Third Finish

Third quilt of the year finished! Admittedly, they've all been baby or lap quilts. I'm just not up to snuff to do a queen. :P

In my other post about the Crazy 9-patch, I was bemoaning that one of my fabrics weren't as orange as I hoped. Solution? Quilt it with orange thread.


I had some leftover blocks, so I made a standard 9-patch for the backing.

The rest of the backing fabric fits the quilt well, as this was a rather off the wall pattern for me.


A close up of the quilting. I was experimenting with double loops, and tossed in some stars for variety.

I didn't put pressure on myself for perfection. There's spots where thread crosses over, single loops and triple loops because I wasn't paying attention and "trapped" myself. I branched out, and I'm happy with that.


I'm starting to think this journal keeps my quilting sanity! I don't have to worry about "momnesia" eating my brain cells and leaving me with a whole bunch of pieces to a quilt that I don't even remember starting.

You can tell from the dates that I definitely quilt in spurts. I almost wonder if I'll have time to quilt more once the baby is born, because my computer is in the bedroom with the crib. I'll have to keep the screen off and either nap with the baby or blow time quilting.


In reality, I have no idea how much the baby will change things. It might think a pile of fabric is fun to nap in, it might cry "hold me! feed me!" 24/7. I'll be finding out. ;)

Leah

Quilting repairs

I think this is a first for me, but I needed to make a repair on my husband's winter quilt. The thread holding the binding busted a while ago (oh, like a couple years ago) but only now did I actually take 5 whole minutes to restitch the binding down. It's amazing how with procrastination, we can make a project much bigger than it actually is! :P

The most frustrating thing? The binding is fabric I bought from a quilt shop, and the thread was Aurifil, which can sell for $10 a spool. I wonder why buying "the best" didn't work out in my favor.

Hopefully the rest of the binding will stay in place! :)

Leah

35 Weeks

Today I'm 35 weeks and I figured I was a bit overdue for a baby update. I don't know why I'm so bad about tummy shots, I don't feel awkward taking them. I didn't even have to look up the camera's manual to figure out the timer this time. :)

And ohh yeah, I can see some swelling in my face! I don't see it so much in the mirror. It's mostly my feet that swell and bug me, but it's not random swelling, it comes from certain stuff. Getting on the floor to pin a quilt? Major swelling. :P


Since I was on the patio, I figured I'd grab some shots of my EarthBoxes.

I took the easy way out this year and bought flowers from Lowes. $4 for a dozen and in my third trimester? Totally worth it. Hopefully the purple ones will revive soon.


My herb box is doing well. I didn't expect the parsley and chives to pop up this year, since they struggled to thrive last year. If you can call 3 blades of chives "popping up". :P

We mostly use the rosemary in our cooking, but I think I'm gonna have to nudge Chris to come up with a meal that uses oregano, it's certainly sprouting well right now. The lemon thyme is a new addition and half of it died off... I hope the roots are establishing themselves now.


Can somebody nudge me? Nothing is getting done around here without nudges. This post is a result of my mom "nudging" me by mentioning how much she liked seeing my tummy in my last post. :)

Leah

"It's interesting"

Earlier this week I stumbled upon Oh Fransson's Crazy 9-patch Lattice quilt. For whatever reason, I felt an urge to make it. I decided to use not-so-well-loved pieces of hand dyed fabrics. If you put enough uglies together, it'll become beautiful, right? :D

There's a tip about pressing the seams open - do it!! At least for the first two seams, or else you'll find yourself trying to cut through 27 layers of fabric at once.


Right after I finished piecing the top together, I had this much thread left on my spool. Cutting it close! (And yes, that's my tummy getting in the way. It's also a handy thread-catcher.)

