Nothing Like It!

Holidays are in full swing and our house is turning into a Winter Wonderland.  If only outdoors would match us!  All we get is rain...wrong form of precipitation.  I may get side way glances from this statement,but I MISS SNOW!!  It doesn't have to be a lot.  A little will do.  Pretty white snowflakes that do not need shoveling like my roots in WI.  Magical white flakes that lift the spirit and complete the Christmas season. 

The Christmas tree is up and smelling of fresh pine!  I placed some twinkling white lights on it this morning.  When Ayden arrives home from school, him and I are going to do some ornament hanging.  Probably some Christmas music and hot chocolate too.  Warm and cozy times to come under our Twinkling Lights Quilt.  Inside from the unpleasant, rainy, cool weather. 

Aside from the stockings being hung and the the nativity scene on display, I did a Google search the other night to hunt down the letter "J" for our baby girl.  I am going to do her whole name in stitches and turn it into a banner for her room.  If you click on this above pic,it would help get a better view of what the letter looks like.  For some reason or another the camera or photographer was not cooperating;)  I started on a leaf of the beginning tulips last night and I can already foresee it is going to be  quite a lovely project to partake.  I am 30 weeks pregnant today and so this embroidery will keep me busy for awhile.

This is the diaper bag I spoke about last week.  All finished and ready for goodies to be placed inside.  I used an older tutorial for this one and if you email me you can get it from me if interested.  Simply because  I wasn't super thrilled with the tutorial altogether.  I wish there had been more pics for those of us who, aren't avid bag makers.  Some steps were flat out confusing and it took me reading them several times,several before I grasped what she meant.  Even then I still had to unpick a few times.  Overall it was an easy bag to create.  More details though and it would have been fun.  I used heavy weight interfacing,but not enough.   That was my fault,but I think once it is filled up it will do fine.  Also, the elastic for the inside double fold bias edging was supposed to bunch up some,but it really didn't serve its purpose.  Better luck next time in that front.

What I do really like about this bag is the magnetic closure which was easy to put in btw.  I also love the big straps for ease of carrying and the fact that it took me a day to sew this bag up!  I am so thrilled with the vibrancy of the bag in its entirety.  It screams girly bag to me.  Happy!  Happy!

Inside the pockets are lined with some double fold bias tape and for more sturdiness I took a piece of cardboard and clear masking tape and covered it in more mermaid sweetness. 

Mermaid hiding out at the bottom.  There are 8 pockets total inside.  I though about adding one outside,but I think this will do. 

Each time I look at this bag, I adore it even more!!  Lots of diaper changes will be accomplished in fashion!  (Only about a 1/4 yd left of Out to Sea Mermaids by Sarah Jane :( so I may need to get more for a changing pad while out and about)

Summary:
 Heirloom Opal in Fuchsia by Joel Dewberry
Out to Sea Mermaid Play in Breeze  by Sarah Jane
Aurifil thread 50 wt and some misc. Hot Pink thread throughout for topstitching

Do you ever finish a project and then go ok now what else did I want to sew??  I did that after I finished this bag yesterday.  I don't know how I could forget what I want to DO yet??!!!!  Once the pregnancy/mama brain came back,  I started on my last, LAST Lucky Stars block for the year!

A heap of solids with a sprinkle of prints here and there are going into my December block. 

After this star, I will be looking out for a post from Elizabeth Dackson on different variations in which to put the whole years worth of stars together in a quilt.  The year has been a great learning experience in paper piecing,but I am ready to move on.  New projects are wanting to "grow my brain" as Ayden says;)

Enjoy some hot chocolate today with lots of marshmallows  k?   :)

Sara

Metro Rings and November Lucky Star BOM

Once upon a time I really wanted to do a fresh,new, complicated,but achievable quilt pattern. Oh and it had to be jelly roll friendly guys:)   I came across Metro Rings and I was sold!   Bought the ruler and some Kona white for the background and got to work cutting.  There was no shortage of cutting.  Once that was all said and done, the sewing curves part was actually the easiest part of the whole process!  Then came the squaring up and it was not pretty.  I even went so far as to email another quilter/blogger (she has a tutorial up now as to how she did her squaring up for Metro Rings) and the designer herself, Jenny Pedigo.  I received a response from Jenny's assistant/friend about 3 hrs after I sent the email off.  Great service!!  After reading her email, it all made sense and I went right to work trying it out.  I squared each of the many,many pieces to 9 1/2".  Sewed some more and then squared up again using my wanna be fabric ruler.  The blocks were supposed to measure up to 10".  Error wrong!!!  They were coming out smaller at 9 3/4" and even some at 9 5/8".

I thought the whole quilt top was a gonner,but I kept moving onward.  Somehow it all worked out with only one real minor set back that I can certainly live with to include a few of the setting triangles being cut off a bit.

Scrappy must be in my blood because this is yet another one of my quilts that has come out scrappy.  I did use a jelly roll for the first time and a charm pack from the same line.  There are dominant colors of teal, green, red,tan and dark blue,but to me it has a scrappy vibe.  This covers some of my mistakes---shhhh don't tell;)

The teal and red are my favorites in this whole top:):):):)

I ordered some backing fabric yesterday called Aspen Frost by Basic Grey and it should be here in a week at best I hope.  Ready to get to pinning and quilting on this one!  It is going to be our Christmas quilt after all!

Look at ALL these tiny pieces!  The biggest being 2" I believe.

These are ALL of 16 papers ready to go for my next Lucky Stars BOM.

OK see the center piece in grey tones and the 4 corners in pink?  The first time I did the center, the colors were not doing it for me so I threw it out and started over.  Then the next set of rectangle pieces didn't match up right.  Maybe  I needed a small break as the hubby was hinting.  I wasn't going to take no for an answer as the center was the only area I had left to tackle.  Back to the drawing board!  I finally got it,but for some reason I had to use 2 "f" sections to make it work right.

She is done and I am finally happy with the colors!  See a couple turtles peeking out?  Love them!

These scrumptious Snuggle prints were on sale at Joann's and are next in line for Ayden's Christmas PJ's present.  Shhhhh it will be our secret.....k?

If that doesn't keep me busy for too long then I will be starting on Jade's diaper bag with a tutorial from Sew Much Ado.  Before I go though, I need your help guys!!

Which of these prints goes with/ do you like best with Sarah Jane's Out to Sea mermaid print in your humble opinion????

~

#1?

#2?

#3?

#4?

Please write your number in the comments:)

Time for me to get Ayden from school in a minute here!  One more day of school for him and then he is on Thanksgiving break.  

Tomorrow is going to be extra special for me! It is not only my Birthday, but I also go for another Ultrasound to see Jade!!  Oh and how could I forget---Ayden is having a Thanksgiving celebration in his classroom.  I am bringing the pies;)  Yippeeeeeeeeeee.....!!!

Everyone I want to wish ya'll a Happy,Happy Blessed Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

~Sara

Crazy Mom Quilts