My mom made Brenna a beautiful quilt for Christmas. While we’ve been here they put all the scraps to use.

Brenna did all the designing and sewing, Granny did the cutting. Their goal– to make a little quilt for Buttercup. (Oh, and I did the quilting and Granny the binding.)

It turned out very cute, and has been put to good use.

Ever since Denyse Schmidt’s book came out I’ve had it in the back of my mind to make some Big Zig quilts for my bunk bed boys.  I’ve picked out colors over and over, figured out dimensions and yardage, just never got around to actually buying fabric and making anything.  Well, since the house we were planning on moving into the middle of August, then the end of August, then maybe sometime the beginning of September has just fallen through altogether and I’m living with my parents for another couple of weeks, I needed a project to throw myself into to distract my mind from all the uncertainty that has become my life of late.

I’m making three.  Two quilt tops are done, one even has all the quilting lines marked.  They should all be ready to baste and quilt in very short order.

So, the moral is– when life throws you lemons, make lots and lots of quilts!!

It is essential for my sanity to be creating something. That has made this nomadic summer a bit hard, but as soon as we got here to my parents house and I had access to a sewing machine I got to work on this:

My little brother and his girlfriend had a little baby girl right before we got here, so naturally she needed a blankie from her Aunt Jess.

I have fallen in love with Kaffe Fasset’s shot cottons– the warp and weft threads are different colors, so the fabric is almost solid with the perfect amount of subtle texture.

The other cool thing is that another brother’s mother in-law (you got that?) has a long arm quilting machine. Driving that thing over my quilt was like magic. I love how it turned out.

(For real baby quilt inspiration you should really check out my friend April’s quilts.)

I haven’t been totally idle on the creating front until now, though. While we were in Alabama I discovered that I was growing little fingers and toes and eyelashes in my tummy.

And since I didn’t pack any maternity clothes for our summer of travel, the first thing I had to make was a new skirt to fit over my tummy. I wear it nearly every day. I used Amy’s tutorial here with a few minor adjustments.

This pregnancy is the main reason I just haven’t been able to wrap my head around blogging. I just didn’t know what to say. I could have just not said anything about it, but the nausea and sleepiness were a hard fog for me not to mention. I mean, 5 kids! That’s a lot of kids. And, I’ve had miscarriages between Jonah and Logan and then between Logan and Ian, so I was sure that this pregnancy wouldn’t stick– just make me a tired, crazy, emotional wreck while my husband was thousands of miles away. But, now the bump there is undeniable and I can feel the flutter of little elbows and feet every now and then. I did have scare a couple of weeks ago, made a trip to the ER, and tried to hold myself together as I layed on the bed for an ultrasound, positive I would see just a bunch of lifeless globby stuff with maybe a recognizable limb or head, like I’ve seen on previous ER visits, but to my surprise there was a crystal clear spine, little ribs, and a beating heart right in the middle of them. There was a sweet, perfectly shaped little head, fingers and toes, and, of course, obvious little boy parts.

So it’s real. I’m going to be the mother to 1 girl and 4 boys come February.

And I can be excited about it now.

Spent most of the day yesterday piecing the first charity quilt. I’m on the home stretch and should finish it before today is over!

Are you making things with your blocks yet? I promised I’d post some layout ideas.

Here’s the first: Make three more blocks so that you have 12 and you can make a little quilt this size:

This is a top I pieced while I was making my 10 blocks. I just couldn’t stop! I was liking the messy log cabin thing with warm/dark colors on one side and cool/lights on the other, so I just kept going. This is just 12 10 inch blocks with a 3 inch pieced border. It’ll just hang out in the living room for Brenna to read under.

I’ve been thinking up bed sized ideas too. You could make a simple block stripe, put some solid on either side of it, and you’d have a really modern, simple quilt without making any more blocks.

I’ve got more ideas than I have time right now, but I will post some more next week. In the meantime, post your layout ideas and leave the link in the comments so that we all can see ‘em.

I’ve been putting packages together and trying to decide what 9 blocks I get to keep for myself.

The bummer is that there are about 5 sets of blocks I haven’t received. I’m waiting for one in particular from Canada. As soon as it gets here the packages with be all mailed out! I wish I could just send them now, but I’d have to save at least 10 to swap blocks with the Canadian one, so I’m just going to wait until it gets here.

They are all fantastic and look so good together! And, yours will be in your mailbox next week!

There are some new pocket journals and quilt books up for sale.

All Quilt Journals have free shipping!

These are some of mine. Check flickr for more.

I was browsing through Whip-Up. Kim has started posting about a different quilt artist each week. This week it was Lisa Call and I’m truly inspired.

She works in series, really exploring an idea thoroughly. Here are some from the Structures series:

Many are on a pretty small scale, which turned on a light bulb for me. I am always full of ideas, but they never come to fuition because of the daunting work and expense of making a bedsize quilt. There’s nothing wrong with making little things to hang on walls. Duh…

I think it really hit me this week that I really am not pregnant. There will be no baby this summer. For reals. I had my first period since my miscarriage. And then, during final savasana (relaxation) at yoga on Wednesday I just felt this wave of sadness. I would be feeling the baby move right now. I wouldn’t be able to lie on my back… Off and on I just feel sad.

Also, there has been a woman from church in the hospital, a funeral to cook a meal for, and a friend whose husband was in a really bad car accident while stationed in Honduras… just a lot happening this week.

But, that’s not what this post is supposed to be about. This is what it’s about:

My flannel wall!! Is that totally rad or what?! I can’t use enough exclaimation points!! It’s big enough to design a king size quilt!! How fun is that?!

Before I had the second piece of flannel stapled to the wall the kids had my buckets of fabric scraps (beautifully color coded I might add) empty and on the wall.

Brenna said, “This is like painting, but just with fabric.” She had a ball making her masterpiece, but had to enlist my help up there with the sun.

Here are my blockswap blocks so far:

I am LOVING this! The blocks on the bottom left look so fun together, but none of them is super-duper on its own, so I think I’ll keep them and make some more for a throw quilt and keep going with what I’ve been doing with those top 6 to give away. I love squash and robin’s egg blue! Yippy!

Also, Rebecca’s blocks all arrived in the mail yesterday. They are really lovely. Maggi’s got some under her belt, and so does April. Maritsa’s blocks are turning out cute too

I hope everyone is having fun!

Denyse’s fabircs are ready for the buying! Go get ‘em girls!