Bird Mobile and More

I finished hand sewing these little birds quite a while ago but I was pretty scared to put the whole mobile together. There are no instructions on the "free tutorial" - so Nick and I just had to wing it (pun intended). Both of us were shocked how quickly it came together. While watching a movie on Sunday night, I sewed the birds onto the sticks with three strands of embroidery floss (trying to make it look like little bird feet hanging onto the branches). Last night, we put it all together in about twenty minutes! Gregory loves it! He actually laid in bed for quite a while this morning just looking at it. I took advantage of some extra sleep.

Over the weekend, I delved into free motion quilting with this quilt. The binding is almost completely attached. I will show pictures when it is all done. I have to say that I really enjoyed quilting this and it wasn't as scary as I had imagined. I think it helped that I had been able to use a large gym floor at my church to baste it, I had good thread (Gutermann), lots of safety pins, and the quilt wasn't too big to be able to manage. The only thing I didn't like was having to constantly stop quilting it to attend to more important things (e.g. my family)- repeatedly returning to it made me have to keep developing a "rhythm" and I found that my "starts" were a bit rough.

Last night I finished my final circle block - completing my 88 blocks! I am not sure how to approach piecing the blocks together, as I think it ideally demands a design wall (which I don't have).

I also cut out some new pajamas to make for Gregory as a present for his birthday. I figure he is too young to object to handmade gifts now, so I am going to take advantage of it!

Finally, I did make it to a few yard sales over the weekend and bought these pieces for 50 cents!

The floral piece is much prettier in person - kind of reminds me of an Amy Butler print. I am also really excited about the linen because one of the library books is all about "zakka."

Usually I try not to have a zillion projects going on at once (I didn't even show you another quilt that I am working on binding today!) but for some reason, it's just how things have worked out lately. I am pretty psyched with all that I have completed and not only have taken care of Gregory (of course!), but I still have been social with friends, attended church meetings and activities, and not completely ignored my husband. I think it comes down to priorities - we all do what is important to us (which is why you are not seeing a picture of my laundry pile or kitchen sink!)