Well hello, we meet again.

Good lord, the last time I posted on this thing was July?? Wow. Quick recap of real life events.

- August was my last month of working for someone else. Trying to get all my ducks in a row so I could try and keep a clientele was hard. Me and the bestie share a small suite in a salon now. It's kind of like having a dorm except neither of us went off to university. It's a much happier atmosphere, I work with all my friends and the hours are more forgiving. One of my coworkers is amazing in that she used to teach quilting classes! She is a fountain of knowledge for me. I love the hell out of her. Sadly, the move means no more sit and sew with quilt guild girls.

- My son has started school. He's in the 3 yr old class even though he turned 4in November. We had to switch programs because he had a terrible teacher at his first one. This is the first week at the new school and so far he loves it. It was my first choice for school but they didn't have an opening until now. Perfect timing really. It's hard seeing him get so big. It only speeds up from here.

- I've decided that the plumpy was getting too bad and went on a bit of a diet. Cutting back a lot on carbs/sugars. The first week I was a bitch, plain and simple. My blood sugar went all crazy but now I've adjusted to it. It's nothing extreme, but definitely a necessity. Getting closer to 30 is making me more observant to my bad habits.

-Late October my dad died. He wasn't a good father by any stretch of the imagination. We hadn't spoken in 7 years. Now its a super fun legal go round with everything because there was no will and I have a lazy older brother. Blarg.

I say all of this to say, life got in the way of fun stuff for me. Other than estate stuff everything is going along swimmingly. I have been busy sewing and swapping though. I want to get back into the bloggy goodness. In the mean time, I've discovered instagram. I'm sosaysthehermit if you want to follow along.

That time I popped out 2 quilts

I FIIINALLY finished an asshole quilt. It was a pain from the get go. Nothing went right, at all. Well I finally showed that beast what's up!

 

I think it looks marvelous now! You can't really see it but I used one of DS fabrics from Joann's for the binding. 

 

The back is a vintage sheet I thrifted ages ago. Its so very soft. Extra snuggly :) 

 

 Then, in record time, I started AND finished a quilt in less than a week. Gasp and amazement! In all fairness, it was a baby quilt. 

 

It's Oh Franson's Mixtape quilt pattern. This is definitely one of my favorite patterns ever! I used Backyard Baby from Michael Miller. I bought 1/2 yard of each print and needed a fat eighth. Looks like Little Man is going to get one of these too. It's sashed in Kona Ash and the binding is Kona Orange, maybe Tangerine? The back is a light brown thrifted sheet. This one goes out tomorrow. Hope momma (and soon baby boy) like it :)

I'll be linking up with a few of you lovely linky ladies this week. Go check them all out. There is some seriously good stuff out there.

Word vomit with a few pretty pictures

I have been a busy little beaver. Allegory and I are hosting a swap over on Flickr

Look! I made this

She's definitely the get people roped in type. I'm more of an OOH! LISTS! organizational freak. Either way, I'm hella excited and people should go join pronto!

Proud nerd moment of the week? Making a banner for this silly little corner of blogville. If you are viewing this in a reader, go feed my excitement and ooh and ahh over the simple little lovelies at the top. I've been trying to make one off and on but I couldn't ever get the damn thing to look right. FINALLY! SUCCESS IS MINE! Bwaahahahaha!


One of the great things about only having one kid in a three bedroom house is that you get a whole bedroom all to your sewing self. Granted, its teeny little bedroom but damn is it perfect for sewing. I'm a bit messy when I'm working. A few weeks ago I thought, "I have no shame. I'll share with the world how bad it is"

 

Here is is before, in all its messy, cell phone picture glory. At least the main part of it. 

 

Here is the whole thing looking about as neat as its going to look.  Sometimes I just open my cabinet and stare. Maybe run my hands along. Sometimes just organizing is soothing. Weird huh? 

