I saw this fabric almost 6 months ago and knew from the start that I was going to make a quilt for my friend using this fabric.  The problem was that it wasn’t due to come out until mid-to-late March.  *sigh*  That is the only reason her quilt was the last to be made (I had to wait for the fabric to be released).

I LOVE the bright colors, the fun patterns, and the classified ads just make me laugh.  It’s totally boy!  So cute!  I even found ribbon that goes with this fabric line (who does that?) so I HAD to buy it, knowing I was going to roll it up and tie it with a ribbon (stole that idea from Andrea).

And now I’m done with my sewing machine for a little bit.  It’s actually moving on to my niece this summer.  Jason got me a new one for Christmas that still needs to come out of the box (yep, I’ve been that busy that it’s still in the box…seriously).  I know, I know…it would have made much more sense to have sewn three quilts with the NEW sewing machine.  Don’t think I didn’t think about that.  I’m so overwhelmed with several things that the thought of unpacking a sewing machine and learn something new right now just might send me over the edge.  LOL!

Side Note:  The fabric is a Riley Blake Design called “Peak Hour” by Kellie Wulfsohn.  If you’re looking for fabric, check out Fabric Seeds first.  Her prices were more than $3 less per charm pack than anyone else that was selling it.  She wasn’t selling any yardage of this fabric, so I just emailed her.  I found out that she has a Riley Blake store near her and has access to many of their fabrics and  was happy to get what I needed for a very reasonable price.  Everything shipped in one envelope, so the cost of my shipping didn’t even go up even though I added two whole yards to my order.  She was amazing to work with and I will definitely buy from her again.

I made her first daughter (Nina’s) quilt (it was actually my VERY FIRST quilt EVER).  Here’s pics of that quilt from six years ago.  It was purposefully purple and green because her room was purple and green at the time.

Her second daughter (Selah’s) quilt was made by someone whom I admire so much.  She is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met and I just love checking out her blog to see what new creations she’s made.  Click here to check out the quilt she made for my friends second daughter.

And now for the latest quilt I’ve created, for my friends third daughter (Eliana).  My friend didn’t want purple or pink, so I went with the fun teal color and ended up loving the Riley Blake Designs Verona by Emily Taylor fabric line.

I’m very pleased with the way this quilt turned out.  It was such a fun fabric to work with.  I know she’ll treasure this for many years to come.

The first one is going to my dear friend Elisa. She is the Nursery Coordinator at our church. If it wasn’t for her, we would have stopped going to church all together until Brody was old enough to understand that we would come back for him. It was so hard to drop him off in the nursery those first few weeks several months (and I mean several).  Elisa was so comforting and caring.  She would email and check in with us if we missed a week.  She would always peek in on Brody to see how he was doing and come out to where we were volunteering and give us a thumbs up, sideways thumb, or thumbs down depending on how Brody was doing. It was so reassuring to know that someone was keeping tabs on him (it meant I didn’t have to worry).  She was so invaluable!  She was (and still is) amazing!

Brody no longer is in the nursery hallway at our church, so we don’t see Elisa as much.  He’s now graduated to the preschool hallway and is starting to do better with drop offs at church.  When he first transitioned to the 2-year-old class, Elisa would email and see how he was doing. When I mentioned that they weren’t as comforting as the nursery volunteers, she took it upon herself to start walking down the preschool hallway and peek in on Brody to give me updates on him.  How in the world does God orchestrate such a thing (something I so needed in that moment).

Elisa has recently given birth to a son of her own.  As soon as I found out she was pregnant, I knew I wanted to make a quilt for her (a tummy time quilt for her little guy).  Thanks Elisa for all you do!

Thanks to Pinterest, I came across a birthday idea that someone had done for their Dad’s 70th birthday.  I figured it was perfect to do for my sister’s 40th birthday, so I put the plan in action.  I contacted two of my sisters closest friends and they came up with 40 of my sisters friends and their addresses for me (taking a HUGE piece of the puzzle off of my plate).  All I needed to do was create the mailing and postcards and get them sent out (easy enough).

