My Part Is Done...Now I Need Your Help

The top is all sewn.

The back (Heather Bailey's Pop Garden on the right) is pieced together.

The binding fabric (Erin McMorris' Leaf Dots on the left) is just waiting to be shipped...

BUT 

now I need your help!

Check out the quilting patterns at Back Porch Quilters 

and let me know in a comment which quilt pattern

(I love so many of them) 

you think I should use!

I hope to ship it Tuesday.

Till then penguin!

I'm Giddy...It's Like Crack, Only Better!

It is coming together!

My 12 half yards of fabric are starting to look like a quilt!

I'm so excited, I can't hardly handle it!

Look at all these pins...

Now if you know me, you know I am an impatient crafter.  

I like to sit down and finish a project before I walk away.

Hence the finish the 7 week quilt along in 5 days...

So things like pins are just annoying to me...they take so much time...

but I am so intimidated by the idea of making a quilt that I am following each step with precision.

47 pins per row of precision....

Look at all those pins & straight lines & ironed seams!!!

I can hardly contain myself!!!

Check her out, my first two rows sewn together!

My heart is racing...I'm not kidding!

I am such a nerd!...I know it.

I'm thinking of naming her...or would that just be weird?...

47 pins = perfect corners!!!

Check these babies out!

And for the first time in this project, I feel like I can do it.

I. can. actually. make. a. quilt!

Quilt Along Week 3 &4: Check

so apparently I can't sew a straight line to save my life...

thus

my quilt blocks ended up only being 11 x 11 inches...

(nobody's perfect)

What makes me happy?!

42 11 x 11 quilt blocks make me happy!!!

Bye, Bye Butterfly!

off to sew these beauties together!

Camera Strap & Great Pics

I was going to iron my quilt strips...but I H.A.T.E. to iron...

so...

I procrastinated in the form of a new camera strap!

so fun & so stinkin' easy!

Check out Cluck Cluck Sew for a fabulous tutorial! 

Something about Girlfriend in a headband screams grab the camera...

Is she not perfect?!

I got a few great pics...

but

this one is my favorite:

Is he not perfect?!

Quilt Along Week 2: Check

Here is my little helper early this morning...

Here is our progress...65 straight lines & 2 spools of thread later...

I'm warming up the iron, ready for week 3...

Arts & Crafts Around Our House

One of the things I love about my job is that I teach in a year round school,

 so every 6-9 weeks or so I get to be a stay at home mom for three weeks....

and 

we get to do things like eat breakfast on the deck in our pj's...

bake cupcakes...

finger paint for an hour...

This takes serious concentration...

a proper paint smock...

a joy for touching all things gooey and slimy...

and a great art easel.

After we painted, I decided to try my hand at making pillows...

to which my yoga obsessed sister enthusiastically said,

"Make me one!"

Then Abby got one...

(I can't show any more pillows because they are Christmas gifts...)

BUT, I can show you how my quilt along is going...

something about week 1 made my OCD very happy...

look at all those clean cut straight lines...

All of these arts & crafts just plum tuckered Girlfriend out!

Peace Out Rainbow Trout!

Sweet Tooth & Onesie to T-Shirt Tutorial

I've had a sweet tooth lately...

which means smores Sunday night...

and cupcakes Monday...

I have been going through closets, 

trying to filter out clothes that are too small and pull out clothes for this fall...

Abby has all these clothes she has outgrown...

clothes that are my favorite or clothes she only got to wear once...

(this is only one small pile of stuff she has outgrown)

I just kept thinking if they weren't limited by snaps...

she could wear them so much longer...

So here we are...with a onesie to t-shirt tutorial...

So fast & easy!

First:  Use your seam ripper to remove the trim around the legs, so you have as much length as possible.  You may not always need to do this if your onesie is super long...

Second: Use your rotary cutter to make a straight cut across the bottom.

Third:  Measure, fold, and iron for a bottom hem.  

Fourth:  Sew!

Now Abby has a new shirt perfect for a skirt and leggings!