I wish so very much I could be a part of the Modern Quilt Guild. I am so entranced with so many aspects of modern quilting, I absolutely love it, but the nearest group I could join has their meetings over an hour’s drive from where I live. And my life is such these days that it’s not really possible to be able to make the trip for the meetings, even if it’s just once a month. Not that it’s a bad thing, I’m perfectly content these days where I am. I guess I am just wishing the group met in a closer location. Oh well. For now I am happy to keep up with all of the modern quilt fun vicariously online. Life moves so fast, I’m sure my circumstances will change and it won’t be like this for long. And who knows, by then there may even be a group that meets closer to me. Maybe.

I saw this quick fix idea using reverse applique on another blog somewhere, but I can’t remember exactly where. (Heidi do you remember?) Regardless of it’s origins, I knew it would be worth my while to try it.

Thankfully, Haven was way ahead of me and had already ripped holes in both of the knees of her jeans without having to be asked. She is so very considerate of my sewing needs. I cut out a cardboard template of a heart that was large enough to cover each rip and still be centered on the knee area, traced around the template, pinned a scrap of pink print fabric underneath, and stitched all around it using my pencil outline as my stitching guideline. And why may I ask does her shirt look red in these pictures, I thought it was dark pink? Whatever.

All that was left to do was to cut away the excess denim on the inside of the heart around the edges, leaving a scant 1/8″-inch to the stitching, which will fray up a bit and look even cuter with each wash. I then handed them over to an ecstatic 8 year old girl who immediately put them on, exclaimed that I am the best Mom in the whole world, and declared herself the coolest girl in her school.

Next up, a boys version. Not using hearts, of course. I mean, what kind of a mother would I be stitching pink heart shaped patches on my boys jeans and sending them off to school to face every bully on the playground. Although I have been known to dress my boys in outfits akin to Little Lord Fauntleroy.

I know, a serious lack of posts lately. I’ve been keeping busy, but I have also been neglecting to write about any stuff going on at my house, so I’m posting about our new windows. When we bought our house in 2008, about half of the windows were double pane and in good working order. Seven of them however were original to the house when it was built, single pane, a serious source of drafts, and the locking mechanisms didn’t worked. I’m the paranoid one in my family, ask any of my siblings, they will tell you, so this situation was driving me crazy. We were finally in a position to bump the new windows up to the top of the fix-it list, so last week on Monday morning a crew arrived to install them, and within a few hours time they had removed all of the old windows and replaced each and every one.

 (outside shot of one of the new bedroom windows. Oooooh, fancy!)

(the huge 10 footer in the living room. I know, windows are pretty boring.)

The change was instantaneous, not only in looks but the warmer temperatures in each of the rooms. Of course my favorite feature is the working locks on each one. As soon as the work crew left I went to each one, opening and closing each window, then locking them myself for good measure. Now I am free to be totally paranoid about other things, such as our current lack of a gate on our fence to keep small children safely corralled in our backyard. It has broken beyond simple repair after a night of severe wind, and I am anxious to get it back in working order for some peace of mind with warmer weather not too far off. We have already slated it as one of our first Spring projects. And by “we” and “our” I mean Craig.

A few days ago I bought a pair of insanely cute ballet flats for Haven, and even though they’re the right size, she had a hard time keeping them on because her feet are quite narrow. Not wanting to let these shoes sit in her closet unworn, I thought I would take a stab at fixing the problem myself.

 A strap across the top of the shoe seemed like a good solution, but without black elastic on hand, only white, I went went with what I had. I took some 1/2″-inch double wide black bias tape, stitched it together at the sides making a casing, and cut some 1/4″-inch wide elastic and inserted it into the casing.

I made the length of the casing about twice the length of the elastic so that it would ruffle up, and then I stitched it across at either end of the casing, catching the ends of the elastic, to keep it in place. Then I wedged the shoe onto my sewing machine, and after some contortions I was able to slowly push it through and stitch the strap on. I had to crank the wheel on my machine by hand to make sure it would go through the sides of the shoe without breaking my needle.

And voila, a shoe that will look cute and will also stay on her feet as she runs around at school and on the playground.

Because every 8 year old girl needs sequin covered zebra stripe ballet flats for school, right? Right.

…I finally finished the baby quilt. Not that she has had her baby yet, but she is threatening to go into full blown labor any day now, so I’m happy to be ready.

