Story Telling Blocks

aka. one long time wished for project completed - in 15 minutes!

I've wanted some of these story telling blocks for a long time now. There are some beautiful ones out there. But as you know by now, I'm cheap. Plus, I wanted to "do it myself." (gee, where do my kids get it from?) One evening a couple weeks ago, I was purusing OnePrettyThing while the kiddos were eating dinner & found Teach Besides Me's tutorial for making these things. What was best was that she listed all the phrases she used, so I didn't have to use any brain power trying to think of clever words. One of the things that has stopped me from making these in the past has been buying the blocks. I either forget when I'm at the craft store, or they are way more expensive than I thought they would be, so I planned to come back with a coupon. Looking at Karyn's blocks, they seemed to be smallish...just the size of the cubes inside the blocks that my kids happened to have spread all over the floor that very minute! So I grabbed nine and a sharpie. While my girlies were munching, I scribbled away. They were so interested, they couldn't wait for me to be done and take a picture. Since the blocks' creation, they've been played with by my children and several others we've had over. I'd say they're a hit AND something crossed off my "someday" list! Crafting win!

(P/S - I realize the photo is upside down. I have been having such difficulty with this shifting of photographs with Blogger lately. (Fine on my computer, upside-down or sideways on the blog...) It has been hampering my bloging actually. SO in the interest of having an imperfect post up vs. not ever getting any post up, no matter how perfect, I'm leaving this upside-down-yet-understandable photo up. Thank you for your understanding!)

Another UFO finished!

One night, at least two years ago, I awoke from a dream in the middle of the night and started working on this quilt. I had the quilt top cut out before anyone else was up, and it was assembled instead of breakfast that day. I even had the back ready: a donated flannel sheet, low-water immersion dyed in a beautiful turquoise. Somewhere in those two years, I even bought the batting. I have had, in my home, all the pieces to finish this for my lovely daughter all this time. I think I have a fear of finishing things, because it sat in this condition for a long, long time. So during KCWC, instead of sewing clothing, (I did some) I worked on this quilt. It was important enough to me to cheat. :) So during KCWC, I did finish (see pics of progress here and here - I quilted the top to the bottom, all machine quilting. I did not obey any quilting rules, so if you are a quilter, please avert your eyes. BUT, due to my short comings, I couldn't manage to finish the binding (even though I made the binding out of leftovers from the backing and it was sitting waiting), and I was coming up on the deadline for another project, so I had to put the quilt down again. But yesterday - yesterday was THE day. I machine sewing the binding on, also, so again, real quilters, avert your eyes. The binding is not as perfect as I'd hoped, but done is better than perfect, especially when you are considering the extended production life of this project. Thanks for listening to me blather about my sewing woes; here is the Dream Quilt:

I don't know why blogger rotated that last picture. I didn't edit it that way. Sorry for the acrobatics required to read the text. The stippling is my favorite and least favorite part of the quilt. I love the look of stippling, but I am inexperienced in using my embroidery machine for quilting. I should have done a lot more measuring. But I have some experience now and know what to do differently next time. I'm sure it will be used and loved regardless.

I am sharing my quilt and glorying in all its imperfections in the hope that you might be inspired to try something you've previously considered too hard and press on with the the mantra, "done is better than perfect." and then love it!

P/S - linking to Fireflies and Jellybeans, b/c I just ran across the opportunity. :) http://seanandsabrinastwinsandwich.blogspot.com/2011/05/kcwc-friday-saturday-and-sunday.html

Some completed UFOs

It feels so good to complete something. I started one of these diapers for a friend of mine probably two years ago. Her daughter is now trained, of course, but these cut and embellished diaper pieces were sitting in my craft area. The same friend wanted to gift someone some diapers and the said someone luckily is having a girl baby. I was able to finish these off and send them to where they will be used daily instead of sitting on a shelf in a closet of mine. I swear I feel fifty pounds lighter. I have long wondered if my huge pile of unfinished projects has been keeping me from any crafting at all. Thinking I can't start something new, even though the started and not completed thing is of no use anymore (diaper for a potty-trained child, say). I think this might be the season to finish that UFO pile. The hard part will be not trying anything new until I do finish. Must. stay. off. the. internet. before. it's. too. late...

(Once again, my apologies for the phone camera pictures. I still have not fixed nor replaced my broken camera.)