So, when I was talking about needing a weekend to myself, a quiet-but-insistent voice in the back of my head was whispering “quilting retreat, quilting retreat.”  No joke.  It’s become a big thing for me.  Well, sometimes it seems all you have to do is put the question out into the universe.  Within an hour or so of publishing that post, something came up on Google Reader from one of my favorite blogging quilters.  She’s teaching a retreat. In Colorado. In November.  Was it just too crazy?

Lo and behold, I could get a direct flight using mileage… and my beloved M said he’d check with his boss to make sure he could get that Friday off to stay home with the kids.  The moment he emailed me the approval, I picked up the phone to call the Inn that is hosting the retreat, and then booked my flight before I could chicken out.

It’s done. I’m going.  Three whole days, all to myself, doing something that I enjoy with someone I admire.

Do I feel a little bit guilty? Of course. That’s what we moms do, right? I objectively know that I deserve some me time and all of that, but you know how it goes. And I might second-guess myself.  But it’s booked, so I’m saving myself from my own cold feet.

So yes, Cheryl, this totally Makes my Monday.

And, may I say… WOOHOO!

I’m going to put on my crafty hat for a minute, and let you guys know about a whole TON of giveaways going on this weekend.  There’s a blog called Sew, Mama, Sew!, and they’re hosting this party.  Head to their site and find a giant list of blogs giving away handcrafted items, handcrafted items + supplies, and sewing + knitting supplies.

I decided not to give anything away this time. I’m new enough to the quilting scene and have enough works in progress that it was unrealistic.  But man oh man will I be entering a lot of these giveaways!

Entries go from today through the end of the weekend.  Good luck, and let me know if you’re a lucky winner!  Or, just send lucky vibes my way.

And feel free to check out what I’m up to at teeny tiny quilts.  Or buy something from my Etsy shop! Or request a custom item, just like LauraC did!

/shameless self-promotion

Well, I’ve gone and done it.  I’ve opened my own Etsy shop: Teeny Tiny Quilts!

I’m not sure precisely how many hours I think are in a day, but I can’t help myself. I am loving my sewing, and especially these little doll-sized quilts.  I’ve got four of them up for sale, and a few more in the works, but what I would love more than anything is if you have a custom request. Let’s say you like the look of the ragged-square quilt (shout out to crazy mom quilts for the tutorial and even the color inspiration), but aren’t a pink kind of person, or you want one big enough for a toddler bed… just use the “request custom item” link through my Etsy shop and we’ll come up with something good.  I can also make two (or three) coordinating quilts, add little mini pillows and pillowcases, or probably anything else you can dream up.

So, please, check it out and let me know what you think. If you need a matching pair of doll blankets for your kids, a quilt for their new toddler bed, or a gift for a birthday or baby shower… I’m your girl.

Things have been kind of quiet here, I know. For one thing, I was hit for the fourth (or billionth) time by some kind of stomach bug and am only just coming back to life. Note to self: wipe down the entire house in bleach, since I think I keep getting the same virus over and over again.

But, when not dealing with such unpleasantness, I’ve also been very busy with things like this:

And this:

And this:

More to come on that, shortly. I swear. If I can actually finish what’s in the first picture…

In the meantime, are you ready for Thursday Theater tomorrow?

Hi.  My name is Liz.  And I am rapidly becoming a fabric addict.

Making those doll quilts a few weeks ago seems to have lit some kind of fire in me.  It was such a nice way to get back into the habit of quilting.  Cute, fun color combinations mean I don’t have to take the choices too seriously.  Small pieces meant I could use what I already had in my stash.  Small size overall meant I could get from start to finish quickly.  And, I didn’t feel like each one had to have its own purpose or recipient. I didn’t have to assign it to any one person, and didn’t have to worry about whether someone would like it enough to put it out on their couch or guest bed, or if they would just take it and smile even if it wasn’t their cup of tea.  Dolls don’t care.  Neither, really, do toddlers.

Plus, sewing has become something that I do just because I like it.  I’ve been feeling kind of stressed out and overwhelmed recently.  This age (times two) is kicking my ass a lot of the time.  All of the day-to-day obligations (meals, naps, laundry, general childcare) take up so much time and energy that I don’t find I have anything left for larger-scale projects that I want/need to get done (purging the guest room closet, painting the mudroom, etc.).  Sewing, though arguably not “productive” in that same way, is a little bit of escapism for me.

