My Origins' Destination

My fabulous Origins by BasicGrey for Moda fabrics arrived and here are the ones I chose from the line to use for my quilt:

And, after many hours of searching for the perfect blocks, here is what I'm going to have my quilt group do with the fabric:

Based on the Mod Mosaic Floor Pillow at Oh, Fransson!

I think it's going to be just perfect for what I need and it's taking all I have not to complete more blocks on my own before I even give any fabric to my quilt group! I love the improvisational-ness (that's what you'd call it too, right?) and how quickly I was able to complete the block. The only thing is now I'm thinking I may need more of the Grunge in Black Onyx (the 'grout' part of this mosaic). I only ordered 1/2 yard of each fabric because I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with it, but I'm pretty sure I'll need more of that one. Soooo...if you hear of any online shops having a good deal, let me know. Have Origins scraps you just don't know what to do with? Let's make a deal!!

I Won This!

Just look at what

from Valley Lighting and Home Decor

(they have some beautiful products)

I cannot wait to use this to decorate in our future new (to us) home soon!! It's funny because at work there was the most beautiful Christmas Tree in the main lobby that was decorated in a fishing lodge type theme. Next to the tree was a fountain that had some lighted floral pieces around it and I just loved them. I was excited to find out about this giveaway yesterday at My Giveaway Today and I entered it just as I have entered most of their daily giveaways for awhile now. When I was reading about today's giveaway, I got the bottom to see that I had won yesterday's prize - so stoked!!

My First Time

This is kind of sad to say, but last night I made my first purchase from a fabric line (what did you think this post was about?). I guess that maybe I just was never comfortable in my abilities to use some of these nice fabrics so I always just bought some of the less expensive ones while swooning over the fabrics in online quilt shops and blogs.

My fabrics are coming out of this line, I didn't purchase all prints though.

photo: Fat Quarter Shop

I cannot wait until they arrive and I'm excited to figure out what type of quilt blocks I'm going to have my quilting group make for me out of these wonderful fabrics!

*Update: I should have clarified that this fabric will be used for blocks for my real live quilting group. My turn in Let's Bee Together isn't until later in the year and I won't be able to hold on to this fabric that long! I'll be excited to make another fun fabric purchase.

Baby Food Jars

Last year I posted this about a childhood Christmas decoration memory. My Dad read the post and we talked about the baby food jar Christmas tree decorations. Turns out he had been collecting baby food jars throughout the year and this was my Christmas present:

It's so fancy I asked "did you make this?" and even after he answered yes I had to say it again; "you really made this?" He just put a lot of time and effort into it, each jar has a little 'ornament' glued to the center of the inside and is filled with sparkly 'grass', they're sitting on a nice wooden base and even the back looks so professional, all of the lids are painted the same green as the base!

Thanks, Dad! I will treasure it always and hopefully my kids will remember always decorating with a baby food jar Christmas tree when they're all grown up!

January Bee Block for Let's Bee Together

I was hesitant to start making my first block for my online bee group, Let's Bee Together. I've been in a 'live' group for a year now but for some reason this online version was stressing me out 100 times more than any of the blocks I've done over the last year. A fellow bee member wrote this post, and as I was reading the first paragraph (before I started my block) I was laughing so hard because it was exactly how I felt!

It took me awhile to decide what block I wanted to make. I wanted to try something new (my first mistake?), but I wanted to be somewhat easy. I also looked for patterns that used 4 different colors, as that was what I had available to use in my block.

My block came from this tutorial at p.s i quilt, it was block 5 of the pinwheel sampler quilt. I swear that somewhere I read this was suppose to be a 12" finished block but now that I go back, I'm not seeing that - did I make it up, hoping that's what it was going to be because that's what I needed it to be? My block, as is, measures 12" square and for those of you non-quilters who may be reading, a finished block is the size a block is once it is in the finished quilt, so as just a block, it will be 1/2 inch larger because it allows for a 1/4 inch seam allowance. In other words, my block is 1/2 inch too small...so maybe I did make up the fact that I read the block was to be 12" finished, either that or I did something wrong (which is more likely to be the case in this situation). The picture below makes it look like my block was even smaller than 12" but I had the block a bit high on my mat so you could see the number.

Other than not turning out to be the size I had planned, I am happy with the block. The points came together nicely, for the most part and I just like the way it looks. I was a little concerned that the fabrics were a bit too busy to really notice the pattern, but I think it sort of makes it an illusion, at first you can't really tell that the yellow and purple floral prints are two different prints because the background color is less prominent than the actual flowers, but then at closer look you can see there really are 2 different colors there.

Here's hoping the recipient likes it and can make it work into her quilt even though it's a bit small!

2 years vs 5 years

Calvin was 2 in September and Hunter will be 5 in February.

For Christmas they each got a stick horse. Calvin named his Kiwi and Hunter's is Vaximus ("like Maximus, but with a V" as he would explain it).

They also each got a Kung Zhu. Calvin's goes by the name Bernie and Hunter's is Laser Point.

They each got a furry hand puppet critter. Calvin chose the name Franklin (after the turtle) and Hunter decided to call his Dollar Bill.