I thought that was my last Silver spool - that's how I know when I "need" to make an order to Connecting Threads, when I'm out of Silver thread, as I use that for all my piecing. Well, I found another half-used spool, so I'm good for a while. Good thing too, because we've got too many expenses going on right now. Can you tell that I just sent a big ol' check to the Arizona Department of Revenue? I could have bought 150 Essential Thread spools! :P


Here's the top itself. Yup, "it's interesting," just like Chris said. It's certainly not the normal quilt pattern I put forth from my sewing machine.

I kinda wish I had selected an more orange fabric, but I don't have too many of those dyed. And the oranges I do have weren't "ugly" enough for what I had in mind.


And what do you know, it's possible to pin a quilt at 34 weeks pregnant! :) I did have to get a little creative by straddling a pillow to give myself an extra boost. I could only do one row of blocks at a time, can't lean more forward. It took about 30 minutes of actual pinning time for this quilt.

Currently the baby is head's down, in a posterior position. I really want the baby in the anterior position so I can avoid back labor! I recently read that some ladies have good luck getting the baby to spin by spending time on their hands and knees every day. Guess I better pin a quilt every day.

Chris's comment on the backing of the quilt, "it's different." But you'll have to wait until I quilt it to see. :)

Leah

A little bit of nesting?

Seems like I did a bit of unexpected "nesting" this past week. I'll admit to being extra slow, due to a cold! Yuck. Hard to think about where you want things when you're busy blowing your brains out. ;)


It all started with the crib my mother-in-law graciously bought for us. I was going to put it against the brick wall, between the bed and bookshelves... but I could just see the baby grabbing my hair or pulling down books in the middle of the night.

The bookcases have to go... and the only place is my sewing room.


But before I could rehome the books, I needed to clear out the pile of batting and fabric.

It totally exploded in the living room! Admittedly, the couch makes my fabric pile twice as big as it really is. :)


Once that pile was out of the bedroom, I put the three bookcases in and reshelved the books.

I did take care to put the more read and favored books on the upper shelves, since I knew the fabric would be blocking the lower shelves. Can't deny my husband access to his Dune books. ;)


Then last night Chris "bribed" me to get the fabric and batting back into my sewing room so we could cuddle on the couch and watch the latest James Bond movie.

A little snug, but it's the best I can do. Not to mention I'd rather have the baby pull down a stack of fabric than a stack of books.

Little ones sure make you rethink all your furniture arrangements! :)

Leah

Stretched

Now that I'm 7 months pregnant, I'm getting stretched in new ways! My poor belly button looks like a frown (but it's not an outie). Now I'm developing an assortment of red claw marks on my lower tummy. Thankfully when the first one popped up, Chris just kissed it and told me he likes me anyhow. Since then, I just remind myself that guys like what's above and below the belly more! :D

Just about every day you'll hear me saying "oof!" because I forgot to make mental allowances for the growing belly. :P

Oof - I shut the fridge door on my belly again.

Oof - I was bending or squatting to reach something and hit my own personal roadblock. I've made Chris get stuff in the back bottom shelf or at the bottom of the chest freezer.

Oof - I couldn't get the regular restroom door to close easily at the gym. I just use the handicap stall now.

Oof - Chris was demonstrating something with his hands and whacked my tummy. This had us laughing pretty hard. :)

Oof - I was trying to get a little closer to the ironing board tonight and all I did was rock it. Good thing I was holding the iron, I'm not in the mood to deal with replacing it. :P

Hopefully I'll lose the stretch marks after the baby is born. I got some on my lower tummy when I was 20 pounds heavier, but once I lost the weight, they disappeared. Not that it matters, I'm not a bikini gal. ;)

Leah

Not gestational diabetes!

The good news, I don't have gestational diabetes. I didn't think so with my blood sugar readings... but why did I get such a high number at the midwife's? Turns out that I was the first of 3 people to get unusually high readings, then she realized she needed to recalibrate her meter. I'm glad it's just a minor error, and not something actually wrong with ME. :)

But it did ramp up eating better in our household. Like pie for dinner. ;) That would be turkey pot pie, loaded with veggies.

Another night we had chicken corn chowder. Made with heavy cream, yum!

