First Things First

Before I show you pictures of the finished quilt, I need to blog about some other things.  Last Thursday we stayed home from Bible study because Nadia had a cough.  I wanted to keep Peter occupied so I reverted back to our homeschool days and told him to pick a topic to study.  He picked volcanos.  The book we looked at covered earthquakes and volcanos and it was really fun to go through it.  Then Peter asked me to make a volcano for him.  I quickly looked up all the details for I knew the basics but really didn't want a chemical disaster in the kitchen.  Then we got started. 

Afterwards Peter was really disappointed. He had imagined that we would build a volcano and it would be truly real looking with orange lava and everything. I was disappointed that I didn't deliver but hay I tried and we did have fun while we were doing it - even though it was so terribly unexciting for him, Nadia and I had fun.

 

A Mother's Blessings

I copied these from Aleana's blog.  She took these herself. 

I think Nadia is her favourite model.

Nadia reminds me soooo much of Aleana at the same age - except she is not as strong-willed.  She will have a temper but it won't last for a half an hour.  I am so glad Aleana out grew that stage and has become the level-headed young lady we see today. 

 Nadia has interesting eyes.  They are hazel (if you could call them that) - the pies in her eyes are alternating blue and brown.  Then, in her right eye 4 pie pieces are only blue.  I love it how the LORD makes everyone so unique!!! 

Stay tuned for sewing pictures.  I am almost finished quilting the baby quilt - I had a lovely afternoon sewing with Nadia all over me (seriously, we co-operated rather well) - I just have to finish quilting the borders and get the binding on.  I hope to do that all tomorrow while the family goes swimming without me. 

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and support because I am so pleased with it now that it is quilted!!!  I am so grateful that I stuck it through and didn't cut it all up into pillows. 

Can't wait to show you!!!  Stay tuned. 

This is How I Feel

                                                               Waiting and Watching.
                                                                   

One Goal Accomplished!!!

Today is the day I missed the quiliting retreat - wahhhhhh!!!   Okay, now that that is out of my system I feel better.  I decided to take my free sewing day in two (three??) parts.  Today, I used the morning to sew and Will was able to give me about half of that noise and interruption-free.  That was greatly appreciated.  I also have to thank all of the kiddies because yesterday was Pro-D day and we did most of the housework on Friday instead of the usual Saturday.  All good, all good.

I started my blissful three hours by working on the baby quilt as that seems to be priority.  Earlier this week I decided to remove the black borders and square up the rest, hoping that it would solve the bunching problem.  It helped but it did not "fix" the problem the way I wanted it to.  Let's face it - it is not sewn together well.  I couldn't bear to look at it for the rest of the week. 

Today, I started by adding colored borders from the jelly roll to the quilt.  They look nice, they add color but they did not fix my problem.  I guess I'm just hoping for a miracle every time I try to do something to it. 

                 Here is the quilt with the black border.  Just left click on it if you want more detail. 

Here it is squared up (again!) and with colored borders. Once I took the pictures, I thought maybe it still has a chance of being quilted.  Before the pictures I was thinking that I would just cut the top up and make pillows out of it!!!

In this picture you can see where it bunches up in the center by the yellow four square.

NURSING BIB - FINISHED!!!

So after all my frustration with the baby quilt (one hour) I moved onto making my nursing bib. 

Aleana and I tried to do a photo op with Nadia and the bib.  Here she's being a ham being a baby and "crying".  I can't get the photo bigger without wrecking the resolution.  This is where I got my pattern from:

 http://www.blisstree.com/2010/06/03/sex-relationships/free-pattern-to-sew-your-own-nursing-cover/ 

Our Canine blocker blocked the article in the address there.  I aplogize for it's existence, however I don't know how to give credit without it. 

I didn't follow the pattern 100% - I did my straps the old-fashioned way because I didn't totally understand her instructions.   I am not totally happy with the boning that I bought.  The nice lady at Castle's Sewing gave me the rest of the roll for free so I won't complain as I have enough for at least 3 more bibs.  I'll have to actually start using the bib to see how it is.  Soon, baby soon!!!  

It was so easy to make and I want to make some more!!!  Not for me but for gifts.

