Accomplishments and Lists

Well, I finished my table runner for the quilting challenge over at persimon dreams. I had to do a bit of marathon sewing on Saturday but I finished it.

It was only my second time actually "quilting" something so I am pretty happy with it despite some issues I had. With the first table runner I made, I had some bunching and puffy issues. I just figured my pinning wasn't as up to par as it should be and was told polyester batting has a tendency to make things puffier than cotton batting. For this table runner, I pulled the polyester batting apart so it was even thinner and really took my time and pinned like crazy. Well, the first square I sewed around was very puffy and the next section I tried to quilt had some major bunching and folding over. The third section was even worse. What made it even more frustrating was that I was using a walking foot and had dropped the tension down. I ended up taking those quilting lines out and taking off my walking foot and just using the regular sewing attachment. The quilting came out SO much nicer. I don't think it's perfect (I never think that) but overall I am happy with the end result. So, is my walking foot a dud, or what? I do not even want to mess with it anymore.

No quilting challenge this week so I am going to try and tackle my list of to-do's. Persimon dreams is also starting a quilt along this week and I am so tempted to join in. However, I am almost positive I do not have enough coordinating fabric so I am going to try and resist! Okay, so here is what I hope to at least make a dent in:

1) CLEAN THE HOUSE lol
2) Finish my friend's Spring bag (still need to get to Joann's for this)
3) Make a cat kitchen towel for another friend
4) Design and make a cat potholder for same friend
5) Email a third friend some fabric ideas for a gym bag
6) Finish my sis-in-laws bag
7) Finish a red and black table runner that I started oh, last year lol

So, how many of these will actually finish? Hopefully more than one, but we will see! Hope everyone has a great week!

The Week and Lessons Learned

Happy friday! Except hubby may be working Sat and Sun. :( Oh well, at least it is supposed to continue to be nice out. My older son's first dentist visit went extremely well. He did not seem to be stressing about it, more excited actually. He kept asking when his appointment was. Before we went in, he said he was a little nervous. The girl that did his teeth was amazing with him and had him laughing. His xrays looked fine and the dentist said he had beautiful teeth. Yay! Let's hope it stays that way. We took the younger one along too so he could see, even though he has another year and a half before they will give him his first cleaning. After C was done, little H climbed right up in the chair, ready for his turn. So, cute. I am definitely glad he had such a good first experience. I remember dreading going to the dentist as a child.


This week the boys have been doing a lot of pretend remote control play, mostly flying helicopters and planes. While we were visiting my family over Christmas, my Poppop took us out to the flying field he uses for his model airplanes. My husband flew the airplane a couple of times and C got to try for a minute and even got the plane to do a loop-de-loop. My dad has a flight simulator program on his computer and the boys are always asking him to fly it. My dad also has a smaller remote controlled helicopter that they thought was awesome. So, for Christmas they got remote controlled trucks and my husband got a remote helicopter like my dad has. The batteries on the trucks were dead when we got home (they were apparently left on the whole 11 hour drive home) and one has a broken control that we need to fix. They love when my husband flies his helicopter in the house (he enjoys it too) and so while he is at work, they make up their own. They use random toy steering wheels and bike ramps, basically whatever they find, as remotes for their planes, helicopters, motorcycles, etc. It is so cute to watch and I know my Poppop would be so tickled to see them doing that.


We got a little bit of yard work done the other day, there is still a lot to be done. This weather is making me want to go ahead and plant my bulbs and get the early spring garden started but I think I need to wait a few more weeks, just in case. In the meantime, there is plenty of prep work to do to the yard and I can start seeds indoors in just a little while. I also saw somewhere (probably Pinterest) cutting the top off a 2 liter bottle,filling it with soil and planting carrot seeds in it. That way the kids can watch them grow. I'm hoping to do that this weekend.


No finished projects to display. I only have 2 days to finish the table runner for the quilt challenge. I have the squares and inbetween strips sewn. I just need to add the side borders, cut out backing and batting, quilt, and bind it. My friend's bag is still waiting on lining and straps, but I am hoping to get to Joanns this weekend as well.


