A Five Year Old

Today, my little guy turned 5.  While I'm so excited for him it's also a little sad for me.  He's growing up so fast.  Four just doesn't seem that big, but five? Five sounds big.  Five is growing up.

I heard him get up and pad down the hallway this morning, his blankie and favorite stuffed puppy under his arms, hair all askew from sleep, a little smile on his face.  He came over for a snuggle, looked into my eyes and asked, "Am I five yet?"  I said yes and he patted my cheek, kissed me and said, "Thanks mom.  Thanks for letting me be five now."  Then his brother began singing Happy Birthday to him.  Talk about a heart-melter.

We celebrated his birthday the week before since Daddy was going to be gone this week for work so we had a quiet morning together getting ready for their date with Grampa and Baba (my husbands parents) which happens every Thursday while he's away.  It gives me a nice break to catch up on whatever - or lately, with baby making me more tired than usual, I can get a nice nap in.


I did however get to work on a few sewing projects this week.  I'll have pictures coming soon! I haven't made it to the sewing machine very much lately - it's getting hard to sit in front of it for very long! But I do have some things to finish up so I will have some show-and-tell still, at least until this little guy pops out.

And even though I apparently didn't take pictures of the birthday celebration, here's some recents of my little guy.

Realized I didn't have any birthday pictures of him, but here's a few recent ones.  Contemplating life in the toy cubbies.  I love this one! 

And this was just a few days before his birthday.  Mr. Cool on his way to Costco.  This was actually just a few short hours before he proudly did this by himself...

Cut his own hair.  As he said to me proudly, he used safety scissors so he was safe and did it over the trash can so there was no mess.  He also knew I needed to trim their hair and was trying to help out since I've been so tired lately.  Really, a sweet offer and sweet little boy.  I couldn't be upset.  And hair? It grows back.

Mug Rugs

I managed to find some time one afternoon to sit down and whip up a bunch of these mug rugs.  I had all these little 2.5" squares I had received a while back from Moda and hadn't been inspired yet to make something with them.  I was feeling quite energetic one afternoon last week and wanted to make something so I thought what would be better than some mug rugs.

This one is a Moda fabric but for the life of me I can't remember what collection it's from.  It makes me think of a log cabin and sitting out on the porch looking out over the lake.

These bright pinks and yellows are from the Verna collection.  I had some of these guys leftover from a quilt I made for a friend a few years ago.  Hmmm... maybe a birthday present for her? 

I think these last three are my favorite.  The fabric is Whimsy and I used up every last piece I had for these three guys.  The binding is from Hunky Dory.  I thought it went really well with the soft vintage-like feel of the patchwork squares.  I used a piece of cream with a small print on it that was from my larger scraps and was able to use up almost all of that fabric.

I also managed to get a couple of these done with some tiny scraps I had laying around next to the sewing machine.  I just love them!

All of these are available for purchase in the shop.  

Baby Pillow

Morning everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful week and plans for a relaxing weekend.  I have a few more baby quilts that need to be quilted and bound.  Hopefully I'll get them all quilted today and can bind tomorrow. Even though the weather has been wonderful here, I have no big plans for outside adventures this weekend.  After spending the past few days outside with my boys, I ended up getting quite a burn yesterday.  A little amazing really.  It's only April and I've been sunburned already!

Even though we've been outside a lot the past week, I still managed to finish up this sweet little pillow cover for the baby's room.  I love it!  I used only scraps leftover from the quilt I showed in my previous post.

I forgot to get a picture of the back so I'll post that later this weekend.  It's a wonderfully soft blue flannel with white pin dots.  I have one more pillow cover quilted.  Just need to put the envelope backing on and I'll have some pictures of that to show you later too.

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Quilt for Baby

Well, I finally had enough free time and energy at the same time today and managed to get this quilt top finished up for baby boy!

I'm very excited.  It's not only the first quilt finished for baby but also my first low volume quilt and I just love it!

I was a little worried when I started these blocks that there wouldn't be enough color for me but I'm very happy with it.

