WIP Wednesday #19

Happy Wednesday, everyone! It's time for another update. (In case you've missed out, I'm following along with Freshly Pieced's W.I.P. (Work In Progress) Wednesday series as a good way for me (and you) to keep track of what's going on around here.)

Completed this week: 
I finished up the shortalls for Biscuit that I mentioned a few weeks ago.

After buying an applique at Hancock's and deciding it didn't really work with this project, I decided to just make my own. I used the same teal from the lining fabric to make a sailboat applique, which I think turned out pretty cute.

Then, it was finished off with some teal buttons. Have I mentioned I love teal? I hope Biscuit does, too.

Started this week:
I also made my first crib sheet for Biscuit! I used a duvet cover I purchased from Ikea a few months ago because the oranges match his nursery bedding, and I didn't want to use the real bedding for my first try.

(The blotchy looking spots in the picture are printing on the plastic cover that came with the mattress. We haven't assembled the crib yet — project for this weekend! — so I hadn't taken the mattress out of the cover but still wanted to try on the sheet. That also explains why the mattress is sitting on the floor and our guest bed in these pictures.)

Thankfully, the tutorial from Dana over at MADE worked perfectly, so now I'm all set to make some real ones.

In progress/On the "to do" list:

Empire Waist Cinch for me from Handmade Beginnings

Nursery bedding for the biscuit: crib dust ruffle, crib mobile, and a couple more crib sheets

Other biscuit-related projects: whale softie, Texas A&M onesie, and a lot of other things I haven't even thought of yet
Mug rug for me

Blocking the Early Bird/Kitchen Window quilt

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. And be sure to click on the button to check out other great WIPs for more inspiration!

Apple picking, year two

Last year, we took our first apple-picking trip since moving to St. Louis. The crops up here are great, and there are several local farms that let you pick your own. We had so much fun (and so many good apples) that we knew we had to do it again this year.

So on Saturday, Matt and I ventured to Centennial Farms in Augusta, about 45 minutes west of St. Louis. We tried Eckert's in Grafton, Illinois, last year, but this time we wanted to try a new location (and a smaller farm). Centennial was great!

Due to the hot summer, the crop's been a bit limited this year, but they had Golden Delicious and Empire apples ready, and we didn't have any trouble picking 30 pounds' worth!

Golden Delicious on the branch

Reach!

That was a big fella!

Apples peeking out from underneath the belly

Filling my first bag

Matt was a true gentleman and insisted on carrying all 30 pounds back to the barn.

Working the biceps

I feel like I have one of those pumpkins stuck to my front side...

Now, the cooking begins. This year, we know we're making an apple crisp and lots of applesauce (we're planning on canning most of it for Biscuit), but we have to brainstorm some more ideas (we have 30 pounds to get through, after all). The apple snack cake I made last year was awesome, so that'll probably be on the list, too, and Matt's mentioned wanting to make apple jelly.

Any other musts?

Thankful Mondays #31

Yeah, yeah, it's Tuesday again, I know. Each "Monday," I'm writing about things I'm thankful for. This is week 31. Read more about it here.

451. a Cowboys win
452. new sheets
453. Ben and Jerry's ice cream (it makes not having Blue Bell palatable)

454. pulling apples straight from the tree
455. soup weather
456. phone calls with my grandmother
457. catching up with friends

458. a successful first attempt at making crib sheets
459. new maternity clothes for fall

460. a strong gentlemen of a husband to carry my apples
461. exploring new places
462. sweet corn spoonbread from PM BBQ

463. buying our cloth diapers (so cute!)
464. getting our furniture moved to make room for Biscuit

465. getting to brainstorm what to do with 30 pounds of apples

I heart homemade

As you must know by now, I like giving homemade gifts whenever possible, but I also love receiving homemade items. It's so wonderful to see the time, thought, and effort people put into making something specifically for you (or, in this case, Biscuit), and you're reminded of that love every time you use the item.

We're lucky to have several crafty friends, so I wanted to highlight the awesome homemade things we've received at Biscuit's baby showers this summer. Thank you, friends!

The first item was also acquired most recently, from our friend Susanne at this weekend's shower. She made an entire set of Tex-Mex (our favorite!) felt food. How amazing is this?

I cannot even imagine how much time she put into making this (and did I mention she and her husband hosted the shower, too??). The details are crazy, and every little piece is perfect. In the picture above (starting on the left), you have flan, a fajita with all the fixins (steak and chicken with grill marks!, red and green bell peppers, onions, and refried beans), churros with chocolate dipping sauce, guacamole, more fajita fixins, nachos, a taco with all the fixins (lettuce, tomatoes, steak, and cheese), a burrito, and chips and salsa.

Look at those fajita fixins! The fajita and burrito tortillas have velcro so you can roll them up and keep them closed. And, of course, they're flour tortillas, because corn tortillas are not Tex-Mex.

To top it off, she "wrapped" it in a styrofoam container. How clever is that? I can't wait until Biscuit's old enough to play with it. Until then, maybe I'll just frame it. ;)

The next gift was a super soft baby blanket from our friend Kelly.

