My Smartphone killed my blog.

Why carry around the good camera when I have my phone in my pocket all the time? Why blog when I  can quickly upload phone pics to Facebook?

It didn't help that our good camera ate batteries. Sometimes, I could take 10 pictures with it before the batteries died. Other times, it wouldn't even take one picture. Oh, and my laptop died too. So I couldn't blog while watching TV at night.

It probably also didn't help that we only ever finished about 90 percent of the stairwell project. I thought  John was going to work on  the board that goes under the actual stairs. It is so loud, and he discussed trying to making it more of a floating board. But it never got done. Spring came, and we had other things to do. Then summer break, kids, blah, blah.

I miss writing about projects though. I want to remember how and when and why I made things.

Like the Christmas quilts I made for the girls.

I got this idea last August or September. I'd make Christmas quilts for the girls. I'd decorate their rooms this (er, last) year for Christmas. Their rooms would look look like photos worthy of magazines. They'd each have a small tree. Ellie's would be white, and Mary's would be pink. And they'd look wonderful with the new quilts. Their rooms would be tidy. Certainly not littered with toys, dirty laundry, and other kid stuff.

But then I realized that two quilts was out of my crafting budget.

So I gave up on the idea for a while.  But it nagged at me. I started looking at fabric on Etsy. It had to have pink (to match Mary's walls), blue/turquoise (to match Ellie's walls), red, and light green. It had to be winter themed without being overly Christmas. My hope was they would be something that could be used from November though January.

Then, perhaps on Pinterest, I found an awesome pattern that just spoke to me. Easy. Patchworky. I loved it. I considered the cost of the pattern, the top material for two twin quilts, the batting, thread, backing material, and binding. That's a lot of crafty money. 

But still, I thought about it. Until one day, when I found THE fabric.

The collection is called Apline Wonderland. I fell in love immediately. I think by then it was probably October. Maybe even the middle of October. The patten (Easy Bake by Cluck, Cluck, Sew) called for ten inch squares - 63 per quilt. The fabric came in pre-cuts of that size called a layer cake. Some layer cakes have 42 squares. This print came in 21 squares per bundle. I'd need three for each quilt IF I didn't make any cutting or seam ripping mistakes. I think each layer cake was about $20. It just seemed like too much money.

Then John had a great idea! I could make them as Christmas gifts for the girls. They could be their main gifts from us. Why hadn't I thought of that? I think I ordered the fabric the next day (October 29th). I knew that I wanted the quilts to be a surprise. So I'd only be able to work on them while Mary and Ellie were both at school (the three mornings a week while Ellie was in preschool) or at night after they were in bed. 

Crappy late night cell phone picture.

The above picture was taken on November 7th. It's Ellie's quilt, with all 63 squares cut up two times, and then sewed back together to make the blocks (four pieces of fabric per finished block). It isn't sewed together yet. I was just laying it out to get the blocks in the order I wanted them. Then I sewed the rows to form the quilt top.

Pinning.

Next, I pinned the quilt sandwich (backing fabric, batting, and quilt top) on the dining room floor. I think I used about 300-325 pins. I put them all in and left them open in case I needed to adjust any. Shutting all them practically made my fingers bleed. This picture was on November 12th.

I started to quilt it a couple days later. But I hadn't pulled the backing fabric as tightly as I should have. I also think that the tape I used to tape it to the floor ended up coming loose. Either way, the back was puckering on me. I'd done all the vertical lines, and they were fine. Then the horizontal ones gave me fits. There was a lot of seam ripping. Finally I just decided it was "good enough" which honestly isn't very like me. But my only alternative was to rip out all of the vertical stitches. I did consider it briefly but decided there wasn't time. 

The front looked pretty good, so I just kept going. I was working until about 1 a.m. every night. My back hurt, my shoulders and my neck too. Oh, and I got this horrible pain in my arm pit. But I had my trusty assistant with me, so I kept going.

