Baby!

Just a quick note to let you know that baby Sean Nathan arrived on April 24 at 8:07am. He weighed a whopping 8 lbs 8 oz ( in comparison to his much smaller older brothers!) and 21". We're doing great and enjoying getting to know each other in the hospital. If you follow me on instagram, you have already seen these pictures, sorry!

Circle 7 Ideas

When Jennifer asked if I wanted to be part of a traveling quilt bee with an amazing group of people I was so honored and completely excited.  I had been watching from the sidelines of these two bees with a bit of envy!  I just can't wait for our own bee, Circle 7, to get started!  Thank goodness, everyone agreed that we can post updates as we work on each other's quilts, or the suspense might have done me in.

After the initial excitement wore of it took me no time to think of a theme.  Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  That song and movie have everything I love in them - rainbows, birds, clouds, skies, poppies, emeralds, stars, hearts, etc.  I have been Dorothy for Halloween a ton of times, too.  This is me with my Cowardly Lion, Jack, on his first Halloween.  Too bad you can't see my Ruby Red Slippers!

A quick search on Flickr showed me that I was not the first person to think of a similarly themed quilt!  However most of the quilts used photorealistic fabric (so not my style) with characters from the movie and very literal interpretations, and I am envisioning something a little more subtle. 

1. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/leila-marie/8232628913/in/faves-50590626@N04/">Orange Trails</a>, 2. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackmanfamily/8083202510/in/faves-50590626@N04/">remixed geese</a>, 3. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10566707@N07/6607109477/in/faves-50590626@N04/">Rainbow Quilt</a>, 4. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/me1issa/5059124848/in/faves-50590626@N04/">"Tea Time" Mug Rug front</a>, 5. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandjenna/8199976566/">Clouds Unmapped Quilt</a>, 6. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ssujh1/5584650047/">Sleepy time quilt</a>, 7. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucysquilts/2823596058/">Hot Air Balloon Baby Quilt - Detail</a>, 8. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/allthenumbers/2763832030/">Poppy quilt for baby or toddler</a>, 9. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tweedledeedesigns/4932432967/">Where Bluebirds Fly - sky quilting detail</a>

 

 

So maybe flying geese instead of bluebirds, or a heart on a gray background instead of an actual tin man, I think there are lots of ways to go with this.  I can't wait to see the quilt start to come together!

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream,
Really do come true.

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
High above the chimney tops,
That's where you'll find me.

April Blocks

I finished the last bit of sewing that I really wanted to get to before the baby's arrival.  My April blocks for the various bees and BOM's I am in are all together now!

 

First up is the April block from Amy of Stitchery Dickory Dock's Sugar Block of the Month club.  This was another paper pieced block and it came together fairly quickly.  On a side note, I actually got to meet Amy at Sew South (yes, I know, I really need to write that post!) and she is just as sweet and amazing in person as she is on her blog!

 

Here you can see all four of my blocks together.   Oh, what about the other BOM I am in, the Lucky Stars paper pieced one?  For now, I am giving myself permission to take a break until I figure out a better plan!

 

For April, our Haven Circle of do. Good Stitches is making blocks for two baby quilts using Jeni's HST Block of the Month from last year.  One quilt will be black and white and the other will have cool colors.  I once again put that HST die for my sizzix cutter to use.  I thought I made the July block, but now that I am linking up, I realized I screwed it up!  Okay, hoping these are still acceptable...

 

April is my month for our Sewn Together Bee!  It took me forever to decide what blocks to have everyone make, although I was pretty sure I wanted to do something low volume.  I raided my stash last month and sent out my fabric and have already gotten two blocks back.  The blocks are 4 small log cabins made with a central 2" square surrounded by 2" strips. I am going to have to make some more to have a decent size quilt, so that is the next thing on the agenda!

Oh, Baby {one week to go}

I feel like the past couple weeks have been a delicate balance between getting everything finished before the baby comes and enjoying our time together as a family of four!

I was getting a little worried last week when I started having contractions and have not finished the more essential baby stuff, so yesterday I whipped up a few things for my diaper bag and now I feel almost ready.  Silly, I know - this stuff really doesn't make that much difference!

 

I made a coordinating burp cloth (I've always like to make them this shape to fit over your shoulder nicely), a roll up changing mat (both backed in terry), and a wet bag filled with my diapering supplies.

 

The fabric is from Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill line in the teal colorway.  So it looks great with my Anywhere Bag (from Noodlehead) shown above or my Multi-tasker Tote below.

 

I also did a little sewing for around the house.  We are in the process of converting our previously barren living room into a family studio/office space.  I decided to put most of the budget into a new couch for our family room, where we spend a lot of time, and move the old, pretty worn out couch into the living room.  This was instead of making a formal living room with fancier furnishings.  We decided we just wanted a usable, real space to enjoy.  You can see my pinterest board with my ideas here.

The new family room couch arrived, so we moved this one into it's new space.  I was having a hard time finding fabric that used the pale, spa/aqua color of those linen drapes with some brighter colors I wanted to make it more fun.  Enter Target and their awesome Threshold line.  I whipped these pillows out of dish towels!

 

 This weekend also marked a big milestone for my husband's side of our family.

