Return to Sewing

I spent some time this weekend in front of my sewing machine.  Oh how good it felt! :)  I *finally* finished Asa's 2nd birthday quilt.  I would like to make our children a handmade gift each year for their birthday.  This year, I planned a dog themed quilt for Asa.  He had a puppy birthday party, and while the gift was not ready RIGHT on time (I was 9 months pregnant!), it IS done now.

I purchased some dog machine embroidery applique files for each square of the quilt with nine squares total.  I received a free motion quilting foot from my husband for Mother's Day, and I decided to try it out on Asa's quilt.  Lesson #1:  free motion quilting is a LOT harder than it looks!  I thought it was simply a matter of having the right sewing foot and lowering my feed dogs.  WRONG.  If you have any tips for me, especially for achieving even stitch lengths, I greatly appreciate it!

I pressed on, regardless of my free motion newbie foibles.  I read a post by another blogger who said a quilt for her child was a great first project because your child will love the quilt regardless of the mistakes that will glare at *you.*  That encouraged me to finish what I started and be glad I could make something special for Asa as I learned. :)

This evening I finished the free hand quilting and added a silky blanket binding.  He likes "soft" things, so I thought the silky binding was a good choice for this particular project.

Without further ado, here is his quilt--my second quilt but the first I've completely finished (my "first" is waiting for binding), my first attempt at free motion quilting, and a happy return to crafting after having a baby. :)

 I stitched a random boxy pattern to go with the blue boxes in the background of this patch

 I traced around and around the puppy for this center patch

I "drew" little bones all over this patch for the quilting... to go with the bone applique

 My favorite... I took a deep breath, summoned my courage, and wrote "ASA" all over this patch. :)

Maybe, Just Maybe

I'll be able to whip out some holiday outfits for the kids.  I have been craving craft time the past few weeks.  I think we're almost there.  I know I could take an evening or two with Matt tending to Anna Reaghan so I could bury myself in yards of fabric in the sewing room.  We're not quite to the point I can reclaim nap time for craft time, but that possibility is in sight at least. :)

What have I been dreaming of creating?  Well, Pinterest has given me about a million plans. :)  But here are a few I am especially considering in light of the changing seasons.

 

I want/need to milk the matching bro/sis outfits while I can (i.e. before Asa's too old), so I love the last 2 pictures.  Not SURE about the spider motif, but the rickrack web the spiders are hanging from is so cute and Asa loves "buggies" of all types. :)  How will I ever choose?!  And which to make first?! :)  I'll keep you posted.  I know I need some orange material, and then I can get started on a few ideas!

A Little Hello

I have been quite noticeably absent for the past many, many months.  I see I mentioned our move from Florida to Ohio in the last few posts here, and that our sweet Asa finally started sleeping through the night at 14 months making me less of a zombie and  more able to craft.  What happened the very next  month threw me right back into the land of the overtired. ;)  We found out we were expecting again!  Enter exhaustion, nausea, another move (same town, different house), and I fell off the crafting wagon.  Or at the very least, blogging about it.

I'll be you can tell just from these pictures below whether we welcomed a baby boy or baby girl to our family!

Anna Reaghan had a happy belated arrival (following in her big bro's footsteps) on July 14th.  She is such a sweet baby girl, blowing her brother's sleep habits completely out of the water, and a delight to us all.  She IS sleeping amazingly well, but I still feel a bit of that newborn fog especially with chasing Asa around even if/when she is napping.  I am planning some holiday outfits for them, so I thought I might try to pick back up with this blog.  And Pinterest has given me all sorts of inspiration for crafting of all types!

Another minor change I made is getting this blog set up to post from the google account I use the most.  Originally I had it tied to a different email address I don't use as much, and it was a hassle to sign in and out of accounts in order to post.  With that remedied, this is much more of a simple "point, click, type" process.  Yea!

Here's to more crafting!