Every time I'd lay the quilt out on the table and start running it thought the sewing machine, a kitten would decide it was nap time. Then I'd get to the end of the row and have to flip the quilt. The kittens were not amused. I finally got it all quilted. I wasn't sure what I wanted to bind it with, so I just moved on to Mary's quilt. Starting over seemed like torture. I had to cut down all the fabric, sew the pieces together one way, then cut that, match it up with another, and sew. That made one block. Repeat 63 times, then sew the rows. Pinning a quilt together should be an olympic sport. It must look like a one woman game of twister as I pin from the middle out  in a circular pattern. 

It's cell phone pics or nothing, people!

I loved seeing the winter sun come in through the dining room windows. The above is Mary's quilt on November 21st.

Every day before I'd go get Ellie at school, I'd pick everything up. I'd shove it into the craft closet. Thank goodness the girls never look in there. It's right by their coat hooks in the entry way.

I had them quilted but needed fabric to bind them. I wanted the bindings to be simliar, but not matching. I decided to use a poinsettia print that was part of the quilt tops. Green for Ellie's quilt and red for Mary's. So I ordered that and waited. I attached the binding to the front by machine and then stitched it closed on the back by hand. I think it took about 4-5 hours of hand stitching per quilt.

Then I washed them. And probably prayed that they wouldn't fall apart - that none of the seams would come undone or the fabric fray out. They turned out fine. I don't even remember when I finished them. I think it was around December 1st. I knew I wanted them done well before Christmas which is why I worked so hard. It turned out to be good planning on my part. First we all came down with the flu then I had jury duty for nearly a week.

I did manage to bust out the real camera when I was done with both quilts.

Ellie's is on the left. Mary's is on the right. They are both backed with fabric from Jo Ann's though I don't have the names. One or both might be by Denyse Schmidt. 

I thought they turned out well. I'm not an expert. I could never sell these. Think "home made" when you imagine them close up. They are far, far from perfect. But I was happy with them. I washed them probably 3 times each, and wrapped them up for the girls.

And on Christmas morning Ellie said: "A quilt?!?!??! I hate quilts!!!!!!!"

Yep. But the good news is she doesn't hate them anymore. 

Mary loved hers. I do think that in her own way she realized how much work must have gone into them. 

That's the story of the Christmas quilts 2012. Maybe by Christmas 2013 I'll have their rooms cleaned, the miniature Christmas trees purchased, and even find time to blog about that too. 

Hot off the hook!

One of these is for Mom. I'll keep the one she doesn't want. 

I like them both, so I'll be happy with the left over one.

Off to clean the kitchen yet again.  

Basement: after...for now

I was looking for the before picture and didn't even recognize this:


Today:

Ceiling: not falling down!
Walls: painted!
Floor: painted!
Missing baseboards and other misc trim: replaced!
And there's so much more....the hours spent scrubbing the floor so the paint would stick, repairing some cracks and nail holes in the floor, and replacing the dryer vent. I'm sure there's more. (I guess I should mention that I didn't like the finish on the first round of painting (satin paint) so we painted the walls and trim all over again with semi-gloss.)

I didn't even get a pic of the door to the crawlspace, but before it was covered over by a baby gate across the top, and a sheet of plywood pushed up against it and held by cinder blocks. Fancy! Now there's an actual door there.

Clearly we haven't put the junk back on the shelf over the sink, etc. And the basement was a huge mess when we started.

Here's a shot from by the sliding glass doors before:


And after! There were 3 wall shelves on the far wall before...you can sort of see them. They were just boards resting on some brackets, and one was so close the the ceiling that it was basically worthless. We painted them, actually attached them to the brackets, and made it one long shelf.


I guess I didn't get a straight on shot of the wall where the new shelves are, but this is close:


And one of the shelves John built:


And we still have room to pile stuff on! Woot!

I am proud of us. We thought it would take a month. Then we thought it would take three months. We started in late August, and John just finished it today. That's a long time. But now we know the pace at which we can do home improvement stuff (glad we didn't decide to tackle the kitchen first!) and stay sane AND parent two toddlers.

I think it will be a while before we start anything else. But John got the shelves he wanted. I hope he's happy:).

Last but not least, the granny blanket I made:


I wish the lighting would have been better, but I figured this picture was better than none. It's so pretty in real life. I hope my customer is pleased.

