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!

Snowmaggedon

One of the things I was looking forward to the most about moving to Portland was the idea of eternal spring- warmer winters and rain instead of snow.  So far it's been pretty close to that, but every couple of years they get a bunch of snow, and this was one of those years.
The snow started Thursday while I was at work so I hurried up and finished my check  batch to get home before it got outta control. 

Dustin's school was closed for the afternoon as well so we spent the rest of the day together watching the news which was really just the weather and funny live shots with cars sliding.
Friday morning I woke up and turned on the news to see if I should go into work or not. The overall news report said that if you don't have to go outside, then don't!  So I called in.  Dustin's school was canceled too.  Snow day! We ventured outside in the afternoon to build a snowman with the Jones then warmed up inside with hot cocoa while watching the Olympics.

Do you wanna build a snowman?

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!

 

Saturday continued to snow so it was another day inside.  By the afternoon we got the news that church was canceled.  That is something that never happened in Utah!  What was crazy was the wind that would whip all the snow around and make it seem much worse than it probably was.  Saturday night the storm turned to freezing rain which made crazy treecicles and caused the backyard neighbor's tree to stoop down all the way to our deck. Saturday night I started a new quilt with some adorable fabric I got a while ago. 

Comparison shot to where the tree should be, 10ish feet away, to where it landed on our deck from the weight of the ice.

Sunday morning we woke up jumping when my phone went off with the emergency alert loud buzz.  Portland strongly urged everyone to stay indoors due to the ice.

I worked on the quilt for a while and by the afternoon we were ready to get out of the house to do anything! We took a walk outside to pick up the mail and see the effects of the freezing rain.  A shield of ice covered our car completely covering one side and leaving the other dry.  So crazy!  Over all we got about 6 inches of snow and a nice layer of ice. 
Monday morning "The Big Thaw" started so while Dustin's school was still canceled, I went to work late with Dustin driving me.  Pretty sure I wouldn't have made it out of our parking lot on my own!  The snow was quickly turning to some nasty slush making driving still a pain. Monday night Dustin and I got our workout in by shoveling the slush in our parking lot to make it easier to get out the next morning.
By Tuesday we were almost back to normal...

 and by Wednesday it all seemed like just a bad dream!

Crazy how different Oregon snow is from Utah snow.  So much icier!  And it was very fluffy and light, which made it hard to make a snowman because it wouldn't pack into a ball.
Glad we safely survived the storm and had plenty of food, water, and warmth!  It was wonderful to spend a few days together with just the two of us.  It was a much needed break from school for Dustin and a good time together with no where to go.

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....

Quilt #2

Another post tonight? Why not.  Dustin is meeting with the missionaries (his newest calling is Ward Mission Leader), which leaves me time alone (wahoo!) to bloggity blog.
I mentioned in my last post about a sewing machine we recently purchased.  You see, I got one for Christmas from my parents and it is awesome!  But it was built for speed.  And with my new quilting hobby, speed is not always the best.  So when JoAnn's had a sale for $100 off the sewing machine I had been lusting after, we jumped on the deal.  It's a Singer Confident Quilter and it's been awesome!  The arm is longer giving more room for quilting, as well as an extension table.  It has like 98 different stitches too so I am loving working on it!  It will make the quilting part of quilting much easier.  Working with a lot of fabric is difficult!  I am so close to finishing my cupcake quilt, just gotta put the binding on and it's complete!  I hope to do that this week... or at least this month.  Hahaha. 
I also started working on an adorable Chevron zigzag print for baby girl Jack (Nathan and Adrienne's 2nd) coming in October!  It has been a lot of work so far, but it is going to be adorable!  I haven't decided yet whether I want to post pictures or if I should have it be a surprise for Adrienne.  I did send her fabric pictures though, so I guess I can post those so you can see the colors...  pink, green, and white with pink and green polka dots!  Okay, okay, I'll show you ONE Chevron square so you can see how cute these fabrics are together..... Enjoy!

Think baby girl Jack is gonna love it?

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!