It's about that time...

Time to post a belly picture, that is. Casey is classic for taking pictures of me while I'm talking and that's what was going on in this picture, but it'll do, I suppose. I made this shirt, by the way. Cute, huh? Only four weeks to go! Today I'm considered full term, but since both the girls were about a week late, I'm not keeping my fingers crossed that this one will be early. It would be cool, though, I think I've had about enough ;) I have an ultrasound on Thursday and a baby shower that night, so that will be an exciting day for me. Even more exciting, my sister and her family are coming tomorrow and will be staying with us until Saturday!!!! We're really looking forward to their visit.

And, hey, remember all the little hourglass squares I showed here awhile ago? Well, here are some finished blocks. I think it's going to be so pretty. Now that all the small parts are done, the rest is going much faster. I love looking at quilts and recognizing fabrics that have sentimental value. In this picture, I see the valances I made for the girls' room and a maternity shirt I made when I was pregnant with Natalie and still wear this pregnancy. I won't always have those things, but I will always think of these sweet times when I use this quilt. Can't wait to finish!

Grab Bags and Summer Fun

Aren't these little bags so cute? These are to take to market on Saturday and they sewed up really fast. You can make one too! There is a free pattern here.

Well, I have five weeks left until my due date and this is where it gets though, as many of you know. In an effort not to think about myself too much, we've been staying pretty busy around here. Plus, if we're out of the house all morning, that means there's not so much mess for me to clean up in the afternoon :) Yesterday was super hot and so we met some friends at the Northfield fountains and then had lunch. We were laughing because even though my cousin came along, we still had one more kid than we had adults! We'll only grow from here, I guess. After nap time, I made some brownies and let the girls lick spatulas, so that explains that last adorable picture of Layla. I have pics of Natale doing the same, but she wasn't wearing any clothes, as usual, and I try not to post nakey pictures on the internet, if you know what I mean! Is this all three-year-olds or just mine? I know it's just a phase, but boy, it's a long one!

That's More Like It

I have lots to share today! First, this is a basket that my Mom had gotten for us on one of their island adventures (authentic!) and we've been using it a lot because it's perfect to fit everything we need for the park, the fountains, a picnic, etc... But, inevitably, it started falling apart :( SO, I took it's measurements and made a colorful fabric replacement! It holds its structure pretty well and I'm super happy with it. I especially love when I get to use one of the old wooden buttons I got in a lot on ebay several years ago. So much character.




















Second, for those of you wondering how Farmer's Market is going, I have mixed answers: First week, not so good. We didn't sell a thing and I was too discouraged about that to even blog about it. But we did make it onto this little online publication (scroll down just a little, we're the vendor of the month!) HOWEVER, this past Saturday was SOOOOO much better! It was a whole different crowd out there and we sold quite a few things and made a nice little chunk of money :) So, I've been busy making more stuff for this coming Saturday--some pillow case dresses, a crayon tote and some little bags that are not posted here.

And, just for you Dad, here are some oh-so-cute pictures of Layla. I couldn't help myself, she was so cute yesterday :) Natalie does not like to wear this pillow case dress because, "it's not very twirly", but I stuck it on Layla yesterday and she seems to love it! And she had this little curly-cue sticking straight off the top of her head since bath time the night before. She's getting so big! Gotta go, the girls are running around with my knitting needle collection. Probably not a good idea :)

Loot! and Quilt Progress

The girls and I went over to our church garage sale today. We got there pretty early and I'm so glad we did so I could snatch up these treasures! Not that most people would consider all these things treasures, but I do :) I got a dozen brand new jelly jars, which should make my mother-in-law so happy since we usually get together and make jelly for Christmas gifts. AND, five pillow cases fit for some little dresses AND some AMAZING vintage ball-fringe, which I'm always on the lookout for since I love it, but usually can't afford to buy it by the yard. AND, three vintage plushie patterns-a quarter for all three! Yay! I don't know if you can see that polka-dotted puppy, but I think that one tops my list of must-makes. Not pictured--the massive pink tutu for Natalie I also got for a quarter. Her other one slowly bit the dust since I had to wash it many times during our potty training saga. Whew! I'm glad that's over.

On to the quilt. Squaring up is a pain. I have tons of these little hourglass squares (about 150, I think) and since I know that skipping the squaring up is a big quilting no-no, I have been diligent to make sure they all measure right as I go. Almost done with that step and I must say, I'm mighty happy with (almost) all my perfectly matched corners :) This quilt is called Spice is Nice and was featured in a Quilts & More magazine. I found this picture, so you can see what it will look like. This is my biggest quilt so far, so Casey's very excited. He complains that the other two I've made are too small for him to stretch out under, since he's pretty tall. He wants a super-huge one, but I'm working up to that.


















Also, a few side notes: I don't know if anyone else watches So You Think You Can Dance, but I do (I'm a dork, I know) and on last night's show, Katy Perry, wearing almost nothing, sang her hit single, "I Kissed a Girl." A dangerously catchy song and I say "dangerous" because the lyrics are so screwed up. Anyway, there is an amazing post about this song on Virtue Alert, one of my favorite blogs. Can you believe Katy Perry (formerly Katy Hudson) is a pastor's daughter and her first CD was a Christian album?? Anyway, go read the post, it's enlightening.

