Sort of obsessed

Since quilting's had a backseat these days, I wander around Etsy.  Here are a few of my new favorites:

This one is on my Christmas list- I've been told that Santa might have already bought it and to avoid opening packages.
Cold toes warm heart print.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62740431/holiday-sale-cold-toes-warm-heart-print

Suddenly I feel the need to have a locket and love the idea of a vintage one or a steampunk version.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/43594464/steampunk-gears-heart-locket-brass-4

I have really small hands, so finding a metal thimble was very difficult.  My current favorite was found at a local "junk" (treasure) shop.  (Its the one in the picture above on the left) I think I need to find a back up for when I lose mine.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/83883992/vintage-silver-metal-thimbles

Metal cubby holes (just because)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/84309271/industrial-metal-parts-cabinet-bin

Anyways- happy Christmas shopping!!

Sweet Relief

Hello out there!  Where has the time gone?  I've fallen off of the face of the blogging earth.

Emily is over a year now and very close to walking.  She's certainly all over the place these days.  (This would be why I'm not quilting). Its been a total roller coaster ride of a year and she's been sick with ear infections, viruses, and colds more times than I'd like to count. We spent her birthday in the ER for 8 hrs thanks to croup.  Ugh!

Here's Emily on Halloween.

I've only made one quilt over the past 6 months.  Its a pattern from Moda Bake Shop called Charming Hearts.  I made mine out of a Fig Tree Millhouse Inn layer cake I had and added the purple for the background.  I called mine Sweet Relief :)

For the back I found some Fig Tree fabric from another line at 50% off! Woo Hoo!

I had it machine quilted by Quilting Sweethearts- again that whole time thing.  Hank seems to enjoy it.

Not too much else to report!  I've been ever so slowly hand quilting a quilt I made like 3 years ago.  One of these days it will get finished and one of these days I'll have time to quilt again!! (here's a picture of the quilt in this old entry)

I hope you are all doing well and I hope to have a chance to catch up on everyone's blogs- HUGS to you all and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Still Alive!

Its been ages since I've done any quilting or read any blogs, but I do think of all of you often.  Just wanted to say I'm still alive :)

I can't believe Emily's 7 months old now!  She has two teeth and sits on her own quite well.  Here's a recent picture.

 

I hope you're all well!! HUGS! 

Puxatony Phil and some Valentine's day love

I finally made some time to sew! Thanks be to God and my lovely husband!  He recognized I was going a little nuts (hmmm... was I standing there staring at my fabric stash again?) and he helped me have some time to myself.  Bless him.

I decided to use my Millhouse Inn layer cake and I've started on this project: Charming Hearts @ Moda Bake Shop.  I found a pretty pastel purple to pair with the layer cake and I finished all the pieced hearts.  Love an easy 4 patch.  Just the sort of easy project I need right now!

I love Valentine's day decorations.  It seems like when February rolls around I'm just about to loose it with winter.  Way to go Puxatony Phil! I really hope you're right!  This is totally not quilting/sewing related, but I really enjoyed this article about getting through the winter.  Its from MOPS and oriented towards mothers of young children, but most of it can be applied to anyone at any stage of life. 

Emily was sick with her first cold this week (pour on the guilt about her going to daycare) and she's lovingly shared this cold with me.  Its been an interesting few days.  But here she is sharing some Valentine's day love (she's still holding out on letting me snap a shot of her smiling!).

I think I need to make some chicken noodle matzo ball soup!

Inspirational

I feel like I'm on inspiration overload right now!  There are so many great projects out there that I want to dive into.

I'm really inspired by Carolina Patchwork's video game quilts.  My brother is a Nintendoaholic and this quilt is definitely in his future!  

Next up is this Tokyo Subway Quilt by Oh, Fransson that Tricia blogged about!  I guess I'm on a pixel quilt kick or something, but I think they look amazing!

Then my local quilt shop had this free pattern for a Jigsaw Puzzle quilt using 2 1/2 inch strips.  A great scrappy quilt.

I love these "Give Thanks" blocks at Jenny of Elefantz that Marsha blogged about.  If I weren't like 6 months behind on my Snowbound blocks, maybe I'd do this (who am I kidding!  I barely have time to blog! hahah).  I'll download them.  Top of the list of giving thanks is that I'm thankful I survived my first week back to work.

Then there's this fun Millhouse Inn fabric that I got for Christmas two years ago that I love:

This time of year I always feel a bit down because of the cold and dark.  Its great to look through all these pretty projects to feel inspired.  Plus, I always pull out this book- Remember this one?  It came out a few years ago.  If you've never seen it, its basically a list of 14,000 things like "kneading dough" or "flashcards".

I love this book.  It really does make me happy and I always think I should write out my own list of things. Such as this deliciousness!

 And Em's first smiles (yet to be captured on film). 

What's inspiring you?

Lookie what the postman brought!

I am so touched today.  Beth (my creations) told me to expect a package.  Today it arrived and I am shocked at what a beautiful keepsake she sent Emily!!

Look at this beautiful blanket!! Emily was so excited it was hard to get a good photo!

Also included were a beautiful note, a rattle, and the cutest pair of elephant socks.  We put the blanket right to use!

Beth, I love love love them (so does Emily)! Thank you ever so much!! 

Warm and cozy

Thank you everyone for the warm wishes after my last post.  I hope to get caught up on everyone's blogs soon! 

Over the summer I made a few projects from Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing for Baby.  One of the projects was a swaddler. It turns out Emily will only sleep when swaddled (Lord help me when she starts rolling over and we can't swaddle her anymore!!)  So, I made her a new snazzy swaddle wrap for daycare.  It was sort of pre-daycare therapy to make something cute for her. Of course, this project took forever to finish!! hahah!

Here she is swaddled in her bassinet:

 

 Sleep?  What's that?

Check out this wild animal!

Once again, I would highly recommend this fun book.  This is a great simple project (as long as there is no baby around). 

Stay warm everyone! 9 more weeks until spring!

Moving along

Hello out there my long lost blogging buddies!  How I miss you all! I hope you all had wonderful Christmases and New Years!

As expected, life has been absolute craziness since little Miss Emily came along.  With her coming 5 weeks early, life was turned upside down even more than expected.  I'm happy to say she's growing as she should and sleeping (a little) more each week.  I have one more week left on my maternity leave- eeeek!!  I'll be going back to work 3 days a week, but working two 12 hr days.  I'm not sure how I'm going to manage.

I haven't done any quilting except this little quilt that I made for her for her first Christmas. Its all my favorite scraps and took me an extraordinary time to make.

 And here's the back:

She's had lots of photo shoots with her new quilt:  Here's Christmas morning:

 Wearing the dress I wore for my first Christmas (it was cold so she just wore it over her onesie):

And stretching out:

Happy 2011!!