On your mark, get set, go!

I found out a day or so ago that my friend is having a baby shower.  Her first girl!  So I pulled some fabric from my stash and I have a sweet, girlie pattern all picked out. 

I have six days.  No problem.  (at least I hope it won’t be)   

More Blocks

Here are the rest of the blocks for the Bloomin’ Pinwheels pattern I am testing for Anita. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t often work with 12” blocks.  I prefer to make quilts with smaller blocks but this has been fun and bigger blocks make a bigger quilt top much faster.  There are definitely advantages.

 

I was so pleased when I put all the blocks on the design wall with how nice they all look together.  I was kind of wondering how that would go as I pulled the fabrics from my stash for each block. 

Next came the center which is a dresden plate block.  In all the years I have been a quilter I have never made a dresden plate.  That’s one of the things that keeps my interest in quilting.  There is always something new to try and I love to stretch myself. 

It ended up being a most of the day project but I just enjoyed the process.

I took my time and hand appliqued it onto my background square of Kona White.  I knew if I rushed things and sewed it down by machine I would regret it. 

I appliqued the circle by hand too and I am very pleased with the result (although the circle was a lot trickier than I thought it would be and didn’t turn out perfect).  I love how it looks up on the design wall surrounded by the blocks. 

I got a fun surprise in the mail.  A  Moda Bella solids color card!   I won it playing Bingo over at The Quilt Shoppe blog before Christmas.  I am a Kona girl but I am excited to try Bella solids and now I can pick just the right color to order. 

I took the kids to the dollar movies today. (they had the day off school, yay!)   We saw a 3D movie and now I am feeling a little nauseas.  I know it didn’t have anything to do with the whole box of Red Vines that I ate.  heehee

Keeping it in perspective

I was so geared up for 2011.  I started mentally making plans for the new year just as the last present was being unwrapped on Christmas.  I’m not usually that excited but for some reason I had a lot that I wanted to accomplish in 2011. 

I won’t bore you with the list, but just know that it was a long one.  There were a lot of goals in regards to knitting and quilting and they were all about accomplishing a lot of both

A few days into January I started to realize that the only way I could accomplish all my crafty goals was to cut out that whole pesky sleep thing and ignore the fact that I am a wife and mother. 

It was a good reality check.  I had to realize that I am not superwoman and that finishing all my UFOs by the end of January probably wasn’t going to happen.  (that was just an example, not a goal I actually set…ok, maybe I hoped for it a little)

I didn’t throw my goals out all together.  I just pared them way down.  I plan on doing all of the same things, just a lot less of them. 

I’ve been knitting on my Autumn Haze Afghan and I am on the last repeat.  I can’t wait to have it done so I can snuggle under it.  I have been working on some projects for my sewing job.  But I think the most crafty fun I have had so far has been testing a quilt pattern for a blog friend.  Do you like the blocks I have made so far?