2015 look back

ack!  i saw lisa post her yearly review, and realized 2 things.
1.  i didn't blog as much as i had anticipated i would
2.  today is the LAST day of 2015!
well, here's a summary in look back of some projects and events that happened throughout the year.
january
i said i was going to participate in the "sew your stash" following.
but didn't.
BUT it wasn't totally wasted, because i went from fabric in tubs, to fabric stored like this:
it is SO nice to be able to see everything!
february
i jumped in as a swap angel on craftster and made some beauty and the beast pillow covers.
this was my first fandom in stitches pattern, and as you'll later see, i'm hooked.
march
went to colorado again to hang with lisa and her peeps.
visited the lovely quilt cabin and hung out over spring break before heading back to the real world of work again.
april
i sent off my first instagram swap mini quilt (it was cat themed, of course - kitten mqs)
also cat related, i made a middle school friend of mine a baby quilt for her little one.  i love elizabeth hartman's cats... that's for sure  (daffodils and kitty cats)
may
aileen finally got her nerdy ruffle apron
but more importantly...
my pudge cat quilt was finished!
see?  i love those cats...
and i suppose this one...
june
this is apparently the month of actual events i didn't post about.
we had our first family reunion in 10 years, and while we were missing a few cousins and an aunt, we still managed to party pretty hard.  for us being 14+ cousins that are rather spread apart, we get along quite well when we're all back together.  we got pedicures and jamba juice at one point to just chill.
we also had our 30th anniversary dance recital this year,
which was a LOT of work and chaos.
but i got to dance with a handful of my old classmates again as well as some of the "big kids" that were there when i was growing up.  i also got to perform "make someone happy" with my students and my favorite andrew. :)
july
apparently nothing worth blogging.
or remembering...
august
erika and i saw fall out boy again.
never gets old <3
also posted two music quilts for donner mine this year
left: daisy chain
right: musical triangles 2
september
i made this turtle quilt for my aunt to give to one of her coworkers.
and then, we threw amy a surprise baby shower!
thanks to lisa, i found a car seat canopy tutorial, which turned out wonderfully
and then, the main project was finally revealed.
probably my favorite outcome of 2015 was this quilt, which took hours upon hours in construction
but SO worth it.
this lion king baby quilt was perfect for the lion king lover that amy is, and her enthusiasm for it was well worth it :)  fandom in stitches totally rocks.
october
this was the last that i blogged anything, which was those lion king projects.
so i'll just skip to november.
oh wait!  this was the month melissa got engaged and asked me to be in her bridal party next year.  so that's something :)
november
i had a birthday.  whoot.
i also took a painfully long road trip to idaho and froze my butt off doing this.

yep. aileen got engaged this past september, so my mom and i trekked out to idaho over thanksgiving break to go dress shopping with her out there as well as take their engagement photos.  we got really lucky with a fresh coating of snow the morning of, and  even though we froze, they were worth it.  (no, you didn't miss out on a blog post.  they were posted on my website here: freeze frame - aileen & ben)
december
it totally zoomed by, that's for sure!
i made about 20 pillowcases this year for various gifts, and all that good stuff.
baby leonidas was born on december 19th - just one day after his due date!
2 quilts were given at christmas, with a third one finished as we drove to disneyland on the 27th.
i'll do a full disneyland post soon - but here's a little disney goodness in the meantime :)

overall
it may have not been a post filled year like the last one, but i'd have to say some of the things done were pretty monumental.  and with 2 weddings that i'm in next year, it is safe to say some crafting will absolutely be going down for bridal showers & wedding gifts!  hope your 2015 was fabulous, and i'll have more posts to come soon :)

just can't wait to be king - quilt for baby leonidas

this quilt has been a long time inspired, but a short time to happen!
at some point when amy and luke were first engaged, i (mostly)joked about making this quilt i saw on fandom in stitches if i had the skills.  at that point in time i had never paper pieced a day in my life, and it was WAY intense looking.  fast forward a few years, and having paper pieced a thing or two, i told her that some day, i would make her this quilt.  she asked me when, and i told her whenever you have a baby.  well, this past spring she found out she was pregnant, and i knew i had to make this quilt happen.  but initially, i thought i had until december.  then, luke sprung the weekend baby shower on us, and i KNEW i had to get it done in order to give it to her in person.  at first, it was pretty easy going.  i'd do a block every so often.  then school started.
then september started.  i started to power through everything, and get pieces together and hard core buckled down.  in the end, the quilt was finished just DAYS before the shower, and i couldn't have imagined it turning out any other way.  it was EXACTLY as i had envisioned it, and loved just as i had hoped.  now, for photo overload!
i found the backing on ebay as a fitted full sheet, so i chopped the elastic off so it would lay flat, and that made it end up being the PERFECT size to work for the backing.
i didn't want to quilt over the blocks, so i stitched 1/4" rows between the blocks vertically and horizontally to frame it in a bit. scar clearly looks thrilled, right?
i went with a black on black print to use for the binding in order to keep it from clashing (the colors on the front really aren't on the back... ha! but the black had these little hash marks with seemed rather lion king-esque to coordinate.
i really lucked out on finding this sheet. it had the perfect hint of simba shapes to it without having more eyeballs staring at you. now that all those photos are there, here are some close ups on the blocks themselves. simply, because i couldn't stop taking photos of it. ha! i was pretty excited it was done, as well as how it turned out :)
the quilt absolutely went over well, and i am so very glad i was able to give it to her in person at the shower. though, i know she'd love it just the same if it came in the mail.  though she's afraid to let baby use it, i think we've come to an agreement that yes, it can (and should!) be used and loved by baby, but maybe once he can control his bodily functions.  haha.
i think this marks the date of the first time i am actually in a photo with one of my quilts.  ha!  i had my mom take one earlier that day of just me holding it as well, but i kaboshed posting that one when i got one with amy.  huzzah!  and yes, there would happen to be a whippet puppy in that photo as well.  wouldn't be a real amy celebration if there wasn't one (see: bridal shower & wedding day).
alas, this completes the baby shower posts, but creates so much more anticipation for december to come and baby leonidas to arrive :)

