2011: What Happened to You?

2011 was clearly not a great year for this blog. I barely had any posts and, overall, that was pretty representative of the amount of quilting and sewing I accomplished. I did, however, accomplish one major thing that really has been the reason for such a huge lull.

This is the reason: I became a mom!

I found out I was pregnant in April and almost immediately was stricken with fatigue that barely let up my entire pregnancy. I had absolutely zero motivation to sew (or to do much else).

Towards the end of my pregnancy I began working pretty heavily on my father's quilt and I think the noise of my sewing machine was so noisy and startling to the baby the he kicked and squirmed almost the entire time I was sewing for the first couple times. Sad, right?

My son, Gavin, was born on December 17 and is now already 3 weeks old! Things have been going well and I feel so much better now that I am no longer pregnant! I have motivation to be crafty again- which is super exciting! I'm looking forward to settling into a routine with Gavin so I can start being creative again.

I did manage to accomplish a few things- like actually finish my dad's quilt! I'll be sharing those things with you here shortly. But in the meantime, here is some more cuteness.

The Real Deal

This past weekend was my sister-in-law's baby shower.  She's expecting a little girl in mid-September.   She asked me to make the bedding for her purple and yellow themed nursery- specifically the quilt and the bumper.

I found a couple fat quarter bundles of this fabric at JoAnn's and supplemented with some yardage from a local quilt shop.  I sat for awhile trying to determine a good pattern for a two-color quilt.  It was much more difficult than I expected.  So, I threw a couple green accent prints in and after making a trial quilt top, I made the quilt.

I made the squares a little larger so I could make it more of an oversized baby quilt.  I wanted it to be able to usable for longer than the itty bitty baby stage.  I also decided to back the quilt in super soft minky and do minimal quilting.  This kept the quilt really snuggly and cozy. 

I'm pretty happy with the finished product.

For the bumper, I used the pattern in Little Stitches for Little Ones by Amy Butler.  I have actually not had a lot of luck with Amy Butler sewing patterns in the past, so I was surprised that this came together pretty well.  My only issue was that it told me to see page 172 to make the ties, but I had not photocopied that page before I returned the book from to library.  Who would have thought my pattern instructions on pages 36 and 37 would send me to 172?  I'm pretty sure I didn't make the ties as the pattern would have instructed because they ended up being a lot of work.  I think they look pretty nice though, so no complaints here.

I liked the pattern because it had you make pockets on the inside of the bumper panels.  The pattern is written to have pockets on both of the long sides of the crib, however, I decided to only have them on one side.  It would have been an extra yard of fabric and I didn't think it the pockets on both sides would be used at the same time anyway.

All in all, I'm happy with how the bedding turned out.  I can't wait for my niece to arrive so I can see it in action!

Fabric for my new niece!

My sister-in-law is pregnant and last night I found out that I will be gaining another niece in September!  Yay!  I'm super excited. 

My sister-in-law has asked me to make a quilt and a bumper for her nursery.  I'm really looking forward to being able to make the quilt for my little niece.  She wants to decorate the nursery using purples and yellows.  Needless to say, I was pretty excited to find the fabrics bundles a couple weeks ago at JoAnn's.

Unfortunately, these fabric bundles do not come with salvages, so I need your help!  I'd really like to purchase some yardage so I can make the matching bumper for the crib.  Do you know what this fabric line is?  If you do, do you know where I can find it?

I hope someone out there knows what line this super cute fabric is from!

Too Cute

I know I said I was going to not post until after my exam, but this was too cute to pass up.

A card from my niece thanking me for her quilt.

Home and Safe

Last February I blogged about how my brother was leaving for his deployment to Iraq with the Army.  I am so thankful to report that he has arrived back to the US safely!!  After a two week reentry training in Texas, he will be visiting us in Michigan for about a month.  I can't wait to see my brother again!

Welcome home, SPC. Jeremy Ahnen!

Amazed.

As I mentioned in my last post, I got a new lens for my camera.  The 50mm f/1.8 to be exact.  My parents were gracious enough to give it to me as a birthday present.  Thanks Mom and Dad! :) 

When I was at my cousin's son's birthday party last weekend, I was able to play with it and try it out.  It is pretty awesome.

The colors in these shots of the flowers is really rich.

Cute kids to photograph make it easy to look like a good photographer!

 

The birthday boy:

   

  

 

My second cousin's daughter: 

I'm pretty pleased!  The photos are better quality on flickr.  For some reason Blogger has been making my photos look a bit funky.