Long time, no write?

So I disappeared!! From everything really:O I am so behind on everything in my online life!

I am behind on my blogs, reading friends blogs, reading my favorite crafty blogs, and behind on all things Facebook!

Well actually today I was able to respond to somethings, put up some pics and now updating even if short my blog.

So Ms Abbie at NZee(she is actually taking a break from all things online as well but you can find her goods at multiple locations in the Triangle) convinced me, to start making more handmade goods and selling at local shops. And I did!! Yay! I am in the process of making more and more handmade goodies but right now I am filling the need of a local boutique salon by making hair bows, fabric flowers, tutus, and more! You can find them at Peek-a-Do.


Oh and yeah not done with the pirate quilt:( I have actually put it on hold, not because of the business stuff but we are also buying a house. We are under contract(yay), which is the biggest reason I have not been on much as of late.
Hopefully we will be in our new house by the end of the month and I will have a much bigger crafting area, which hopefully means a nice big crafting table:D Hopefully I will be able to stay connected better as well;)

Happy (late) Halloween!

The Pirate Quilt

Neela has been obsessed with pirates the last few months and now that I am trying to make a quilt for each of the girls she kept picking out pirate type fabric. It's mainly pink fabric with skulls, some is black with skulls. I was just going to do a patchwork with all the skull/pirate fabric and just add in some more fabrics to match.
However Nathaniel has convinced me to do a flag design. So hopefully when I get done it will turn out to be a quilt that looks like a flag. Basically it will be a black flag with a pink X and then a skull over the center of the X. This is going to take more work and now that I have let him give me his opinion on the overall design he keeps coming up with more ideas.... maybe he should start quilting:O
Overall I think it will be cuter this way and more themed but just more work for me. So here are some pics of the fabric and a rough sketch of the design.


Here are the strips waiting to be sewn together!
Oh and my little iPhone sock I knitted up. I am not as happy with it as I would like, I had to do a seam on the side and it turned out messy at the seam. Also I am not sure I like the red and white together...the yarn isn't a bright red it is actually a little pinkish but with the white next to it, it looks more red.

Update

It's been a while since I have posted... because I have been so busy:D
We were out of town for about 3 1/2 weeks and it has taken about 2 weeks just for me to get back in the swing of things. I haven't had any time to be too crafty since coming home, it's summer so the girls are all home all the time:O
But I will share some pics of the finished quilt I made for my nephew Mitchell!


Here is my sister at her baby shower, she got soooo much stuff.

This is the piggy bank I had made to match the quilt/bed set. She got matching sheets and receiving blankets:D
I also made a diaper stacker out of all the leftovers.

Here is the blanket Anika made to go with it! And yes it is as soft and cuddly as it looks:O
And good thing we had it when we did, because the day we left she went to the hospital and was in premature labor. She has been in the hospital for almost 2 weeks now and they are keeping her till she has the baby. They are going to induce this next Monday, so not much longer until I am officially an Aunt:D
Can't wait to meet my first nephew!! And the girls can't wait to meet there first cousin.

I do have a few other things I made and haven't put photos up, some I didn't take pics of:O But I will try and put those up soon. Can't wait to start my next quilt. Neela wants a pirate quilt, arrghh.

Sewing more than posting.

I can't keep up with all my little creations on here. But I will share this one. So can I like a fabric but not want it in my house. Well not that I don't want it in my house, just not me?? I love this little print by Debbie Mum I got from Joann. It's not me though. So I hope this little project finds a good home.

I used a pattern from Moda Bake Shop. I would love to do one with Robert Kauffman's Metro Market for myself, but the Debbie Mum was on sale for 50% off and I couldn't resist these little cows:O

I modified the table runner, by subtracting one charm from the rows. I didn't want it to be as wide as the original pattern. Also instead of using another row of charms on each end I found the coordinating border panel and used that instead.

I did learn a few things while making this little piece. When pieceing together the back keep in mind what is on the front and how will you quilt it together. I chose to put one row of charms on the back just to jazz it up a bit. I hate the plain muslin, it just looks so sad back there:( I didn't realize that placing it there was going to show off any little mistakes that I made on the straight quilting on the front:O Oh well, it's done and little funky on the corner, but life goes on!

