August Give Thanks, Week 5

August 29:
     Thankful to have my craft room back to functioning order, and even had a chance to work on my hexi quilt. Its so nice to get rid of tons of stuff I know I don't need, or never will use. I am thankful that I can pass those items onto someone who might actually use them.

New storage for under the cutting table (took these out of the closet).

Put both bookcases together to make it a wall of fabric.

From the door, when you walk in. Finally done and ready for me to sew in.

From the window. The room feels bigger, and flows so much better.

August 30:
     Thankful that my wonderful husband took the kids to the grocery store and let me catch a few extra minutes of sleep. I accidentally fell asleep on the couch while the boys watched a movie, and when I woke up they boys were all gone. Felt nice to get some extra sleep, since I haven't been feeling well.

August 31:
     So thankful that one of my closest friends from southern California was able to stop off at our house for the night, chit chat, and head back on the road. She was on a little trip from Oregon, and I am just so glad we could catch up and talk. I miss her so much. I look forward to seeing her hopefully soon.

Give Thanks,
Sarah

July Give Thanks, Week 3

July 15:
     Thankful to have a block swapping group to be apart of! I have always wanted to block swap (for quilting) with someone or a group. I did one in Okinawa, when we were stationed there, and loved it! Now I am excited to try some new techniques!!!

July 16:
     I am thankful for my quilting/sewing room. Somedays its my only escape from reality.

July 17:
     My little man is picking up on so many new signs. I am so thankful and happy he is enjoying signing, because it sure does make it a lot easier to understand what he wants.

July 18:
     Thankful for 12 straight hours of sleep. I needed that!

July 19:
     Today is my older sisters birthday, and I am thankful for her and everything she has done for me. We have never been as close as we are now, and I am so lucky to have her as my amazing, supportive, and wonderful sister. Happy Birthday Rach!

July 20:
     Finished up all the minor details on the ring sling, and am so thankful its working out great for us. Jared is loving it, and so am I!

July 21:
     Finally, I got some block swap blocks laid out. Thankful that I had enough energy and will power to stay up later to get a few set up and on my design wall.

Give Thanks,
Sarah

Just a Quick Small Project

When I sit down and have a horrible headache, or I have had a long stressful exhausting day (especially dealing with the kids); I feel a need to hide out, escape from life and I do just that, in my sewing/craft room. My mother in law is always collecting fun projects and material. I often sit and chat with her in her sewing room and discuss fun projects or any current ones as well. She usually then finds fun projects that she has purchased on a whim and asks if I would like them... I am always grateful but always decline knowing she will know more kids or have more time to make those such items/use the material. Sometimes, like this last trip, she gets sneaky and throws those fun projects or other such stuff into my stuff. She is the best, and I am always so grateful for all she does for myself, my kids, and my sewing/fabric addiction! Anyways, long story short, she had purchased a few soft book panels, and never got around to them. I of course love small projects and tonight was a perfect night to sew.

I grabbed the panel, and began to cut. A little cutting here, and a little cutting there. A few slices of batting, and a few slices more. A brush with my serger, and a few ironed pieces, and lastly a lot of top stitching... and its done. Yes, all within an hour or so. I love these small, calming pieces; as they just help my body relax and my mind run free. No stress, no kids, no screaming. Just calm, quiet time to sew and think about nothing or everything.

Here's a look at the book and small dinosaur toy:

This is the panel, sitting on my lap.

After cutting all the pieces out, as well as the batting.

Dinosaur toy, cut out, sewn and ready to be top stitched closed.

All the book pages, sewn, flipped, ironed and top stitched closed.

The finished soft book, and soft dinosaur.

Ready to Read.... WRAAAARRRR,
Sarah

March Giving Thanks, Week 5

March 29:
     Finished putting some art work up on the walls in my craft room, that I have been working on for weeks. So thankful for the accomplishment of that project and the feeling I got putting them on the walls!

March 30:
     Thankful for sunny weather, since it's been raining for something like a week. Felt great to go for a walk!

