Excuse Me, It's Rabbits. Not Bunnies.

 I finished all the blocks for Rabbits Prefer Chocolate.  I've been calling it Bunnies Prefer Chocolate all this time.  Oops, how embarrassing.  Not really.  This one is Rich in his little race car.  The car number qualifies for the diamond shape of our President's Challenge.  I asked him what number he wanted, he asked for 24.  I guess that's the number of a famous Nascar driver, which is funny, because he does't watch Nascar.  Whatever, man.  I embroidered the number in Emerald before I remembered that my other bunny is supposed to have an emerald necklace.  Oh well, it looks fine anyways.  Besides, there's no telling if I'll actually remember to buy the emerald necklace.

Here's another 3 blocks that I've finished recently and not blogged about.  I don't think I have anyways.

And, here's everything put together.  I'd like to mention, all my pieces fit together appropriately.  Thank you, thank you.  No applause, just money.   I really should have planned better and gotten my border fabrics first and then worked them into the main part.  Hind sight and all that.  The picture shows a dark pink inner border, a brown outer border with pink scallops appliqued on it.  I'm pretty sure I can still get the brown and white polka dot that I used for a few of the bunnies.  There are't any pink pieces left big enough to do either of the borders, so I'll have to buy that.  I don't know if I want to applique a border.  It's a lot of work.  But, I fear the cuteness factor will be diminished if I don't.  Le sigh. Le pout.

Just When I Feel Like I Know What I'm doing

I volunteered for layoff this year.  It's such a great deal for me, I couldn't resist.  Rich isn't a huge fan but he's living with it.  He really likes having a stay at home wife.  Old habits die hard, I suppose.

Layoff started the week of Christmas so, I didn't feel like I'd have tons of extra time to make presents this year.  That totally stressed me out last time.

Instead, I did something for myself. I made this kit while I worked at Sweet Annies' using some of my all time favorite fabrics from the shop.  It's sat in my cupboard for years.   I did the center applique earlier this year and finally finished the rest on my first week of layoff.  And, like all my well laid plans, I jacked it up royally.  Just when I feel like I know what I'm doing (quilting wise), I prove myself wrong in the worst way.  First, I mis-cut those rose colored pieces.  Naturally, I only had just enough and I'm too cheap and lazy to go search for more.  It's from Moda's Aviary and is probably 10 years old.  So, I pieced the pieces and fixed the problem  Then, when I put everything together, I cut off my corners like crazy!  Squares in squares suck!  Seriously, I did such a terrible job!  The picture doesn't give enough detail to see how bad it is.  I've never been good at them.  I followed all the tricks.  I made sure my 1/4" allowance was a scant.  Nope.  Most of my corners are gone.  Good thing this one if for me.  It's embarrassing.  But, honestly, aren't the colors pretty?  I wish I could live in a world colored like this.

Then, because it was Christmas, I started a fun Christmas project.  Again, Carol had given this to me years ago as a gift.  It's so pretty.  The pattern shows it in pinks and mauves but I chose to do blues and greens.  It's gonna be great.  But, now that the season is past, I find I'm not so motivated for this project.  Well, at least I've got a whole year before I'd use it.  And, yeah, I'm going to regret embellishing it before quilting but I just couldn't help myself.

I've also been doing some much needed organization in the basement.  It seems like we do this every year and it never sticks.  This time, I put away all the Christmas decorations in red/green bins.  Then the fall/ Halloween decorations went in purple bins.  I need one more blue bin for Easter.  Valentine's Day, St. Pat's Day and Americana already had their own bins, they just got labeled better.  Labeling the quilt boxes and sleeping bags is going to help a lot when I'm looking to change out my bed quilt.  I also found an old glass bowl that was my mother's.  I'd been afraid to have it out when the kids were young.  So, that was a nice treat to come across.  Now, if I can only get people to put things away where they belong!  The other half of the basement is still a disaster, but that's for another time.

Rich's niece, Megan is graduating this year.  I started worrying a few weeks ago that I didn't have a plan in place.  She likes Peter Pan but no one answered my request for PP fabrics from their stashes.  The only stuff out there in Etsy/ Ebay land were really childish.  So, I settled for her school colors, red and white.  The pattern is called Money Business.  I'm thinking about calling it 12 Monkeys Sitting on the Bed.  It took one day to cut.  I wanted to do only one piece of each red in my stash.  I needed 144 and I only got to 98 before I had to double up.  Dang it!  Now, I need to find the outer border for it.  The pattern suggests 2 yards but I'm having a hard time believing I need that much.  The inner border is 2" and the outer is 6.  And, not that I've been staring at the picture, I realize I put the wrong blocks on the top row, last two blocks.  Dang it!  Insert head explosion here.  I do NOT want to tear into that thing!  But, that does explain why I ran out of the right type of blocks in the end...  Again, just when I feel like I know what I'm doing.

So Many Bibs

Kammi liked her baby gift so much, she hired me to make an elf bib for Christmas.  And, I made Ethan wear it.

Kammi with her peas and carrot bibs that I made for her baby gift.  I made her wear them.  The picture of the John Deer fabric books didn't turn out.

My supervisor, Donna, liked Kammi's gift so much, she hired me to make peas and a strawberry for her granddaughters.  And, I made Ethan and Bethany wear them.

Then, my co-worker liked Donna's so much that she hired me to make 2 more strawberries for her granddaughters.  Hunter and Sierra were no where to be found.  I think they caught on.  Drat.

Finding a Christmas tree this year was challenging.  We have tall ceilings but limited floor space so we like them tall and skinny.  After the dead tree from a few years ago, I've been lobbying for a fake one but the kids are completely against it.

