Staying Busy

Trying to keep my mind and hands busy. Too many things to worry about this week if I don't stay busy.

The quilt top from the Love is in the Air jelly roll is finally done. On to a couple other projects.

Weekend Project List

My list is shorter this weekend. If I don't get side tracked the four remaining projects should be done by Monday. Notice that was "if" I don't get side tracked.
Sakara Bag
Camera Strap
Love is in the Air Quilt
Pot Holders

Bears and Pigs are done for now. I will make a few more after I get a couple of the above projects done. Or who knows maybe I will find a new stuffie toy to make by then.

And I have a long list of other projects I would like to work start like a scrap denim rug, felt cup cakes, stuffed monkeys, rag dolls, the list goes on and on.

Bears, Oh My!

The medium and large bear are done. Actually I would like to sew a little red heart patch to both their butts but otherwise they are done.

I might make a few more of these but use some of the fur I have laying around from moster makings. We will see how the weekend goes. The good news is I got ran out of the living room last night by Smallville. It is one of those shows I can't stand to stay in the same room when it is on. Just way too far fetched for me. I made some cutting and sewing progress on my Love is in the Air quilt. The top should be done this weekend.

Mason got his braces off yesterday. His smile is so pretty. Two years and almost $6000 it should be pretty. Ordered his retainers. He is getting blue with a cobra snake on it. How weird is that. I don't think I would want a snake in my mouth. Will end up putting a permanent retainer on the bottom teeth. He told me I could get a photo and I forgot. Maybe he will smile pretty for me this weekend. Wow he sure is growing up fast. We have a visit planned to UT Martin next week. And he takes the ACT next weekend.

Pigs In a Blanket

One of the pigs has his eyes closed like he is sleeping. Don't they look all warm and cozy snuggled up in their blanket.Pork butts all lined up in a row. Seven little piggys all ready for new homes. Actually I think Kim is keeping one. The rest will be finding new homes soon.

Ice Ice Baby

We dodged the ice storm. Got a bit of snow this morning but it should be gone by noon.
School was not canceled until 10 minutes before the kids had to be at the bus stop. So they were both dressed and almost ready to leave. As soon the announcement came that schools were closed Mason did cartwheels down the hall to the computer room. I never saw Kim again she went right back to bed. Two completely different kids.

Did Somebody Say Turkey?

Buttercup is feeling much better.
When you say the word turkey she licks her chops.

Hog Heaven

The bears and pigs are stuffed. They need some final touches but should be completely done in the next couple of days. Screw on eyes and nose were not screw on. I had to get pliers and clamp them on. There is no way a kid will be able to remove them. The fleece sews up nice but I really want to use some of the fur I have and try a couple more. I thought I would like the bigger bears. I like the smaller one better than these two guys.

Buttercup was in hog heaven. She thought all the pigs were for her. Sat in my lap and tried to chew on each one as they got stuffed. Crossing my fingers she doesn't get up onto the table and have pork chops for lunch.

My Progress

Bears - One for Buttercup done, two waiting for nose, eyes and stuffing, I still have fleece for at least 6-7 more
Pigs - 7 ready for stuffing and ears, 1/2 yard of fleece made 7 pigs
Sakura Bag - this doesn't have to be shipped until Feburary 15th, why finish it too early.
Camera strap cover - didn't do anything with this, got too caught up in toy making
Pot holders - still a pipe dream for me
Love is in the Air quilt - All the pieces are cut and sewn except for the white borders. Well I did actually cut all the white borders. Then realized I made them too big. I was too frustrated with myself to go back and cut them the right size.

I did get all the information I need to do drops for The Toy Society. Hope to drop a pig or bear around town to be rescued.

Pig Ears and Bear Noses

Pig ears and bear noses sounds like new exotic foods. Yuck.
All of the disorganization must be a sign of creativity. At least that is my story and I am sticking to it. You can see some of the hearts on the hind end of the pigs. I think I may do the same thing to the bears. I finished the small bear without a nose and ribbon. Buttercup had it for about 30 seconds and was getting way too excited for David. He was afraid she would pull out her stitches. So I will wait a couple more days and let her have it. In the meantime I ran out of stuffing for the medium and large bear. Plus I didn't have noses for them anyway. Note: must stop and get bear noses on the way home from work today.

As with the bears I ran out of stuffing for the pigs. Can't put their ears on until they are stuffed. Pig parts laying all over the house, we had a pork loin for lunch yesterday. I was going to come up with a story about "Ham-hocks" and the three bears. Maybe if we get iced in this week.

Short Weekend

Actually it really isn't a short weekend. Just a normal weekend but it will feel short to me. Winterfest dance tonight at the highschool. I will post photos later.

