Facing Reality

I've finally decided to pay attention to what's been beating me over the head lately; I rarely have time to craft anymore, much less blog. The baby takes up A LOT of time! (Who knew!?!?) I am working on things at such a slow pace that I don't finish anything in time to blog. I've decided to take a break from blogging to keep the pressure off of myself. I don't want to feel like I HAVE to finish something, it adds stress!

I may be back at sometime, if I ever get organized enough, and I will still be reading all of your blogs!

Miss you already!
EL

Finishes!

I know I said I'd get back to you sooner, but the only finishes I had were secret, so I couldn't show you.

I've been working on my Round Robins for the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild, and we can't reveal them until after our July meeting, so it will be the end of the month before I can show you any of that!

I finished my brother's 30th Birthday Quilt about 3 1/2 hours before his party . . . and it was a 3 hour drive to see him. Just call me Nick; Nick of Time!!! Here we are with it.

I got the pattern from Robert Kaufman called Ravel. I used Kona solids to make it more "manly", and really fell in love with using solid colors. Everything looks much more crisp and clean!

I also made some Mason Jar Pin Cushions I saw on Pinterest for me, my bestie, and my grandmother. They are so stinking cute!

Finally, Miss A and I have been taking swimming lessons the past 2 weeks, and we LOVED our teachers, Lori and Mason. So I made them Coffee Cup Cozies (pattern by Crafty Staci) and gave them a Starbucks gift card.

I have 2 goals for July. First, it is my Christmas in July month, and I plan on getting as many Christmas crafts done as possible. Mostly I want to finish our stockings, but I also plan on working on a tree skirt, coasters, and Christmas quilts.  Second, the end of July begins the OLYMPICS! I LOVE THEM!!!! It is my first year home to watch anything and everything, so I plan on having several quilts quilted and half bound so I can veg in front of the TV and finish binding them.

So there's my plan, but we all know what happens with the best laid plans of mice and men!

See ya!
EL

PS: USA, USA, USA!!!

Mental Progress

I've been making a LOT of that!

Hee hee!

Things have been topsy turvy here with plumbing problems, bathroom remodels, and a 15 month old, so not much has actually gotten done, but I have a good plan!

What you see before you is  my to-do list!

I have 4 quilts basted and ready to be quilted, 2 borders to work on for the DMQG Round Robin, 2 tops with blocks done that need to be pieced together, and a receiving blanket that needs binding put on.

I leave for vacation in 10 days, and I'm hoping to put a pretty good dent in that list. If I get the quilts quilted and half bound, I can take them with me to finish the hand-binding part of them sitting by the river drinking wine! :)

The DMQG borders have to be done by June 14, and I've already screwed the rotation up once, so I HAVE to get it right this time! Again, I have good plans . . . but no action!

I'm working hard, but someone doesn't like my theme music!

So cross your fingers for me!

I'll let you know before vacation how I'm doing! :)

See ya!
EL

SORRY! :(

Hiya!

I know, I know . . . I COMPLETELY bailed on my promise to blog more.  My only excuse is that we recently had a family situation that pretty much knocked me off balance. Once I got back on balance, I still didn't do much sewing, so I had nothing to blog.

But I plan on rectifying that RIGHT NOW!

*warning: this will be a photo heavy post! ;)

"Somebody" had their first birthday . . . AND their first cupcake!

We tried desperately to get a standard Texas photo: baby in the bluebonnets.  Did not work.

Miss A met cows for the first time! I think I have a farm girl in the making!

My amazing Grandmother turned 89. It was a good party!

I had an AMAZING birthday! (Found this beauty in an estate sale, and bought it for $100.)

 My amazing SIL and BIL brought me back birthday presents from Australia. They are 2 templates and a mini-quilt kit from Material Obsessions! Kathy Doughty actually picked out the templates for me herself! :) I'm too cool for school now! ;)

What little sewing I have been doing has been for the DMQG Round Robin. This is a quick "in progress" picture of my center block. We will be revealing our final quilt tops in July, so I'll have a post about all the borders I've been doing then.  Once this is complete, I will be able to FINALLY cross one thing off my 2012 to-do list . . . a Christmas Quilt for the guest bedroom! :) Hurray!

This weekend I was able to get 2 quilt tops done. The top one in this picture is one on the list, a big-girl quilt for Ali. The bottom one is a surprise, so I'll post more once it's been delivered.

See, there has been some minor progress, but it's forward motion. I'm pretty happy with it, but now I need to keep up momentum. I'm off to make some backs and baste these quilts!

See ya!

EL

First Finish!

I have my first finish of the year! :)

Problem is, it's not on my WIP list! Oops. But at least I have momentum!!!

Here it is.

My awesome SIL gave me 2 iPhone cases for Christmas, both cross-stitch! We found them on Pinterest . . . here is the link from it.

I decided to use the pink one to make my own design. I wanted to showcase my love of quilting, so I put a wonky star on it . . . then wrote out Wonky Star, mostly because I like to say "wonky"!

I wanted to white one to show my quirkier side . . . if you don't know what this is, you may want to skip to the end. If you do . . . it's DOCTOR WHO! I ADORE this show! :) I got the cross-stitch pattern from an amazing shop on Etsy, the CraftyCompanion! This woman is wonderful! :)

Well, it's a finish at least! Stay tuned for more!

:)

EL

Happy New Year!

I bet you never expected to hear from me again!

The past year or so has been (as you might expect) extremely busy. Not much crafting has been going on in this house, but I think that's about to change! (Knock on wood).

In the past month, the house has gotten mostly organized, thanks to Christmas guests, and Miss A has decided that napping in her crib is finally acceptable! Hurray!!! :) Things are falling into place for crafting.

Basically, for the new year, I made a list of all of the WIPs (Works In Progress) that I have at least started. There are 30 of them. YIKES!!!!!

My resolution for this crafty year is to have half of them done by Christmas 2012. Think I can do that?!?!

I've made myself the counter to the right to keep track. I won't bore you with the whole list, but I will keep you up to date on my progress.

Until I actually have progress to report, though, I will show you a Christmas present. My grandmother and great grandmother pieced this top while my grandmother was pregnant with my mom. My grandma quilted it and gave it to my mom as a high-school graduation present.

I love this! This Parasol Lady is my favorite!

I plan on making something similar for Ali, and my mom (probably tired of me asking for pictures so I can work on a design) decided to give this to me. I ADORE it!

Yea for quilty gifts! :)

Thanks for sticking with me. Hopefully I'll talk to you soon! :)

Bye!

EL