He’s here!
Our son Benjamin was born on 11/01/11 weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs 7 oz. He’s two weeks old today and we are so in love with him!
I am feeling great and ready to get back to sewing and blogging after a long hiatus (September 15 was my last blog post!). Look for some baby boy quilts to appear here soon. 
I’m feeling pretty rusty at this blogging thing! I’ve written so many blog posts in my mind in the month (wow!) since I last logged in, but there always seems to be something else more urgent to do. And frankly, at 33 weeks pregnant, I have a shortage of energy to expend.
This quilt is the result of my first online bee. I asked for square in square blocks, thinking that I might cut them up for a bento box style quilt or leave as is. When I got all of the blocks back in the mail, I decided to do a bit of both. Half of the blocks were quartered and re-pieced with teal strips in the center to make up for the loss of seam allowances – and to add a jolt of color, too. I played with the idea of using something contrasting like yellow or lime green, and kind of wish I had now.
Dimensions: 54″ x 54″
Fabrics: Tufted Tweets by Laurie Wisbrun, Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt, Ta Dots from Michael Miller, Darcy by Anna Griffin, Woodland Delight by Paula Prass, and many others
Started:November 2010
Completed: August 2011
The back is a mix of prints used on the front plus two blocks that didn’t make it in time to go on the front.
It’s nice to have this one crossed of my WIP list, and I am pretty happy with the results. It’s definitely a departure from my normal color palette and aesthetic, but it was fun to try something new.
My bobbin was literally hot last night after a marathon of quilting. Good thing Berninas use metal and not plastic. I managed to stipple quilt a 45″ square quilt in a little over an hour. Notice the Polka Squares quilt has moved from my “completed tops” list to “quilting & binding.” I’m so proud.
I set aside the red and aqua string quilt I showed last time. That quilting method is taking me a long time. I can’t get into a fluid movement and I struggle with the scale. I should probably have attempted it on a much smaller quilt than that one to start with. We’re going on a long road trip and I wanted to take it to bind in the car, but until we get back it will just have to be a glorified dog bed:
Summer is definitely not made for quilting – especially not a summer as hot as this one has been. As I’m writing this, it’s nearly midnight and still 97 degrees outside:
And we’ve got another hot week coming up. I am thankful that almost 28 weeks into my pregnancy I still don’t have any swelling or major aches and pains because this would be a tough summer to be feeling unwell. Thank you, baby, for letting me feel almost normal [the growing belly is undeniably a bit awkward, but having a temporary beer belly is kind of fun. I definitely notice people giving me those sidelong "is she pregnant or fat" glances. Like tonight at dinner when my husband ordered a Cobb salad and I had a bleu cheese bacon burger with fries.:)]
Even though it is not quilting weather, I’m desperately trying to get some of my WIPs done in the 12 or so weeks I have until my life is no longer my own. While prettifying this new blog layout, I decided to rebuild my WIP list in the side bar and whoa, Nelly, it’s a big one. This is probably the first real WIP list I’ve ever made because it was not done from memory, but by actually pulling things out of boxes and drawers. There are 29 items on the list (not counting my embarrassingly overdue bee blocks). How did I get to this point? And knowing just how many things I have unfinished, I can still think of a half a dozen more quilts that I would like to start. Never mind de-stashing and purging to make room for baby - I’m going to need my own quilting house before the year is out at this rate.
For those of you who only work on one or two projects at a time, how do you do it? Is it self-control? Lack of hiding space? Other hobbies that keep you busy? Do I need to take up tennis or bridge so that I have less time to think about quilting? I know I’ll never be a one-project-at-a-time girl, but 29 WIPs is about 20 too many. It probably doesn’t help that my method for getting things done is to list all of my to-dos, prioritize them, and then never look at that list again.
I was at a retreat last weekend and that helped me jump start the process. I am making some progress. I have two bee blocks ready to mail, I basted two tops, quilted one last weekend, and I have another big one on my machine right this minute. I’m even trying a new technique:
It’s not as fast as stippling but I think I’ll speed up as I get more comfortable with the motion. At least that is what I keep telling myself.
This week my website was hacked (again!) and my car was damaged in a hit and run. The hacking details are tedious and boring, but I am now blogging on a wordpress.com interface (instead of my own hosted site) so that I don’t have to worry about security anymore. Blogging is supposed to be fun, and dealing with a hack is not fun. Google had my URL blacklisted for most of the week, but now everything is up and running and okay. Many links are broken and photos are missing, but I should have all of that fixed in a week or two. If you visited my site in the last week, please run a virus and spyware check on your computer. You can download a free one from Microsoft.
