Goodbye and Hello

2010 was a fabulous year for the Brown family.

My word of the year for 2010 was “forgive”…and in many ways…I have.  (necklace from The Rusted Chain)

I completed 17 crafty projects (see my sidebar for the complete list).  Click HERE to go to my flickr set of all 2010 finishes.

I took a new position at work.  (I lost my summers…but gained a substantially better environment to work in)

I moved the boys to one room with bunk beds (best. decision. ever.)

I took a vacation with my husband.  With no children.

My word for 2011 is going to be “refresh”.  I love the ideas that this word invokes.

From Merriam Webster: to restore strength and animation; to freshen up; to restore or maintain by renewing supply; to update or renew.

My goals for 2011 include:

• Making more quilts for my family…of a useable size (large lap size minimum)
• work on boys’ bathroom (paint, new shower curtain, accessories, etc.)
• Finish one complete cross-stitching project
• Finish one crochet or knitting project
• Use more stash and purchase only when necessary (I think that this is always a goal.  Considering I bought new fabric yesterday…I don’t know if there’s much hope!)

Check out this 2011 goal post from Karamat Designs.  I love how she set her goals.

Happy New Year to you all.  I hope that you all are able to keep to your goals for 2011…no matter how official or unofficial they are.

Merry Christmas from us to you!

Phew!  Christmas just flew by this year, didn’t it?!

Here’s a few pics from the event at our house:

That’s a late night “after Santa closed his workshop” picture

And here are the next morning (aka 4 hours later) pics:

And before you start developing all sorts of new crazy opinions on me based on the fact that my children are in matching button-down shirts and khakis…

Here’s my secret.

Those are the outfits that they wore the night before to Christmas Eve church.

They fell asleep in the car on the way home, and Santa had WAY too much work left to do to risk waking them up just for pajamas.

So that’s our Christmas in a nutshell.  Hope that yours was just as filled with family…and with fun.

what do you think?

A second post today.

I know.  The planets must have aligned overnight…or something.

I’ve spent time with my design wall this morning laying out a sample layout for the Siggy Swap 1 blocks that I got…oh…WAY earlier this year.

There are only 97 blocks, and that doesn’t divide well.  My solution is to do a basic 10x10 layout, but center my block in the middle as shown above.  Any thoughts?  Anything stick out as way out of place?  I’m open for suggestions…and thanks in advance!

Oh…while you’re really thinking about it…any thoughts for binding on this one?  I’m going to try and find a cool multicolored back…but not sure what direction I want to go in for the binding.

Shirley’s Pinwheels

It is so strange to be writing this post.

This is a quilt that I knew I would show you, but it was never intended to live permanently at my house.

This is the sneak peek that I showed you last week:

Before I show you the full quilt, I want to share a story.  This quilt was started (and finished) with the singular purpose of going to my grandma.  She was diagnosed with cancer right after Christmas 2009.  Immediately I knew that I wanted to make a quilt for her.  The blocks of this quilt are from the pinwheel quilt-a-long by Rachel of ps I quilt.

In October 2010, I took this quilt to the long arm quilter…knowing that I needed to get it finished up quickly.  As soon as I got it back from the quilter, I rushed to get the binding put on (sewn on by machine for ease and speed).  Unfortunately, by this time, my sweet grandma was already in a coma, and she died a few days later (December 13, 2010).  She never got the quilt, but it is being loved in our house…it’s unexpected permanent home.

The making of this quilt was very cathartic for me.  In the piecing stage I was constantly thinking of my grandma.  In the quilting stage, I was worried again for her.  As I sewed through tears to attach the last bits of binding, my thoughts were with her…even then knowing that she would never see it.

It is during times like these that I am so grateful to have quilting as a hobby.

early mornings

One of my favorite things in life are the early morning hours…either before the boys get up…or right after.

I get to enjoy a cup of coffee by treelight.

Today Jack woke up after I’d been awake for only a few minutes.  Thankfully he was still very peaceful and enjoyed a movie before his brother woke up.

I made sure that the stockings were “hung with care” this morning.  We thought that we had lost them this year.  I was frantic…but finally they were found.

Nicholas woke up and went straight to the computer.  I didn’t mind…because it allowed me a few more minutes of that precious morning peace…

I truly enjoy my time off at Christmas time, and I love getting to perfect my role of momma/homemaker during these precious days.  What are you doing to enjoy your time during these days of the Christmas Holidays?

Really finished a Schnibble

During the Year of Schnibbles…I had great intentions.

I finished I think 5 or 6 of the months…flimsies that is.

But none of them were TOTALLY finished until today.

I’m so that this was my first.

I love Fig Tree fabrics…they were my first entrance back into quilting a couple years ago.

This is the Sunday Best schnibble pattern by Carrie Nelson, using Mill House Best fabrics by Joanna Figueroa.

The post in which I say thank you

I love this quilty/stitchy/crafty world that we have here.

I mean…where else would you see pictures of all the cool stuff that we see all the time.

AND on top of it all of those same people with the cool stuff take time to look at little ole’ blogs like mine.  And say such nice things and give advice and all of the wonderful things that you do.

For that I am grateful.

So in the words of a former employer…THIS BUDS FOR YOU:

Since I’ve posted last, I’ve actually been in my sewing room.

Shocker…I know.

I bound a quilt, and cut out two more bindings.

So, thank you all again, sweet readers.  Both the commenters and the ones who read faithfully through their readers.  I am gratefully back in the sewing room, and slowly and definitely feeling a bit more normal these days.

Deciding what to do

I’m really behind on projects.

REALLY.

BEHIND.

My design wall hasn’t changed in 3-4 months. 

My sewing machine LITERALLY has dust on it.

Even the new fabric I got at quilt market hasn’t been enough to pull me back in.

(Sweet Broderie by Rosalie Quinlan)

(Red Rose Farm by Elizabeth Scott)

(Central Park by Kate Spain)

I’m 3 (almost 4) months behind on my beloved block of the month from Fat Quarter Shop.

Have you ever been in a

REALLY

BIG

SEWING

FUNK?

What did you do to get out of it?