It's...

Another Boy!!!

We had a sonogram about a week and a half ago, and found a healthy little boy in there!

We went out later that night to buy his first outfit and a Little Brother shirt.

And I dug out some of Daniel's old clothes that will work for this baby too. I'm glad I ended up keeping them. It is sweet remembering when he wore the same outfits and thinking about how tiny he was. Even though I feel like my bump isn't all that big, I keep imagining this baby as nice and fat!

Anna Rae's Quilt

My sweet friend Rachel recently had her first little girl, Anna Rae. I made this quilt for Anna and actually had it delivered before she was born!

I used this Charming Stars Quilt pattern and left the sashing off. I was able to make it all from my stash, always nice! My grandmom gave me a stack of charm squares, though very few (if any) were actually squares. I don't know where they were from, they don't seem to be from one line, even the textures and types of fabrics are different. The backing fabric was also from my grandmom, and I still have a good bit of it left. Unfortunately I neglected to get a picture of it, but it was not pieced, which was super nice.

I've been brushing up on some embroidery, and really enjoyed stitching each of these blocks. Here are some up close:

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,

    and its people are like grasshoppers. 

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, 

    and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

Big Brother's hand!

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

I am so excited for Rachel, and look forward to watching Anna grow!

Kait's Quilt: Finished

I was able to finish Kaitlin's quilt in time for her graduation party. This quilt was my first time using a long arm machine and I've gotta say the jury is still out. It was faster than my home machine, but I had some serious thread breaking issues that were really discouraging. I do plan on giving it another go sometime as it did turn out really well.

That little star might be my favorite

A pieced back because I never plan for enough fabric.

I love how the embroidered label turned out, it might become a regular method.

Process: Kait's Quilt

I thought it would be fun to show you the process I went through while making this quilt. I had a specific pattern in mind when I bought this fabric from Connecting Threads, but quickly realized my math had failed me and I didn't have enough charm squares to do what I wanted to. 

Fabric arrived the end of February

The fabrics I used in this quilt are in the stack on the right

I got to sketching out some designs by the beginning of April, with crayons. Oh yeah.

layout of the first block, compare this to the bottom block above

first block completed

layout of the second block

This is where I realized I sewed the first block together wrong and knew it had to be fixed

second block, and first block fixed

the three large blocks

trying different layouts

two medium blocks

more layout ideas

with two additional small blocks

not sure about this layout

filling in the negative spaces with black

All the blocks are together

Just needed a little more black around two sides

working on a little embroidered label 

Hopefully in the next week I'll show you the completed quilt! I really enjoyed making this one as it was so different from most of the others I've made.

Due

Five weeks ago I shocked Tommy with a text of this picture. I wasn't even late, it was just sort of a whim. I didn't even have any symptoms. 

About a week and a half later, we went to the doctor to have an ultrasound. I am typically in favor of few tests and as little medical intervention as possible, but after trying for so long I wanted some peace of mind. The sonographer was able to quickly and easily find the baby, and even the heart beat!

Her sonogram puts my positive home test at three and a half weeks! (which if you know anything about pregnancy, means 1 1/2 weeks pregnant) That is super early to have a positive test! Praise God for his kindness of letting me know so early, so I can enjoy as many days as possible!

Lord willing, we will welcome a new addition to our family around New Years!

WIP Wednesday

Ongoing Projects:

Anna Rae’s Quilt- The top is mostly finished, hopefully the rest will be a cinch, I'd love for mama to have it before baby gets here.

In Color Order’s HST- May block is finished.

Kait’s Quilt- The front is finished, the back is nearly finished, and I plan on long arming it!

Patriotic Sampler- My grandmom made these blocks, and I did the sashing and border at the FWMQG Sit & Sew. The backing is ready and I would love to long arm it as well.

New:

NuBees Block Swap on Flickr:  This is my very first swap! I made the same pattern in four different color sets (chosen by my gals in my hive) and I made one in my colors as well. I hope to send them off next week and will get mine by the end of the month.

Concentric Squares Quilt for Daniel: I really had no clue what was involved in this concept mathematically. I love it and think it will be awesome when it's finished, but boy does it challenge me!

No Progress:

Oriental quilt

Double Hourglasses

Log Cabins quilt

Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along

Sew Mama Sew’s Modern BOM

At the Car Wash

On Saturday I helped with a mother-daughter event at church, and at home, Tommy and Daniel had their own father-son day!

They mowed the grass, washed the cars, set up the sprinklers, and helped me make dessert.

Daniel had a blast hosing down the truck.

Tommy is training him to be an excellent helper.

Such hard workers!

Concentric Squares

I wouldn't be a good quilter if I wasn't in the middle of more projects than I could count would I? 

Here is another to add to the list. A twin size quilt for Daniel. We hope to move him to a twin bed by the end of the year (hopefully well before that, but we'll see). So a twin size bed needs a twin size quilt and his toddler quilt just won't cut it. 

These are some of my inspiration pictures. Concentric squares. Tommy's talking me through the math, and we're thinking of blocks with mostly multiples of 12. Plus 1/4 inch seam allowances. Uck. At least I'm thinking of it on this end.

1. Jewelled Squares., 2. Munki in the Middle Front, 3. Calvin's Quilt, 4. IMG_8684, 5. Dream Circle :: November Boy's Quilt 6. Not available

These are the fabrics I'll be working with. They are mostly from the Mastermind collection at Connecting Threads. I can't wait!