NAMANA POWER!

My 2 year old son is obsessed with SpiderMan.  He calls him "Ika-Bay".  Not sure how he gets Ika-Bay out of SpiderMan, but I love it and think it's super cute!  He has a SpiderMan potty seat, SpiderMan bathmat, SpiderMan coloring books, reading books, toys, underwear, socks, tee shirts, iron on embroidered patch on his hoodie, backpack and lunch bag.  I think that is it.  He watches classic Spiderman cartoons on Netflix with daddy and even sings the theme song.  "Ika-Bay, Ika-Bay does what ever a spider can" ...The only thing he was missing was a handmade quilt from his Mama!  Well, Voila!  I have completed it.  I could barely finish quilting because he kept trying to pull it off the sewing table.  He loves it.  I love it!  It is one of my favorites!!  I call this quilt "Namana Powers" because his first SpiderMan book is called "SpiderMan's Amazing Powers" and the boy runs around yelling "Namana Power" in his "monster" voice for like 20 minutes after reading it to him.

The quilt doesn't really match his room decor, but I don't care.  I made it twin size so he can snuggle up under it for years to come.  We just redecorated his room last weekend.  He doesn't have the biggest space in the world, so we got him a Jr. loft bed.  He's not too high off the floor and he now has a cool man cave under his bed.  Which the dogs have taken up residence in whenever we leave the door open.  We put his little rocker, desk and chair, a toy basket and his arsenal of fire trucks (all of which have been jacked from his cousins - I don't believe we have bought him one, ha, thanks cuzzies!) 

We also got him a 10 gallon aquarium recently and two fancy goldfish.  He really likes them...although I think he likes feeding them more than he actually likes the fish.  Haha!  Daddy informed me yesterday that while he was using the bathroom, our angel got the fish food and dumped all of the pellets onto the floor into a nice pint sized mountain.  Suppose we should be thankful he didn't dump it all into the tank.  I would've come home to two dead bloated fishies.  :/

I have finished the silky quilt for my friend. :) That's the one made out of her Gramma's scarves.  I am glad that I waited over a year to start it.  I will post pics when I have taken them.  I do wish that I designed it a little better...but it is nice for my first whack at it.   I am almost done with silky scarf quilt #2 for her as well.  Ran out of pink thread and have to make a run to Jo-ann's before I can finish.  Hate when that happens

I finished the Minnie Mouse quilt for my friend's sister.  That is the last of the 4 quilts for her and her preggo friends.  I am glad!!  I hate working on stuff I don't care for.  I need to get over it.  If I ever had the crafting business that I dream of - custom work would come along with that...and there will be many times that I will not care for their visions.  I am happy with the way all of the quilts have come out despite not caring for any of the fabrics.

My boss finally brought in all of his mom's clothes for his quilt.  We went through them together and he was telling me stories of how he remembered his mom wearing this shirt with white pants and little white sneakers and coming over to play with his son when he was like 2.  So cute!  We have decided that I will make three quilts and three pillows from some sweaters that were in there - one each for him and his two siblings.  The clothes have been in my office for about a month now.  I started cutting some of the shirts but I find it very nerve racking cutting clothing.  Again, I need to just get over it.

One last thing!  I really need to come up with more accurate pricing for my quilts.  I am totally screwing myself.  The four preggo quilts that I made, I barely covered my damn materials....forget about my skill and time.  I was looking on Etsy and was floored by the amount people were selling crib sized quilts for that (in my opinion) weren't as nice and funky as mine.  I need to get with the damn program.

Pics to follow soon!!
NAMANA POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to The Jungle!

I have been quite busy!  About two weeks ago I finished a quilt for my friend who is having a baby.  I call this quilt, "Welcome to the Jungle".  I love it!  It is my favorite quilt, by far! It started out as a quilt for my son, but I decided half way through that it would be perfect for my friend's baby.  She lives in Florida and the quilt was very light weight.  I used all light cotton fabrics and a cotton sheet for the backing.  The colors and patterns all worked fantastic together.  I am quite proud of it.  And when she received it in the mail she said she got a little choked up, that is always a good sign, haha!  I can't wait to see the little guy all wrapped up in it!  AND unbeknownst to me, it matches the nursery perfectly!  How cool is that!  I posted some pics for every one to take a gander at the quilt.

