Scrappy Explosion!

Wow... a lot has happened since I last posted!  January was a blur of traveling with family and then for work.  And honestly, what happened to February?!  I swear it just started!

Here are some of the things I've been up to:

For the Stitch that Stash Bee ...

January's block were a Churn Dash at the request of Deb from Simply Miss Luella

Next, I jumped on the instagram quilting sensation... the Scrappy Trip Along!

My son had been requesting a new quilt.  And he was quite specific in his requests:

1.  It had to have a fleece back

2.  It needed to be heavy

3.  It needed to be fluffy (high loft batting)

4.  It needed to be tied

How does a 9 year old have such specific quilting requests?!

The Scrappy Trip Along seemed to be the right fit for him!

There's always a furry helper when I'm doing layouts!

 Here's a close up of the twin sized quilt...

And here's the boy all snuggled up on the first night he got it, which happened to be a -20° that night.  Perfect timing!

He has used this every night, dragging it to my parents when he's stayed with them, and it often found on the couch as well!  I'm glad it is getting lots of love!

Next up was February's Stitch that Stash bee block, an Ohio Star for Kristan at Doodle Do Designs

Then it was time to finish up some UFOs that have been hanging around for far too long!
We had another crafting weekend at the church I work at.  It's such a great time to hang out with a fun group of women while we sew/bead/scrapbook our Friday and Saturday away!

I made a mini quilt using half square triangles out of blocks I've had sitting around for along time.

I couldn't bear to cut off the points and I was feeling to lazy to do setting triangles so I left the irregular edges.    However, I'm glad I didn't realize how long it would take me to bind the edges like this when I started out on this route because setting triangles would have been WAY easier!  A ton of work doing the inside angles, but I love how it looks!  Its new home is over the back of a chair in my office. So bright and cheery and fun!

Yesterday was quite productive day... I love Mondays:  my day off and I'm home by myself!  Love my family and being with them, but I also enjoy my Mondays of being home alone from 7:30am-4pm.  My time to recharge my batteries, quilt, clean, etc.  I got the house picked up some and also made it to the gym for a workout.  And I quilted and came up with a BIG finish....  My Scrap Vomit quilt top is done!  49 blocks that are made up of 49 squares.  2,401 2.5" squares later, we are well on our way to having a king size quilt on our bed!

Next up, the attempt to quilt it on my home machine!  It sort of gives me frights to think about, but I'm going to forge ahead!

2013 is off to a good start!

Linking up:

WiP Wednesday!

Whirlwind Start to 2013

The last month has just flown by!  We had a great Christmas spent with family and rang in the New Year with friends.  Then a few days later we left behind cold Minnesota and jetted off to Disney World with my parents and my sister and her family!  The weather was gorgeous - in the upper 70s and low 80s (on our last morning I got a text that our son's school was cancelled due to icy conditions!  Made it hard to leave!) The whole trip was to celebrate my parent's retirement (when we got back my dad had two more days left and my mom retired back in April).  We had a most magical week!  Disney is truly a happy place for me and it was special being there with my wonderful family.  And to make it extra special, it was my niece's first trip!  She loved the characters and she was quite the character herself!

I just love that these two cousins love each other so much

Bumping fists with the Big Cheese

Taking a spin with Auntie

A much needed haircut at Harmony Barber Shop on Main Street

First haircut! (with fishy lips!)

Melt my heart.

Dumbo at night

Uffda!  There's a Viking chasing you!

One of the few pictures of the two of us

Selected to be an "extra" in the Indiana Jones show

Ready to act away!

Fighting the Dark Side

Finding Nemo The Musical

Dumbo with my sweet kid

The Festival of the Lion King - My favorite show... makes me cry every time!

Peace, Love, Mickey Mouse

Love going at a slow time - 9:30am and plenty of room to run in Fantasyland!

It all started with a mouse

Rocking out with Phineas and Ferb

My Prince Charming!

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! Thank you for an amazing trip!