March 31:

     I am thankful for my husband being back on day shift! Feels amazing!

Give Thanks,
Sarah

March Giving Thanks, Week 3

March 15:
     Husband of course has another weekend duty/work. I am just so thankful today that he got off in a decent hour, so he could see the boys and be with them for awhile. I feel like some days he doesn't even see them at all.

March 16:
      Thankful for a chance to attend a LOCAL quilt show! Its not every day I get to drive down the street and look at some awe inspiring, and amazing art. The ladies who made some of these quilts have inspired me to get working on some art work for my sewing room.

Quilt Show, this is NOT my work.

Quilt Show, this is NOT my work.

Quilt Show, this is NOT my work.

Quilt Show, this is NOT my work.

March 17:
     Happy St. Patty's Day everyone. We are thankful for a clean bill of health for my oldest son, today; as he had his 2 year old check up. It went great and we had no issues to address.

Having LUCKY Charms for breakfast, with his GREEN cup!

March 18:
     A day in San Francisco, that is what I am so thankful for today. Family time, a fun busy city, clam chowder in a sourdough bowl, and the Aquarium my son couldn't get enough of! Best Day EVER!

March 19:
     Thankful for a small window of alone time, and just enough time to finish up one of my wall art pieces that I sewed all by hand!

March 20:
      In life we experience big events, and small everyday occurrences; but to be thankful for a friendly face, a caring small conversation, and a sweet gesture to come over and hangout, can mean more then words can describe. I walk our housing area at least 3 times a week, if not more. I see officers houses full of toys, boxes of stuff they don't use, and probably haven't touched in weeks, if not months; I see enlisted families chit chatting with their neighbors, dogs and children playing, smiling and laughing. All while I walk around, day after day, seeing mostly the same faces, and same kids. Today, a new neighbor a few streets over actual came towards me when I smiled and said hello. She stopped, chatted with me, listened, and I am sure she will never know this, but that small conversation made my week. I still don't have any friends here, and just when I thought my biggest interaction with adults on this base would be the friendly smiles; the universe shows me otherwise, letting me have a chance of making a real friend. I am thankful for that. I am thankful for the ache I feel in my heart, has dwindled slightly and a small smile has appeared on my face. Tomorrow, I'll walk around our housing area again, and it will look forward to hopefully running into her again. There are still true real people in the world, feeling what I am feeling.

March 21:
     I am thankful for my husband being able to have a short day at work so we could take the kids to the playground. Which was a ton of fun. A small moment of pure happiness.

Give Thanks,
Sarah

Craft Idea

I was trying to clean up my craft/sewing room the other day, yes its a disaster. I came across one of those shower curtain pressure mount extension rods. I had purchased a few small skinny ones when we lived in Okinawa, Japan; because we had a small kitchen window that had tile all around it. Anyways, I grabbed the small rod, looked at my ribbon rolls and BAM! I thought, why not just put the ribbon rolls onto the rod, and pressure mount it into my bookcase! Brilliant!

Now I can just slide it off, add new ones, and or take old ones off, and its portable. I can move from this house to another, and I will always have somewhere to put this, because I will always have those bookcases! So, if you don't want to make or purchase some fancy wood box that holds the ribbons, now you can purchase a skinny pressure mount extension rod and your problem is solved! Super cheap, or in my case free, crafty clean up, check! Also, if you don't have a bookcase like mine, you can do this with any space. Just find an area in the closet, or you can purchase a small bookcase at a thrift store or garage sale.

I used one of my smaller shelf areas, so the ribbon wouldn't run away.

Heres the rod up close. It works great.

I did want to point out, in the photo above, you can see the rubber stoppers on the end of the rod... I had to take mine off to get a few of the ribbon rolls onto the rod. So, in other words, make sure the rubber stops come off, or you get a rod small enough to fit over the holes in the ribbon rolls. 

All I need to do now is get a ton more ribbon.

Happy Hunting,
Sarah

While on Vacation...