I still have quite a lot of strips leftover from this quilt so I'm thinking I'll make up some pillows for the nursery with them.  Maybe log cabin blocks? I do love log cabins.

Manly Men & some Quilt Blocks

Well, even though still sick, this past weekend was a lot of fun! My brother and his wife came up for the weekend to visit.  The hubs and my brother went up to our property and cleared some trees where the well will be going.  So exciting! This is the first bit of work that has been done to the land so far and we are excited to make some progress (at least as much as we can-which isn't much at this point).

Aiden wanted to go with the guys.  He was very excited to chop up trees and do grown-up work with the guys.

He even had his carhartt overalls like Dad and got to use an axe.  He was in heaven.  

Meanwhile, Aunt Caitlin and I decided to take the little guy to the Zoo that morning.  He just loves the zoo and wandering around looking at all the animals.  It was a very enjoyable day for everyone I think.

He was pretending to be a wolf pup in his den.

After the zoo we met the guys at the land to see their handy-work.  Odin got a chance to try out the axe.  

Uncle Kris helped a bit when asked.

the hardworking men

After wandering some of the land for a bit longer we all loaded into our vehicles and met at a local restaurant Kelly's, which is a favorite of ours.  It was a fun day for all of us and after being outside walking around and working hard all day, we all slept very well that nite.  

After such a good nite's sleep and a very enjoyable weekend, I finally made some headway on these low-volume blocks I'm making for the new little boys quilt. 

Please forgive the poor picture quality.  It is nearly impossible to get good pictures in my house (the lighting is terrible) and it was pouring buckets of rain this morning so nice sunny outdoor pictures were obviously out of the question.  

I really love this block.  I have seen a few similar versions around blog-land but adjusted this one to my needs.  I have so very many strips of fabric in my scrap bins and wanted to use them up so this was the perfect block I thought.

The little houses? How adorable are those right? And the owls.  I do love owls.  Since the nursery theme is going to be soft spring greens, aqua and navy and bits of grey, white and yellow to compliment I had fun pulling from my scrap bin one morning to find all these beauties.  

I still need to make several more blocks before I have enough for the quilt but I felt very accomplished to even have this much done given my lack of energy the past month or so.  

Most of the fabrics used were from my scrap bin, some from my stash that I cut into strips and some really great fat quarters I purchased from Westwood Acres.  She has some really fantastic low volume fabric bundles that I just love.  If you're interested in purchasing some for yourself you can visit Amanda's shop here.  She has a limited availability on her low volume bundles, but if you're interested and can't get one, keep checking back! She is always listing new ones with different fabrics and every one of them has fantastic fabric choices.  (I actually just went and purchased my next bundle for fear of them being gone after posting this! There were still a few left).

If you do purchase one of these bundles and make something with them, I'd love to see it!  I'll post more pics later this week of the rest of the blocks as I finish them.

Happy Crafting! 

New Sale and an Apology

The new sale code for the shop is BIG30.  Everything - even my handmade goods - are 30% off until this summer or until I run out of fabric!  I have to make room for the new baby (who's kicking away day and night by the way).  Please just enter the code before completing checkout to receive your discount.

I must apologize that it's been so long since I've been on here.  The boys and I have all been sick for almost 5 weeks now and I'm quite honestly exhausted.  I've been trying to sew and create but between all the sickies, training our new dog, taking 2 weekend trips (while sick!) and trying to keep up with laundry and dishes ... well, it's a miracle I've been able to keep up on all that frankly.  I have recently made it to my sewing machine though and started sewing a little bit, so I will have pictures to share hopefully in a few days.  I've got such a long list of things to make for this new little guy that I've got to make some time for sewing!

Spring Sale

Just dropping in with a quick note to say the new sale code is up.  Enter SPRING20 at checkout and receive 20% off with a minimum $15 purchase.

I have some layer cakes that will be listed hopefully tomorrow and some fabric remnant pieces.  Still listing yardage as I sort through what I have (and it's selling almost as quickly as I can list it!).  Please check in over the next week to see what's available.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more baby quilts to show off!