So after dealing with that mess for 5 days, I was awakened at 5:00 am Friday morning by the police knocking on our door. Apparently someone hit our car and abandoned their car a few houses up the block. One of our neighbors called the police when they saw the abandoned car and the police were conscientious enough to check all cars parked on the street for damage. Police often get a bad rap but I have to say that my experience with them (though minimal) has always been positive. They had an accident investigator at our house making a report before they even woke us up. Sadly, my car is not drivable and had to be towed to the dealer for repairs. I am driving a rental for a couple of weeks, and my wonderful husband is dealing with all of the insurance and car repair issues. He literally spent all day Friday on the phone. The people that hit our car did end up coming by the house and giving us their info. They were a couple of college kids who were driving down to the lake near our house and got lost. They were genuinely shaken up by the accident, but thankfully not hurt. Everything will be fine in the end and I am not a superstitious person that believes bad things happen in threes so I am expecting only good things for a while.
I’ve been mired down in purging and organizing my sewing room because in a few short months it will be a sewing + baby room. I’ve gotta make some room for our little guy so a bit of de-stash is in order. Hopefully I can get some things listed in my Etsy shop this week. Meanwhile, I’ve started a new just-for-fun project because I needed some cheering up.
I am taking some of my Moda mini charm packs (charmlets?) and pairing them with a vivid pink to make 9-patch blocks. Then I’m going to quarter them and sew it all back together for a super scrappy quilt. (this one was my inspiration) I’ve got a combination of It’s a Hoot, Hullabaloo, Summer in the City, Central Park, and Buttercup. All of the colors are so happy together and it’s definitely cheering me up.
The Courthouse Steps block is a variation of a log cabin block. It traditionally has red center squares and a variety of light and dark fabrics that give you a chessboard effect on your finished quilt top (example here). This is the block I’ve chosen for my turn in the Twice Around the Block Bee. This tutorial is mainly a how-to for my bee members but will be useful for anyone else who wants to try this block. I’ve chosen fabrics in four colors (red, green, blue, and white) for a Christmas-y quilt.
To make one block like my sample block, you will need:
5 green strips, measuring 1 1/2″ wide by varying lengths (the longest strip you will need is 12.5″)
5 white strips, measuring 1 1/2″ wide by varying lengths
5 red strips, measuring 1 1/2″ wide by varying lengths
5 blue strips, measuring 1 1/2″ wide by varying lengths
1 pink center square, measuring 2 1/2″ square
*A note about cutting*
This block is very scrap friendly. Scraps will need to be at least 1 1/2″ wide. I used fat quarters for my fabrics and was able to get 12 strips from each. I highly recommend using a Shape Cutter from June Tailor to cut your strips. It is fast and makes the cuts more accurate. (fabric needs for an entire quilt are given at the end of this post)
Piecing the Block
Take your center square and choose two strips in different colors. One strip gets sewn to the top of the block; the other strip gets sewn on the opposite side. I’ve chosen red and white strips in the example below.
Press your seams to one side (I pressed all of mine away from the center square) and trim the excess fabric. You can be a lazy quilter like me and trip the edges carefully scissors at your machine:
or you can trim them with your rotary cutter:
I used both methods for my blocks and they all came out to 12.5″ in the end. Do whichever method works for you. Add your next two color strips on the opposite sides of the block. After a few rows you will have something that looks like this:
Continue to add strips to each side until you have a total of 5 strips in each color. This is what your finished block will look like:
When you put two blocks together, you can see the secondary pattern start to emerge:
Pretty, huh? The cutting part is tedious, but the piecing is fast and easy and the finished look is definitely worth the time. I hope you all try it! And I hope my bee members enjoy making these.
*For a 96″ x 96″ quilt, you will need to make 64 blocks. Fabric requirements are 22 dark fat quarters, 19 light fat quarters, and 3/8 yard of your center square fabric.
[fabric is Alexander Henry Monkey's Bizness - Little Farm in Blue]
This little hippo is a super easy project. I am definitely going to make at least one more of these for the baby – maybe in some fun polka dots. I would recommend enlarging the pattern at least 25%, if you make one of your own. The neck hole seam is really tight and mine is not entirely pucker-free. Pattern purchased here. It really is a simple pattern and sews together in less than an hour.
Moose thought this hippo was for him. He kept staring at it while I was taking photos, and he really wanted to play with – in fact, he couldn’t stay away:
His attitude is that pictures aren’t worth taking unless he’s in them. He’s pretty photogenic so I can’t say that he’s wrong. 
That little hippo is pretty much the only sewing I’ve done in the past few weeks. I had aspirations of signing up for the Finish It Up challenge on Meg’s blog. But the fact that they’re two weeks into it and I haven’t even made my WIP list yet doesn’t bode well for my success. I need to make my own “Baby is Coming, Get It Done Quick” challenge. I did pick the focus fabric for my Baltimore Album Quilt. I stared at those photos for two weeks and even went back to my fabric stash to see if I could come up with the absolute perfect fabric. And then I decided that I was overthinking it and I ordered 10 yards of my background fabric. So I think I’m committed. I will be working on block #1 this week. I don’t want to be the only one in class on Saturday who didn’t do her homework.
