To the Creek!

We have a creek that runs along the back of our property.  Recently, we have created a path to it.  The kids love the path.  They have yet to discover how much fun it is to play in the creek, but I know that will come over the years. 

Tonight, after work, instead of heading in straight for dinner, the warm evening air and sunshine kept us out.  We went to the creek!

On the way there, we had so much fun finding things

A pine cone, two “flowers” (AKA weeds, but to the innocence of a child, it’s a flower), a large leaf, and

A four leaf clover!  Corinne found it herself, amongst a LOT of clover.  She picked it out in less than 1 minute! 

I have it in between some wax paper in a book right now.  I’d like to frame it and hang it in her room.  What a token of luck! 

Stash Busting for a Summer Wardrobe

The spring weather we had last weekend got me in the mood to not only garden, but make some more handmade clothing for Corinne.

Poor Nathan, I still have yet to make him some clothing…it’s on the list.  Girl clothes are just so darn much CUTER than boy clothes!

I am pretty sure I can make a few items without having to buy more fabric or patterns :)

A new skirt :)

  Another new skirt.  I have been wanting to attempt this Twirly Skirt Tutorial for over a year.  I love this fabric, perfect for twirling.

I’d like to also get a new dress or two for her in.

And I am still making progress on Nathan’s quilt.  I ran out of white for the sashing, otherwise, the top would be done.  I need to get this done soon.  The poor guy is about to climb out of his crib.  He really could if he tried hard enough. 

A hint of Spring

Open windows.

Outdoor wildlife.

A 4 year old’s version of a flower for mommy.

Hunger for color in the yard.

A baby gift – Onsies and burb cloths

My friend Julianne is about to pop with her second baby girl.  She loves handmade things as much as the rest of us, so I thought I’d make her a gift for her new little one. 

What infant doesn’t need need onsies and burb cloths? 

These were a great, quick gift to give.  She loved them.

I love the way the owl came out.

2 Year Old Birthday Party

I am so late in posting this.  My son had a big birthday a few months ago.  He turned 2!  It’s so  hard to believe he is already 2, the first 2 years with him flew faster than the first 2 years with my daughter.

Nathan loves trains.  To celebrate, I made him a train cake. 

I used a cake pan that I received from my mother in law that makes a bunch of mini-trains.  Because the day before his birthday party was a very busy day, my husband and I stayed up late to decorate the cakes.    We covered it with a large piece of cardboard propped up by cereal boxes, so it could be a big reveal for the birthday boy at his party.  We decided to use a lot of the candy that we received from the many holidays, and we were successful in using up most of it.      This one was a caboose!

I enjoyed every moment that went into the cake.   The most fun of the cake was seeing how much the 2 year old boys (cousins) enjoyed it.

Now, to see the most awesome home made train cake in the world, go see what Katie recently did.  I am totally amazed!

Katie’s Block

My first quilting bee block!  Katie wanted a block that was based off of Denise Schmidt’s Project Improv.  OK, I took the challenge,   did some flickring around for inspiration and I came up with this.

I hope she likes it.  I really wanted to try a diamond within a square, and I am happy with the way it turned out...I really like that it's off center.   I was a little challenged in doing this because I normally lean towards for a balance with the colors and patterns.

I was surprised at the time it took, so I am really glad that I only had to do one!  I also used just about every scrap that Katie gave me, and added 3 other fabrics of my own…I can’t help but wonder if her strategy was for us to really work with the scraps to get more of an improv look??!!!

Katie, I will have it in the mail to you this week.  I really hope you like it!

Squares

It’s been a while hasn’t it?   I’ve been busy with life, work, and that always leaves little time for crafting.  I got some time in recently, though, and did some more work on Nathan’s quilt.  I am feeling a bit of pressure with timing on finishing this.  He’s over 2, still in his crib, and about to go into a big boy bed.  I have GOT to get this finished!  I am hoping I finish this before the bed is in his room.  We still haven’t bought the bed, so I think I still have some time.

 

 

This is going to be the front.  It’s going to be reversible.  Remember this post?  I decided to go with adding the extra gingham.  I was very happy with it, but something was still missing.  I felt I was copping out of doing a real quilt.  And, I had made all those squares of strips!  Well, after lots of market research (aka viewing all kinds of other’s peoples quilts on flickr and other blogs), I came up with a layout and design idea.  I wanted to have some feeling of lots of fabrics, yet, also showcase some of the really cute fabrics that I purchased for this item.  I am going to use a white sashing between each square. 

I am hoping to make some progress on attaching all the pieces together this week.  We’ll see.  It’s a very busy week.