Monday Moments

Let's see, Thursday I showed you the wonky top to my mini quilt. I still have not quite figured out how to disguise/fix that, so I'm contemplating moving on to another sewing project while I'm contemplating that.

Friday I got a haircut. I felt like David Cassidy. The stylist told me if I didn't blow it dry or straighten it I'd have a nice wave. So I did that last night (though in all reality it was because Caroline was way fussy and had nothing to do with wanting a nice wave), and this morning I think I look like John Travolta in his Welcome Back Kotter days. Granted, men in the 70's had really feminine hair styles, but it was not what I wanted to look like. If I ever figure out how to tame this mess, I may post pictures. For right now, I'm a little sad. 

Also on Friday, we took the kids to the circus. 

Gabe thought this guy in the stilts was pretty much the best thing ever. I am still trying to figure out the new camera, but I really liked the kind of pretty blur it put on these pictures. Enough focus to see what's going on, but you can see the movement too. 

At some point during the show I thought I heard Gabe clamoring for the elephants from his seat. As we were walking out, I mentioned to my husband how excited he was to see them. He laughed and said, "No, he told me he could smell the elephants." That kid cracks me up! When he isn't making me tear my hair out, anyway. 

Mini quilt top without borders

First off, how on Earth is it Thursday already? I swear that Monday was just yesterday! This school year just seems impossible to adjust to for me, anyone else? 

I finished sewing all of my mini quilt blocks together. I feel like there should be an exclamation point on the end of that sentence, but it's all wonky and I'm upset about it. I think I might be able to disguise the wonkiness with the borders, so I was not going to post any photos of it on the blog until those were on, but I have had trouble getting to the sewing machine this week. 

Literally. Gabe has staked a claim on my sewing space, as it is fully gated off from the baby. Seems my ideal sewing space is also the ideal place to build with LEGO. I will sometimes get a few minutes to myself to use the machine only to find him hunkered down in my chair, and little plastic men strewn all over the extension table. 

One of two things usually happens at that point. Either I work up the energy to fight with him over my space, kick him out and clean up just in time for the baby to wake up and my sewing time to dissipate, or I just decide it isn't worth wasting my few quiet moments on the fighting and the clean up and I find something else to do. If I'm honest, it's usually the latter. 

Monday Moments

Another Monday, another weekend soccer game! Our team has had two games, and two losses, but they're getting better! It seems like there is at least one team every year where every single girl is bigger than every single girl on our team...

As if soccer games weren't enough to make it feel like fall, we are well into Halloween prep in our house. I took Gabe to the party store to scope out things for his birthday (and kind of sort of look around for Caroline's birthday without really acknowledging that she's about to be one) and instead found him a Halloween costume. My step-daughter and I have both decided what we're going to be and have been scouring thrift stores for pieces to our costumes, and I'm really excited to do some sewing for us! Maybe even a couple tutorials!

I'm also completely finished with my mini quilt blocks! Feeling real productive right about now...as long as you don't ask about that first birthday party.

Monday Moments and challenge results

A week ago I entered the One Thing, One Week Challenge at Amy's Creative Side. My goal was to cut all of the fabric for the mini quilt pattern I bought at the AQS Show. I'm happy to say that not only did I get all of it cut, I actually sewed four blocks! 

I posted the two pumpkins earlier, but this is your first peek at the turkey and flying geese blocks. My turkey needs some trimming up. This pattern may have been a bit advanced for me, as that little birdie made me want to tear my hair out a few times! 

I'm excited to finish up sewing this, though! I probably would have had more done, but it is soccer season and after a year off, I am a soccer mom again. 

The first game was Saturday and it was light pink versus dark pink. So confusing! 

Caroline played with keys and sunglasses and crawled around the sidelines. She really has no idea what's going on, but was generally pretty well behaved except for the part where she smacked her head on our lawn chairs. Poor baby! 

Paper pieced pumpkin, part duex

I know that I said my goal for my mini quilt was to cut the pieces by Monday, however, when I cut them out I have a little panic attack that I might lose them and end up sewing them together. It's not a bad problem to have...

Today's block is a little baby pumpkin.

I think the big one is less than six inches, if that gives you any idea of scale. Something is up with the color on these, because in person those blues could not be more different. The big pumpkin is a dark greenish blue, and the smaller one is a bright true blue. There are two more blocks in this quilt with blue backgrounds, I think I'm going to break my rules and buy something so that they can match. Something between the green/true blue, but in a darker tone. I'm hoping that will unify everything, and also hoping my local quilt shop has something like that in stock! 

Paper pieced pumpkin block

As I mentioned in the tail end of my post the other day, I cannot get the mini quilt pattern I bought at the quilt show out of my head. I have been wanting to make one forever! 

I just happened to find the perfect backing (and probably border, I bought a half yard) fabric at my local quilt shop. Being that it is a mini quilt, I figured I had more than enough fabric left from the Bali Pop I made this quilt with to make the top. So I cut the pieces for the largest block and got sewing. It turns out, I read the cutting instructions very wrong, and I am amazed that this worked out, at all! 

I wish this piece were in that fabric. I cut all of the pieces out following a chart and not looking at the actual foundation, with the exception of this one spot, it actually turned out how I was imagining. Still, I'm sad that I didn't realize how that was going to look, not sad enough to change it or make another pumpkin, but sad. 

Monday Moments and a challenge

A couple years ago, my husband bought me a camera for my birthday. He broke it last week. Well, mother nature broke it, I guess, but she certainly didn't take it out of the bag after I said, "I don't know, it's windy and there's a lot of sand around here." Sure enough, when I went to take photos of one of my projects, the lens wouldn't open. 

I had to laugh, though, because when I was pregnant with Gabe, his mother bought him a camera for his birthday, and I dropped it in my friend's driveway and killed it. I have decided there will be no more cameras for birthdays, ever. 

Two broken cameras and one working one with a death rattle (from sand getting in it at the beach...we don't learn) have finally convinced us that we need to be waterproof, shockproof, dust-proof camera people. So we bought one in a great Labor Day sale, and took it to the beach this weekend. 

There were a lot of completely unnecessary underwater photos just because we could.

And some hazy photos of the kids because Caroline grabbed the lens area and wiped sunblock on it. We're definitely going to have to bring a cleaning kit with us next time! 

On a completely unrelated note, Amy is hosting a challenge again, and I need some serious motivation to get fabric cut for the next project I want to do. I'm obsessed with the mini quilt pattern that I bought at the AQS Show, but I want to make it out of scraps, and the only way to know if I have enough is to measure and cut pieces! I hate cutting, but I need to get this out of my head (and off of my ironing board)!