A Whirlwind November

December, where did you come from?!

November flew by in a whirlwind of doctor appointments, a birthday, Thanksgiving, our anniversary, a broken toe, conferences, Cub Scout meetings, delivering popcorn & wreaths, karate, & trying desperately to figure out how to make my headaches & tummy problems go away.

I did manage to finish up my May quilt for do. Good Stitches.  Yay!  It felt lousy to keep seeing those beautiful, sunny blocks sitting on the shelf, waiting for me to have time for them.  I’m happy to have found the time to sew this happy quilt together! 

We used the Positively Perfect Nap Quilt tutorial & I asked for pink, red, yellow, & orange blocks.  I hope this quilt puts a smile on the face of the child who receives it.  I know it makes me smile!  🙂

XOXO, Naomi

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October

October was a FULL month. 

In October….

• We participated in lots of Cub Scouts activities.  1 Sr. Webelo + 1 Tiger  + Dad doing the Committee Chair role, Wood Badge, & getting asked to take on a Council position in Scouts is fun but busy!
• The boys had picture day.  My 1st grader can NOT smile on command.
• I volunteered at the boy’s schools 7 days. (Yes, they are in 2 different schools, so twice the volunteer opportunities.)
• My 5th grader had an after-school library party as a reward for reading a TON over the summer.  How cool is that?!
• I worked 1 day.
• We sold Popcorn & wreaths for Cub Scouts. (Door-to-door & at a show & sell at a grocery store.)
• My Mom had her 2nd knee replacement surgery, so we went up to visit her.
• My husband was away for 2 long weekends.  He also made a day trip to Chicago for work. 
• I participated in a swap between my do. Good Stitches girls. 
• It was school hot lunch week so I went to eat lunch with my boys 2 different days.
• We spent a long MEA break up north. 
• Our kids got sick.
• W had a friend over one weekend.
• I had a whole bunch of migraines & promised myself I would get some help with that.
• I ordered costumes last minute & vowed to never wait so long again. 
• I spent a whole day making accessories for costumes & swearing that I would never wait till the last minute again.
• We had a Halloween party for Cub Scouts, a parade at T’s school, & trick-or-treating at our house with friends & 1 cousin.
• We did Karate.

This is the pin cushion & ornament I received for the Peace circle of do. Good stitches swap.  Cute!

 

Here is the pincushion in action.

My October blocks for do. Good stitches.  We used the October HST Block of the Month tutorial over at In Color Order. 

My niece in her peacock costume, at the parade.  Isn’t she cute?!  My sister did a great job making her costume.

My Ninja boys & Sox the white pawed feline.

 

Fine Feathered Friends

I made a zippered pouch.  It started as an experiment.  It’s my first reverse applique!  I had no clue as to what I was doing, just winged it… Then the feather sat next to Betty (my beautiful sewing companion) for a month.  So one night I pulled a zipper out of my drawer of supplies, looked up a tutorial I wanted to try & sewed my little heart out.  The zipper turned out to be a vintage metal zipper, that I LOVE!! 

I just love the back of the package…

It makes me want to dress up in heels to do my housework.  I am in love with this pouch.  I’m not even sure what I am going to use it for, but I want to see it every second of my day & let no one else touch it.  When I started this experiment, I thought I might gift this to someone, but before it was finished, I knew it was never leaving my side.

(I thought I banished all the lady bugs!)

I used the Open Wide Zippered Pouch tutorial from Noodlehead which was oh so wonderful!  The resulting pouch is super easy to open up & dig around in.  Like I said before, I LOVE THIS POUCH!!!  The outside is Essex linen (don’t know the color), Kona Nightfall, the feather is a Joel Dewberry print, the lining is  Heather Ross, zipper end is Lotta Jansdotter.

This isn’t the only feathery project up my sleeve lately.  I also tried my hand at making a mug rug for a swap with my do. Good Stitches girls.  I made an enormous mug rug.  So perhaps it’s more like a place mat… I love this one also.  I am hoping my partner receives it & loves it & can overlook its enormous size.  Apparently I go big or go home.

I used the free feather pattern by Anna Maria Horner.  I made the feather smaller but not small enough.  I also couldn’t find my brain & couldn’t for the life of me cut the feather sides correctly.  I cut a whole bunch wrong before I got it right.  So I have a few weirdo feather scraps to work with someday.  I did a little hand quilting on the feather & machine quilted the rest.  If I were to do it again, I would change some things, but overall I really like how it came out.