My sewing plans for the weekend are:

Sakura Bag - a new pattern that I need to sew for my swap-bot partner

Camera strap cover - test on my camera

Bears - need to buy some noses on the way home

Pigs -

Pot holders -

Love is in the Air quilt - I really need to get this top done since the quilt is for me.

With the dance I will be up late tonight. Hopefully I can knock a couple of these out before the day is over.

This is one of the photo from the instruction of the Sakura bag instructions. Hope mine looks as cute when finished.

Long Night

My long day turned into a long night. Buttercup's tummy looks horrible. I guess if you are a 50 pound dog they have to make a 4 inch incision to do the surgery. Unfortunately when you are less than 5 pounds they have to make the same 4 inch incision to do the same surgery. We knew having a tiny dog would have its challenges at time. Reminds me of the old Senfield episode where they had to get special tiny surgical instuments to save the squirrel. If you are a Senfield fan you know what I am talking about.
Then of course having her two baby teeth pulled doesn't make her overly thrilled to eat anything. She stayed in my arms all evening and then slept on David last night. The two were dozing when I left for work this morning. Can anyone say spoiled rotten?

Long Day

I am glad I am at work today. Going to be a long day for David today. Buttercup is at the vets getting spayed, two baby teeth pulled and a micro chip put in her. I asked the girls at the front desk of the vets office if they had a sedative for my husband. I will leave work after a meeting mid afternoon so we can go pick her up. If David makes it that long. He was threatening to sit in their parking lot all day.

I am done with donuts for a while. Have a whole plate full now. I didn't want to put you to sleep with another fake donut photo. I cut out the pattern pieces for the stuffed bears last night. It really is just two pattern pieces. Two for front and two for the back. The large size looks really large.

Half Dozen Donuts

I left the sprinkles off a few because they were going to a 2 year old to use in her play kitchen. Four more to stuff and add sprinkles to tonight. I think I am done "baking" donuts for a little while. Note: I do not like the big round sprinkles. I do like the long thin ones. And the chocolate donuts look yummy.

Whoo hooo... That means I am down to the Love is in the Air quilt I started. And I can start working on bears, pigs and pot holders without guilt.

Bibs and Berries

I finished the snaps on the bigs and the jumbo berries last night. Made from scraps from the baby quilt last week.

I thought you needed something for size reference in the photo.

And I finished two donuts. Funny thing is that the projects I have going are not actually stale projects. All of these are things I have started working on since the first of the year. Several just started in the last few days. So I really don't feel too bad I had so many projects going at one time.

Wishful Thinking

My previous post got me to wondering how many projects I actually having going right now. Considering I just had a long discussion with Kim about finishing things she started I guess I had better take a quick inventory.

Donuts- 1 failure, 1 done, 10 in half done, but I was working on them yesterday
Jumbo strawberries- just need to add the seeds, I sewed the stems on them yesterday
3 Baby bibs- need to add snaps, I just quilted them yesterday
Pigs- 1 done, finished the one yesterday, at least two more in the near future
Love is in the Air Quilt- top 1/3 completed, yikes haven't really touched in over a week
Bears- pattern bought, need to take inventory of the eyes and noses I already own
Pot holders- not started, this doesn't actually count. This is something I haven't started and didn't purchase anything specific for this.

I guess this is my working list for tonight. I promise not to start another project until 3 of these are completed.

Bear with Me

I need another project like I need another hole in my head. But McCall's patterns were 99cents today. How could I resist. I have a couple yards of brown fleece at home that needed a project. And I am intrigued by the fact it claims to only have two pattern pieces.

While at the store I also picked up some pink fleece for a few more pigs. And a larger piece of batting for my Love is in the Air quilt. Yikes I didn't sew on that at this weekend.

Do Not Eat These Donuts

These donuts should not be eaten. Donut on the right was the first attempt. I hate it when people don't give me exact measurements on things. Obviously the center hole was a little too large. So large I didn't bother putting sprinkles on it. I even started making some chocolate donuts with vanilla frosting.

Note: Felt is a very forgiving medium to work with.

This Little Piggy

This little piggy went to Buttercup. I had some left over pink fleece that turned into a little piggy this weekend.
For the next pig he needs more solid stuffing in his snout. Then you could see his nostrils. His eyes were french knots, which Buttercup cannot chew on. If I was making it for any other reason I would put different larger eyes on the pig. And for some reason I didn't get a picture of his curly little tail. I might just have to make a few of these to send to Iowa.

Jelly Sandwich

I don't actually have the pattern for this quilt. I am not actually a pattern kind of person anyway. My plan is to model my quilt after this one.

