Pre-Vacation Quilting

From inspiration.... 

Loved these colors. Pink + Red + Yellow with White to balance all the colors.

So I started cutting and sewing together these wonky log cabin squares according to these directions.. So much fun to do without having to worry about a pattern while still getting delightfully wonky blocks. 

I laid out the pieces as I went along to see what I needed... it went together pretty darn well, unlike my last quilt (NIGHTMARE!)

After all the blocks were finished, I added the cream colored border to bring it all together. And of course Finnegan had to make himself at home -- but blinked when I took the picture, darn it! I don't know what it is about my quilting process, but he always has to put himself right in the middle of it!

Here's the quilt layered and pinned together, ready for quilting. I should have taken better pictures of the fabrics-- I will still go ahead and do that. The back is really cool too. A batik print I've been eyeing in the clearance section for some time now. I'm glad I could finally put it to good use. 

When finished it will be a good baby sized quilt. I like it a lot, so does my husband. I'm just not sure what I'm going to do about quilting it... I started on Saturday and for some reason, my thread tension was WAY off and I couldn't get it to stitch well. That will put a dent in my quilting for now, until I can get it to work. 

I also quilted up some little coasters on Saturday with scraps left over from my last quilt. They are way too cute. I will be making more in the near future.

I've set a goal to stop wasting so much time at home watching TV and just surfing the internet. If I took all the time I spend doing that and put it to good use, I would get a lot of stuff done and my house would probably be a lot more organized! So that's the goal for the week... here I go!

Shiny Sinks Bring Shiny Skies

I've been trying to stay on track of our life with Fly Lady and all of her helpful tips. The first step, as you may or may not be aware, is to shine the sink. So a little bit ago I took that first baby step and shined my sink. I'm embarrassed to be posting the before pictures, but I think the transformation is incredible. And in my defense, we live in a rental home, so it's not like I let my house get that grimy. Then again, it's kind of grosser that it's not even our grime, necessarily. Enough jabber, I'm probably over-exaggerating anyway. 

BEFORE:

and AFTER:

WOW!!

And as if to reward me for my hard scrubbing, the sunshine peaked through the window above the sink and made it gleam even brighter.

These bleak days of winter have slowly been giving way to these bursts of sunshine, and it finally seems like the the sun will be here to stay shortly. After days and days of nothing but rain, the weekly forecast is pointing us to 71* by Thursday. Then Friday, maybe Thursday night, I will be in Nashville for the Gospel Music Association Week, all leading up to the Dove Awards Wednesday night. I can't wait! Oh man, I have a lot of packing and planning to do for that trip. I'll be gone for more than a few days, and I need to make sure I have a cute outfit and everything for the awards ceremony. It's live this year, which means I won't be able to watch it back and see what kind of camera time I got, but oh well. It's always a fun time. We still need to figure out what we are going to do with Finnegan... oh man, I better get to bed. I have a busy week of planning ahead of me. It's way too late, I hope I don't get called in the morning to sub.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring is here in Anderson... although the weatherman dared to say that F word in his forecast the other night. That's right... 60's all week, and flurries this weekend?! How could that be. 

I finished my quilt, so we thought we would break it in with a Saturday picnic... but it looks like yucky weather will prevent our outing. Maybe an indoor picnic? M

y sister and I used to love throwing out a blanket on the floor and munch our lunch picnic style. Finn had the same idea to munch his bone on my almost-finished (at the time) quilt. 

 

It still needed the binding at this point in the process...

But I get ahead of myself. I don't think I ever actually posted pictures of my fabric or any inspiration for the quilt, so I will backtrack and do that....

I found a few quilts I liked that were the Bento Box pattern. I liked the simple pattern, and thought I could figure it out on my own. I got the fabric... 

which looked like my laundry ....

And started cutting. I didn't actually have the pattern in hand, so I was just winging it. I was cutting it all correctly, but for some reason my math skills failed me and I didn't cut enough strips, so after cutting and sewing a bunch together, I had to go back and cut and sew a bunch together. A minor setback considering I was just making it up based on a couple pictures I had seen.

It took me forever to figure out a layout I liked, and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I know it will grow on me. It's all done and quilted now, I will have to post some finished pictures as soon as I take them.