The Good and the Bad



The last 3 months have been crazy in Kat-land. Lots of good, lots of very bad. I've been sewing (not as much as I'd like) but not been taking a lot of pictures and (obviously) not blogging.

In December, I lost my "adopted" grandmother after a long illness. Growing up, my grandparents lived far away and she lived up the street, so we always considered her our grandma. There's never a good time to lose a loved one but right before Christmas was especially difficult. She was 90 and was sick on and off for several years so this was not a surprise, but it was hard to not be there (in New York) for the funeral.

We did make it to New York for New Year's and had a great (freezing cold and snowy, but great) week with my family (parents, brother, sister, nephew) there. I took a few home-made gifts with me, including this play mat I made for my little nephew, Liam. I didn't take many pictures of the finished quilt, but here is one of Liam enjoying it. It measures 48" x 48".

In late January, my world stopped when I got the call that my dear friend Billy -- who has been my brother's best friend and I've considered another "little" brother for close to 25 years -- was killed in a car accident. Billy was a hulk of a man -- he was 6' 6" tall, weighed 300 pounds and was all heart. He was a police officer, U.S. Navy veteran, and one of my most favorite people in the world. I traveled back to New York for the hardest days of my life -- his funeral services, complete with full police honors. I am still heartbroken and not a day goes by that he is not heavy on my mind.

Billy with each of my daughters and my brother, at their high school senior prom.

 

 

 

This video is called "Final Farewell."  I still cannot watch it without tears or that now-too-familiar "punched in the stomach" feeling.  I know it may seem a little sad to post a video like this on my blog, but it is a true testament to the enormity of our loss.

 

 

In between the very bad there was also good. We adopted two guinea pigs. My older daughter earned her orange belt in karate. My younger daughter found a passion for reading. I completed another one of those crazy, 12-person, 200 mile overnight running relay races (from Miami to Key West, Florida). I treated myself to a new sewing machine (a Husqvarna Viking Eden Rose 250c). I saw Billy Joel in concert. Many more "little things" as well, that remind me life is good.

I would really love to get back in the groove of sewing and blogging and maybe (hopefully) I will... but in the meantime, I leave you with some photos of my last 3 months and hope you are all finding time to stop and enjoy the ladybugs.

 

My girls enjoying the snow in New York at New Year's.

Being Florida girls, snows is a very special treat for them!

 

 

Fooplesauce is on the left and Rootbeer is on the right.

(No, I'm not the one who named them)

 

 

6 of the 12 members of my running relay team after we crossed the finish line in Key West.

It took us close to 38 hours (straight) to complete this 200 mile race.

The temperature never dropped below 80*F or 76% humidity (even in the middle of the night).

 

 

Don't laugh... but I made these Wonder Woman costumes (skirt, arm bands, crowns) for the 11 women on my team.  Our sole man wore a SuperMan shirt.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Little Frogs Quilt for Kids

I made this quilt in June 2008, for my daughter Jessica's 2nd birthday.

I called it "Hoppy" Birthday.  (Brilliant, eh?  LOL)

I still wish I'd used that dark purple for the binding, too!

I had lots of frog fabric left in my stash so when my mom told me her church group was making quilts to donate to Quilts for Kids, I decided to pull it out and finally use (most of) it up.  The top has been done for about 6 weeks, I just finally found time to do the quilting and binding last weekend.

I got to practice my FMQ a little bit.  I still need lots of practice!

The back is the same pink with the tiny purple box-shaped dots.

This measures 45" x 50" after washing.

While I really love subtle, girly colors, I need to break myself out of my shell and use some of the bright, colorful fabrics in my stash.  I always tend to do "matchy match" (as my daughter Rachel calls it).  Hoping my next quilt will be much different from this one.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Journal cover experiment

I decided that this year's holiday teacher gift would be a journal cover, using a composition notebook. I'm planning to personalize them for each teacher and have seen some awesome tutorials around the net. However, never being one to follow instructions well, I just measured my book, grabbed a few pieces from a batik jelly roll and dove right in. This one will be for my own project notebook, so I was going more for "decent measurements" than perfection or over-the-top creativity.

This is also my first time uploading pictures to Blogger from my iPhone, so hopefully the photo quality is at least OK.

This was fairly simple to make, it came together in under an hour.  

Front, back, inside

Inside with my composition book added.  I love this one because it has graph paper instead of just lines... good for sketching things out when I need to for a project I'm playing with.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Classic Pooh Baby Quilt

My sweet friend Rachel is pregnant with her first baby, a girl.  Her shower is later this month and she's decorating Baby Girl's nursery in Classic Pooh.  Last Christmas, she asked me to make some quilts for her nieces and mentioned that someday, if she had a baby, she'd love a quilt also.  Ask and ye shall receive!  (Oh, who am I kidding... she would have gotten a quilt even if she didn't ask!)

I wanted to use Classic Pooh but not make it *all* about Pooh.  I chose soft greens and pink from my stash, as well as a beige solid, since the Pooh fabric was a tea-dyed ivory color.  This is a classic Churn Dash block, each finished at 12".  The quilt (12 blocks) started at 36" x 48" before washing.

Just a few of the block centers --- Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore.

Thought I'd try something a little "fancier" in those beige diamonds.  Far from perfect, but it was fun to practice.

I stitched in the ditch (columns and rows) for most of the quilt, and did an all-over meander in the green and pink sections.  No quilting on the Pooh character blocks.

Even though the front isn't all Pooh, the back is :-).  This fabric is so sweet.... and the quilt is small enough that I didn't need to piece a back, so I used the fabric as is.

This little guy (gal?) will keep the quilt safe until the shower on the 23rd.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Needle Book swap

Upon returning from my vacation, I found the most lovely package waiting for me -- a needlecase from my swap partner for this month, the lovely Leona from Leona's Quilting Adventure.  How beautiful is this??  I just love it!  

