Finished my Mini Art Quilt!

I simply can't wait! I participated in a Mini Art Quilt Swap on Craftster and I finally sent off my quilt today. My partner was really specific about what she wanted and I think I did pretty alright! First let me show the awesome quilt she made me:

It's a Gryffindor Crest! She chose my Harry Potter theme and did an excellent job. Can you believe it's only her first time doing paper piecing? I chose her Christmas theme and although I messed up a lot of it, I think I'm in love. It's super cute. It's a table square (like a table runner). She wanted something that didn't have a "top" in the design, meaning from every seat it makes sense. She also wanted the design to work with her possibly putting flowers in the middle or a center piece. So, without further ado....

In that picture you can see the layout, but it's really the details that make me love this Mini Art Quilt. Take a look...

It was a lot of fun using all the new stitches on my new sewing machine. There was an issue, however, with the decorative stitch that I used on the binding. It's all over the place. I think I may have some practice to do for that one.

How I did it: I didn't use a pattern. I just kind of made it up. It's around 2 ft x 2 ft. I've never done machine applique but I had a general idea. There is a good tutorial here. I prefer to use Heat 'N Bond.  (That stuff is AMAZING. I've been using it forever and it never ceases to amaze me.) That's pretty much it. Then just used craft batting. The back is the same fabric as the sky and I used double fold bias tape for the binding. Easy peasy. (Hint: If you need help with binding/bias tape, there is a great tutorial here. They do a hand sewn hidden stitch on the back instead of a top stitch. It depends on the look you're going for. I like do top stitches with a machine because it's quicker and I like the way it looks. In the picture above I did a decorative top stitch -- see the green swirlies on the red border? In her tutorial it would just be plain red.)

I thought it turned out pretty good! I think I'm done with swaps for a while, however. I've got another full size quilt to finish and an afghan I'm crocheting that I'd like to get done this year. Haha. Thanks for looking!

- Ms. 246

Six Awesome Things

Six awesome things about this weekend:

1. We got a lovely flower pot and a very generous pre-wedding gift from my parents. Let the planning commence! I just love this bright azalea. I think it's probably supposed to go outside but I'm keeping it indoors for a couple more days.

2. I received my MiniArtQuilt from my Craftster swap! It's an awesome Gryffindor crest. It's beautiful and I already put it up in our hallway. (I finished mine last night, I'll have to take pictures soon!)

3. I decorated our little shelf for spring finally! It's raining and cold today (and snowing in the foothills) but last week and this past weekend it's gotten up to 70 degrees!

4. We went to Sonora on Sunday to check out some places for weddings. We didn't prepare so we didn't get much done, but we did find out that there is a wedding fair there next weekend so we're going to go next weekend. But, when we were there we checked out the shops and just had a lovely day out of town, the three of us. Look really close at the shelf above and you'll spy my newest purchase...a vintage teacup, and it's GORGEOUS! I'm in love with it. I made myself some tea in it yesterday afternoon and felt quite fancy.

There were tons of really awesome antique stores. Mr. 246 found a store that was quite eclectic. It was a cafe/old school soda fountain shop/antique store/vintage book store/museum. Whew. That's alot. The books were in the basement and it was pretty neat down there. There were a couple areas off to the sides that were blocked off, but you could see into them and it was parts of the old mines, right there under the building. Pretty neat.

We're going back next weekend for the wedding fair. There's also a yarn shop that I'm super excited about. I didn't make it back in time to check it out before it's closed but I'm excited to check it out next weekend. I peeked my head in and it looks awesome! (And they're crochet friendly, haha. Some yarn stores are uppity against crocheters. Hahaha.)

5. I actually worked on our garden some! We had beautiful weather this past weekend. Hello little daffodil! Only 84 cents. :) That's a tulip next to it. I wonder what color we'll get.

6. We broke down and got Luna a play pen since she was getting so good at army crawling. (She can move quick!) We got the play pen just in time too because....she started crawling on Sunday!! And no big surprise, she had her first bump-on-the-head yesterday. Haha. I hated the idea of the play pen at first (I called it a cage, lol.) But I really love it now. She can play and do her own thing for a while and I know everything in there is safe for her to play with. She's really good at independent play (if she's not teething), which makes it easy for us to get some chores done here and there.

I'll have to take pictures of my Mini Art Quilt tonight so I can show you tomorrow. I hope everyone else had a good President's Day weekend!

-Ms. 246

My SAHM Day

*Pardon my make-up free face...I had no one to impress today other than Luna and she loves me just the way I am. :)*

Today was Mr. 246's first day of work (training) all day. I just happened to have the day off of work (Lincoln's Birthday...who knew? Kind of silly...) so I got to play make-believe Stay-At-Home-Mom. I haven't had Luna to myself for a whole day since she was two weeks old. At that time, she pretty much still slept all day and I was still recovering from my c-section. Well..let's just say that I am POOPED. She had one of those days that babies have where they refuse to be put down and you have to hold them all day. Luckily I had the Ergo. (Which is almost impossible to put on by yourself...)

