Sunday, January 29, 2012

Lego Launch!

I received some of this super cute Launch fabric from Leslie Granger a couple of months ago and I finally cut into it to make my kiddos some drawstring bags for their Legos!  I was tired of having Legos scattered throughout the house and I knew Jeni's tutorial would be the perfect solution.  These fabrics are boy perfection and my 5 year old has already requested a "couch blanket" from the fabric I have left.


Lots of room for Legos in there!

Pink Lemonade complete!
I also finished my Pink Lemonade quilt which is now listed in my shop.  I used lots of fabrics I have been hoarded, but never used (that Amy Butler pink coriander especially!)  I backed it with some soft Anna Maria Horner flannel.

Modern Whimsy quilt top complete
Remember when I got that "holy shit" package from Laurie Wisbrun?  I sliced and diced it this weekend to make this top (sorry for the blue phone picture).  I sort of wish it came out a little larger, but I didn't plan the quilt out so I guess it serves me right! 


Look at the cute pillow Cherie made with my "LOVE" pattern!  I love that she used patchwork for the letters!

In other news, my less than 6 month old iMac blew out the display so I'm a bit limited on computer access these days.  I have my phone and occasionally the use of my hubby's lap top.  I love technology, but sometimes it's a pain in my butt!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

More Finishes!

KJR Rainbow Kite quilt complete!
My Katie Jump Rope quilt is finally done! I've had this top made for a while, but I just now got around to quilting it!  Pattern is by the fabulous Faith of www.freshlemonsquilts.com  These fabrics are the softest quilting cottons I've ever worked with!  The drape of this quilt is fantastic and it hasn't even been washed!  It's super duper soft!  

Close up of Rainbow Kite Quilt
Free motion quilting, my favorite one to do!  I'm leaning towards selling it, though I'll be sad to see it go.  Just so a few of you (ahem, Tracey) think that I don't keep anything, I AM keeping the Far Far Away quilt and my AMH quilt my bee ladies made.  So there!

Backing/binding of Rainbow Kite quilt
Some more Katie Jump Rope fabric on the back!

It's done! Pure Square City complete!
I finished quilting this one for my friend, Sara. 

Close up of PSC quilting
 I took the advice of two ladies in my local guild for the quilting and I'm happy with how it came out.

backing/binding
I used the same backing and binding as the table runner I made with the leftovers.

Ok, sorry to cut this short, but I have some projects to sew!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Remember the Traveling Stash???

The winner of my Traveling Stash giveaway, Ali, has posted the stash on her blog!  She's added some great goodies so run over there right now to enter!!!!

Traveling stash

Friday, January 20, 2012

Snippets

I recently got an iPhone (hooray!)  Here are some snippets of my life today in Instagram.

Princesses, unicorns, flowers, oh my! I may struggle to part with this one!
Finished my Far Far Away top.  I think I'm keeping this one--unless someone makes me an outrageous offer.  :)

Omg!!!
Received one of my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day prizes from Katy (imagingermonkey on Flickr).  Isn't it fab?!?!?  I won two other prizes on Giveaway Day, but I forgot to take pictures, oops!

Liberty lining!!!!!
The pouch is lined with Liberty!!!!!

Cheese!
My boys are loving all the pictures I'm taking of them on the phone!  They don't really like my camera, but they think the phone is fun!

I also got some fun quilting news today, but you all have to wait until March for the details! 

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The BIG Bad

Just after the holidays I told you all that the BIG BAD happened, but I didn't fill you in.  I was waiting until we had a resolution before spilling this story.  Thankfully, it has a happy ending!  This will be our new house at the end of the month!!!!  We're moving to Franklin, Tennessee (just south of Nashville).  Get ready for lots of pictures and a crazy story.

(kitchen)

We toured this house in May of 2011 while it was still under construction.  It's a new home in a new development.  We fell totally in love with it and wished we could buy it right then!  We decided we would build new using the builder of this home.  We never thought this house would stay on the market.  

