It's getting better all the time

Well, a week has past and things are better, calmer. The storm of activity around my eldest son's behavior has quieted. He is doing ok at the group home he was put into and he will be entering their independent living program in a week and eventually they will get him his own place (under their supervision). He turns 18 in September so hopefully this will teach him how to live with common sense and how to survive in the world. That is a tall order for the agency, DS thinks he knows everything and it usually isn't up to par with the real world. Of course, most teens think they know everything, so maybe it isn't so uncommon. The other boys and I are probably going to go see him this week, I am looking forward to seeing him, I don't think he'll ever realize how much I miss him and wish this never had to happen.


On a lighter note, I knitted my first project this week. I made myself a hat. It looks pretty good, there are mistakes in it that I can see (I miscounted on the rows were I had to K2tog and then k so many, reducing it every other row. Somewhere I miscounted on a row and it threw things off, but of course I am the only one who noticed! Here is little Seamus modeling my hat, just for you!

My birthday was Saturday but DH was on call and ended up working all day until 7!!! He wanted to take me personally to my favorite quilt shops but of course they were all closed. We went to JoAnn's and I got some border stencils, some chalk pencils, some knitting needles and cables, and a bunch of flannels for my snowman quilt I want to make. The pattern is in the current issue of Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine and it is called Jolly Snowmen. I went to their site to see what the price of a kit would be since they advertised it in the magazine, but they don't have a kit for this quilt. As a matter of fact, I am having trouble finding plaid flannels ANYWHERE! It calls mainly for reds and greens--I seem to be finding lots of blues. I got some nice stuff at JoAnns but I still need a lot more greens and some green herringbone and gray herringbone which I have not been able to find in flannel at all. I will probably just use wool (if I can even find that!), since the quilt is supposed to have a woolen look, anyway. I am planning on hitting a couple quilt shops this week to take a look and DH is going to get me a walking foot for my Bernina as his present to me (Yay!!! I've wanted one for years!!!) My mother and Aunt came over today and I made dinner for us (it was my mom's birthday as well, I was born on her 20th birthday!) My mom gave me some books, a quilting book that had different, original stuff in it, a book from the 70's on fabric art and stuffing fabric to make things---it's pretty neat but very dated, LOL! The last book she got me was a book called Folk Art Friends; Hooked Rugs and Coordinating Quilts. The funny thing is that I saw this book on Ebay 2 weeks ago and bid on it, I really wanted it and I ended up losing the book because I forgot about the auction, LOL! I was bummed but figured I'd either end up getting it at Amazon.com or Borders and I never bothered mentioning it to anyone. Lo and behold, my mother finds it at the Border Outlet store and buys it for me because she thinks I'd like it, LOL! Is that a hoot or what???

My current WIP is going to be finished this week--or that is the plan, anyway! I figured out how to do the mitered borders--I've done mitered bindings but never wide borders. Luckily for me, they did a show on attic window quilts on Simply Quilts this past week and they were showing how to do mitered borders and I think I've got it down. I DVR'd the show, just in case I need a reference!

I've decided my next quilt (if not the snowman, or I will make it as I am making the snowman, LOL!) will be a scrappy string quilt. I don't have a lot of scraps, though. I stupidly did not see the value of scraps until the last year or so and threw away many, many scraps (yes, I am hitting myself in the head repeatedly!) Now, (in my defense) the scraps I've thrown away were always thin pieces, or short pieces, nothing I ever thought would be of any value. After getting a link to quiltville.com and checking out her string quilts and other's she had pictures of, I knew right then that I had to make one too! Plus, I am ready to try paper piecing---it's frightened me in the past but I am ready and willing to tackle it---plus after seeing it demonstrated on my fav quilt shows, I think it's a lot easier than I thought. My problem is the fact that I don't have a lot of scraps. Of course, I can just cut up stuff in my stash---but I think that whole point of these types of quilts is to use up your scraps and I'd like to stay true to that point of it. SO, it may be a while before I actually make one, hehehe!

