The Dancing Diamonds

Today it decided to keep being spring in California and I decided to start enjoying it outside instead of staying in all day forgetting that even though its February, its still sunny and 70 degrees.  

(And I stress less about potty training accidents when they happen in the driveway rather than my living room)

So Asher and I set up shop in the garage while Carver rode his trike around to his little heart's content.  It was one of those afternoons where you think, "this is pretty much what I always hoped my life would be."  Its not always that way (for anyone) but every once in awhile we get those little moments.  

Tender mercies if you will.

I stayed up WAY too late last night so I could quilt this. It seems Mr. Almost-3-Years-Old has traded naps for potty training (I'm still debating if that was a fair trade or not) and so my only found time for myself seems to be late at night.  

But it was worth it to have the house all quiet and to myself to finish up this project.

And now I give you.....drumroll please..... 

the Dancing Diamonds Quilt!...

I wish I had noted what the fabrics were I used for this.  They were so cute and vintage-ish, which seems to be my current "thing."  I made up the pattern myself and it came together quite easily.  There is something sort of meditative about sitting up in the quiet of the studio listening to talks or a netflix movie on the iPhone while churning out a hundred or so triangles sewn together to make squares.

The thing that had been holding me back from finishing this little lady was finding a good backing fabric for it.  Nothing in my stash quite looked right (although I did utilize stash fabric for the binding)  Yesterday I had a chance to swing into Harts Fabric here in Santa Cruz and picked out these pink oval-ish polka dots by Moda.  They seemed perfect and I like how they turned out.

Hurray for whipping through these WIP's!  Which is good because of a certain other purchase I made at Hart's.  More about that tomorrow.....

The Rocket Ship Room Paintings

 A sweet friend from our Seattle days asked to see a closer up of the paintings on the wall in the boys' room.

A painter I most definitely am not but it was fun.  Not too shabby for painting with the boys tempura paints and plastic bristled brushes.  Harder than I thought it would be but I think we all know that seems to be a theme with me.

 Carver likes this one because of the 3 and as we know he is aaaaaaaaaaaalmost 3!  The other day I heard him talking to a kid in the gym's kids club.  The other kid asked him how old he was and Carver answered, "I'm two but I'm almost three."  The kid responded, "that's not a very high number you know" and Carver didn't miss a beat and just said, "I know, that's why I said I'm only 2 now but I'm ALMOST 3.  Okay?" with a little sass.  I guess I don't have to worry about him being too sensitive and standing up for himself right?

 This one is my favorite.  I think I just love red.

And this one I think I should hang the other way.  Flip it 180  maybe?  I don't know. 

And a quick shot of my two boys who I do it all for.  When I was doing the painting in the garage, Carver was riding his bike around and Asher was in the excersaucer doing his thing.  Carver would "drive by" and inspect my work now and then and always want to know, "which one is for me and which one is for Ashie?"  He likes to cuddle in bed at night and tell me about his and Ashie's paintings that mama did for them.

And that's what its all about right?

To see other bloggity blogery of the rocket ship room, 

click here (for a better shot of the actual quilt) 

and here

Its Birthday Time...

 Last night I was up till I don't want to think about how late cutting out little triangles for a certain someone's birthday banner.  It seems my found time to craft and meditate at this point is the after 9PM slot.  I sat in my softly lit corner listening to this and it was kind of a little heaven on earth.  I think its my current favorite talk.  Thomas S. Monson just has a way of delivering what you need to hear.  And if I can listen to it while playing with fabric?  All the better!

Anyway, back to our birthday boy.

He may just be the same kid who woke up with a totally dry pull up this morning. (WOO HOO!!! cue: screaming, joyous angels singing...)  I can't believe my little guy is going to be 3!

Wasn't it just yesterday that he looked like this?? 

Carver has recently started to love to color and draw.  Especially with his "marks" as he calls them.  So I thought I'd make him a little carrying case for all those important artistic coloring tools of his.

Once again this pattern comes from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.  Oh how I love the patterns and projects in this book.  Maybe we should do a little giveaway of this book since it seems to be my favorite thing right now.  We'll do some thinking about that.  Anyway,  my hope is to finish this little present in time so that I can embroider his name on it too.

We'll see how it goes!

And speaking of really great things to make you think.  I don't know if you read CJane but if you don't, you should and you should start with her post today.  I loved it.

Friday Favorites of the week

One of my favorite things about this whole blogging world is that its an opportunity to share and be shared with.  As a stay at home mama of two little boys, its hard to get out to interact with other quilters and crafters and even mothers to share ideas and inspiration about all those things near and dear to my heart right now.  I can't get out to a quilt class very easily but I can read and share with other bloggers from the comfort of my own home patterns, fabric, creations, recipes, parenting advice, and the list goes on and on.  It opens my mind to new ideas and confirms old ones as I read what other quilters, mothers, women, sisters, friends, etc are doing in their own lives.  