(view from kitchen into breakfast nook/backyard)

In November, our relator sent us an email stating the builder had completed the house and was lowering the price during the winter season by $30,000!!!!  Holy cow!  So we started thinking, we should just buy it now and save ourselves the hassle of building a house from scratch!  We got pre-approval from USAA and thought it was meant to be.  We were all set to close on the 29th of December.

(more kitchen pics--the granite is a dark green)

When we got the loan paperwork from USAA I noticed a mistake in my husband's employment history. They had typed that he worked at his second job for 5 years, but he's only been working there 5 months. I corrected this mistake in my first conversation with our loan officer.  Just so you guys understand, my hubby is a physician in the military, but he moonlights at civilian hospitals for extra money.  He has a job lined up in the Nashville area already with a signed contract.

(view from the living room to the front door)

The weeks pass and we are constantly having to come up with some document or bank statement from USAA, but everything seems routine.  No problems or issues.

(eeek! my 5 burner gas stove!)

I talk to the loan officer regularly to make sure everything is going ok and they don't need anything more from us.  Then, we leave for Christmas vacation to my in-laws in Missouri and we plan to stop in Nashville on the way back to close on the house.  I talk to the loan officer a few more times since we're getting close and the title company still doesn't have USAA's closing info and money required.  Two days before closing USAA says they need some other doc from us and we send it.  Never does USAA express any problems or concerns.  They just say, "the underwriter wants X".  The day before the closing USAA leaves another message requesting some other document.  I email it to them that night (we were on the road to Nashville when they called).  

(patio, it's not completed yet in this pic)

The day of closing I still haven't heard from them and we're supposed to do the final walk through on the house.  I call only to find out they did not approve our loan!  WTF?!?!?!?  To say I was pissed is putting it mildly.  Apparently, since hubby has only been working at the part time job for 5 MONTHS they can't use that income.  They can't use his future income because he will be an independent contractor.  They are only able to use his military income--which isn't enough to qualify us for the house.  THEY TELL ME THEY SHOULD NEVER HAVE PRE-APPROVED US!

(living room/fire place/built-ins)

Had the pre-approval department entered in the information correctly we would have never been pre-approved!  While normally this would be upsetting, you wouldn't be losing any money.  However, we had the builders do custom work on the home after we got the preapproval and put $20,000 down for those improvements.  We will not be getting that money back.

(view from stairs into living room/backyard)

Now comes the very long process of us trying to get a loan, because USAA's right, with the new mortgage rules, no one will give us a loan!  This is particularly crazy to me since we are able to put 20% down on this house and we both have credit scores in the 800s.  Nutsy cuckoo!

(dining room/front porch)

In the end, we find we can get a "Doctor's Loan" with a few banks, but the closing date has to be within 60 days of his contract start date.  Sigh.  We were not looking forward to convincing the builder to wait to close on this house in April!  Oh, and we have to pay $90 per DAY for every day we push back the closing of the house!

(my sewing room!)

At the last minute, right before the builder was going to give us their decision on delaying until April, we found a bank that can do the loan at the end of the month.  HOORAY!  We got our confirmation letter (meaning the underwriter has approved our loan, not just pre-approval) yesterday. To say we are relieved is an understatement!  This is our dream home and we were heart broken when we thought we couldn't get it!  Needless to say, I'm still supremely pissed off at USAA for their mistakes and how they handled them---like not informing us there was a problem, EVER.  A customer should not have to call the day of closing to find out something is wrong!  I'm in the process now of having them compensate us for the fee we will have to pay for moving the closing date.  Fun times!  Here are a few more pics, drama free! :)

(where my fabric will go)


(master bedroom)

(master bedroom looking into master bath)

(master bath)

(shower)

(tub with cool tile work)

\
(master closet)


(hubby's man cave at top of the stairs)
There are three more bedrooms, two bath rooms, and another bonus area upstairs which will be the boys' playroom.  I just figured you all were tired of pictures now so I'm summarizing the upstairs.

