I've been a little busy.

.... coming soon to an etsy shop near you!

... and more!

Oh, machine applique- where have you been all my life?!

ta daaaaaah!: I *FINISHED* the Crazy Mom Quilt-a-long!

There were moments when I had my doubts, but last night I actually FINISHED Crazy Mom Quilts' Quilt-a-Long! SCORE! I started this quilt in April and have just now finished... September 9th. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

This quilt is made using Modern Meadow by Joel Dewberry for the front, the backing is a sheet from Target ($7.99!) and the binding is a random navy/white that I found at HeavelLei Creations on Etsy.



I quilted it lightly, only along the white sashing, so that it would stay fluffy and light (and also because I'm a little lazy and still not brave enough to attempt stippling).



The finished quilt is about 63" x 63" and the perfect size to snuggle with. It will live in my den for a long, long time!

Thanks for an awesome (yet way more that I bargained for!) quilt-a-long, Amanda Jean!

I'm pretty horrible at this blog thing.

Tomorrow, I will have pics of (what I believe to be) an amazing, beautiful-yet-extremely-time-consuming, awesome monstrosity of a finished quilt for you!

... but for now, might I distract you from my extreme lack of content with a few pictures of my offspring?

I have a new favorite store...

Guess where Joe and I went on a getaway this past weekend?

Atlanta!

Guess where I couldn't help but go visit while I was there?

Whipstitch!

(forgive the fish-eye pics- we only had the GoPro with us!)

We walked 2.2 miles to get there (which I did not plan on!) but it was so worth it!

Whipstitch has some of the cutest and most modern fabrics I've ever seen! I love the selection and it was great to see fabric in real life that I've only been able to browse online - we don't have anything like this where I'm from!

The shop had a great pattern selection and a ton of samples sitting out! Knits and precuts were all in the front of the store along with a sitting area (it is a sewing lounge, after all!).

Oh, hi Joe!

The day that we visited, there was a class on fabric designing/printing going on back here in the classroom section! So cool!
Oh yeah, and they also had TONS OF FABRIC!
and a fat quarter HEAVEN!

I went a little nuts and spent a little more than I planned, but look at all this loot!

and yes, that is some laminate cotton that it's all sitting on. That awesome green houndstooth is now topping a tv tray that we use in the den- it's so cute and wipes clean so easily!

LOVE!

Oh, ruffles... I need an excuse to make you more often!

I was recently asked to make some outfits for a baptism- a dress for the little lady and a coordinating jon-jon for her big brother. I LOVE putting my head together with someone else, dreaming up a plan and seeing it come together! The baptism is next month, so the mom wanted some fall colors- particularly orange. She decided on Trees in Orange by My Minds Eye and this is what we came up with for the dress

(though it will be sporting an orange monogram as soon as we decide on a style):

Oh man! I LOVE RUFFLES! As the mom of a boy, I have absolutely ZERO need for ruffles, and I wasn't even 100% sure of the method I would go with for this dress. Should I serge the edges of a strip and make the ruffle from that OR fold the hem and ruffle it? Should I do the ole "basting stitch" method of gathering or try something new (since everytime I do the "basting stitch" method it always seems uneven SOMEWHERE to me!).

In the end I did the folded hem and then tried a new way of making ruffles- I marked the front, back and sides of the dress (and ruffle strip) and then marked between each of those marks once (so I had 8 marks on the dress and 8 marks on the ruffle strip). I matched up the marks and pinned those 8 places then took it to the sewing machine (well, to be honest, I did a tiny sample run with some scraps before I took the actual dress to the sewing machine... I'm not THAT brave!).

At the sewing maching I used a regular stitch length and just started shoving/cramming/smooshing the fabric up as I ran it through the machine. This was actually EASIER for me to do evenly because I was only working with a little teensy area at a time. When I reached a pin, I just took it out and kept on smooshing! After I had "ruffled" the entire hem, I took it to the serger, um, serged it, ironed the seam allowances up and then went back and topstiched along the outside! Voila!

I am now racking my brain for any ruffle projects that could pass for "age-appropriate" for me.... hmmm...

Noah turns UNO!

Ok, first off- I never claim to be original: both Dana and Allie rocked the UNO party at their little guys' first birthdays. I thought it was the cutest idea, so I had a go at it! I can't get over how cute it ended up- and so very thrifty! I only spent $30 on decorations- $6 on a pack of UNO cards and $25 on NOah's favorite thing on earth- balloons!

Well, first things first: Birthday Waffles

Later that afternoon, while the 1 year old napped, we decorated and set out all the goodies!
Our gift to Noah- a Smart Trike! He LOVES it!

The UNO card garland was so easy- I just ran the cards through my sewing maching using my 1/4" quilting foot! It strung them along so evenly and I love how it turned out!

In a last-minute attempt to be crafty, I made this... "mini quilt" (sort of) to hang on the mini-flag pole by the mailbox! This sign was on the front storm door:

mmm... food!

Oh yum! These regular old chocolate cupcakes were jazzed up by The Pioneer Woman's mocha icing (that, unfortunately, is not on the website- only in her awesome cookbook!)- phenominal!

Present time!
(oh, and here's pretty much the only picture of us with Noah on his birthday... and the only shot of the UNO shirt I made him!)

Noah's amazing new kicks that my little brother picked out for him!

CAKE COMA!

soon, when people ask me how old Noah is...

... I'll have to say "He's one.'

... and then cry a little.

My little teensy (ok so he was never "teensy") boy will be one next Sunday and it seems like over night he has started doing these "tricks". I didn't realize it until tonight when we were at a friend's house and she was freaking out about the fact that he can high-5, but he can do a lot! For the sake of my horrible memory and that poor, dusty, unopened baby book with nothing written on the blank pages, let's take a look at things Noah can do at 12 months:

• walk (blegh. I envy everyone whose children didn't walk until after 12 months)
• high-5
• stick his tongue out
• clap
• dance
• sign "finished"
• give kisses (precious)
• give hugs (even cuter because he goes "mmmmmm" while he hugs)
• blows kisses
• shows his muscles (hilarious!)
• use a fork (we're working on that one, but he can definitely stab something then get it in his mouth!)
• make a "motorcycle" sound ("bbrrmmm")
• go to bed on his own without nursing (Thank the Lord! I am FINISHED nursing! I was never one that loved, or even liked, nursing but I wanted to stick it out until he could have cow's milk. Our pedi gave the ok to start introducing the milk at 11 months and except for one middle of the night wake up where nothing else would calm him, I haven't nursed him in over 10 days.)

I can't believe that I only have 8 more days of having a baby. I act like that's a sad thing, but it really isn't. He's getting to be so much fun and it's hard to imagine going back to the infant stage with the next baby, but sooner or later that will (hopefully!) happen. It seems as though each stage is more exciting and fun than the last, and I'm very excited for each new thing he learns!