Quilt--finished!

Hello! Well, yesterday I finished the quilt. I have to say I really enjoyed hand-sewing the back of the binding. I listened to a book on cd while working on it and I found it quite relaxing...minus the neck stiffness afterwards. Ooops!

I have to embarrassingly admit that I actually started making a different quilt top for our bed months ago, but when it was all finished I didn't really like it that much. It wasn't making my heart go pitter-patter...haha! I still have the top, but I don't know what I'm going to do with it now. Another project for another day I suppose. What inspired me to make this completed quilt was some fabric I saw on Etsy called Sweet Nothings. I bought a baby blanket for my niece and when I saw the blanket, it was love at first sight! I just had to make something using the fabric. So...I ordered about 5-6 yards of fabric and got started.

I love how intricate and creative some quilts are, but that's just not where I am at with quilting right now, so I decided to just cut plain ole 8x8 inch squares. Without the binding, the quilt is 91 x91 inches. It wasn't my plan to create a square quilt, but I guess when we make the bed we won't have to wonder what's up and what's down. Haha! The quilt is bigger than needed for a queen size, but I like having extra blanket (since I can be a blanket hog). It's perfect for us!


I love all of the colors on the quilt. I'd have to say these have been my favorite colors in the past year or so. Another simple thing about this quilt is that there was no actual "quilting" involved. I just did tying. Simple! Someday I would love to learn how to make those intricate quilt designs, but like I said earlier, that's just not where I'm at right now. Someday...

Quilting isn't my favorite hobby, I have to say. It's not like knitting where I feel relaxed and ok with mistakes when they come up. The sewing machine was yelled at a couple of times and I wasn't too happy to become aquainted with the seam ripper, but I suppose that's all part of the game, right? But I do have to say I enjoyed the process.

When I was working on laying out all of the layers, I told Quent, "I'm 3 weeks from my due date and here I am on the floor laying out a quilt." I bet this process would be a lot easier without a belly. Haha!

I'm still not very good at taking pictures in the house on cloudy days, but here's a picture of the quilt on our bed. One day (maybe) I'll make some pillow shams...or I'll just buy some decorative pillows. Or make some pillows. Hmmm... I could even knit some!! I'm working toward making the colors of our room turquoise, brown, cream, and orange. It's slowly getting there.

Some resources that were very helpful to me in making this quilt were some YouTube videos (I love YouTube!):

How to Join Strips for Borders and Bindings

How to make and attach quilt binding

Binding Your Quilt - Quilting Tips & Tricks

And of course, phone help from my friend and step-mom, Kelly! Thanks Kelly!

Hello

I'm 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I'm playing the waiting game. I wonder when she will say, "It's time!" I'm ready. I'm excited! So what have I been doing with my time?


I've been working on a quilt. I'm almost finished! More pictures to come...soon!

I've been reading. I sit in this chair on our deck in the sun reading until I get too warm and have to go back inside.

And growing a baby!

37 Weeks

I am now 37 weeks! Well, today is 37 weeks and 2 days. During my appointment last week the midwife said I was measuring more like 38 weeks instead of 36 weeks, so....she could be here any time. We shall see!! Let's just say that information kicked me into my final "nesting" mode. I haven't gone too crazy, but I find myself wanting to be as ready as possible.



It's funny how in 9 months the color of our bedroom walls have changed 3 times! First it was the original color (taupe), then it was mostly turquoise with two walls partially taupe. And now it's cream and turquoise! I'm so thankful to Quent and Natasha for finishing up my painting job!

I have to buy another 3/4 yard of fabric in order to go on to the next step of the quilt I am making for our room. I plan to do that today. I wonder how far I'll get with that project?

Have a beautiful day!

Friend

Hello! Happy Monday! While it seems the rest of the country is having extreme heat, we are having fall type weather. It's been a cool and wet summer here. I can't imagine being pregnant and in the kind of heat some are experiencing! Whew! I feel like I've forgotten what that kind of heat is like. Growing up in Michigan, I experienced many hot and humid summers. I have to admit I like living in Southeast Alaska where you can pretty much wear the same thing all year round. I hope you have been able to stay cool! I'll send you some rain. *smile*

I created this page well over a month ago:



4 more weeks until my due date (August 21st)!

Preparing for Baby

It's been a loooooong time since I've scrapbooked. The only inspiration I've had to scrapbook are pictures I've taken of the baby's room. I remember seeing a page Ali Edwards did of preparing the room for her little one before she was born, and I thought it was such a great idea. So I snapped some photos (realizing I need some more camera lessons from Quent), and then started working on this page the very same day. There is another layout idea I have swimming around in my head. I should do that soon.



This week I started working on the quilt top for our bedroom. I have the individual strips sewn, now I just need to sew those strips together. This will be the biggest quilt I've ever made (queen size). I sorta cheated on the baby quilt I made, so I need to figure out how to do this the non-cheating way...or may I'll just cheat again. Hee, hee! I may need to make some phone calls and ask questions.

