Coffee for Breakfast

Just browsing a little, hoping to be inspired. I looove this idea: creative baby shower idea! On my "to do" list: trinket tray cutest little trays Eat the fruit, make the bed: My granddaughter needs this! Oh the possibilities! doing this soon Hope I can find some time to create something wonderful in the very near future.

Well this month was quite eventful!!! •My new little very first grandbaby girl and I had a week to get acquainted! Her mommy, daddy, and her cute little self visited at my house. Just to let everyone know, she is the most perfect baby... Ever! Gorgeous! Her parents are pretty cute too.;) •My oldest daughter, Courtney, surprised us all with a wedding. Hers. We didn't even know she had a boyfriend until a few weeks ago. Again, gorgeous. She made a beautiful bride. I hope her day was everything she wanted. Twenty-three and as independent as always. I know her biggest dream of a wedding was for it to only be about her and her husband. I think that was accomplished. :) •We have found a new church home in our new hometown. Awesome presence of God! Freedom in worship, unity in spirit, and love. Sunday morning service was like a cool drink of water to quench our thirst for more and like a burning fire to ignite our hearts to follow God's call. It's been too...

Here are pictures of my pillow re-do from yesterday. It was pitiful. The tassles were barely there. I decided to crochet some new ones. I happened to find some brown yarn left over from another project. Here is the reconstructed pillow with four new tassles! This is not a great picture. I should have found a more neutral background.

Yes, I am keeping up with the pillow challenge over at houseonhillroad. I have completed two pillows and it is day two! I have just been too busy to upload pics. Hopefully I will post some tomorrow. The first pillow I worked on was actually a repair. I restuffed it. Maybe that wasn't cheating. It really needed done. The second pillow was also a repair, but a little more involved. It needed four new tassles and a seam had come loose. The tassles were beyond repair so I crocheted new ones. I love how they turned out. This pillow required total reconstruction so it was definitely not a cheat. Both pillows belonged to daughters of mine. Two down and five to go!

I plan to do this next week. I have a few ideas to start with. The challenge is to make seven pillows. I will try to complete one each day, but one or two of the projects may just be repairs on pillows I've already made. I made a pillow for Kaitlyn a while back that has become flat with lots of use. I need to re-stuff the insert. I have promised to make a pillow similar to this one for a friend since last summer. Courtney has requested a few more for her apartment. The only problem I foresee is narrowing my choices down to seven!

I've got my groove back on! I have to just sew like a maniac when the mood hits. I am currently working on three quilts. I would like to have them all finished be the end of the year. Christmas, to be more exact. Two are for gifts. The other is a fall quilt, so it would be nice to have it finished before it becomes winter. Also this week I completed a little pillow that Aubree had embroidered. I've mostly made pillows this year. They come together quickly and you feel a sense of accomplishment. That is very important to me. Otherwise I would be continually frustrated with sewing. I would have a hard time completing the larger more time consuming projects. That would cause me to have too many projects going or give up alltogether. I have been known to have up to sixteen projects going at one time! CRAZINESS! Hopefully I will have some pictures up soon.

Jace's pillow is finally finished. He waited very patiently for it. And pictured below is a theraputic heat bag that I made for my mom.

I have a quilt top that Courtney hand pieced when she was eighteen. That was FOUR years ago. I found it folded in her closet. I realized that it was a shame for it to sit there, not being enjoyed, after she had painstakingly cut and sewn each square. She even had added alot of quirky touches, like frayed fabric with a contrasting fabric peeking through, an odd button or rhinestone here and there, or a randomly placed little bow. I'm not by any means an experienced quilter. I'm definitely still a beginner. I do think I have gained enough quilting knowledge to help her finish it. When completed, she will have a quilt that we both worked on. I can't wait to have this project finished, but I had to come up with some incentive to get started! Day 1: Piece the backing enj oy the accomplishment of getting started by getting a pedicure Day 2: Pin baste the quilt sandwich, and trim front, batting, and back to the same size that was quite a bit of work! enjoy a trip to the book store...

On my sidebar I made a goal of completing one project per month. I did good the first couple of months this year, then... Oh well, life happens. I love to sew but I can't seem to find time on a consistent basis. Usually if the mood hits me to sew, I sew for a few days. I don't get anything else accomplished though! I would like to try and set aside some time daily. Even thirty minutes would be enough to complete a few things. My other issue is I like to sew when I'm feeling creative. This seems to come in spurts! (just like my sewing!) Here are my completed projects this week! An embroidered throw pillow for my bed in the RV. I finally finished this little quilt! I laid it aside a while back when I only had the binding left. I was intimidated to make my own binding! But as it turns out, it really wasn't that hard! And these last two pillows I made for my daughter Courtney. She has requested several items for her new apartment. I loved making these! I used some of the sa...

