Moving

And here's the new address:

http://theendofthealphabet.wordpress.com/

So okay, I'm not personally moving (at least not yet... that may come later this year). But I was ready for a new blog and the challengesthat come with figuring out a new hosting system. Goodbye Blogger and Hello WordPress!

So if you cared enough to keep tabs on me through this site, please feel free to update your bookmarks, subscriptions, etc. so you are in the loop.

xoxo, kristin

Beach Vacation

During our trip to Cannon Beach this week, Ethan experienced many exciting firsts... exploring tidepools, running barefoot in the sand, throwing rocks into the surf, and the highlight had to have been (well it was for me at least!), building his first sandcastle:

Ethan loved playing in it more than anything, but soon found joy in destroying it... all part of the fun! Watching Noah work to build something special for his little boy was so endearing.

The entire trip was wonderful... not a bad moment the whole time. Ethan seems to be at the perfect traveling age and he played hard and slept hard. I can't even count all the new words he's adding to his vocabulary, but during our trip he added bicycle, beach, run, and yes (all said quite emphatically!) to name a few. It was great to get in one more family trip before we have to stick around closer to home with the upcoming arrival of our baby girl! Less than 7 more weeks until July 26th!

Stacked Coins - Take Two

This is the second stacked coins quilt I have finished, and boy are they different from each other! This one's been finished for a few months, but I thought I'd put some pictures up.

The fabrics are some Amy Butler fabrics that I had been saving for the right project, and when I first spotted that gray solid (Kona Cotton Solids - Medium Grey) I knew I wanted to try something with a dark background.It is so different from the traditional colors and cream colored sashing on the quilt that I made for my grandparents.

Anyway, I tried a lot of new things on this quilt.... nothing too fancy, but stuff I've wanted to try out but never had the courage to take on:

1) Straight line quilting. I was sick of stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, and had always been scared of trying any other type like free motion or straight lines. I also don't have a walking foot attachment for my machine, which is supposed to make the whole process easier. I was surprised to realize that it was much easier than I thought it would be and I really enjoyed designing where to put the lines and making precise lines throughout the quilt.

2) Pieced quilt back. This is a really popular thing to do in modern quilting. I was taught to quilt by a wonderful family friend who makes lovely quilts, but they are more traditional and I hadn't been introduced to this idea until recently. Putting in a strip of the extra Amy Butler fabrics gave the back some character, and it worked well with the blue flannel I had purchased.

3) Binding with scraps. I've only used one continuous design before for all of my previous quilts. When it came to binding this quilt, I didn't have enough of a single fabric to do the whole thing, and I didn't feel like buying more, so I started doing the math to see if I could make enough binding out of my leftover Amy Butler Lotus fabric. Hooray! There was enough! Here's the best quilt binding tutorial I always refer to.

So there it is! I think it's my favorite quilt to date. I bought the fabric when Ethan was just a newborn, so I'll probably give it to him someday.... but I think I'll hold onto it for myself fo a little while :)

Trying new things

In an attempt to make some headway in some of my projects that are in various stages of completion, I needed a pocket that could hold a thing of baby wipes. After looking through different online tutorials, I decided to try my hand at a gathered pocket with some decorative trim. I'm really happy with the results!

Shoes

Somebody put on his own shoes by himself today!

Nevermind the fact that they are on the wrong feet :-)

Wherever I May Roam

Also the name of a Metallica song, this is usually the theme for Ethan when we are visiting his grandparents.

Days are spent running free, playing with the dogs and overseeing projects with his auntie and grandparents.

To quote the notable Tim Williams, "Life is good, especially today."

"Our" Farm

While we don't have space for all of the dogs/gardens/animals we'd like... my in-laws are so sweet to involve us in their adventures. It's the perfect antidote, and yes, I use the term "our" loosely. Here are the newest additions to "our" family farm:

I'm so glad they wanted to get them on a day we were visiting!
Ethan has a new word added to his growing vocabulary... "cuuuue!" (cute).
2 ducklings and 6 baby chicks, and it's true they are just too cute for words!
Ethan's in love...
...and so are we.

Burp cloths and Receiving blankets

There are a million of great tutorials online about making your own burp cloths or receiving blankets, so I can't point you to one specific way to make them, but here's the results of my first attempt: I still have more flannel to use and more cloth diapers, so I'll hopefully have the chance to make a few more before baby girl arrives.

Cute Car Seat Cover

Two problems:

1) My Infant carseat is silver and blue... not girly.

2) A summer baby... Hmm, how am I going to keep her cool, out of the sun, but also, out of the way from all of those strangers who feel the need to harass my baby!?

Thanks to this tutorial and this tutorial, I created my own removable car seat cover/sun shade:

The fabric is so so cute and girly, and is one of the fabrics in the blanket I made for our little girl. I also used some of the same yellow and raspberry tree print for the underside. I knew I wanted to use the yellow, but came up a little short, so while the pieced backing was not my original plan, I'm really happy with how it turned out.
Peek-a-boo! No baby in here yet!

Little Girl Goodness

Seeing that we're expecting a little girl in July, my spare time has been used making necessary (okay sometimes not-so-necessary) items in preparation for her arrival!

We have plenty of baby stuff, but are definitely lacking in the pink/frills/floral department.

So, here's the lightweight baby blanket I made for our baby girl:

The fabric is from Moda's It's a Hoot line. I love the cute little owls and the tree designs. I used a charm pack and some of their tree fabric in a bright raspberry color. The backing is a light blue flannel and I absolutely love the cheerful yellow for the binding, which was some fabric from my stash.

Next up on the to-do list was a coordinating carseat sun shade.

Lots of projects

I had these coffee tins sitting around and I realized I was putting off doing something with them because the stupid stickers were going to be hell to peel and clean.

So in a desperate effort to get them off my to-do list, I wrapped them in some cute papers. Voila! Done and done :) They turned out pretty cute, I think. The circular design now holds my loose leaf teas:
... and the floral ones went to my MIL's house, where I think they'll fit in quite nicely!

Stay tuned for more crafty projects that have been churned out lately... call it the 2nd trimester energy surge and pre-nesting stage.

Extreme Peek-a-boo

Sometimes the sillies just take over:

Lots of laughs, squeals, and full body slams...

Life is good.

Green Eggs and Ham!

We started our St. Paddy's Day week off right this morning with some better-than-the-traditional Green Eggs and Ham:

Avocado Bacon Scramble

• 
  
• Ingredients:
• 
  
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 medium ripe avocado, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 3 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Directions:

• In a bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, salt and pepper; stir in avocado.
• In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter or use nonstick spray. Add egg mixture; cook and stir gently until the eggs are completely set. Add bacon and stir to combine. (Serves 3 .)

Of course we also had to include some time with Dr. Seuss:

Does anyone else have any fun St. Patrick's Day traditions?

• 
  

17 months

A helper

I walked away from a quilting project, only to return to find birds camped out on my quilt top... nothing was disturbed, just two little birdies who decided to say hi.

But pretty soon there was walking
and lying down
and rolling
and hiding :)