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!!

Non-complaints and Random Quilt Progress Pictures.

I've been feeling very complainy lately.

I don't like being complainy.

So I thought I'd share some things that aren't complaints :)

Just to make myself feel better... about myself.

(first 4 finished blocks out of 25 needed for this quilt)

Willow calls frisbees 'roast beef'.

Like, "Mom, you wanna play roast beef outside?"

I love it.

I don't ever want to forget that.

(5 completed blocks... it takes a while, so each one is a major accomplishment in my book, bear with me!)

And, if she wants two of something

(i.e. cookies or snacks- basically anything I don't want her to have more than one of)

she asks if whatever it is can have a 'best friend'.

How can you say no to that?

And she says it with the most adorable look on her face.

Like there's actually concern for the cookie without a friend. And its feelings. I love it.

Your cookie wants a best friend?

Damn good reasoning to me for two cookies.

Nobody likes a lonely cookie.

That's what BFFs are for.

(8 finished blocks! That's almost 1/3 of the way done! Oh, and that's Willow's cookie with its best friend...)

I'm making progress on lots of things around the house.

I love house progress.

It's the best kind of progress.

And tomorrow, our BFFs are coming over to help rearrange the whole place.

I'm talking beds being transferred from room to room, picking up random furniture from 86 different places, moving a whole bunch of crap that's been just waiting for some muscle...

Or more than just one muscle-y Hubby and pregnant me :)

I'm excited.

That's also what BFFs are for.

(Just a picture, because I'm loving how these blocks are turning out! Just 17 more to go.)

I will show lots of pictures when it's done, because I've been prepping for months now.

Seriously, months.

I've been collecting furniture, painting rooms and furniture, making things, brain-decorating...

Oh it's going to be fun.

Willow has never had a lovey.

You know, like a favorite blankie or stuffed animal or something like that.

I want her to have one.

So, I asked her what kind of lovey she wanted.

She told me she wanted a zebra-mermaid-monster.

Looks like I'll be making the lovey myself because I'm pretty sure nobody sells one of those.

Yeah, so I'll keep you posted on that.

Ha.

A zebra-mermaid-monster, what have I gotten myself into?

This could either be the cutest or the scariest lovey of all time...

(That fabric there on the right is a sheet from TJMaxx that will eventually be a bedskirt, or part of it, anyway.)

I've decided to give myself a nearly impossible budget for turning the entire upstairs into

Big Girl Room/Nursery.

$200 bucks.

I just decided that about .003 seconds ago.

Basically, I just want to see if I can do it.

I might be setting myself up for failure, but who knows? I may just be able to pull it off.

Maybe.

Wish me luck.

It's a pretty big room.

And it needs to be painted.

And it needs furniture.

And it needs rugs.

And it basically needs every other thing that makes up a Big Girl Room/Nursery.

I'm thrifty.

I've got ideas.

So, we'll see.

You want to be kept up to date on that, too?

Well, too bad, you don't have a choice because I'm going to update you anyway :)

So far I've spent $5.55.

That includes a can of pink spray paint I bought on a whim for some idea I had in my head and a vintage sheet I plan on using for the back of a quilt I haven't made yet.

Yeah, this is going to be interesting...

So, I went with this one...

Thanks for everybody's help in the

String Quilt v. Disappearing 9 Patch Debate!

I figured I owed it to you guys to show you which design I went with:

THE STRING QUILT!!

I'm super excited.

I stayed up WAY too late sorting through scraps, cutting, trimming, ironing and prepping.

I've never ironed my scraps before.

Don't they look nice?

I think the only reason I did this time was because I broke the last needle on my sewing machine and didn't have a backup (weird) and REALLY wanted to get started on my quilt because I feel this sort of impending doom that I will NOT have enough time to finish everything that needs to get finished before the baby comes and I just wanted to feel like I was getting something done.

Even if all the ironing was unnecessary.

My mom would say it wasn't.

She irons everything.

EVERYTHING.

So there you go, Mom, I'm sure that makes you happy.

This is what my sewing table looked like after I made the first block.

Scraps galore.

But it's just so. much. fun.

I'm using the foundation piecing method this time around instead of the paper piecing method.

2 reasons:

I didn't have paper big enough for the size of blocks I wanted to make (11")

and

I wanted to try out the different method using muslin squares.

I'm a teensy bit worried that the quilt will be extremely heavy because of the

extra muslin squares

(instead of the paper, which you just rip off after piecing)

but I figured it's ok to have a heavy quilt.

Right?

Just that much more comfy...

Oh, and I figured out that I'm going to need 25 complete string blocks.

Each "complete" string block (that's just what I call it) is made up of 4 smaller blocks.

That means I will need to piece and sew 96 more 11" blocks in order to complete my king size quilt.

I'm slightly overwhelmed by these numbers, but I think I can do it.

Oh, and if you haven't already, go enter yourself in the Lazy Sunday Giveaway.

All you have to do is leave a comment.

Anybody can enter until midnight Tuesday and the winner will be announced Wednesday.

Good Luck!

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!