6 Month Procrastination Quilts

One of the big projects for the house that I've been avoiding recently was making some quilts for our bedroom.  I picked out some patterns and fabric, then I decided I wasn't so sure about them and I was nervous about quilting king sized quilts on my machine at home, also I just have to have something to procrastinate about.

I eased into it with a box full of scraps.

I did some improvisational strips.

And picked out some backing and binding.

And I got to practice some of my free motion quilting!

I could use a little more practice.

I finally got around to basting and quilting this big guy, of which I took no pictures.

This is the other king size quilt I made. Apparently, this is the only picture I took. It's a whole cloth quilt with Team Sunshine Fuzzy Bunny embroidered on it.  Taking no pictures is obviously a theme.

I finally finished this crochet pillow, which I started working on LAST CHRISTMAS.  That's more than a year ago.  Efficiency at its finest.

Here's one I did actually take pictures of!

Here's the finished top.

And the back.

I'm just going to be rude and not post a bunch of pictures of all of the quilts being finished since pretty soon it'll be time to show off the whole house!  Eep!

Also, I kept my quilt procrastination down to only 6 months.  Win.

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Paris Maps

We went to Paris!  That means I got to spend days and days staring at this handsome dude while he stared at maps.

Eddy loves maps. The first jet-lagged thing we did was visit Notre Dame.

There were lots of culturally important works of art and explanatory objects inside.

To be honest, though, probably the most popular attraction there was this spinny toy outside.

Well, most popular with Eddy, at least.

We saw all the good Paris stuff together: Art Nouveau metro stops,

the Arc de Triomphe,

the Eiffel Tower, duh.

Probably our most fun day, though, was at the Centre Pompidou.

Lots more Paris to come, so stay tuned!

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Snow Day

We had a really snowy winter here in Portland (so we heard.)  People keep telling us it's never very snowy here, but just look at this photo evidence to the contrary.

Eddy had some fun helping the neighbor kids do some sledding.

There's also this super fun slide in the park by our house.

I made some snow angels, or just rested in the snow or whatever.

Also teeter-tottering is my favorite!

Even Norman got in on the fun.

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I Pity the Fool!

It's been a really long time since I've blogged.  I have something that might make it alright, though. An offering of sorts.

I.

Made.

An.

A-Team.

Quilt.

I watch a lot of Netflix in my workshop.  It tricks the dogs into sleeping all day so I can get things done.

I prefer TV shows because I don't have to spend time picking something out every 2 hours or so.  I prefer ancient trash TV because I love ancient trash TV.

This was the only real pattern I used:

Had to do the van.

The real reason I decided to make this quilt, though, was that every time Hannibal would say, "I love it when a plan comes together," I would think to myself, "I love it when a plan comes together," but about whatever quilt I was making at the time. Then I started saying it about quilts even when I wasn't watching the A-Team.

Here's the finished quilt!

All hung up above my closet.

I pity the fool who doesn't have their very own A-Team quilt!

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Winter Beach

We just love that beach condo at Eddy's work.  We even braved some wintry weather recently to enjoy a nice long weekend at the coast. The drive was terrifying and beautiful.

People in Portland said we were crazy and we probably were. We made it, though. Just in time for this beautiful sunset walk on the beach.

The next morning we were out again at sunrise.

The thing about winter in Oregon is that there isn't much daylight so you can be pretty lazy and enjoy sunrise and sunset all winter.

It was cold, but NBW didn't care one bit.

That dog just loves the beach so much.

The only thing that Norman dog loves more than the beach is snuggling up to the little heater right after a long beach walk.

We did get out and do a little sight seeing as well.  Tilamook Cheese Factory again, of course!

We also went to the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center, which was great fun.

There were tons of Christmas-y beach things this trip as well.

We love the beach, but we were so glad to be home with our little naughties!

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I Accidentally Made 1980s Hotel Artwork

I was pretty proud of the pair of paintings I made for our dining room recently, so I thought our bedroom could use a work of art as well.

I gotta have my Bob Ross when I paint.

Did I mention that this was during Painting Apocalypse 2016 during which we moved all of our belongings into the basement of our house so we could have the house professionally painted and so we also lived in the basement with all three pets for, like, three weeks? It was crazy times.

Weird projects like this kept me sane.

Well, sane-ish. Here's the finished painting.

I have to admit it's not one of my favorites. I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I showed it to Eddy who said, "Whoa. That looks like it's from the 80s." To which I replied, "Yeah, but from an 80s hotel room." So there you go. I made 80s hotel art.

It does look nice in our bedroom for now.

And if there's anything I've learned from painting artwork for our house it's that if you don't like something you can just paint over it. Maybe someday. For now, we'll just enjoy the new 80s vibe our bedroom has.

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