So for Fridays I'd just like to take a little opportunity to note a little blog roll of some of my favorite posts from some of my favorite old and new blogs that inspired me this week.

• Progressive Pioneer talks to Katherine Heigl and says some great and spot on things about "doing it all"
  
• Annela at Comfort Stitching does a great give-a-way of a jelly roll of her sweet Sherbert Pips!
  
• Ashley at Film in the Fridge finishes her Innocent Crush Rectangular Square Quilt and its fantastic.  I love the picture of it being held up in the snow.  I'm jealous of her snow.  She might be jealous of our sunshine...
  
• Heather at Quilt or Stitch? finished her Hexagon quilt and its so ooh and ahh worthy.  My brain gets tied in a knot trying to figure out how you make it.  Beautiful! I especially love how she did the back.
  
• Rachael at PS I Quilt announced her Flip Side pattern is published and I wish I had made an exception in my StashPact11 promise for cute quilt kits like this one that is being offered by Fat Quarter's Shop
  
• QuiltGypsy Mermaid showed some beautiful quilts she's made for families of fallen soldiers.  So inspiring.  How can I get involved in something like this?  Very very moving.
  
• Nettie at A Quilt Is Nice showed us her Sherbert Pips baby quilt.  I've been looking for a pattern for a baby quilt and I think I might have to try out this tutorial.  Such a beautiful and fun quilt.  I love how its not quite centered. Give it that little something.
• A Cuppa and a Catch up showed off the ticker tape quilt as you go block and it was just the inspiration I needed for a pile of tickertapes I've got going on my desk.
• Malka over at A Stich In Dye introduced me to MySewingCircle.com and I'm so excited about it I got myself all signed up.  Be my friend okay?  You can find me on there as...silverlilysews.  I'm sort of templed to stay up all night inputting all my WIPs and such but...I'll refrain for now...
• Shalece from The Domestic Diva Daily taught me how to make tortillas which was just in time for a week where it seems like we all just wanted to eat quesadillas and homemade salsa around my house.

As for me, my Dancing Diamonds quilt has made her way up to the top of the quilting pile.  Stay tuned for next week...

Picket Fences

I've been working on this little lady for a bit and finally finished her up last night.  Its one I made up my own pattern from inspiration I'd seen in other different quilts I liked.  All the fabric utilized my stash (with the exception of new fabric purchased for the backing-BUT that's one of my exceptions so that's okay.)

We're potty training around here (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! it really may be the end of me.......) and last night I needed a serious mama break so after dinner I grabbed this little lady and headed to the church for craft night to commiserate with other mamas over the trials and tribulations of pee-pee and training pants while I sat and finished up the binding.  Quilting therapy.  It was just what the doctor ordered...

The back is sort of pieced together but the fabric pattern is so forgiving you can't really tell and then there's the added little zing with my left over tail ends from rotary cutting the front blocks.  I LOVE it when you can utilize all those little pieces.  It makes me feel like a pioneer a little bit.

I started this quilt with someone in mind for it but as it progressed, it just didn't feel like her quilt anymore.  

So I've got something new in mind for my little friend and this one I posted in my shop on Etsy.  See it here.

Kathie's Pillowcases

A few months ago Josh's aunt, Kathie, showed me this BEAUTIFUL log cabin quilt she had gotten for a screaming deal.  Unfortunately it didn't come with pillow shams.  She asked me how hard I thought it would be to make something to match the quilt.  The fabrics were pretty basic and I told her I'd enjoy the challenge and give it a try.  Since it was about a month before I was moving and having a baby (within two days of each other I'd like to add....) it might be a little while.  She told me it there was no rush and off we went with her beautiful quilt in hand.

Little did she know it would be almost a year until she'd see her quilt or her pillowcases.  Woops!

Really the delay was because it was actually trickier than I thought it would be to find fabrics that would match.  But eventually I found enough that were close enough that I put them together.

They came out a little brighter than I would have liked but once they were all pieced and hand quilted together, I think they turned out pretty well.

Here they are with the whole bed view.  What do you think??

She's done!

I finished the Color Wheel quilt and hung it yesterday.  YAY!  I took it to the park in hopes to work on it while Asher slept in the stroller and Carver played in the sand (its basically spring time here in California).  Doesn't that sound nice?  Unfortunately Asher had other ideas and decided that he needed to be held.  What's a mama to do?  Luckily both boys napped very well that afternoon and I was able to finish up the binding and hang it up.

I love, love, LOVE how it warms up the playroom.   (Don't tell but I hung it up with push pins...I know... bad bad bad...But it worked!)  I just want to sit and stare at it all day.

It was a fantastic way to utilize the stash and really added some great and needed color to our playroom walls.