one shabby chick

For a special little baby

I'm off later to a baby shower - at least I hope there is still a shower since apparently the mom-to-be has been sick (stomach flu and sore throat!).

 

 

She has had one of the worst pregnancies (and it's only her first baby) - I can relate to the throwing up and trips to the hospital for IV fluids (I had the same thing with my pregnancies) but I never had kidney stones and migraines like she's had - and turns out that was only the beginning.

 

About 2 months ago they found out their little baby boy has a heart defect and will need surgery about a week after he is born! So in two weeks she is heading to San Diego where she will stay until she has the baby and then he'll undergo surgery.

 

I just can't imagine what this must be like for them - her name is Carly and if you think about her, please say a prayer for her, her hubby and their little guy - we are all praying for them here.

 

She knew I was making her a quilt and told me it is one of the only things she is taking to San Diego for him - so I had to make sure I finished it by today!

 

  

And I did - and am very excited with how it turned out - can't wait until their ordeal is over and they get to come home with the little guy - I'll be sure to snap some pictures of him too.

Version 2.0

I managed to get a lot accomplished today....

* version 2.0 of this dress - I serged the raw edges of both the bodice and the skirt, then gathered the skirt and sewed it to the bodice - much better this way! Really is such a cute pattern...

* finished the quilting on the quilt - now just have to bind it - luckily the second disk of season 3 of Mad Men came in the mail today - looks like tomorrow will be spent watching tv and binding (I have to finish the quilt by Saturday - I'll tell the full story once I finish it).

* these are the skirts and bibs I finished yesterday - and I sewed up some burp cloths today too - for the shower and for an order.

* working on my pillow for the Pillow Swap now - slowly crossing those items off my list!

plowing through my list

I love crossing things off lists - I told my hubby this once and he thought I was crazy.....he just can't relate.

I am busy crossing things off this week - and adding more things at the same time - lol!

 

Our couches have seen better days but we can't replace them right now so I sewed up some covers for them - using some home decor fabric I got here on sale.

  

I based my pattern on this tutorial - they look much better in person.

I made a couple little skirts for a friend and some new bibs too (forgot to take pics but I will tomorrow).

I was trying to make this little dress for an order but totally screwed up the bodice when I was serging it to the skirt (that seems to happen to me a lot - I think I need to pin it differently).

 

It's a size 12 months so I thought there was no way it would fit Baby Girl but I tried it on anyway - it fits - plus I love this fabric - yeah!! - and I'll try version 2.0 soon!

(I totally screwed up this back part - this is how it looks now that I tried to fix it!)

 

I've started quilting this quilt - the baby shower is on Saturday so that's on the agenda for tomorrow.

It's my first time trying diagonal quilting but so far, so good!

 

Ice

It's amazing how a little ice helps...especially when you have a big ole knot/swollen lump/bruise right below your knee from a fairly competitive soccer game yesterday.

(see that bump right below my knee - that's the numb part) 

Ha ha - yep, got in the way of someone heading to goal (and yes, I did step in front of her on purpose) and now am limping around, waiting for the swelling to go down and the feeling to come back in my leg. Which is kinda good since then I can't really feel how sore it is.

And we don't have a game this Sunday so I have two weeks to recuperate before the next game - and we won the game too so even better!

I am not too incapacitated though - cleaned the house fine and am heading to Costco for a food run and then plan to get some sewing done when I come home - I did finish up the last of the Quilting Bee blocks I have and will post pics later.....I have a bit of a list for this week and the girls' room to paint too!

 

I'll share some pics I took of the kids this weekend - they all got haircuts on Saturday although the older two just got trims...the oldest is into the long hair style that is popular now - I told him it was fine as long as he actually washed his hair - he hasn't yet hit the age of spending time on it - thank goodness!!

 

 

and because I just can't help myself......

OK off to Costco!

Thank you

Thanks for all the wonderful comments on my entry for the Quilt Festival - it made my week!

The boys' room is done and they are all moved in....

Now we are taking a break for the weekend and then on Monday I am starting on the girls' room.....

 

It will be a little less painting as we are not doing the closet or ceiling (Bela wants to keep the clouds) so I'm hoping it will go a little faster.

I have now turned my thoughts to new curtains for the girls' room - they only had one set of windows in their room (these are their old curtains but I don't have enough fabric to make more) - which actually worked out perfectly for the boys' curtains.

 

I have been meaning to make another set of curtains for the boys' room for more than a year (ACK!) and now I don't have too - I actually have quite a bit of all three of those fabrics saved so I may end up listing them on Ebay or Etsy to help fund the girls' curtains.

I really, really want to use this fabric for their curtains but am thinking it might be too childish for the almost 10 year old. Not to mention the price...so I'm on the lookout for some fun fabric for their curtains.

I am going to paint the room antique white (it's white with a light coffee-like tint) so it's pretty much a blank canvas.

I saw some amazing collections coming this Fall - how cute are these?

OK hope everyone has a great weekend - I'm taking all the kids to get haircuts and then coming home to relax and watch a little soccer....

Quilt Festival - Spring 2010

Amy's hosting her amazing quilt festival - can't wait to see all the amazing quilts!

 

I was trying to get this quilt done but the painting has put it on hold until next week so instead I thought I'd feature one that took me out of my comfort zone.