Holy guacamole, it's nearly 4 a.m.!!! I'm heading to bed, have a great day and come back and see me again, soon!

My current WIP

Ok, well I didn't work on it at all on Tuesday. To be honest, I spent most of my freetime working on this blog and my Yahoo 360 page. Here are most of the blocks on my design board. The quilt is called Windows on My World and it's a baby quilt that I am making for my 1 year old. Each block is made up of 4 triangles which open up to a cute kiddie fabric inside.







Here I am putting the top row together with the sashing between the blocks. You can see the blocks partially opened. The fabrics below are really cute and the baby has already gotten a kick out of looking at them.










Here is the quilt top finished except for the borders. Once I get those on it'll be pretty simple to machine quilt it---I could probably get it done in a day or so, depending on how busy the baby keeps me! I'll probably have to wait either until late at night when everyone is asleep or on the weekend when DH is home and I can work uninterrupted.





Part of the issue is the fact that my sewing room is also my bedroom and my 1 year olds' bedroom. But, since I was sick of sewing on the kitchen table and having to put everything away at each mealtime, DH made me an awesome sewing/computing/TV area in a corner of our room. Here are some pictures of my sewing area.

Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll be sewing today instead of blogging and I'll have quite a bit more of this quilt done. For whatever reason, finishing is always the hardest thing for me. I can piece like a storm--it only took me 3 days to get this top together---but when it comes to quilting a project, I've got some that have been waiting 8 years to be quilted!!!

Well, it's late and I've got some Simply Quilts episodes that I've DVR'd to catch up on so wish me luck and motivation to get some quilting done tomorrow!

Still haven't finished the quilt.........

I still haven't worked on the quilt. But I was busy yesterday, regardless of my non-quilting. Monday is my bread baking day---I baked two beautiful loaves of white bread for the kids. I am looking for a good rye bread and pumpernickel bread recipe, none of the recipes I have tried are good enough--yet. If you have a good recipe for either, please, let me know!!

DS #1 asked me to make Chicken Alfredo for dinner last night. It was a more involved meal than I felt like making (since I make everything from scratch) but I agreed since he felt I hadn't made anything that he liked in a week, LOL! So, I spent 2 hours making this wonderful meal and at dinnertime his friends show up and he disappears. By the time he reappears, his meal is cold, but he says that it isn't a problem. He takes his plate and starts eating and then tells me that Alfredo sauce is too rich for him and he can't possibly eat it all! I look at him like WHAT???? I ask him why he wanted me to make it if he didn't like it---he said it just sounded good. He did end up eating it, though and said it was good.

For dessert, I decided to make this Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake that I saw Nigella Lawson make on her show Nigella Feasts on the Food Network. It turned out great, not too sweet and very chocolately. Quite rich after such a rich meal, but it was worth it!


One of the reasons I haven't been able to work on this quilt is the baby has been SO busy getting into everything, anytime I try to do something around the house, he is creating messes of gargantuan proportions! Or, he's climbing precariously on furniture or bookshelves or chairs, just one short iota away from landing on his head! DH and I put a padded floor in the bedroom to keep him safe, and let me tell you, it certainly got a workout from him yesterday! This kid climbed on EVERYTHING he could get his feet and hands onto and his new favorite activity is standing on things and flapping his arms and making noises like he is on his soapbox! It's actually very funny and quite cute--but I can't let him know that and encourage him further. If we are able to swing buying that farm, this kid is gonna have plenty of room to blow off some of this steam---along with his brothers!


Ok, well I'm off to get some housework done, feed the boys and hopefully have time to work on the quilt. I have some ideas for my next quilt which I am actually going to try and design one myself, instead of using a pattern. I saw some really neat fabric folding techniques on Simply Quilts last week and I'd like to give them a try. Oh, and I'd like to get all my UFO's done before summer (yeah right!).

Maybe I'll post later with news of a completed quilt, or at least one closer to completion!