They did go to our usual tree farm to look but they just ended up goofing around.  

You can't see them, they're hiding.  I'm really surprised we didn't end up with the giant mushroom tree.  I wasn't there to stop them and they've had their eyes on it for years.

I made more Princess pins.  And, still haven't cleaned my house...

I know, I know, I need to finish a few projects before I start more!  But this was a Christmas one.  It just felt right at the time.  It's freaking me out that the door is off center.  Crap.






My latest Tulips and Hearts.  Explain to me why I chose that bright green ribbon to be a stem with that dark green leaf.  I think that'll be a redo.

Christmas Has Vomited All Over My House

Is it just me or does everyone get obsessed over projects.  I can't paint very well, but I insist on trying.  My friend Judy, from CA, is really, really good!  She used to make these super cute gumball machines out of clay pots.  Before we had Pinterest to give us all these ideas, mind you.  She made me an adorable one with strawberries once.  My kids promptly broke it.  So, she showed me how to make a watermelon one that they also broke.  I so badly want to be as good as Judy.  It's not gonna happen this month.  Mind you, I haven't tried since my New Year's experiments.

For our guild Christmas Party, I signed up to provide a centerpiece.  Last year it was the Gingerbread House, this time I made snow globes.  I hadn't done one before and wasn't completely sure how to go about it.  I kind of meshed the gumball machine with a jar snow globe craft I saw.  Then, I decided I should make 2 smaller ones for my secret pals.  So off to Joann's I went for my supplies.  Then, off I went another day for something different.  Then, off I went for more because I didn't like the combos I had... you get the picture.

After much, driving to Fairview Heights, I finally got them finished to a point I wasn't completely embarrassed of.  Tole painting is not easy.  It takes layers.  Lots of layers.  And chocolate breaks.  Lots of chocolate breaks.

Please note my 2 little old ladies.  Quilting buddies hanging in the park, grabbing a snack before finishing their fabric shopping.  My people.

So anyway, this project got spread out ALL over my sewing room.  Then, we put up the tree and it took us a week because we're all too busy.  Now I have cookie supplies, gift parts and pieces, unfinished cards, wrapping paraphernalia and various Christmas flotsam and jetsam (aka Christmas vomit) littering every inch of my house.  Merry Freakin' Christmas:)

The Triangles Never End

Remember all those half square triangles?  The guild is doing a UFO (unfinished object) challenge in January.  I think they said your project has to be 30% pre-done and then you have to finish it by January.  They don't even expect you to quilt or bind it.  Done.  I'd been saving a big piece of this batik for just the right project.  I really like the way this turned out.  The fabric always reminded me of my mom.  It's got all her favorite colors in it.

Oh look, I still have more triangles.  Now what?  I'm considering gifting them to a secret pal.  Maybe.  And the next time I need half square triangles, I'll count them first.

I slowed down a lot on my wedding quilt.  The blocks get more and more complicated as I go and I'm running out of fabrics to use.  I still really like it, but I'm not sure how many more I'll be doing.  Since I've been trying to use the fabric I already have as much as possible lately, I've heroically stayed away from the fabric stores.  Well, except to get lady bug fabric and mini strawberries.  But, I really needed those.

This is what I have so far.  Now that I look at the picture, I guess I'll at least be doing 3 more or I'm going to have a funky shaped quilt.  Maybe 4x4 with an appliqued border.  I've never done a serious appliqued border before.  Not really looking forward to that but just a plain fabric border would be all wrong.

One of the girl's at work got married a few weeks ago.  So, I made cupcakes, naturally.  These are white cake with strawberry compote and a creme fresh frosting.  The hearts are white chocolate that I spray painted gold.  Yum.

And, then for Corey's birthday, I made the Guiness cupcakes with toasted marshmallow cupcakes.  These were a little disappointing.  I really expected a strong beer flavor but they were just chocolate with a little something different to them.  Hunter really liked them.  He pre-ordered them as his birthday treat.  For my boss, Dearyle, I made Snicker Salad.  That was probably my favorite.

Babies Are Everywhere!

I've been making lots and lots of baby gifts lately.  And, I just realized I didn't take a picture of the bibs I made before I gave them away!  Dang it!  They were really cute.

My co-worker Chad and his wife are expecting a baby this spring.  It's a girl and they are going to name her Ruby.  I was super excited to finally have a reason to make this lady bug quilt.  All that's left to do is applique lady bugs around the outer white border.  Gonna be awesome.

I've been putting off finishing my dresden plate quilt.  I'm never sure why until I work on it some more.  Turns out that I hate doing them.  I suck at them... My corners aren't pointy, the blades are uneven.  Then there was that awkward moment when I realized that my template plastic wasn't heat resistant... Crap.  Now to buy more template plastic and some iron cleaner.  At least I have everything but the centers done.

I have a ton of blades left over and I was planning on using them for my niece's graduation quilt this May.  But, now that I hate dresdens, I'm now sure what I'm going to do.  Her school colors are red and white.

So, I also made 2 fabric John Deere books and 2 bibs that I forgot to take pictures of.  And, they were so cute, too! One was a carrot and the other was a pea pod.  I know!  Adorable!

Then, I made monkey cupcakes for her office baby shower.  They were banana/ chocolate chip with nutella frosting.  They were so good.  I missed the baby shower on Thursday (my day off) and brought them in Friday.  I won't be denied my food day.  But, guess who called off sick on Friday.  Yeah, exactly.  I stayed up until midnight for those damn things, too.  Ugh.

Now, Kammi's birthday is this Wednesday.  I bake for everyone's birthday but since she missed her monkey cupcakes, I'm not feeling very generous anymore.