This is my friend Jodi's 40th birthday present. She got it just about 2.5 years late. Thank goodness she is a patient person!

(I'm sorry the photos are crap - I wrapped it up and mailed it off before I really looked at them so there's no going back.)

I made this quilt over 8 months. I pieced a couple of the squares last summer and wasn't feeling it so I set them aside. When I pulled them back out this winter, I knew exactly what I needed to do. Funny how taking time away from something makes it all clear, isn't it?

The blocks are log cabin-ish. I snuck little bits of some of my favorite fabrics in them. I loved having the limited palette of green and brown - it made me really think about the values of the colors and the patterns. The blocks are all different sizes - I just used the Kona snow to fill out the column width and then added more to each side to get the whole top. I didn't measure it, but it's pretty generous - maybe 65 x 80" or so? The back is two solids from my stash - one green and one brown - separated by a strip of a print with a little patchwork for flavor. I quilted it myself with the figure 8-ish loops in white thread and then hand bound it with a lime green solid. And although it is not perfect, I'm so happy with how it came out. The birthday girl likes it, too!

With this quilt complete, I have knocked all 2012 sewing goals off of my list. That feels pretty darn good. Anything from this point on will be like icing on the cake.

We're back in the laundry room, folks.

My final household sewing project that was on my goals list for 2012 is finished. It is so boring, but, hey, it really needed tackling. So without further ado, here is my new ironing board cover.

See? I told you - BORING.

BUT practical and pretty, too.

This is super easy to make. I used this tutorial as a basic guide. Lay down your fabric, trace around your ironing board, giving yourself about 4 inches all the way around. Make a casing for elastic around the perimeter (I serged my edges and folded them down once) and stitch it in place leaving a 2-inch opening. Use a safety pin to thread the elastic through the casing, try it on your ironing board to make sure it's nice and tight. Sew the ends of the elastic together and close up the casing. Done. In an hour or less.

So that's it. I just have the one quilt of 2012 to finish and I've hit all of my sewing goals for the year. And it's only March - that leaves me 9 months of solid sewing play. I love that.

Walking through the kitchen yesterday, I spotted a one of our log cabin potholders sitting on the table and found myself smiling. Immediately, I decided that I needed to make more little log cabins. I rummaged through the scrap bin, pulling a handful of pinks, blues and greens that were left over from various camera straps and Jane's quilt. I brought them downstairs to the family room (where I have been sewing lately) and set them on the table for later. After dinner, I spent forty minutes stitching and cutting. It was fun and satisfying. It also reminded me that sometimes I just need a little time to play with fabric - no agenda, cutting without a ruler, sewing strips together willy-nilly, making for making's sake.

Also, is it crazy that spying little handmade things makes me insanely happy?

When we redid our kitchen in the spring of 2010, we also redid the mudroom which is down the stairs from our eating area. We put in wainscotting, a new tile floor, cubbies for jackets and shoes, and new treads for the stairs. To make it all work the way we wanted, we had to give up a small built-in bench. I wasn't really sad about that as the bench really was used more for throwing random stuff on and no one ever sat on it. But I also knew that it would be nice to have a place to sit and put on shoes so I started searching craigslist for a schoolhouse or windsor chair. I hit the jackpot towards the end of our project and scooped this one up for $15. A few coats of spray paint later, I had a cheery, red chair.

One of the household projects on my to-do list for 2012 was sewing a cushion for this chair. Sure, it was cute and bright, but it wasn't the most comfortable chair. I had a hard time deciding on what I wanted the cushion to look like. One of the major concerns was that we have an outdoor rug in this space that doesn't have any red in it. While searching the sewing room for something else entirely, I came across this fabric that I bought a few years ago with the family room or kitchen in mind. When I realized it had green, brown, blue and red, I knew this was the fabric for my chair!

I had everything else I needed on hand. I covered plain cording with the navy polka dot fabric (tutorial here) and used 2" high density foam covered with a layer of low-loft polyester batting. The cushion has a lapped zipper in back (tutorial here) and ties to the chair.

Now that this is finished, only one of my five household sewing projects for 2012 remains. Dang. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised by this. It may appear as if I have given up my procrastinating ways, but I don't think that is the case. For me, just saying that I was going to do these things gave me a clear path as to what to tackle project-wise. I've pretty much just put my head down and made them happen. Bonus: I saved the easiest one for last.

I made this quilt for Melissa and her sweet baby girl, Truly.

