Jelly Roll Rug (disaster)

 There have been a TON of jelly roll rugs on Instagram, so I was DYING to make one. It took me forever to choose a jelly roll. This is what I settled on - Paige's Passions.

 This rug. Oy. First it's expensive as heck. $33 for a jelly roll, $10 for a pattern, $5 for denim needles. I had the rest of the supplies but for those who are curious you need half a yard of 96 inch batt (I think at least $7), batting tape (another $5), binding clips (another $5), starch (another $8), and at least one giant spool of thread (another $5). Starting to think you should go to homegoods?  Uh huh.

SO. It took me about four days to make. It's not hard, but cutting the batting was challenging (and I wish the pattern had offered some damn suggestions for that part) and making the second turn was hard (and I wish the pattern had some diagrams or photos for that too). Really I think the pattern would benefit from a video. In the end IT WILL NOT LIE FLAT! I have starched, steamed, screamed, cussed, pushed, pulled, It is still bumpy. In fact, I wont dare put it anywhere there is traffic because I am sure its a hazard. A few others on insta have said that theirs is really slippery on the floor (add rug grip to your cart and your bill) and that they have flat troubles too.

So, it's pretty but pretty useless.

Ah well, not everything can be a success!

Doll house economy block quilt

 I saw a really cute fabric line one day and the next thing I knew I was ordering a ton of it.  Ooops.

 It took me all of five minutes of looking at the dollhouse panel before deciding I needed to fussy cut those and set them into economy blocks.

It was literally one of the easiest quilt decisions I have made in FOREVER.

 And it went together quickly too.

 Before I had even taken a photo, Sammi had snatched it and it has been living on her bed ever since.

 I happened to have the perfect stripe in my stash for the binding.

The backing fabric is the 30s line at Joann.

Details:

Fabric - almost all of it is Dolly Jean by Darlene Zimmerman ( I bought it from Hancocks of Paducah, which is currenly my online fabric BFF)
Cotton batting
Backing from Joann
Pattern - economy block EXCEPT I did not trim my inner squares to triangles. I liked being able to see the prints on the corners of the houses. I used this chart for sizing
Started Jan 2018, completed Feb 2018

For Sammi girl.

Jack frost

Frost is not so easy to photograph! But we had a nice visit from Jack frost this week. Since we were in the car shuttling back and forth to preschool we stopped to admire and talk about Jack frost for a moment.

Valentine swap

In mid January I started thinking that I really missed the heart to heart to swap. I reached out to a few friends on Instagram and asked if they would be interested in a teeny swap and they said yes!  It was fun to make something again. 

 Erica (goldeneggvintage) made gorgeous hearts. The tinsel! the babies! I let sammi choose which one we should keep for us.

 Beth (blue_davenport_street) made gorgeous teeny mermaids. They are magical. I seem to have inserted the wrong photo for the second one, sorry!  These are always my kids' favorites. I hang them low on the tree so they can look at them.

 Renee (myvintagemending) made the cutest lollipops! Aren't they super? There was so much to look at. And they had a little vintage valentine tucked in an envelope with them too.

 Ooops! These were our school valentines this year. 42 little mice. They were tedious! But so cute.  There was one handmade in Grant's bag other than ours and 2 or 3 in Sam's bag. Glad to see we aren't the only ones holding tight to that tradition.

Kim (kenwardk) made adorable fairies! Of course I even hung her sweet little tag on the tree.

Thank you so much ladies!  I look forward to doing it again next year?!?!

Valentine's day

 I almost didn't take this picture this year. I had forgotten about it until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  Jack came home from school with a busted up lip from gym, the other two were complaining a bit, but we squeezed it in.

It used to take forever to take these things - now it takes about five minutes. The worst part is grant! Grant, grant, grant, look at me grant, grant! Look at me! LOL

today

 Man, it's been a cold, long winter. Dave is working all the time, the kids never have school, I have been in the throes of some kind of fuck my life episode for about 6 weeks...

Today it is nearly 80! So I made grant go to the zoo. He tried to complain (he has been seriously oppositional today), saying he didn't want to go and why and blah blah.  By the time we were leaving he said mom! I like the zoo.

 It's strange to just be there with one kid. But also? Nice. Easy.

 There wasn't much to see - the train and half the zoo are undergoing maintenance and building projects during the quiet season.

 We made the most of it though.

These hyenas were REALLY sniffing us. I told grant they could smell him and he replied "no they cannot! I took a bath last night!" LOLOL

Then we came home and grant decided to argue with every single thing under the sun so I made him take a nap.

Mom win.

For today anyway.

Valentine ornaments, spun cotton toadstools

 I set up a tiny little valentine swap on Instagram this year. It turns I HAVE missed the valentine swapping.  I wanted to stretch my wings a little bit so I made spun cotton toadstools on candle clips.

 I bought the balls that I made the caps with, but I made the stems from cotton balls of all things.  Then many, many, many coats of paint later I glittered them and glued on German butterflies and moths.

 It was quite an interesting craft actually. It does take days and days though.

I rewatched the old videos of Crystal making spun cotton Easter decorations on the Martha Stewart show to get me started with the cotton part.

I really hope the ladies like them!

Party for sam

 I farmed out a birthday party for the first time ever this year.  We had Sammi's seventh party at the gym where she takes gymnastics. It was lovely to not have to do all the work really.

 The kids loved it (except for the fact that sam chose cookies instead of a cake).

Done and dusted and on the way to number 8!

Grant and the horror movie

I took Grant to get a hair cut at a new location this week. Because it was his first visit there was some upgrade special where he got the full spa treatment for the price of his haircut. This is a men's salon, so the upgrade includes a hot facial towel, a massage chair and a neck massage.  

Grant has never had his hair washed in the salon before, so as soon as we went in this backroom he was SURE this was like a scene out of a horror movie. He was terrified of all the chairs, the vibrating, the hair washing.

I have to laugh at his silly self really. After we left he was like mom! What just happened in there? LOL

Thrifting tide on Thursdays

I do believe the thrifting tide has changed. I haven't been able to find a quilt in months now. But the tablecloths seem to be back to appearing everywhere! It's all I can find now. I love them, but I do hope the quilts pick back up again soon. I wasn't quite done hoarding those.

Valentine toadstool box

 For the first time EVER a kid came home with a note to make a valentine box. Usually the kids just decorate a bag in school to put their valentines in.  I started it for Sam by adding grass and the sort of toadstool top.

 Then she cut out flowers and ladybugs.

 There was some moaning about the cutting out of flowers. It takes some dexterity and she is the worst kind of perfectionist.

But we got there in the end!

Now to see if it actually makes it to school and back. LOL

Antique indigos

 I bought some antique indigo blocks on ebay shortly before Christmas and I had been kicking around some ideas for how to use them.  I really am enjoying finding uses for orphan quilt blocks an I love these so much.

They were very wonky and dirty when I got them. I had hoped they would clean up better than they did, but when it gets warmer I will try more soaking and sun.

 I left them wonky, so the quilt isn't perfect.

It's table top sized because I want to put it on my foyer table. I have four more blocks left too. I think I will use them with a yellow remnant I picked up at my local quilt shop to see how the setting fabric change the look of the same blocks.

(My kids are yelling so damn loud at the moment I can barely even think to write this, so who knows if this even makes any sense.)

Sometimes you just have to sew!

 I am waiting on fabric for my current quilt. (yes! I am still quilting ButI REALLY had the itch to sew, so I took a random mini charm pack that has been lying around my sewing room and whipped up a little doll quilt.

Sometimes you just have to sew!

I have a little girl in mind to be it's new owner. :)