it's really done....

My sister came over today to play with my daughter, so I took the opportunity to get some long awaited sewing done. I can't even express to you how excited I am to finally have this quilt finished. I started it way back in November of last year, and put it aside to get all my holiday sewing done, and never got back around to it. Sadly, my pictures aren't too great due to the grey clouds lingering over my yard....but I wasn't willing to wait any longer to share this one.

I have been wanting to do a larger quilt with Heather Ross Mermaids in dresden ever since I made my daughter this doll quilt.

I went with a bit of a different concept with the bigger one, but tried to give it the same feel as my daughters quilt. Originally I wanted to do a full dresden circle, but at the last minute decided to split it with the grey trim.... I am so glad that I did!

Besides the HR fabric, I used a Kona grey and a white, along with Kei dots in grey. The binding is a combo of Kei orange dots and brown dots. The center of the flower is done with a Denise Schmidt heavy weight fabric, and makes for a good contrast to all the other fabrics.

I adore the way it turned out and surprisingly love the brown/grey combo that I did in this quilt. It was one of those things that wasn't planned, but just turned out that way. I also love the little quarter dresden flower down in the right hand corner of the Kei grey dots square...another unplanned detail. Maybe this will break my sewing block and open up the door for more quilts.....well at least I will keep my fingers crossed that it will.

little things here and there

Its February, and I'm still not into the swing of things. This year is just going slow when it comes to creating. Somedays I'm at peace with the fact that my life is to busy to squeeze in a lot of sewing, and others I miss it terribly. I have managed to find a few bits and pieces of time to work on a few projects...but the fact that I have been working on the same quilt since before the holidays is a bit discouraging.

What I have managed to finish is a cover for my kindle. I received my kindle for Christmas and instantly fell in love with it. I looked on the internet for a cover, but just couldn't decide on one....so I had to make one.

My kindle and itouch tend to travel together, so the pocket on the front of the cover was a perfect solution.

Now my two favorite items are safe from scratches and dirty fingers! My sister gave me the love bookmark as a gift and I think it accents the case perfectly, even though with a kindle the need of a bookmark is obsolete.

Other than the few moments of sewing I get, I have been reteaching myself how to knit. I am in awe of all those beautiful sock books and am determined to make some of my own. I have carpal tunnel in my right hand, which stopped me from knitting years ago, but since I don't like to give up on things easily....I am teaching myself to use my left hand to make most of the movements. I was taught to knit as a child, by my mother, who thankfully taught me to knit continental style. This makes training my left hand to do most of the work much easier.

Hopefully, I will have a new cute pair of socks to show shortly....and if I am really lucky, I will have a new quilt to share with all of you soon.

keeping it real...

I haven't blogged in so long, mainly because I haven't had much creativity to share lately....and, well, I have been fully intwined in the lives of my children. I haven't even had much time to surf all my favorite blogs, but my daughter is sleeping....my sons are all at school, and i just got inspired!! Heather over at a la mode fabrics, posted a "keeping it real" post.....I LOVED IT! So I am breaking my dry spell with one of my own...

KEEPING IT REAL:

I fell in love with my husband from a far at the age of 15, but didn't meet him 'til I was 20. We got engaged after dating for 3 months, and have been married for 16 years now... I love him more than ever!!

This is the first picture of myself to be blogged!

We have 3 sons who all play football, even thou my husband was a swimmer/diver.

I don't think that my sons look anything alike, but they all look like me!

My oldest is a sophomore in highschool, and I have realized that being in highschool was much funner than having a child in highschool!!

There is only eighteen months in-between each of my sons, but there is 10 years between my youngest son and my daughter.

I love the way my daughter has her daddy wrapped around every little finger on both of her hands!

I adore the fact that my daughter has the same hair color and completion as my mother. Having her makes me feel like a piece of my mother is still with me!!

I am the sixth child of seven, I have four older brothers, one older sister, and a baby sister... who really isn't a baby anymore.

I love Pearl Jam, and think Eddie Vedder has the most amazing voice on earth.

I have been to more concerts than I can count and plan on going to as many as I can in the future. Although, the most awesome concert I've seen is the Dave Matthew's Band. I think that everyone needs to see him live at least once!!

I believe that motherhood is the most amazing, emotional, humbling, creative, exhausting and painful thing I, personally, will ever experience in my lifetime.

I don't cry very often, but when I do it feels liberating.

My new favorite toy is my Kindle.....i love to read!!

All of my sons are named after cities (Austin, Davis, and Trenton). My daughter was going to be named Kiera after a city in Australia, but my husband loved the name Isabella so much that we decided to forgo our trend of city names.....to the disappointment of all of those around us.

I go by my nickname Chris, from my middle name Christiena....but my birth/first name is Ayescha. An old German name that no one can pronounce.

I love all things Apple...and am currently obsessed with the new ipad!

My baby sister is my bestest best friend in the whole world!!

In this picture, (taken at my brother's wedding) we both had "one to many" together for the first time.....it was a blast!!

When I was young my mother use to tell me "Cut your hair all you want when you are young because one day you will be to old to get away with it"....2 years ago, I realized that I was too old to get away with it!!

It's time to pick up my eldest from school, so that is all the keeping it real for today!!

a crazy hat

I found this wonderful pattern on Raverly by Leslie Nelle-Urinyi, for a freeform crochet hat....I couldn't resist it, all those bobbles and colors. I started as soon as it finished downloading with only one girl in mind......when it was finished we immediately had to rename it "the crazy hat" not only because the hat its self is kinda crazy, but because the girl in the hat went crazy as soon as it was put on her precious little head!!

I did alter the pattern a little to suit a toddler size head, then added the pom pom on the top and ties off of the ear flaps.

I have to honestly say that not only was this hat fun to make, it has quickly become one of my favorite crochet items to date...and Izzy LOVES her new hat with all her hearts delight!!

new year

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Mine was full of children and food, just the way I like it!! Now, I am slowly getting back into the routine of daily life...the boys are back to school, and Isabella and I are preparing for potty training. The year seems to be starting off in slow motion for me.

There has been no sewing going on in my house, I honestly miss it....but it has become quite difficult to persuade my little Bella to let me sew. She is in a cling to mommy mode, which I have totally indulged myself in. Since I have teenagers, I know how precious and short lived, these younger years of a childhood are. I have managed to get a bit of crocheting done though.

I finished this infinity scarf for my sister this week, as a late Christmas gift. I used a stitch pattern that I found on Raverly by mon petit violon. The original pattern was for a cowl, but I really liked the idea of an infinity scarf....the stitching worked out perfectly.

Then I decided to make a matching flower clip that she could either attach to the scarf or wear in her hair. Once that was done, I started working on this adorable hat for my daughter....

I found this pattern on a wonderful blog called Vallieskids. She has a few great hat patterns on her blog, that are not only adorable, but really easy to follow. Isabella loved her new hat, and now wants Mommy to maker her lots more!!

I love black and white photos, although I don't usually use them on my blog because you can't see the colors....but this one was meant to be.