I would have to say my lesson learned from this week is being satisfied with what you have, specifically fabric and skills. I received a Connecting Threads and a Keepsake Quilting catalog in the mail yesterday. Looking at all of the amazing fabric and threads inspired me but then I began to feel frustrated because I do not have such an extensive collection from which to choose. I also see all of the quilts and want to do them so badly but in reality, a lot of the designs would probably be too difficult for me. I also need to work on the quilting part-I have only done it once. So, I started to get frustrated but quickly realized that those are things that will come with time. I need to focus on what I CAN do and what I already have on hand. I need to pick projects that I am excited about and that can challenge me without being too advanced. Most of all, I need to ENJOY what I am doing or it is not going to come together. Just my little philosophical thought.


Have a great weekend!

Monday, Monday

Good Monday morning, back to the routines.  Well, not really.  Hubby is home today, so not sure how the day will go.  Sometimes, I'm actually more motivated to get stuff done when he is home and sometimes I am a complete lazo.  :) 

He worked Saturday so the kids and I were complete couch potatoes and watched tv most of the day.  I finally got to see "Tangled" and really enjoyed it.  My older son was kid of pouty about watching it (I think because it had a girl as the main character), but despite that, he enjoyed it.  When my husband got home we tried a new place in town called It's a Forkful.  It is kind of a build-it-yourself place with rice, pasta, burritos, and salads.  I was really excited about it because in town we have mostly fast food and larger chain restaurants.  Overall, I was not totally crazy about it-it was good and a nice healthy alternative, but I think I prefer another local place, Your Way Cafe.  They have delicious sandwiches and salads.  Anyway, we went to a frozen yogurt place afterwards, Sweet Frog, and it was very good.  So, overall, a fun night of trying new places.

Sunday we went to church.  The kids were a mess!  lol.  Ours seem to be the least behaved, hence why we sit in the back.  They are not terrible kids, they are just full-blooded boys and have a hard time sitting still and being quiet for that long.  I am amazed watching how quiet and still the other kids are.  Oh well, ours are a work in progress :)  Thankfully, our church is very understanding and really a great group of people.  After church, we unloaded a carload off at Goodwill and did our grocery run.  We have been trying to make healthier choices, but unfortunately it has raised our grocery bill.  Although, part of the increase comes from a lack of discipline on our part :)  I am REALLY hoping I can get a garden to actually grow and produce this spring.  Our dream is to someday have our own farm, but for now learning to grow things is my main focus.  We do not eat that unhealthy in general, we are just trying to increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially when snacking.

So, I just found a weekly quilt challenge that I think I want to try.  The challenge is to do a square in a square in a square.  The project can be any size, it just has to be completed in a week.  At first I had an elaborate plan for a table runner but have since come to my senses about what I can actually accomplish in a week.  I am now thinking about doing a set of potholders, but still feel like I am taking the easy way out.  Oh well, it will be good for me to practice quilting on a smaller scale and maybe my projects can become bigger as I go.  You can find all of the details at Persimon Dreams.  I am pretty excited about and now just have to figure out which fabrics I want to use...

I started out last week planning on keeping my sewing and crochet plans simple and to limit them to a few things on my to-do list at a time.  HAHAHA, this year seems to have taken off which is awesome and I am not complaining.  I just need to get on top of it! 

Anyway, hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  It is supposed to be in the 60's this week here.  Crazy.  I prefer having actual seasons but cannot complain about the nice weather.  :)

Have a great day!

Motivational Monday! Even though it's Tuesday

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!  We visited with my family-always a good time and I still get homesick after visits.  Well, today seems like a Monday-bumping my head on lights, dead battery in my camera, computer refusing to work properly, but it will be okay,

So, this week is my first week of doing "preschool" things with my kids.  I plan on going over to the Onslow County Partnership for Kids to see if I can pick up some learning materials to work a theme around.   If there is time. I would like to swing by the library and get some related books. 

Last semester, I had to make activity lesson plans for various age groups.  For my preschool plan, I made a button board.  I believe I found it on education.com (they have a lot of fun ideas).  It's a great way for kids to practice actually making shapes by wrapping yarn around the buttons, grouping by button characteristics (size, color, number of holes), and practice creativity by making their own pictures. 

