Moving to a New Blog

Come join me over at my new blog Sea Me Sparkle. It was time for a fresh start and some new inspiration. I will continue to blog regularly at my new location. See you there.

Taking a Break

It is time for me to step away from the computer for a bit. I started this blog 3 years ago when I found out I was pregnant and wanted the space to document and journal my experience. I am going to take some time off for some new inspiration and possibly a new blog. I still will be keeping up with all of you. I will be back soon either revamping this blog or with a link to the next one.

August Wrap Up

August felt like a busy month and flew buy in a few blinks. I did not try many new recipes this month but I did manage to make a batch of Chocolate muffins. I took it up a notch and made the big ones. That is how I roll.

My front yard made it thru the hot summer. This little humming bird light my husband brought home for me from the hardware store. It is solar powered so you just stick it in the ground. It is watching over my favorite plant at the moment, my purple bougainvillea.

I am working away on my hexagon blanket. I am finally starting to attach all those circles into hexagons to form the blanket. I am on my fourth row. I decided that all the circles that have the yellow on the outside I am attaching them using the pink yarn. This way it gives a bigger contrast than with the cream. I am three months in on this project and looks like there is an end in sight.

My Pinwheels in the Park Quilt is coming along. I completed my quilt top. With no one around to hold it up for me, I taped it to a cabinet to get a photo. I am a bit behind the group schedule that has us done by today. Looks like I will need a bit longer to sandwich my quilt and do all the quilting before binding. I have my backing fabric and also my binding fabric and just picked up my batting today. I don’t have a big enough table to pin it all together so I will need to wait for some time that Chloe is not around and I can tape it to the kitchen floor and pin it all together, preferably after I clean the floor.

I am looking forward to September and hopefully some cooler temperatures. Chloe is doing great and is growing like a weed. In a week or two I am planning a potty training weekend boot camp. Not looking forward to that but we need to get it started; I can’t put it off any longer. She is definitely ready I am the one holding us back. Here are some photos of Chloe taken in August.

Table Runner Anniversary Gift

It was my sister-n-law & her new hubby’s first anniversary on the 14th of August. It is hard to believe a year has passed since we were all in Las Vegas for their wedding. The moment I spotted the tutorial on Cluck Cluck Sew’s blog I knew it would be a perfect gift to make for them.

I used one charm pack of Cherries Jubilee by American Jane. I have had this charm pack for awhile, waiting for the right project to use it in.

The runner is composed of 40 snow ball blocks. I used the method in the tutorial for making the blocks by putting a piece of tape on my machine marking the line of sewing, instead of marking a line on each white square. This worked beautifully and saved me some time.

For quilting I did an out line. It was more of an inline that I followed a ¼ inch inside the blocks across. I had to put some tape on one side while quilting to remind me not to cross over to that side accidentally. In this photo you can see on the right what fabric I used on the back. It was a white with little cherries all over it.

Here is a close-up of the quilting. It left a nice pattern on the back side.

Overall I like how it turned out. I had the most trouble with the binding. It came out a little messed up on the back side, I think because it was store bought and not wide enough. For future quilt projects I think I will make my own binding and also hand sew the binding on the back side. It adds a lot more time onto the project but I think worth the effort.

If you would like to make one the tutorial I used you can find at Cluck Cluck Sew HERE!

WIP Wednesday

My work in progress at the moment is the Pinwheels in the Park quilt. I have completed my first 6 blocks and have 6 more to sew together. There are many imperfections in my blocks; luckily the pattern seems to be forgiving so far. I am making it for myself so that alleviates any stress there. I love how they are turning out. Here is a close up of each 6.

Sponge Bob Toddler Blanket

Chloe’s play pal Emily had her 2nd birthday this weekend. So I thought I would make her a little blanket featuring her favorite character Sponge Bob Square Pants.

I used a cotton fabric print for the top and a bubble gum pink flannel for the back. I used Quilting in the Rain’s easy tutorial to make the blanket.

I added a little heart to the back with Emily’s name to personalize it. I added this before sandwiching the blanket together so the stitches would be on the inside.

Here is how it looks around the edging. Overall it was a nice little project and I like how it turned out.

Chloe was invited to celebrate at McDonalds with some nuggets and birthday cake. Emily’s Birthday cake was all about the Bob of course.

In the photo Emily is on the left along with her Mom Sally and Chloe is on the far right with another friend Lily. This was Chloe’s first invite to a birthday party. We both left needing a nap.

Linking Up:

Chloe's San Antonio Videos

I finally was able to download the videos of Chloe from our San Antonio trip. Thank you family for being patient with me, it seems to take forever to download those things for everyone to view them. For my readers that are here for the crafty stuff I just completed 2 gift projects and will be able to share the details shortly. I am just waiting for the recipients to receive them. One is in the mail and the other will be delivered at a birthday party tomorrow. This weekend I will be sewing my Pinwheel blocks together. I can’t wait to see how they come out.

Riding Carousel

Splash Zone

Eating Icecream

Brushing a Goat

Chloe on a Ride

Playing with Balloon

Wave Pool

Wave Pool

Pinwheels in the Park Quilt Along

I know, I know another project, like I don’t have enough already started. This quilt by Sew, Mama, Sew I had already spotted and printed out the tutorial and stuck it in my folder of quilts I would like to make. So then a little bit later I am reading Lovely Little Handmades blog and read that her and Knitty Bitties are starting a quilt along for August making this Pinwheels in the Park quilt. I could not resist joining them. Read all about it HERE & HERE.