I copied (almost to a “T”) the colors and designs this girl had used (each postcard had the numbers 1 through 40 on them in different colors).  I found an idea for address labels on Etsy and created my own.  I then found discount envelopes on Paper Source.  I love this website and their products are top notch quality.  I came across the discount envelopes page and found the prices of these envelopes to be super cheap.  When I got the envelopes, I honestly couldn’t tell you what was wrong with them.  They were in perfect condition.  They only have certain colors and sizes available (whatever they have that they feel isn’t perfect enough to sell at full price), so I had to go with what was available and fell in love with the “pool” color.

Here is the end result:

My sister LOVED this gift and enjoyed getting postcards that had wonderful things wrote about her.  Something she can read on days she may feel down to lift her spirits.

Some other fun things I got my sister were Cake Pop Truffles from JensCakePops on Etsy.  I was able to choose 3 flavors, so chose Red Velvet Cake, Coffee Cake, and Reese’s Pieces.  They were packaged nicely, gave instructions on how long they would last and how to store them if you weren’t ready to eat them all in one day (like I would have). My sister said they were really good too.  I will certainly buy from her again.  What a fun gift to send to someone.

And the last fun little thing I got for my sister was a miniature birthday card from Leafcutter Designs.  This was so worth the money (reasonably priced too).  I chose the birthday cupcake card and wrote my sentiment. These miniature cards are actually hand written (see video below…so cool).  It’s put in a coin collector holder to keep it nice and clean and mailed to the recipient with a magnifying glass.  My sister’s kids had fun taking turns reading the card.  There are other fun things to send from this site too.

For some reason, the tutorial I used is missing all of the pictures, so here is another tutorial that shows the same thing (her mouse pad just happens to be round) in case you’re interested in trying this yourself.

I first made a size 3T for Ashley.  I tried it on Brody (they’re about the same size) and it was too big, so I made a second coat (size 2T) for Ashley.  It was a perfect fit and because I used corduroy instead of fleece, it was actually even cuter!  I showed Jason who asked if they made a pattern for boys.  Sure enough, the lady did, so I got that pattern too and made Brody a coat.  Each coat only took a few hours to make.  The buttons were the longest thing to do (making holes and sewing on the buttons).

So, here you go…the three coats I made:

During the Christmas season, we had many packages being delivered (since all of our family is out of town, they ship our gifts to us).

I happened to notice a package being delivered by a Budget (rent-a-van). I later found out it was via Fed-EX, but thought it was funny that a random rental truck delivered a package.  Strange.  I guess you have to use whatever methods you can, huh?

I recently found out a friend was pregnant, so I spent last night putting together my photo flip book.  I sent the digital scrapbook pages to Walgreens photo center and picked them up this morning while I was out and about, then finished putting together the flip book during Brody’s nap. I love how it turned out!  It was so easy to make, just slightly time consuming with the cutting and assembling, but not so bad that I won’t make another one.

Back in mid September, I joined the Hello Mornings Challenge.  It ran for three months, ending in mid December.  This challenge is usually done with groups meeting on either facebook or twitter.  I belong to neither (and found out that many others were in the same boat).  This past challenge, they opened up an email option to connect with each other. Of course, this was the route I went.

I was put with a group of about 16 women.  We checked in with each other daily and got to know each other pretty well.  I was able to go to another level with these women, opening up to them with my true feelings or prayer requests.  It was easy to do because I didn’t know them and we couldn’t see each other.  It felt so freeing.  I felt such a powerful bond with several of them.  We became prayer warriors for each other.  I could go to them with any prayer request (big or small) and got so many encouraging responses and people checking in on me.  What a wonderful group of women!

This Hello Mornings Challenge is starting back up again on January 16 (registration ends January 2).  If you’d like to sign up for it or find out more information, be sure to check out Kat’s Inspired To Action website.  I hope you’ll join me.  I promise you won’t be disappointed!