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Hey everyone, I'm moving blogs. Same blog name, same content (you know, all things fabric related), just under an easier web address to remember. Please update your bloglovin', feedly, or rss feeds. Come find me over here!

Katie Jump Rope

Thank you all for the comments on my last post, reminding me that quilting is about the process, not always the end (though the end is so nice).

I put aside the scrappy trip quilt this weekend and picked up another work in progress, my Katie Jump Rope quilt.  Did anyone else hoard this fabric?  I splurged on a fat quarter set several years ago and then it sat and sat - I was waiting for the perfect project for this.

When I found out I was pregnant with the  bee last year, I knew this was the perfect fabric for his eventual big boy bed.  This will just be a simple square within square twin-sized quilt. I figure I have a good two years before I need to actually finish this one.  Plenty of time, unless of course his big sister claims it first!

Slow

Geesh.  This quilt feels like it is taking me forever.  I thought it was supposed to be quick!  Everyone is either lying about the speed of putting this together or else I am just very, very slow.  I have faith in humanity so it really must be me and the fact that I am spending at least half of my limited free time reading The Game of Thrones (oh my god so good) and another one quarter of it planning the next quilt I want to make.  You know, because I don't already have four quilts in progress and I have so much free time.  Right.  

Divide and conquer

Do you break up tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks of units too?  I do this with many things - running (ok, i just started doing this again, but still), working, cleaning, quilting.  My scrappy trip around the world will consist of 36 blocks total.  I've completed 8 so far. Last night I started working on 12 more.  Slowly inching along...but that hasn't stopped me from thinking about how I will quilt this bad boy.  Any suggestions?

Balance

I wanted to write about all the reasons why I don't sew much these days.  Why I don't come here very often.  I'll give you two.  

 The bug

The bee

Tell me, how do you find time to do things to feed your soul?  How do you carve out a space in your day/week/month for just you?  

Stars and squares

With two little ones in tow, it's almost impossible to find a moment to breathe some days, let alone sew.  But it makes me happy.  So I try to fit it on those rare days when I am not completely exhausted.  

I decided the Bee had to have another quilt after he was born.  I had been wanting to try scrappy stars for a while.  They were fun and "quick" to make.  I'd love to make a whole quilt with them someday.

I started this when the Bee was a few weeks old, and finished it before he started crawling.  I call that a success.

Deets:  Stars and Squares baby quilt

Size: 42x42ish

Fabrics: Lucy's crab shack charm packs, Kona white solid

Wavy line quilting inspiration

Via Flickr: 1. Amazing wavy line quilting by @angelafmq #quiltcon, 2. wavy quilt lines, 3. wavy line quilting, 4. Aye Aye Captain Quilt

Remember this quilt? It's been sitting, already basted, and patiently waiting to be quilted over a year later. There was little hope in sight of it being completed any time soon. I just could not decide how to quilt it. Then I started seeing some wavy line quilting around the internet and the inspiration struck. Hope may be in sight afterall.

Make me feel better. How many projects have you let sit uncomplete (but oh so close!) for over a year?

WIP Wednesday

My two year old often asks to run outside and yell "Ahhhhhhh" with her friend Ella B.  Doesn't that sound fun?  I would love to just run around and scream with delight with no inhibitions these days.  Talk about a great stress relief. 

Instead, I try to find a little time to quilt. 

Current .project (until I get distracted by something else): scrappy trip around the world.

Oh, hello

Oh, hello there. I've been a little busy since I last posted. Meet my latest two creations. Mr. F, born on Christmas Day and his quilt top, which I hope to finish sometime before he learns to crawl. Tick tock, tick tock Steph!

Wanting

Something from Amy's stash for my stash...how did I not know about this until today?

Yay motivation

I'm taking a short break from sewing swoon blocks.

I felt the need to finish something.

Hey, why not quilt one of the four tops I've made in the past year? I even had a pieced backing for this one ready to go.

Oh, it feels good to be quilting something.

Details: Stacked coins quilt made with leftover fabrics from my first stacked coins quilt .