I ordered up some fat quarters from Kerri’s etsy shop Sew deerly loved. They are Japanese, Lecien Flower Sugar in colors red, blue and pink. The white fabric is Kona cotton white I got from the Fat Quarter shop. I will use these for my Pinwheel in the Park quilt. Not sure yet what I will use for the back of the quilt.

I thought I should make up a practice block just to make sure I could make this quilt. I did not want to slash into my beautiful new fabric without a little practice first. I am still kind of a Newbie in quilting. I made this one out of some leftover Halloween fabric from last year. I love it! Now I am really excited to get started. I can see doing this quilt in different fabrics themed for the holidays.

The quilt tutorial is HERE.

The schedule for the quilt along:
August 1-7 Cut Fabric
August 8-14 Sew Blocks
August 15-21 Finish up Blocks & Sew quilt top
August 22-31 Quilt & Bind

The quilt along leaders are Lovely Little Hand Mades & Knitty Bitties so go on over and check out their progress. There was also a Flicker page just started for this quilt HERE.

I am planning to cut up my blocks tonight after Chloe goes to bed. I don’t think I will be able to keep on track with the quilt along schedule, just because I have a lot going on right now. I am going to try my best and should be able to catch up if I get behind and not be too far off the schedule.

July Wrap Up

Wrapping up the end of July it is hard to believe we are half way thru the summer. This dog statue I found in the clearance area of a Crackle Barrel shop. I got it dirt cheap and thought it would look good out front near our front door. Turns out Chloe likes having the dog inside so she can talk and play with it. For now he will stay inside till she gets bored with him then I can sneak him out side to his permanent spot.

I am a WinnerI hardly ever enter to win anything on the blogs. I only try for things I really want. April over at Sew to Speak had a fabric giveaway for the full collection bundle, 30 fat quarters total of Anna Maria’s new collection, LouLouThi. I left a comment in hopes of winning. It was on my mind every day waiting for the day the winner would be announced. You know in your head where you think there is no way you could win but there is a small glimmer of wishful hope. When I saw my name listed as the random winner, I was shocked and so excited.

The package came shortly after they received my info. I did the happy dance all day and kept saying I can’t believe I WON!

My favorite ones out of the stack are these three. I think I will pull these three out and use them for something else. The rest I am thinking to use in a half square triangle quilt and have a few large block areas to showcase some of the fabric.

Other Projects & ProgressMy current project is a little hush, hush, because it is a gift I am making. I can say I am using a charm pack of Cherries Jubilee by American Jane and a ton of little squares. I will reveal all once it is done and gifted.

My Hexagon blanket is coming along. I lay the center circles out in a pattern to kind of see what my plan would be. I decided to have rows of 10 and 9 across and do a total of 17 rows down. So it would be 9 rows of 10 & 8 rows of 9, figuring out to be a total of 162 center circles. I have about 10 more to make. I also decided I wanted to make the half hexagons for the gaps along the edges where I only have 9 circles across. So I will need to make 16 half hexagons for those. Steady as she goes with this one.

This month we set up the blow up pool. It is a 10 ft circle, and came with a mini filter system. It is the perfect summer to have this thing since our backyard is not landscaped yet and we had plenty of space for it.

We can sit in it comfortably and Chloe stands with the water level a little above her waist.

One of us is with her at all times she is in the water. Chris and I both took a refresher CPR class a few months ago. Chloe can not swim yet and this pool is giving her lots of practice in the water. Personally, I love getting in this thing. I think we have as much fun as she does in it. Lots of fun in the sun and we can stay home to do it.

 Some tasty things I made this month. I made the Country Dijon Beef Stew and served it over egg noodles. I got this recipe from February’s Family Circle magazine you can find the recipe Here. It turned out super tasty and I will make it again. I also made a wonderful cake topped with strawberries. For the cake I used the Vanilla Cake recipe from the book Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. I am normally a chocolate all the way girl but this simple vanilla cake was the bomb. It is so good. I will make this cake over and over again until the day I die. It is the perfect compliment to any fruit topping or ice-cream.

Thrift Store Finds
This month I went to the local thrift store. Every few months I plan a trip there to pick up some cheap play clothes for Chloe. On the few days that she goes to Daycare when I pick her up I am presented with a child that I dropped off clean and stain free but now is head to toe covered in spots and stains. I learned very quickly to not put her best clothes on her for Daycare. I found for Chloe pictured on the left side: 4 pairs of shorts, 2 T shirts, a seersucker dress and a toddler bed sheets set. For me on the right side of the photo I found 4 flat sheets & a beautiful vintage yellow top sheet. I use the sheets for quilting. It is a cheap way to find large amounts of fabric and some work perfectly for the back of quilts. In total for the whole loot I spent 20 bucks.

Well thats a wrap for July. I am looking forward to August and all the summer goodness it brings. Our rain season finally started and brought with it this little guy. We have found him on our front porch in the evenings taking advantage of our porch light and slurping up all the bugs he can eat. He is a real fatso and has these little tiny legs. I will leave you with some photos of Chloe taken in July.