Mina's Birthday!

Here is the final, FINAL version of Mina's birthday invitation, with a few details omitted.

I followed a tutorial on the really cute Toronto Mama blog, using PicMonkey, a free website. It was really fun and a lot easier than I anticipated.  You can find the tutorial here. I actually made three different versions of the invite; this one is a good mix of the two previous versions.

Done!

That word sums up the status of Mina's quilt and how I'm feeling right now about being pregnant.  It is really uncomfortable and I haven't even gained an excessive amount of weight.  I have NO idea how women do it who gain over 50 lbs with their pregnancies.  It just seems crazy.

Anywho.  Here are some pictures of the quilt as it neared completion.

Sandwiching the batting between the pieced top and the backing

Stitching the binding

Hand quilting the squares

DONE!

James and I also cleared out some space in our spare room/office.  I boxed up the books from the book shelf and then James helped me load those up with baby supplies.

We still need to move the boxes off of the couch and store them somewhere else but I figure progress is progress.  My parents brought the crib up on Friday but after thinking about it, we're going to wait to put it together until we really need it.  They also brought up a bassinet.  I took it apart and washed the fabric covers.  It should be a good place for Mina to sleep once she comes.  Speaking of which, I am going to be 37 weeks along on WEDNESDAY!  That is so crazy!  Where has the time gone?  Seriously?

If Mina takes after me, she could come after Wednesday.

Gulp.

Mina's quilt, so far

I figure I'm making pretty good time with this project. Granted, I bought the fabric two months ago but I cut out the pieces yesterday. Maybe it will be done by the end of the week. I still have a lot to do!

Pinning the strips

Pressing the seams

Two rows down

My machine can make pins and needles do "cool" things

Getting closer...

The finished top

Tomorrow I am going to buy the backing fabric which I'll also use for the border.  I also need to pick up some light weight batting.  I'm really excited to finish the project!  I hope Mina likes her quilt!

Adorable shoes and a surprise

I spent almost all of last week working on "The Marvelous Wonderettes" for the Midvale Arts Council.  It was so HOT but worth it because the show is really cute.  You can find more information here.  The show runs tonight and all next week.  If you are in the area you should check it out!  Steph, the producer, surprised me and Janzell (the music director) with these for our unborn babies. 

She joked that Janzell's baby would be able to wear the onesie immediately and Mina would have to wait a year.

While I was gone a package arrived from The Pitter Patter Shop on Etsy.  I was the lucky random winner on a blog give away.  I chose this adorable pair but the decision was SO HARD!  Check out Lauren's shop and you'll see why.  

Today I started washing Mina's clothes and blankets.  It's kind of overwhelming how generous everyone has been.  She is going to be one well dressed baby!  I can't believe that I am less than five weeks from my due date. The time has gone by so fast, especially the past month and a half!  How is almost the middle of July?  

Hopefully we'll be ready when our little lady makes her arrival!

Quilt

I think I have figured out what I am going to do with the cute fabric I bought almost two weeks ago.  I am going to make a quilt!

Granted, I need to buy more fabric but I have the dimensions marked out and I figured out how big the squares and rectangles need to be.  I hope I can find a nice green fabric to go with the pink patterned fabric and a brown that coordinates with the brown in the pattern.  It was kind of fun to make up a quilt pattern on the computer using Paint (because it is still 1995...) I took the idea for the quilt from this quilt on Pinterest:

I wanted to add a little bit more interest with the small squares and I wanted to use more of the pink patterned fabric.  That is one thing that I love about sewing, as long as you are logical, you can do whatever you want.  Within reason, of course.

Now the hunt begins to find the rest of the fabric.  I think I'll go to Bernina this time around because it's much closer than Suppose.  And the ladies there are SO nice.  Not like the rude people that work at JoAnn's...

I'll keep "you" posted with my progress.

This could be interesting because I have only ever made one other quilt in my life and two pieced projects.  The quilt was a tee shirt quilt that I cobbled together out of high school and early college era shirts that I loved but no longer wore.  It turned out fairly good.  It's warm and it hasn't fallen apart, yet.  The pieced projects were a pillow I made in 4H (I got a blue ribbon for it!) and a sampler that I never did finish.  The sampler was started in a neighborhood quilting class I took with my Mom years ago.  I'm pretty sure I didn't have a license so it was more than 12 years ago.  With that out in the open I should say that I am pretty competent and I CAN sew a straight line.  That's all this quilt will be, straight lines.

I'll do my best!