I'm not trying to do low fat at this point, I'm still one pound short of reaching my pre-pregnancy weight. I've only gained 17 of the 18 pounds I lost in the first trimester.


What to do with the leftover cream? Whip it up and add fruit, like blueberries.

It takes care of my cravings for sweets, without giving me a potential blood sugar spike from flour or sugar.


And sometimes we're just not feeling in the mood to do "real cooking" from scratch, and meals like this one get thrown together.

It's brown rice with some apple chicken sausage. Plus my water with liquid chlorophyll. I gotta take 2 tablespoons of that stuff everyday. It doesn't taste bad, but it stains my lips and teeth dark green. I love green... but not that much!

It feels good to know that I'm back on track with having a healthy pregnancy. :)

Leah

Carpenter's Wheel Finished

Just taking a moment to show you the completed Carpenter's Wheel quilt that I gave teasers on a few weeks ago.

It shrunk down from 40" square to 38" after I washed it. I firmly believe that all baby quilts should be washed before gifted, sooner or later the baby will have an accident on it with frequent use. I don't want any poor parent secretly fussing "oh no! It shrunk, I better never let Leah see the quilt again, it would be hard to explain..." Nope, quilts should be given as they're going to get used and abused. :)

Leah

Five favorites from the show

Just taking a minute to show my 5 favorite quilts from the annual quilt show. Five because that's how many pictures blogger lets me upload at once. :)

It's been a rough week, hence why I haven't blogged as much as I normally do. Last Wednesday I got a blood sugar reading of 189. The maximum number to have without raising a red flag was 140. Whoops!

So we started treating it like gestational diabetes. I bought a meter, strips and lancets. I began to test first thing in the morning and after every meal.

But no matter what I tried, or what carbs I added in, I couldn't get that high of a reading again. My numbers were very consistently normal - even after eating cherry cobbler. :P I would eat stuff that I was so sure that would give me a spike... and my blood sugar wasn't even 100.

I don't think I have gestational diabetes, but we're going to do the 3-hour glucose test to make sure. I even tried to recreate the food I had the day I received the 189, and I got a reading of 96. :) Nor do my numbers dip too low, another problem diabetics have.

It certainly ramped up my focus on good food and bumping exercise from 2-3 times a week, to physical activity every day. I haven't been feeling poorly, and the baby has been active as ever. Just a scare that caused us to get our butts into a higher gear.

Last Friday I was doing some sewing and my stomach started to hurt the more I sewed. After half an hour, I realized that I was sucking in my tummy because I was trying to get closer to the sewing machine! It's getting snug here. ;)

Leah

Quilty Saturday

I started this Carpenter's Wheel towards the end of February, but didn't buck down to make progress until today.

I did modify it some, by making the blocks 5" finished so I would have a 40" quilt. I also put HSTs in the corners, instead of solid squares like the pattern shows.


Once the top was done... why not iron out a piece of backing? Then why not pin the quilt together while waiting for Chris to finish dinner? Hey, it's still early, I bet it won't take too long to quilt up either.

Then before you know it, it's covered with loops and the binding is sewn on too. Works for me! :)


The quilt is for a baby shower next week. I really want to get the binding done before Tuesday so I can wash it. Nothing like a soft cuddly quilt.

Leah

Hanging at the quilt show

I used this quilt back in November to announce my pregnancy. There's no hiding it now! :)

So far my quilt hasn't sold, but there's still one more day. I'll have to find a place to hang it in my home if it does come back with me.

And I finally found a use for the bag I won from Winona. It held my purse, camera, car keys and name tag. I bet there'll be room for an extra diaper next year. ;)

Leah

First Finish of 2010

Whoo hoo! First completed quilt in 2010. And Chris teased me that it might be my last. Hmmph, I hope not. :)

It's all leftovers of other quilts. The center strip is leftover ends from my Challenge Quilt, and the 4 side strips are leftovers of the Old Red Barn quilt along.