Oh and if you are new to sewing/quilting... I suggest the Moda Bake Shop and all if their pretty fabrics. Even if I don't use the patterns exactly or the exact fabric choices I get tons of ideas.

Free Motion Quilting

Quick post to show off my new addiction. Free motion quilting on my little crappy lovely Kenmore! I was always afraid of starting free motion on my machine because well I just didn't think it would do well. Also my machine doesn't have the needle down option(if you don't know what I am talking about don't worry:O) so I just never did. I had a few little unfinished quilt top because I was waiting for a new machine. Well I changed my mind because of a new project I am in the process of completing, will share soon! With a new darning foot and some encouragement from a local quilter and quilt shop I jumped in!
So I have just been practicing on lots of small quilt "sandwiches" the girls think they are baby doll blankets, Nathaniel wants to throw them all away.
Here a few and a link to one of the many tutorials/videos I used along the way!
Dinosaur pieces I had left over, now a baby doll quilt.

Practicing hearts and swirls.
I love the orange on pink, don't know if I can see it in the pictures.

The back of my current project.

Sewing, sewing, and some knitting....

So I haven't been updating a lot, but I have been being rather crafty:D
I am still addicted to knitting, but I have been doing a lot of sewing. I can't share all of it right now but will when I am all done;)
Anika is still staying crafty as well, she is still knitting some, although she doesn't like to do it for very long, it only holds her attention for a bit. She has started to learn some basic stitches for hand stitching/embroidery. She can do shorter projects and it holds her attention longer.
I am working on a knitted stocking cap for Nathaniel. He keeps begging me to get done with it... but I am still learning a lot of the techniques:O I am knitting it in the round with circular needles. The ones I bought were too big for the basic circular method, so I am using a method called "magic loop". I love it! Basically I can buy less sizes of circular needles because I don't really have to worry about the length of the cable:D I am starting the decrease right, hopefully I will have it done in a week or two.
Since I am still full into knitting, yet sewing almost daily, I decided to whip up a little needle case. It was fast, easy and cost about $4 to make, and I have some of the fabric left over for another project! I used a basic template I found online, but changed the way I did the tie, because I didn't want to have to stitch in the middle of the bag.

Oh and the best thing to knit, especially for a beginner.... I love these I have already made a few and have more yarn sitting around just for then:D

Crafting... and more!

I have had such a great time making cards. I haven't been very good about taking pictures before sending them out but I got some pics of the wedding card I made for my sister before I getting it off.


And actually I sent it off, but at the last minute, the afternoon before the wedding I flew to Arkansas and was able to give her the card and gift myself! It was a fast trip but I had a lot of fun and Nathaniel actually had a good time being alone with the girls for the weekend. Yes he stayed home from Friday till Monday with girls, they had a picnic and they went to the Pirate Museum, arghh matey!


Thanks so much to my hubby and my parents for making it possible for me to be there! I would of regretted it forever if I wouldn't of been able to be there!

Knitting, oh no.... oh yes!

So Anika has been wanting to learn to knit, since one day she saw a girl about a year older than her knitting away in the grocery store. I told her we would wait till she was a little older, I told her 8... well she turned 8 last month:O And her gift was knitting needles, yarn, and a book.

I don't(didn't) knit and so I of course had to learn so I could help her. Needless to say I just can't put the needles down. I tried really hard to fight it, I told Nathaniel everyday, I don't want to knit why am I doing this. Not that I really didn't want to knit it's just do I need another hobby? Probably not, since I am a huge procrastinator and I have a ton of other hobbies, all with countless unfinished projects:O
But it hypnotic and fast and easy in the since that you can take it with you at all times... not so with machine sewing or scrap booking. I can sit outside and do it, I can watch TV, I can ride in the car, I even knitted while on the plane:O
No official finished projects, I have made a lot of swatches to determine gauge and I have made a few dish clothes. I will post a picture of a completed project as soon as I finish one, because like my true nature, I currently have 3 different projects on 3 different sets of needles.
And yes Anika is knitting, not as much as me. She says "It's all the same just over and over again", yes that is knitting, row after row, over and over again!