This morning's excitement and why not...a new to do list

This morning Ellie got up at 5:45! Ugh. We went into the kitchen. I started coffee. Ellie wanted to nurse. I sat down at my computer and checked my email while feeding her. It was still pretty dark in the kitchen. I heard a noise. I thought, "oh, dear Lord, what ARE the cats doing??" I thought I should look as soon as Ellie was done. Then I heard something else. A squeak? Surely not. I looked over and the cats were just sitting there. The next noise sounded like a squeak too. Not really wanting to look, I told Ellie we were done and I got up. Sure enough, under Ellie's high chair sat a mouse. Blech. Ick. Okay, there were two cats staring him down. I figured I didn't need to set a trap or anything. Hattie gently got closer.....set to pounce.....and ever so softly batted it like a toy. Damn cat. Well, Momma Cat was sitting right there too. She lived outside for years. We made her a house cat when we moved here from Evansville. She was ready. She was set. The mouse ran right by her! She.......smelled it. Really. She sniffed it as it went by. Really, Momma Cat? How did you live outside all those years? Well, the poor mouse was under the chairs in front of our fireplace. It would dart from one to the other....cats smelling it and gently patting it as it went by. John woke up. Mary woke up. John tipped the chair up, and there sat the mouse. Eating an old goldfish cracker. The cats looked excited....I think Momma Cat smelled it again. Or John said it ran into her trying to get away. Our breakfast was over at this point. John went to change Ellie's diaper. I went into the hallway and saw our massive (23? 25? pounds?), lazy cat Simon. I told him to get into the kitchen and help. Well, he went to the kitchen, saw that John had built a fire in the fireplace, and settled in for a nap. His head was still perked up, but he was relaxing. I think he was trying to figure out what the other cats were doing. I'm fairly certain he did not know about the mouse. I'd given up on the mouse and was going to set some traps. Simon's head was near one of the chairs. All of the sudden, the mouse darted for the other chair. Right in Simon's path! Simon didn't even stand up...he just whipped his head around at lightning speed and CHOMP.....sorry little mouse. Simon got up, went to the basement and enjoyed his breakfast. I've never been so proud of Simon in my life. Slow, fat, lazy Simon. He killed a mouse without even standing up. Darn Momma Cat and Hattie. They kept looking for the mouse. They didn't even know it was gone.

This is Simon. He's actually much bigger in real life. Maybe he was having a skinny day. The picture is also over a year old. Maybe he was smaller back then.

In other news, we are snowed in. Not technically snowed in, but who wants to go out in this weather? I think we have 6 or 7 inches. The girls and I went out and played yesterday, but I think it is too cold today. Ellie gets cold really fast out there.

Being snowed in makes me think of projects I wish I had time to do. Mainly, paint stuff. But it's too cold. The first day it hits 50 degrees, I'm going to be out there painting like a mad woman. In the meantime, I have plenty other stuff to do.

1. Finish granny square baby blanket (8 of 11 rows done and assembled)
2. Make pillows for "green room" aka the room where we change Ellie's diapers. There's a futon in there and I want some pillows on it. I wanted to make 3 colors--pink, green and red. I went to Jo Anns and they were out of red flannel. How?? I even asked. The lady said someone had just come in and bought all the red they had. (I wonder what she was making?).
3. Repaint the green room closet. It's too damn pink. I'm going to use the pink I already have a mix it with some white we already have.
4. Make some Valentine's crafts. I already have some salt dough hearts made. I need to paint them. I also want to make a Valentine's bunting/banner thing. I have the fabric for the fronts, just need some RED FLANNEL for the back. Hmm.


I think that's it. Everything else involves spray paint or painting furniture which needs to happen out in the garage. Come on spring! Or even a nice day--maybe next month?

I can't believe 2009 is almost over

First of all, we survived Christmas! Mary got a piggy bank from Santa. She was so happy. She got a dress from Grandmother and of course wanted to wear it right away. She wore it for 3 days straight I think. Ellie was less excited about her gifts, but really liked unwrapping them. I got new flannel sheets for our bed! I love them. I got a cool book on making sock animals. I need to find some funky socks and then make some of them. Not for toys but for me to keep!

