Done and Done

I finished both the quilt tops, quilt #1 ( which was really quilt #2) and quilt #2 (quilt #1) and they both look pretty good, if I do say so myself. Obviously, there are lots of flaws in both, but they are done, and now I just need to get them layered with batting and backing, and quilted. And bound. But for me, the hard part is done.

Here is yesterday afternoon's effort--

the sashing strips around and between quilt blocks on the original, favorite blocks

 and today, I added the border strips.

Same fabric, just making it large enough to fit a crib size batting and backing

and the second quilt, with all the sashing pieces and corner blocks, with the borders around it, also large enough to fit crib, batting and backing.

Done, and it's not even lunch time!

A Good Morning's Work

I psyched myself up, put on my Big Girl panties and got back to work on the baby quilts this morning. I cut the newly purchased peach fabric into 3 1/2"x 12 1/2" strips and sewed them to the blocks for Quilt #2. I'm doing quilt #2 first so that I can make all my mistakes on it, since it doesn't have my favorite blocks in it. Now I'm ready to start work on quilt #1, but here is proof of my efforts...

 Quilt blocks with peach sashing strips in between them,

 Quilt block strips with sashing strips and corner block strips laid between them,

and the finished quilt top.

 I still need to put border strips around the quilt top, then layer the batting and backing, but this is a good indication of what I've gotten done. Not too shabby for 2 hours work.

Busy

I had a crafty day last week. They are getting to be few and far between, but it was lovely to have an idea of something to do, and all the supplies with which to make it.

If you've read anything of this blog, or have looked at my blog followings, you know that I love the Our Best Bites blog. I print lots of their recipes and put them into my family cookbook binder. Well, between those recipes and others that I had collected and put into the cookbook, it was overfull. The cover sat open at about a 30 degree angle. I decided to create a new cookbook to hold all the new, collected recipes, and keep the Taylor Family Cookbook with the original recipes.

Last Wednesday I spent a few minutes perusing my patterned paper stash and found the perfect line of paper that I wanted to use in my new cookbook. It was Studio Basics 101 by Creative Imaginations. The embellishments were simply buttons and ribbons I have in my supplies. I have had this paper in my drawer for a year or so, waiting for the perfect  project. The colors are bright and cheerful, and "match my kitchen!" Here are the results of my crafty day.

  

I spent a few minutes putting the printed recipes into this new book. It's full.

Shortcut to Love

We celebrated Valentine's Day over the course of the whole weekend. Friday morning Tad brought home this lovely red rose. I love receiving flowers. :)

We went to dinner Friday, intending to eat at Outback, but it was overcrowded, so we went to Panda Express. Hello, Honey Walnut Shrimp! Yummy! We saw the film "Gulliver's Travels" and enjoyed it lots more than we thought we would. Afterwards we went home and watched "Despicable Me" with Hailey, and totally loved it.

Saturday we spent doing our usual Saturday activities--cleaning, cooking and reading library  books. In the last week I've read "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follet, "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" by Alan Bradley and "The Confession" by John Grisham. That's a pretty steady diet of reading. It's been good to come up for air. I enjoyed them all, in various ways.

Monday was the actual holiday, and after exchanging our gifts, (Scrapbook magazines for me, Boise State cap for Tad) we went for lunch and to run a few errands. I made frosted heart shaped sugar cookies in the afternoon. (A food blogger, I am NOT!--This explains the title of the posting.)

We wanted to celebrate with Hailey, too, so we picked up a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy.

We watched "Cars" and ate Pizza and cookies for FHE. It's been a fun weekend. Happy Valentines to all my sweeties!

Still Here--Really!

It's been nearly 2 weeks since I've posted, and there's been absolutely nothing to post. Seriously. Tad and I have started cleaning the family room, post demolition, and I can't take a picture of that. "This picture shows the tons of dust left behind, and that picture shows clean". I don't think so. I haven't even been able to quilt anything because I only found the fabric 2 days ago that I need to finish the quilt tops, and I haven't had a chance to start working on it again. Taking a picture of my rearranged scrapbook room shelves would be absolutely too exciting for words, and pictures of my library books would be underwhelming. Suffice it to say that it's been an uneventful couple of weeks, but things are looking up. After two weeks of idling, I feel like things are moving forward again. Stay tuned!

Happy Valentine's Day to my eternal sweetheart!

Help! I'm Quilting and I Can't Stop!

Tad is away this week attending a 40 hour HazMat class, so I'm having all my days to myself again. It's just like he's gotten a job, but not getting paid. Oh well. He's out of the house, and that's a good thing.

I've made another quilt block today, since I decided yesterday that I might as well use all of the quilt blocks that I made 4 years ago, and make a second baby quilt. I had to make another block today because, of the 13 blocks I made 4 years ago, 3 of them were the wrong size and you can't have blocks varying in size in a quilt--not if you don't plan for it. I didn't. So I picked my five favorites using all the fabric colors, made one more, and I will put them together in the same quilt. That's the posting from Thursday. Today I took the remaining 5 correctly sized blocks,

Prairie Queen

 Variable Star

 Rocky Mountain Puzzle

 Checkered Heart

 Album

 made 1 more block--Charm

and now have enough blocks to make baby quilt #2. I spent several hours last night calculating fabric requirements to finish these 2 quilts and I should have enough fabric to border, back and bind both quilts. When I first started learning to make these quilt blocks, I intended to make a table runner--4 blocks. Then I had the BRILLIANT (not!) idea to make a queen quilt for our bed. Ummm, no. I nearly had enough blocks, and I even bought all the fabric necessary to border, back and bind it, (6 3/8 yards worth) but I decided I didn't want to have it on our bed. Besides, like I mentioned earlier, 3 of the blocks ended up the wrong size, and I don't enjoy quilting enough to re-create them again. Then, I thought about making a quilt for Hailey's bunk bed, but knew it would look bad if I only had a quilt on one bunk (like it actually is, right now) and she didn't seem interested in having a quilt. There are some really cute comforters out there, and she wanted one of those, instead. So I shelved the quilt for 4 years.

Enter a tiny little girl who has been the inspiration I've needed to get these quilts out of the top of the closet and rethink things. This is how I've decided to make the crib quilt(s). Besides making me feel better about myself, I won't have to worry about my quilt teacher asking me about their progress any more. She's nice, but it's rather embarassing that I haven't gotten them done. And now I'll have two of them! Then I don't ever plan to make another quilt again, at least not a pieced block quilt. This is just too fiddly for me and I'll be glad to be done.

All Done

Tad started working on the floor bricks Monday

and finished tearing the bricks out of the family room yesterday about noon-ish.

Today he swept, vacuumed and cleaned and here is the result--a freezing, cold, family room corner. We'll probably end up washing the walls and wiping down/vacuuming/dusting all the other surfaces in the room--soon.

I have also been busy this week. I got out the quilt blocks that I started 4 years ago, took a good look at my notes and fabric colors, and created this quilt block (called Bowties)

 and it will go with these (Whirling Star) 

(Log Cabin)

 (Rail Fence)

 (Dutchman's Puzzle)

 (Card Trick)

to create something looking a little like this

with these fabrics for corner blocks (light blue solid), sashing strips (peach solid) 

and backing/binding (blue floral)

and when I'm finished, it will be a lovely, little crib quilt to add to my Grandmama's Hope Chest.