Decisions!

Which yarn to pick?

Busy Days

This is what has been filling my days as of late.

Chocolate Cupcakes, with vanilla butter cream frosting. 100% vegan

 My Rentia. I've started the decreases!

 Vanilla Cupcakes, with Chocolate butter cream frosting.  Again, 100% vegan.

 3 dozen cupcakes, ready to go to a birthday party.

 Budgie, in Duet Yarns Army boy, for a special little dude who has a birthday coming up.

My final cake for my cake class.

Random....

Someone got a new toy.

Capin Merica!

Here I caught him mid "MEeeeerica"

Also, look at this! A chocolate cupcake, drizzled with homemade dulce de leche!

I did share one bite with my husband.  Just one.  Oh! And look at the leftovers!  yum!

I could have eaten the whole jar myself.

Seriously.


My SIL/Brother lent me a camera.  I may never give it back. Or, just bribe them with cupcakes to let me keep it forever. :)

I love lazy days off.

When you have no plans, no time frame, and even doing 3 loads of dishes and a few more of laundry are broken up by fun things, like filling the kiddie pool with water, or making crazy cupcakes.

They are Dulce de Leche cupcakes.  Filled with homemade dulce de leche.  Yum!  The cupcake itself was a little dry, and had a feel of cornmeal.  I have no idea what was up with that.  The frosting and filling were amazing.  I may have to play with the cupcake recipe a bit to make it more moist. And less cornmeal like.

I also sewed a tiny bit, and painted my fingernails.  I'm loving today.  The only plans are to take my son to fireworks tonight.

Gloomy

It's been gloomy around here lately.  Gloomy stupid rainy weather.  Also, my husband got laid off from work last week. Gloomy gloomy gloomy.

I'm trying to counteract all the gloomy, by working on something lovely.

It's the Renita shawl, knit in Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga, in Milkweed Beetle. My camera battery was dead, so I've got a cell phone picture to show you.  It doesn't do justice to the colors. They're so rich and saturated.  At first it looks like a deep beautiful teal.  But there are shades of green and blue in there.  Plus it's so soft and squishy!  I love it.   The pattern is a fairly easy knit, I like that it's knit sideways.  Knit until half your yarn is used up, then start decreasing.  That way you use up all you yarn. Love it! :)   This is going to be for me! I have a pea coat, and need something to fill up the v-neck.   I thought this would be wonderful and bright in winter.

Other than that, not much happening.  I've got a couple quilts in the works, but nothing to show yet. I"m pulling together some fabric for a baby quilt, and I think I've got that together, so if the sun ever comes out, maybe there will be pictures of that for you to ogle.

A quickie

I whipped this up last night after work.

A sweet little padded case for the ipad.  We finally bought one, and it goes EVERYWHERE with us.  Mostly because Johnathan LOVES it and we can keep him busy while waiting at the doctors office, or waiting for food while we're out to eat...ect.  Dudes. It's the best thing ever.  He'll grab it, sit on someones lap, and play "Angy Birds".

Velcro, because buttons on a case scare me. Lined with fuzzy soft flannel.

All closed up and ready to go.

I love that I was able to use up some batting and flannel scraps.  I bought the pac man fabric wanting to make something for my hubby, and this fit the bill.  It's not super thick. I think if you dropped it from a very high height, it wouldn't protect the best, but for tossing in my purse and going around town, I think it'll be perfect.  I loved making this, it was so fun, I'm thinking of whipping up a few more for my etsy shop.

Three Thousand

Three Thousand Dollars.

That will but you about 120 skeins of hand painted sock yarn.
300 yards of cotton quilting fabric.
One series of rabies shots for a tiny boy you're found of.

He's lucky he's cute.

Also, he turned THREE on Friday. There were balloons and cupcakes and presents that require putting together.  It's been a crazy fun three years!

Circle String Block

Hello Bee Peeps!  First off, thank you so much for doing this block for me! I think it's going to be a easy and fun quilt.  I've been tossing this idea around in my head for awhile, and I'm excited it's finally my month. :)

I've sent a bunch of pink strings, and a 14.5 inch Kona Charcoal Grey block.  Grab something circular that's laying around.  It can be any size you'd like, as long as you leave me a half inch or so of sewing space.

