Afghans make me want to cry...

I am working on an afghan for my beautiful niece Danielle. She asked me to make it for her and I of course said "Sure!!". That was last year. I said it would take a few weeks. Let me tell you the story of making this afghan. I can't tell you what it looks like because she hasn't seen it so I don't want to give her any clues- First:

I had a terrible time figuring out what pattern I wanted to use. I started the afghan at least 3 times. I figured out what I wanted and got started.
Second: I was about 8 inches into the afghan when I realized that not only did I hate the feel of the yarn but it was giving me a rash where the yarn pulled across my finger as I crocheted. All in my mind? We'll never know.
Third: New yarn. Start again. ALMOST DONE(!!!!) and our dog, who now lives in FL, the cold weather made her sick :( - decided that the afghan would b

e the perfect place to puke. I was livid!(I promise that indecent had nothing to do with her relocation)
Forth: I had to take out a huge chunk of the afghan so that I could get rid of the puke yarn. Luckily it wasn't folded when the dog got sick so it was o

n a very small part...half why down the blanket. *sigh* I still want to cry when I think about how close I was to being done!
Fifth: I am once again almost done. I kid you not if anything happens I will be forced to the conclusion that I was never meant to finish this freaking thin

g!

Oh I almost forgot Danielles younger sister(Brooke) wants one too. So I'll be making one for her as well. The only upside(other than the fact that I love

them both to pieces) is that they are short. I'm 5'8". Danielle at 18 is only 5'2"-ish...so the afghan doesn't have to be quite so long. Yay!!!
I'm really excited to see what she will think of it, my fingers

are crossed that she will love it. Pictures will come

as soon as she gets it and lets me know what she thought.

**Update: She loves it!! Yay! Below are 2 pictures she sent me.

One down, one to go.

Hats, hats and more hats...

I have been crocheting hats for the first time in my life. I'm finding it to be a lot easier than I thought it would be. I like that it's a faster project because making a blanket or afghan takes forever.

Hat one:

Hat Two:

Hat Three:I have made one more that's for me but I can't find the picture I took of it, and I'm to lazy right now to take a new one. :)
I love the flowers on the last 2 hats. The first one I feel is missing something? I'm not sure what. Since I have no baby to try these on, I am really hoping they will fit the baby when she comes. My hubby keeps telling me I should sell the hats. I'm wondering would anyone want to buy one?
Which flower is your favorite? Which hat?

I shall call it: "Epic Fail Bakery"

Saturday I made Strawberry freezer jam. It came out awesome! So I was thinking the only thing that would make it better was fresh homemade bread to put it on. I decided to try a new recipe of the artisan realm of bread making.
This is where it all went horrible wrong:

• 20 minutes before you are ready to bake the bread preheat the oven with a pizza stone in it at 450 F
• Beneath the pizza stone place a broiler tray or roasting pan
• Once you are ready to bake, dust the dough lightly once more and slice the bread for presentation
• Slide the dough onto the pizza stone and add a cup of hot water to the pan beneath
• Shut the oven door quickly, the added water to the pan beneath the stone will sizzle and steam which offers great crust results

I hadn't slept well the night before and I had already cleaned and made jam, my thinking had no doubt become slightly muddled.
Everything was going as planned and I put the bread in the oven then got the water. I poured less then a 1/4 cup in when my brain clicked in with an echoing shout "You put a Glass pan in!!!!". That thought came about 2 seconds before this:


That's right, it exploded. Luckily for my son and I the glass didn't go far. We were both standing in the kitchen and while I was much closer some of the glass flew in his direction-none came my way- and landed about about a foot from him. He would have been burned if it had made it too him at the very least.
I've been making bread for years. No bread machine just good old kneading. I have never had it fail like this. So I decided to try again and just forget the water part. The bread cooked just fine. BUT. It was nasty. It was so salty. I even checked the recipe a few times before I measured it into the recipe. Yuck.
Moral of this story: Stick with the bread you know and don't put the glass pan in the oven to heat up...sheesh.

I don't know you...Don't touch my baby! Oh I mean please.

I do not like people I don't know to touch me, I don't like people in check out line standing too close,-I swear I can feel them breathing on me and it makes me want to crawl out of my skin...issues? Probably.- I don't like people thinking that my being pregnant somehow makes my belly not a part of me, and I really, really don't like it when people I don't know or am not that close to touch my baby without asking. It irks me. I have no idea where these peoples hands have been. Yuck. I can't do anything about people standing to close and unfortunately, short of neck punching someone, I can't get people to not touch me, But, There is something I can do about people touching my baby-I wont lie if I have to I would resort to the whole next punching thing in regards to my baby luckily I think I've found a better solution.

