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Confessions of a lazy wannabe homesteader

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Rainy day quilt, finished

March 12, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

It took me longer to quilt than I expected, and I didn’t cut my binding wide enough so it’s not perfect at all… but I’m not sure the recipient is even going to notice that. I need to run over the quilt lines with some water to remove the mark up I did as my quilting guides, but other than that it’s done and ready to gift later this week. That is, if I can bear to part with it. Not that I have a need for a baby-sized quilt, mind you – Declan’s getting too big for his fox quilt and is asking for one for his big boy bed, so that really should be the next thing I work on. Baby quilts are just so sweet and small and quick!

Next up – the backing for my picnic quilt. I ordered this lovely tulip print from Fabric.com, which I think will go lovely with the brightness of that quilt. I need to stitch that “twenty seventeen” between the two pieces, but then it’s just figuring out how I want to quilt it (assuming I don’t just go for the easy way and follow the rows/lines on the triangles out of simplicity).

Featured, Posts gifts, quilting, sewing

Rainy Day quilt progress

February 26, 2017 Marie 2 Comments

This morning I attached the last two white sashes to give a bit of a buffer around the star when I go to attach the binding. I think I’ll leave it hanging there until my backing arrives – it’s too pretty to take down, unfinished and all.

Featured, Posts gifts, quilting, sewing

Sew and trim, this and that

February 25, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

I’ve discovered, by way of an app on my phone (BreakFree, if you’re interested) that I spend a LOT of time on my phone. Tons. So much that I’m really afraid to admit the number, to be honest. It’s that bad. It’s no wonder I feel so distracted all the time, unable to focus, and so stressed. The app tells you how many times you’ve unlocked your phone as well as how many minutes (or, in my case, hours) you’ve been using your phone that day and then it categorizes you: green, yellow, or red. In the months and months that I’ve had that app on my phone and hadn’t really used it, I had only managed to achieve green once, yellow a handful of times, and red the rest of the times.

So, late this week I decided enough was enough and I needed a change. Lent is coming up, and while I’m not religious I do admire the idea of doing without and/or improving upon oneself for 40 days. I got a bit of an early start at it, but my phone has been removed of Facebook and Google+ and I’ve made a point to not take my phone everywhere I go, to not sit and mindlessly scroll, and to generally stop being buried in a screen out of habit. I’m on my 3rd day in and so far, so good. I can already tell a change in my happiness level, though the kid has been quite angry about me not letting him play games on my phone. He gets a lot of screen time at Nana’s, so really I’m doing us both a favor, right?

I’m really hoping this new no procrastinating on my phone thing revives my blogging. I’m fairly confident that posting to social media so often has killed this – I always think about how I need to blog, but then I never can think of what to write since I’ve already talked about it elsewhere.

I learned something new a week or two ago – paper piecing! That “twenty” above is going on the back of my picnic quilt – I have fabric ordered for the backing, but I’m splitting the backing to have “twenty seventeen” on it to show the year I completed the quilt. I thought I was being pretty clever with that, but man was the “s” incredibly time consuming. All those little itty bitty pieces to help form the curve… good grief. Sew, trim, sew, trim, sew, trim over and over and over again. That quilt is temporarily on hold while I wait for the backing to arrive in the mail, and in the meantime I snatched up a charm pack from Missouri Star Quilt Co from their flash sale (Rainy Day – I think I paid $2.25 or so, which was a huge steal!) that is transforming into a star for a baby quilt for a coworker. As I write, I have the whole thing pieced together but I won’t be able to take a photo of the top until tomorrow. The whole thing has gone together incredibly quickly, which was the whole point of ordering the charm packs – I thought maybe having pre-cut fabric would make the whole project go much smoother, and I’m so thrilled I was right. Because let me tell you – crafting at all these days is a challenge with a rambunctious boy all up in your crafting space, unspooling thread everywhere or snatching pieces of fabric and running off.