 

His grandfather turned 95!  He is as sharp as ever.  He drove to his own party (yep, he took his test at the DMV last year and was happy to find he is good until he turns 98, what!?!?).  He is really amazing, from his 70+ year marriage to Andrew's grandmother, World War II service intercepting and decoding u-boat messages, running a clothing factory that employed 700 people (and making sure they all still had a job when he sold it and retired), and continuing his education by attending and giving lectures on all manner of things. I think I am most impressed by the fact that he was at Southpark Mall last month, walking for exercise, and spotted Andrew's lifelong friend who now lives in New York across the way.  He had not seen him in a few years, and I couldn't believe he would recognize him out of context. He went right up to him and said "Casey, aren't you supposed to be in Manhattan?"   To live such a life and still be so crisp at 95!

Andrew & Grandpa

Jack Bennett and Grandpa Bennett

So, sorry for all the rambling, just lots to catch up on!

I should have a baby by next Wednesday, so I will try to get another post in before that with the nursery after I get a few touches finished!  Happy Sewing, happy Tuesday! xo,  Courtney

What it is...

The biggest source of shame and anxiety in my large Work In Progress pile, is, of course, my pile of Farmer's Wife Quilt Along blocks. I appear to have started this in July of 2011, with great gusto, as usual.  It actually kept up some momentum for a while and I left you at the point where I had gotten to about 70 blocks made and was "hoping to finish it up in early summer."  Of last year.

So what went so wrong?  Well, I started realizing that I knew hardly anything about precision piecing (or cutting) when I began this QAL.  Meaning a lot of my early blocks are not quite the right size, or at least the points would be lost in the seam allowances when I join them.  As my piecing got better I made some really accurate blocks and then when I switched to foundation paper piecing, they are pretty much perfect.

This unsettling fact about the earlier blocks being a bit wonky discouraged me from making any more and left me confused about what to do with the many hours and beautiful fabric I poured into these blocks. Then I saw Monica Solorio Snow's Farmer's Wife Quilt and decided I could do something less conventional with my blocks. 

At the moment I am thinking something Tetris inspired.  The bottom 2/3 of the quilt will be filled up with blocks, sashed in white, in neat rows and the top portion will feature the blocks tumbling down into the rows.  I have almost all of the bottom rows sashed and am awaiting a delivery of more bella white solid.  We'll see how the more unstructured top portion turns out, this is surely a task I could use a design wall for!

So here's to embracing it for what it is, a great learning experience, a showcase of some of my favorite fabrics and maybe even a display of a few darn accurately pieced blocks!

Covert Robin Swap Goodies

Have you gotten your Covert Robin package yet?  If you do make sure you link up here! 

I got my amazing package in the mail from Cassie at Elegantitus.  If you haven't seen her blog, your really need to check it out!  In addition to her mad sewing skills, she is also awesome at graphic design.  I have been toying with the idea of doing a project life style scrapbook, and just look at her cool free download for PL travel pages.

I was so excited to be the recipient of such an amazing display of Cassie's talents with this Presidents Are Rad boardbook.  If you want to see the rest of the pages, she has them all photographed in her post about the book.

Cassie thought this would be a great gift for me as well as my (soon to be) trio of boys, but I don't think she even knew that I love politics and history, so this suits me really well.  I thought I had taken some pretty in-depth college level American history classes, but I even learned a few new things from her book!  

Plus, I love the layout.  It is so modern, fresh and colorful for a book about what some would consider a rather dull topic (not me - I am always a fan of fact is more interesting than ficiton, especially in the history department!).  

Now, on to my portion of the swap.  I was a bit intimidated to find out I would be making something for Jane of Buzzmills! Aack, I mean she is constantly whipping out these amazing ensembles for her darling kids to wear, doing amazing art activities with them and looking like she does it all with ease and grace and a whole lot of fun!  On top of that she made her partner the most amazing pillow ever for the Covert Robin swap last year!

Finally, inspiration struck when I realized she had pinned the Noodlehead Divided Basket pattern, but so far had not appeared to make one for herself yet.  So I made a little basket around a fun linen/cotton bird print from Valori Wells' Jenaveve collection that I couldn't resist buying, as I was pretty sure Jane likes birds as much, maybe more, than I do.

image courtesy of Jane, Buzzmills

image courtesy of Jane, Buzzmills

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures before I sent it off (with a bit of bunny print pink Yuwa fabric I also thought was up Jane's alley).  Luckily, Jane shared some of her pictures with me!

I hope your swap was as successful, and don't forget to link up!

Grapefruit Dressing

 

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe here, but inspiration struck tonight.  I think it was the glorious spring day we enjoyed here in Charlotte.  It just makes me want to eat something light for dinner, so I put together a fast and delicious salad.

Mixed greens, sectioned grapefruit, avocado, toasted almonds and shrimp sauteed in a little olive oil with salt & pepper.  The best part was the dressing.  I made it by juicing one half of a grapefruit (in an old school citrus juicer) and mixing in 1/4 C almond oil, 1 tsp or 2 of agave syrup and a dash of salt and pepper.  Easy peasy, grapefruit squeezy.

I enjoyed it immensely and now I am really looking forward to having my favorite summer salad, Watermelon, Tomato and Feta with Lime Vinaigrette, as soon as we start to get some good tomatoes from the farmer's market.

Speaking of, I started my garden today.  My tomato seedlings enjoyed some time outside in preparation for their transition and I started everything else from seed today.  Technically our last frost is April 15, but the forecast looks promising, finally.  I planted bush beans, pole beans, cucumber, eggplant, swiss chard, zucchini, melons and carrots.  This year I did something different and researched companion plantings, which also led me to adding a little scattering of nasturtium and marigold seeds.  Once they start to come up, I'll give you all the details.  I love the promise of planting seeds!