My friend Kylee made one of these babies and all I could think was *Genius*! I googled it and found 2 blogs and read what they said(they were slightly different) and then did my own thing, kind of a combo of the 2.


Yes, my sewing box, there on the right, is a fishing tackle box. Don't judge me, it works. :-P

Double sided

This fabric is the fabric that I wanted to use for the babies quilt. Rich didn't like it-he was told that was the last time he would be included in helping pick out fabric, I don't think he was terribly disappointed-so I looked for another 20+ min. I think the fabric I ended up using was perfect for the quilt.
I went back about a week later(alone...well I had 3 boys with me, I obviously didn't think that through), and got this fabric-In your face Ricardo!! haha-which I think is perfect for the carseat canopy/cover(The hubby likes it too, hmm, Maybe I should taken him a long when I get fabric because if he had liked it the quilt wouldn't be nearly as cute...).
It was totally ridiculously easy to make. The hardest thing for me was where to put the straps and then getting them to be straight. I have to say I'm really happy with the turn out!

Now all I have to worry about is people telling me that I'm suffocating my baby under it. It's not shrink wrap folks.

If you want to see the tutorials I used here they are:
http://www.sweetnsassygirls.com/2010/02/how-to-make-a-reversible-car-seat-covertentcanopy.html
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2010/04/car-seat-cover-aka-greeter-deterrent.html

The only gift is a portion of thyself. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I always stress about things I make not being perfect. I will show my husband what I've made and the conversation will go something like this:
Me: It's done
Hubby: That's really awesome, babe!(I often wonder just how much he humors me)
Me: I messed up a little here, this line isn't straight, look this isn't...
Hubby: Rebecca, really? No one is going to notice that! I'm looking up close and wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't shown me!
Me: I just wish it was perfect.
Hubby: It doesn't matter if it's perfect, what matters is the work and thought you put into it.

He's right. When I made my sons quilt he didn't care that the thread wasn't all the same. He didn't care that the shapes weren't all exactly lined up. He cared that Mom made it just for him. When the baby gets here will she care that a line isn't straight? Nope, she will no doubt spit up on her blanket, and possible pee or poop on it. Lines wont be on her mind(or mine at that point.)

This is the blanket I made for our daughter on the way:





It's not perfect and I'm ok with that. The gift is that I made it just for her. She'll appreciate that one day. I know I have a blanket that someone made for me when I was a baby, and I love that I have it now and can use it for my baby girl.

This is the first time I've ever made a ruffle. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but still a tad trying. The quilt pattern is called Easter Ruffle Quilt. You can find the pattern here:
http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2011/03/easter-ruffle-quilt.html

I finally finished

I've been crocheting a scarf for my husband for about 8 months...it was supposed to be a Christmas gift. Yes, it would seem I'm a tad late. I had stopped working on it, not really sure why. The day after Christmas we found out we were expecting our second child. I was sick for 4 months...during those months I did a whole lot of nothing. Well aside from strengthening my "friendship" with the toilet, good times.
Anyway, I have started making hats and blankets for our little girl on the way. While going through my yarn stash I came across the scarf and decided to finish it up. Yay, I finished last night! Now my son wants one. Awesome.
My hubby there on the right is modeling the scarf. I must say I'm pretty proud of it!
Have you had a project that was set to the side and forgotten? Whats the longest you've had one sit?

The pillow that matchs the quilt that nearly did me in...

There it is. It's not that impressive but it does the job. I used some fiber filler that I had on hand. I plan on filling it with more just as soon as I remember to buy more(don't hold your breath, I'm lucky to remember my name some days). I had thought about using foam but when I priced the thicker pieces it was just not in my budget. That stuff is expensive! The bottom is just the solid blue that I used for the quilt backing. The top is 2 pieces of fabric sewn together(right in the middle). I'm still not sure how I ended up with that much extra fabric. Now my son would like his walls painted red...so not going to happen. I guess it's debatable if this was a sewing success or fail. I think it will look more like a success once I put more filling in it. Then it wont look so much like a deflated balloon.

The Quilt that nearly did me in.

Ugh. Nothing like getting half way through writing a post and having your browser freeze...NOOOOO! (I actually yelled that, sorry neighbors. I'm fine.) So....lets try this again.

