WIP Wednesday: I've returned!

After my little week and a half break, I've finally returned!

A crazy work week, a cold, and this whole 8 months pregnant thing can really put a damper on my blogging!

My WIP continues to be my Scrappy Quilt Along. All of my blocks are assembled, and I have sketched out a layout. I am determined to use my stash for this whole quilt. I wanted to stick with a modern theme- so I picked a gray mottled piece that I had buried in there.

The fabric makes me think of granite, with black and gold flecks. I'm not quite sold on it - so I flipped the fabric over and got a mostly solid gray with light black flecks.

I WELCOME your thoughts and opinions on this!! 

 My mom and her 'quilting cronies' - a more traditional quilting bunch- prefer the front of the fabric.

 I just can't decide...

Then I tried my hand at machine paper piecing. I have an idea for the outer border of this quilt - so I played around with some wax paper and scraps:

 It was really easy, but I have a hard time keeping the grain right.

Are any of you experienced with machine paper piecing? Is grain something I should worry about when doing this?

My little guy automatically adopted the above piece as his own. He had an absolute meltdown when mommy took her flying geese back. (Life is hard when you are 14 months old.)

So, because this piece was practice, I Made a pillow for him:

 Of course, now that I made him a pillow, he hasn't looked twice at it...

 

I also got a package of 7" zippers... will be great for Christmas goodies!

 Check out Zipit for some awesome prices and selections on zippers. They were awesome to work with!

My sisters, mom, and I had our craft show this weekend:

 I made a stack of burp cloths and took my schnibbles and created pom-pons out of them.

 Unfortunately, the shoppers were not in the market for burp cloths on Saturday...

Everything I made was from my stash - so I did not count out of pocket expenses.

The table split 4 ways was $5 per person.

My grand total profit was -$3.

There will always be other craft shows :)

 

Anyway, we had a fun little Halloween. No trick-or-treating this year...

Next year, when mommy is not 8 mos. pregnant, we will all have fun trick-or-treating!

I'm linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday: 



 

And with Sachiko's Link Party:

  And I made it through Blogtoberfest!  

 

Have a great Halloween Night my friends!

Blogtoberfest #8 - Manic Monday: Keepin' it Real

This Monday has left me quite exhausted.

 So I give you this:

This is the current view of my dining room table. My craft cupboard has exploded and left me with this chaos. Looking at this photo, I feel like it should be in an I-Spy book.

Can you find the sunglasses?

The grapes?

The dryer venting?

The purple handled scissors?

This is fun! I might have to post the key tomorrow night!

 

Anyway, I mentioned last night that I used up a can of spray paint on some Goodwill items. I wish I would have taken 'before' shots, but have only finished products to show you.

This basket was Christmas red and only $.99. Fall flowers were on sale at Joann's this weekend. This will be a centerpiece for my table. (Once it gets cleaned off!)

This vase was a peachy-pink and also $0.99. I popped the leftover flowers in here and added an orange sparkly bow.

I really like the affect of the spray painted glass vase. This is getting my wheels turning for some 'every-day' decoration for my living/dining room.

Tomorrow starts the Scrappy Stash Quilt Along. I am so excited!

 



And Blogtoberfest continues!

Happy Monday everyone.

Blogtoberfest #7: Crafty on a Sunday

This little lady is such a cutey!!
I had so much fun crafting her up!

She was originally a paper grocery bag. I stuffed it with newspaper and painted it orange. For the face leaves and stems, I used some felted wool from a previous project using upcycled wool sweaters. I added quite a bit of orange purple and green glitter. The curly-queues are made from the bag handles with a little craft wire fished through them. And then, to finish her off, I added a bow that I made from a cut strip of burlap. I 'roughed' it up by dry brushing it with a little brown paint and more glitter. So easy!!
I also used up a can of black spray paint on some items found in the home dec area of GoodWill. I can't wait to show those to you!

I was also able to start sewing for the craft shows coming up at the end of the month. I'm hoping to pad the Christmas fund with the money I might make from it, so I wanted to use as much from my stash as I could.

One of the craft shows is sharing a venue with a mom-to-mom sale on the same day... I have a ton of flannel, and a ton of cotton scrap.... So I decided to make burp cloths:

They measure 16 1/2" by 8 1/2". Quilting cotton on the front, flannel on the back. I only finished 2, but have a few more started. I enjoy the improv peicing for the face of it - but it takes a while to get my brain in the improv way of thinking.

Any suggestions on a block that might read well on the face of these?

I also made good head way on cutting strips for the Scrappy Stash QAL hosted by Ellison Lane Quilts. It all starts October 9th!

 

 



Have a wonderful evening everyone!

Blogtoberfest #6: Short and Sweet Saturday

My son spent the afternoon with his grandma today. This let me be super productive!
We finished the day with a good pot of chili and pumpkin dessert. The kitchen is clean, company has gone home, and baby is in bed. This mama is beat! I will have to post pics of my weekend productivity tomorrow. 

I thought I would post another Halloween craft that I put together.
This wreath was a faded green Christmas wreath in a free box at a garage sale. I brought it home, spray painted it black, added lots of purple glitter, and a glittery orange bow.  A really fun 'upcycle' project!

 

 

Updated 10/07/12 - Probably won't use the blogger app on my phone again!

Blogtoberfest #5: Friday Night - As a Young Mom

So this is the normal view of my far living room wall:

I made this quilt from a mystery quilt class that I took with my mom. I finished the quilt top the first winter we were married, while we were living in our tiny apartment.

I actually picked out the paint colors of my living/dining room based on this quilt.

I finally quilted it this spring and it has hung on the wall ever since-

 until today!

 

 I hung up my "Little Bit of Boo" quilt that I made late last fall. I added ribbon ties to the top to add an extra bit of 'cuteness.' It doesn't quite fill up the wall the way I had envisioned it- but now I'm imagining a runner style wall hanging on either side...

What do you think?

(Something else to add to my 'October-to-craft' list!)

I added a few more 'close-ups' of this one. It features embroidered blocks and pinwheels (I have a weakness for pinwheels). I took the pattern from a magazine that I purchased a few years ago. I believe it was the Fall 2010 Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler... it's somewhere in my extensive quilt mag collection. If you are interested, I will dig up the exact info on it for ya!

Tomorrow, I'll dig out the rest of the Halloween dec!

Are you more of a 'cutesy' Halloween decorator? Or do you gravitate to the ghoulish?

I love my cutesy stuff - all the way!

 

I had originally planned for tonights blog to be short and sweet... posted from the blogger app on my phone as we drove to the other side of town.

That was my plan anyway.

So, as I mentioned in my blog yesterday, we just celebrated our four-year wedding anniversary. We had plans tonight for a (long over-due) date night. Complete with a trip to the movies (I can't remember the last time I was in the movie theater).

A family member had offered earlier in the week to take the baby overnight. Last night, we recieved a phone call from her asking 'what the plan was' for tonight, becuase she had dinner plans with friends...

*Sigh*

We really need to find a nice little high schooler to babysit on Friday nights.

This family member does this often. She will agree to take the baby, and then at the last minute act like we never discussed a final plan.

Any suggestions?

 

I will say, though, the three of us had a great time going out to the local Coney for dinner and then hanging out with all the other young parents at Target.

That brings up another question... Has anyone else ever noticed how Target is the  place to be on a Friday night if you have kids?

Hehehe, we have to get out of the house sometime, right?