Bunnies!

For Christmas, I received Cute Dolls by Aranzi Aronzo which is full of cute softie patterns, so I had to give it a try! Meet two little bunnies.


It was a little too much fun setting them up around the house to make pictures of them together!

Who doesn't like to sit on the front porch and watch the world go by?

They are best friends who like to wear dresses. One is going to stay here will appear in Zerah's Easter basket in a few months. The other friend is going to travel to stay with another little girl. Maybe they will meet again in the future? They hope so!

He has several other doll books out. This was so easy that I might need to pick up some other ones! They are really fun to make. The mouths and eyes are felt sewn on jersy bodies.

Pop Garden Dress

I have finished another little dress for Zerah. This one is made from Heather Bailey Pop garden that I had leftover from making a diaper bag this summer. I used the Frannie pattern from Children's Corner for this one, and I love how it turned out. I really like how the ribbons gather under the arms, and I think it will be cute as a top when she grows out of it as a dress. It is lined in pink with teeny white polka dots-so cute. I made this one in a size two, so it will fit her next summer.

Aubie Dress

It is never too early in our family to start indoctrinating the little ones to grow up to be Auburn fans. I went to Auburn for college, as did my husband, got married at Auburn, my dad went to Auburn, most of my aunts and uncles went to Auburn, the majority of my first cousins and second cousins went there, and it goes on and on. Football games were mini-family reunions every Saturday. So even though we live in Colorado, Zerah needs an Auburn dress.

I love the little tigers on this fabric! It was found in Mobile over Christmas, and I used the Lucy pattern by Children's Corner. It is such an easy pattern. I had to add the polkadot ribbon as an added detail, which I love. It is the first time I have added further embellishment on a dress, and I love the way it turned out. I really should have ironed it again before taking a picture, but you have to grab it when you can while the sun is out and Zerah is asleep.:)

War Eagle!

2009 Retrospective

zigzag baby quilt 1.1, zigzag baby quilt 1.2, oh cherry, oh! strip twist quilt, pink and green strip twist, hello betty, craftster lapquilt swap fall edition , summertime hourglass, black&yellow baby quilt

January

Learned I was pregnant…gave the excited phone call to family to let them know the exciting news… finishing up Craftster lap quilt swap...nervous and excited...

February

Saw Zerah’s heartbeat for the first time… finish Christmas table runner…want to start baby quilts for Zerah but afraid it will jinx the pregnancy...make a king cake...

sewconnected and sewconnected 2 blocks for 2009

March

Starting to grow and expand… trying to fit in all of my clothes…starting to hate waistbands… trip to Durango, CO …see Mesa Verde and sit in hot springs…finish zigzag quilt...

April

Told everyone at work when I was 16 weeks…. Moving into maternity pants…waiting to feel flutters...finish two baby quilts- zigzag and squares askew...

May

Find out she is a girl…attend a wedding in Atlanta… really starting to show…travel 10 hours very uncomfortably in the car to my niece’s 1^st birthday in Hobbs, NM…felt movement for the first time!

June

Out of school for the summer… set up the crib… make little girl dresses…start taking prenatal yoga and love the stretching…friends from Birmingham, Jessica and Andrew, come to Denver for a conference and we get to hang out after five years of not seeing them…. really feeling movement and my husband finally can feel her at 27 weeks…friend Phillip comes to visit from New Orleans, and we take him out on the town…finish quilt summertime hourglass quilt

various projects from 2009

July

Mom comes to visit and we sew, sew, sew making bedskirts and dresses… repaint the dresser…finish craftster quilt for our bed… continue taking prenatal yoga….realize basting is hard when your belly extends far out in front of you…..room is ready for Zerah!...movement every day…work on blocks for 3x3 swap...make a diaper bag and changing pad...make a buttercup bag for me!...