This is the quilt that nearly did me in. I made it for my wonderful son Logan for his 6th birthday. It took me 3 months which I was fine with. I knew it would take me a while to do, that's why I started so far in advance. Plenty of time, right? I wanted it to be perfect so while I didn't stress about time(at that time anyway) I did stress about lines not sewn perfect. I got over it, eventually.
I "flew" through the quilt. All was going well. I hand embroidered glow in the dark stars all over the quilt(sore fingers!!). And then I was introduced to binding. You know, that innocent looking strip of fabric around the quilt? Yeah, It's evil.
Picture it: The night before Logans birthday. One sleep deprived mom at 11ish at night. The strips are all cut and sewn into one long strip. Every tutorial about how to sew binding on a quilt has been watched via youtube. I'm thinking "I got this, I have totally got this". I was totally wrong. I had a hard time figuring out what kind of stitch to use, I tried a top stitch(just the regular stitch) that didn't work so I ended up using a very tight zig-zag stitch. Again I think "I got this". I was wrong again. I'm on a roll when I run out of the thread I'm using, no big deal. That's why I bought 2 spools of that color. Hmm, I look in my sewing box(ha I won't lie it's really a tackle box for fishing), it's not there. I look in the Jo-ann Fabric bag, It's not there. I look on the floor, it's not there. Me out loud to furniture(my only company): "Where the freaking crap is my thread!?". I give up and use a multi color thread that matches to. So half of the binding is sewn on in solid blue and half is in a multi blue. Awesome. I wanted to cry. I'm actually not 100% sure that I didn't have a tear or two slip out. I finished somewhere in wee hours of the morning. Well there was one problem but I left it and fixed it about a week later as it wasn't something that was a huge deal. It was a little bit of the binding that I didn't catch both sides with the stitch. Easy fix.
I gave the quilt to Logan and he loved it! All the insanity of the night and past 3 months were worth it.
It took me almost a year to get my sewing machine out again. Seriously. After that quilt I wasn't sure I would ever sew again. When I did get it out it was to make a Window seat pillow with leftover fabric that matched the quilt. Logan was thrilled, again making all the work worth it.
P.S. I found the other spool of thread under the table:



^ I couldn't see it while I was standing at any angle. I was sitting on the couch the next day and looked over. That spool sat there mocking me...No, really I could hear it.

If We're Being Honest, Then Honestly...

I'm not the best seamstress. I still have to youtube crochet stitches. Really the only thing of the 3 that I do well is sleep, and I'm not even doing that very well. Being 28 weeks pregnant, comfortable isn't something I am very often. I'm nesting and don't really have anything to nest so to keep my husband from putting me in a straight jacket I have turned to sewing and crocheting...again. Yep, Again. I learned to do both in my teens. I was pretty good at sewing. Crocheting...about all I could do was chain(Yeah, I know impressive).
What have I made the past 10 year(ugh has it really been that long since I was a teen? *Cringe*)
Sewing:
1)Skirt-my son was 2. I still have it
2)Dress-Never finished it was a horrible color on me!
3)Lap quilt-It had some seam issues, Oh we were being honest, it has seam issues but it's warm.
4)Twin size quilt- For my son- I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown(more about that later)
5)Window seat pillow-to match my sons quilt
6)Cloth baby wipes-You read that right.
7)Baby quilt-didn't get to the breakdown stage, until the binding part.
8)Car Seat Canopy-Really proud of that one!
Go ahead and do the math, yep. That's less than one thing a year. Actually 2 of those were made in the past 2 weeks. I just get more and more impressive.
Crocheting:
About 4 baby blankets 4 or so years ago. One I was making for my niece when she's born...4 years ago *hangs head in shame*.
A few pot holders and dish cloths
In the last few months:
1)A hooded baby blanket(so cute!)
2)A brimmed baby hat with my first ever crocheted flower
3)A shell baby beanie with a freaking awesome crocheted flower
In Progress:
1)Scarf-I'm making for my hubby for Christmas...last year, I should just keep my head down until this post is over so much shame!
2)Afghan- For my 18 year old niece...There is a good reason it's not done yet. No, really there is.

Well, there you have it. I'm not some awesome seamstress and I can't crochet in record time but I do my best. I have been pretty proud of the things I've made and the way I see it is the more I do these things the better I'll get. Maybe I'll work up to making my own clothing patterns....that scares me. Really it does. I like having someone else telling me how to make things...if I get it wrong I can blame someone else! Ha!
Stay tuned I'll be posting some of the things I've made and talking about how I did it. As well as where you can find the tutorials I used for some of the projects.