ready to welcome her home...

When we found out we were expecting, there was little question for either of us as to whether we wanted to know if we would be welcoming a little miss or mister - we wanted to know! One of my major reasons for wanting to know was that I really wanted to create a gender specific nursery, a space that would be created just for her. I remember growing up how much my room meant to me... It was the one place that was mine, my haven and quiet place. Now I know that our little miss isn't going to notice the fabrics in her duvet cover or the fabulous shelf her Daddy built just for her when she comes home, but nonetheless it was important to us that right from the beginning, this space was created with heaps of love just for her... And I'm so happy with what we have created together. I love the fact that this room is not just my creation but the creative product of both Justin and myself. We have both spent hours looking at furniture and fabric and actually putting all the pieces together...and we couldnt be happier with the results!

We welcome you to our little miss's nursery...

We fell in love with this wall art the moment we put it up...I think it gets cuter every time I look at it :)
One of our goals was to create a space that she could grow into, I think with these fabrics we succeeded.
I love how the crib skirt and duvet cover turned out...exactly how I had them pictured!

The mobile actually came with a red cover but red didn't exactly fit with our color scheme,
so a quick switch to a bit of left over pink fabric and it was perfect!
The rocking horse actually belonged to Justin's mom when she was a child and fits in just nicely :)

Some of my favorite childhood memories are of my mom rocking me and so nursery would not have been complete without a rocking chair...I'm sure there will be many hours spent loving our little monkey in this chair...
We knew we wanted a shelf in her room and Justin created this perfect display shelf out of old barn wood
and it couldn't be more perfect...

We knew these monkey bookends would be a perfect accent on her shelf the moment we saw them!
And of course a few Curious George books and childhood classics were perfect to display with them :)
I loved the idea of curtains in her room, but wanted something custom...
so a pair of IKEA curtains with a bit of co-ordinating fabric added to them fit the bill perfectly

A Slacker... and Another Quilt

Oi... it has been far too long since I've posted anything here... I've thought about it quite often, although unfortunately it was only in passing, and I just never got around to writing.

Well there is no time like the present :)

The time has come to catch up and get back on the blogging wagon.  We've had a pretty full summer, even though we tried to keep things pretty simple. We are home from the World Police and Fire Games and our holiday in NYC (which proved to be more adventure than we bargained for as we became acquainted with Irene lol! - I'll share that story soon!) and I am so ready to find some kind of routine!  Hockey season is in full swing in our household and that will definitely keep me well organized...

But today I'd like to share a very special quilt that I created this summer!

Back in April I decided that I wanted to make my dad a quilt for his birthday/Father's Day.  My sister and I picked out the material (as it was to be a gift from both of us) and I couldn't wait for it to arrive!  We had chosen several flannel prints that were much more "masculine" than many fabrics I've seen locally.  The one thing that really grabbed me was that many of these fabrics had a "tweed" look to them.  My dad can be a pretty snappy dresser ;) and there were a few of the brown pieces that looked just like a few of the tweed sport coats my dad has hanging in his closet!  I knew right away, this fabic was made just for him!

I did well - he got to see the fabric on Father's Day... however he had to wait till August to actually see it all put together :)  Better late than never right, lol!?

Here is the final product...we hope you enjoy your quilt Dad and that even though we don't live close enough to you to give you a hug as often as we'd like, we hope this reminds you of how much we love you...

The main part of the quilt all sewn together...

All finished and ready for the binding!

All done! :)

The All Star - a home run...

A post LONG overdue... but better late than never :)

This All Star quilt was my second commissioned creation.  It was so much fun seeing it come together and getting the feedback from it's owner to be.  N was so incredibly encouraging and awesome to work with on this project.

And I'm so pleased with the end result.  I have to admit I wasn't totally sold on the green backing (I'm not really a green girl), but once it was all together I was SO glad that was the color I had decided on. N had left the backing color up to me and I don't regret choosing the green for a second! I fell in love with these fabrics from the moment I saw them online and love them even more in the finished quilt.

So without any further adieu, here is the finished All Star...

The All Star - The Promised Update

Thankfully my computer decided to cooperate with me late last night and I was finally able to get at the photos of my weekend's quilting progress :)

I started out on Saturday with only three of the nine rows complete... by the end of the day, all nine were together and I was loving the way everything looked.

On Sunday morning I had some extra time before church so I once again laid it out on the floor to look a little closer... I wanted to add a little more length but 1-didn't want to add a whole row as I had planned & cut my fabric specific to this design and 2-I wanted something a little different but not too wild for a bit more length.  I experimented with a few different ideas.  First I laid out two long strips at the top and bottom to give it a little "something" but it just wasn't "it".  In the end, I used half sized squares that I was able to made from the left over scraps.  It was just what I was looking for.  It solved the problem of that little extra length but still didn't deviate too far from the overall look I was going for.

By late Sunday afternoon I was ready to work on the boarder.  I had saved one piece of fabric from this stack, had intentionally not incorporated it into the quilt just so that it would help the boarder to pop a little more... and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

The one thing that keeps coming back to me as I look at it altogether now, is how well all these fabrics play off each other.  It's a tad difficult to see in photos, but each fabric does a great job of showing off the other fabrics around it.

The next step is to clip just the boarder so that I can sew on the binding and then it will all be ready to clip and wash and send off to this coming All-Star!