I am currently working on two quilts simultaneously.  These will be the last two for my friend with all the pregnant friends!  :)  One is sports themed and the other is Minnie Mouse.  I hate to say it...but I truly hated the sports one.  She didn't want any specific teams or even a specific sport just "sports themed".  She said "like balls and stuff".  Um, ok.  So it took me forever to find fabric.  I was looking for something that I would want in my sons room.  So after a month or so of looking for and not finding the perfect fabric.  I finally decided, what difference does it make it if I would love it for my sons room?  It is not for my son!  And once I finish the quilt, I will never see it again.  As long as I do the best I can, and make a quality product, it doesn't matter that I don't like the fabric.  BUT....It sure doesn't hurt to LOVE the fabric, I'll tell you that!

Once I finally got over my material dilemma, I went to Jo-Ann's and purchased some flannel with "balls and stuff" on it.  I made rather large blocks in order to finish faster.  (I know this sounds terrible, hahahah!)  I used some complimentary solids and prints and hung the blocks up and took a step back.  I HATED IT!  It needed something....BAD!  I went back to Jo-Ann's to get that "something".  But instead I ended up with 10 new fabrics for a Spider Man quilt for my son!  hahaha!  I told you people I was indecisive and unable to commit to my crafts!  One of the fabrics I got for the Spidey quilt was an indigo denim.  When I brought it back to the office, I realized that is the "Something" that the sports quilt was missing.  So I used some of that to finish up the front of that quilt.  And in my haste to hurry and be done with it, I almost forgot to add the Chinese symbol for loyalty that she wanted in the first three quilts.  So glad that I remembered when I did.  I was able to applique it on even though I was more than half way done with quilting my sandwich.  I am looking forward to finishing it!  The quilt that I loathed has now become quite likeable.  haha!

And the Minnie Mouse quilt is in the works.  I have 6 blocks finished.  I am using pinks, browns and oranges.  Again, this quilt is a challenge for me since I am not a Minnie fan.  I need to just get over it and get 'er done!!  I have no real plan for the design on this one.  Just letting the chips or fabric fall where they may.

My boss asked me if I would make a memory quilt for him out of some of his mother's clothing that the family kept after she died.  Of course!!  His sister said she knew someone that was going to make a quilt out of them...but she never did, that was 10 years ago.  So he asked his sister for the clothes back in November.  She gave him the clothes at Xmas.  He was pissed because none of her nicer clothes were in the box.  He says it's mostly tee shirts and frumpier items.  I told him that tee shirts make a very soft and comfy quilt.  I can't wait for him to bring them in so I can see what I will be working with.

Also, I have finally gotten the nerve to start working on something for one of my besties.  About a year ago she came over for dinner and brought a bag of scarves that her grandmother wore and collected.  My friend has had them for years and would wear a few of them in her hair from time to time, but overall they were all just sitting in a bag in her closet.  She asked me if I thought I could do anything with them.  I said a memory quilt would be awesome!  Having said that.  I have NO CLUE how to sew such lightweight and sheer items into a quilt.  This past Friday, I pulled the bag out of my sewing table cabinet and started getting ideas.  I sorted all of them by coordinating colors and put them in big zip lock bags.  I've decided that her collection of scarves will become three quilts.  I bought a whole bolt of fusible interfacing thinking that will be my first step with the sheer items.  Just kinda making it up as I go along. I need to google what type of needle I should be using for silk and polyester.  I am excited to start!!!  Especially since she just purchased her first home.  I would love to have at least one ready soon so I can give it to her as a house warming gift when she is all moved in.

Wow!  After reading everything I just typed, I am tired.  haha!  I have a lot of work ahead for me.  Trying to keep busy in this cold snowy weather.