So here's some of today's highlights:

Hanging out in the Ergo because she couldn't possibly sit and play like she usually does 90% of the time. Haha. We also went on three walks 'cause that seemed to entertain her...

She didn't want to make any cute faces. Lol. Then we found some flowers! (I was on the hunt!)

I've had a flower craving recently. I can usually find some around the apartment complex but times are bare. None of the plants are in bloom it seems. Our apartments are "garden apartments" so there's a ton of landscaping. The right time of year and I have tons of roses I sneak from the rose bushes by the pool. Hehehe. I promptly put them in water when we got home (Luna helped!). They look bigger than they are, they're in a baby food jar...

At one point Luna decided all her toys were boring so I brought out the big guns: tupperware. That seemed to keep her entertained...

So, while she did that I worked on my Mini Art Quilt for the MAQ swap and I'm almost done!! I just have to finish the binding. I've purposely not been posting about it because I want it to be a surprise for my partner, but here's a sneak peek:

Hopefully that doesn't give too much away. I also decided to make something I found on Pinterest and it came VERY close to becoming a Pinterest Fail. Here's what I was supposed to be making:

Photo credit: http://griffithsrated.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentine-prezel-buttons.html (This also has directions!)

The original picture I had pinned didn't have directions, but someone had said to bake them at 350 for 6 minutes. I've come to realize after a kitchen full of smoke that this may have been too high of a temperature (especially since the link I posted above says to do it at 200.). I caught it just in time though, and though the bottoms were "browned" they still turned out delicious. So much so that they're pretty much all gone. This is the best picture I have of the finished product:

I have some of the stuff left over, I think I may try again. The kisses didn't even melt all the way. Gosh, this is seriously probably the easiest "baking" you could do and I still messed it up. As soon as I saw the smoke I had to start laughing. On another note though, I made a bomb-ass dinner. One of those beef roast crock pot kits with the veggies. I left it in the crock pot perfectly and it was wonderful. (Forgot to take a picture though...too busy in delicious food heaven.)

I decided at some point that the little flowers I picked weren't fulfilling my flower craving so Luna and I went to the grocery store. I didn't like any of their cut flowers, but I found a lovely pot of bright red/golden orange tulips! They're sitting near the front door, just happy to greet me when I get home. :)

Then, after Mr. 246 got home, we got a silly surprise. Our apartment complex does cutsy little things every once in a while. They recently had a "pick the Grammy winner" type thing to win money off your rent. We looked at the form and pretty much didn't know ANY of it. There were like 3 names we recognized and somehow by blind guessing we got SECOND PLACE. hahahahaha. It's just silly. We did not make any sort of educated guesses whatsoever. But, hey...I'll take $60 off rent. :)

So yea, I survived. Luna survived. I think I may be sore tomorrow from having to carry her every where, but that's okay...I'm glad we could have a girls' day. I love my little Bean. I'm going to go finish my quilt, then take a nice hot bath with some Harry Potter then it's time for tea and bed. :)

-Ms. 246

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday Everyone!

I decided to stop in and say hello and fill everyone in on what's been going on here lately:

Ryan and I played Cards Against Humanity last weekend. I love this game. The issue is that we have no friends so we have to invent fake players. Okay, they're not fake...we set up some of Luna's stuffed animals and pretend they're people. It's a bit like a 5-year-old's tea party except we're 25 and drinking alcohol. One thing I've learned....Those stuffed animals have dirty minds:


We had "Steak and Cake" at my parents' house for my mama's birthday. For a store bought cake, it was delicious. (I didn't have steak, I made myself some shrimp. Luna didn't have steak either. She got smooshed peas.)

I also took this picture of Mr. 246 while we were over there. We decided he looks like a giant midget or something. The proportions are just weird. Maybe something to do with the ceilings in the background?

We made some AMAZING flatbread pizza. Seriously, these were delicious. So good we decided that we're having these on Saturday night instead of take out.

I got my first letter from my pen pal! I immediately wrote one back and put it in the mail the next day. (It takes 3 stamps!) I even decided to write a letter to a friend back in Ohio. I think I might even write one to my brother soon. I just love the stamp she used. So fancy and European, haha:

I made Luna's Valentine's Day hat! (I've since then added two more rows to make it a "slouchy" beanie, but I haven't taken a picture of that yet.)

Luna went on her first "big girl" stroller ride. Up until this point we had her in the car seat snapped into the stroller:

Luna also continues to say "Nom nom nom!" when she's hungry:

For weigh-in today, I gained 1 pound. I figured I would. I only tracked food and stayed on goal for the past 2 days. The rest of the week I just ate what I wanted. I lost too much last week so instead of just eating a little bit more, I just ate what I wanted. Oh well. Totally worth it. Who says food can't buy happiness? (Spoken like a true fat girl.)

Last, but not least, I'm making progess on our new bedroom quilt. Here it is so far, Ryan's holding it up side ways. There's still about 12 or so more rows to add onto it for the top piece:

So yea...that's what we've been up to. We don't have any plans for the weekend, but I'm glad to be at home. I am having a slight urge to redecorate or reorganize something. We shall see! Have a good weekend.