I call this our Texas blanket because the bandanna-like fabric on the left side reminds me of Texas. Kelly (along with her husband Trent and their little ones, Rush and Tate) was one of the fabulous friends we left behind in Houston, and we miss them terribly, so it's so nice to have something to remind us of them.

The quilt's just the right size to take with us anywhere we need it, and it's very padded, so I know Biscuit will love laying all over it.

This set was made by another one of our Houston friends, the wonderful Catherine. The shirt and bib are both made from a thermal material that's going to look so cute on Biscuit. I particularly love the oh-so-clever two-sided bib. I feel quite confident our little boy's going to be a messy one, so this way we can just flip the bib around, and voila! clean bib!

Catherine's sweet mother Arlene got in on the fun, too, with this cutie of a burp cloth. I love that fabric!

Finally, my oldest friend, Rachel (who I've known since 2nd grade), gave us a couple of gifts, starting with these two burp cloths. Look at those monkeys! I love all of their different expressions.

The burp cloth on the left matches the nursing cover she also gave me. I love the colors, and it's nice that it's plenty dark to cover things up, if you know what I mean (and I think you do).

It's also got boning in the top part to keep it open so I can easily see in and keep an eye on things.

Thank you so very much, crafty friends!

WIP Wednesday #18

Happy Wednesday, everyone! It's time for another update. (In case you've missed out, I'm following along with Freshly Pieced's W.I.P. (Work In Progress) Wednesday series as a good way for me (and you) to keep track of what's going on around here.)

Completed this week: 
I finished Biscuit's Hide and Seek Spectrum Quilt, my very first quilt! You can read all about it in this post.

Started this week:
This week, I also started and finished a set of bags for our friend Chris's cornhole set. A while back, he decided to build his own board and asked if I'd make the bags to go with it.

He bought the fabric, which is covered in the logos of his alma mater, Wisconsin. I used it for the outside of the bags, with a lining made of duck cloth, so they could withstand hours of being tossed about. I also tripled stitched all the way around.

I had a lot of fabric left over, so I made a lined drawstring bag to hold all of the bags.

The set got its first test run at our baby shower this weekend, and it worked perfectly.

In progress/On the "to do" list:

Empire Waist Cinch for me from Handmade Beginnings

Nursery bedding for the biscuit: crib dust ruffle, crib mobile, and lots of crib sheets

Other biscuit-related projects

Blocking the Early Bird/Kitchen Window quilt

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. And be sure to click on the button to check out other great WIPs for more inspiration!

Who's ready for some tummy time?

I did it! The Hide and Seek Spectrum Quilt (aka Biscuit's tummy time quilt, aka my VERY FIRST quilt) is done! It was a slow process, from selecting the perfect solids and patterned fabrics to cutting and assembling every little piece, learning how to put the walking foot on my sewing machine, figuring out how to quilt (and what thread colors to use for quilting), creating my first strip of bias tape, and learning how to bind the quilt.

The binding was probably the spot where I had my biggest boo-boo. As I said, this was my first time making bias tape, and I followed the directions of all the tutorials — calculate the distance around the quilt and then add 20 or so inches to make sure you have plenty. Problem: all the tutorials use just one fabric (meaning they're only connecting six-ish strips), whereas I'd decided to use all 18 of my solids and make a rainbow binding, so I had 18 strips to piece together.

So you can guess what happened. After I'd cut and pieced them all together, I was about 30 inches short. Oops. I had to make up for it by cutting several more strips, which meant repeating the rainbow so I ended up with a side that had multiple strips in the same color. It also meant that I had one little orange strip left when I pieced the beginning and end together.

I don't think it's terribly noticeable when you're looking at the quilt as a whole, but it's definitely a lesson learned. Here's how I ended up quilting the sashing — parallel lines in each of the darker solid colors.

And then I quilted around the window on each block.

Here's a close-up of part of the binding, showing the rainbow strip.

I decided to use white thread in the bobbin for quilting, and it turned out great. You see some light squares in the middle rainbow strip, and it's hardly noticeable everywhere else.

I bound the quilt completely by machine because, as I've mentioned before, hand sewing really isn't my forte. On the front, I stitched in the ditch so you don't see the thread, and I used white thread in the bobbin, so it shows up on the rainbow binding on the back. Even though it's not hidden, I like the way it ended up looking.

Another close-up of the binding. I call this my Aggie corner.

And here's how Biscuit will see it on the floor, with the windows open.

Open the window, and what do you see? Cows, frogs, eggplants, people, and planes!

Tomatoes, bees, lemons, and pigs!

It's not perfect by a long shot, but I'm so happy with how it turned out and all the new techniques I learned along the way.

I'm not sure quilting will be my new passion, but working through the process and seeing all my hard work come to such a pleasing conclusion was wonderful, and I'm certain I'll do it again.

At the very least, I have to finish the Kitchen Window quilt I started last winter, right?

I can't wait for Biscuit to use it!