I used the Proverbial Quilt pattern by Denyse Schmidt. This is the third time I have used this for a baby quilt and I love how it comes together quickly and is still interesting to make. For the fabrics I used Kona Snow and three different Liberty of London prints from my stash (one for the letters, one for the back, one for the binding). I wanted something girly, but not too pink or too cutesy and I really think the Liberty does the trick. It is also so super soft which is wonderful when sewing for baby. I quilted it myself with a very loose figure-eight style of loops. This was my first time quilting a pattern like this and I like how it came out.

I was incredibly happy almost every minute spent working on this. It was the most fun I've had sewing in a long time. It may have something do with the materials or the pattern. Heck, it could even be that I am just feeling plain old creative these days. Imagine that! Regardless of why, I'd like to think that the fun is infectious and that my smiles traveled across the country, wrapped up with the quilt to bless the sweet baby girl and her family. I am thrilled for them.

Welcome to the world, Truly.

Never did I think I would be taking photos of my laundry room and posting them on my blog.

But I am.

Across from our washer and dryer is a countertop with upper cabinets. I think it was probably intended to be used as a folding station with room for laundry baskets or the like underneath. For us, though, it works best as a desktop/command central.

I keep the calendar here along with all pens, pencils and markers that the girls and I use frequently. There is also a huge stack of looseleaf paper and other office essentials like a stapler, pencil sharpener and paper shredder. We each have our own clipboard for keeping important papers and invitations. It's not always this neat and tidy, and often a lot of what should be here is on the kitchen counter, but I'm trying to be more organized this year and so it recently got a good cleaning.

Here's where the sewing part comes into play.

Underneath the counter is the litter box and the cat food. No one wants to look at that so I have made it all disappear with a little slight of hand. Oh, okay, not really. A curtain does the trick. Scout, the cat, can slide right behind that fabric to do her business and no one is the wiser. I used home dec weight fabric - 2 yards cut into 1 yard lengths, pre-washed and sewn together. A quick hem at the bottom and casing at the top was all it took to neaten and soften up this utilitarian space. Bonus: I can easily take it off and throw it in the wash if need be. Also, I love that this stripe has green and blue in it because it's directly across the hall from our powder room and off of our family room - it all looks so good together.

Boring? Probably. But it's checked off the list. Two more household projects left to complete and I will have sewn all the household projects I intended to make in 2012. Not too shabby, huh?

Happy weekend, folks. I hope you have a great one.

Somehow I manage to get myself all worked up about nothing this afternoon. Now I am cranky and tired and just over it. So how about some pretty fabric to look at? That normally puts a smile on my face. For an even bigger smile, I just might make something. How's that for an attitude adjustment?

Bad puns aside, I am thrilled that this bed skirt for Jane's room is finished. It has been a long time coming. I've had the fabric for at least 8 months, but couldn't motivate myself to get sewing it. I guess that is what the New Year is good for - getting those lagging projects completed. Well, at least, that's the way it works for me.

While this project isn't for beginners, it is pretty straightforward if you have some experience gathering and sewing waistbands (like on a skirt or an apron). Instead of making a fabric deck to cover the entire box spring, I attached the gathered fabric to a strip of cotton. This makes maneuvering all that fabric much easier and less swear-inducing. It's also super easy to attach to the box spring. The secret? Twisted upholstery pins.

Brilliant, right? I think so.

I'm so happy with how this room is coming together. It's been a work in progress for about two years now. I wanted to make sure that what she (and I) chose would carry through her teenage years and maybe even beyond. I think we are on the right track. The furniture needs painting, but one thing at a time.

The lowdown:

Jane's bed is a full. I used 8 widths of fabric (54" wide), each 21" tall before hemming. That's slightly over two times the linear measurement of the box spring.

It has a 3.5" hem (1.5" pressed and then another 2" pressed) that I sewed with the blind hem foot and stitch on my machine. I gathered it in sections - two widths of fabric to each quarter measurement of decking - to make the sewing less cumbersome. I highly recommend this approach.

The finished deck is about 4" tall - I cut 10" strips and pieced them until I had the right length. I sewed the deck to the skirt using a 1/2" seam allowance and then finished it just like you would a skirt waistband (folded in the middle and topstitched down to enclose the raw, gathered edges).

The fabric is Annie Selke Links in pink. It coordinates with the headboard fabric, Annie Selke Shalini Ivory Raspberry. The duvet and white shams are from PBTeen. Monogramming was done locally. The aqua check fabric is unknown. Details on the quilt can be found here and the throw pillow here. Upholstery pins were bought at JoAnn's.