I grabbed a plate and a piece of notebook paper, because that's what I could find.  Trace out a circle.
Flip that paper over like you would if you were paper piecing, so the traced out circle is on the BACKSIDE.  Sew the strings down on the top, plain side.  Please keep the strings no larger then 2 1/2 inch or so finished size. Feel free to add any pink that you have. I love variety. :)

Lay the first string right side up.  Lay the next string right side down, matching edges.  Sew.  Flip, finger press. Repeat until you have 1/2 the circle finished.

Repeat for the other side of circle.

Flip the whole shebang over and trim the block to the circle you traced.

Once you've cut it down, pull all the paper off the back.

 Trim all those silly little threads. 

Take the circle and place it somewhere on the grey block.  Please keep it out of where the blocks will be sewn together, so about 1/2 an inch from the edge.

I pinned mine down, but you could try some spray baste spray if you like. I may try that on my next block. Don't worry about doing a fusible web or anything like that.  It takes too many steps. :)

I used a zip zag stitch, about a 2 long on my machine and a 4 width.  Do what looks good to you. Please for this step, use any shade of pink thread you have, or a grey that matches. It can be any thread, it doesn't have to be 100% cotton quilting thread. I used good old coats and clark. I went around the circle two times.

  All done! And dudes, don't worry if there are little wiggles on the block like I have. I'm not going to worry about it, I think when it's quilted and washed up, no one will know.

I think I'll need about 30 blocks, if I've done my math right. I'm only sending out enough grey fabric to do one block. If you want to make  more circles I'll take them and add them to fabric I have.  I'm using this for 2 different months, so I should have plenty of blocks by the end of July. :)  If you want to get creative and make them wonky,  or improved a little, go for it.  If you want to put 4 tiny little ones on one block, go for it!  I can't wait to see what your creative folks come up with! :)

Also, please keep any pink fabric you have left over.  I think I sent more than enough!  And like I said, feel free to add any little scrapes you have. I'd love if each block were completely different. :)
Any questions? Let me know.

And, sorry for the not so good pictures. It was raining and overcast today, and I wanted to get this done asap. :)

I can't believe it's Wednesday already.  I've spent Saturday through Tuesday with a killer headache/migraine, along with some other weird symptoms, some of which are migraine (sound and light sensitivity, nausea) and one that I just can't place....weird metallic taste in my mouth.  That one is still around, but the rest are pretty much gone.
So. Needless to say, I didn't do a heck of a lot.  I worked Saturday and Sunday, but just couldn't swing it on Monday, and called in sick.  My MIL grabbed J and I slept most of the day.  Tuesday we took it easy, leaving only to get dog food (so the dog wouldn't eat us) and more drugs for me.  Today it's back to normal, trying to clean house and shop and get all the errands done I can.

Round 2.

Day three of Rabies shots fell on Sunday, or as most people called it, MOTHERS DAY!  So, wonderful mother that I am, I hauled my kid to the hospital and had 2 nurses hold him down as he screamed bloody murder while a third nurse gave him a shot to the leg.

Okay. Hubby came too. And they did give him the numbing stuff on his leg. And he stopped crying pretty quickly after it was all over.  But still. Not how i would have chose to spend 2 1/2 hours of my life.  Actually that was time my hubby spent.  I left 1 hour 45 minuted into it, because I had to go to work.

So. Now just days 7, 14 and 21 left.

But I did get breakfast made for me, and flowers and a hand made card. So that's the part I'm going to try to remember.

Round 1 done.

First round of rabies shots for J were yesterday.  We went to the Short Stay part of the clinic, and had our own little room with a bed and tv and everything. The nurses and child life care specialist are awesome. They are just awesome people.  Not only did they make sure J was okay, they made sure I was okay and understood everything about the process.

