Design Wall Monday-ish

Ok, I know it's not Monday but around here, close enough works.

I didn't get everything I wanted to done last week, so I still have to repair Z.'s quilt, make a few more bags and get the kids pj pants made.




I did, however, finish 5 of these bags and a few crocheted squares for a baby blanket.

I have a tendency to be overly ambitious in my plans and very bad at know how long my projects will take. I'm not the greatest housekeeper but in order to keep this family of 7 going, a certain amount of work has to be done each week. Add to that time cooking and homeschooling and it doesn't leave a lot of time for sewing. I'm so impressed with other moms that get lots done. That's just not me.

I'll try again this week to fix Z's quilt and I'm looking forward to getting some of the blocks for the blocked rainbow quilt done.



We ended up getting a surprise snow fall yesterday. None of the weather sources saw it coming and even when it was falling they kept saying "no accumulation". Our "no accumulation" ended up being over an inch of nice sticky snow perfect for snow ball fights and snow forts. The majority of it fell during our first hour and a half of co-op class so my two little guys kept coming down and giving us updates nearly every 5 minutes. We even ended up canceling the rest of the class day so that no one would be on the untreated road after dark. (We usually do our classes from 3-6:30.) Anyway, the kids had fun while waiting for their parents and enjoyed having a snowball fight with their teacher. (me) The crazy thing is Friday we had a high of 65! I'll take 65 over snowy days unless I don't have to be out in it, which is nearly impossible with small children. H. is only 4 and still has to have me or dh out with him.



When dh retires, I'll happily move to Florida, Arizona or Kish, but my kids keep asking to move to Minnesota- just for the winter!

Better Home Challenge list

Heather at Needles and Pens decided to go off on a tangent with Judy's UFO challenge idea and apply it to her home. There are plenty of projects that I need to get to around here so I'll jump right in to this one as well. I'll use this list as a project list and as deep cleaning list.

1. Laundry room
2. Pantry closet
3. Coat closet
4. Boys' toy cabinet
5. Kitchen cabinets
6. Stash closets
7. Front porch
8. Pantry closet (This gets messy often so it deserves two spots.)
9. Bookshelves
10. Basement/Family Room
11. Boys' Room
12. Kids' bathroom

UFO 2012

Well, I didn't get most of the UFO's finished from the 2011 list so they will just get carried into this next year. I got a lot of quilting done last year and having the UFO list helped spur me on. I'm determined to finish all of them this year!



1. and 2. The twin quilt flimsies. I really need to get these done and out of my sewing space this year.



3. Batik Carpenter's Wheel



4. Fall Leaves



5. 6. and 7. My color blocks quilt which I'll work 3-4 blocks at a time


8. Pink and Brown Basket weave baby quilt (The blues next to it are from a quilt I did last year.)




9. Orange and Cream mini. This little thing has been floating around since 2005ish. Time to get it done.


10. Black and Blue mini. Another that's been here since 2005ish and still no picture.


11. and 12. R.'s hand-made quilt. I started this when he was 1 and he's now 6. It's only partially pieced blocks so there's lots to do.

Design Wall Monday

I hope everyone had a good holiday (both Christmas and New Year's, for those who celebrate).

It's been busy around here the past two weeks. The last couple of years we've gone to visit my mom, aunt, sister and her family but we had to replace our van this year so we couldn't make the trip. The time that would normally be spent traveling was split between baking, sewing and taking various kids to the orthodontist. (By June, we'll have three kids in various stages of braces.)

I baked dozens of cookies and a few batches of brownies to send to my family. Then I decided that I would make a little something for my mom, my sisters and my aunt, which led to these lavender rice bags. I got the pattern at V and Co.here.

I still have one more to make and then I'm going to make them each a reusable shopping bag with these.

I've made a few simple bags that I use all the time for toting library books or my latest quilting or crochet project. I know there are a ton of tutorials out there for bags and I'm awfully tempted to try my hand at some of them, but I want to get these in the mail tomorrow, so the simple it is.

M. has grown 6 in. in the last year and a half. He's now taller than both DH and I. I've had to replace all of his pants twice this year because it seems that now he's all legs. His pajama bottoms are ridiculously short so I decided to make him a few pairs with an extra wide hem using this pattern. Now I can let them down rather than buy or make new ones .

I got one pair made and have at least two more to go. H. begged me for a pair just like his big brother so who am I to say no to an adorable (and incredibly persistent) 4 year old. R., S. and Z. all want a pair, too.


It was really cold today so I made some hand warmers, also from V and Co. for all the kids to use when they came in from break during our co-op classes. I made these with the little bits of leftover fabric from the pajama pants. The kids all wanted to keep them so I'll be making more of these this week, which is fine since they take less than 10 min., although I think I'll make them an inch bigger on all sides.

If I get through all of this, I'm going to work on repairing Z.'s quilt.


I have several posts I want to do this week as well.

It's going to be a very busy week around here.
If you haven't already, check out the other design walls at Judy's blog.