Quilt part 3

I am slowly making progress over here. Seems like once I lost my steam, it took a week or so to pick it back up. Actually, it is more like I feel bad being locked up with the quilt. Once I get enough "family time", it is easier to decide it is okay to get some "mommy time" with this.


Here I have sewn two sets of circles together to make half a circle, then pinned 2 of the halfs together to make the full circle. On the side is the fabric I chose to use for the back.


See! Once line of stitching later and I have a whole circle!


Once I had all my circles done (18 in all!) Don and I laid 16 of them out on the bed to figure out how they should be sewn together.

I think I am about half way done...

Inspiration

While hiding from my quilt, I was cruising the net. Maybe it started by blog hopping and turned into eating most of my morning, but I came up with these inspiration pictures of things I liked and may want to try in the future.

You know, when my quilt gets finished.



Would you like to share a link that inspires you?

Quilting part 2

My quilt is coming along pretty quickly. I sewed the little pieces together, and the next step was to sew the curved strips into the inside circle. All this pinning is taking so much time that I am afraid if I stop I'll never want to pick it back up again. So I have been going and going and going. All day, all night. Until my eyes felt like they were going to jump out of my skull in protest, then I stopped. And since have picked it back up a time or two, ironed a bit and then pinned some more.



Finally I got all the inside circle pieces sewed on, and began to work on the outer circle parts. Luckily I figured out a few ways to make the process go faster this time around (including getting my mom to help me iron!) and I have about 90% of them completely done.



I just have to get motivated to pick it back up and finish that 10% of pinning/sewing and then things will finally start to come together.

Jumbled Mess

The other day while sitting on the LoveSac in Annie's room while pinning my heart out on this quilt, I glanced up.



All put together, it is a jumbled mess. A longer glance made me laugh a bit because of how askewed it all was. With the boys playing in here in their new fort (why do they only play in here when I am trying to get some peace and quiet?) I have had to move the iron to right next to me. In order to do that, it needed lots of creativity to get it somewhat leveled. A broken drum, some unused baskets for the boys room now turned into a holding spot for clothes needing alterations or mending, and a discarded piece of wood almost gets the jobs done.

Lots of craziness going on in one small space, I am too well aware. But the little parts that make it up, made me smile and how put together it made a big mess. Just like my life. Probably looks crazy to the random outsider, but inside it all makes a bit more sense when you look at the little details in between.

Making a Quilt

I am finally making my first adult quilt. I made a child one last year for baby Gage, and another for my niece's first birthday a couple months ago. Both seemed to take a long time, and were challenging in their own way, but I am ready to step it up and make one for me to keep!

I have had the pattern (Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl) for well over a year. Since the pattern has been out for some time, it has been really difficult to find the same fabrics that she used in the picture. After lots of searching, I found all but a handful and then finally acceptable substitutes for the missing few.




The other day I finally started my cutting. It begins with about 30 pieces, and those need about 20 of each. My mom came over for a couple hours to help me get some of the cutting out of the way, but it still took me hours and hours to finish that first step.

Can't wait to start sewing so I can see it starting to come together!

Bits and Pieces

Little bits of what is happening in our house.


ROXY


Roxy is still here, looking as cute as ever. Things are not as dreamy as I would like them to be (cough cough) -but they are looking up. Potty training is still a struggle, but much better since we got the doggie door in. We do seem to have one pee incident a day in the house. No rhyme or reason other than just trying to tick me off. :) She is very nippy -to the point of trying to keep children away from her, but I know it is largely due to the fact of she is living with three crazy little people in our house hold. It is getting better day by day, but it has been hard.




WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?


Here in Las Vegas we are in the season of spring. Along with the pretty spring weather, we have been making more trips out to the parks. The boys are really into baseball lately -not sure how or why- but it is nice we can finally get out all the baseball equipment we have been staring at in our garage for years and years. Even Don and I got into the groove, tossing the ball around at the park and wowing the boys with our "super far" throwing skills.




Although we are at the playground, Wyatt takes his food into consideration first and foremost. He is NOT going to put his pizza down. It is coming with him.




Don has been busy with the boys. He takes them for rides on their bikes. Sometimes to the store for a treat, and sometimes to the railroad track (you can see the Las Vegas strip in the background).


Recently the Touch-A-Truck event was in town and Don took the boys to that one morning.
The boys are debating whether be a driver with UPS like their Uncle Jeremy...






Or just hop in the DeLorean for the afternoon and work on looking cool.



















I LOVE..


When I download the camera card into my computer and see pictures the boys have taken.



PROJECTS

Both Don and I have been up to some projects. Mine are all sewing related -first a quilt for our niece's first birthday, and then some crayon and paper holders for the boys.



Don has been busy with some major projects. First he had to fix our car so it could pass smog. He let the boys help him until one of the kids dropped a bolt into the engine. Luckily Don was able to get it out without any damage done. Second, he has single handled (which is so weird because usually we are a 50/50 team) taken care of the issues we had in our downstairs bathroom. He has had to take the tile up, tear a wall down to the studs, and is now building it all back together.

Last, our always on going project seems to be our garden. We have branched out this year -tearing out a majority of the bushes in our flower bed and planting lots of veggies instead. Both cherry and regular sized tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, lettuce, strawberries, grapes, watermelon, lettuce, onions, carrots and so much more has been planted. Now we are just watching and waiting.




US


We are looking forward to our upcoming summer plans. Don deserves his vacation time and will use some of it doing family stuff like camping in Utah, as well as San Diego and Malibu. He also is hoping to go hunting with some friends this fall.

I have been really working hard to lose weight and it finally seems like I am back on the right track. Two pant sizes down so far, and seeing results like that make it so much easier to keep the momentum. My goal is to be fit enough by the time the boys go to school to sometimes drive them to school, jog home and then jog back to pick them up before school is out. And have enough time at home to be productive in between- not just get home and then have to turn back around to get them.




DID YOU CATCH THAT?


The boys start kindergarten next year. They are registered for half day. The lady in the office was speechless when I requested they be in the same class. Their preschool teachers say the boys are great together, no distractions or disruptive behaviors -so if it is not an issue, I see no reason to split them up their first year in a new school. Keep the posse together!




UNCLE CARL, this is for YOU

The boys love these marshmallow shooters you got them (was it for Christmas?). It makes mom's lawn look all sorts of springy with the pastel mini marshmallows all over the yard. Guinness loves to eat them, so that helps with the clean up (at least in the front yard).

They are finally mastering the scooters, too.







So we have been busy, but how do we balance the kids being busy enough to stay out of trouble at the same time of getting mom and dad some rest? Is it possible?

Probably not.

But we still enjoy it all :)

My First Quilt

I have sewn before and made rag quilts (with the seams showing out) and of course many aprons, yoga bags and such. But this is my first quilt QUILT. And it is dang cute. But of course, baby Gage is even cuter :)