After  finishing up my 2 feather projects, I looked out my window & saw 2 pheasants hanging out in my neighbor’s yard.  How fitting.  They didn’t want to be photographed together though, so I only have 1 pheasant to show you.

May, June, July, August, & September blocks…

So it’s the end of September.  This month has flown by.  We have been so busy with karate, cub scouts, a garage sale, & trying to get on a good schedule for school, that the month has almost passed me by!  I won’t say I’m enjoying my days as a stay-at-home-mom-with-no-kids-at-home, but I’m not NOT enjoying them either.

I just don’t have it all figured out yet.

The biggest thing I need to work on is getting on some sort of schedule.  Last week I actually planned a week’s worth of food & managed to buy everything I needed & cook all week!  Amazing!  But now I have a fridge full of leftovers & no one who wants to eat them.  So this week I’m not cooking.  We need to eat the leftovers.  😦 I am just finding it hard to be motivated with all this silence around me.  But now that the garage sale is over with, maybe I will feel like I can get on to the super productive schedule I want to be on.  The one where I clean for like an hour every day & sew the rest of the time & my meals are easy & planned ahead of time.  Sounds perfect, right?

Anyway, I guess I haven’t shown a bunch of blocks for my do. Good Stitches quilting bee.  So, here they are…

May: I was the quilter for May.  I still need to put the quilt together.  I’m just a little late.  Used Positively Perfect tutorial.

June: Used the Reverse Rainbow Star tutorial.

July: Used the Cracker Scraps tutorial.

August: Used the Kaleidoscope  tutorial.

September: Used the string-x with a scrappy variation tutorial.

Enjoy the rest of September!

XOXO, Naomi

April Blocks

There is nothing like a deadline to motivate me…  🙂

I finally gave Betty (my sewing machine) some love today after giving her a good, long break.  She seemed genuinely happy to be back at work.  I better keep her busy so she doesn’t go looking for another job!

This month Michelle asked the Peace circle of do. Good Stitches to make 2 blocks using her scrappy asterisk tutorial .  They were super easy & turned out pretty darn cute!  I can’t wait to see the finished quilt!

Crazy March blocks

I just have to say… it’s a darn good thing I am a part of do. Good Stitches, or I might not be sewing anything!

I finished up my March blocks.  Here they are…

We used this tutorial.  They were very easy & fun!  Plus I got to use up some of my scraps that I just can NOT throw away!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

January Quilt

Hip-hip-hooray!

I finished the January quilt for my do. Good Stitches quilting bee!  I’m so happy to have this off my list of things to do.  Not that I haven’t enjoyed it, I have, it’s just that I have been extra busy or unmotivated lately, so it seems like it took FOREVER.

Do you like the circle quilting?

The back has an aqua hounds-tooth print, Kona ash & medium gray, the yellow is a DS Quilts print, & I used the triangle scraps from the ribbon star block I made for the front.

I really like how this turned out.  I was very unsure of how to quilt it, but decided on the circle quilting.  It was pretty fun to do, I’m glad I tried it.  I will be boxing this up & getting it in the mail soon!  I hope some sweet foster child loves this quilt!

🙂

Have a great day everyone!

XOXO, Naomi

2011 Peace circle do.Good Stitches Quilts

If you’re like me you love to see the finished product…

I thought you would like to see the finished quilts for my do. Good Stitches quilting bee!

1. do. Good Stitches Peace Circle, 2. MayFinished2, 3. PEACE – Hourglass Quilt, 4. July Quilt for do. Good Stitches (Peace)

1. Starflower Quilt, 2. Stars Finished Top, 3. Quilt top done…, 4. November blocks (Peace)

 

(The November quilt isn’t done yet so those are just my blocks…)

I hope the kids who receive these quilts love them & get some sort of comfort in their lives from having their own quilt, lovingly made for them.  I’m looking forward to a whole new year of quilt making!  Great job ladies!

Shine

Wow.  How is it the middle of October already?!  Crazy!

Here are my blocks for do. Good Stitches (Peace circle) this month.  Paula is starting the quilt with “Today I will…” & we are all filling in the blanks.

My word is “Shine”.  Can you read it?

It was fun & I think with more practice I might want to do a whole quilt like this!  I am so excited to see the finished quilt!

(We used the book Word Play by Tonya Ricucci)

September Blocks

Here are my September Blocks for do. Good Stitches (Peace Group)

The left one has an improv center.  I’m not crazy about it.  Improv is hard, most of the gray got cut off, it was more attractive bigger.

My kindergartener (Yes, I have a kindergartener now! Ack!), said he liked the girl swinging the best.  But the tree is too pink. 🙂

Using this tutorial.