I haven't added the D-clips yet.  I tried one place and they had really heavy ones.  I'll just try tying the straps for now and I can always add the D-clips later if I want to. 

Here's a nice shot of Nemo - our family friendly clown fish.

All in all not bad for a sewing day.  I still welcome any ideas about my bunchy quilt. 

Update on Sewing Goal 1

On Friday I spent about an hour adding the borders to the baby quilt.  Now here's the rub.  How honest should I be?  I am quite embarassed about this quilt. I'm starting to feel that batiks are not "appropriate" for a baby quilt.  They are too mature.  So that's one of the first things that is bothering me. Initially I was quite happy with my design for the quilt which I named "Rainbow Burst".  I'll  try to add a picture because I think the colors are gorgeous. Sewing 2 1/2" squares together however, proved to be a challenge for me.  I am NOT happy with how they line up. It was my first try at it and I chose to use the strip/tube method to go faster.  After I added the borders I looked at the finished product and I could have cried.  It is not "squaring up" very well at all.  It's so bad that the top looks all twisted.  AHHHHH.  At this point I have two options (that I am aware of).

OPTION 1: Wash the top and stretch the sides so that they match up.  Will this even work for being out by 1-2 inches??

OPTION 2: Cut the borders until the width is the same size and the length is the same size.  If I do this the borders will not look right - I could then claim that this part of the quilt is "wonky" or modern and then I could add another border to finish it up.

Any other ideas???  Which OPTION do you think I should go with?  Have you ever made a quilt that you were really unhappy with?  I've never been this upset with a quilt before and I would really appreciate any help that you may have. 
Sorry, at this point I don't have a picture of the quilt with the borders.  Hopefully, next week!!! 


  

Sewing Goals - Next Four Weeks

1) Finish Baby Quilt - I am done the top minus the border.  I found a black in my stash that is all sparkly and I want to use it.  Does anyone have any advice on it?  I was ironing it the other day and had to be oh so careful!!!  I don't normally wash fabric before I sew - do I need to do that with this?

2) Baby Nursing Bib - I bought fabric for this the other day but I still need to get the D-clips.  I'm thinking this will be only an hour to make - make that 2 knowing me. 

3) A whole day dedicated to sewing special thanks to my husband.  The quilitng retreat is at a very bad time for me this year.  I am so disappointed!!!  I was hoping that it would be at the end of Feb or possibly in March.  Nope.  Rather, it's 2 weeks before baby is due.  Over Christmas I spent one day sewing for six hours.  I could hardly walk the next day!!  So instead of driving for two hours and sewing for 12 (which I'll never manage to do at this stage) I get the treat of sewing uninteruptted for as long as I can handle.  This is wonderful!!  I will then be able to get somewhere on my two goals above.  I will miss meeting with the ladies and seeing everyone's work but trust that someone will blog about it and I can see all the quilting eye candy that way!!  Have fun ladies and I'll see you next year!! 

Still Not Right

I see now that the pictures did not download like they used to.  Another thing I have to work on. 
I may reconsider the purpose of my blog and post less pictures and do more commentary.  Two ideas are a small devotional with only one or two pictures and perhaps more focus on sewing and other creative wonders that we delve into around here.  I'll need a few days to think about it.  In the mean time, don't stop visiting!!  I'm not going to stop blogging - I'm just going to change things up abit. 

Until then, have a good day in our Father's World.
Gloria

Boxing Day at Dad and Hilda's

Boxing Day at Dad and Hilda's, a set on Flickr.

Slowly, I am figuring out how this all works.
For Christmas we bought a new camara and I am very happy with the quality of photos compared to our little old point and shoot.
Cousin Julie visited BC over Christmas so we were able to enjoy her company at Grandpa and Grandma's on Boxing Day. We had good food, played charades, scrabble, and rummicub. Thanks for insisting we play charades Julie - we had lots of fun!! The dinner was delicious Grandma!! Even Oma graced us with her presence for some time after dinner. What a blessing to have so much family!! Next post I should have figured out how to put comments under the photos.

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IMG_0028, a photo by WillF5 on Flickr.

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We are starting to figure out how to link Flickr with Blogger.  It is finally working as you can see.  This is a photo of N. in her birthday dress from Grandma.  Makes for a nice Christmas photo. - WF