All I had to do was cut out a piece of cardboard from a box, glue paper onto it, and use pop-up adhesives (used for scrapbooking) to stick the buttons on.  You could probably use a hot glue gun instead.  I wouldn't recommend traditional glue only because it may be hard to get the buttons raised up enough for the yarn.  Well, Friday, my kids found it and of course started fighting over it so I let me 4 yr old make his own.  He decided to group the buttons by color which bothered me because they are supposed to be random.  But, really, it works because he was practicing grouping while making it :)

So, here are the button boards.  They were good in the car too, except my 2 yr old needs supervision because he's still in destructive mode and tries to pull things apart.

Switching gears, I managed to get 2 kitchen dishcloths/washcloths done over the weekend.  I made an orange and a black one to go with the black kitchen towel.  I'm also working on an orange kitchen towel which I'll prob feature tomorrow.

A while back, I ordered a pack of scrap triangles from a shop on Etsy, Kelly's Sewing Basket.  They're mostly fall and Christmas themes and I've been trying to come up with ways to use them.  It's such a beautiful mix of fabrics!  Here are some of the things I've been thinking:

With these fabrics I'm thinking either one piece for a potholder or a set of 4 coasters. I'm leaning more towards the coaster sets. What do you think?

 

For this one, I'm thinking of making these into squares for a table runner.  picture quality is not too great, sorry!

 

These are some Halloween Fabrics I have...quilted table runner maybe?

 

So, the purpose of this post is to try to get motivated for the week.  I wanted to show you some of the projects I would like to get around to doing and am hoping this will help motivate me to get moving on them! 

What are your goals for this week?

Check back tomorrow for WIP Wednesday!

Random Friday Thoughts

Eventually I'd like to do something every Friday like, local events or something but this week it's going to be a bunch of randomness!

Life: I'm trying to keep my priorities in line this year and not let the little stuff get to me. We have been blessed so much and the Lord has always provided for us and protected us. So, why do I need to stress about stuff that, in the end, I know doesn't matter? For example, our Homeowner's Association and homeowners in our neighborhood are a drama-filled mess. I'm not going to bore you with all the specifics, but they recently sent a letter saying the HOA was dissolved. There are a bunch of other aggravating issues that go along with it, but the main thing that got me was that the VA (Veteran's Asssociation) will not finance a home on a dirt road without an HOA in place. Well, we live on a dirt road and in a huge military town. I feel comfortable saying that I would guess at least 90% of the homes purchased here are done through the VA; the military is that prominant here. So, basically, if there is no HOA, we are stuck in our house infinitely, which is NOT in our plans. I was getting all fired up about how screwed over we are and blah blah blah, but then I thought about if it really mattered. I mean, we have a house that we can afford and that protects us from the elements (for the most part). In reality, we aren't planning on moving anytime soon, and if some amazing opportunity presented itself, we could rent the house out. In the end, it's just a house, and it's just money. There are so many amazing things happening in our lives, like watching the kids grow and develop, why should I let things that I don't have control over and that really don't matter ruin my mood? Things happen for a reason and will play out how it's meant to. In the meantime, I'll just be patient and put my trust in Him and focus on the innumerable blessings we have received.

Weekend Project: I'm really hoping to get most of my first table runner put together. I have the squares cut out, and would be happy if I just got them pieced together. Then, I have to figure out what backing to use and approach the scary part for me: the quilting part! Hopefully, I can take pictures and share my experience next week.

Finished Project: I am hoping to add a section to my Etsy shop with cute little crochet animals. I had a snake listed but it sold within 24 hours! That was an awesome feeling! I made ones for my boys and now have some requests to make them for family and friends. So, I'll be mixing in their orders with making ones to be listed. I'm also hoping ot get a ladybug done before Valentine's day, but we'll see!

Aren't they cute?! The pink one is for a niece and the variagated one will be listed in my shop. So, see that mess in the back...yeah that's on my to do list this weekend. Actually, I have to do that first so I can have room to sew! That would be a product of Christmas, getting ready for a bridal shower, and traveling.

Anyway, hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and weekend!

I just linked up this post to Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish it Friday! Check out her post and see what other crafters and creators are up to!