melissa ann

finally - maternity leave

So it's day five maternity leave for me. I'm so excited.  I wanted to blog and take pictures for the last several weeks but they were so rough for me that I thought my posts would just come off extremely grouchy.  Work was a little too stressful those last few days.  To the point that I was breaking down and crying quite a few times before I even made it home.  I'm proud to say that I have yet to have any sort of meltdown since being on leave and that makes me and baby way too happy. 

Of course a lot has went on in the time that I wasn't posting.  As you can see up there I started piecing my baby quilt.  I even sewed it together.  I just need to cut and sew the sashing on and on with the quilting!  Other than that.. not much crafting I'm afraid.  Like I said before, work was way too stressful.   I had a lot planned that I wanted to make and create before I popped this baby out.  Don't think it's going to happen and I'm not going to even try rushing to get any of it done. 

That's something I've learned over the last five days.  Slow it down.  I've been peddling through life so quickly that years have went by and I have nothing to show or remember them by.   I've rushed and stressed over this and that and everything else that I really never took the time to stop and smell the roses so to speak.  So.. I'm going to fix that.  I'm going to try not to freak over the small things.  I'm not going to stress if the house isn't perfectly clean or something doesn't get done. I'm not going to break down if I'm running 5 minutes late for work.  I'm going to take the time to cook more and enjoy the time I have with the people that I love.  It's the people and things that you love and make you happy that really matter and count.  I'm going to beat this into my head (not literally of course) until I get it.  To hell with everything that ever made me stress, freak out, and break down.

Okay! Sorry for the bantering.  Want to see the quilt top pieced?

I love love love how the light coming into the window lights all the blocks up like little jewels.  You can click on it to see the larger version that shows the blocks a bit more clearly.  I'm so proud of myself with this too.  After actually sewing the blocks together and trimming (I did trim it better after taking this picture) I wasn't too stressed about any wonkiness or crooked lines.  Can't you guess I probably had a meltdown stressing over the fact that this is my first larger piece of quilted anything and I wanted it to be perfect.  Well it's not.  I can deal with that.  I'm ready to finish this but the fact that I really don't know how I want to quilt it has slowed me down to a complete stop.  Hopefully something will inspire me over the next few days and I'll get it finished in no time.

I fell in love.. with a machine.

On day two of baby quilt making back in January, my dearly beloved (yeah, not really) sewing machine finally kicked the bucket.  I have not once in my life actually owned what I now call a "real" sewing machine.  We had previously in the week been talking about taking the plunge to buy a new machine.  I guess when it broke it was a sign to take that plunge.

I started doing a lot of research on-line and had admired Bernina machines before.  I went to the closest dealer almost an hour away and had a ball trying out the different machines.  I seriously felt like a kid in a candy store and I'm sure I looked just as giddy and silly to the customers with my ohs and ahhs over different things.  Needless to say I was excited.

Then another week passed.

Mind you I'm going absolutely insane after work when all I wanted to do was sew and I couldn't.  Funny how things like that work, you don't want to do it until you can't.  Then finally the day came when I could go back to the dealer and pick out the lovely I was taking home. 

And here she is in all her glory straight out the box and set up on my sewing table.  Please ignore the walls.  I rent currently and I'm stuck with the white washed, not very photogenic, fake wood paneled walls.  Okay back to my new love.  I decided on the Activa line and had wanted to originally get the 220 model.  I settled for the 210 model after seriously debating with myself on if I would actually use all the embroidery stitches.  I wouldn't.  I just could not justify the extra $200 at the time for the stitches and the hands free system.  Which I have to say the hands free system almost made me throw down the extra cash.  Then I started thinking that it's something I've never used before anyways, I won't miss it.

Moral of this story for other folks:  If you have the money to spend on a good sewing machine and you're planning on sewing as a hobby or more - Do it.  Don't short change your machine.  I can not tell you how amazing the difference is between a quality machine and a $100 craft store or walmart machine.  It's completely different.  I think had I started out on this type of sewing machine the first time around, I may have done a lot more sewing in the past 3 years.  It's been hard to keep me off of it the last few days.

Except for tonight.  Tonight I'm going to curl up on the couch and try a little chicken scratch embroidery.  I can not wait to see how this turns out.

attempting a quilt

Well december came and went and now it looks like I'm about to let january slide right on by as well.  Work was crazy busy during the holidays. So between working and trying to get some rest in afterward each day, I didn't have much time for anything else.  Now that things are slowing down and I'm coming up on my 8 month mark.. I've got to get ready for this baby!  Last week I cleaned out my sewing room (sniff sniff).  I'm down to a corner, but I'll take it.  I have a wardrobe and cloths for my baby girl and thats about it.  I really need to fix that.

A few months ago I decided I wanted to make a quilt for her.  I picked out this stack of reproductions from my stash.  Then I went and spent way too many hours on flickr and various websites searching for some sort of inspiration on what sort of pattern I wanted to use.  I fell completely in love with the double hourglass quilts I found.   So I settled in for using lovely little handmades tutorial found here.

Thats my first block right up there.  Yay!  I think I may have forgotten that this is my first quilt as well. Other than a small simple table thingy I gave my mom two years ago.  I believe I'm going to make it roughly crib size, maybe a tad larger so that I can use the quilt longer.   I worked on the blocks a bit today.   Though I only have completed 9 so far.  I have another stack of 18 half ready.  It took me several tries but I think I got over being nervous chain piecing. Otherwise I could probably have competed more blocks today... I'm just slow.  I'll post more pictures when I get a bit more done and actually have something to show.  As for right now, I'm going to prop up some swollen feet and cuddle my lovely bottle of tums.