All in all, it took about 2 hours, with the check in, the paperwork, the waiting for the drugs and then the watch period after the shots.  He got 3 total, one in each leg and in one arm.  He cried. I nearly cried. It was awful. He begged to go home and see the dog when it was done. He got some stickers, and bubbles, and got to go in a wagon ride around the clinic.  The next few times shouldn't be so bad, just a normal type shot.   The Immune Globulin shot was the worst one.  He had to have 850 units of it. 2 syringes.

Day 3 (Sunday) and day 7, 14, and 21 will just be the vaccine shot.  So we should be in and out fairly quickly.  I just don't know what to tell the little guy. I hate to tell him to early what's going on, but I feel like he should know he's going in for a shot.

He had a 101.4 degree fever last night, and today it's 99.7.  He was really snugly and limp last night. But today he's running around and dumping bubble solution on the dog.

So. Dudes. If I can help anyone out, heed this warning.  Save the F*cking Bat!  If we had thought about it, and saved the damn bat, we could have tested it. And known for sure, and not put J through this.  Of course, given the alternative, it's not even a choice.

Ack!

I'm pretty sure if the last week has any bearing, I'm not deserving of a mother's day this year.

Let's start with the fact that tomorrow my son has to embark on a rabies vaccine regime, that includes 6 shots over 21days. All because he found a bat in the garage, he was out of my sight for 2 seconds, so I can't say with 100 % certainty that he didn't touch the thing.  We let the damn bat go, because we didn't think anything of it.  Hey, guess what the alternative is?  Once someone shows any symptoms of being sick, there is NOTHING that can be done.  So, better safe and broke (we have no health insurance at this point) than have a dead kid. Also, did you know you could get bitten by a bat and not even see any bite marks?  yeah. I hate bats.

Today, we went to the park, and he fell and now has a black eye.  Okay, that totally wasn't my fault, but still. Now I have to take a kid with a black eye in for shots.

Anyway.  I've got some pictures of quilts to show you. To distract you from what an unfit mother I am.

Remember that Dream on Charm Pack I won?  Well, here it is with some Kona Bone and some yellow from my stash.  I backed it with flannel and quilted some wonderful straight lines a 1/4 of an inch or so away from all the seams.  I love it, and I hope the little girl I gave it to loves it too. :)

Free motion loops.  Not 100% perfect, but I love them anyway.

J is helping with the quilt photo shoot yet again.  He's so freaking cute, how can you be mad at him? :)
This is the coin quilt I did, using 2 charm packs and 1 jelly roll.  Fabric is It's a Hoot line and Kona Chocolate.  I bound it in the yellow dot. That was the one Johnathan picked out.  I backed it with a yellow sheet. It washed up so nice and soft. I used a light soft grey for the quilting. I think it turned out pretty spiffy.

So. If you think you think of us tomorrow around 10 am, that will be the time my son starts his shots. Wish us well.

Tiny corgi

Tiny corgi, a photo by valkryie66 on Flickr.

So after lots of quilts, here is some knitting to keep you interested.  Our local paper decided that knitting and hosting a Royal Wedding was the thing to do, so I said I'd knit, as long as I got to do the Corgi. He's a wee tiny thing, and took way longer to finish that knit.  I think I should have stuffed him fuller. I've never sure what point is overstuffed and what point is just right. 

Finally Finished.

Well, this quilt has been done for a couple weeks, but I finally got some non-cell phone photos of it.  Also, I bought new sheets yesterday to match it, so I had to take pictures. :)

This is the Swirley Girls pattern Equal Rights.  I made the queen size, and used a bunch of different teal fabrics and Kona Chocolate.

 It makes me very happy to have it on my bed.  This is the biggest project I've ever done! And I even quilted it on my own machine. Granted, I didn't do as much quilting as I had orginally planned, I'm still happy with the end result.

I had found this dot that I love, and built the quilt around that piece.  I have enough left over to make pillow cases, but was stuck as to make 2 standard size or one body pillow size.  Well, after finding the sheet set, it looks like I'll make the body pillow.  I love when things work out well.

meh.

