Good morning! I know it is afternoon or evening for some of you so good day to you!  

I've had a productive morning so far, I have done some cleaning up, got my morning workout in and even took a couple of pictures of some things I worked on yesterday.

One of my college friends had a baby on the 22nd and I wanted to make her a little something for the baby.  I started digging in my stash and found a few pieces that would work well for her little bundle of joy, The baby was 10 pounds 2 ounces, so she isn't so little.

Here are the fabrics I chose for the quilt.


I thought the bears were the perfect fit.   I'm not sold on this layout, so things may change before I start sewing things together.

My mom also makes quilts, but she doesn't quilt them, she gives them to me.   Here is one she gave me before Christmas to quilt for her.  It is a nice sized baby quilt that measures 39"x 49".     I pulled the binding from my stash. It is sort of a herring bone print on the turquoise.


I quilted 1/4" to the inside of each rectangle.


I'm glad the quilt wasn't any larger that what it is because, I didn't realize what a pain in the butt it was going to be to quilt it the way I did.  I love how it looks, but it is a lot of work, unlike my normal free motion meandering.

Today I'm going to be working on my friends baby quilt and I just uploaded some more pictures for my post on the 8th!  

Don't forget tomorrow starts the Valentine's Day Showcase over at Sew BitterSweet Designs.  Melissa has lots of great prizes lined up and there will be a linky party to boot!

This is not a sponsored post it is my own thoughts and goals.

Addictions, we all have them.  Some are good for us, others, not so much.  I have recently acquired a new addiction, exercise, yep I'm turning into one of those.  Don't worry, I'm not going to lecture you if you have an addiction to food, shopping, smutty novels, high calorie caffeinated drinks made from roasted beans, you get the picture.     

I am doing this for me and me alone.  About 2 years ago I was told I was pre-diabetic and put on medicine to help control and lower the amount of insulin in my blood that my body just didn't use.  Over the past 2 years I have lost around 20 pounds, by just watching what I ate.  I had my semi annual doctors appointment to have all my labs checked and to make sure everything was were it needed to be. Well, my cholesterol was up as well as my blood pressure and I had put back on a few pounds as well.

Now this is no new years resolution, it just needs to be done and even though I consider myself young at 35 years old, I'm at the point in my life where the metabolism really starts to slow down and I have to work harder to keep things in check.   I know in my head it is going to be a lot easier to lose the weight now than in say 10 years down the road.    I have a goal of losing 60 more pounds to be where I want to be weight wise somewhere in the next year or two.

But for now, I'm taking it one day at a time and hope to loose at least 10-15 pounds by the time I return to the doctor in May.  I think that will at least show her I am trying to live a healthier lifestyle.

Now I said exercise was my new addiction, I started last week easing myself into things. I didn't want to injure myself the first week out and lose all motivation.  Last week I started with some basic yoga, aka NO impact, just stretching and muscle control, and deep breathing.  I learned even though there is no impact, it is pretty good cardio and I sweat, a lot.  Today I really stepped it up and added in some intensive circuit training followed up by some yoga.  Now I want to go for a walk, maybe even jog.  I can't get enough.  I don't remember the last time I felt this good.  Now to stay out of hubbys candy stash in the fridge, and the french fries when we happen to eat out.  Now I'm not forbidding myself of these things, just cutting back enough that they don't taste good when I do splurge and allow myself to indulge.

I signed up over at myfitnesspal.com, it is 100% free and there is even a free app for andriod and iphones where you can scan the barcode of your food and it will give you the nutritional information, how cool is that!  If you sign up over there and want to 'be friends' let me know and I will let you know my user name.   I just don't feel comfortable posting that part on my blog.

So, what is your addition?  You don't have to tell if you don't want to, but answer that question for yourself.  What gets in your way the most, what is holding you back from being your best?  

It's time for another round of  'What I finished Friday'.

I have to admit, I didn't finish a whole lot this week, I mostly did some mending

 The prized hello kitty hat lost her bow.

 Not to worry, 5 min of stitching later, all was well with the world again.

This is a little sneak peek at something I have been working on.  I'm not using any pattern, just going off a picture in my head of what I want it to be.


Today, is my son's 100th day of Kindergarten and they are having a 'big party' I don't remember celebrating the 100th day of school ever.  I have heard others talk about the big day, but I have yet to figure it out.  The girl and I area going to head over to the school this afternoon for the big ch-bang, since I know the kids always get excited when someones parent shows up.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Happy stitching!

Hi everyone!  Life has been getting in the way over here.

Hello Friday! How did you get here so fast?  Don't you know I have have been taking care of a sick child this week and haven't had time to some of the things I love, like sew?   Don't worry the sick child is finally willingly taking her medicine and is on the mend.  Strep throat is no fun and I hated seeing my baby girl sick.

Remember these from, back in August I think? 


Well...I finally finished my 'Terrain' quilt top!


 Sorry for the bad picture.  It has been raining here a lot the past couple of days, and today although it has quit raining it is quite windy. So I gave up waiting on nice weather for a photo opportunity and just went with the picture I took on Sunday.   I  uses a charm pack of Terrain for my 'hourglasses' or 'butterflies' as my husband and 3 year old are calling them.  

My friend Melissa over at Sew Bitter Sweet Designs is giving away a layer cake of 'Twirl' by 'Me and My Sisters'  The colors are oh so fun and bright. Just what everyone needs right now as the 'winter blues' are beginning to set in.