Hope you find something to do on Wednesday!  ;)  Love you two so much.

Before we headed off to Florida I squeezed in some quilting...  I got sucked in to the Scrappy Tripalong as I saw blocks popping up on Instagram.  I asked my son what he thought of it and he liked it so this is destined for his bed.  So far I have 16 blocks done and they are a blast to put together!  Just need enough to make it a twin size.  Here's a link to the pattern - it's a fun one to do!

I'm also participating in my first virtual quilting bee, Stitch that Stash, with a wonderful group of women.  Thank you to Kris at Duke Says Sew What for extending the invitation!  First up is a churn dash... I got the first one started tonight.  Look forward to posting pictures soon!  Have to get them done soon since in a little over a week I head out to California for a work conference.  This year is off to a great start - a week in Florida and then a week in California all in the same month?!  Makes a chilly Minnesota January much more tolerable!

Christmas is coming

A couple of Christmas presents are done...

 

A Church Basement Lady apron for my mom. Who hinted that she wanted an apron. I believe her way of "hinting" was "I need an apron. I'm getting messy when I cook."  One apron coming right up! This will be given to her early because next weekend we are making lefse, krumkake, and rosettes.  Don't want her getting messy!

   

And a Hip(ster) Hop Hippity Hop Sock Bunny.

 I found some fun socks at Target and used this tutorial from Lil Blue Boo.  This is for my 15 month old niece.  Since I couldn't do buttons for eyes (choking hazard), I thought some spectacles would be a good alternative. And then was up late when I came up with the name.  Gotta love sleep deprived loopiness. I showed these to a few people at work and now I have orders for 5 bunnies!  

Today and tomorrow we're having another "Crafty" Weekend at church, where we all drag over our projects to the fellowship hall and we craft the weekend away!  Can't wait to knock off a few more projects!

WIP - the done and undone

My goal the last couple of months is to finish up some WIPs.  Too many of these projects staring me in the face and it's about time I did something about some of them.

I've finished up quite a few things...

This quilt that I gave as a wedding present to some friends.

And this, which was a wedding present to my sister and her husband.  The top was done and it was all sandwiched together for their wedding 2.5 years ago.  I finally got around to quilting it last month.  Sorry, guys!

And this one was for our family.  It originally was started with plans to live on our Queen bed.  Then we went and got a new bed, King sized, and it sat undone.  Right now it's living on our couch and is perfect for snuggling under on the cool nights that have arrived to Northern Minnesota.

This week I found my Hopscotch blocks that I started eons ago and lost steam on...

Things weren't really clicking for me... not sure what it was about this quilt.  I love the pattern, love the fabrics but it just didn't make me excited to work on.  There was no way I was going to make the rest of the blocks - just being honest with myself!  I started playing with the blocks and realized I had enough with the white points and the coral Amy Butler dots to make a tree skirt.  I've been wanting to replace the store bought one we've had for quite a few years.  I see a project being salvaged!

 I put it together with a bit of time the last couple of evenings and it's now living under our tree!  There are still some of the other blocks, and I see those taking on a new life as a wall hanging or table runner. (So hard to take a good picture this time of year!  Sorry about the not-so-great image!)

This is the first time in quite a few years that we've gotten our tree up this early.  And I'll admit, the last couple of years the tree is the only thing that went up (and I was digging for the stockings on Christmas Eve so Santa could visit!)  However, we got a bunch of snow on Thanksgiving evening and it put me right into the Christmas spirit!  The house is all decorated and and I'm loving the evenings of all the lights and decorations surrounding us.

WIP

There's a few more projects to knock off...

(I'm 4/7th of the way done now!)

I've got a bunch of these blocks just waiting to be made into something... not quite sure yet!  I'm thinking a wall hanging for our staircase.

And I've got a bunch of 5" squares cut from voile... a project I started last year on Christmas day.  Good grief!  I really do like starting things more than finishing them!

Linking up...