Froggie cubes - a baby shower gift

As I've mentioned in a previous post, one of my co-workers is expecting her first baby in August.  One of my Quarter 2 2014 Finish Along goals was to get a baby shower gift completed in a timely manner so I wasn't scrambling at the last minute.

Mission accomplished!

My co-worker decided not to find out the gender of the baby so I had to come up with something gender neutral.  I think these little froggies (leftover from Ribbit) fit the bill perfectly, and I already had everything on hand, which is a complete added bonus!  I've made these squishy cubes - complete with taggies - for little ones before and have gotten good feedback, so a set of blocks has become a go-to baby present.

Hopefully this baby will like them too!  Yay for completed projects!

Linking up with the other Quarter 2 finishers.

More bathroom updates, and a chair

The hall bath is (basically) finished!  And just in time for my parents to visit!

This is what the old faucets looked like.  Nothing wrong with them (we're actually going to put them in our master bath instead of the builder grade ones that are in there now), but they didn't really coordinate with the color scheme.

One new one old...

Two new faucets!

I also got the other fixtures spray painted and we hung some "state" art - MD for me, FL for the hubs, and KY for our current home - a gift from my parents.

I think I'd like to frame this mirror out to complete the look, because right now it looks just...unfinished.  At first I was thinking wood stained to match the vanity, but now I wonder if that'd be too dark?  With the dark light fixtures and dark faucets?  Maybe white wood instead?  Or I've seen people glue tiles to the mirror - maybe a mosaic of light and dark tiles?  Thoughts?

My parents brought me a bunch of stuff from their house, so I had to shuffle some things around.  I cleaned a bunch of things out, including some upholstery samples I hadn't used in several years.  I unearthed this sample, and decided to have the hubs recover my sewing chair.

Before

After!

I'd like to remove the wild animal border in my sewing room (not put up by us, thanks) and paint the room white.  My sewing table base is an aqua color, and I figure if I hang some aqua curtains the chair pattern will tie in nicely.

The list of house stuff is never ending! :)

ALYOF - June goal complete!

My June ALYOF goal was to get Valor all ready to send off to its new owner, and I'm happy to say it's ready to go!  (Finishing this quilt was also a Quarter 2 Finish Along goal.)

Valor

OK, that's not quite true.  I ordered labels from Spoonflower, and once those arrive and I sew it on, it'll be ready to go.  But the hard parts - the quilt and "presentation case" are done, which means this is a usable quilt so I count it as done :)

Here's more photos:

Presentation case - basically a pillow case, made sausage-style.

Navy cuff, white on white accent strip and red body.

Close up of binding and quilting.

Rolled and ready to rock!

I started this quilt in February and it will be sent off in July - 5 months isn't too bad of a turn around time, but I hope the next one gets done in a little more timely manner.  And yes, that means I'd do another Quilt of Valor again in the future.  If you're interested in making a quilt, you can find more information here.

 Special thanks to Jodie at the Quilt Corner in Baton Rouge, LA for doing a beautiful job quilting Valor!

Linking up with the other June finishers and the Quarter 2 finishers.

A few Friday finishes!

I actually have FOUR finishes to share today!  Where this burst of productivity came from, I have no idea.  But that said, these were all relatively little finishes in the grand scheme of things.

First up, I finished my Quiet Quilt for the Hands2Help quilt drive.  (This finish was also on my list for the Quarter 2 Finish Along.)

It's done in the same pink floral, with an added bit of blue, for the back as with my Pooh version.  And this one has a blue-grey pieced binding.  I machine quilted outside each seam with light pink thread.  Simple and sweet!

And here's the stack before it was sent off to the kind folks at Quilts of Compassion.

Top to bottom: Ribbit, whole cloth ABCs, and Quiet.

Remember how much I loved the 20/20 Michael Miller fabric?  I made not one, but two zip pouches!  The first is the well-known and well-loved open-wide zip pouch from Noodlehead:

Lining is a random coordinating fat quarter from JoAnn's.

 And the second is from the Perfect Zip Bags pattern collection by Oh, Fransson:

 

This lining is a fat quarter from an older Zen Chic collection, not sure of the name.

The open-wide pouch is not so fancy, but oh-so-easy to see inside of, especially when compared to the second pouch, even though the second is a little more stylish.  There are also instructions in the pattern for adding straps/handles, but I opted out of that option.  I think this second pouch is being gifted to my sister-in-law for her birthday, and I'm either going to keep the other or give it to a co-worker.

And finally, I made my parents a belated Mother's/Father's Day present of a patriotic pillow.  The front is the field of stars from the flag manufacturing company that I won from QoV Sew Along Day, and the back is some canvas-y stripes I had in my stash.  Pillow form is a 12"x16" from JoAnn's (with coupon!).  I also did a bit of navy piping to finish it off.

 This came out better than I expected - I wish I had some more stars, I'd make another to keep for me!

Linking to the finishers at Crazy Mom Quilts, Whoop-ers at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and the Quarter 2 finishers.

Sunday Stash - a little bit of Tula Pink

I have gone on the record in previous comments, and maybe even a previous blog post, that I'm not a HUGE fan of Tula Pink's fabric collections.  Mostly because of the larger prints, especially the animal ones, that I can't picture cut into pieces for quilting.  That said, one cannot argue that Tula is quite an influential designer and I figure any one who considers themselves a participant in the modern quilting "movement" should at least have a little of her fabric in their stash.

Therefore, when Pink Castle Fabrics had a sale on their bundles, and one of those bundles was a "Best of Tula Pink" bundle, I figured it was a sign.

Fabric is so pretty :)

Dew Drop in Indigo and Meteor in Aquarium

Baby Geo in Shade, Submarines and Seaweed in Seaweed

Arrowheads in Lime, Taffy in Indigo

Diamonds in Teal, Lady Bugs in Storm, Foxtrot in Shade

Little Bits in Honey, Scribbles in Sunrise, Tree of Life in Cinnamon, Octo Garden in Coral

Pony Play in Dusk and Hummingbird in Dusk

No plans for these pretties yet, but at least my stash is a little more complete!

Linking up with Mary Emmens for this week's Sunday Stash!