Stash Chaos

Ok, here are unedited (read: messy) pictures of my stash. (This way, even if I only clean up a little bit, it will look like I've done great things.)

It's spread out between the office closet,

the desk that serves as my sewing table (FQs in the pink and white boxes, misc. bits on the slide out tray, a bag of flannel FQs and a little stack of fabric sitting on the floor), a small three drawer cabinet with two plastic boxes on top-all full, and

a closet next to the tv that has two large totes full of flannels, a box of flannels on top and a hanging shelf of, you guessed it, flannels.


All the flannels were bought with the intention of starting an etsy shop selling sets of coordinated receiving blankets. With five kids around 24/7 that idea hasn't gone too far beyond the buying fabric stage. Although, that was rather fun!

My goal for next month is to get everything more organized. I need to move my regular (non-flannel) fabric out of the large tote in the office closet because it's just too much of a pain to get to there. That's really discouraged me from doing more quilting I think. If something is too much of a pain in the rear, we tend to avoid it. Since my goal for this year is to make/finish at least a half dozen quilts, being able to get to my stash would probably help.

I'm not restricting myself from buying but I really do need to start using what I have.

Design Wall Monday

Hey, what do you know? It's Monday and I actually have something to show. hee hee.

I finished sewing the main part of the top. Now I just have to finish sewing the border pieces together and attach them. DH saw it laid out this morning and said it looks "fruity" so maybe I'll name it Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity. What do you think?

I really want to see how many quilts I can get done this year. After I finish this one, I need to make a girl baby quilt for a friend that's due in Feb. I'd also "Like" to make a quilt for a new friend also due in Feb. but I can't remember whether she's have a girl or a boy. I still owe my niece a graduation quilt. I want to make one for dh and one or two for the tv room. Oh, and I have two quilt tops awaiting borders (already cut) and quilting for another friend. This, for me, is a very full list. I'm hoping that if I stick to posting on the Design Wall Monday's I might actually be able to get it done.

You can see more Design Walls on Judy's site.

Viral Fun

Ya gotta love when a highly contagious virus hits a big family. The victims fall one by one like cranky dominoes. Having just finished getting H. health after his bout with Roseola, Z. came down with a fever on Friday, quickly followed later in the evening by M. Yesterday was S.'s turn and this morning R. woke up with it. Fortunately, it's not a horrible virus, just a little 24 hour something. R. seems to have recovered the quickest. He was feeling horrible this morning with fever, headache and a bout of vomiting after which he went back to bed. When he got up, the fever was gone and he's now happily watching old episodes of the Pink Panther on Netflix. Go figure! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that H., dh or I don't get hit with it. I could use a little sleep tonight. ;)

Design wall Monday ...

or in my case, Design Floor Wednesday. I actually had gotten to this point by Monday night but was busy sewing yesterday so I didn't get a chance to post it.

I've gotten about half the rows sewn so far. I need to finish it up tonight though because it's laid out on my office floor and is a pain to walk around and keep H. off of.

This is the first time I've had a new quilt going since Judy started these posts but I haven't been a complete slacker. I've finished two other quilts that I started before H. was born. One for M and one for R. Sorry, no pictures as they are currently being used and abused as any good quilt should be. :)

I was planning on using this quilt in the basement but S. has claimed it for her own since her quilt is "shrinking". (That could have something to do with the 3-4 inches she's grown this year.)

(For those that don't know, Judy at Patchwork Times has been doing a weekly post were people can link their post of what they are working on each week.)

Greetings from Planet Snowville

We've been knee deep in snow this week (literally) thanks to a snow storm that came through here on Saturday. We got somewhere between 16 and 20 inches from Friday night to Saturday night. The kids couldn't have been more thrilled. They've played out in it for at least an hour and a half each day, which is saying a lot since many days it's only been in the upper 20's to low 30's. I posted last year (or maybe the year before) about how the kids had piled snow on our deck stairs to create their own sledding hill. That was only about 5 or 6 steps up. With this snow, they didn't have to add any snow so they decided to sled from the very top. Kids are nuts! Yesterday, it was time for making snowmen in the front yard. The first picture is R.'s "Alien Snowman". Z's was a "snow bug" and S. made a skinny snowman. M. went so far as to add about a dozen rock buttons, a complete face and even ears onto his and named him "Grampa Ed". (Ironically, my grandfather's name was Ed but M. didn't know that at the time he named his snowman.) Last night, they kept making about stories about their various snow men.
For visual reference, this is a picture of a "Big Wheel" in our neighbors' yard around 2 on Saturday.

And here it is on Sunday morning.



The next two pictures are from Sunday morning as well. Our porch roof and our mailbox.


I had great plans for spending the day sewing but never really got to do much because of "mom" duties, including caring for H. who was cranky from a Roseola fever that made it hard for him (and me) to sleep for a few days. I did manage to get a batch of cinnamon rolls made as a special "snow bound" treat.