Anyways, so I’ve been working on a few more doll quilts.  I have three in various stages of completion, and a plan for at least two more.  I went to JoAnn’s just to pick up some batting so I could finish one that’s otherwise ready for quilting.  I came home with this:

Yeah, that’s 20 more fat quarters worth of fabric.  Five more yards to add to the stash.  And that doesn’t include the other eight I bought last week that I haven’t used yet, or the 12 that I have used.  While my stash is still nothing spectacular compared to “real” quilters out there…. it’s growing at an alarming rate.  Some of them I bought in groups because I have a plan.  Some I bought just because I thought they were pretty and I have no idea what I’ll do with them.

This is how it begins.  This is how I will soon take over my entire guest room and turn it into my sewing den.  That is, you know, as long as the kids continue to nap.  And I continue to pay other people to clean my house.

Anyways.  I’m admitting it. I have a problem.  I will try to refrain from buying any more fabric for a little while.

Except… well…. I kind of need a black print for some binding… and…

[Don't forget to enter my LeapFrog giveaway... only a few days left!]

Finished for Friday is hosted over at Lit and Laundry.  My accomplishment today is part of a little barter arrangement with a fellow twin mom.  Her husband likes to build things, and got an idea to build a doll bed for their kids (BG twins four months older than my kids).  They realized, though, that neither of them was much with a sewing machine, and the beds would be quite nude without linens.  Enter the bargain: he will make an extra doll bed for my kids in exchange for my coming up with some bedding.  Well, you know I was all over it.

In addition to being a good excuse to sew, it was also a fun way to go through my fabric stash and actually use some of the small leftover bits. In fact, the only thing I had to buy new was the foam for the mattress and filling for the pillows.  It didn’t take me long at all, and now we will each have a mattress (poly foam covered in white cotton), two pillows with pillowcases (could they be any cuter?), and a quilt (measuring 15″ x 18″).  I found a post on crazy mom quilts for some inspiration, but it was all quite easy.

The bright, sunny yellow one goes to my friends.  I had a ton of that yellow lying around, so I used it for half the quilt top, the backing, and the binding.

The pink/green/blue one is to stay here.  All of those fabrics are leftover from a quilt I made for my mom a few years ago, and I have always loved the combination.  I was excited to use up what I had left in such a way that I actually got to keep it around the house.

Honestly, this was so much fun, I’m half tempted to make some more and set up my own Etsy shop.  They’re small, they’re cute, they’re fast.  Would it be a way to make a living?  Hell no, as I somehow don’t think people are going to pay a livable hourly wage for them.  But it’s fun for me, and I could use the few extra bucks for more fabric.   Eh, we’ll see if it ever makes it past the idea phase.

In the meantime, a little bird told me the beds for these quilts are very nearly done… Can’t wait to see it all in action!

Hosted over at Lit and Laundry, go see what other people have Finished for Friday!  And don’t worry, it doesn’t even have to be craft-related.  And, um… wanna know what’s not finished right now?  Yeah, that would be packing suitcases for tonight’s flight. D’oh!  But, onto the craftiness:

This week, mine is all about organization of space.  For a little while, I had taken over my dining room as craft-central.  But it was getting unbearably messy, and downright ridiculous if we were actually trying to have people over for dinner.  So we moved it upstairs to one of the only remaining potential places: the guestroom.  Moved the bed over, hauled up a folding table from the basement, and set up shop.  Now, if I could only actually find the energy and time to actually use it!  Plus, it shares a wall with the nursery, which makes me a little wary to use it during the fiercely-protected naptime.  But my new sewing machine is fairly quiet, so we’ll see.

I also finally organized my yarn and fabric stashes, such as they are.  Compared to a lot of die-hard crafty folk, I know mine is laughably small.  But it was enough that it was scattered all over the house in various bins and bags, and needed some containment.

I got three drawer units from Target, and with my trusty label-maker, I went to town.  One unit for fabric (organized more or less by color), one unit for yarn (organized more or less by weight/gauge), and the last for all of the assorted supplies.  Knitting needles, quilt patterns, fabric markers, excess ribbon, all of it.  Finally, neatly put away.  Ahhh.

If only I could say the same for the rest of my house.  Sigh.  I may need an intervention.

OK, well… “finished” is a stretch. Head over to Lit and Laundry today to see people who have actually finished things.

While a lot of people go into crafty overdrive at the holidays, I had kind of petered out.  I had a lot of crafty energy in the late summer and early fall, but was burned out by late October.  Which means that the quilt I was making for my stepmom (who came and chose the fabrics with me back when she came to visit), kind of fell by the wayside.  I finished the quilt top in no time at all, and even had the backing pieced together.  But then… I lost energy. I moved my sewing machine and it still isn’t quite set up in its new home.  And, frankly, the actual quilting part tends to be what stymies me.

