The Closet Quilter

I finally have some unfinished projects. I am slowly completing these in my “free time.”

I found this Charming Windows Pillow project on Moda Bake Shop. Of course, I’m not making pillows. I’m going to make a wall hanging. Although I am not entirely sure where I will hang it. Still, I think it’s so pretty.

I’ve gotten back into embroidery and I am really enjoying it. This adorable pattern is from Lazy May.

We went rock climbing this weekend. I could hardly open my mascara tube this morning. I’ll leave you with this kick-ass picture.

I’ve really been wanting to build my solids stash. I took a gift card I received for Christmas and bought some Robert Kaufman Kona solids. And I also took advantage of the Burgundy Buttons solids sale and bought some Moda Bella Solids.

I have enough solids now for awhile.

Remember this fabric from Bon Bon Atelier? I sort of went on an infinity scarf rampage. I made all three of these in one night! They are now going to be my go-to gift, but I’m keeping these three for myself.

After 23 years, I had my wisdom teeth removed today. Why did I wait so long? Well, it took them forever to start growing. Then we bought a condo and money was tight. About that time, they started coming in and I was teething. Let me tell all of you babies, I understand. It freaking hurts! Then, I lost my insurance through my parents and my work does not offer dental. So I got supplemental dental, but had to wait six months before oral surgery in order for the insurance to pay. Six months rolled around and that was the beginning of the holidays. Holidays do not help the bank account, but I went to the dentist because of a toothache I had had for a few months and he said it was related to a couple of things and one as that my wisdom tooth was pushing up against my teeth. So he referred me and I called and inquired about cost. Turns out…it was going to be really reasonable. I paid less than $300! My insurance covered the rest. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield of KC and pay $30/month and have $50 deductible. I love this plan! Preventative is free. Cleanings twice a year are covered. I think I have a small co-pay for cleanings, but worth it. Fillings, root canals, wisdom teeth extraction, etc. are paid 80% by BCBS. If you don’t have dental insurance and need and/or want it, I recommend this.

It’s going very well. I do not remember a thing. I felt like I had been asleep for five minutes and then woke up in a drugged up state, but still fully aware. I do not believe I said anything hilarious. I was super hungry though. I could not eat or drink six hours before and the surgery was at 2pm. My aunt drove me and I had a large cup of ice cream at Glacé while waiting for the pharmacy to fill my prescriptions. Right before I ate, I felt extremely nauseous, which I am sure was because I had not ate for over seven hours. My body (and my mind) do not handle being hungry very well. The cold of the ice cream also probably helped. When I got home, my aunt stayed with me (I am so thankful that she lives around here. Plus, she is great about handling things like these.) until Andrew got home. He is the best! He brought four bags of frozen peas. He said, “You even get the choice or organic!” It was pretty funny in my druggy state. He also brought me protein smoothies and two Red Box DVDs. Isn’t he sweet? We later walked to the store to get more nom-wisdom-teeth-friendly food. I have applesauce, smoothies, pudding, yogurt, and V8. Andrew has done an amazing job of taking care of me, even though I can do everything myself. He has still waited on me and made sure I have everything I need.

As for the wisdom teeth or the holes where they used to reside, I think they are doing well. They were all coming in, so they did not really have to dig down deep to get them out. However, a bit of bone was covering one, so that was the worst one. It is bleeding a bit and is the most uncomfortable, but not painful. The meds and cold peas are doing wonders keeping me comfortable.

I did not like peas before, but I could sometimes eat them in things. However, I WILL NEVER EAT ANOTHER PEA AGAIN IN MY LIFE. I am very grateful for them, but the smell! You can smell peas even when they are frozen. And when they start to thaw…OMG! I will never be able to look, smell, or think of peas without being totally weirded and grossed out.

I heard a ton of stories about people getting their wisdom teeth removed. Most were good and only a few were horror stories. I was not worried at all. I’m still not worried. I am sure the rest of my recovery will go just fine. The power of positive thinking can do wonders!

Worst part: antibiotics. Oral contraceptives do not work with antibiotics. I have five days of antibiotics and then a grace period of a month before I can trust the birth control is working. And I do not trust other forms of birth control (except abstinence) by themselves. I specifically asked for the time period and made them repeat it multiple times. I did not know you had to wait that long! Ladies…take note. I have avoided antibiotics so far since I have been taking birth control, but I cant avoid it now. And taking my pill is the absolute most important part of my day. I drop everything when my alarm goes off. So…that sort of sucks, but it could be much worse. At least I knew that antibiotics and oral contraceptives don’t mix well and was able to ask intelligent questions.

While I am laying around all weekend, I would love to hear stories about you or somebody you know and their wisdom teeth. Or I would love to hear stories about the power of positive thinking. Leave a comment if you have one.

Have a great weekend!

That’s right! I finished the curtains.

Kate paid me a visit last night and helped me remember what we had planned on doing to finish them. I had zero intention of working on them last night, so after visiting with Kate until 8:30 or so, I decide I would work out. So I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical, showered, and then had no idea what I was going to do for the rest of the evening. Andrew had to “monitor” until midnight. (Monitoring is something to do with checking a running script every few minutes to make sure it is still running. Servers, computers, scripts, upgrades, downtime, blah…) Normally if Andrew has to stay up for work later than 10 or 11, I go to bed without him. This time…I decided to stay up and finish the curtains. I was in bed my midnight, but Andrew was not. I think it was much later than that, but I was dead to the world in a matter of minutes…so I can’t be sure exactly what time he came to bed. (Somebody in India was supposed to take over at midnight, but I guess that somebody wasn’t great at telling time.)

