Baby quilt

I finished the polka dot quilt for little Knapp #2 last night. We're pretty sure we've decided on a name, but we're not telling anyone. I embroidered on the quilt tag, so I can't show you that part. Although, I suppose, I could always re-stitch it. I used a lot of pieces of old Heather Ross prints. I didn't buy any new fabric for it, just used what I had in my fabric cabinet. Oh didn't I mention I now have a fabric cabinet? I can now see ALL my fabric! Pictures soon, swearsies. 


I used the mini quilt pattern from Purl Soho, but adapted it to be bigger than a mini quilt. I don't really understand the point of mini quilts. Seems like a lot of work for something that's not functional. But I'm also not the quilt on the wall type either. I sort of wish I'd done the quilting in white, because it was difficult to sew perfect circles, and you can really see the mistakes, but I also like the little bit of brightness the orange brings. I just have to accept that I'm never going to be a super neat and tidy seamstress.

I also finished the curtains for Jack's room. They took 5 minutes a piece. I used sarongs from Anokhi that I bought online. It's impossible to get their sarongs here in the states. I've bought a ton of them from Simrane in Paris, and I guess they have a store in Japan. BUT, I found a source on ebay (ragarags), who travels to Jaipur a few times a year. I happened to catch her over email the day before she went to the shop in India, and was able to ask her to get me 3-4 blue or green ones to go along the with green ones I had already sewn last year when we moved him in there. I needed more coverage so I can make some blackout curtains to go behind them. The good part of living on top of a hill having second story bedrooms is a great view an bright sunny bedrooms. The bad part is that at sunrise, it's like high noon in there. 

Ok, so I'm not totally finished, I need to sew the blackouts (one straight line across the top). The measuring and cutting will take longer than the sewing. And then I need to put up the new hardware (HI, Nipper Knapp). 

I just have the sew some cute appliques onto the white pottery barn kids sale cloth fabric in the baby's room, and put some artwork up on the walls, and the nursery will be done! 

I saw the doctor last week and she said the baby is really big. Now I know those measurements and not really reliable, but I'm hoping for maybe a little bit of an early due date. Not like 2 weeks, but maybe 1? Jack came a week early (good boy). A girl can dream...

I'm a squanderer

I squander time, and good will, and fancy face cream, and all kinds of other good stuff. I don't mean to do it. I always begin with the best of intentions. I will be efficient today. I will return every phone call I receive. I will not use the $60 eye cream on my decolletage in the hopes that it will "reconstruct" that whole area.

When I was 14 my best friend told me she thought I worked better under pressure. Huh. Why do I remember that? Because it's true? Prolly. But it's not like I waste time laying around looking at my belly button. I waste time making other projects for myself. That way, in case I'm not FREAKING OUT enough about the one or two things on my plate, the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth things on my plate are usually sufficient to keep me crackin. I know I've talked about the sinking feeling that the resounding answer to "how do you do it all?" is probably ADHD. Truth is, if I wasn't doing all this stuff, I'd be getting myself into a heap of trouble. No doubt about it. No idea what kind of trouble, but I'm sure I'd be good at making that too. Mommy stopped crafting, and that's when she started robbing banks. You know, just to see if she could.

SO to keep myself on the up and up this week, I started, and finished a few things! So long prison orange, hello pink lap quilt. It's kind a disaster. I had an hour, and I wanted to finish it, but I didn't have one whole piece of batting, but I did have three, so I tucked them all in there, and sewed the edges, and then realized that whoopsy tootsie, as soon as I wash it, those middle pieces are going to curl up inside the thing and be all lumpy and make me hate myself. So I just stitched them in. Just went and sewed a couple of ugly lines right across my pretty pink quilt. You win some you lose some.

Burned two Yodas did I

Today I started preparations for Jack's birthday party on Sunday. Let's be honest, I started preparations days ago. Today I started baking. I'm making an R2D2 cake. My mother practically begged me not to. She sent me an email with links to two Pasadena bakeries who make specialty cakes. She said "I'm buying". She offered to send me to a spa. Again, she said "I'm buying". But how sad would it be, the mom who made ladybug and owl, and  minnie mouse cakes for her friend's kids bought her kid an R2D2 cake. There's not enough ice cream ala mode to wash that down.

R2D2's refrigerated noggin

You think I could get some ritalin from some kids in the neighborhood?

quilting by candlelight

Before I was a complete invalid last night, I got a little bit of sewing done in the pink room. Nip and I turned on a movie, he laid on the couch while I sewed at the desk. I mentioned before that I don't know what I'm doing. I just cut strips out of some old Anokhi sarongs from Simrane in Paris, and some old Heather Ross Mendocino fabric. I also had an old Anthropologie dust ruffle that I cut up because it fit my color scheme. I'm just sort of making my own pattern as I go, loosely based on the mix tape pattern by Oh, Fransson! I love finding a new use for all these pretty fabrics. We'll see how it turns out. Besides pink.