Hayden Block #2

Second block done!! This one was so easy. It only took an hour and a half including cutting it out. I'm excited that these blocks are coming together so quickly. I'm spending an hour a day sewing, and these blocks so far have only taken around that long. Hmmm Maybe I can finish the blocks by the end of Sept at the latest?

And what do you think, should I embroider a design in the center? I had considered an oval of some sort of vine/curling lines with Hayden's initials in the middle. It would add a bit of time onto the project though. I'll have to see how long the blocks take and then reconsider.

Square #1 is done!

I've been a major slacker, but I'm getting on the ball now. So here's the completed square. I focused in on the insertion piece, the rest of the square is just the plain white fabric along the sides. I'm going to back the insertion in blue so it shows up like in the picture. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it. On to block #2!!

Ultimate Baby Quilt

In Fall of '05 I was visiting Mom in CA and browsing through her Sew Beautiful magazines when I found a picture of the most beautiful baby quilt ever!! It is made as almost a sampler of heirloom sewing techniques, all of which I'm dying to learn.

Of course I fell in love and made plans to sew the quilt even though Blake was a year and a half old and I didn't know when I'd have another baby. I soon convinced Krista to make the quilt as well and we bought all the supplies to make the quilt in yellow, only to put it all away for years!

So when I got pregnant this last time, I said I would make the quilt for this baby's first birthday. Now I've bought some blue fabric and am finally ready to start the most intimidating project I think I've ever tried on my own.

And now we come to today: I began the first block. Woo hoo!! It's the second one from the left on the top row. It includes this "fancy band," which is just a bunch of laces and embroideries joined together in a strip with a zig zag stitch. The middle is an embroidered insertion and on either side is lace beading (later I'll thread ribbon through this) and an English lace. I looked all over the internet and couldn't find more boy-ish laces, but I think I'll back this block in blue so it's a bit more masculine.

I ran into problems using the heirloom quality thread on my machine...which really annoyed me. For a machine that expensive, I thought it would work fine, but apparently expensive machines are picky. I think it's a tension thing, so I'm going to call the store for advice tomorrow. Otherwise, it came together pretty easily. I'm about half-way done with the block and hope to finish tomorrow.

First Post!!

I took the kids to Kmart today so they could get out of the house and I found this awesome lamp. Blake broke our living room lamp over Christmas. I've been on the hunt for a good deal so we can banish our current $5 black plastic Walmart floor lamp to the basement. Anyway, this totally gorgeous lamp was on clearance for only $24 from $60. I got two since our living room is dark and I love them!!

I set up the lamp and then everything looked wrong. Mom and I decided that we needed to bring the cherry picture frames and cherry music box next to the cherry floor lamp. And now I love it!! So I found a new home for my cool yard sale frame and pictures of the boys on the white shelf by the computer hutch. Now all I need is a nice picture of Hayden to complete this look. And guess what? I already had all this stuff! It was so much fun to rearrange everything. Pretty boring first post huh?