I know, I am supposed to be quilting now that all my old knitting projects are finished, but…  Knitting and pregnancy just go together so well!  I can sit in the lazy-boy, kick my feet up, and be brainless with a pair of needles.  This is another project that I cast on and finished in a couple days.  It is Debbie Bliss’ Baby Leg Warmers from her book Design It, Knit It: Babies.  I used Amy Butler’s “belle organic aran” by Rowan.  I am really happy with the result–they are so soft and the perfect weight.  These will be for the new baby.  Leg warmers are probably more on the girl side, but I figure a baby can get by with it.  Plus, there is always the hope that someday a little girl will be wearing them as well.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

I have been doing an itty bitty amount of quilting.  Here are some new blocks I put together.  They are not finished yet, but I had to show you something to prove that I do actually sew.

I discovered that this bird print goes perfectly with a lot of my modern prints in my stash.  Fun to mix them all up!

And here is what I do a lot of during my day.  Mommy stuff.  Elias is 14 months now and we are busy discovering new things every day.

With baby #2 approaching this summer, I am in a total “finish old projects” mood.  I pulled out this old runner top that was kind of a failed pattern idea and quilted it up.  I actually really like the finished piece, and I am soooo happy with my decision on how to quilt it.  Simple and easy.  I also didn’t want to use my basting spray since I am pregnant, so I went with the pinning method to tack my layers together.

I moved on to thinking about some of my unfinished knitting projects.  Remember Elias’ Christmas sweater?  then it turned into his birthday sweater. Now it is “better hurry up and get this done before spring” sweater.  The last couple of days we have been stuck inside with a nasty storm, so I have made some great progress on it.  Only problem is, is it is looking rather large.  Last night I checked my gauge and then I pulled some of Elias’ sweaters out that fit right now to compare.  Yes, this new sweater is BIG!  I guess better that than too small but…  So this will be his next fall/winter sweater and we will hope that it fits.  There is always baby #2 if sizing/timing doesn’t work out for Elias.  After all it is another BOY!

Just this morning I pulled out this very old project.  It is a sweater I started in college.  The yarn is not great…Walmart quality…and the color I picked…hmmmm…  It will be old-school.  I still want to finish it though.  memories.

I know some would argue that Valentine’s Day is really about gimmicks, buying cards, and expectations…but I think it is a darling holiday and I hope to make it a big deal in our home.  A few weeks ago I did some decorating for the big love day–TODAY!

This is a very quick and easy project idea.  I took some scrapbook paper, a couple paper punches, and old fishing line and made some simply sweet banners for around the house.  The dots are hanging above Elias’ door and the little guy has loved them.  It is so fun to see his face light up at something unexpected.

My mother-in-law surprised me with a Valentine present and I have used them at every opportunity since.  This at-home-mama is in the kitchen A LOT!  The oven mitt even has some cute hearts quilted on it which I will be using in the below project.

I meant to have this runner done by today, but alas I just could not pull it off.  I totally had a Valentine’s Day charm pack fall out of my fabric stash a couple days ago and thought I hit the jack pot!  My lucky day!  I was inspired by Jodi over at Pleasant Home…who wouldn’t be??!…to do some pinwheels and prairie points.  I used her Moda Bake Shop project and just mini sized it to work for a runner.  It needs a bit of quilting and the binding.  The runner has a lot of white in it and I began thinking about sticky fingers, snot, and drool…I am tempted to tea dye it when I am finished but Tony said no way.  I guess I will wait until it gets stained and then I will dye it.  We’ll see how long the white lasts.  (I know the lighting is terrible, but for some reason I seem to always be working on blog postings after the sun sets.  hmmmm…)

Keep it simple and have a sweet day!

I had these “Pop Garden & bijoux” squares  by Heather Bailey sitting around and yesterday I had an idea for them.  I decided to do a sort of “stack and wack” method with them to turn them into a scrappy lap quilt.  My squares were pre-cut at 12 1/2″.

My quilt will be 5×6 blocks, so I separated my squares into 5 piles of 6.  I then took each pile and cut them randomly.

Taking each pile, I took the top fabric off one of the pieces and put it on the bottom of the pile.  Then I took the top 2 fabrics from another piece and moved them to the bottom.  The goal being that each of the pieces would be a different fabric so that the square is scrappy.  Sewed them together.

One thing I thought of after I cut the blocks but before I sewed them back together was the number of seam allowances.  My blocks would not come out perfectly square because I varied how many times I cut the block.  You can see what I mean below.

On the left side of the above block there are not any seams, whereas on the right side there is.  Thus the right side is a 1/2″ shorter than the left.

Same with this block.  The right side on this block is an entire inch shorter.

Not a big deal though.  It just means that I will have to trim my 30 blocks to the size of the smallest block.  So I believe that my 12 1/2″ squares that I started with will end up being cut down to 11″ squares.  Not bad.  Putzy, but not terrible.  I’ll show you the finished top when I’m done!

PS–I love using fabric in my stash…it feels so good!

Last week I was in a crafty mood and my hands were busy doing something many hours of the day.  I had 2 hand projects on the living room couch and any spare moment I had I picked up a needle of some sort.

I finished the top to “Bloom.” I still have to do all the machine blanket stitching around the appliques.  I’ll need to mentally pump up for that before I tackle it.  Not the greatest picture of it…should have turned the lamp off on the right side…oops.  I think if we have a little girl this would be darling on one wall of her bedroom.  We shall see in a couple weeks…

I also knitted up another “Bunny Tail” hat for a new baby.

Next item in my brain–starting to think about Valentine’s Day.  Let’s just say homemade love notes + sweet cookies + forcing bulbs!