WIP: Double-rainbow Edition...

Have you seen the youtube video where the man is exclaiming over a rainbow he is filming?  Well, it's what comes to mind this week as I labor over  one of my last three remaining "must do before baby girl is born" list of WIP's.  I will show you the picture a little bit later, but first, I started cutting and pinning burp cloths from the flannel that I purchase over the shameful weekend (see Monday's post).  I will be making making bibs to go with them and I have plans to make a flannel baby blanket for the either the Youth group fundraiser or the Parish school fundraiser for next year.

 And now for a little "double-rainbow" action!  This is sort of like "bottled rainbows" meets organic sunshine (meaning rainbows got a little melted, maybe?).  This is to be a wall-hanging that someone sort of asked me to make.  I believe the words, "colorful" and "modern" might have come up in the conversation and I might have taken it a little far.  It's kind of a fun project though.  I just have to work in the rest of the blues & purples.  Then we have a whole lot of zig-zagging to get done and the usual binding fun; I think I have a fun black print I am going to use for that.  I am praying that this one gets done before Friday so I can mail off my last two packages!

And finally my favorite WIP that is still on-going for another 8-15 weeks (depending if she comes early, on-time or late).  I love those little lips; as soon as I saw this ultrasound picture my first thought was she looks just like my MIL!  I am so happy about that because my husband looks just like his mother too (I have the best MIL in the world)!  I ended up out a little too long on black Friday and we started having some contractions, so though not on official bed rest, my project numbers will be greatly reduced in the coming weeks.  I am so happy that next week I will post more about the lap quilt I am working on to give away for the Baby name contest (over on my husband's blog).

So my WIP's this week are:

New projects -11

In process - 33
In planning- 9

Finishes - 5

I am linking up with:

WIP: "The Flight of The Bumble Bee..."

I am trying so hard not to tear into the new fabrics I spoke about on Monday to get working on Nugette's quilt (don't forget to check out her naming contest).  Plus I still have a few more Christmas presents to try to get done by Friday's TGIFF linky party!  The picture in the upper left hand corner starts off today's WIP list with the Ticker Tape Wall hanging a new addition for this week!  My belly and I are getting the background spray basted in preparation (with a mask, don't you worry),  I added a few pins just in case.  I did add my baby bump, we call her "Nugette," to my WIP list on my side bar this week, she has been counted in my numbers since I started, but someone pointed out she should be on the list!

I have 12 more Christmas Projects that I started this past Saturday, but I was able to finish 9 of them on Monday evening Post, but now I need to get them gift wrapped with the Hot chocolate mix that I make-up every year for gifts (and personal consumption of course!).  I am gifting them in tea tins and then plan to wrap the whole bundle in plastic & ribbons.  [I plan to share the recipe for the hot Chocolate mix next Friday when I am hosting my first TGIFF linky party!]

I do have 4 more "Mug rugs" to complete.  I only have one left to do for Christmas and then the other three I plan to use as prizes for my baby shower or maybe as birthday gifts this spring, I really haven't made up my mind yet!

I also started another 6 baby bibs, some of which I plan to give for Christmas, some are for the Spring Baby Boom (I have 7 friends due within 3-4 weeks of myself!) which I intend to pair with a burp cloth for a little set.  Since almost all the babies are little girls or supposed to be, I pulled out Tula Pink's Spirit fabric from my Moda scrap bag collection.  A friend walked into my craft room the other day and exclaimed over my large bundle of bias tape, which is what I like to use on my bibs that tie;  I made it.  Yes, I was crazy, and spent many hours when we were back home in the Alaskan winter evenings cutting and ironing strips to make a million yards of bias tape!  I have to say in part it was so worth it because in the 3 years we have lived here I have only run out of one of my bundles, the green one of course!

I also found more UFO-WIP's from some storage boxes which has grossly inflated my WIP count!