After a few revisions to make up for using 45″ wide fabric instead of the 60″ the pattern called for, here it is all laid out before I stitched it all together. Maybe a quilt design wall would be better for this, but for now the carpeted floor will have to do.

I really love the equal mix of modern and classic in the quilt, and it didn’t take long to get the top pieced so that I could put it together and quilt it. I loved tossing it into the washer and dryer knowing it would come out all crinkly and soft.

I ended up doing a pieced back due to an error of mine in not buying the right yardage for backing, and this flannel being far too expensive to just go back and get more. So I pieced it and I love it. My idiot error worked out after all.

The flannels from the “Woolies” collection are incredible, and were very easy to work with. They are incredibly soft, wash up beautifully, and they’re the best flannel I have ever laid my hands on. And as for the mistakes I made along the way, well they were frustrating, but not impossible and I was able to work through all of them with a little extra effort. In other words, I still want to make more quilts. Hopefully with fewer goofs next time?

It’s imperative that I find and buy some orange serger thread. Stat.

Four cones to be exact. I absolutely must have it. Must! That is all. Breckenridge.

I love Whip Up, and these are just a few of the projects that have caught my eye as of late…

I love, love, love this quilt. I am so very enchanted with Modern quilts, I cannot get enough of them it seems.

This wreath looks like it would be fun to make, and relatively easy, and I like the frayed edges of the fabric roses used to make it.

I have seen one or two tutorials on making one of these crazy nine patch quilts before, and loved the whole idea behind it. I fell instantly in love with the method, it looks like so much fun to make, and so, well, crazy. The total fun way.

I kind of have a sort of scarf addiction, so it’s no surprise this ruffled scarf tutorial piqued my interest.

This printable doll would make a perfect first-time sewing project for my little girls to tackle.

And I thought Ciel would love to make a few of these seed bead rings, they looked so pretty and fun to make. And it doesn’t hurt that I have enough seed beads stashed around here to make a few million of these.

And I immediately bookmarked this site, the Antique Pattern Librabry. So very cool, and a useful resource.

I am trying to make a quilt for a new baby boy arriving in a few weeks time, and I finally settled on a quilt pattern I liked. After reading the instructions thoroughly, or so I thought, I bought all of the yardage I needed at my local quilt shop, which of course is not cheap. Meaning everything starts at $9 a yard. So, six different flannel prints later cut to varying lengths, I get home and grab the pattern again to start in with this project, and I realize the amounts called for in the pattern are for 60″ wide fabric. The fabrics I bought are 44″ wide. Totally my own stupid mistake. I. Want. To. Scream. So, now I get to spend lots of time figuring out if I can still make the quilt I had planned on, just in a smaller size possibly?

The flannel I bought is really lovely, it’s from the “Woolies” collection by Maywood, and it’s the softest 100% cotton flannel, but it looks exactly like wool. So cute. I must admit though that I’m having a hard time enjoying the fabric because I’m so frustrated right now I could spit. Just not on the fabric. Argh.

I sat down today and started sewing one of the aprons I had previously cut out. I finished the first one with no trouble, and it was nice to have a fuss free project to work on. Especially since Craig had taken Noah and Haven snowboarding and I was trying to keep the rest of the kids entertained as I was sewing. Ciel, feeling bored, picked up my camera and began snapping away at whatever she fancied, as evidenced by the above picture. Once I finished the apron, I joined her, and we spent the next hour being very goofy and laughing ourselves silly at our dorky antics. What better way to spend an evening than acting like a total fool with your 15 year old daughter and taking pictures of it all.

Like this one Ciel snapped of me “eating” the apron.

Making my Mom proud, one picture at a time.

Or not. Nothing like poking fun at yourself with your kids for some goofy laughs though.

No, I don’t have a clue which teams are playing today in the Super Bowl. All I know is that I’m making food to feed those that are watching the game. And that’s fine by me. This is what’s on the menu for today…

-cold cut sandwiches on hoagies

-French dip beef on toasted hoagies

-sausage dip with tortilla chips

-potato chips with French onion dip

-veggies with homemade ranch dip

-Texas sheet cake with pecans

-soda pop

-rice crispy squares (I ended up not making them)

-almond treat mix

I used as many light and fat free ingredients as possible to lighten it up since this is not how we eat on a day to day, or even week to week basis. Just for today though, it’s all in the name of a little game day fun. Not that I will be watching any of the game, but I am happy for those that will be. Enjoy your day and I hope your team wins!