While on vacation in southern California, I had a bad itch to sew! It didn't help we went to a quilt show down in San Diego. It was my first quilt show EVER and I was so excited! It was a lot of fun, and I can not thank my mother-in-law enough for taking me! My mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and myself all made the drive down to San Diego one afternoon and spent a long few hours away from our kids, away from our husbands, and away from life!

A quilt made by one of my mother-in-laws favorite local quilt shop.

Love the colors and the quilting on this quilt.

The show was larger then I thought it would be. There were TONS of quilts, and I could not believe the work some of these ladies (and a few gentleman) did! I was shocked to see that even CHILDREN were making quilts! Can you believe that? Teenagers and young adults were submitting quilts. How cool is that?

I lived in Japan for four years, so this felt like home!

Details of one of the blocks... amazing!

WWII military patches. This young man was collecting them!

Mother-in-law is part Hawaiian, so this reminded me of that.

Not only did they have quilts for the show, but they had a guest speaker, and a few vendors. I can't remember the guest speaker, but we did stop by her booth and she has done some amazing quilts. The vendors were fun to walk through, as they have quilts on display so that you can see the fabrics and patterns in a piece of work. The Halloween quilts were some of my favorite! I absolutely LOVE Halloween, its by far one of my favorite holidays! I just love the costumes, dressing up, the fun stories, and of course the decorations! I saw two or three Halloween quilts that blew my mind. My mother-in-law was kind enough to purchase one of the patterns for the Halloween quilt that I just could not get my eyes off of, again can not thank her enough for it!

This was one of my favorites!!!

Look at the detail, and quilting, amazing!

So cute right, look at the feet and the window details.

The witch, so simple yet so cute, and look at the candy corn border!

The pattern that my Mother-in-law bought for me.

In the end, the quilt show was a blast to go to (and this was all before my knee injury), so I could walk around and enjoy every second of it. However, after my knee injury I just was so bored just sitting around all the time, I asked my mother-in-law if I could do some sewing. She had a few pieces of fabric she let me have/use, and I started right in on designing the quilt. The following day I had a design for the quilt, now playmat, and I was cutting material!

this is my horrible drawing of what I wanted to do with the material.

 The alphabet pieces you see once was a panel, my mother-in-law had cut it up and was trying to make it work as a book. However, after putting it together the panels never fit well, so I took the "book" apart, and cut the alphabet squares into individual pieces. I made all the pieces even in size (with the help of a friend), and started to cut strips of the off white minky and the dark brown minky.

Putting the rows together.

Front is done.

Top, batting, and back all safety pinned, ready to quilt!

 Once everything was cut, I began to piece the quilt/playmat together. While I was piecing the rows together I began to add the taggies (ribbon and knots) along the way. It was a lot of fun to sew that minky, and it made for an interesting challenge but I really learned a lot about sewing minky when I was done. A quick note of advice when sewing minky, pin about every 3-5inches, double check as you sew (to make sure you are still on track), try not to pull or push the minky, and a walking foot helps a lot!

The knot, to clip toys on or for the little guy to chew on (when teething).

All the taggies.

Once the front of the playmat was done, my mother-in-law (again too the rescue) found some giraffe minky on sale and bought a ton of it! She then said I could use it for the back of the playmat!!! I was shocked, but totally thankful, because it was so soft, and heavy! I then layered the top, batting, and minky back all together, safety pinned and safety pinned some more. I just did a straight across quilt, from one side to the other. This helped keep the mink from shifting, bunching or pinching. The binding was tricky, as it was hard to sew with the minky facing up, but it turned out pretty well. I finished the entire thing off by hand stitching the other side of the binding to the front, and the end result was beautiful!

Front.

Back.

Front and back together.

I could pet this playmat for days! It was so soft! I also started in on some hand sewing projects (as it was about the only thing i could do while sitting on the couch with a bum knee), but I am yet to finish it up! I hope to use these once I am done with them, in my sewing room as inspiration!

Hand stitched this patch on. Mother-in-law has tons of these, they are so cool!

My hand sewn project/inspiration piece for my sewing room.

The second piece I started but am yet to finish.

Happy quilting,
Sarah