Ok, so they aren’t entirely finished. Kate still has to buy buttons and we are going to have a movie watching and sewing on buttons party. That brown circle on the left, that’s where the buttons are going to go.

I managed to complete this project with almost no injuries. I had a minor scare with the edge of the iron and the edge of a hand, but nothing came of it. However, do not hold the thread nippers in your hand while you are turning wheel, unjamming fabric, cussing, etc. You will slice a very small, but bloody, section of your index finger.

Small nicks and cuts happen all of the time. I ignore them all of the time and go on my merry way. Not with this cut! It bled. I was right in the middle of ignoring it and noticed a few drops of something in the red-colored family on my hand. My immediate thought was…”The fabric is bleeding!” Haha, just kidding. I actually thought that I had marked myself with my new pink Frixion pen. (Thanks, Mom!) Well, that was not the case. I was definitely bleeding. A quick stop to the first aid drawer and I was back to sewing. (Note to self: Buy bandages.) I don’t know about you all, but I am a dangerous sewer…at least to myself.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year! Despite the popularity of posting a collage of completed projects for 2011, I am not going to follow the trend. My  main reasons are because I am too lazy to try to remember everything I’ve completed and too lazy to track down pictures of everything I’ve completed. Tertiary reasons are that I’m afraid I will be disappointed in the number of projects I’ve completed or disgusted with the amount of time (and money) I’ve spent making projects. Basically, it’s a scary for me to recap like that. However, I am great at making “To Do Lists”, so listing out resolutions is the exactly opposite of scary for me. Note: I actually think resolutions are crap and I believe you should be able to make resolutions at any time of the year…but I’m trying to get in the spirit of the occasion.

Here’s my list of personal goals for the upcoming year in no order of importance:

1. Do more other types of crafts, like embroidery, knitting, crocheting, decorating, etc.

2. Read more. I LOVE reading and the activity basically describes my entire life between the ages of six and 18, so I would like to do more of it, especially since I have a Kindle.

3. Host more events. Andrew and I enjoyed hanging out with our friends, but we definitely do not hang out with them enough. We have the space and a central location, so we want to plan more get-togethers.

4. Do yoga. I have never done yoga. I love pilates,but have never gotten into yoga. Andrew thinks I could benefit from it, so I would like to try.

5. Dance. Andrew and I used to swing dance A LOT in college. We need to get back to it. And we want to try other types of dances.

6. Do a better job of separating my work and personal lives. There are too many times when I allow work to interrupt my personal life. Most of the time it’s my fault because I can’t stop thinking about it, but it’s not healthy. I really like my job, but I really need the separating. I definitely do not think my company understands or values this, but for my mental (and probably physical) health, I’m going to do it.

7. Design my blog. Part of my job is web design. I have no excuse for putting off designing my blog for this long.

8. Take better care of myself. This includes eating well, exercising regularly, drinking water, taking vitamins, get more sleep, etc. I am pretty good about the eating thing, but could be better. I definitely have the exercise regularly down, but I suck at the rest.

I am going to include some work goals, just so I have a record of them. Again, in no particular order:

1. Become a better engineer/become a real engineer. This includes front end web design, back end web design, hardware, systems, etc.

2. Become a better project manager.

3. Choose a disciple. Basically, I need to decide that if I ever leave my current job, what job title I want to go after. Do I want to be a project manager? Do I want to be a front end web developer? Do I want to be a back end web developer? Do I want to work in search engine optimization?

4. Learn graphic web design. I need to be able to design web layouts and slice them properly.

Now…on to the more fun stuff. FABRIC!!!

These are the wonderful Christmas presents Andrew gave me.

That is Prince Charming by Tula Pink. Andrew said it’s Prince Charming from my Prince Charming. Isn’t he cute? I honestly don’t even remember putting this on my Christmas list, but I LOVE it. Andrew did a great job of choosing from the massive list I gave him. Isn’t that frog adorable.

I don’t think Putting’ on the Ritz by Bunny Hill Designs is really that “baby”-ish, besides the phrases on a couple of prints. I seriously doubt I will be using it for a baby quilt.

These are Christmas presents to myself.

I went to Bon Bon Atelier and while I could have bought their entire fabric supply, I limited myself to a couple voiles, one tana lawn cotton, and some shot cottons.

I am going to make infinity scarves and those are the pairs. Beautiful, right? I’m so totally in love.  First pair is Mixed Signals by Anna Maria Horner (voile) and a Kaffe Fasset shot cotton. Second pair is Liberty of London Douglas Stripe (tana lawn cotton) and another shot cotton. And third pair is Greenfield Hill by Free Spirit Fabrics (voile) and yet another shot cotton.

This is a great segue into new projects, which include infinity scarves. I have one UFO…Kate’s curtains and pillows. I made a HUGE dent in it this weekend. I finished the pillows and I only have a bit left on the curtains. I need Kate’s consult before I can finish the curtains, but they will be complete before the end of the week!

Other projects include Window Pillows from Moda Bake Shop. Only I will not be making pillows. I think I will do a wall hanging for our living room.

I also tested out my embroidery skills to see if I would like to do some embroidery projects. I definitely will be doing some embroidery this year because I totally enjoyed this.

I have not embroidered for at least eight years. I didn’t do too bad, especially working with yarn. (I did not have any embroidery floss on hand and I want to decorate some sweaters with yarn embroidery.) I bought A LOT of patterns online, but the one above I quickly drew myself. I think it’s pretty…even if it’s amateur.

As for other projects, we’ll see what sparks my interest.

In recap, 2011 was a GREAT year. We bought our condo. I learned A TON at work. I started this blog. And we’ve had fun. I think 2012 will be just as good…if not better.

Happy New Year!