-Ms. 246

50 Projects in 2012 (Part TWO!)

Alright folks, I'm back. The countdown to 50 projects for 2012 continues...25 more. I haven't counted in advance, but I'm trying to see if I can or have already hit 50 craft projects for 2012. Read more about it and see the first 25 projects in this post. Let's get back to it...

#26: Baby crib quilt - Purple border, yellow background
#27: Baby crib quilt - Pink border, orange background
(Again, I apologize for the crappy picture.)

Does a pinterest fail count? If so...
#28: "Rainbow Sugar Cookies" These things made me resort to drinking with how horribly it all turned out. Every time I go to bake I seem to forget that I can't stand baking.

#29: Tie-Dye Onesies - I made a couple, some others were made by friends for my baby shower.

#30: Re-Upholstered dining room chairs. Mr. 246 helped with these. They were originally that brown swede and we chose a green/yellow swirly pattern. So freaking easy. I may have to change them again and again.

#31: Crocheted squares for Knit-A-Square charity project. An organization sews them all together to make blankets for AIDS orphans in Africa. Inspired to make these due to the S.P.E.W. (HP Charity Crafting) craftalong on Craftster.

#32: Small Cuddle Texture Blanket out of a scrap I had. Sewed it all up nice for Lunabeaners.

#33: Another S.P.E.W. Project. This one was for Snuggles. You make soft snuggly blankies for shelter animals. :( The way that this lady feels about cats is how I feel about shelter dogs.)  It's a double-stranded crocheted mini blanket. I think it's about 30x30 inches.

Another shot at the blankets brings us...
#34: The second blanket in the pile is a blanket for Lunabean. (I had originally gotten the fabric on clearance to make blankies for the doggies, but it was so lovely and Luna liked it a lot so I made her one as well.)
#35: The "snuggle" on the bottom of the pile is for the Snuggle project as well.

#36: Set of "Defense Against the Dark Arts" HP ornaments made for the "Back to Hogwarts 3" swap on Craftster. They include (from left to right kind of):  A boggart trunk with a boggart of my partners worst fear - losing control, Mad-Eye Moody (Mr. 246 helped since unless I have therapy before hand I cannot work with clay), a set of three mini chalkboards with lessons on the Unforgivable Curses, in the back there are two DADA textbooks, a small Scabbers in the middle, two hand painted, decoupaged Prof. Umbridge kitty plates, set of three "In case of dementor attack" chocolates.

#37: Another project for the "Back to Hogwarts 3" Swap based on my partners favorite store - Weasley Wizard Wheezes.

#38: We nicknamed these "Jackson Pollock's Balls", but they're really Oreo Truffles. Quite delicious but also quite decadent. You definitely can't eat a lot of these.

 

#39: Crocheted Owl Bag - Made for my pseudo niece (my brother's girlfriend's child) since she was starting kindergarten (and it was her birthday). Her mommy said she loved it and was carrying around socks in it. Yea....I don't know. Haha.

#40: Crocheted Infinity Scarf: Modeled by Mr. 246 who now wants one of his own. ("Is this a girl thing? Can guys wear cowls?" "I think so!") Based on a pattern I found on Ravelry which I can't find again at the moment.

#41: Tiny Pumpkin - Made just yesterday in honor of Halloween.

#42: Chalkboard Calender - We are lost without this calender. It's kind of fun 'cause I get to decorate every month.

#43: Moon and Stars Baby Hat - Followed directions for a newborn size and unfortunately it never fit.

#44: Ear-flap Baby Hat - mentioned in previous post

#45: Slouchy Crochet Hat - not pictured. Made for a friend for her birthday and I forgot to take a picture.

Whew...so I've made it to 45! I'm impressed. There's probably a thing or two I'm forgetting, but I'm still impressed. I have a couple long-term projects that I work on from time to time - a granny square blanket which I work on when I have nothing else to work on. Here's a sneak peak (sorry for the picture quality, it's from my phone):

It's got about another half row currently. I know it doesn't look terribly wide, but once it's done (It's going to be 12 squares x 12 squares) I'm going to made a pretty wide border. 

The other in progress project I'm working on is my Harry Potter quilt. I'm following the pattern here from HP Paper Piecing. I must admit, though, since Luna's been born I haven't broken out the sewing machine too much. I don't have a designated spot to sew so I just set up at the dining room table. When I do paper piecing there's a bit more involved because you have to iron so much and it's just a big production I feel like. I can't wait for the day I have a craft room.

Well, I think I can make 5 finished projects by the end of the year. I'll update as I go. Then I get to start planning crafts for next year. First I must get through the holidays. (I finally feel like an adult because I am somewhat dreading the holidays. Not enough time to get things done, we have to travel with an infant, there's too much to fit in in too little time. It's just forced. I'm dreaming of a relaxing Christmas, but I have a feeling it won't happen this year. Anyway, this topic can fill a whole other post. I'm just being a Scrooge about Christmas today. Hehe.)

Thanks for looking!

Kindest Regards,

Ms. 246