So my WIP's this week are:

New projects -22 (Since last Wednesday)

In process - 42 (Found a few more in boxes, sigh)

Finishes - 16 (Since last Wednesday)

For another happy little finish, we have for your viewing pleasure a nice little blue table-topper I made for one for one of the end tables in my living room (I hate to dust)!  I have plans to make a second one to match for the other table.  I know I said I wasn't going to make anymore items for our household, we have plans to move in 6 months, but I have plans to bring these end tables with us!  Plus it was already started so I was trying to get it off my WIP count (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

Linking up at these places this week:

SR-W46: "You're Going To Miss This..."

Never have I anticipated anything more than the arrival of our first child.  It was almost a year ago that we found out that we were pregnant and I am not sure you could have found two happier persons in all the world at that moment.  When we lost the first of our babies just after Christmas it was with the news that we had two more growing within me, so we dreamed, planned and hoped beyond all reason.  Our greatest joy was surpassed by our greatest sorrow when we found out almost 1 month later, near the end of January 2011, that our children had died.  There is nothing in life that prepares a person for that, but I had to return to work within two weeks of surgery.  Life goes on.  In April I contracted Viral meningitis and my world stopped as I was confined for almost 2 months.  All the meanwhile, I had stopped hoping and dreaming for a child, after all, we had been married for 7 years.  I finished my quilt in memory of my babies the day before Mother's Day, I was starting to heal a little.  Just as I started to get up and try to rework my muscles and gain strength we found out we were pregnant again.

I will be totally honest with you, I never thought we'd make it to 25 weeks let alone have hope again that we'd some day hold our own child.  

The last couple of weeks were emotional ones for me as I worked on gifts for friends who already had their children in arms.  A couple weekends ago my husband said that he had worked some overtime and he wanted me to buy the fabric for our little girl's quilt (I was going to wait to buy it until I had sold some stuff I had made).  He wanted to make sure we were hoping, planning and dreaming again.  So even as I was organizing and giving away fabric, I made a purchase of fabric (at the last possible moment) from the Fat Quarter Shop with a 20% discount code I had received through a PS I QUILT online class.  From that Monday night (11PM) the fabric was cut, shipped and received just a little over a day later on Wednesday(1PM)!  I joyously went down to our campus mail room to pick up my box!  I can show you the fabric, but I will not be able to post pictures of my progress (as per class rules) but hopefully I might be able to show you the finished quilt eventually.

From Kate Spain's Terrain line

Busted this Week:                   13.25
Busted from 10/01/2011:        156.75
Stashed this Week:                 18.75
Stashed from 10/01/2011:        27.5

Net Busted for 2011(from 10/01/2011):  129.25

So in my desire to rush this pregnancy I am reminded of this song, "You're Going To Miss This," by Trace Adkins.  Treasure the time you have right now!  See you on Wednesday for WIP's I can't wait to show you some of the things I am working on, some new starts today (and maybe more tomorrow)...

WIP: "When the Leaves Come Falling Down..."

Somewhere (else) the leaves are falling and the air is cooling down in anticipation for a coming winter (in other places besides Texas).  In our household we have the apple cider simmering on the stove in my efforts to foster the scents of the season (as well as a spice candle burning).  I've also broken into my Sandy Gervais stash of fabrics to get in a little fall sewing.  The Fat Quarter collection shown in the picture is from her Grand Finale line of fabric, I also have a scrap bag from her fall line from last year (I will have to look up the name when I start posting the projects), and two layer cakes from her Tranquility line.  All these are such beautiful fabrics, it is hard to choose exactly what to do with them to do them justice.  I have plans for wall hangings, wall hangings, and perhaps a quilt as well.

In my second picture is the start of a table topper that is a request for a friend.  The pieces are extremely small compared to other projects I have attempted in the past; in the end they should look like stars.  Have you noticed another theme in my pictures today?  Nugette has been jumping into most of my pictures lately.  It's something I did not anticipate for picture taking while I am pregnant.