This year flew by. I'm already thinking about planning Mary's 4th b-day party and it seems like her birthday was just a couple months ago. I can't believe my baby will be 4! We're trying to figure out what school we'll send her to next year--either back to pre-school for 3 days a week (she currently just goes 2) or if we'll start her in a multi-age pre-k/kindergarten which would be 5 days a week.

Ellie's currently (well, in this moment she's sleeping on my lap) having a word explosion. Not much we can understand yet, but she's very into identifying things. And playing a game we call "where's your fork?" while we eat lunch/dinner. She takes her fork, hides it behind her, waits and if we don't notice she says "fork? fork?" We have to ask her where it is, then she produces it from behind her back with a HUGE smile on her face. And speaking of things I can't believe, in three weeks Ellie will be the same age Mary was when we moved here!!! How crazy is that? The first 16 months of Mary's life took 5 years and the first 16 months of Ellie's life have taken just a couple months, if that.

After Ellie's nap, the girls and I are going to take the Christmas stuff down. I didn't even put much out this year, but thinking of taking it all down and packing it away is overwhelming. I'm ready for it to be gone though, so I can go back to some of the decorating projects I was working on in November.

Speaking of projects, I finished my Christmas knitting at 7pm on Christmas Eve. Time to spare! Now I'm crocheting a baby blanket. It's a fun project. I really hope the recipient loves it.


That's 27 of 143 squares done.....plus sewing them all together and weaving in what will be 572 ends. It goes quickly though. I'm hoping to finish it this month (errr, I mean January!) IF I don't get sidetracked by other projects.

Santa's coming

For 3/4 of our family! I got John's stocking (right) done and blocked. So the girls and John are set. Guess Santa will just have to leave mine in a paper bag or something. Or maybe he'll just knit me a stocking?

We're all sick. I'm so tired. I still have a tiny bit to do on Mary's gift, we still need to wrap everything, and I JUST THIS MORNING started my last knitted gift. Speaking of which, I should get back to work on it.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Ah, the Christmas to do list

Forget the to do list of a month ago. Or two weeks ago. Whenever I posted that. Last Tuesday, we drew names for our Christmas exchange. Of course I immediately decided I'd give a handmade gift. I'd told myself earlier in the year I wasn't going to give handmade gifts this year. But then, I don't know, I had a moment of sleep deprived insanity and thought "Well, there's PLENTY time to make stuff."  So I ordered some yarn that day. It came Saturday, and I started knitting.

To do before Christmas:

1. Make scarf and (if I have enough yarn) fingerless mittens for exchange recipient.

2. Make doll diapers for Mary and Ellie's Waldorf dolls, an outfit and diaper for Big Baby (Cabbage Patch). Finish outfit (almost done) for each Waldorf doll.

3. Finish John's stocking that I started last week.

4. Start!!!! and finish John's gift without him seeing me make it. hmmmmmm

Well, that's it. It looks like less when it's typed out, but it feels like a lot to me. I also got some yarn in the mail today to make Ellie some new longies as she has outgrown all the ones I made in the fall. I think she just had a growth spurt. She's so tall and all legs. I'd love to have those done by January as I have a couple paid jobs/projects that I'd like to start then.

Back to toddler chasing!

Baby blanket

For months now, I've been knitting this baby blanket. I'd work on it a while, then get bored and do something else. I finally got it done Wednesday night. It's blocking now, but the sun came in the window and I was able to get a good picture of the pattern. It measures 31 by 32 inches, and contains 42,480 stitches. (Can that be right? the end borders are 180 sts for 10 rows times both ends--3600 sts. The main part is 27 squares, 8 rows each, 180 sts per row--38,880.) It took forever, but it's so pretty. Worth every minute and every stitch. We're just waiting for some friends to have their baby in the next couple weeks, and I'll be shipping it out.

I cannot wait to work on some projects that only take a couple days. And I doubt I'll be doing another large project any time soon.

For Mom

I hope she likes them! They are her Christmas gift. I am giving them to her tomorrow so she can use them this year.