Front - ladybugs in the center :-)

Inside -- she sent all those notions with it and how cute are those button pins?!?

The back - more ladybugs!

She also included some more ladybug and bug fabric for my stash

Plus a pattern and a note pad.  How generous!!

This is the one I made for Leona.  The photos are a little dark :-(.

She told me she likes patchwork, solids and hedgehogs!

Inside front cover.

The hedgehog print was a little big, so I had to keep that inside.

I used it for the pockets and the binding.

Middle

Inside back cover

(I forgot to take a picture of the back --- it looks a lot like the front)

I hope Leona will enjoy this.  I also sent some hedgie fabric for her stash.  I'm looking forward to finding out who my next swap partner is and what our next project will be!

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Halloween Projects

I know that Halloween has already passed, but I wanted to share photos of two costumes I made this year.  We went on a 5 day Disney cruise (for my birthday!!) and we were on the boat for Halloween.  We decided to do a "theme" for our family but didn't want the obvious Mickey, Minnie, etc.  We opted to be characters from Peter Pan.

I was not originally planning to make these, but a few were hard to find.  Peter Pan (me) and Tinkerbell (for my 7-year-old) were easy enough to find, so I just bought those.  (I don't usually make clothes, so wanted to avoid that as much as possible!)  However, I couldn't find anything for Wendy Darling (my 10-year-old) and an adult size Captain Hook (for my husband).  There were lots of Pirates of the Caribbean adult costumes, but no authentic Captain Hook for grown-ups.  Here's what I came up with:

My darling Wendy Darling (Rachel).

I made this costume using a Simplicity nightgown pattern (1575).

I made a few modifications to the bodice so it was lined, left off the collar and added a sash that ties in the back.

Captain Hook's jacket was made with a Simplicity Costume pattern (0209).

I made some modifications to add the gold strip and didn't add all the pattern embellishments.

I used red faux velvet for this, so it was warm!

The pants are from a Simplicity pajama pants pattern (9871) cut short.

The hat --- I can't even describe how I made that, and I could probably never make it again, lol!

The ruffled shirt is just a white t-shirt with some ruffles sewn down the front.

This costume took For.Ev.Er. to make -- but it looked great! 

Here's our whole Neverland crew.

Here I am saving Wendy and Tinkerbell from the evil Captain Hook.

I just love my girls' expressions in this one!

And, just because I can, here's one more family photo from the cruise.  We were dressed up for their "Pirates of the Caribbean" night, which was the night before Halloween.

And one more just to prove that costumes are not always required (but I did make our shirts and the 2 skirts my girls are wearing):

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

If Sewing Paid the Bills....

Ah, wouldn't that be nice, if sewing paid the bills?  Alas, at least in my house, it does not....

In my job that pays for the fabric, I am a project manager for the technologies division of a major credit card company.  Every project I manage goes through phases and busy times, usually 4-6 weeks at a time.  The project I'm working on now, though, is actually multiple projects and I've been working 10+ hour days since May.... and will probably do so until at least February.  That (plus 2 active kids --- ballet, karate, band, kickball) doesn't leave much time to sew, let alone blog.... but I do have a few things to share (finally).

First, and looooong overdue, is a little friendship bag swap I did back in September.  This is the gorgeous bag that Mary (from Needled Mom) made for me.  I just love these fabrics!

Sweet little polka dots on the inside, though you can't see them well, because my bag is always full and put to good use :-).  This bag will be boarding a Disney cruise ship with me on Sunday as my family takes a much needed 5 day vacation.  Can't wait!  It started in California, made its way to me in Florida, now it's going to Mexico.  How many bags are that well traveled??

This is the little bag I made for Mary, using batiks.  (Red may have not been the best color to use in the backdrop but at this point, any picture on my blog is better than nothing, right?)

I actually have a lot of other WIPs.  Below are 2 (out of 6) 12" blocks I made while on a "purge the scraps" mission.  These are all with light blues.  I also made a string quilt top (not shown - yet) with light blue scraps, as well.  The goal is to go through my scraps and make as many monotone (ish) blocks as possible, then start combining them into colorful rainbow quilts. 

In addition to the blue string scrap quilt, I made a quilt top (also using stash) for Quilts for Kids.  Photos to come if I ever get it backed, quilted and bound.

In the meantime, I started making Churn Dash blocks with Classic Pooh centers for one of my best friends who is having a baby in January.  Her shower is November 23 and at the rate I'm going, I probably should have started in April.... but one block down, only 11 more to go!

Last but certainly not least are a few projects I made to take on our cruise.  (Not shown are the Captain Hook and Wendy Darling Halloween costumes I made... I'll wait and take pictures when they have actual people in them.)

These started out as plain fabric bags from the dollar store, similar to (but smaller than) a reusable shopping bag.  Amazing what some paint and fabric scraps can do!  The character was dictated by the bag color, as there were only 4 color choices when I purchased these.  Now each of us will have a little bag for the cruise, to carry a bottle of water, sunglasses, etc.... rather than the usual, "Here Mom, can you hold this?"  I've got Kermit and Mickey for my husband and me, then Minnie and Ariel for my girls.

I also made this little outfit for my 7-year-old.  I used Heat 'n Bond to adhere a Mickey head to a plain white shirt, appliqued around the edges and added a bow.  That skirt took less than an hour to make --- it's a giant rectangle of fabric with elastic at the top.  I'm already anxious for her to outgrow this so I can cut it up and use that fabric for something else :-).

Many more WIPs from the past few months.... hope to turn them into FINISHED projects one of these days, and get back to blog writing / reading soon.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

 Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~