First Quilt Ever

My favorite craft blog in the world is Obsessively Stitching.  She is so creative and most of the projects are inexpensive which is always a plus.  A few weeks ago she started a tutorial called "First Quilt Ever".  I wanted to join, but I was barely managing to brush my teeth every day and take care of Landon let alone start a pieced quilt.  About 2 weeks into the tutorial, I felt the craft itch really, really strong.  It was rainy Saturday and Ryan was watching Landon.  I started looking through my many, many boxes of fabric to see if I could find fabric in a box that would work.  And then I the idea came.  Back in 2001 when we first started trying to get pregnant, the Blue Jean Teddy Bear was really popular.  Every fabric store had tons of fabric.  And I bought it up a little here, a little there, and little more over there.  And I ended up with an entire box of Blue Jean Teddy Bear Fabric.  Back in 2001 when I had no idea it would take more than 3 months to get pregnant, Ryan and I hand quilted a Blue Jean Teddy Bear baby quilt. (I know, I made Ryan help me...) A quilt to be used for our first baby.  And then I made bumper pads.  Now I have about 4 or 5 Blue Jean Teddy Bear quilts put away waiting to be used.  Plus I have a box full of coordinating fabric. I've match it up and have 7 more Blue Jean Teddy Bear quilts ready to be made. 

So in that lovely box, I found remants and pieces of fabric, 9 in all and I decided to go for it.  I was going to make the quilt with my Blue Jean Teddy Bear fabric.  It took me 3 days, but I busted out the steps and got l caught up. 

And there it sits, in my craft room, waiting for the border (which I need to take a picture of it pieced together).  I got distracted with several other projects while I was waiting for the next step on Obsessively Stitching.  And I just haven't made it back to it yet.  And partly because I'm scared. I don't want to mess it up.  I worked so hard on it and it looks so good, I'm afraid I'll ruin it when I start the dreaded machine quilting.

a shortage of pillowcases

Somehow during our 10 marriage, Ryan and I have not accumulated extra pillowcases. Pillowcases in my house growing up were everywhere. Perhaps it is because when someone couldn't figure out what to make for the homemade gift, the default gift was a pillowcase.
This week I got fed up with not having a clean pillowcase in the house. I ventured into my craft room, found some flannel I had been toting around for years that was given to me (thanks Joan) and 20 minutes later, I had solved our problem. I'm probably whip up a few more sometime soon, but this should work until then.

It's hard to tell it the picture, but I used a cute decorative stitch with red thread along the top.

Just a few cards

I had quite a few thank you cards to write, but I realized I was almost out of cards. So I made a few up, and then I made a few more and a few more and a few more. Soon I had over 200 cards. Not all are thank you cards, some are Congratulations, Happy Birthday, Just Because and some are for babies. I still need to attach a little accent/tag on each one. This should last me for a while.

It's addicting..and I used 2 full glue sticks!