May One Monthly Goal

I'm linking up with the Elm Street Quilts May One Monthly Goal and sharing my goal for this month. It's actually recycled from my OMG from March 2017 (which I didn't achieve).

This month I hope to make two Frances firefly quilts for my son and daughter. I had hoped to make them before they were born, but ran out of time. So, this month I'm hoping to have them done for their first birthday.

It's hard to believe that they are almost a year old already. How time flies!

Kat

A layout about me

I don't usually make layouts about myself (I'm usually the one behind the camera) but today I thought I'd play along with the April Scrap the Girls challenge and document a little bit about myself (or at least one aspect of myself). Most people know me as 'Kat the data nerd' or 'Kat the craft addict', but not 'Kat the group fitness instructor'.

This month I finally feel like I'm getting back in shape after having twins. Not many people appreciate how hard I've been working to make that happen or why it is important to me. I thought it would be nice to document my progress so I took a couple of selfies at the gym this morning (I never take selfies) and stuck them on a page with a few extra stickers and a whole bunch of journalling.

It's not the fanciest page I've ever made but I quite like how the page acted as a prompt for the journalling. I'm also linking up with the April Scrapbook Boutique challenge (black and white plus one) since I've used a colour scheme of black and white plus different shades of green (from a yellowish mustard green to a dark sage green).

Kat

April One Monthly Goal

I'm just checking in with the April One Monthly Goal link up (hosted by Elm Street Quilts) and sharing my progress on my Ombre Gems quilt.

For April, my goal was to finish half of the blocks (9 in total). I'm pleased to report that I finished all of them and have just finished putting together the quilt top.

 

The points were a bot of a nightmare to line up but you can't tell if you look at it from across the room :P Now I need to decide on a quilting pattern.

Kat

April Kraft+ Challenge

Today I'm sharing a layout that was inspired by this months Kraft+ challenge.

It has been aaaages since I joined in the Kraft+ challenge but this one was an easy one for me to decide what to scrap about: my little sister's wedding.

For the 'something old' I've used an older Kaisercaft paper collection, which is actually called 'Something Blue'. I used a couple of blue bits and pieces from the collection as well, just to make sure the 'something blue' criteria was well and truly covered ;)

For the 'something new', I used a 'new' (previously unused) stencil to add a bit of detail to the background. The 'something borrowed' critera was a little harder but I think I've covered it three ways; 1) the design of the layout was borrowed (scraplifted) from this layout I saw on instagram earlier this week, 2) the lace was borrowed (re-used) from the wedding invitations and 3) the vellum elements were borrowed from another collection (I'm normally a one collection per project kind of gal so this is unusual for me).

I haven't added any journalling as this layout is actually for my sister's scrapbook and she'll add it later. She's not a scrapper herself (I am trying to convert her to the dark side) but has an album of pages my Mum and I have made for her (often at her request).

While I had the photos and supplies out I also made a couple of quick PL pages for my 2016 album.

I  still feel like I'm missing my scrappy mojo, but I'm hopeful that if I keep going with my 100 day project I'll eventually find it again.

Kat

A hottie cover for my hubby

This week my husband and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. We don't usually do anniversary gifts but this year I wanted to make him a little something to show him how much I appreciate him. He's already got his own quilt and patchwork pillow, so I made him a patchwork cover for his hot water bottle.

I also used up the mini raspberry kiss blocks that have been hanging around for over a year; and were on my finish-a-long list for quarter 2. I think they look pretty cute and are fitting given that it is an anniversary gift.

It's already been pressed into service so I think it's safe to say that he likes it.

Kat

Scrap the Boys April challenge

I've been plugging away at my 100day project, spending a bit of time each day (even if it's only a few minutes) playing with paper. Today I managed to get in more than an hour (thanks Mr. Gray!) and managed to finish up a few projects I've been woking on this week, including a layout for the Scrap the Boys April challenge:

For this one I used a geometric cut file background to make a layout featuring one of my favourite pics of my little man that I hadn't yet scrapped.

If you look closely you can see lots of different geometric shapes; stars, circles, rectangles; squares, triangles and diamonds.

I also made a card for the April card challenge, but only belatedly realised that it was only supposed to be black, white and one other colour. I guess that's what happens when you try to scrap while severely sleep deprived!

I'm still quite pleased with the card and will pop it away for my little man's birthday later this year. He loves all things space and is a fan of sparkly things so I'm pretty sure he'll like it too.

While I had my papers out, I also made a project life spread about his visit to Scienceworks Museum last week.

It's been a very long time since I played along with the Scrap the Boys challenge, but I hope to get back to participating regularly, especially now that I have two sons to scrap about.

Kat

2018 Finish-a-long Q2 proposed finishes

The time has come to link up my proposed finishes for Q2. Quarter 1 was really productive - I managed to finish up 10 works-in-progress; four quilts, four pillows, a playmat and some patchwork bibs.

However, these were my 'lowest hanging fruit' (closest to finished and therefore easiest to pick off) so I doubt I'll be able to replicate these results in quarter 2.

This quarter I’m going to tackle my long list of WIPs from quilt-alongs that I joined but wasn’t able to keep up with.  I’ve included a few projects that are rolled over from Q1 but most of them are WIPs from QALs that I joined but wasn’t able to keep up with. 

Most are from last year (the Ombre Gems QAL, the Milky Way sampler, Scrappy trip around the world QAL, Sewcial Bee sampler, the Quilt Block Cookbook sampler, Quilt non sampler, the Honey Pot bee), but some are even older (the Glisten QAL, the first 1930 Farmer’s Wife QAL).

I’m also hoping to join in All the Animals sew-along and finish off some Elizabeth Hartman animal quilts that I cut the pieces for last year (the actual piecing turned out to be too much for my late pregnancy baby brains). Not included are my hand-piecing WIPs from last year’s QALs (the EPP party, Icecream soda quilt along) because I’m trying to keep it within the realms of possibility :)

Here's the extract from my WIP spreadsheet with the specific details.

I'm aiming high, but as the saying goes, you've got to aim high to hit high. Though honestly, if I can even finish off half of these projects I will be very happy.

Kat