lion king car seat canopy

when it became apparently that the baby shower was happening, i really had to crack down on getting gifts for baby barto done!  i went from having a november/december finish time to september, just like that!  one thing i wanted to make for amy was a car seat canopy.  i recalled my cousin lisa making one for baby mark, so first i headed her way.  and when i say headed, i mean texted.  she sent me the link she used on pinterest, and from there i began my planning.  of course it had to be lion king, so i used my ebay skills to find something that could be gender neutral enough to be used for future babies as well.  once i found my front fabric, i got a solid green minky fabric from joanns to be used on the back.    i let everything sit around for awhile (literally until the week before the shower) and then finally put it together.  it seriously went together in a matter of hours one night.  the hardest thing was dealing with the stretchy-ness of the minky, but it is not as bad as i thought it would be!
when asking lisa questions about this project, i learned she had just left hers as a car seat blanket. i was a little nervous about strap placement when sewing them down, but being able to see it on an actual car seat made me so glad i went full out canopy for it.
and there's the green!
much thanks to leah for letting me borrow baby elise's car seat at the baby shower!  the pictures of it on my porch look really dumb.  ha!  amy was very excited to have it as well, and even stated that she was in fact looking for a canopy, but couldn't find one that she liked.  now she has a one of a kind one all to her very own.  hoorah!  i also got word not long ago that it also fits the car seat that they have as well :)
for anyone that would like the pattern themselves, here you go! i followed it exactly, including the measurements of strap placement.  i didn't create a pattern to round the corners though.  i traced a cereal bowl.  so much easier :)

amy's lion king baby shower

back in june, amy's husband approached sarah about flying her out here (from alaska) for a weekend, and if we would be capable of throwing her a baby shower at the same time.  uh.  yes!  so we picked a weekend, and got planning.  the thing is, amy didn't know where she was going until the night before she got on the plane!  she flew in on a friday morning, and the baby shower was a total surprise as well.
the plan, as she knew it, was that i was going to pick her up from her parent's house and then we were going to go get sarah so we could go to the fabric store in order to have her pick out some fabric for a baby quilt that would match her nursery theme.  well, safe to say that wasn't what happened.  we filled sarah's home with friends and family from reno to san diego and everywhere in between to celebrate baby barto before his arrival this december in alaska.  here's a few fun photos of party decor, chocolate poop smelling, and present opening :)
instead of doing a diaper package donation, we decided to do a donation jar, since it would be easier to travel back to alaska with that instead. i painted the simba on using chalkboard paint that i got at joanns after i traced an outline printed off the internet. i found a chalk pen at hobby lobby that claims to just wipe off so you can write on it again. i'll have to ask amy if she's tried to re-use it yet!
we wanted to make sure everyone had some food to snack on, including amy's favorites of cotton candy and gold fish crackers :)
i promise, they're all chocolate! the other shower games we had were guessing the size of amy's belly (ribbon compared to measured size) and the "don't say the word" game. our two words you couldn't say were "cute" and "name". the necklaces you see in some of the photos were what we used instead of clothes pins. all they are made from are 2 life savers and a jelly bean to make it look like a pacifier. when i went to jessica's baby shower a few years back, her mom made them for the same game and i thought they were perfect! i feel like i might be forgetting a game... Sarah bought a packet of diapers to use for decorating with sharpies as a "late night" diaper change. some people doodled (I know Leah & I drew animals), while others (well, most of us) wrote things instructing the baby to be given to luke to change.
we asked that instead of cards, people bring books to start building a library for baby. i found a double sided little critter book that had both a story for amy to read (just me & my mom) and a story for luke to read (just me & my dad) to the baby.
and that's all the peek that you get at my gifts! more on those throughout the week :)
a crafty shout out to sarah who knitted this adorable little octopus baby beanie! i can't wait to see it rocked on a baby noggin this winter.
it was sad to have the weekend zoom by so quickly, but just as wonderful to spend time with amy and all these wonderful ladies who were able to trek it out to northern california to celebrate with us.  the next day was spent celebrating even more by going to brunch with sarah, amy & dori followed by a trip to carter to do some hardcore baby clothes shopping.  and then we finally, as promised since day one (haha) made it to the fabric store!  amy picked out some fabric to make curtains for baby's room with, as well as some to make a crib sheet.
it was absolutely a weekend to remember, and i cannot wait to see everyone again once little leonidas is here :)  congratulations again, amy!