Lately...

... life has been full.  Being a wife and mom are currently taking up most of my time.  And that is probably how it should be.  It's a juggling act that rivals any clowns' and it works, most of the time.

I put together this mosaic of photos taken a couple of weekends ago (Victoria Day).  To  me it reminds me of a good day with our family.  It didn't start out so good.  The three oldest kids didn't want to go.  "It'll be boring.  Who wants to hike anyway?  I don't feel like it."  But we forged ahead with our plans, and you know what?  They (and we) had a really good day hiking to Bridal Falls, doing some geocaching and visiting the Cheam Lake Wetlands (if you are in Chilliwack, this is really a hidden beauty.  There are never more than a few cars in the parking lot but it is such a peaceful sanctuary for birds, frogs, ducks and geese and we even saw a mouse this time.)

And this little guy.  What can I say?  He's turned our lives inside and out.  In a (mostly) good way.  He's 4 months already and rolling over, trying to move.  He doesn't sleep nearly enough but he makes up for it in the way he responds to everyone.  Big, dimply smiles!  Love him.

I'll be back some day soon with a few pics of some things I've been working on.  Enjoy your day!

Amy Butler Sweet Harmony Bag

I had really wanted to make this bag before going to BC last month.  I had to give up because there was no way I could get it done in the little amount of time I gave myself.  But I finished it shortly after we got back and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The grass is finally mostly green and the daffodils are blooming!

I wanted something I could use for church and everyday use so I used a grey home dec fabric for the outside.  It has a bit of a shimmer to it in real life.  The one thing I think I may still try to do is add a zipper.  I used only one snap instead of the two the pattern called for but I don't like how it sits and the risk of losing everything out of my purse is quite high :-p

I think if I sew a zipper to two strips of the grey, folding all raw edges to the inside, I should be able to sew it right on the topstitching line.  We'll see if it works and if I even go back to fix it!

Yep - still some brown in places...

I added a zipper pocket to the inside.  Every purse should have one of those!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Applique Quilt

Time for the Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival. Welcome to anyone coming over from there!  For our followers, you probably just saw this quilt when I posted it a few weeks ago but I really wanted to share it for the festival too.

Baby Girl Spring Applique Quilt
finished size: 36" x 48"
This was my ever custom quilt and a little nerve wracking as I had never done this much applique before. The lady who ordered it sent me a link to this miniature quilt and I used the flower templates from there only enlarged about 200%.

It is all machine appliqued using a blanket stitch.

Quilted on my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 doing a small loopy doodle.  Absolutely love the texture it gives!

The back is a Riley Blake flannel and it's bound with a stripe that's hand stitched on the back.

It was hard to part with this quilt once it was done but it was well received and I got to make a quilt that I otherwise probably never would have.

I know how I'll be spending my coffee time in the next couple of weeks!  How about you?

Julia Cardigan in mustard!

For my birthday back in March a couple friends gave me some money to go towards an Ottobre subscription. After much thought I asked if it was ok to pick up a couple patterns I knew I would use instead. I have this feeling that having a subscription right now might put too much pressure to sew from them.

Anyway, the Julia Cardigan was something I had my eye on for a while so I bought it!  I was shopping at Fabricland with Laura  and she found this mustard coloured knit - a colour I wouldn't have picked out initially but I love how it turned out.  I probably would've picked something "safe" but I'm glad I didn't.

I sewed up the long sleeve version with the double collar in a small.  I should've gone with my measurements and made a Medium but b/c it wasn't fitted on the waist and hips and I have small shoulders I thought a small would be better.  But as you can see the back is too small across the shoulders.  It's still very wearable though!

I will definitely be making more of these!

Opening a Shop! - ModMooi

It's been quiet on the blog!  Between Spring springing in BC for Alisa and me working on opening an etsy shop(!!) we haven't posted much.  I'm excited to share with you though that a friend and I have opened an shop called...

Modern. Beautiful.

Coming up with a name is almost the hardest part when opening a shop!  Well, next to making the quilts haha.  So far we have 3 quilts in there and have had a ton of fun making them.  

Go on over and have a look!