Sunday, May 12, 2013

Slow and Steady

Happy Mother's Day!!!  I absolutely adore my mom and am so thankful for everything she has done for me (and put up with from me!).  I started making this quilt for her back in October. She loves snowmen and has quite the collection grown over the years. Once completed, this quilt will feature some hand embroidered snowmen in the center of it.  I've finished all the redwork (is it called bluework if it isn't red?!) and am now working on the outside blocks. These are the first I've attempted that have triangles in them...so I'm pleased for a first time go at it.
The plan is to finish piecing this one by July (so that she can get it in time for Christmas!) so i'll post some more about it once it comes together. Until then, know that I was thinking about you today, mom!!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Blooming!

I love spring time...mostly because school starts to settle down (a bit) and I get a chance to do some fun things like update the yard. We had a huge mess of a small forest growing in what used to be a garden but has long since been forgotten about.
Before - Pretty neglected.

So, we started by just clearing things out and building a small retaining wall out of flagstone. We are no where near done, but it looks much cleaner anyways. We did manage to save two small boxwoods (? at least thats what we thing they are) and moved them to either side of the stairs.  



After

Succulents were 1/2 off today! :-)

And since we had an extra piece of flagstone and were lacking in house numbers, I added some to the porch. 



Topped it off with a new wreath for spring time. Like I said, not done yet...but I'm happy with the improvement. 

Monday, December 31, 2012

First Quilt Projects


My mother-in-law is an amazing quilter and this summer she introduced me to it with a small little project so that I could learn some basics.

Since then, I've been working on a couple of projects. My first completed quilt was a gift to my friend who was expecting her first baby (who she has since given birth to and both mom and baby are AMAZING).



Since I had never done real quilting of a blanket before I decided to go with something I could use my walking foot on, hence the squared angles. I also wanted to add something extra for baby so I found this poem online and added it to the label on the back (along with an elephant that I cut from the fabric I used). The poem is basically a note to mom and baby letting them know it is okay to use and abuse the quilt in the name of love. :-)

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas Joy

After a little convincing, my parents and brother came down to Houston to celebrate Christmas Texas-style (which included barbecue on the back porch christmas eve).  Not only was I super excited to see them all, but it gave me a great weekend project as well...stockings!  At home, my family all has handmade stockings given to us by a friend. I decided that now that I have my own house I needed the same.
I used a new fabric line by Moda and I LOVE the colors. Not the traditional christmas vibe, but I think it worked. This is also my first project that I did without a pattern or online tutorial.

The pictures don't do the colors justice..I should probably stop using my cell phone for pictures. :-)

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Up and Running

So I've been bitten by the DIY bug and succumbed to the irresistible urge to post all my new pictures online.  Instead of bombarding Facebook with my myriad of projects, half of which no one will care about except for my mom (hi, mom!), I decided to post them here. :-) You are welcome, college acquaintances.

It is one week from Christmas and the crafting side of me has taken over (and I'm okay with that).  I spent a good part of the weekend dipping pretzels into chocolate and putting some holiday festivity on them. Despite having eaten way more than I should have, I believe I have enough for all of my coworkers.


I found some small jars, left over fabric from a previous project, and bought some tags and ribbon. I know, I know...store bought tags?! For a crafting blog?! Hey, that's why I'm only part-time. 




You can also see my last minute holiday centerpiece since ornaments were on sale for half off today. Thanks, grandma, for the punchbowl!
That's it for now! Peace.