Lastly, I came across this blog, and I think it's a great idea to reach out to kids with critically ill siblings. The best part, I think, is that instead of having to make a whole quilt yourself, you can contribute a block or two to certain quilts that she posts there. Pretty cool, I think, so go check it out.

Happy 4th! on the 7th :)

We went down to Casey's sister's house for the 4th of July this year and the girls had tons of fun, especially Natalie. She doesn't have any playmates her age around here, so I just love it when we see her cousins and she has so much fun with them. It was really hot, but there was plenty of water to play in so that helped ;) The kids played with poppers and sparklers, which make me a nervous wreck, but nobody set anyone else on fire, so that is good. Natalie kept her sparkler and calls it her "wand". Silly girl.

Way down at the end, there's a picture of my tiger lily! The first one to bloom, but there are several more ready to go and they are so beautiful! I'm going to spend some time working on a quilt this week that I've had cut out for a few months now. It will be my first non-wonky quilt from an actual pattern, so we'll see how it goes!

Wowsers

Our house is pretty chaotic today. We are getting all new windows installed and it has caused way more upheaval than I expected. It's hot, there are flies all over, which freaks Natalie out, there is noise and dirt and wood and nails and stuff all over the place. It's more than any of us bargained for, including our contractor! There's not much napping going on around here today, needless to say, and I'm considering calling a friend and asking if the girls and I can drop in for awhile. Anyway, since my sewing corner is in an upheaval (that's where three of our main windows are), what's a girl to do but pick out and cut fabrics for a new quilt? I've been wanting to try the Color Wheel Quilt from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts for a long time. My stash just hasn't been big enough! It takes fifty-two different fabrics, in various color families to make this baby and so I've been collecting for awhile now. Let me tell ya, getting it to this point was A LOT of work! But it's going to be worth it, as I know just which wall it's going on and I know it will be so beautiful. That's as much as I can do on the dining room table, though, so the sewing will have to wait.

Just so you all don't waste your time, I thought I'd give a few movie reviews here for you :) We rented three movies last Friday (not intending to breeze through them all in one night.) We started with 10,000 B.C. Sooooo b-o-r-i-n-g, we didn't make it 15 minutes, I don't think. Not much of a story and when paired with an amazing lack of color or anything interesting to look at, it was a real downer. So, then we put in Definitely, Maybe, my choice, since it looked like such a great chick flick in the previews. We turned it off 20 minutes later, it was nothing but sex! What is up with chick flicks????? Can't we just get a good romantic comedy anymore? Ya know, I always wonder why people let their children play in movies like this? Is it so important for their kids to break into show business that they'll allow their innocence to be completely dragged through the mud? That's how I have felt about little Abigail Breslin for awhile now. So, we ended with The Spiderwick Chronicles, which was really pretty good, although we think the book was probably much better. There ya go, if anyone actually read all of that ;)

Quilty Warm Fuzzies

This is the scene in our living room today. Natalie made a big tent out of the quilts and the couch and ottoman. There's something about seeing all these quilts being played with this way that is just so wonderful to me. Quilts are one of those things that become special to a family without even trying. Last weekend I was at the Kendalls' house and they brought out a quilt my mom had made for them some 15 or 20 years ago (I don't really know how long), but it was soooo nastalgic for me to look at. There were fabrics in there that Mom had made me dresses out of in elementary school, as well as fabrics that were used in some of the quilts she made our own family and decorated our house with back then. And all these years later, they still use it and love it. I just love that. My Wonky House quilt has pretty much all the fabrics I used for everything under the sun during my first 6 years of marriage. I get all reminiscent just gazing at it. Anyway, these are just more good reasons to take up quilting :) Quilts really do make memories that last a lifetime.

Sewing and Reading

I made a bunch of these headbands the other day. These are really easy and super cute. There is a free pattern here. It occurred to me today that according to my blog, it really must seem like all I do is sew and read, but I promise that's not true! I sew when the kids are napping or down for the night and I only read at bedtime--one chapter a day, really and that's only possible because Casey leaves for work at 9pm and I go to bed early, by myself. So, for those of you who have been asking me how I get all this sewing and reading in, here's the short answer: I sacrifice couch time for the things I love to do!

So, speaking of reading :) I started a book last night called, Animal Vegetable, Miracle. It's by a family who moved from Tuscon to Southern Appalachia and committed to living on only what they could grow or raise or buy locally. So far it's a GREAT book and pretty eye-opening too. Here is a good quote from chapter one:

"Consider how Americans might respond to a proposal that agriculture was to become a mandatory subject in all schools, alongside reading and mathematics. A fair number of parents would get hot under the collar to see their kids' attention being pulled away from the essentials of grammar, the all-important trigonometry, to make room for down-on-the-farm stuff. The baby boom psyche embraces a powerful presumption that education is a key to moving away from manual labor and dirt-two undeniable ingredients of farming. It's good enough for us that somebody, somewhere, knows food production well enough to serve the rest of us with all we need to eat, each day of our lives." (p. 9)

I could go on and just quote the whole chapter, but I won't :) Basically, she is making a case for knowing and teaching our children where our food actually comes from. Maybe if we were better educated about these things, we would care more what we are actually feeding ourselves and stop wondering where our obesity problems are coming from. Anyway, just food for thought. Pun intended, hehehe.

And, one more thing, there is a great fabric giveaway going on here. This lovely blogger just opened a fabric shop on Etsy and is having a grand opening giveaway. You have until Thursday to enter, I believe, so hop on over there if you want!