A friend of mine asked me to make her a quilt for her 4th boy and we decided on this quilt pattern. It was really a stretch for me since I hadn't done any curved sewing before but I was excited about the challenge.

 

I wasn't sure about it while I was sewing it together - I kept worrying about it being too busy but in the end I absolutely loved it and cannot wait to make another one to keep in the future.

She even used it in a photo shoot for her boys here.

Light at the end of the tunnel

So there's bad news and good news...the bad news is hubby has been laid off for a little while (he works construction and they are waiting on a few permits to come through before any new jobs can start).

The good news is that I didn't lose my mind this week because hubby was here to help me today - I even ran out of paint and had to go get more - ugh! I seriously underestimated how long this would take me!

 

The kitchen is back to normal - which is SO great for a family of six...I think I'll paint the rest in July or August....too much sewing to do in the near future.

I absolutely LOVE the color - I know some people (like my mom) might not like it - but I love it....cannot wait to finish the kitchen!

(I'm going to paint that turquoise  door with chalkboard paint)

The boys' room is the same color - tomorrow we are moving them in to their new room - and cleaning out all their toys/everything ;-)

(I used a flannel sheet as a dropcloth since it's WAY too hot to have flannel sheets in Hawaii)

The girls' stuff is still occupying the living room but I think their paint job will go much faster since:

* I am painting the walls and trim the same color

* I am not re-painting the ceiling since Bela wants to keep the clouds that are there now

* I am not going to even bother with the closet - there are shelves in there and I am just going to sew up a cute curtain instead....great plan!

This is what the boys' room has looked like all week - and the reason for the whole paint job is that little kitchen set (the boys' room is bigger and the kitchen set has been in there for a while so I decided the girls' should be in the bigger room - which meant I had to paint - ha ha!)

(those are the girls' mattresses on the ground)

It will be such a relief when everything is finally done - I really have a hard time when things are messy so this is a test of my patience to have everything all over the place. I told my hubby that green is supposed to be a happy color so every time I get grouchy (which has been often), he asks me if the green is working yet....

I got some great mail today:

Ordered some fabric from Kathy to make some slip covers (on the bottom cushions) for the couches...

And a new magazine to browse through too!

 

Need some yellow tape

I feel like there should be yellow tape all over my house - it is a disaster.

This is due to my incredibly crazy spontaneous plan on Sunday afternoon to switch the boys into the girls room and vice versa, which meant I had to re-paint the rooms. So off to Home Depot I went.

Then on Monday morning - as I was clearing out the girls' room, I decided the kitchen could use a new look as well so now the kitchen is sporting a bit of primer too.

 

I'm moving a big hutch back into the kitchen so for now I'm only painting the wall that the hutch goes against...I'll re-paint the rest of the kitchen sometime next year this summer.

I have all of the girls' stuff in the living room and a little walk through by the bathroom......I painted the trim today and plan on doing another coat tomorrow and then the "newly established" boys' room will get some bright green paint on the walls - pretty excited about the color!

I keep telling myself the house won't be messy for long - I think I expect these projects to take much less time than they actually do - and have realized I may have bitten off a bigger chunk than I planned...but I'm going forward - with paint all over myself (I must be one of the messiest painters ever!)

I'll be sure to post "after" pictures..and then I get to start on the girls' room!

New banner

After ordering my business cards I decided I needed to spruce up my Etsy shop too - so I bought a little package here and got myself a new banner and avatar (speaking of Avatar - I still have not seen it - can you believe that?).

Finished up the tote for Bela's friend...

(I'm still not sure about the color combo - but it's growing on me....) 

and made her a little ruffled pouch - and another one for the 16 year old.

I couldn't seem to get the construction at the end right - definitely need more practice.

I'm making up some ruffled flowers (like this but not scrappy) to add as package toppers - I've had these fabrics ruffled for years! Found them in a ziploc in one of my scrap drawers....

I had been eying a new ironing cover here but never got around to ordering it and then today I accidentally ironed some fusible interfacing the wrong way - on to my ironing board...which made it all sticky and gross. Which meant I needed a new cover asap.

 

So what follows is a mini-tutorial (sorry no pictures though):

I peeled off the old one and laid out some fabric that had just came in the mail from Sew, Mama, Sew - along with all these...

 

(I love this one - so pretty!)

I put my ironing board upside down on the fabric and just traced around it - adding a 3" border all around (I think 4" or 5" might be better to have it wrap around the edges more).

Then I cut it out and serged (you could zigzag them) all the edges.

I turned the edges under (towards the wrong side) as I sewed a 3/8" seam all around to make a little casing. I left a small gap (didn't sew all the way around) and then threaded some thin ribbon all around the casing. It was kinda funky in a few spots since it was hard to fold a seam on the curved areas but I didn't mind and you can't tell at all once it's all gathered.

Then I added my ironing pad and fit the cover on top - gathering it until it fit snugly and then secured it with a button (threaded the ribbon through it) and a knot.

And now I have a nice new cover (and a new iron too - I really need to stop dropping them!).

Belated Mother's Day

I had a soccer game on Mother's Day (which we won - yeah!) so today my mom took the girls and I to tea as my Mother's Day gift (I know - it should be the other way around...I did get her gifts...).

 

  

We went here - it's so cute...and the tea and food was delicious!

The girls did great (I was worried Baby Girl was going to drop her tea cup but she did great!) - we really had a fun time.