Is anyone else sick of winter yet?  I sure am.  I'm starting to get a little stir crazy.  Today between loads of laundry and trying to convince my son he needs a nap (he won this round)  I sewed a few of my bee blocks up for this month and the one I kept putting off for Feb.  I've got one big block and 2 little paper pieced blocks to go.  But I still had to force myself to sit and sew.  My craft room is in the basement, and about 2 weeks ago my little space heater went and finally died on me.  So it's freaking cold in my sewing room.  Mostly because I keep the door shut to keep the little dude out of there. So I sat with a heavy sweater and 2 pairs of sock and sewed my blocks.  Hopefully I can get the last 3 done tomorrow, and then I can mail them all out. And then it's like, April already. :P

Anyway.  Nothing exciting to post.  I better do get the dishes running and get ready for work.

I made something!

So last week, I actually finished a couple of quilts.

It's from the Material Obsession book.  Avalon I think it's called?  I don't know.  I made it so very long ago! I started quilting it, and then gave up because it wasn't working.  I pulled it out last week, half arsed it, and it's fine for the couch. :)  The fabric is Hey Sugar from Cosmo Cricket and I think Chinese Red from Kona.

The next one is my Postage Stamp Quilt.  Better late than never! :)

Here its is on top of my queen sized bed.  It's a nice size all finished up! larger than I thought it would be.  I did diagonal quilting along the pink and orange block. 

Here is my son hamming it up.  Whenever I lay out a quilt, he has to jump on it and help out. :) 

First Finished Project of the New Year. I think...

Here is my completed postage stamp top for the postage stamp quilt along.  I used Kona White and some pink and orange that I've been collecting. I've been wanting to do a quilt with pink and oranges, and I wasn't set on a pattern. This quilt along came along, and I jumped in.  I didn't finish it in time to be in the drawing for freebies, but that's okay. I have a finished top. It's 60 x 80 inches, that's my love seat under there!  Not sure who this quilt will go to, but I have some ideas.

Equal Rights Quilt

So yesterday I was able to go to my Mother in Laws and baste together my queen sized Equal Rights by Swirley Girls Design quilt.  It took awhile, but I did have some help.

After a bit of tugging and spraying and pinning I got the batting and top down.

Now, I just have to wind eleventy billion bobbins and quilt away.  :) 

I joined ps I quilt's  postage stamp quilt along.  She said to use 2 jellyrolls, but instead I'm using some fabric I was stashing away.  I've been wanting to do a pink and orange quilt, but had no pattern in mind. So I am totally game for using it up in this quilt.  

That's it all cut up in 2 1/2 inch strips. I'll be using white for the solid color.  I've got all of set "a" sewn up and half of set "b" sewn up.  I'm going to try to get a little more sewing in tonight, so I can catch up with this week. 

What I've been working on

Really. I do stuff around here.  It's not like I laze around eating bonbons all day, watching the soaps. :)

Since the parents have received this quilt, I can show it to you. This quilt is for my Cousin and his Wife's new baby, born 1/11/11.  I designed it all around Michael Millers Dino Dudes. I just love that print.  And since there was just enough, I backed the quilt with it as well.

I quilted about 1/4 of an inch for all the outer edges of the large squares.  It went fairly quickly, and I like how it looks. :) The finished size is right around 40 x 40.

Thank Gawd That's Over.

And by that, I not only mean my work week, I mean 2010.

I ended up 2010 out in a snowstorm for 2 hours looking for my sister in law's lost dog.  He finally turned up Saturday afternoon none the worse for wear, but I took a spill on the ice and am still feel like crap.  My feet went  out from under me, I had no hope of stopping myself, and ended up looking at stars and white lights, that were all in my head. I feel as if I've done 11 thousand crunches, and it hurts to sneeze.

But on a positive side, my husband has started a new job, it he appears to not hate it. :)  It's in town for a local company, and while he has to work out of the house every day now, he has a 10 minute commute and a car seat in his car now.

So, out with the old, and in with the new.

I have the next two days off and I plan on a whole lot of nothing.