post.

I am 99% sure this fabric will be made into a quilt verrrry similar to this one from Quilt Story, only I'm planning to make the diamonds symetrical.

And while I was ordering those two prints, I couldn't NOT order this Modern Meadow 1/2 yard bundle and 2 charm packs of Central Park (what? Everyone else is doing it!). Lastly, today I recieved some stationary that I ordered for the recipients of the quilt (and myself) from Silhouette Blue on Etsy. Seriously- these look so amazing, and shipped so fast! You can order cards in half sets, too if you aren't 100% committed to a certain design. Love.

The last thing I want to show ya isn't anything that came in the mail, but rather something that has been (and I guess still is) a long time in the making. I am making Noah a quilt. That's right, he's been on this earth for 20 months, and I still haven't made him a quilt. Shocking, I know. I'm planning to make him a large hexigon quilt using Lily Quilts' Hexigon Park pattern for Moda Bake Shop, but leave off the squares around the edge. I'm using a layer cake of Max and Whiskers, which may be the cutest thing I've ever seen. I seriously squealed a couple times as I went through the layer cake. Here's how far I got last night:

Ok, someone hold my hand...

I'm about to pick fabric from my stash and make not one but TWO quilts from it. EEEK! I'm completely out of my element here. I usually order precuts or bundles from the same line- I don't trust my eye + brain enough. These quilts are for two sisters- one graduating from college and one graduating from high school. After looking and looking online, I never saw anything I wanted, Joe said "Shouldn't you have at least SOMETHING here you could use?" (with the understood "because you buy frickin' everything!"). So here's what I came up with so far for the older sister: (excuse the crappy pics, it was late and I had to use the flash- I'm terrible at that white-balance stuff!) I love love love these together, but I feel like it's not enough- do I need to pull a green out from that navy Amy Butler print? I tried to put some blue with it but it was bad. I don't think I'd do red, through because of the pink... right? My second pile, for the younger sister, is a huge fail. Even looking at it the first time I wrinkled up my nose at it.

All of those colors are in the zigzag print but it just doesn't flow and 1 FQ of that zigzag print ain't gonna get me far!

So I regrouped and went through my scraps and came up with this:

I know there's no yellow in the bird print, but that's ok right? A friend mentioned that I should pull out more of the fuschia- would it replace the yellow or is the yellow ok because it's still in the citrus-y family?

Oh dear... I don't trust myself - I may just order some Modern Meadow and Aviary 2 and call it a day! :)

(I'm linking up at Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday!)

I love my Silhouette.

Ok, ok- I can't just come on here and whine-whine-whine without showing you at least a couple pictures, right?

I busted out my Silhouette this weekend and grabbed a few shirts from Walmart for $4 (the pink onesie was on clearance at Target for $2!) and made Noah and his not-yet-born-but-I'm-sure-they'll-be-buddies-friend Hadley some shirts.

remember Noah's peeps shirt from last year? Yeah, v2.0 is an upgrade!

I think it's safe to say I'm obsessed with the "smiley monster" font.

McFatty Monday and the post I could have written myself.

Have you ever read the Heir to Blair? Beth Anne (Blair is a pen name) and I were on the bump message boards a million moons ago at the same time when we were pregnant with Harrison and Noah, respectively. Her blog is hilarious and heartfull and a lot of times she reads my mind- although it may just be that years of ingesting sweet tea and grits will make people think alike. Who knows.

Anyway, she hosts a Monday morning link-up called McFatty Monday which chronicles her weight loss journey and asks others to join in. This is the first time I've ever joined in and if you hop on over and read her post for today, just imagine me reading it, sitting there wide-eyed at the screen with my mouth agape nodding like an idiot.

... today I am struggling hardcore.

After Noah was born I joined weight watchers and lost 31lbs, getting 4 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. I felt great- I was still not where I wanted to be, but it was better than where I was. When I got pregnant this last time, I gained a few pounds quickly- not because of the pregnancy, but because I was lazy and just dang ole just wanted to eat bad food (no sense in sugar-coating it, huh?). When I lost the baby, I'm not proud to say that I turned to food more than once (and am still guilty of doing that every once in a while) for comfort. I guess I felt that if I had been through the whole "having the u/s technician tell me 'oh, honey, there's no heartbeat' - losing a part of my family- enduring a hospital stay and d&e - missing out on beer for 3.5 months" thing, the least I could do was eat food that tasted good. I still don't think I've called BS on myself for that one, and I have the 20 extra pounds to back it up.

