Little Gym Graduation - Birdies

Little Miss G graduated today from her first class at the Little Gym. It's been so fun watching her become more confident and social. She's on the shy side usually. Today she loved her front rolls, backflips and the balance beam. She actually surprised me by going first on a couple of the exercises. No cries until they got the kids together for a group photo...yeah right:) It's been a lot of fun so of course we signed up again:) They always get 'ya!!

Oh yeah, you'll notice the whole "tutu" thing. I picked her up yesterday from day care and she greeted me at the door with a tutu that she was wearing just underneath her armpits - because it was so long! She kept saying tutu tutu all the way home. So I dug out this little tutu she had that came with a pair of pajamas. Let me tell you she is a happy camper today....wearing her tutu everywhere she goes!! She chases our dog around and says "hello baby."

Still working on my aqua and orange quilt - one block at a time. Now I have ideas about a Mendocino quilt. Isn't that bad, you get started on one, but ideas begin brewing again...and now I'm obsessed about the next one, but haven't finished the one I started recently!

Knitted Baby Hats - a baby can never have enough!

I just love, love, love knitting baby hats. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than seeing a wee little one in a cute hat! Don't worry though, this one isn't for little Miss G....this is for a 2 month old little girl:)

I've often thought of opening an etsy shop but I guess right now, I don't have the guts. I'd love to be able to make a whole bunch and then sell a few times a year, but I don't know how that would go over. I don't want to lose the joy of making them if it became some mass production. Any thoughts for those of you who have taken the leap and opened an etsy store? I'd love to hear your advice!

Squares and Bears

I haven't been feeling the best lately - I think I've caught a little "day care" bug so needless to say I haven't been up to too much. As my title says, it's been squares and bears. I'm still making a few squares at a time of the aqua and orange quilt. As well, I crocheted my little one a bear hat (with a little flower to boot:)
That's pretty much all here right now, boring I know.....hopefully my next posting will be a little more interesting!

Works in Progress....Creative juices flowing!

I saw a blanket similar to this on the web and thought I'd whip up one for myself. Allison at CluckCluckSew posted in October about self binding blankets. She in turn had followed similar instructions on someone else's blog. Once I got the mitering down pat, which included me ripping out a few stitches...I made a little blanket for my little G to take with her to day care. I had Michael Miller's disco dots lying around for some time, so I was happy to finally use some. I love all things pink and orange - as you may be able to tell from some of my WIPs.

My next little thing I worked on was squaring up my Drunk Love quilt (Denyse Schmidt). I can't tell you how much I LOVE the colours in this quilt! I also can't tell you how much I hate cutting out pattern pieces:( Not for me....so what I decided to do was just glance at the pieces and work improvisationally. Much faster and much more enjoyable I have to say. I have to say I'm not one who has a whole lot of patience for cutting fabric when I'm quilting. I much prefer to be creative and see what happens. I'd like to make this between a double and a queen size quilt. I'm just going to keep plugging away...a little bit at a time.

I've been wanting to make an orange and aqua quilt for awhile...so when I saw Allison's posting on her recent project, I thought I'd look into my own stash and see what I could come up with. I've been buying too much lately!

I've always loved Ashley's spotted squares quilt so I thought I would combine the colours of Allison's quilt with the squares in Ashley's quilt and see what I'd make....here's a pic of the blocks so far. They're 10 inches. Again, the reason why I like Ashley's design so much is that I can work improvisationally!!

Sewing Machine Cover

I had some fabric lying around and have been wondering what to do with it. I haven't used my sewing machine cover for a while (the hard one that comes with the machine) so I thought I would whip up a little fabric cover this morning. I knew I needed fabric with a little weight and I love bold graphics so voila here is what I came up with. I used the tutorial on Chez Larsson and adapted it to fit my machine. You simply take the measurements from the front of your machine to the back and you add 1/2 inch to each side for your seams. You measure the side width and height and cut two pieces (also adding an inch to each side)....mark the middle of your main piece to the middle of your side pieces, pin in place and sew. It's simple and easy to make.

I wanted to take my daughter to the Little Gym this morning but when the car wouldn't start because of all of the snow we've had, I decided to bundle her up and take her outside for a while....love pics in the snow!

More Pics

New Year's Day - UFO Check

It's finally done...yeh! I'm so thrilled to have Baby G's quilt completed. That makes 8 out of 9 projects that I finished for Joy in the New Year Challenge hosted by Jacquie at Tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com. I was hoping to check this quilt off my UFO list but I didn't get it done until this morning.

I used 2 1/4 inch binding strips for this quilt and the final size came out as 63.5 x 73.5 ... lots of crinkly goodness. All I can say is that I definitely enjoyed doing the machine binding. I do not like to hand sew so it was a life saver! It was my first time doing it and I'll never go back:)

Did you get all of your UFOs done? Hope so...feels so good...now I can plan for some new projects.

I couldn't resist going outside to take some pictures of Baby G's quilt. Looked very pretty in the white white snow. It's a winter wonderland here today and I love it! Makes it very cozy!