So that's our BIG BAD story with our happy ending!  We can't wait to move!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Leftovers Are Awesome!

Leftovers=table-runner!
I used the leftovers from my Square City top (see previous post) for this table runner!

Runner
I almost made placemats, but I just loved how all the blocks looked smashed up together!

backing/binding of runner
I used a strong black and white print for the backing (Bon Viant I think) and some Alexander Henry Heather for the binding!

I'll be listing this in my etsy shop soon!  I'm still debating how I'm going to quilt the Square City top.  I think I know the style of quilting, but the thread color is giving me issues.  I'm almost leaning toward quilting it with invisible thread, but I can't commit right now. :)

Monday, January 16, 2012

Pure Square City

Pure Square City
Remember all those Pure Element solids I had cut up in my last post?  Well, here they are all put together!  I worked like a maniac today sewing what felt like millions of squares together for this!  I knew I was going to love the results and I wasn't disappointed.  The pattern is Seeing Squares by Empty Bobbin, but I modified it.  It's supposed to be a bit larger, but I eliminated some rows to make this one 48" square.  I also used 9 different solids when the pattern only calls for 8 fabrics.  

Pure Square City
This one is destined for a photographer friend of mine, Sara.  She's bought so many quilts from me--I think she's a bit addicted. :)  If any of you are in the Nashville area you should check her out, she's SUPER talented!

Now I have to decide on a backing and quilt design for this one!  Decisions, decisions!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sewing Sunday

Cutting.
Cutting up some Pure Elements for a custom quilt order.

Purple plus quilt
Finished a new baby quilt for my etsy shop.

Close up of Purple Plus quilt
I can't get enough of the "plus" layout!

Back of Purple Plus quilt
This 1001 Peeps print is the best purple!

option 5
Messing around with the layout of this quilt.  This isn't my final decision, but I think I am sticking with the cool colors on the outside and warm on the inside.  Pattern is Basketcase by Cluck Cluck Sew and made with a Kona jelly roll.  I'm thinking of adding a white border then a border of Remix stripe in Spring.  I don't suppose anyone has a chunk of that they'd like to swap?  

Friday, January 13, 2012

A Forgotten Post

There are a two things I forgot to blog about after Christmas.  First off, these were some of the goodies my husband got me for Christmas!  A cute labrador print from an etsy shop I favorite-ed, a GC to Pink Castle Fabric!, a necklace from Nest Pretty Things on etsy, fabric he picked out himself!, a vintage Samsonite cosmetic case with the tray, mirror, and keys, and random sewing related notions!  Did he do great or what?!?!?!?  He also got me some baking pans that I've been wanting, but they missed out on the photo op.

The inside of my cool case!

It has someone else's initials on it, but I can live with that until I figure out how to replace them with mine! :)

The other thing I forgot to tell you guys was something funny my 5 year old said.  Remember this post about my nephew and his, er, unique name?  Well, over the Christmas holiday my MIL was talking to my oldest, Roarke, and explaining he had a middle name, McKamey.  Just to answer the obvious question here about where we came up with his name, Roarke is an old Celtic name that I love and McKamey is my maternal grandfather's first name.  We give our kids a family name for their middle name.  Anywho, Roarke didn't believe he had a middle name!  He then starts asking, "Does Mama have a middle name? Does Daddy? Does Grandpa?" etc.  My MIL answers yes to all of this and tells him everyone else's middle name.  Then, she says "You know what baby Ezra's middle name is? STEGOSAURUS!" Roarke stares at her for a minute, looking totally shocked and confused, and then proceeds to say, "Ezra can have my middle name instead."  LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He really wanted to help his cousin out!

Close up of Kona Challenge
In quilting news, I've finished my quilt top for the Kona charm challenge!  I now have to decide on how I want to quilt it.  I may go with my new favorite of organic wavy lines!

Kona Challenge progress
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