But then Christmas came, and I had no finished quilt to give her, and was mildly embarrassed.  There’s no real reason it shouldn’t have been done, except that, you know, life gets in the way.  Determined to get back in the swing of things, last night I finally pin-basted that bad boy, and tomorrow I will clear space for my sewing machine and get to it.  So, what I actually finished this Friday is pin-basting my stepmom’s quilt.  Which, as far as the entirety of the project is concerned, is more of a mid-point than actually finished.  But I’m finished pinning it.  So I say that counts.  It involved the better part of an hour on my hands and knees on the floor, messing with safety pins, and now it’s done.  Ready for quilting and finishing.

Onward…

OK, in truth, I finished this one last Friday.  But you have to spread these things out.   This one is for this week’s installment of Finished for Friday, hosted by Lit and Laundry!

This quilt is for my sweet little niece, Olive. My very first niece, as a matter of fact!  Anyways, I think all babies should have something homemade.  Especially the babies in your own family.

It’s an incredibly simple pattern, but I love how clean and neat it looks.  Everything lined up and straight.  Organized.  Purposeful.  I have found I really don’t prefer the quilts that claim to be “scrappy” or random.  The ones where the instruction says something like “put the pieces together in a way that looks good.”  It drives me nuts.  I can spend forever looking at it, thinking there’s too much pink over on this side, or too much yellow over there.  It just isn’t enjoyable to me.  I prefer instructions that say to put A next to B next to C.  I have fun picking the fabrics and all of that, but I really want the pattern to just tell me what to do.

The other thing that this made me remember: I love sewing the binding onto quilts. For those non-sewers, that’s the very small outermost border (yellow, in the case of this quilt).  It’s the very last step, and the only bit (in my world) that is in any way done by hand.  Hand-sewing the whole thing would take me forever and I’d lose interest. I’m a machine quilter, all the way. But that last bit of the binding has to be done by hand.  And while it can be tedious, I love the way it really finishes the whole thing.  Both in the sense of being “done,” and also in the sense of pulling it together and making it look complete.  The small, even stitches, the smooth enclosure of the outer raw edges of the fabric, the neat corners.  It’s really satisfying in a total OCD kind of way.

Lest you think I’m a fussy neatnik, though, I also love the way the quilt looks after you send it through the washer and dryer.  Immediately after quilting, it can still look very smooth and neat and almost too nice to use.  But once it’s done and you wash and dry it, it takes on that slightly more wrinkly, textured, friendly look.  And that’s what makes it feel more like a cozy blanket you’d use, instead of something fancy you’d fold neatly on a shelf.

Anyways, this one is Olive’s Christmas present, and I hope all six months of her likes it and keeps it for years to come.

My insanely crafty friend over at Lit and Laundry is hosting a new feature: Finished for Friday!  Time for lots of show-and-tell for what we’ve made this week.  Wohoo! Head on over and check out the other links, and submit your own!

The blocks have been sewn into rows and the seams pressed open.

Early last week, I talked about turning the old receiving blankets into quilts.  I thank everyone for their suggestions, and started by making two small lovey-sized blankets with no batting.  The two layers of flannel, alone, were plenty cozy.  They’re each made from 6″ squares, five across and five down (well, 10 and 10 if you figure it’s two layers).

I can see why people get spring-loaded scissors for cutting all of the seams. It really hurts your hand with a regular pair of scissors!

I have to say, making my first rag quilts was pretty fun!  It seems to take every rule of quilting and turn it upside down.  Make your seams invisible? Nah, make them the big feature.  Precise quarter-inch seam allowance?  Instead, let’s do something like five-eighths!  Wrong sides together, sew and make it all visible!  It makes you feel like such a rebel from the usual precision and constraints of “normal” quilting.  OK, maybe “rebel” is a bit strong.  It’s just fabric, after all.  But still, it was fun.

Both quilts, assembled and snipped and ready for the washing machine.

Close-up after one run through the washer and dryer. They're starting to fray nicely!

Beware, when washing these babies. The first time, they will completely clog the washer’s lint trap.  Be ready to replace it, or your next regular load of laundry will have water spraying all over the basement. Trust me.

Have they become an instant hit with the kids? Nah.  Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.  Maybe they’ll be good for playing with dolls at some point. Who knows.  They’re cute, and I’m happy.  Oh, and I have so much cut fabric leftover that I clearly will have to make a bigger quilt for myself… Maybe a more traditional one, but a cozy flannel nonetheless.