Care Bears Pumpkin

Aww yeah! My Care Bears fascination has been well documented on this blog. Paintings, quilts, crib bumpers.. Tenderheart was my favorite as a kid, and as an added bonus for carving, he has quite possibly the simplest belly badge. 

A lot of work for one night, but I have always loved carving pumpkins. I remember doing Betty Boop and the cover of my favorite horror novel in my early teens. I tend to just use the patterns these days, because as Mom, I get to carve everyone else's pumpkins along with my own. I had a vision this year, though! This is all for me, and maybe a little for Caroline. 

Belated Moments

I keep meaning to post new baby photos (though I guess that I did post one last week), it's just that every time I look at a picture of her, it already seems outdated. She is growing and changing so much!

Today we had her four month appointment and she is only 4oz shy of doubling her birth weight. And even though she is still two pounds smaller than Gabe was at this age, she has actually gained more weight at this point than he had. I just keep looking at this adorable monster in 6 month clothes and wondering what happened to the baby.

Compared to this...that's MY hand.So little!

The obligatory resolutions post, and pics

Well, it's 2012, and for the second year, I get to look back at the goals I made for myself and see how I did at accomplishing them. Last year it was super fun, because I did everything. This year...well, see for yourself.

1. Potty train Gabe. Success, though not before his fourth birthday, ironically, everything seemed to click for him after he had an embarrassing accident in front of his cousins at the party.

2. Make a quilt for myself. Success here too. I have managed to hang on to the Deb Strain quilt I made. I thought about giving it away several times, but I'm glad I never did. I really love it. Plus, Deb loved it too, and the blog post she made about it was a really fun moment for me last year.

3. Make something larger than a lap quilt. Not yet. I made the top for my daughter's toddler bed quilt, but I have yet to actually finish the thing, and some people still consider that size a lap quilt. What are typical lap quilt dimensions? I should probably know that kind of thing before setting goals like this.

4. Make 144 blog posts. Miserable failure. Not only did I not blog more at all, I blogged even less than I did my first year! Awful! Though, in my defense, I made that resolution a full month before I got pregnant and morning sickness, coupled with a newborn does not make for a lot of blogging time.

So, what do you hopefully have to look forward to in 2012?

1. Blog more. I am hesitant to post that 144 number again, plus, I'm already behind on that being almost a week into the year and posting once, but I really would like to be crafting substantially again. I miss it.

2. Finish the top to my basket quilt. I seriously love those blocks, and I have all of the Amy Butler fabrics cut for it, but for some reason I am dreading cutting all of the white and have been at a stalemate for awhile with it. I'm not going to say I want to completely finish the quilt, as paying the long-armer is going to be costly, but I do want the top done so I have the option.

3. Buy less fabric. It would seem that this would be contradictory to the blog/craft more goal above, but there is a lot of fabric in my basement that should be tended to, or sold if I'm not going to do anything other than hoard it. A real lot.

4. Try new things. Now, I'm not going to go as far as say...crochet (though I would love to learn, I just do not need another hobby), but paper piecing, scalloped edges on a quilt, needle-turn applique...I see beautiful projects made with these things and have the instructions right in front of me without ever trying them out. I'm challenging myself to actually do that this year.

And if you've held out this long, I give you a photo. The first ever real smile of Caroline's actually caught on camera. Actually, I'll give you the first, "it's probably just gas" smile too, since I have yet to post her professional hospital photos on here.

Wow, look at how much she's grown!

I'm just lazy...

I promise that I did not have the baby. I just didn't blog for a week because I literally did nothing!

I realized that I was truly dreading making the crib skirt. All of those ruffles, pulling the thread to gather and praying it didn't break on a 52 inch side...no desire. None. So I talked to my husband, and even though I had already purchased the fabric to make it, asked if it would be alright if I drove across town to the baby store and bought one. He laughed and said, "You know, there is a reason they sell those things." Thank God for him!

Here it is, on the bed. Just plain pink to match all of her sheets. I'm excited that I don't have to sew it, though I did talk myself into believing that once it was in, I'd start piecing the back to her quilt. That hasn't been done either. I should really know better.

Here is a close up of her letters and the banner from the baby showers, now hanging above her bed. I covered the letters with pieces of the bag one of my shower gifts came in. It matched so perfectly and was free!

Almost finished!

I was able to complete the crib bumper last week, and now I am nearly finished with the baby's corner of the room! I have to make the bed skirt, and figure out some way to put her name or initials on the wall. I will still have her quilt to finish at that point, but since I made it toddler bed sized, I'm not very concerned that it be finished in the next month.

I can't get over how adorable these little Care Bears are!

My finally finished painting. I'm really, really pleased with how it came out, and imagine this hanging on her wall for years to come. Even if she doesn't end up as enamored with Care Bears as I was when I was little, it should go well with the character themed decor that my almost four year old prefers.


