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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Back...

to the land of the sewing that is...

I hadn't turned my machine on in weeks.

Let me give you some backstory by saying that I am not overly sentimental.  I'm not one of those people that saves every last token and trinket because I WANT to remember this moment.  I'm not the Mom who says "I don't want my kids to start kindergarten because it means they're growing up!" I usually feel like where we're at is great and I LOVE my kids and family, but I know that today and tomorrow will have they're own special-ness and I'm okay with living for right now and then moving on.

But a few weeks ago I found myself wishing the summer could be slower.  Noticing how fast my kiddos were growing.  Seeing they're bodies develop farther from that baby and toddler roundness into harder, more efficient "big kids."  I realized that there is less sitting in Momma's lap and more of sitting near Momma or gasp, on another couch without touching me at all!  I found myself wanting to capture the moment forever!!!

So, I did.  I didn't worry about the fact that my sewing machine and precious fabrics were gathering dust.  I never once felt bad for not keeping up with my google reader.  I felt slight guilt about not blogging, but I shrugged it of with the morning breeze and felt fine.  Instead I swam and sat by the pool while my kids swam for hours.  I read books and snuggled during movies.  I ran alongside bikes as they practiced riding.  I let Emma brush my hair and style it and then did hers.  I listened to rambling monologues about pod races and Anakin and all other things Star Wars.  I climbed the St. Augustine Lighthouse and found out that Oren has a fear of heights.  I swam and crashed in ocean waves.  I tasted the waters of the Fountain of Youth and felt the 8-year-old joy that Emma felt in doing so.  I made cookies, peach pie filling, fruit salad, homemade popsicles and many, many sandwiches.  I let my kids be in charge of our daily plan for the most part and it was great!

But I had deadlines that had to be met...bee blocks that had to go out.  People counting on me to be there.  So yesterday I turned on my sewing machine, busted out my rotary cutter and joined the land of the sewing again.

AND IT FELT GREAT!

So, here is what I got done:

 For Nubees, I decided on the Woven Block from Sew Happy Geek.  It fit the bill for quick, easy, and eye-catching.

In my Modern Blocks Bee, Vicki sent us a group of blue and green fabrics and asked for wonky stacked strips in different sizes, so I did a small and a medium group for her.  Y'all know I don't really do wonky well, so these were a real struggle for me trying to figure out the angles and making it all line up.  But I persevered and conquered.


Then, Michonne asked our Empower do. Good group to make modern Flying Geese this month.  We could make whatever layout in whatever size we wanted.  She asked that we use a palette of tomato reds, medium pinks, aqua, gold, and dark gray with Kona ash as the background.  Since she mentioned different sizes, I thought it would be fun to make really big ones mixed with some small ones.  I found a great tutorial for different sized geese and just went to town cutting and sewing with no real plan.  I'm happy with the results.  I promise that they're not as bumpy as the pictures make them out to be.  I just snapped quickly because we had an afternoon thunderstorm on it's way in.




And now that my July deadlines are met and school starts in 3 weeks, I think it's once again time to find balance between my roles as Momma and Kelli.  Balancing what my kids need with what I need.  Finding time to play with them and my sewing.  It's possible, right?







Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Beach Blanket Bingo



Hi friends!  Just popping in for a second to tell you Sew, Mama, Sew! has done it again!  They're running Fat Quarter Idol again and I just had to join in this week!


If you don't know, SMS is an awesome online fabric store that also provides an EXCELLENT blog with tutorials, ideas, and encouragement along with a forum board full of goodness.  But what I want to point out now is their Fat Quarter Idol contest going on now for this week only!

They've given us the topic Beach Blanket Bingo and our job is to make a pinterest board featuring 12 fabrics found in their shop that we feel best show the topic in question.  So...you shop through the store, pin 12 fabric swatches that mean "Beach Blanket Bingo" to you and then submit the link to your board.

The winner's board will be shown on SMS' blog and sold in the shop and the winner will also receive a bundle of their chosen fabrics.  How awesome!

So, here are my selections...we're headed out to the beach for a few days tomorrow.  Perfect timing, huh?  Maybe I'll win and I can come home and make us a beach blanket for next time...



Here's a link to my board if you want to see it bigger.  Go check it out and make your own board!  All you've gotta do is have a pinterest account and some free time!

Talk to you soon!  I've gotta go pack for the beach!  YAY!!!!!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

In and Out

Hey y'all and Happy July!  Isn't summer the craziest time of year.  When I think of summer I think of picnics, floating lazily in a pool/river, and beach time.  But my summer has been more like running from here to there mixed in with occasional bouts of laziness where I can't get motivated to do anything!  Tropical Storm Debby really sapped me of my mojo to get ANYTHING done that wasn't strictly necessary for survival and it's taken me a week or so to get back.  I've read a large number of books in the last month or so while sitting on my couch, out by the pool, or wherever the kids are.

I'm even behind in my June bee blocks which I make a point to NEVER be behind in, even if the rest of my life has to wait.  I got all of them done on time but my do. Good blocks and I just finished them up today.  (Started them yesterday, but whatever...)  Heather  asked for the famous LynneBob Square Pants block that I almost asked the group to do when I was the quilter in May!

She asked for Kona Ash to be the background with steely blues, tomato reds, aquas and pinkish reds for the  color additions.  Here's what I came up with.


I LOVE blocks that use half-square triangles to make different designs.  They're probably my favorite block.  BUT...what I always forget until I'm making them is that I HATE trimming up all of those little blocks after I've made them.  ;)

And here is my Modern Blocks Bee block for the month of June.  I promise it was done and even mailed on time, I just never got around to posting it on here.  Deb asked for a large and in charge wonky block and sent us the black and yellow fabrics.  She asked us to add in one color way of our own choosing.  I saw these fabrics and immediately thought HOT PINK!  But another and much quicker-working bee member beat me to it.  So, I went for this lime green.


As I've said before, me and wonky don't really go together all that well.  I had this extremely wonky and different shaped block in my head, but this is what came out of it.  I'm not great on the planning aspect of block (or garment) making for that matter, so when wonky is called for, I'm like a fish out of water.  Hopefully this is okay with Deb...

I've got my Summer Sampler quilt top almost finished up, but Emma's State Tournament starts tomorrow, so we'll see...  I'll try and get back here without such a long window of absence, but if you don't hear from me, assume I'm off making memories with my growing-like-weeds children who are trying to turn me into an old lady before I'm ready by growing up so fast!