Baby Present-Modern Blocks

Hi Everyone! Just a quick post today and need your input! I've made up this quick little modern quilt for my friend who just had a baby a few weeks ago.

I absolutely love the work of Ann StewArt so if you're on Flickr definitely check out her work! When I saw hers I fell in love and knew I wanted to make one for my friend. I didn't have a lot of time so I thought it would also be made up fairly quickly:) Thoughts on binding? I'm thinking of finishing it with Kona coal, but I've also thought of a scrappy binding using solids and also one with a print binding (Denyse Schmidt of course) in a blue/green mix. Thanks for your help!

Pumpkins.....it's that time of year!

My 4 year old, who started JK recently, was in need of a pumpkin hat to match her little sister's......so, the last few nights I worked on this:

Yeh! Mail!

These little lovelies showed up today in the mail. I honestly couldn't help myself after I saw Ashley's Chicopee Quilt.

So vibrant and modern....simply beautiful! I was inspired to buy a fat quarter bundle (which I never do) from PinkCastleFabrics and it was on sale!! Yeh! It arrived in record time which is nice living in Canada:) I especially love these two prints:

Since I'm a knitter as well, I was always curious about the "Mystery Boxes" on Craftsy (you order them on the last day of the month). So, in August, I took a chance and ordered a $50 mystery box. This is what I received:

I definitely love the needles and the Bulky yarn but I'm not sure about the sock yarn as I've never knit socks before....but maybe I'll try? Not sure. I'm still glad I took a chance and purchased mine and heh.....worst case is I trade for something different on Ravelry! (This month I'm making a conscious effort at trying to be as positive as I can be:) This past week, my oldest daughter started JK - full time, every day! Big changes! She seems to like it but the drop off is difficult for her. I wish my Mom could have been there to see her on her first day of school, but I'm sure she was watching from above!

My youngest daughter turns 22 months at the end of this month (which is unbelievable) and she is talking up a storm....forming sentences for some time and saying the cutest little things! When her sister was having a melt down the other day she said "sister crying" "sister crabby" - it honestly made me laugh and kind of stopped her sister in her tracks! They're so sweet and I remind myself on a daily basis that I am blessed to have them in my life!

Miss G found this "little wormy" at the tree planting ceremony in memory of my father this past weekend. She made him a little "home" with a leaf before we left the conservation area. She is so attached to animals/insects and she sometimes talks about being an "animal doctor." Here is a pic of Miss P on the weekend looking mischievous!

Oh, and like I needed another WIP, here is the start of a DS Spools Quilt. Have you checked out Svetlana's version? GORGEOUS! So, I started off by doing a "sort of stack and slash/improv method" to avoid having to cut out all of DS' templates. This picture is of the same "block" just turned on its side. I will be making other types of blocks but I think I like what I've come up with so far.

I think my major problem is that I love to start up lots of WIPs and then I find I have no time to complete all of them!! Crazy!! How do you manage your WIPs without becoming distracted by other possible WIPs....I swear I have "Sewist ADD" .... haha. Any tips would be appreciated!!! Have a great Tuesday!

Preschool Teacher Gifts

My daughter's last day of preschool was on Friday. Unfortunately I didn't have it all together to give her teachers a gift but thought I could make up for it this coming Tuesday:) I wanted to make something handmade but debated on whether to make them some ruffled key fobs that I saw on EmptyBobbins blog post here So on Friday while the girls were in school I set out to make up a bunch. Shea used Alex's tutorial which by the way is really cool but I just couldn't get my ruffles to come out the way I'd like them to. I have a little bit of a perfectionist streak so if I give a handmade present I want it to look as professional as it can. I even tried to hand baste the ruffle piece but inevitably when I would go to sew it on the fob with my walking foot, the spacing of the ruffles just didn't look good. Oh well....back to the drawing board. So I thought....pouches! I had seen Noodlehead's tutorial for her open wide zippered pouches and thought these would be perfect. I whipped three up over the course of yesterday afternoon and evening and am really happy with the results.

So far I've learned I like the feel and body of using fusible fleece (I did that with this one):

Don't mind this picture as it looks like the top is not even....just the way I took the photo. Here are the other two:

The last pic is one I'm still adding the finishing touches to...it needs a zipper tab

. Happy Labour Day Weekend!!