busy hands...

... lead to a calm mind, right?

Tonight was the second meeting of the Anchorage Modern Quilt Guild, and one of our members taught us all an easy way to do cathedral windows. I'm really loving this technique and that it's a simple project to take along for sewing by hand.

The timing is just right for me to work on a simple project like this. Not only is most of my sewing stuff still packed away while we wait for the last bit of remodeling to get finished, but Cooper is going in for surgery tomorrow. Something relatively simple, but it's still nerve wracking. I know I'll spend some anxious time in the waiting room, so hopefully sewing these little windows will distract me a bit. If you have any good vibes to spare, send them our way!

I'm baa-aaaaack!

Phew, what a trip. We survived 4 flights. We did Disney, Sea World, and Universal Studios (including the disappointing Harry Potter Theme Park-- huge waits for a much smaller area than expected, although the girls liked it). We spent hours upon hours in the pool due to 90+ degree temps. Rob and I celebrated our first anniversary. Cooper turned 6 months. All of the kids got in tons of precious time with grandparents. That in itself was pretty awesome.

I'd love to do a more organized post, but I'm still picking aqua latex paint out of my hair and listening to the carpet installer pound in tack strips in our new rooms downstairs. I'm excited that so much got done for the remodel while we were gone, but there is still a ton of work to do. Our whole house is getting new windows tomorrow. All of the inside and outside trim has to be painted by then. And it's pooring rain outside. Luckily my brother-in-law is on his way over to help.

scenes from the weekend

We had such a productive, but fun, weekend.

Dinner out with family (ignore the crazy table manners)

Landscaping completed. Imagine the "before" image as piles of dirt with both dead and living weeds. Not a nice sight. So I gave up my silly mission to finish sewing goals before I did this, and I'm so glad that I now have beautiful beds of shrubs and perennials!

Lots of time outside, enjoying sunny weather and storms that never left the mountains.

There's no crafty business. Wondering why? Well, we head to Orlando for a much needed family vacation in a couple of days, and while we're gone we're having our downstairs family room/office/sewing space/junk depository remodeled. When all is done, Avery and Claire will have a new bedroom, and I'll have a sewing room! So in the meantime, all of my fabric is in garbage bags and the sewing machine is off for servicing. It will be worth it!

Masking tape will be replaced with walls, dog-eaten carpet will find a home at the dump, and our home that we love will now fit our family even better.

I hope your weekend was just as great! I'll check in from the road with photos of our trip. And although my fabric and goodies are all packed up, I still plan to work on projects on paper. In the works-- DSQ9 designs, more mini quilts, and a pattern for a pieced pennant quilt. Oh yeah, it will be good.

and the winner is...

Lucky comment #35, which belongs to: Ashley!

Ashley said...

absolutely gorgeous! such a great design - I've been admiring greeting cards with pennants on them, but this is so (so!) much better! I love the quilting, and that striped binding is perfect!

thanks for such a generous giveaway! :)

Thank you to all who entered and left such nice comments about the mini quilt! I hope your weekend is a beautiful one!

mini quilt giveaway!

I decided I should share some good ju-ju after my lucky giveaway wins yesterday. So this morning I whipped up a new version of my mini pennant quilt, and all you have to do is comment here to win!

I'll leave comments open until Saturday, June 12 at 10:00 p.m. Alaska time. Edited to say I need to close comments a bit earlier, Friday, June 11 at 10:00 p.m. Alaska time to ensure getting this baby mailed off before we leave on a trip! Comments are closed and the winner has been chosen! Make sure that I have a way to contact you! Winner will be chosen at random. Good luck!

my lucky day

Let it be known that I never, ever win giveaways, drawings, contests, etc. So imagine my surprise when I open my email this morning and have a note from the lovely Monica of Quilt While You're Ahead saying that I won her giveaway for some awesome tropical bath goodies!

(image from Monica's blog)

Then imagine how even more surprised I was to check Amy's blog, During Quiet Time, a little while ago to find that I won some of her beautiful printed cards, which she just started selling in her etsy shop. Aren't they beautiful?

(image from Amy's blog)

I mean seriously, two wins in one day? I might as well stop entering giveaways after this, because I think I've used up a lifetime of luck all at once. Thank you Amy and Monica!

To top it off, the mailman just showed up with my recent order from Sew Mama Sew. Every piece was on super sale, plus I got 3 free fat quarters with my order. So there's something like 36 new fat quarters in that stack. Yum, yum, yum.

What a day.

the pillow

My pillow for the Pillow Talk {Swap} 3 is complete!

As much as I griped about the cathedral windows, I really love this and will be sad to see it go off in the mail! Although knowing how our dogs destroy pillows, it will be much safer in it's new home. Luckily the pillow I'll be receiving in the swap is destined for Cooper's new room, where the door will stay CLOSED.

cathedral windows

My favorite thing so far about joining online swaps has been that I've met some awesome new friends. The next best thing to me though is that they stretch me to learn new skills. It's pretty obvious that my partner in the Pillow Talk Swap likes cathedral windows, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I love how they look-- but they are absolute hell to make. If you're my partner in a future swap and you want something like this, well, you're out of luck! :) But I think I'll be smart and list these on my preferences from now on with the hope that someone will make them for me instead!

jack's jungle quilt

I finally got baby Jack's quilt in the wash today so I could take a photo. It's yummy!

Rob promised me that using that zebra print was in no way girly or weird. I sure hope that little Jack's parents agree.

Katrina, I hope you like how it turned out!

In other news, this little guy is lucky he's so cute, because he has reverted back to waking up every hour at night.

It's making me (and Rob) deliriously tired to say the least. Obviously he's eating enough...

But maybe it's teething? 5 month developmental craziness? I'm trying to read "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" for help, but honestly I'm so tired I can't even figure out what it's telling me to do! Any advice you've got is more than welcome.

summer got in the way of my Spring to Finish

I really thought I was going to get through all of my Spring to Finish projects. But it's hard to sit inside at the sewing machine when summer suddenly shows up in full force. And it's sunny! And 80 degrees! In May! Absolute weather insanity here for the last week, and I've loved every minute of it.

I did finish 6 out of my 9 projects though.

1. May blocks for Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee 

2. Quilt my Liberated Log Cabin wallhanging
3. Make a baby boy quilt for Katrina's nephew who is due in June Photo to come later today!
4. Finish the top and back for my batik log cabin quilt, then send it off to a long arm quilter
5. Finish the two Girl Scout quilts. (I'm not loving these, so I've been putting them off.)
6. Potholders for Malka's potholder swap

7. Mini embroidery quilt swap

8. Black and white plus one color, not square mini quilt

9. Quilt and bind the Funky Momo.

My reward for finishing everything was going to be new shrubs alongside the house. It's a landscaping project that needs to happen anyway, but I'm sticking to my promise to get these finishes completed first. And now that we're looking at some cloudy weather over the next few days, I'm hoping I'll make some more progress!