Life (not so) lately: Spring Break 2015

I am so terribly behind on personal posts, but I couldn't let some of the events of the past few months slip by without posting some pics, so be prepared for a few more of these in the coming days. We'll keep the chatting to a minimum. :)

For spring break this year, we took a road trip across the Southeast, focused on a trip to Atlanta to see my grandmother and other family and a trip to Durham to see some old friends from Houston, who now live there. In between all that, we managed to drive through 10 states in eight days (plus we waved at Ohio across the river), which was no small feat. Thank goodness our little guy is a trooper.

My family actually lives in the burbs north of Atlanta, so we rarely make it into the city much while we're there, but this time, we decided to take a day to do some touristy things. We went to the Georgia Aquarium (B's first), Centennial Olympic Park, and this hotel Matt's stayed at before with a crazy atrium. B loved riding in the glass elevator.

We also had a wonderful time with family, and it was so good to spend time with all of them.

From Atlanta, we headed to Durham to see our friends, who we hadn't seen since their wedding five years ago. It was awesome. They have a son who's just a month older than B, and the two of them hit it off immediately. We took them to this great museum/nature park, and B's been talking about it every since. It was also just so nice to hang out with old friends and have some good adult time.

Aren't they the cutest??

A friend of ours was celebrating her 40th birthday soon after this, so we spent some time taking pics in Durham-y places (hello, Lucky Strike!) holding a sign for her as part of a gift. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pics without the sign, too. Ha! Irene will always be in our trip memories now.

Another successful road trip! Stay tuned for Easter pics soon!

WIP Wednesday: Project ADD

It's been good sewing times around here lately, so it seemed like a good time to check in. After finishing my Into the Woods baby quilt, I was craving a project just for me, so I jumped back into my Patchwork City sampler quilt. Since my last WIP post, I've finished two more blocks (Intercom and Transit Center) and cut the pieces for Mini Storage.

I am still loving this project so much. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I've gotten several comments on the fabrics I'm using and how I chose them. Since I planned on this being a project for me, I just went straight for colors that made me happy, which it turns out I have a lot of in my stash. In fact, this is the ridiculously large pile of fabrics I'm pulling from.

At least I'm not buying anything new...well, I might need a few more solids.

Generally, I'm the type to only work on one project at a time (I like to finish something and then move on), but lately I've been pulled toward so many projects that I thought I should just embrace it and see how it goes. So far, I'm kind of loving it. So most of the last few days has been dedicated to finally making a Fancy Fox quilt (actually the larger Fancy Fox II), which went together so quickly. These huge blocks (they measure 20" x 24" finished) are fantastic for a quick quilt.

Sorry for the terrible basement-lighting pics. Anyway, the top is all pieced, and I'll pulled fabrics for a scrappy backing, so hopefully I'll start on that tonight. This quilt is destined to be a charity quilt for Project Linus (part of this year's charity project for the STLMQG), so I'm hoping these colors will make a little boy very happy.

After picking up a few additional pieces from my LQS, I'm also ready to finally start on my mini for the IG Cotton + Steel mini quilt swap. I love this C+S rainbow, and I hope my partner does, too.

The hardest part was actually deciding on a pattern, but I'm pretty sure I've done that now, too.

Finally, I've just started cutting fabric for another baby quilt. I became obsessed with the idea of finally using these fabulous Birch prints for this project, but I struggled to find a pattern that highlighted them without getting too crazy. I finally decided to go with a simple triangle quilt using some coordinating solids and just little pops of the Birch prints, which I hope is the perfect compromise. I've got a lot of triangles to cut.

Back to work!

The neverending (and usually growing) to do list:

Into the Woods baby quilt
Patchwork City sampler quilt
Fancy Fox quilt (STLMQG charity quilt)
Perfect quilted tote (STLMQG charity project tote)
Mini quilt for the Cotton + Steel mini quilt swap 
Triangle baby quilt
Vintage Quilt Revival sampler project
Hazel Hedgehog quilt
Allie Owl quilt
The Kittens quilt
Wedding quilt
Doll quilt and pouch set
Superhero cape for B
Sorbetto shirt 
Aviatrix Medallion quilt
Swoon quilt
Quilt for guest bed (maybe the Spiced Chai quilt from Vintage Quilt Revival?)
Sunset Tiles quilt (from Scraps Inc.)

T-shirt quilt
Sewing circle tote
Re-cover the downstairs chair

Ironing board cover
Washi dress/tunic

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Into the Woods baby quilt: A finish!

The Into the Woods baby quilt is finished!

I more or less followed the free Hi(bear)nate pattern from Art Gallery, though I used smaller triangles and almost no border to bring the quilt down from a throw size to a baby quilt size. The final quilt measures 41" x 46".

I pulled the mix of fabrics from a few collections, mostly Winged and Hello Bear, with some Lizzy House thrown in. The teal binding is Prisma Element in Pagoda Gem. (Turns out Art Gallery fabrics play really nicely together. They are also the the softest fabrics ever. I may have to use AG fabrics for all of my baby quilts from now on. So cuddly.) I originally chose it because the color worked nicely with the prints in the quilt, and I thought the design would make a nice binding. It was only after I finished the quilt that the hubby pointed out that the triangles also mimicked the design of the quilt. Duh. Turns out I'm a genius even when I'm not trying.

The background fabric on the front is Confetti Dots in Stone (I think). For the backing, I mostly used the main print from Hello Bear so I could show off all those cute animals, but I wanted to break it up a little, so I inserted a rainbow strip made from the fabrics on the front of the quilt. I love how it turned out.

Cute little animal family (I asked B to point to the fox, natch.)

I quilted it using white thread, first outlining the triangles and then adding an "echo" zigzag between the sets of triangles. I machine bound the quilt using my normal technique and slipped one of my new labels into the binding on the back.

She's all wrapped up and ready to head to her new home. I'll be sorry to see this soft little beauty leave, but I hope her tiny new owner loves her as much as I do.