Working My Way

I am working my way back to normal. Normal... whatever that is for me. The ironing is all done. Now I just need to finalize the design for the top. I didn't get done all the things I wanted to while David was gone but I have 9 more chances. He has to travel another 9 weeks between now and July.

Excuses

Excuses... I have a lot of them this week. But I am sticking with the excuse I was sick. Hopefully I can get home at a decent time tonight and at least get a half hour work in on my Love is in the Air fabric.

Among the Living

I am back among the living. Nothing accomplished in the last two days except so serious sleeping. A six hour daytime nap and still went to bed at my normal bedtime. David gone until the weekend so hopefully now that I have some energy I can get a few things done before he comes home. So far the kids haven't caused any major drama.

Weekend Progress

Buttercup is missing David horribly. I on the other hand may miss him but get so much more done when he isn't around.I don't tell you about my little mix up while piecing this together. I think it actually turned out better visually.

After quilting and washing. It looks like a beautiful sunny day but it was cold and windy while I was trying to take this photo. I didn't have quite enough of the green for the backing so I pieced in some of the other fabric. I think it turned out better than all green. An afterthought of mine was to make some matching bibs. I would have finished a few more things but I spent some time goofing off with the kids this weekend. Those darn pesky kids.

Great Ambitions

My little lunch run to the fabric store turned out well. Photo taken on the front seat of my car. Don't worry I actually stopped the car and parked before I took the photo. The small patterned on the far left and the animal prints are part of the same fabric series I bought last night. And the green and blue should tie it all in together. Sad thing is I think I have enough fabric for 3 or 4 baby quilts out of what I bought yesterday and today. Good news there are a couple more pregnant at the office.

Now just to get David to the airport in the morning and spend my weekend sewing. Anyone want to take bets on how much I can get done by Monday?

Working for the Weekend

Lately it seems I am working all week just to get to the weekend. Things have been hectic with year end. So I decided to actually leave work at 5pm last night, give myself a few extra minutes to stop by the fabric store. As usual it didn't quite work out that way. I got stuck in traffic due to a car that flipped on its roof. How on earth does someone flip a car on a dry, four lane, straight, 40 mph road? I did pop into the store and pick up these fabrics. Now I have to go the store by my office and pick up the other two coorinating fabrics. I was perfectly fine until I was laying in bed last night and had this great idea of what I actually wanted to do. I will sketch it out while on a conference call today and if all goes well it will be done by Monday.

Do you remember the daffodil bags I was making before Christmas? Mine arrived from my swap partner. It is tiny. A very cute tiny. I knew I made mine bigger but had no idea how big from the origianal pattern. I would guess 6 or more of these little guys would fit in my bag.

And I forgot to take photos of the cute veggie and friut charms (5x5 fabric) that one of my other swap partners sent me. I see a few pot holders in the future. Note: I have given up on the oven mitts. I just can't get the size right.

Backup Plan

One of the guys I work with and his wife adopted an infant boy from a teenage mother in Utah a couple of weeks ago. I found out last minute they are having a baby shower for him on Monday.
I put the binding on this prequilted panel last night. It is my backup plan in case I don't get something else made for him by Monday. But with David traveling this weekend I should have time to whip up a quilt for the little bundle of joy.

Love is in the Air

Weekdays are horrible for me to try to accomplish anything at home. I tried to press some of my strips and keep getting pulled in other directions.

Although I really do like the pink, brown and green of the Love is in the Air fabrics.

The Toy Society

I ran across a blog the other day that intrigued me. The Toy Society has a interesting project going on. If you have a chance check out their blog. And take it one step further create your own toy and set it free to find a new home.

If you like random acts of kindness and pay it forward type projects you will really enjoy this. I think I have a few more monsters left in me that can be created and set free.

And if you need a little bit of inspiration check out Softie Making to get your creative juices flowing.

Moving on to Valentines Day

Now that Christmas is over I am moving right along into Valentines Day. This is part of the fabric Mason bought me for Christmas. I absolutely love it. This will be a keeper for me when finished. You can see a hint of it in the photo the fabric has bright green and brown coordinating fabrics also.

Starting Out on the Right Foot

At least I feel like I am starting out 2009 on the right foot.
I finished two of the red, white and black quilts completely. One has a red back, the other has a black back. They are very similar but just a bit different.

In with the New...

Hopefully 2009 will be a less stressful year at my house. Little Miss Nosey had to come see what I was taking a photo of this morning. The big print black and white fabric is the backing of the quilt. You can't see it in this photo but I pieced the binding with all the other black and white fabrics. I have probably another hour or so of hand sewing the binding and this is done. Not overly happy with my decision to quilt this in straight lines. But I do have a second quilt top that is almost identical that I can quilt differently.