I never did get my design wall back up after moving. I usually can get away with the floor or ironing board, but I used my pile o' batting this time.


One thing that I've started doing is journaling my quilt progress in a sketch book with heavy-duty paper. For whatever reason, it really motivates me!

You can see a rough drawing of the quilt I had in mind, my math and my notes. Then I dated my progress. I'll have to add that I blogged about it on the 21st. :) I'm also planning to get a hard copy of the finish quilt and taping it to the other side. Sorta like a scrapbook?


Here's it being ready to be pinned.

I started getting a feeling that something was off...


...but I didn't figure it out until tonight and actually measured both sides. One is 46.5" long, the other is 45". Oops!

I realize what I did wrong when I was trimming the quilt, but too late now. Since I have a small fabric fold in the backing too, I'll just go ahead and keep it for the baby. :)

A great way to use leftover bits of other projects!

Leah

Gotta quilt faster!

Here I made a backing for the pink and green quilt top I completed. I figured the white would make a great spot for the label.

And yes, it's ripply as it looks. :( I'm not sure why, but my guess is because I tore off the selvage, instead of cutting it off. Must have stretched the fabric? I just tell myself I can quilt it out! Tell me the same too, please. :D


The quilting is going to have to wait a little bit, as I need the batting from the yellow bag and there's a whole bunch of tops paired with battings that are waiting to be quilted.

I did get another backing prepared for a quilt in the pile, so that's progress! And nope, it doesn't ripple, since it's just one piece. :)

Leah

Road to Spring quilt along

Been keeping my sewing machine humming with the Road To Spring Quilt Along. This top practically flew together.

After making the boyish train quilt, I was definitely in the mood for girly. :) But of course I can't give up my favorite color, green, so I mixed the two.


I jumped the gun and started piecing my "blocks" before the directions were released. Then I found out I was doing it wrong... but both ways lead to a finished top.

I just loved not having to match seams! Only needed to pay attention to which direction I was pressing the blocks.


And it grows...

I tried very hard to make sure that every 4 blocks didn't have any repeat of green or pink fabrics. Plenty of shuffling happened towards the end.


The completed top! It should be measuring 50"x72". Once again, a good bed quilt for a child under 10.

I was hoping to make a nice dent in my stash of older greens... ha! Not hardly. :P

I do kinda wish I had a higher fabric turn over in my stash so I could buy newer stuff more often. I don't want to buy something that's STILL going to be in my fabric stash 5 years down the road. Except for hand dyes, I never tire of them. :)

Leah

Goodies and LizzieB Crea8ive

I squeaked under the deadline! Today was the last day the guild was accepting quilt show submissions. I was ready to turn it in at the last meeting, but I didn't know I was supposed to include the Challenge description.

I also made the decision to put a $250 price tag on it. For whatever reason, I'm not emotionally attached to the quilt. I think because it didn't quite turn out like I envisioned in my head. I wanted it to look like a flower, yellow center, purple pedals, blue and green leaves. The other thing is the yellow-orange fabric dominates the quilt, when I was trying to make the blue-green dominate by making it the biggest diamond. Between the very heavy quilting and use of hand dyed fabrics, I put a larger price tag than I normally would.


The program meeting today was Beth Hawkins from the LizzieB Crea8ive team. She did a slideshow combined with showing the actual quilts she had on hand. When she came to the blue sunflower quilt... I knew I would want that pattern!

We've had several trunk shows over the years, but this is the first time I actually bought a pattern. I just adore those flowers and figured it's about time I had a quilt made with them. :)


Lastly, all is going well in my pregnancy! I'm definitely starting to look pregnant now. This is my official 5 months photo. There's been a lot of kicking of the late.

I'm hoping to hit garage sales in the next several weeks, I'm on the look out for a bed for the baby. Our first thought was to get a pack'n'play, but I'm open to other deals we might find. Cash can talk a nice bargain. ;)

Leah