I have spent alot of time doing some heavy reading! It has been wonderful and very thought provoking, but... I AM READY TO JUST HAVE FUN THIS WEEK! The girls and I are planning to do a little shopping, a little swimming, and a whole lot of relaxing this weekend. I can't wait. I'm also hoping to fit in a little bit of sewing. I'm a little behind on my goal of finishing at least one project per month. I have three projects in the works, so that should catch me up. I'm also contemplating this. I've been collecting vintage pillowcases for a couple of years. I was just waiting on the right project to catch my eye. I think this will be perfect. I'm looking forward to a wonderful weekend and I hope to have pictures to share.

Here are photos of the pillow I finally finished for my sister. When I found the John Deere fabric I knew I would make something for her. I just didn't know what. Anyway, it took quite a while to get started. I found this project on Sew Mama Sew a while back and fell in love with it. It was a free pattern from ohfransson.com . Originally this was meant to be a birthday gift (last August!), but I think it is perfect for Valentine's Day.

Last night I found myself with only one child in my car. We were on our way home from an out of town basketball game. We decided it would be a great time to make a quick run to Starbuck's and quickly browse in Ross. I'm working on a couple of decorating projects so I headed straight to housewares. I always take a quick look through the book section also. I was excited to find Sew U Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin and Amy Butler's Sew-It Kit. I paid $4.99 for each. If you sew and read sewing blogs you are probably aware of both of these designers. Happy, thrifty find!

I finally, almost a week later, had a chance to read the operation manual to my new sewing machine. It can do way more than I am ready to do. I will be learning lots of new techniques this year. Some of them may be very basic to experienced sewers. For example, I have yet to install a zipper or make a button hole. I'm also looking forward to the quilting stitches. I can't wait to use the stippling stitch. However, the most exciting feature is that it embroiders. I already know exactly what I would like to monogram. I am just completely intimidated by this machine. I hope I look back at this post in a few weeks and laugh at myself. I hope I find that this is way easier than it looks. I hope. And by the way, I love it already!

I'm a little late posting this, but here is the doll blanket and pillow I made for Aubree. I love the little pillow made from ticking. And here is the back. Then with a bit of leftover fabric I decided to make a couple of diapers. These were very quick and easy. I think she will love it. I'm so glad she still loves to play with dolls. So many of her friends think they are too old.

I had a very rare occurence tonight. I had the house all to myself for several hours. My husband took over basketball duty tonight. I normally can't stand missing my girls' games, but I needed to get caught up on a few things. Besides, we have overlapping tournaments this weekend (in two different states)! I don't think I'll have basketball withdrawals! ;) I don't guess I accomplished all I would have liked to tonight, but it was wonderful. The house is cozy and QUIET. Thank You Jesus for some much needed PEACE. I did manage to make a gift for Aubree. I found a cute tutorial HeRe. I will post pics of mine tomorrow. I hope to squeeze in a few more Silent Nights during the Christmas holidays. I still have several projects in the works.

I have finally finished my quilted wall hanging! I purposely took alot of time working on this project but I got really impatient at the end. This was the last project to finish our guest bathroom. I made some mistakes but in the end I liked it better with my mistakes. So here it is completed and hanging in my bathroom... This project is from Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. I love this book. This was my first project but I hope to work on many more.

I am finally determined to finish this project. Probably because it is the last step in redecorating the guest bathroom. I am thread basting it, then I will begin hand quilting. I decided to take a short-cut with the binding. I will fold the backing over instead of cutting strips. Partially because I am anxious to finish, but mainly because I am running short on fabric. Here is the work in progress...

Aubree designed her own.

Today we worked on and completed four quilt squares. They will be mailed to another homeschooling mom who will then have them put together and quilted. These quilts (four of them) will be gifts for a grieving family. They recently lost their two year old in a horrible accident. We moms, who frequent a homeschool message board wanted to do something to comfort them. My girls helped by embroidering on "their" quilt squares. I will hopefully post pictures later of our completed project.

I just finished a new pillow for Kaitlyn. She is gone to camp so I hope to surprise her by doing a little decorating in her room. This pillow is from Anna Maria Horner's book, Seams to Me. I had alot of fun with this project and will probably make a few.