Sew Much To Do

 I am a self-taught quilter and amateur sewer.  Occasionally, I have bursts of creativity and ability.    These bursts can never be replicated or mass produced.  Honestly, I forget how to do it almost immediately after completing a project.  It's kind of frustrating because I want to learn from mistakes and modify here and there or create multiples for fun, but I can't.  I guess it's my brain's way of saying, "Hold on there little missy, you only have so much time and money!" 

 

I always, always make my babies a quilt.  It started with a simple strip quilt for Piper, Brynn's quilt took more effort and involved piecing fabric to create a pattern and I hand sewed the binding (which was a first for me), and  Lil' Bean's quilt is completely ambitious.

 

 Lil' Bean's Shades of Blue Zig-Zag quilt

 

 

 

 I wanted a quilt that didn't scream "BABY!" and I love the pattern.  I used shades of blue in men's shirting fabric, a white and navy flannel, and the backing is the devil's creation: minky (oh if it wasn't so soft and snuggly). 

 

I'm not even going to lie and say, "Oh this was so easy once I got the hang of it" or "It went together in minutes."  Lies, all lies!  I bought the fabric back  in May and I just finished the quilt top. I cut and pieced every single triangle/square to create the effect.  I am no genius when it comes to tessellations and had to draw out how to sew each square together so I would get zig-zags and not diamonds.  I still have to sandwich the layers, quilt them, and then bind the quilt.  Honestly, I should pay someone to finish it for me. I did the hard part.  But that's the fantastic thing about doing hard things: you get to marvel at how AWESOME! you are. 

 

 

My next sewing project (finished before the quilt top), was a car seat cover.  Not only do I have bouts of creativity, but I also moments where I see something that someone else has and I think, "I can so make that!" So, so make it I did. 

 

Lil' Bean has to represent so I used the Alabama and houndstooth fabric from a nursing cover I no longer planned on using and backed it with a puckered, gray minky (seriously, I love minky.  Pain to sew, mess to cut, but so soft).  I love it.  If I wanted I could make a BYU one, but...like I said my creativity comes in bursts and I've forgotten how to make another one already. Oh well...guess he'll be sportin' Alabama.  My mom sent me more Alabama fabric to embellish diaper rags and make them cute.  This project will happen after the quilt is done. 

 

I have a laundry list of projects to complete.  This nesting thing is hard to ignore.  I suddenly feel strong urges to do everything at the same time.  Lil' Bean's nursery is 95% finished. It looks good, not gonna lie, I'm pretty impressed with it. 

 

The house suddenly needs to be decorated too, so I'm trying to finish up all the accessories.  I told Bob that I feel like I get 2 of the 3 layers (paint, furniture, accessories) of decorating done and always end up with half-finished rooms.  So now it must be finished!

 

Busy, busy momma with only  8 more weeks to go!