peek of the week {sitting up!}

Check it out! I can sit up all by myself! When you prop me up against something, that is. And don't leave me here too long, Mama... I'll start to list over to the left.

Linking up with Peek of the Week over at Happily Home Sewn. :)

wip wednesday {quilt as you go} and retreat recap

Ahhhh... I love quilting retreats! It is so, so nice to be surrounded by people who share your passion.

I only have one problem.

I didn't take a single picture. Not. one. picture.

Baaaad Carmen!

At any rate, it was a great weekend. I got to see my local friends, I got to sew with far away friends, and I got to meet some new friends! These lovely ladies include Tara, Penny, Amanda, Randi, Jennifer, Audrey, Melodee, Darla, Ruth, Amanda, Rebecca, Emily, Julie, and Lizzy (oh boy, I hope I didn't forget anyone!)

As always, the food was yummy. Tara is such a fabulous cook and hostess!

I worked on my star block quilt... I've decided to call it Ruby's Prince since it includes my new love, Ruby by Bonnie and Camille, and my other favorite line, Tula Pink's Prince Charming. This is a quilt as you go quilt, and I got six and a third blocks quilted. Some people quilted ALL of their blocks and started joining them! I must have been going reaaaaaally slow, haha.

Anyway, here are the blocks I finished:

Unfortunately, I have to put these fun quilt blocks away until the new year. It's time to work on Christmas presents! I started one last night:

Isn't it great? :) Hopefully next week I'll have more to show you and it'll be more obvious as to what it is.

I'm linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced! Head on over and see what other people are working on.

mini quilt challenge

It just so happens that amylouwho is hosting a mini quilt challenge with a linky party today! I'm excited because I made a mini quilt to swap at my quilting retreat this weekend. Perfect timing!


I used the scraps from my star quilt blocks to make 36 four inch HSTs. I recently saw this quilt from Stitchery Dickory Dock and LOVED it... I originally wanted to just base my mini on that design but then I ended up doing the exact same layout just because the symmetry really appealed to me. I know there are SO MANY ways to lay out half square triangles... I used to be scared of them but this mini has helped me get over it!

I pieced the back with Farmdale from Alexander Henry and a Moda red, and bound the whole thing with a Moda turquoise. (The two solids are going to be the backing for my star quilt, by the way.)

I'm pretty pleased with the end result... my piecing on the quilt top isn't perfect by any stretch but it's so much better than it was a year ago, plus this is my first attempt with HSTs, so yay for trying something new! I'm sort of sad to give it away, but I know the mini I receive is going to be fabulous. :)

Head on over to amylouwho's Sew and Tell to see the awesome mini quilts everyone has made! Plus, there's a Flickr group just for minis!

This is also my Peek of the Week... this mini and my star blocks have been my main activity, outside of diapers, bottles, and otherwise entertaining Emma. I'm linking up with Happily Home Sewn!

And now, I'm off to a fabulous weekend of quilting! I really love these retreats... they are SO MUCH fun! It's so great that they're local and I get to come home every night... if I had to go away for the whole weekend, I don't know if I'd be ready to leave Emma. Special thanks to the Hubs for being willing to hang out with Emma for three straight days!

wip wednesday {retreat mini quilt}

I finally finished the quilt blocks for the retreat this weekend, now all I need to do is turn them into sandwiches and I'm all set!

This is one of my favorites... in addition to my Prince Charming stash, I also used a couple of fat quarters from Ruby. I heart Ruby! I'm seriously debating getting a fat quarter bundle from the whole line.

I also began working on a mini quilt for a swap at the retreat... I used a bunch of triangles that were left over from the star blocks.

I sewed 'em up...

and trimmed 'em down...

and now I'm playing with layout. I do believe this is my first foray into triangles and HSTs! (Love this next photo... can you see that I'm a very messy quilter? Also, I've pretty much taken over the kitchen as my sewing space. Hubby LOVES that.) ;)

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced!

emma {3 months}

Unbelievable. She's three months old? How did this happen already?

See the bears hanging from the canopy of the crib? Emma has figured out how to kick them! Her daddy lowered the canopy so that she could see the bears better, and in the last couple of days she's started kicking them. It's so fun to watch... she stares the bears down and then readies her feet, then POW!... she kicks as hard as she can. Love it!

Taking the three month pictures was a bit challenging.

Hmmm... too many shadows, and you can't really read the sign. Let's change to better lighting, shall we?

Okay, better lighting (the background's weird, though) but now we're blurry.

Oops, still blurry, can't see the sign, and what's with her expression?

Okay, here we have three adults trying to get a decent picture of one tiny baby... Daddy's hand is by her face trying to get her to smile, Uncle's hand is holding the sign, and Mommy's standing on a chair trying to get a decent angle. Meanwhile, you can see all the crap in the background...

Oy. :)

peek of the week {baby hip ultrasound}

Did you know that first born baby girls who are breech have a higher risk of hip problems that can translate to crawling/walking difficulties? Yeah, me neither.

We went to the hospital on Wednesday so that Emma could get an infant hip ultrasound. I was really nervous about it; I had visions of technicians holding her down while she screamed. I dreaded the possibility that she would be fussy the rest of the day. Also, they were running late and by the time they called us it was time for her to eat. Great.

Thankfully, everything went very smoothly. We were in a dimly lit room and everyone was very mellow. Emma smiled the whole time as I distracted her with stories and such. She was great!

The doctor who did the ultrasound says that things look good. We'll follow up with our pediatrician later, but hopefully Emma's hips are fine!

I'm linking up with Peek of the Week over at Happliy Home Sewn!

wip wednesday {star blocks}

I haven't finished very many projects lately, but I have started a few!

I'm super excited to be going back to the Inn at City Park for another quilting retreat with Amanda Jean! She's so fun to hang out with. This year we are working on different machine quilting methods and so we need 12 quilt sandwiches that are 17" square. I'm piecing stars (for the first time) and am loving the result! I finally cut into my Prince Charming fat quarter stash... I forgot how much I love this line.

Four stars down, eight to go!

I've got a couple other projects in the works, but a certain Miss Crankypants is demanding attention at the moment. :)

I'm linking up (for the first time, yay!) with Freshly Pieced.