More on this quilt to come.

WIP Wednesday

As I was writing a list of unfinished projects (ufp) to my sister (she's a good sounding board), I realized I've come down with a little ufp problem in the past year. Here I was thinking that I hadn't been able to sew anything. In reality, I've sewn four quilts but I haven't managed to finish any of them! What good is a quilt top just hanging out in a pile? No good! So before I take on any more quilting projects, I need to finish the ones I've started.

The first step is to list those projects. Unfortunately I've only photographed one of said quilt tops (another reason to start blogging again - better documentation!). So here it is, my finished HST quilt top. It's made with Anna Maria's Good Folks fabrics (hmmmm, lovvvvve that fabric line) and kona cotton in sand I think. It was a bear to piece and took a very long time. I think that's why it became a ufp, I needed a little break from it after sewing the last seam. My goal is to have this quilted by the en of the summer. I'm realistic that way.

More unfinished quilts to share later! Oh because there are always more!

Tuesday Inspiration

Tuesday dreaming, originally uploaded by CreativeReveries.

A little inspiration on this Tuesday morning. Looking at pretty quilts helps keeps me motivated to keep sewing so that I can make all the things on my growing to-make list.

Swoon block 2

The Swoon blocks are surprisingly coming along pretty quickly in the little time I have to sew. I have five of nine blocks complete.

Lately, as I read blogs of other sewers with young children, I wonder, how do they find the time to sew??? I feel a little jealous. But then I realize they must make the time, or claim the time. Which is what I am trying to do now. A few minutes here, a couple more there, every minute counts.

I'm Swooning

I've joined the Swoon bandwagon. How could I resist? A good friend got married three years ago and I still haven't given her a present. Yes, that's a new record for me. This friend is a landscape designer and also helped me plant a garden. (Maybe I will show you pictures of the garden assuming I manage to keep everything alive!). For these two reasons, I thought she deserved something extra special. What's more special then a swoon quilt made with (mainly) flea market fancy fabrics?

Here is one of three blocks completed so far. My goal is to complete the top in the next two weeks and have it quilted and binded so I can hand deliver it to her in July. I have a lot of work to do!

One year

A little over a year ago, this sweet girl entered our lives. What a year! What a girl! Every day I feel so lucky. Sewing and blogging were put on hold, but I hope to be back here more often. I miss this space. See you here again soon.

A new use for baby gates

A new use for baby gates, originally uploaded by CreativeReveries.

What is it about fabric lying on the floor that draws all the attention of little furry felines?

As I was sitting at the dining room table, sewing together the blocks I so carefully laid out, my curious cats were eying the fabric laid out on the floor. And scheming. Yes, scheming.

One of them decides to go for it. He runs across the room, and before I know what is happening, stops and skids directly on the fabric squares. The squares fly everywhere! I scream! I shout! "Argh!"

Thank goodness I took a picture of the layout before the above scene happened.

Enter the baby gates - now called cat quilt gates in my household. We can now live happily together.

Quilting for baby

Quilting for baby, originally uploaded by CreativeReveries.

I finally decided on a quilt design for Baby D. Yes, I'm still on a half-square triangle kick. I think I will actually finish this one in a timely manner though! I'm hoping to finish it soon, because I have a gazillion other quilts and items I'd like to make for baby when I'm done with this one.

Twenty weeks

Twenty weeks, originally uploaded by CreativeReveries.

There's a little work in progress that 's going on behind the scenes over here. Twenty weeks down, twenty to go...and it's a girl!

Wonderland Baby Quilt

My good friends, Ali and Chris, had a baby girl in early November. Everyone was so excited to welcome their baby, Sophie. Somehow I managed to finish making her a baby quilt just in time for Ali's shower.

I used two charm packs of Wonderland fabric by Momo for the top and some Anna Maria Horner Garden Party dots for the backing. The Wonderland fabric is one of my favorite fabric lines. Sadly it seems hard to find now. Luckily, I bought two more charm packs of this fabric before they stopped making it and so you might just see another one of these quilts sometime soon.