Seeing An All Star Come to Life - 3

Sew, sew, some laundry, sew, some house cleaning, sew, sew... Ya that pretty much nails down my weekend lol!  I am very grateful that I had so much time at home this weekend after the busyness of the last several weeks.  {I'm wired in such a way that if I don't have good sized chunks of time in my house, I being to feel rather "frayed" inside, so this weekend went a long way to helping me feel much more refreshed :) }

I sewed/quilted until later evening last night and of course was snapping pictures as this All Star quilt continued to take shape.  I went home at lunch today planning to download and edit the photos and have them all ready to post here this afternoon... however, my computer didn't want to cooperate!  I did snap a quick picture with my phone Sunday morning before church so I could show my sister, so for now I'll post it and hopefully have the real photos ready for tomorrow! (or maybe even later tonight)

Stay tuned...  :)

This shows nearly all of the top as well as the fabric I planned to use as the quilt boarder.

He's An All Star - 2

Last night while my husband nervously awaited the outcome of the Penguins game, I was sitting next to him creating for another star :)

I am totally loving the way this quilt is coming together!  This is some of the funnest fabric I've worked with and I love how the prints and patterns play off each other.... the finished quilt will be three times this size, nine rows long plus the boarder around the squares.

The momma of the all star on his way particularly liked the paisley print... can you blame her?!  It's definitely one of my faves too from this fabric set... :)

Great choice of fabric N!  Your little man will be able to treasure this for a very long time :)

Creating for an All Star - part 1

I was very excited when I received a message from N asking if I would create a special crib quilt for the coming addition to their family :)  I was honored that they would entrust such a special creation to me and we quickly got to work deciding on fabric and a pattern.  And when she picked some of my most favorite fabric prints I was even more excited to get started on it!

I started cutting material last night and can't wait to see how it will all come together for a very special little one's arrival :)

Here's a sneak peak at the great fabrics she chose for their "all star"!

Riley Blake's "All Star 2" line... 

Playing Catch Up...

Last week was one of those kinda wonky weeks that I'm sure we all have once in a while.

I'm very grateful to have been pretty healthy this winter, but last week I kinda got sidelined... which meant I wasn't doing much of anything including blogging.  But after a wonderful long weekend I'm feeling back to normal and actually had a very productive weekend : )   So here begins my efforts to get back on track!

Early on the morning of January 3rd, my phone buzzed with the news that Miss Amara Joy had been born just a few hours earlier!  I was SO excited for my dear friends Dwight & Marcy and Amara's sister Gabby... their story is nothing short of miraculous... Amara made her entrance a little earlier than they had expected, but God's timing is so much better than ours and her entrance really was right on time!

I had made Miss Gabby a quilt (hers was actually my very first quilt!) this fall and knew that I wanted Amara to have one too.  I figured since I don't live close by to snuggle these amazing girls that perhaps this could be my way to snuggle them!  I found the "sweet pea" material and instantly I knew that that had to be Amara's.  I found a few other fabrics to go along with this and got to work...

I had seen this pattern online several times and I'm so glad I decided to go with it...

Happy snuggling Miss Sweet Pea!

Therapy... Part 2

Contrary to last Thursday, Thursday this week was a pretty good day on all fronts... thank goodness.  I never want to repeat last Thursday... ever!  And this week my "therapy" was more of a treat rather than a stress release :)

My wonderful husband is a minor hockey coach and they had an unusual Thursday night game out of town last night.  I travel with him and the team for almost every game, but yesterday they were leaving before I got off work, so we decided that I'd just stay home this time.  So that meant that I had a whole evening home on my own... so of course I happily ignored pretty much everything that should have been done around the house and pulled out my sewing machine for a glorious evening... just me, my machine, a few stacks of fabric and of course my Thursday evening companions: Grey's and The Big Bang Theory (feel free to roll your eyes here lol!)

In my post last week I had just begun to piece this quilt.  Last night my machine just hummed along and the end result was pretty sweet!  This pattern has three long pieces of squares with a solid fabric in-between these strips.  The top left photo shows the top half of two of the three strips, and I just laid the solid fabric in-between to get a better idea of what the finished product will look like.

For now, I sew sitting on the couch with my machine on the coffee table (we do have plans for a craft room in our developing basement!) and even our pooch thought this was cozy enough to curl up beside for a little snooze :)

Therapy...

After what I think was the single most rotten day of work in the past three years, I definitely needed an evening to just relax and do something that makes me smile.  So I pulled out my sewing machine and proceeded to indulge in some quilting therapy.

I'm very excited about this quilt for a few reasons:
1 - It's the first time I've used cotton for the front instead of flannel.  I absolutely love this fabric and so far so good!
2 - This is the first quilt that I've been commissioned to make!  It was fun to work through the process of finding patterns and colors that she liked and even more fun that it's actually coming together!  The option of selling my work is one I am looking forward to exploring!

This past Saturday, when I couldn't sleep late I left my hubby in dreamland and I began the mission of cutting all the pieces for this quilt.  And then last night I started actually putting it all together...  Here's a sneak peak of the fabric and the first square.  I can't wait to see the finished product! :)

Needless to say by the time I went to bed, me and my sewing machine had had a wonderful double date with Grey's Anatomy and The Big Bang Theory... and I went to bed with a smile!