Photo Courtesy of Fat Quarter Shop.

Go Check out Melissa's blog and find out all the ways you can win!

Happy 1st Birthday to 'It's Sew Kiki'  She has lots of goodies to GIVE AWAY!!! 


Head over to 'It's Sew Kiki' and become a follower!  Be sure to tell her I sent you!


As for things going in my little corner of the world, I haven't done a whole lot of sewing.  I've spent endless hours playing candyland with my 3 year old.  She makes me feel guilty if I tell her 'no'.  She gives me the, 'but, momma I don't have anyone to play with me.' along with the pouty face.  

I would like to welcome the Fat Quarter Shop as a sponsor.   They have lots to offer, from pre-cuts to yardage,  Kits, notions, books and more.  

Do you have a favorite designer like Amy Butler, Kate Spain, or Kaffee Fassett?  You can search their collections exclusively (and many more of course).

Is there a outdoor loving  little girl in your life?


Lily Pad Froggin' looks like a ton of fun!

Maybe you are a bit of a romantic, but don't like the all the pinks and mauve's. Summer Breeze II might be just it, for you.


Here are some of my favorites.


I love the blues and grey's in 'Deeply Put Your Heart In It'

Of course who doesn't like 'The Pokey Little Puppy'?  You can even get it in pink or blue!  Thee Fat Quarter Shop also has several other 'Little Golden Books' themed fabric.



Take a few minutes and go check the Fat Quarter Shop out.  I know you won't be disappointed

About Fat Quarter Shop

My friend Melissa over at Sew Bittersweet Designs is doing a Valentine's Day Showcase.  She has asked me to to be one of her contributors.  I'm really excited and have started planning something special.   I'm not going to steal Melissa's 'thunder' so why don't you head over to her blog and check things out.   She has a  button for you to grab and there will be a linky party with prizes at the end!


Last week got away from me in the sewing room.  I did finish on of the Quilt Uber-fest blocks, I have 11 more to go.  




I also pieced a few hexi's together over the weekend while hubby and I went on a weekend road trip.  I'm thankful for my mother-in-law coming to watch the kids so we could go and enjoy ourselves.  Here is what I have pieced together so far.  




My goal it to start making it into rows so it is a lot neater and  not so messy looking.  I do love the randomness of the colors. The 3 rows at the bottom is the progress I made while in the car and it is not yet attached to the larger piece.

Well WIP, here we are again... I'm making a list to start the year out so maybe I will be able to keep track of my progress better...so in to particular order.




Quilt-Uber Fest blocks from Oct. of 2011, blocks 7-17.


I need to 'catch up' on my bloggers  BOM,  I'm 2 months behind...


I have a quilt that I started with some Terrain by Kate Spain that I need to just sew my blocks together...


I want to make the 'about town' bag that It's Sew Kiki has designed.  There is a free pattern available at Connecting Threads, and she has a Flickr group for people to post their bags.


I have fabric to make the 'Frosted Stars' quilt By Charlie Scott.


I won a Strawberry Fields jelly roll last month that I am dreaming up something in my head for.


I also have some blues and greens in the closet to make another quilt, that I didn't get to last year.


I have some place mats that I started eons ago, all I have to do is stitch down the binding. (sadly this isn't my oldest wip)


block of the month blocks from Jo-ann fabrics that I bought while I was still in high school so think crica 1995... Ok now that I have admitted that I have to get those finished this year.


Ok, I think I have a problem....That is a lot of projects, I better step away from the computer and sit at my sewing machine, stat!

While my son was on Christmas break from school, the kids spent some time at the grandparents where they played checkers and other made up games using the checker board.  Now that they are home, they are wanting to play these games and I just didn't trust the 5 and 3 year old with our glass checkers board even though we never use it, I don't want it to get broken.

Wanting to get the whining nagging brats out of my hair keep peace in the house.  I decided I would make them their own.


To make your own 'Quilted Checker's Board' you will need

32 dark or black 2 1/2" squares
32 light/red or white 2 1/2" squares

Note: for your  squares you will use 5" x WOF (width of fabric) of each color. I used scraps from my bin.

1 17" square of backing  (a fat quarter would work great for this.
1 17" square of cotton batting (optional)

2 yards binding (optional)

My 64 squares all cut and ready to go.  



I chain pieced them all together using a 1/4" seam, and then pressed towards the dark.


By pressing them all in the same direction when you make your blocks of 4 it will help 'lock' your pieces together so you get pretty matched up intersections.

  Once you get your blocks of 4's sewn together, press them open.
                                       


You will then sew, your 16 blocks of 4 into 8 blocks of 8 into 4 blocks of 12 and so forth. (For some reason I didn't take pictures of all this, it may have been the children that were under my feet)


**Tip:   You may want to pin your blocks together at the seam to help keep them aligned.


Once you have all your blocks sewn together, you will have something that looks a little like this.


Now, there are couple of different ways you can finish this off.

You can just trim you backing fabric to the exact size of your checker board and put them right sides together and stitch them together leaving a hole to turn them right side out and stitch your hole closed.

Or you can make your checker board sandwich with the batting and quilt it.

However you want to finish it off.  There is no right or wrong way.

I stitched in the ditch every 4 inches or 2 blocks and then used binding to finish it off
 If you don't mind going cross eyed you can almost see my quilting lines on the back.