Will Baby Be A Boy Or A Girl?

This is certainly the number 2 question on everyone's mind when it comes to our 3rd child. The first being... Is the baby healthy? My girls are both hoping for a baby brother, and my hubby and I are kinda hoping for a boy. Although we will be so happy with another little girl. ( I feel almost guilty hoping for a boy!) I would love for anyone viewing my blog to go ahead and vote for what you think. I've placed a poll on my side bar. Just click on the one you think. To make it more fair I will admit that I feel totally different with this pregnancy and so far I'm carrying this baby differently. But, I am older... But I guess you never know!

MIA For A Very Good Reason

I realize I haven't blogged since Christmas, and I promise that it's been for a very good reason. We're expecting our 3rd child in very early September! Our girls are completely thrilled and excited. As are all our family members and friends. Being 12 weeks along now, I'm starting to feel more human and I've been slowly getting back to my "normal" routine. Today I had a 12 week ultrasound and saw our little one moving around, rubbing his face, and just looking adorable. (we don't know if it's a girl or boy yet... for now the baby is mostly referred to as "he or him" instead of "it") It's just amazing how quickly they grow.... inside and outside of the uterus. I saw baby at 8 weeks and he looked like a little peanut. And, just 4 weeks later it looks like a whole person. So tiny! We are excited to find out what he/she is in April. I'll be sure to share the news when we find out. Check out the new widget on my side bar to track the babies growth.

In other news: I am purging things in my art space. With another baby coming I am cutting down on the amount of different crafts that I do. I'll be posting a list of things for sale with photos in the coming week and if you see anything that you want just send me an email. I'll also be posting things on etsy and our local Craigslist. Some items will include: drum carder, lots of raw wool and cardable wool chunks and various fibers.

I-Spy Quilt Project: Part 4

This is the final part to my I-Spy quilt project. Here are final photos of my quilts. For the big border I decided against free motion quilting (due to technical issues) and instead did 3 wavy lines all the way around. It's almost like a huge frame. I love the finished quilts. They are in the wash and will be under the tree in time for Christmas! Feel free to ask any questions.
Alaina's finished quilt in blues and purples. I love the back. Aren't those the cutest owls ever!
Rachels' finished quilt in pinks and puurples. I love the floral and stripe on hers.

Being The Duck.....

My grandmother has a saying. "When you find yourself getting stressed or worried... Be a Duck. Let the water roll off your back and just keep swimming along." (not her exact quote, but it's the meaning) Today I found myself trying hard to be the duck.

As I was quilting my daughters I-Spy quilt my sewing machine broke. It just stopped completing it's full rotation. Almost like it was hitting or jamming on something metal. I got quotes to have it fixed/serviced. The cost of that is almost the cost of the whole machine. What's a girl to do? I have two quilts to finish before Christmas and 4 commissions lined up for after Christmas. Well... I got out my screwdrivers and took off the front panel of my machine. I was hoping to see a broken part or something glaringly wrong. Yeah.... not a chance. It looks perfect. I cleaned it up a bit and decided to work on my stack of Christmas cards. 3 hours later I took one more peak at the machine and gave the wheel one more turn.... and it turned! All the way around. It's sticking a bit on something, but now I'm thinking that a better cleaning and an oiling will do the trick. Hopefully my little Brother XR7700 will be running full speed by tomorrow. Otherwise this duck may get very soggy.
Bonus pic of beautiful Grammy cracking up on her 96th b-day.

I-Spy Quilt Project: Part 3

Part 3 of my quilt project has been a long time coming. I've gotten the quilts mostly done. Since Part 2 I have added the solid border around the quilt front, pieced together the quilt backings, and attached the back, batting, and front together. I'll break this down into sections....
The Solid Border: I cut 4" strips of fabric and sewed them together into one very very long strip. Then I just added it to the quilt. I used a mottled solid to balance out all the happy colors of the quilts. Purple for Ray's quilt and blue for Ali's quilt.
The Backing: I'll post better pics of the backing as soon as I can. The photos below are just small sections of the backings. I used 3 different fabrics for each of the backs. I wanted to backs to be just as pretty as the front. So... a very large patchwork... Below is my sketch of the backing so you can get an idea of what it looks like.
Putting It Together: So after the fronts and backs were done it was time to assemble the quilts. Now, I had originally intended to lay everything out, pin it all up, quilt it, and then bind the edges. But, time was an issue and I decided to go the "quick" route. I pinned the fronts and backs right sides together and then the batting on top of that. I sewed along the edge and left a large section open. Then I turned it all around. I then had sewed up the opening and began to quilt.

The Quilting: There are so many ways to quilt. I didn't want to tie the quilt, but I also don't have the time to do to much detail quilting. So I quilted along the edge and the along the inside ditch of the outside border. Then I did a large checkerboard inside the I-Spy part. For the middle border where all the large squares are I'm doing some free-motion squigly quilting. I'll get close ups of the quilting and finished photos for Part 4.

More Christmas Knitting

I finished up some more Christmas knitting over the last few days. I made some socks for my brother and another pair of fingerless gloves. I used this pattern on Ralvery for the gloves and I winged my own pattern for the basic worsted weight socks. Both items use the same Patons Tweeds wool yarn and the gloves have some of my handspun too.

Yummy Christmas Mint Fudge - With Recipe!

Today I did some Christmas baking and discovered a new recipe. When making fudge I always use Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme and I follow the directions on the back for their fudge. But, tonight I didn't have any evaporated milk and I wanted to try using dark chocolate chips. Below is my improvised recipe. It turned out sooooo yummy.

Use the Fantasy Fudge recipe over at Kraft, but make the following adjustments:

- Substitute the evaporated milk for 2/3 cup of coffee creamer (seriously! I used my french vanilla coffee creamer and it is sooo yummy. I would imagine that you could use any flavor and your fudge would come out with a hint of that flavor.)
- Substitute the Semi-Sweet Chocolate for a bag of Dark Chocolate Chips
- At this point I wanted to go with a mint fudge so I substituted the vanilla for 3/4 tsp of mint extract

Follow all the rest of the directions and you'll have some really good fudge. Happy Cooking!