First Baby Quilt for 2008! Only 3 Months Late.

For the record I had finished the top of the quilt before the baby shower in February. I just was unable to layer it together, quilt and finish the binding.

I truly enjoyed making this quilt. I made it for the baby girl of my close friends Marty and Chappell. I have known Marty since he and my little brother became friends in middle school! (I am very close to my little brother, so we actually share some friends.) Regardless I wanted this quilt to be extra special.
I chose colors and traditional patterned fabric to match the look of the nursery. I would have used toile, but couldn't find any at Joann's. I know I should have looked online, I just wasn't thinking in that mode. Selecting fabric has always been a hands-on thing for me. I do have to put a shout out to a great online store, Quilt Taffy, that I have recently discovered. I can not wait to start buying from this gal.

I have another quilt to make soon. My little brother is expecting his first born June 5th. They don't know the sex so I am waiting to the little bundle is born before I begin.

Yeah I finished something

Close up of the pattern




All right gals look and behold I finished a quilt! Woo Hoo for me. Granted it is only a baby sized quilt for my older brother's first child, but I am excited I have been able to finish one project completely since the birth of my little one. It took me a week to complete it with most of the work taking place over this past weekend. Why the rush now you may be thinking, well the baby had decided to come early so I had to finish this sooner than later. Hubby watched the little one while I was in my sweat shop for the weekend.

My younger brother wife is pregnant with their 1st and that baby is due in May...I think I will start that quilt now just in case :)

PS I have even crochet a little more of my blanket...sigh one day it will be done.

Drumroll, please...

I finished the Puzzle Quilt!




I didn't meet my goal of having the horizontal ditches sewn before my trip to Texas, but I managed to knock all but 3 of them out the day I was leaving. I finished it up today. I got on a roll working on it last night & it became like a book that I was close to finishing...I just had to see how it was going to turn out! Also similar to finishing a book, I now feel an empty space as though I don't know what to do with myself...Fairy costume, here I come!

Here are a couple of closer up shots so you can see the border stitching & the individual pieces:

And here is the back with a close-up of the outlines of the puzzle piece stitching:

What do you guys think? I think it looks pretty nice for a first "solo" effort!

I had a great time at least

Well it turned out I did most the driving so no "car time" to crochet :( Here is the photo of my progress...i got the blanket in the bag, hook, yarn and scissors and there they stayed snuggled for the entire weekend. I need a new pedicure too!

I was unjustly fired from my job yesterday...i suppose no one ever says they were justly fired, I just wish I would have been fired for cussing out my boss instead of not meeting his unattainable demands. 2 good things from this event are 1) i don't have to work with my dumb-a** boss 2) I will have plenty of to work on unfinished projects or at least start new projects that can hang out in the Corner of Unfinished Projects

True to form, my pics are behind my work

So I've been working some more on the quilt. Here are the latest pictures with the borders in tact & the backing:



(Yeah that's my foot. I'm standing on a chair to take the pictures.)




So as I mentioned, I've actually done some more work on it since I took these shots. I have actually cut the batting, and pinned it all together. I also got 2 of the ditches stitched one night last week when I was waiting up for my niece to come in from visiting her boyfriend.

I am hoping to have all of the horizontal ditches stitched before I have to leave for Texas. There are 7 of them, so I'm not overly optimistic that I will actually meet that goal, especially not now that Dallan has returned from his 3 week travels. We'll see. I have discovered, though, that making my sewing maching stitch sideways is not as difficult as I thought it would be. There are some very, shall we say, "creative" looking lines happening on this quilt, but I'm hopeful that when it's all done, all the wonkiness will simply add to its character.

Hooray craft blog!

This is great! When sheba told me about this idea, I said "I'm in" before she even finished telling me about it.

So, I guess I'll start...I'm Amy, I'm 30 & I have 2 kids - a boy (Dallan: 2 1/2) & a girl (Julia: 7 mos). I have to sneak my crafts in wherever I can, usually in 10 or 20 minute chunks.

I have a couple of projects going on right now. I recently went to a scrapbooking night & got all of my photos from when my son was born organized so that I can start putting together his baby book. Man! That was a LOT of pictures! I actually discovered that I was missing a couple of sets of photos, that I'll have to go back & print off & integrate in to my sort box.

I also love to quilt. I started shortly after my son was born & my first quilting project was a quilt for his bed. This is what it looks like:



It's definitely not perfect by any stretch, but it's functional & it was a good first effort I think. :) Speaking of stretch - a little advice: only embark on a project involving T-shirt (jersey) cotton if you're prepared for lots of weird stretchiness & a good bit of patience. It was really hard to work with that stretchy stuff.

I'm currently working on my daughter's quilt. For hers I found a pattern for a jigsaw puzzle quilt & am using lots of Pooh prints & pastels for it. It's still a work in progress, but here's what I have so far:



I've actually done a bit more on it since I took that. I have two of the borders sewn on. The other two are pieced together; I just have to attach them & then I'm onto the batting & the back! I'm dreading the stitching in the ditch for this one b/c I have to outline each of the puzzle pieces...Yuck! Considering that, I'll likely be done with her baby quilt by the time she starts High School. :o)

Okay, that's enough about me for starters. As you can see, I am verbose!