 

Here is my block for our Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild Challenge. We could use up to 3 solids and were all given the same FQ. The results were amazing! There are some seriously talented women (and now 1 man) in there. For mine, I cut the FQ into stripes and used only it for my block, minus that one teeny piece of yellow. Its the first time I'd done a log cabin style block. I thought it look pretty snazzy.

 

Here are the threads I picked out for my new embroidery pattern that I designed all by myself. I was inspired by my bestie doing her hair with the ombre effect. I'd like to eventually turn it into a PDF.

 

Here's what I've got so far. I'll probably turn this one into a pillow as well. It will stay in my sewing room for the sake of the white staying white. Although my dear fluffy kitties knocked over a whole mug of coffee inches from a wall outlet, it may not be safe anywhere. 

I also finished 2 quilts this week, but that will be another day.

The one for Fran

I completely forgot to post the final results of this one.
Turned out smaller than I had wanted, but the borders went well so all is good. Finished it up crazy quick because I used the easy thread needles to hide the end threads from quilting. How did I NOT hear about these til now?! I tried them on another quilt and the thread was from Connecting Threads. Lesson learned: not strong enough to get snapped in to those needles. This one was quilted with a heavier weight thread and I had no problems. Not sure if it was the brand difference or the weight difference.

First embroidery finish!

I FINALLY finished my embroidery project for the bestie's birthday. So what if it was a good 5 weeks late. I say in the world of handmade gifts that isn't too terribly late :)

It started out as this


Then got to here



I asked her if she wanted a pillow or a wall hanging and she opted for a pillow.



This was my first time making an envelope closure and I think I rocked it! The front is some Kona I had. It turned out just like I wanted! I was so amazed. My mom helped me pick out threads and she did way better than me. High five for mom! The best compliment was when she took it to work everyone asked if I sell them and if I would make a custom one for them. I don't think I ever would but hearing that my stuff is good enough to sell is such high praise. Made me turn pink just like tequila does.

I'll be linking up to Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story because I've never remembered to post on Tuesdays.

Even technology gets brain farts

I got on my blogger app to make THIS post and saw the last one didn't go through. That's a wee bit annoying.

I had these on my phone and thought I would share




These are from my rainbow charm swap. I'm still waiting on the neutral and solids swap to come in. I swear, I sent off for that forever ago. I'll make some sort of patchwork rainbow goodie it of it. My poor husband was not excited about that one hehe. His favorite one I've made has been black and white.




This is the face of a Camille as she spray bastes. That stuff is uhhhmazing but it gets all over. I have enough chemicals in my lungs from hair products and smoking, I don't need glue too thankyouverymuch. I like to consider this the spray baste bandit look :)

What do you do that makes you look like a crazy person while crafting?

A stitchy affair

I haven't been behind the needle so much lately. I've been doing my first big embroidery project and it's zen as all get out, but it doesn't go very quickly.




Here is what's done so far. I'd say it's actually close to finish. I'm kind of figuring it out as I go, so if there are any huge glaring boo boos, someone please enlighten me.




This is my pouch from the pouch swap I did a few months back. This thing is the perfect freaking size and shape. That's a 6" hoop, but an 8" would fit too. Can't wait til the next round of that one.




Here is the top all pieced together. First time I think I've done borders. And here I've put on two! *gasp* This is going to go to my dear aunt that kept my son while I was working. She'd still be keeping him if my uncle's health hadn't gone kaput. It's made it of a layer cake but I effed it up good and proper and didn't take into account how small the pieces would get. The blocks looked like maxi pads with wings. Good times, good times. I like how it turned out, just wish I hadn't wasted so much in the learning process. I've quilted it and just pinned the binding on tonight. I'll take a jillion more pictures when it's all said and done.




I also made this little purse. It's from a pattern on etsy, can't remember from who at the moment. I altered it a bit and made the handles one piece instead of using the metal hoops (didn't have any) and it has a magnetic snap instead of a flap going over it. It's canvas with cotton on the inside. I didn't use interfacing because I didn't want to fit with it if I wasn't going to like it. I know what I'll change when I make another one. I have some cute chevron that would look cute, but with a stripe to cover where the pieces meet.