Baby Shower Invites

So I have been busy and/or sick so I haven't had a chance to post a lot. But my sis is expecting her first in August and I am helping to throw the baby shower, from afar though. She lives in Arkansas and my mom is going to be throwing the baby shower but I am helping out with some of the details. So one thing I am doing, or did! is make the invites. I had a lot of problems and these aren't the original ones but I like these more:D


So now I know there is another craft/hobby I love! I loved making these cards, and I have already made some Thank You cards too:D

Torn up Jeans to Ruffle Skirt

A little country girl, that is what Nathaniel thinks the skirt looks like. Yeah it does remind me of those little country style skirts, but this is way cuter ;).
So Anika tears up all her jeans, she can own a pair of jeans for less than 2 weeks and they will have holes in the knees. So I can't really keep too many for hand me downs or donate them. We have used them for play jeans and cut up some for misc crafts. But I have been wanting to turn some into skirts for about a year now, and finally did. I made two of them but the first was really a practice one, because I wasn't sure how ruffly I wanted it. Well the first was a bit too ruffly and so I don't have any pictures of it, but the second turned out cute! The great thing is it took me only about an hour from start to finish and if you have the jeans already you only need about 1/8 yard of fabric for each ruffle, I used two ruffles. So cheap fabric from Joann and the skirt cost about $2:O The cost alone makes it worth it! I will be making at least 4 more in the future, so expect some more pics!


I made the headband to match, it's reversible also with two different prints. This was made with Velcro, but I am going to make another with and elastic band. The Velcro was to hard to keep on and for Sydney to put back on herself. And we lost it already... she wore it for about half a day and then when we got home, it was missing.
You can get the pattern for free at http://www.youcanmakethis.com/info/featured-products/FREE-Fabric-Headband-Sizes-Baby-Adult.htm but I am going to make the next one more like this http://foofanagle.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/best-band-ever/

Oh yeah I can't take a picture of just Sydney!

Where does the time go?

Seriously where does it all go?
We have all been adjusting to NC really well and all keeping super busy. Between Anika's Girl Scout cookies, Sydney's preschool activities, and Neela being super goofy, I can't even keep tract of the time:O
We have done some really fun crafts as soon as I get the pics uploaded I will post:D But in the mean time I will show off the curtains I made for Anika's room!


I wanted something girlie and somewhat "fancy". So I wanted an upholstered cornice and then long thick drapes under. But it took me forever to find the fabric I thought I wanted so I changed my mind on the colors, picked something out and went from there. I couldn't get enough fabric to do what I had in mind, but I did save some money and it still turned out fine!
Nathaniel built the cornice, it took about an hour! I had the fabric sitting around for weeks but he got his part finished in one day and so I finished my part the next:D Anika likes it and now her room stays super dark in the morning, I am hoping she might start sleeping in because of it!
I also took some of the fabric and covered a cork board to match. I originally wanted to do a matching duvet cover and some big puffy pillows, but since I can't get more of the one fabric(cheap enough that is) I am not sure what we will pick for the bedding.

Oh and Neela begged me to take her picture too, "not just Anika's room".

Trip to FL

So over the winter break we didn't have much of anything planned, except to surprise our friend Kristin on her 29th birthday which was on the 29th of December. Her husband through her a sorta surprise party and we were supposed to surprise her at her house before the party.
Our trip there was a little rough so we didn't show up when we wanted to but we did make it for cake at the party!
We had a lot of fun, the girls loved staying at the Norman's and having a sleepover with Lily:D(except when it was actually time to sleep!).
Here are some pics from our trip!
So we really tried hard to get all the girls to pose together... you can see from this one it didn't work out well. But this picture sure does make you laugh.... or at least us moms are laughing about it!


What else do you do in FL... look for gators. We told the girls there were alligators in the water. Neela wanted us to find one.


Neela is afraid of nothing. Neela is in the front and Sydney and Lily are trying to catch up. They all made it up but the most complaints about how hard it was came from Sydney and Lily....those silly girlie girls!


Peace... because it's the cool thing to do!


So it's Winnie the Pooh that brings them together for a photo! Disney is the secret!


Thanks for letting spend New Years with you guys!Thanks again to Ken for helping us plan on the surprise! We miss you guys already:D



Oh and a special thanks to Piper... Neela didn't leave this poor dog alone the whole time we were there!