This Sunday will mark 4 weeks until my due date!! I can hardly believe it! We are getting SOOOOO excited!!

Quote, zero creativity, and books

"When we are no longer able to change a situation--we are challenged to change ourselves."

--Viktor E. Frankl, World War II holocaust survivor

I think the baby has stolen my creative juices. There is pretty much no desire to scrapbook or design right now. In fact, I have some projects I *have* to work on, but I really don't want to. But I have been knitting. I'm almost finished with some slippers I am knitting for myself. I've also been thinking about knitting some gifts. So at least I have that source of creativity flowing right now. Next week I am thinking about starting a quilt, but I think I still need a major dosage of motivation to even start on that. It's pathetic! Ha!

Another thing I've been doing a lot of lately is reading. The other day I started and finished one book in less than 6 hours! Wow! I don't think I've done that in years! The book is called Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza and it's about her story of surviving the Rwanda holocaust. It's a fascinating story!! I couldn't put it down! Another book I recently read is Robinson Crusoe, which I had heard of over the years, but had no idea what it was really all about. I really enjoyed that book! I'm now on the search for more books to read since I find myself needing to lay around a bit more these days. Any suggestions???

Five more weeks until my due date!!

32 Weeks

Whew, it's been a little while since I've blogged! I had a good excuse though. My sister in law, Natasha, was visiting with us for a couple of weeks. I really enjoyed her visit! While she was here, we took some pregnancy photos since she's an amazing photographer. On the only nice day we had while she was here (and it was REALLY nice at that!) we drove around and found a couple of places to take pictures. One of the places was this park near a hatchery. I wasn't interested in being around a lot of people while taking photos, but we had no choice here. There were SO many tourists from the cruise ships walking around. There went our privacy! Oh well! I am 32 weeks in these photos (I'm now 33 weeks). Here are a couple of my favorites:

I haven't been feeling very creative lately as far as scrapbooking goes. I have been slowly knitting a baby hat. I do, however, have some fabric to make a quilt, so I may get started on that soon.

I have less than 7 weeks until my due date! She'll be here before we know it!

My name is...

I need a little pep-talk for myself today.

When I was little (ok, this is going to sound really dorky) and I would practice typing on my mom's computer, I would always type:

My name is Christina.

I was probably about 10 years old and this was before any typing classes in school. But today I think about that and I think about how yes, that is in fact my name. I am she. I am Christina. I'm not Barbara, Kristin, Samantha, or any other name.

Every once in awhile these little things come up in my mind, where maybe I feel threatened by the lies, "You are too much." or "You are not enough." But when it comes down to it, I am Christina and that's ENOUGH! I am me, with all of my quirks. I was made on purpose to be who I am. I was wonderfully made! (Psalm 139)

So I will rest in that truth today. And I hope you can rest in that truth, whatever name you are!

Quilt

Hello! Happy rainy Tuesday to ya! Well, at least that's our weather for today. The sun seems to be a little shy these days. But what do I expect for one of the wettest places on the planet? Living in a temperate rainforest brings just that...rain! Anyway...I don't think I've shared this layout on the blog yet. I created it using a kit that will be coming out in a few days.



I'm tempted to make a quilt for our bedroom. I'm really close to purchasing some fabric...really close. A few days ago I finished another baby blanket I was working on. I'm not really happy with the results though. It's ok, but I think I sorta messed up some stuff. Oh well! A few days ago I ordered some more yarn to make a baby hat and to make some slippers for myself. Remember the slippers I knit for Quent? The ones that I basically never wanted to make ever again if I could help it? Well, those are the ones I'm going to make for myself. After he has been wearing them for a few months, I'm seeing how they would probably last a long, long time. And I'm needing something to wear around the house...sooooo...I decided I would do it. Right now I'm also finishing up the pants I've been slowly working on. I have lots of little projects I'm working on right now to keep me busy as I'm waiting for the last 2 months before baby comes.

Have a fun day!

Little Jackson Smith

Hello! I created this page yesterday. It was inspired by this. Lately I've needed outside inspiration besides the little nudges of creativity inside of my head. And that's ok!

Yesterday I went through our canoe trip photos and picked out the ones I wanted to scrap and digitally 'slapped' them in collage fashion onto some pages. So now I need to go back and add journaling, paper, and elements. It's one of those projects I want DONE.



I'm hoping to finish a knitting project today. Whoohoo!

Have a great day!

LOVE

I've been a scrappin' fool lately...well, sort of. Ha! The other day I was blog hopping and I was inspired by this and then started playing. I really should tackle the canoe trip pics...hmmm...




This layout has a picture of Quent and I that his sister Natasha took at their sister's wedding. I don't plan on scrapping a lot of the wedding photos since those aren't really our photos. But I do plan on picking a few pics out here and there to scrap.

