A Finish - Kayla's Quilt

I know it has been forever since I've posted and unfortunately I've not been very productive this year, but that changed recently. At the end of last year we found out that my nephew and his wife are expecting, and in March we found out that they will be having a girl. So of course a quilt needed to be made. They are doing the nursery in pink and grey and so I worked up a couple of options and Jessica picked a chevron pattern.  I bought the fabric and got started.

In my head I had until mid July to finish, not thinking that the baby shower was Memorial Day weekend. When I realized that, the push was on, and I luckily got it finished. Fat Quarter Shop had Triangles on a Roll on sale so I bought a pack to see if it helped make HST faster. I do think it did make the process faster. Thanks to them and to the fact that the quilt is smaller I was able to finish it start to finish in just under a month. I didn't post it last week, because I wanted the finished product to be a surprise for them.  I did tease them a little with this photo on Facebook.

Saturday morning came and I hadn't photographed the quilt, so Sharla and I hurried outside to try and get a couple of decent shots. We didn't want to put it on the ground, so that mean't me holding it while she took the picture. Let's just say it was HOT outside even early that morning. It took us a couple of tries to get an alright shot.

Now what Trey and Jessica didn't know is that I added a little something special to the back. So I made sure it was folded so the back wasn't seen until it was unfolded.  I told them as they opened it to make sure they looked at the back. Jessica thought I wanted them to see the label, but no I was wanted them to see.

The back was facing the guests and everyone went ooohhh at the same time and so they quickly flipped it and they were thrilled. Which of course just made me happy. I didn't get a shot with both of them in it, Trey kept holding so you didn't see him behind it.

Over all I'm very happy with it and in some ways I like the back even better than the front. It was just big hunks of left over fabric, but I really love how it finished. My brother and sister-in-law gave them a handmade cradle, so I'm going to make a mini version that they can use in the cradle and then Kalya can use it as a doll quilt when she is older. Of course Trey said Jess would be stealing the quilt to use on the couch, so maybe I need to make her one as well.

I was happy to be sewing and quilting again, and I've even started two new projects, the cradle quilt and I'm joining the #scrappytrip2018 and creating a scrappy trip quilt using some Evergreen jelly rolls I had. Hopefully I will be able to show ya'll some progress on that soon. But for now I'm going to link up with Can I Get A Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict,  Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation, Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, and Finished or Not Friday Linky Party at Busy Hands Quilts.

Goodbye 2017...Hello 2018

I know ya'll have probably been wondering what the heck happened. I just dropped off the blogging world without any notice. Well let's just say 2017 was not my favorite year ever, ok it wasn't the worst year of my life but it also wasn't the best.  Lots and lots of things broke around my house last year...frig, dryer, hot water heater, garage door, computer, TV, kitchen faucet and car, which meant I had little money to buy my favorite thing fabric. But even worse I just lost my mojo.

I think the real problem was I was comparing myself to all the wonderful bloggers I follow. Seeing how much they were accomplishing and me getting little done and I let it get to me. And then I joined the 100 Days of Tula Pink challenge and it really kicked my butt. I loved it, don't get me wrong, but having to post something every day for 100 days was just pressure that I didn't need.  I found myself not wanting to write my blog, read other blogs or even sew.

Now I've not been to a doctor, but in my opinion I think I was just depressed, in a blue mood, funked out...I could call it a hundred other names but it all is the same. I found I didn't want to do anything, I was late on bee blocks for the first time, because I just couldn't get the "umph" to do them. And that made it worse, because I felt I was letting people down.

I decided I needed a little break, and I really only planned to stop for about a month. I thought that would give me time to refresh my batteries and get going again. But it has been over 6 months. I have thought many times about writing, but to be honest I wasn't sure what to say.

So I didn't write. I just stayed in my funk. The really funny thing is I missed writing. I just didn't miss the pressure to write. So over the holidays I did some thinking and I had to make a decision. Do I want to continue to blog? And I decided yes. But I'm not going to pressure myself to have a certain number of posts a week, I'm not going to pressure myself to finish X amount of projects this year. I'm just going to have fun with it.

So in that vein I picked a word for 2018...ok I actually picked 3. I read a cool blog post about selecting the word of the year and the author actually selects three words. Which I thought was a good idea, because it allows you to focus on more than one thing and for my crazy brain, that sometimes helps. I'm sure you are curious about the words I chose.

Move - I have to move more, plain and simple. My knees are giving me lots of grief, but I can't let that stop me from moving. I drive 100 miles 5 days a week, and work at a computer for 8 hours a day, so that means I sit a lot. I have to find ways to work in moving more. I'm not just saying this like it is magically going to happen, we have already bought an exercise bike and now I just have to make myself use it daily.

Stash - This word has double meaning for me this year. The first is after the expensive year we had last year, I want to stash away cash...build my savings. I want to re-exam my budget and find ways to save money. This leads to the second meaning to the word. I have enough fabric to sew for years and not buy any, so that is what I want to do. I want to use more of what I have and not buy new. I did not sign up for any bee's this year, so I shouldn't have to buy for others. There is one exception I'm giving myself and that is there will be a new baby in my family this year, and if I have to buy fabric to make a quilt for him/her then that is ok. Other than that I'm ignoring sales (as much as I can), and trying to use what I have.

Grace - I recently saw a video on facebook where women were talking about the mean things they say to themselves. Things they would never say to anyone else, but they say to themselves on a regular basis. And I realized that I do that to myself all the time. I am never good enough, and if I do something good and someone says so, in my head I stay they don't know about all the times I suck. So this year my goal is to be kinder to myself, and also to be kinder to others. I need to cut myself and others some slack. I know this one is going to be hard for me, but in the long run, it will probably have the best results.

Ok so I'm starting off 2018 with three words to focus on and hopefully master by the end of the year. I don't know where 2018 is going to lead me, but I'm hoping somewhere fun. I've already been working on grace for myself and I've decided that I'm not going to push myself to complete specific project, I'm going to let things flow more naturally. So I'm not sure I will be posting every week, but I hope to post more often than once every six months.

And since I hate blog posts without photos, here is a photo of the last project I did. It is much further along now, but I will save that for later (because I don't have pictures of it yet.