High on Spring.

We have been seriously enjoying some nice weather over here.

Spring is in the air and I've been inhaling deeply... one might even say I'm high on life.

I can't help myself.

I love nice weather so much. It makes me all happy. And probably nicer.

If my hubby were smart he'd move us to someplace where it's nice and warm all year long...

Right?

Willow laughs hysterically every. single. time. I push her on the swings.

Like, loud belly laughs.

People turn to look and I catch them all chuckling sooner or later.

I mean, you can't help it, her laughter is contagious.

And the Squish also enjoys the swings!

But she's more of a kick-your-legs-and-squeal sort of swinger.

As you can imagine, when my kids are on the swings, it's a very loud area of the park.

I love my loud and happy kids.

***

Here's another nursery set to share:

Super fun, right?

This was actually my first "theme" bedding set.

(See that jungle print?)

I'll be honest, it was a little tricky finding a jungle print that was girly

and that also

matched green walls.

(These are not the green walls I'm talking about, these are my grey walls that I love dearly.)

I think it all came together really well.

My fave parts of this set would have to be the crib skirt (too long for my crib...)

and the quilt.

It's a string quilt... which I love so much!

And the back:

And a hand-stitched label to finish it off :)

I think that little quote is Irish for "my darling"(?)

For the string quilt, I used the paper-piecing method to make my blocks...

I think I started with 9" squares of freezer paper

and my middle strips of fabric were 2" wide.

I just love a quilt roll...

Wouldn't a whole bookshelf full of rolled quilts be amazing?

Hmmm....

Happy Spring!!

Surprises and Skirts.

I love my job(s).

I get to be a mom.

I get to make things.

And many times I get to make things for other moms.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

My latest project was for a couple who aren't finding out their baby's gender until THE day!

Oh, how I wish I had that kind of patience/self-control...

I HAD to know.

Both times :)

They went with bright greens and yellows with a little bit of navy and aqua thrown in for fun.

I think it's perfect to snuggle up either a little boy or girl, don't you think?

They really liked the style of the quilt in this nursery set, so that's what we did!

Here's the fabrics used throughout:

Bumper: Dandelion in Lime and Glass Tiles in Lemon

Bumper ties: Quarter Dot in Navy and Leaves in Blue

Crib sheet: Painter's Canvas in Lime

Crib skirt: Ta Dot in Apple w/ Quarter Dot in Navy border

The quilt used all the above fabrics and then we added in:

Honeycomb in Green

and

Large Leafy Stripe in Lime

Measures 45x55" ish, machine quilted, machine stitched binding.

The quilt back was pieced, and binding was Glass Tiles in Lemon.

Heather (and Hubby)- I hope you love your new crib bedding!

I, of course, would LOVE to know if you ended up with a boy or girl when the time comes :)

(because I'm nosy like that.)

And I would obviously also LOVE some pictures of your little lovey all wrapped up...

when you have time.

Of course.

Enjoy!

I've also been busy making clothes for my girlies...

I'm trying to do a lot more handmade this year than I did last year.

And I realized

(while uncovering, sorting, washing, organizing, folding, and kissing, and putting away all of Willow's old clothes for Baby #2)

that Big Sister has absolutely NO clothes.

None.

Well, none that are acceptable for public viewing, anyway.

So I went to work:

I had lots of fun.

No patterns, no plans really, just started sewing and embellishing :)

I used a mix of fabrics: some from stash, some from the scrap bins, some from Hobby Lobby...

(which had some surprisingly good quality fabrics, I might add).

And my favorite part was adding all the little details.

Vintage trims, funky trims, ribbons, jumbo ric-rac, decorative stitching, you name it!

I got a little carried away.

But that's ok, because they're for my little love-bucket :)

I think this one's my favorite:

And I've also been sewing like crazy for the nursery and the baby...

but it's been quite rainy/gloomy these last few days and I haven't been able to take any good pictures so far.

Stay tuned...

A Very Special Baby Quilt and Belated Happy Valentine's Day.

I have finished my little girl's baby quilt.

And I am IN LOVE with it.

IN.

LOVE.

It's tied for my favorite with this quilt...the very first quilt I ever made for Willow.

This pretty little number is a string quilt using all the scraps I used to make the Dresden Plates for Willow's new quilt.

I used the paper-piecing method, and there's a pretty good tutorial here.

I modified mine a bit, but who doesn't?

There were 24 string blocks (7" unfinished) and then I used some stashed fabric to make borders around the outside.

(Anna Maria Horner Garden Party, Valori Wells, and some more Anna Maria Horner)

And, as per usual over here lately, I only used scraps and stash fabrics.

I used the same fabric (Ta Dot in Sea) for the center strip in each string block that I am going to use as the background for Willow's twin-size Dresden Plate quilt, so that there will be some similarity between the two quilts since they'll be sharing a room.

And because there's SO many different kinds of fabrics in each one...

I LOVE IT!

And for the back I just used some stashed Anna Maria Horner Garden Party, some Heather Bailey Tiled Primrose from the Pop Garden/Bijoux collection, which I also used for the binding, and some Amy Butler Sandlewood from her Love collection.

As for the quilting, I really wanted to highlight the 'squares' or 'diamonds' that the string blocks made once all put together... I really didn't want to chop them up in any way with quilting lines.

So, I decided to quilt 1/4" on the inside of the center strips that made up each square.

And then the same 1/4" inside for the triangles on the sides and corners.

There ended up being no intersecting quilting lines, which is exactly what I wanted.

I tried to show you what I'm talking about... if you even really care, that is.

I ALMOST FORGOT...

Yesterday was Valentine's Day!

My hubby and I don't really do anything for Valentine's Day.

I know it sounds weird, but I like it like that.

Ok, it's not like we do nothing.

I always make him his mom's recipe no-bake cookies and a super-cheesy, way over the top valentine.

I think he secretly loves them. I really do.

He stares at them for a really long time with silly grin on his face... and that's how I know :)

I decided to put them all in a scrapbook this year so they don't get lost...

I mean, we're talking like 7 years worth of some serious Valentines.

I think they're worth saving... now I just have to find that 'spot' where I put them so that they could be found again.

So far I have found the one from 2009.

That's it.

The search is on.

I liked making Drew's Valentine even more this year because Willow wanted to make one too:

...and it is AWESOME.

I love that she loves to do "projits" with me.

It's like the best thing ever.

And she thinks she's the bomb when I let her use her own glue stick and her own scissors.

All she wanted to do yesterday was make Daddy's "Balentine", ride her bike to the movie store to pick out "Pickle Me" (aka 'Despicable Me'), and then wait for Daddy to get home from work so we could watch the movie in our jammies, with popcorn and macaroni and cheese.

So, that's exactly what we did!

Dust Ruffle!

Here's the coordinating dust ruffle for the nursery set below...