Friday, May 18, 2012

Latest Sewing Project:

My latest big sewing project is a baby quilt for my husband’s brother and his wife. They were just approved to be foster parent and are hoping to soon have a child (between infant and 3 years old) placed with them. They don’t know if they will be given a boy or a girl, but they are excited to be foster parents.
I wanted to do something nice for them since it sort of will be their first little one so I am in the process of making a nice little quilt for them. I chose some pretty gender neutral material from JoAnn Fabrics. I cut so many little triangles and below are some pictures of my progress thus far:

 

I decided to go with a pinwheel/hour glass pattern on the front and so far its turning out pretty well.
I’ll keep you all posted as I get more finished in my spare time (you know - in between watching little Ben and doing dishes and laundry and working).
update - Here is what it looks like all finished! :)

Oh and this is a picture of some of my material stash staring at me begging to be made into something!

Happy Friday all! :)

Monday, May 14, 2012

Happy Mother’s Day!

This was my first official Mother’s Day as a mom! And although I didn’t do really anything that special, it was still a pretty amazing day because I have this amazing little boy in my life!
Even though he was a surprise and slightly unexpected, I honestly cannot imagine having a life without him in it. He gives me so much joy and it’s amazing how much I have grown as a person and in my relationship with God by being a mom. I am starting to understand why they say that children are a gift from God because they truly are.
Ben even got me flowers! Well sort of… I had to take myself to the greenhouse to get them and plant them myself on our porch but still – I got flowers for Mother’s Day! hahaha

It is also a pretty amazing day in that fact that I still have my mom who I nearly lost to breast cancer 5 years ago. Since that time, my mom has become one of my closest friends and I know that she is always there for me and I can talk to her about anything! I love that!

However, there is still some sadness that comes with Mother’s Day as I know so many amazing women who are close and dear to my heart whose deepest wish is to be a mom. I hope and pray that someday God will give them the opportunity to be a mom and experience all the amazing joys that come with it.

Friday, May 11, 2012

The Adventure has all ready begun!

Usually a good story begin in the beginning and gradually unfolds. Well, not this one!
The adventure of my life has all ready begun and so far it has been a pretty terrific ride. Gradually as I go along, I will fill in and share more of what adventures I have all ready had. But for now, I am going to start from where I am in this moment in time.
My latest adventure and current obsession is sewing!
I grew up knowing the basics of sewing and a few years ago, my in-laws gave me a nice Singer Inspiration sewing machine. In theory, this is a pretty nice little machine. In practice....not so much and I have had very little luck with this sewing machine. The tension always seems off, and I always seemed to be spending more time trying to get it to sew a nice line than actually sewing a nice line! And then after cracking 2 bobbin cases in 4 months, I decided it was time for a new sewing machine! Especially since I had ended up just borrowing my next door neighbor's sewing machine and I didn't want to be doing that for forever.
I ended up finding a sweet little basic sewing machine at the Aurora Sewing Center in East Aurora, New York. (oh, a quick shout out to the ladies at the Aurora Sewing Center - they were so kind and helpful and not pushy at all in helping me to determine if my old machine was worth fixing and in helping me pick out a sewing machine that was in my budget and would meet my sewing needs!)
I LOVE my new sewing machine! It works! That in itself is enough to return all the joy to sewing. And even though I have only had it for less than a week, I have all ready been putting it to the test. I have all ready made a sunshade for my little baby Ben's stroller, 2 sleeper sacks for Ben since he is growing like a weed. And I have a bunch more projects piled up on my dinning room table (my makeshift sewing space) ready to go!
As a nice little side note.... the new sewing machine only came with a few basic feet, but the 8 or 9 fancier feet that I had with the old machine also fit on this machine so I'm very happy and excited about that!

Anyways.... The fun is just getting started! :)