Quilts, Quilts, Quilts!

This book is what started it all from my quilting class

I haven't posted any quilt pics in a while.  Not since this one featuring my first quilt ever or this one showing off the first chevron I made, which turned out super adorable.  But those were in 2012.  Which means I'm due for a serious update!

Most of my quilts are still works in progress.  I think I need to get to work finishing them before we pack everything up!

This lil slugger quilt is for a future baby boy.  Back in 2012 we had a bit of an obsession with buying all baby things that were baseball or cupcake related.  And now they are all stored in a tote waiting for a miracle (maybe by the time I'm 30, eh?).  Still needs quilting and binding and I think I will make that my next project.

 

 The original plan for Audrey's quilt was to be a yellow and gray chevron.  I got the fabric and started cutting it out. Then I realized that the pieces were kinda small and would therefore take FOREVER to make a decent sized baby quilt.  So I set that stash aside and started new making the pink/green/white one. 

 After falling in love with that quilt, I needed to finish the yellow and gray one I had started.  And I also LOVE this quilt.  I sent it to Rae Anna (a stampin up card club friend) in Salem and she did the beautiful quilting on this.  I still need to bind it.

This next quilt came from a strip cuddle set I picked up in Salem and once I put it together, I didn't love it so much. It was super quick and easy, but I still need to bind it (can you tell that binding is not my favorite?) and then find someone to give it away to/sell to.  Any takers?

Next came this quilt for Kendra's baby Kinsey.  Her nursery is a princess/butterfly theme and I thought it turned out pretty cute.  I formulated the pattern on my own by combining a few others I liked.  Quilting again is by Rae Anna, also the binding.

 

My snowmaggedon quilt is still a work in progress, not fully pieced.  This is one where I was super excited about the fabrics but then didn't like what I did with them.  Kinda makes me sad because they had such potential! You live and you learn. 

The latest quilt is for Dallin and Becky's baby boy coming in August. I call this one Rex named after what I call their baby (and Dallin's love of dinosaurs in his youth). :)  It will be sent to Rae Anna this month for a cute dino quilting pattern and then I will bind it and have it ready for a baby shower in July!

Other projects I'm excited about:
A quilt for my sister coming home from Japan in July featuring a Japanese "porkypine" print:

Another strip cuddle quilt, this time with fabrics I picked out myself and LOVE:

I haven't bought the fabric yet, but friends Sarah and Tyler are having a baby this summer too so I need to get crackin' on their quilt.

I'd love to make another chevron quilt, this time trying a different kind of pattern without the triangles.  So many projects to work on and so little free time!

Finished Quilts

With Nathan and Adrienne's baby here now and the quilt finished and sent their way, I can now post pictures!! 

By the way, I'm making my blog no longer private for the time being... if weirdos try to start posting comments, then I'll change it back, but for now, anyone's welcome to take a gander. :)

I finished these quilts a while ago, but since I suck at blogging, you are just now getting the pictures.  Go ahead, marvel at my talents.  I'd love to hear that you think they're awesome. 

This first one is my "Cupcake Quilt" for our (hopefully) future lil cupcake!  As it was my first quilt I ever made, I'm pretty dang proud of it, even with all it's flaws!

This 2nd quilt is the Chevron Quilt I made for lil baby Audrey, Nathan and Adrienne's new bundle of joy out in Chicago.  It was a LOT more work than my cupcake quilt with all the little triangles, but I thought it turned out so cute! I fell in love with it!  And I basically came up with the pattern by myself (with the help of my friend Brittany) so I'm pretty dang proud of myself for that. Let me know if you'd like the dimensions and such for the pattern!

This last picture is the package I put together to send to the Chicago Jacks... a little something for everyone.  Something for mommy now that she can reach her toes; something for daddy to play with big brother to keep the manly feeling with another girl in the house; something for big brother to keep him warm when the new baby gets all the snuggles; and somethings of course for new baby including the quilt, hair bows, and a Tillamook Baby Loaf onesie (gotta represent Oregon).

Congrats Nathan and Adrienne and wahoo to me for finishing two quilts now!  Now I gotta get started on another project....

My new obsession

So the crafting that I've MOST been excited about (and by excited I mean newly obsessed with) is quilting. My friend Brittany talked me into taking an 8 week quilting class with her on Tuesday nights.  I was surprised and overwhelmed at the expenses and work that would need to go into this new hobby at the first class, but have now become quite enthralled with quilting.  I love picking out fabrics and finding quilt patterns that I like and seeing it come together!  My first quilt has been what I have named the cupcake quilt.
You see, once upon a time when I was doing some shopping for a friend's baby shower, I came across this outfit:

Isn't it so freaking adorable?! And so totally me.  I am a cupcake kinda gal.  So I bought it for myself with the hopes that someday we will have our own lil cupcake. 

So when quilting class started and I needed to think of a theme for my baby quilt to make (I wasn't gonna start out on a big quilt so baby quilt made sense to me), cupcake theme was an obvious choice to me!
So I picked out some fabric....

 And started cutting....

 And started sewing.... (this is called chain sewing... you just sew one piece after the other so it makes a long chain of pieces that you snip apart)

 And sewing....

 And mapping out....

 And sewing some more...

 Until I reached this point this morning!

Um, isn't this the cutest freaking thing you've ever seen!?!  I am very happy with how it's turning out.  I still have a border to put around the whole thing, then I need to do the backing, batting, and binding to finish it off.
My lil cupcake is gonna be one lucky lady!

Gettin my crafty on

I know there's been a lag in blog posts lately, but it's because I've been busy being so crafty!  I've been getting my crafty on and it's been so much fun.

Dustin's sister Nicole came into town with her boyfriend last week so in preparation for our guests, I've been working on getting our 2nd bedroom cleared out and ready. We decided to move our bookcase that we use for food storage into our dining room because 1) we wanted the room in the 2nd bedroom and 2) it makes sense to have it closer to the kitchen with all the food we keep on it.  The only problem is that it was so ugly.  Just plain, boring, tan ugliness.  I couldn't display something like that in my dining room where people would see it!  So we did a food storage book case make over!

The ugly bland bookcase in the beginning....

 Starting the make over....

 Fully painted.....

 And finished! (Don't mind the blobs of modge podge here and there that are still drying when this picture was taken...)

Now it's stocked with food and organized so it looks presentable to anyone who comes into our home.  Plus, our 2nd bedroom is freed up for more crafting, guests to visit, or a future nursery someday.

I Won!

Quick blog post for tonight:

We played Boggle for family night activity. For those of you who know Dustin well, you know that he always wins Boogle. Like, always.

But not tonight.

Though we only played three rounds, I will relish in this victory. 30-28. Highest point word I got this evening: greatest. Yes I am.

Gettin my crafty on

I have so many things I want/need to blog about, but I'll start with my Halloween crafts since it's right around the corner! With my time just chillin' (and enjoying every minute of it), it's been awesome spending time working on some projects. My first project, the BOO woodblocks I picked up my supplies for in Utah, knowing I'd have some time before a job to work on it.

I also made a Halloween themed subway word art picture. It was way fun picking out the fonts and everything, I think I'll make one for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and every holiday!

Sorry that my pictures are truly horrible. The lighting in our family room is awful (there basically is none), and these pics come from my iphone.... someday maybe we'll have a nice camera.