August

Taking prepared childbirth…taking breastfeeding classes….realize I can eat ice cream after being lactose intolerant for years…start eating a blizzard a week…try to sew as much as possible to get things ready...finish hello betty quilt for Zerah…start back to school… feeling hiccups and watching my belly move on its own accord…kicking my ribs…feeling her flip

September

Grading essays, grading essays, grading essays…getting sub plans ready…getting bags packed…hoping she doesn’t come early…watching my belly sway left and right as I walk…feeling her drop…going to bed early…hiccups in the middle of the night…heartburn kicks in…tums are my friend…feeling and timing contractions…last day of work so she can arrive now..going to the hospital…getting sent back home-no dilation….mom arrives a day early and just in time…go back to the hospital-now I am 7 cm…working through pain without drugs…arrival of Zerah…feeling complete joy and love that she is finally here!...wondering if I will ever sleep more that two hours at a time ever again…hanging out with Zerah and my parents…working through the pain of nursing…cuddling some more..kisses and hugs….happy…

October

Days spent kissing and cuddling…nursing going well….going for long walks…Zerah goes to her 1^st doctor’s appointment…sleeping whenever I can…hours spent holding her…Zerah has stomach aches-cut out dairy, citrus, and tomatoes from my diet…no more blizzards..lots of kisses...

November

Arrival of grandparents…taking Zerah to a restaurant…trip to Vail…snuggling…walking…reading…nursing…my parents arrive for Thanksgiving…time with family…second doctor’s appointment…kissing and hugging…dirty diapers and silly songs…

December

Getting into a routine…walking…reading…cuddling…not eating cheese…sewing up Christmas presents-making a cape and some food…. Flying with a 3 month old by myself….arriving in Alabama…spending time with family… get to see Faust and Natalie again…parties at my parent’s house…buy and plant a tree for Zerah….drive to Mobile…more Christmas…see family….relaxing…eating good food, but not dairy….fly back to Denver…nursing, burping, kissing, cuddling, and loving….

I believe this year will be the year of the dress because I have a list of dresses that I want to make. I also want to finish all of my quilt tops. 2009 was a good year because Zerah arrived!

Saskirina's Etsy Shop

One of my blog friends, who is also in the sewconnected virtual quilting bee with me, has just opened up an etsy shop. She has some really cute hair clips and camera straps available, and there is no shipping charge until January 31st! Go check it out here!

Quilt Auction for Haiti

Beth is having a wonderful quilt auction to benefit Haiti using scrappy Christmas blocks from a swap she hosted and that I participated in a while ago. Go check it out here! Auction ends on Friday!

Superhero Cape

I made a superhero cape for my cousin-in-law for Christmas. This was such a fun project to make! I used this tutorial with a few changes and twists. (The larger text below designates the instructions I included in his gift.:))

Every superhero needs a bag to tote their supplies in, and this one has a buttonhole so that he can switch out the logos depending on his mood that day.

Arrgh matey! If you feel the need to plunder the seas, attach your pirate flag to the back of the cape using the buttonhole to warn everyone that the Mighty Pirate Seamus is approaching.

The cape is reversible with red on one side and black on the other side.

For days when you are feeling royal, don the king symbol so your parents can address you as “your royal highness” since you are now the King of the Household-or you could be little red riding hood without the crown.:) The red hood can also be detached…

He can also attach a hood that has a red side.

The other side of the hood has horns so he can be a monster or a dinosaur. Here is the black side of the cape without an emblem.

Roaaarrr! With your black cape and your horned hood, you are now a mighty dragon or monster! Watch out!

His name is Seamus, so when his switches into his alter ego-Super Seamus- he can attach the "S" on the back.

It’s a bird. No, it’s a plane. Wrong again! It’s Super Seamus to the rescue!

I also added arm ties that button on the bottom so he can attach the cape to his wrists to hold the cape up or twirl it around.

The hand straps can be used when the need to flap your wings arises or can be detached so they don’t sag sadly by your side.

Let's do lunch...

Hi everyone! It has been a while since I have been around here... I went to Alabama over the holidays to visit family for two weeks, and went back to work full time two weeks ago-my maternity leave is over :(.. So I haven't had a lot of time to read blogs or sew or be on the computer!

I have a few Christmas gifts to share that I made before Christmas. I didn't make as many presents this year as I usually try to do, maybe I should start now for next Christmas...

I made a sack lunch out of felt for my niece, Savannah for Christmas.

She now has a lunch she can have whenever gets the urge to have a ham, lettuce, tomato, and cheese sandwich with chips and a swiss roll on the side.

She may prefer peanut butter and jelly!

I also made her a sack of counting cookies.

There are ten cookies with chips to represent the numbers 1-10.

I stitched the corresponding number on the back of each cookie.

Hopefully she can learn to count or practice counting with her new cookies! When she saw the bite out of the number cookie, she pretending like she took a bite out of it-so cute!