Blair wrote in her post another thing that I TOTALLY identify with- "You know how anorexics distort their body to see themselves as larger than they really are? I do that in reverse." Me too, girl. Me too. I'm wearing the same clothes I wore 20 lbs ago and while I think I look fine when I'm gettting dressed (because, honestly, EVERYONE sucks it in when they look in the mirror for that last glance-over), but I'll catch myself in a photo or in the mirror with my terrible posture and get a nice slap in the face from reality.

Alright so what am I gonna do about it?
A) I'm on day 11 of no soda (not even my beloved Diet Coke!)! Other than feeling like I was going to die for about 5 minutes yesterday (which could have also been attributed to me being a baby shower and realizing that the guest of honor was due 10 days after I would have been and then promptly excusing myself and having a complete meltdown in the car), I've been doing good! I got some awesome tea from Earth Fare last night- including "Morning Thunder" which goes without saying, is caffeinated.
B) I've got to make better choices for not only me but for my family. Joe and I want to set GOOD examples for Noah, but at the moment... well let's just say yesterday for breakfast Joe ate a piece of peanut butter pie. Yikes. (Noah and I had Kashi waffles and bananas, thankyouverymuch)
C) I've got to get moving. Whether it's Jillian Michaels at 6am or a quick run around the neighborhood to wake me up while Joe's getting ready for work or even evening family strolls pumped up a notch- something has to be done!

V and Co's Abby Tote

I feel like I suck at all this blogging stuff these days. I mean, I'm getting things done, but by the time I actually finish something and have a chance to take a picture, it's night time! Then, the next day, I forget and/or don't have a chance to take pics with daylight! (We won't even talk about the precious shirts I've made Noah with Expressions Vinyl iron-on vinyl- I want to show you but by the time I see him in the afternoon he's a mess and the shirt is so dirty!)

Well, not today! Yesterday I sewed up V and Co's Abby tote! My fabric (Robert Kaufman's Metro Living Rings in Pewter and Anthology Fabrics' Bryant Park Rooftop Garden in Yacht) came in the mail, I threw it in the wash then stayed up sewing til the wee hours of the morning (which seemed like a good idea at the time... but then 6am came early this morning!).
After school today, I actually thought to have Joe take a couple pics of it for me!

I look excited, huh?

As I mentioned before, I am a bit obsessed with the grey-yellow combo, though this is actually the first thing I've made with it! The bag itself was not tough to make- the pattern is very clear and concise. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a quick sew (like I thought it would be!), but it's not difficult! I like that it's reversible, but I don't know how often I will take advantage of that and may add some pockets soon to just make it a huge purse. I did add a 16"x6" fabric-covered cardboard piece in the bottom of the bag, but sewed a casing with the fabric rather than hot gluing it.

To summarize: great pattern, cute bag- remembered to take a pic in daylight. Woot!

current project (for someone else)

(please excuse the cell phone pics- someone has hidden the battery charger for the camera. I have my suspicions that it's a short, bald, handsome fellow. )

When I went back to working full time (while still working my 15/hr a week part time job), I decided I was not going to sew/embroider for people anymore.

The only thing is, I seriously SUCK at saying "no"... which is actually a good thing in this case!

I am so honored to be doing this awesome project for Mary Catherine, a sorority sister of mine from "back in the day". She contacted me, in oh January, and told me she has a bunch of aprons that belonged to her grandmother that she has had sitting around since she passed away in 2004- I immedately got excited. I got into quilting soley for the purpose of finishing my great-grandmother's unfinished quilt tops- I LOVE family things like this!

Mary Catherine asked if I could make 3 mini-quilts (about 24" x 36") for her and she is planning to frame them and give one to her mother, one to her aunt, and keep one for herself for Mother's Day.

So precious. How could I say no?!

After a lot of back-and-forth about the details/design, we decided on a simple half-square triangle design with Kona white. I think these are going to be awesome! The prints are all so different (to quote Mary Catherine: "some of these are really ugly"), but I think that's what makes it so great- I'm sure that each of these patterns hold a memory or two of her sweet Grandmama.

I can't wait to finish these up and send them to her!