And in the event that you needed a refresher, or were just curious (as I was) to see how it might all look together, here the crib is with my finished quilt top. More photos of that can be found here.

A little peek

I have this list of things that I have to do before the baby comes. It's handy, but I've discovered that I haven't really put half of the things I need to do on it. For example, after three trips to my sister's place since becoming pregnant, I finally remembered to bring home my son's infant car seat (she had borrowed it for my nephew). I was so excited to cross that off of my list! I then realized that washing it was not on my list. Nor was washing the stroller. I somehow imagined that these things would be in wonderful condition after 18 months in storage.

I did get to scratch one thing off. One thing, that did not add three or four more things to the supposed-to-be-shrinking list, thank goodness!



I finished my painting! It is now hung nearly exactly centered over the completely built crib in the kids' room. I am so excited to do the big reveal with all of her Care Bears things...I just have to get them off of my list first.

A small finish and some progress

My wonderful friend Erin bought me this fabric book panel in my nursery theme. I decided to put off any further work on the quilt until the bed skirt and bumper are done, that way I know exactly how much scrap I have to piece the backing. So, until the crib got here (which I wasn't expecting to happen for awhile), I pulled out this book panel and a purse that has been a work in progress for a long time.



Of course, the crib arrived yesterday and I never made it to the purse. Oh, how hard it is going to be to finish that purse now that my major baby purchase is in the house!

Wait a minute, does this page of the book look familiar? It should!



That's really similar to my painting! It doesn't seem like there is much work left to do on it, but I feel like there is a lot. About the same way I feel about her room!

Finished quilt top

Since the image in my giveaway post was a little small, and a little cropped, I thought I'd give the Care Bears quilt top it's own post today.



Here she is! You can't see it in the photo (I had to have something to hang it by), but there is a thin stripe of the aqua fabric across the top. I made it a little bigger than what I was planning though, and need to add at least two inches to the length and width of my backing fabric. I want simple piecing, so I'm leaning toward a nine patch type pattern in an uneven cross. Not exactly like the backs of my Log Cabin Stars quilts, but kind of similar to stretch my backing fabric.

I'm also praying to have enough to make her a pillowcase to match, since I realized that by the time she's using a pillow there won't be any of this fabric around, and a toddler sheet set (with pillowcase) isn't likely to match this quilt. I should be good. I think I over ordered, but I'm nervous to work on an "extra" when I don't have the basics covered.



P.S. You still have time to win your own copy of My Memories digital scrapbook software! Who can argue with free?

A solution!

After days of trying to make my rows fit and dozens of seams ripped out, I have finally found a solution to my problem! Can you tell what it was?

How about when I change the angle just a little bit?



Good, right? It still isn't ideal, but it's far better than ordering new fabric. This way, if it doesn't line up just right I have to rip out an eight inch seam instead of a 44 inch one. Plus, I'm thinking once it's all sewn together and quilted it will be almost unnoticeable. At least, I'm hoping!

Weekend work

Sometimes, sewing is this amazing process, where everything fits together and all of the seams are perfect and I stand back with a huge grin on my face saying, "I did that!"

Of course, that usually happens when I am using a pattern that has been tested to death by dozens of sewers. Coming up with my own design is much harder, even when it should be easy. I measured my quilt rows at least four times before cutting the fabric strips to mix them up with. You would think that would mean that they matched up perfectly, but you (and I) would be wrong. I hung the quilt up on the back of my chair and promised myself I'd rip out a bunch of seams after the weekend.



I worked some more on the painting instead. I am on a deadline, after all.

Rows

My purple pinwheels are done and pieced into rows with the pink ones. I had hoped to have the whole top completed today, but I'm finding myself second guessing a decision I made before I saw the whole top laid out. I imagined working a print I hadn't yet used into a thin stripe separating my rows. Now I think it might stand out too much...

Pink pinwheels

More than half of the blocks for my quilt top are completed with this pile. I am going to have to piece the back as well though, so I may decide to make more of these pinwheels in the future.

The next set is purple, aqua and green. I have a TON of the purple fabric, but also a ton I want to do with it, so I had to dig out my notes before I could cut into it. I found them this morning on my desk and should have a stack of purple pinwheels like this tomorrow!

Couldn't wait...

I was not going to reveal the theme for the baby's corner of my son's room until I had the whole thing finished. Thinking about it though, I ideally want the bedding, the painting (I'm seriously considering two more smaller ones with her initials after this one) and the crib all done in time for my first baby shower. I'd like to have completed photos to show all of the relatives from far away.

That shower is in less than two months! I am hoping that putting things up on the blog will keep me motivated to finish it all in time...because if I really sit down and think about how soon my little girl will be here, YIKES!

The fabric to match this unfinished canvas should be here today! I'm crazy excited!