I look forward to posting some cute projects on Friday that I have finished this week.  Monday, I hoping to have a rough number for a stash report!  If you have time, take a look at our baby-name contest on another post or my husband's blog.

More news from Babyland & Baby Name Contest Round 1 begins!

It has been an interesting week in babyland!  I had some contractions on Sunday, so I called the Doctor on Monday, had an appointment that afternoon whereby he sent me to the hospital for observation.  I was seen by a Grey's Anatomy like resident (tagalong in tow) who informed me that I was mistaken because I was no longer having any signs of contractions and sent me home.

It also happen to be the day my husband forgot his cell phone at home so I had to send him an email at work and hope he got the message.  He comes running in the room towards the end of my stay, out of breath, clearly shaken up.  Two good things to note, a) No restrictions were added to my list, and b) we got to check out what a room is like at the hospital where Nugette will be born!  Timothy and I were quite impressed by the accommodations; they even have a pull out couch for my husband when we come back in about 15-17 more weeks.  On another happy note, we went for an another ultrasound today where we got great news that our Baby is right on target to be born 4 months from today (give or take a week or two, depending on how she is feeling about it). We home to scann and add more pictures soon.

So without further ado, we are ready to announce our baby-naming contest!  We will be holding it on my husband's blog http://toshav-sojourner.blogspot.com/, you can go to his post today for the rules and clues to the contest.  I will be posting some ideas on my blog and you can all tell me which item you think I should make for the prize.  I am super excite and cannot wait to see when you all will guess Nugette's name!

WIP: "A Whole Lot of Shaking Going On..."

My little Nugette, has been doing the "happy, happy, joy, joy, dance"  all yesterday afternoon and evening thus I just sat on the couch doing a little hand sewing.  I now have these two little "mug rugs" prizes done, the first I delivered, the second will arrive next week!  For the rest of the week I am going to try to get a few in-progress projects completed as well get a start on a request from a friend.  I found a cute little project I started for my future little girl (started about 5 years ago) for my baby hope chest.  I am trying to hold off touching it for a few weeks, but it's just so cute!

We will be announcing the name-guessing contest, and the rules on Sunday, October 30 by the end of that day.  I am so excited; I wonder kinds of names you will all guess, and if anyone will guess both names, you all have a good chance of doing so!

Yes, The Prizes Are Coming!

Sorry for the delay in posting the prize pictures for the little contest I held two weeks ago.  They are almost completed (I ran out of fusible webbing for the finish), I am hoping to get them finished and posted tomorrow!  Stay tune for a REALLY exciting contest coming soon; some people have heard me mention on facebook that we want you to guess the name we have decided on for our little girl...start thinking, more details soon!

Nugette

Tuesday morning we went to the Ultrasound Doctor (All High tech for High Risk Pregnancy) and was able to find out that we are having a little girl!  I have added this one and another new picture of Nugette to her page!  Timothy and I thought a nickname changes was needed.  They told us they will be watching our pregnancy very closely and so I will have to go back in 3 weeks for more pictures.  I am trying to remain calm and see this as a blessing rather than a little terror in my heart.  I cannot begin to tell you how I am feeling right now.  A little shocked, and a little awed.  That child is in my tummy!  Whoa!  I still am not having very many pregnancy symptoms.  I mean except the belly, the tipping over and the crying all the time you would never think I was pregnant...

Meanwhile, back in my apartment...
I have been working on some special gifts for my friends' new babies and almost done with my two prizes from my little contest.  Tomorrow (or Saturday) I will show you the projects I have been working on!  I am also very excited because I have been slowly ironing and organizing my fabric.  Soon I will be able to start my stash report and enter the fight against my fabric collection!  There is a major sale at Joann's over Columbus Day so I will be trying to decide on a color for the quilt I shall make our own child.  Today I am covered in hives, so I am going to take a sick day.