I also made a set of placemats for my mother-in-law. They were fun to make, and now I think I need some too!:)

Happy Monday!

Sewconnected: My month!

I have been wanting to make an i-spy ABC quilt for my daughter, but I also wanted to make an ABC wonky word quilt, too.  Since December is my month for the sewconnected swap group I decided to combine those two ideas into one quilt for my month.  I have been collecting different fabrics for each letter for a while now so each letter will have fabric that corresponds with that letter.  For example, for A I have airplanes, apples, and Auburn University.

Here are the requests I am making for my month:

-Please make 15.5 inch square blocks
-The letter should take up most of the block using the white fabric I sent.  Try to make the letter strips between 2-3" wide.  If the are 1.5-3.5" that is okay, too.   This way the letters will all be cohesive throughout the quilt.
-Use only capital letters.
-Some letters have three fabrics and some have upwards of six.  Try to use at least some of every fabric that I sent.
-Some of the letters have applique animals that my mother made.  I would love it if you would incorporate those into the block as well.
-If you have novelty fabric that matches the letter you have and you would like to add it, that would be awesome.  Please only add novelty fabric that would match the letter.  If you would like to add a scrap of yellow (or any other color) fabric to a block to balance the colors, feel free to add from your stash.
-Feel free to add paper piecing of objects that would match the letter or add embroidery if you would like.  I think embroidery could look really cute in the letter or somewhere else on the block.

I was inspired by this quilt and this one.  This is a great tutorial for wonky letters.

I made a B to see how hard it would be and to get started on the letters.

This is the idea that I am going for with this project.  See, "B" is for books, butterflies, basketballs, baths, boots, bees, balloons, and bears.  The appliques are from my mom.  She sent me several appliques to use in this quilt.  Here are all the fabrics I sent out for M, U, E O, H, F, R, W, L, T, G, and S.

"G" fabric- golf, giraffe, guitar, grapes, grass

"E"-elephants, eggs, easter eggs

"F"-football, fire hydrant, firetruck, frogs, flamingo, and fish

"H"- horse, harp, hippo, harmonica and hockey

"L"-lions, lizards, lobster, leopard, and leaves

"M"-monkey, money, motorcycle, music and moose

"P"-pigs, popsicle, penguin, planets, piano,pirates and pumpkins

"R"-rhinocerous, rooster, rabbits, runner, robot, rainbow, and ruler

"S"- skier, sea lion, strawberries, sheep, sailboat, shells, snowman, stars and shoes

"W"-watermelon, whales, wedding ring, witches, and web

"U"-umbrella  and unicorns

(U is hard to find.)

"T"- tiger, turtle, tennis, train, truck, tractor, and triangle

I am really excited about how this quilt is going to turn out! 

Sewconnected 2: August and October

I have been trying to fit some sewing time in between feedings with Zerah.  Early in the morning seems to be the best time to sew. Between 5 and 7 in the morning, right after she eats, she will lay down for a little while and nap.  I am trying to catch up on my blocks for my quilting bees that I got behind on, and I am almost caught up.

 This block is for Alissa who is making an orange and pink quilt.  I received the orange packet of fabric.  I love this tadpole print that runs vertically and horizontally through the block.  I was trying to bring it to the focus of the block.  I like how it has levels- the white appears behind the yellow horizontal stripe but floats above the orange solid. We could add coordinating fabric from our stash and I needed more fabric to make the outermost vertical bars, so I added the gold wavy fabric;  it coordinates better in person than in the picture, I believe.   It is 12.5" square.

The next block is for Sonja.  She is making a beach quilt and asked for blocks inspired by a beach house.  She set up a wonderful inspiration gallery on flickr for all of us to be inspired by which was a great idea.  I found many quilts that I want to make in the future as a result!

The block above is a glass of lemonade or some other frothy beachy beverage. I did some searching online and found this site which has free paper piecing patterns.  I changed the lemonade a little and added the borders.

I couldn't resist making a bikini!  The floral hawaiian print she sent just screamed bathing suit to me.  I then added a couple borders to make it bigger and add some wonkiness to the mix.

I hope everyone is doing well out there!  I am going to try to be on here more in the next couple of weeks, but we will see...  it only took me 3 1/2 hours to write this one post.  Zerah needed to eat, which took two hours today (I think she is going through a growth spurt:)), diaper change x3, and some smiling time.  Have a good weekend!