I also signed up for a quilting subscription box through FatQuarterShop.com, as one does when you’re distracted and stressed and performing the mom version of retail therapy (i.e. all the online shopping because taking your kid to a store to browse yarn or fabric sounds like a nightmare more than heavenly). My box arrived but I haven’t really had a chance to look through it and compare prices – the box is supposed to be more retail value than what it costs so I want to see if that ends up being true. I have a feeling I’ll end up canceling it after a few boxes like I have every other subscription box I’ve tried, though. In my experience, subscription boxes are fun for a short while, but eventually you end up with too much stuff. Things you don’t have time for, things you won’t ever actually use, things you already have and then feel guilt about the environmental impact of buying things you don’t need…

Let’s see…… what else? Declan started school earlier this month. I didn’t actually realize it was school- it was labeled as an “explore and play” group, but it turns out it’s quite preschool-like. It’s taken him this whole month to stop crying and clinging when he gets dropped off, but I think he’s getting the hang of it now. He can tell me some of his classmates names, and what they learned about that day and what book they read… but you ask him if he’s made any friends? “Ummmmm Miss Crystal and Miss Robin,” he answers. Ahhh yes, my only child would much rather be around the adults than the other children.

 

 

Featured, Posts family, less, Little Mr, quilting, sewing

Burying myself in projects.

January 29, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

I’ve found myself jumping head-first into projects, even though I know it will most likely take me forever to do them. New knitting projects, spinning projects, quilts… The news here in the US is far too depressing, and I find myself seeking comforts of fabric and yarn between my fingers and cheerfulness that is needed both because of political climate and general January blues. This sunny, bright quilt, which I like to call my picnic quilt, has turned out to be just the thing I needed this weekend. The bright colors, the relatively easy construction… my soul needed this. Even with Danger Boy getting into everything, destroying his room and my craft room while I worked, it was more relaxing than it should have been.

I bought all of this fabric at Joann’s, though I bought it months and months ago so who knows if they still have it. A lot of prints are Koko Lee, the rest are misc from from the quilt fabric section. When I found the berries print I knew immediately that they were begging to be made into a picnic quilt. I have these (probably delusional) ideas that Danger boy and I will go to the park and have picnics this next summer. It all sounds very lovely, and I’m sure the realities will be the exact opposite. I highly doubt I’ll get to lounge under a tree and read or knit while he goes and plays. A girl can dream…

 

Featured, Posts quilting, sewing

More quilting

July 16, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

harry-potter-quilt-web hp-quilt-detail1 hp-quilt-detail2 IMG_6991 IMG_7001IMG_7002

This season of motherhood… this not-quite-2 year old is so challenging. And so frustrating. And making it impossible to get anything done for more than 20 minutes, 30 max. But he’s so stinking adorable with how he tries to copy me. He tries to knit on his little dishcloth and he plays with the fabric and yarn and knitting needles  and wants to touch the buttons on my sewing machine. He attempts to copy the noises it makes as I push the pedal. He spins my wheel (and I’ve learned to just leave the drive band off so he doesn’t ruin my yarn in progress). And he’s basically claimed my old Canon PowerShot for his own, grabbing it and turning it on and trying to take pictures of whatever I’m taking pictures of.

Pictures have been few and far between lately, it seems. We keep everything nice put up out of his reach, which means I don’t see my camera out and don’t tend to think about it. I’m missing out on some priceless moments and I need to rectify that. He’s growing up way too quickly – he always has. I feel like we never got that “baby” stage – it seems like he has gone from newborn to toddler in minutes. Sigh. I need to get behind my camera more. I need to get back in the habit of taking photographic evidence of all this. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t, but sometimes finding the energy to fight with a toddler over why he can’t touch the Big Kid camera is just too much.

I’ve been sewing more quilts. A baby one for a coworker, and another hexie one at that. As soon as I found out she was doing her nursery in Harry Potter I had to make one. Had to. I wasn’t planning on making her anything – I feel like I haven’t worked there long enough to really get to know her and, besides, time is limited these days and I’d really like to dedicate my time to making things for the Little Mr. But she had me at Harry Potter – it was fate or something. I found some awesome Gryffindor fabric at Joanns, and I carried the bolt around with me to find matches to make the quilt. I snagged some grey with white triangles (to symbolize horcruxes), some burgundy and gold, and some really amazing grey with silver deer heads on it to symbolize Harry’s patronus. This is what happens when you have quilting skills and you’re a Harry Potter nerd, too. :)

I have some more fabric I picked up Wednesday for a picnic blanket I want to make for myself/my family. I’ll write more on that later.

 

Featured, Posts gifts, Little Mr, quilting, sewing

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