Has anyone checked out the July/August 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes? I just may have a layout in there. *wink*

Jacob

Happy Saturday! I'm curious to see what the weather ends up doing today. So far we've had scattered showers, but also sun. Anything is possible this time of year.

I created this page a few days ago of my little brother Jacob. He's an amazing person and I wanted that to reflect in the journaling.



Have a great weekend!

Happy 29

I was so inspired by this page that I had to scraplift it! I had a lot of fun creating this layout!



Guess what? I'm an aunt today to my first niece! Welcome baby Louella!

Have a happy Friday!

Katie Babe

I've been having so much fun scrapbooking the last couple of days! It feels so good to play with digi! Sometimes I just need a new digital toy to play with in and then I'm set for inspiration for awhile, like what happened after purchasing the Photoshop Actions I talked about in a previous post. Sometimes motivation gets as simple as that.

I have to take breaks from the computer as much as possible these days...or rather, taking breaks from sitting. It sounds odd to me, especially since relaxing is becoming a bigger part of my routine now that I'm in my third trimester. I have this really weird uncomfortable feeling under my right rib these days. I hear it's normal. My midwife says it's normal. Relief is hard to come by at times, except for laying on my left side. So because of that, I've been reading a lot and laying down. Right now I'm reading a book called Piercing the Darkness by Frank E. Peretti. I'm almost finished with it! I'm really enjoying it!



Have a great rest of your day!

Sisters

It's funny how I've been scrapping pictures that were taken in the winter...with snow. I remember in February I was really tired of the white stuff! Scrapping them in the spring/summer is a better idea! I'm scrapping the pics that we took when we were in Michigan for Christmas and my sister-in-law's wedding. That means I'm almost finished scrapping 2010, aside from the canoe trip photos, but I'm working on that, too! My goal is to get caught up as much as possible before baby comes.

I had so much fun scrapping these photos yesterday. I decided to do a 2-page spread since I hardly ever do that. I like how it divides up the two sets of pictures.

Here's the full-page spread:



And the pages by themselves:

I used all of my own designs, except for the stitching. The kits that were used were Travel Along, Snowscape Snowflakes, and Floss Stitches. The stitching is from Designer Digitals.

You Are Lovely

Hello! I've been in a creative mood today as far as scrapbooking goes. I created this page and a 2-page spread today. I recently bought some Photoshop actions from Maggie Holmes and I wanted to play with those today. I have a few pictures from Christmas-time to scrap, so I thought I would have fun with those photos. I haven't scrapped an 8-1/2 x 11 page in quite awhile. I think it's fun to do that sometimes. One thing I love about putting pages into 3-ring binders is because you can put different sizes in instead of the standard 12 x 12. I may do more of these size pages in the near future. There was a post on Ali Edwards' blog that inspired me about that.

This past Saturday my friend Joy had a baby shower for me in Wrangell. It was such a great time! I really enjoyed seeing everyone so much! I was so touched by everyone's thoughtfulness and generosity. I feel truly blessed! Today I had fun sorting through the gifts and organizing the baby's room a little more.

Well, we are off on a walk! Have a great rest of your day!

Summertime Re-release

Hello! I'm re-releasing a kit that came out last year called Summertime. It's available today through the weekend at MScraps for 20% off. It will be available on Monday at Digital Dandelions. Enjoy!

9 years ago

Today is our 9th anniversary! It sure has gone by fast! I am so thankful for Quent. He's perfect for me in every way. I really don't know what I would do without him. He is an amazing man of God and he loves life the fullest! I just love him so much! Happy 9 years to us!

Biker Dude

I'm not sure if I ever shared this layout. I made it probably over a year ago and recently it's been inspiring to me! Maybe it's the bright colors! Or maybe it's because I've been thinking back on my childhood and remembering all of the colorful things that made it sweet...especially in the summer!



I've also been thinking a lot about how my life is going to change (and is changing) in the next few months. I know it will be a beautiful adjustment having a sweet little girl to have, hold, and nurture. Sometimes I wonder what will happen to my "scrapbooking world" and design. I read a post today that really made me think about some things.

My little word for the year is "prune", as in cutting back; change. Things are changing and things will change even more. I know that when you prune a plant that more fruit is able to flourish. I know it's a good thing. I just cannot really imagine what it will be like. There are so many things even in pregnancy that I didn't expect or I don't remember anyone ever talking to me about, but here I am experiencing it. I know the same thing will happen when baby girl Smith enters the world.

I feel like my mind is churning with ideas, wonders, and curiousity on this subject. I will have to think on this some more...

Baby Bump: 28 Weeks

As promised, here is a picture of me and my baby bump. I'm 28 weeks now, just starting my last trimester. I can tell she's really grown in the last month! How am I feeling? It depends on the day. Some days I feel like myself, and then some days I feel uncomfortable. I'm thankful I'm home now and that I'm able to relax when I need to. The time is going fast! She'll be here before we know it!