B turns 3

Who turned 3 today? This guy!

I can't believe how quickly my little man is growing up. He is still the sweetest, cuddliest, most loving little person, and I can't get enough of him. He's got such a personality, makes us laugh all the time, is so smart, loves to read and play sports, and is pushing the boundaries of his little three-year-old world more and more every day.

Happy birthday, Beckett!

WIP Wednesday: Little projects and secret projects

After finishing the Cut Glass Baby Quilt (see this post for all kinds of info and pictures), I jumped back into this stack to focus on the greens and blues for another quilt. This one's gotta remain a mystery for now, but I'm cutting, cutting, cutting away over here and getting really excited.

Meanwhile, I finished up a few small projects, and I've got a few more to finish up this week. First, I put together a little felt garland in fall colors for B's birthday party last weekend (his party was an "Into the Woods" theme). I also (finally) made him a new hooded towel using this tutorial, minus the embellishments. We were still using his toddler towel, which he outgrew it long ago. It's nice to get those wet feet covered again!

For his birthday, we got him a Kindle Fire tablet and some fun headphones to use for our upcoming travels, so I'm making a cover for the tablet (using my tutorial) and a drawstring bag for the headphones. I'm using this awesome Ann Kelle fox fabric, which I picked up from my wonderful LQS this weekend, along with a few other goodies. I cannot wait to break into Elizabeth Hartman's new book. It's taking all of my willpower to not set aside everything else and just start making all.the.things.

Finally, I wrangled up the last few scraps of the fabrics I used for B's nursery to finally make him a little toddler pillow to go with his quilt. It always feels good to get lots of little projects wrapped up, doesn't it?

The neverending to do list (but, hey, it's getting shorter!):

Cut Glass baby quilt
Mystery pieced quilt
Mystery HST quilt
New baby quilt

T-shirt quilt
Aviatrix Medallion quilt 
"Treasure" bag for B
Superhero cape for B
Sewing circle tote
Re-cover the downstairs chair

Ironing board cover
Reusable snack bags
Washi dress/tunic

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

Cut Glass baby quilt: A finish!

This post has been weeks coming, but I'm finally getting around to showing off my latest finish!

The pattern is the Cut Glass Baby Quilt from Vintage Quilt Revival, and I'm loving it. It was one of the first projects in the book to really catch my eye, and I couldn't wait for an excuse to make it. Thankfully, a friend with an upcoming baby girl was happy to oblige.

This is my first paper-pieced quilt, and I'm pretty darn pleased with how it turned out. There are definitely some points that don't match up, but most of them are really close. I definitely appreciate the precision that comes with paper piecing.

The colors in this quilt proved to be really hard to photograph. I've corrected the colors in these photos to try to make them as accurate as possible, but they're still not quite there. The pink (Kona Watermelon) is a really lovely bright pink, and it was the hardest part to capture. It's paired with Kona Snow and Moda Bella Silver, Marine, and Prussian Blue. The orange print on the front is the crosshatch from Madrona Road.

 
For the back, I combined a little of the leftover Kona Watermelon with Cotton and Steel XOXO in Pink Cheeks, Half Moon Modern Big Dot in Steel, and Dear Stella Confetti Dots in Cantaloupe. I bound it in the Moda Bella Silver.

For the quilting, I chose a white thread and outlined each of the shapes, so on the back you see an array of squares, diamonds, and stars. I bound it by machine as usual.

I dropped it in the mail today, so hopefully its new owner will be enjoying it very, very soon!

I'm linking up to the Craft Book Sew-Along at Live.Love.Create.

Happy Halloween 2014

Yes, I realize Halloween was a week ago, but who's counting? Back at the beginning of September, when we asked B what he wanted to be for Halloween, he told us "pumpkin pie." What?!? I don't know where that idea came from (a book at school maybe?). I don't think he's ever even had pumpkin pie. Anyway, I was planning on making his costume, and I couldn't think of a way to really make pumpkin pie look cute (I just kept envisioning a boring orange triangle.), so when we asked him for a second choice, I was relieved when he said "ice-cream cone." (Side note: I do appreciate his creativity. It was nice not to have to buy the Batman costume. Also, I think his foodie genes must be coming out. Or at least his sweet tooth.)

When I did a search for ice-cream cone costume ideas, all I got were big, poofy, three-dimensional things that weren't very cute and definitely didn't seem very practical for a very mobile toddler, so I followed my first instinct and decided to make a sandwich-board type design using felt. B picked the colors (ahem, flavors), and it came together pretty easily over a few nights. I originally planned to make him an elastic cherry headband, but we decided that would look too girly, so when I found this red visor at Joann, it seemed like a good compromise. I added a felt "stem" to the top, and bam, I was done. And B LOVED it.

This was the first year we'd actually taken B trick or treating, so we teamed up with some friends and made a night out of it, with dinner before and hanging out after. We only visited about 10 houses, but that was really perfect. B got SO excited every time someone put candy in his little bucket, and he was more than content to suck on one little lollipop when all was said and done.

I think he will definitely be looking forward to Halloween next year.