Downy, Touch of Comfort

In May, I ordered a Downy Touch of Comfort Quilt Kit.  They send you donated fabric to turn into a quilt that will get handed out to kids in hospitals.  They ask that you also donate a quilt out of your own fabric.  That way for every 1 quilt kit they send out, they get at least 2 back.

My kit came when I was dealing with my first set of cysts.
I did most of it while I wasn’t feeling good, but then set it aside for a couple months.  While I’ve been down with this set of cysts, I finished it up.

I just love the car fabric.  I haven’t been able to find more of it anywhere; I think it’s been discontinued.  Bummer.  I’m not 100% happy with the way it turned out.  I was using a sewing machine that just didn’t machine quilt as well as the one I’m used to.  But it’s cute and will serve it’s purpose.

The quilt that I am really excited about is the one I’m going to donate.  I designed the whole thing myself, and I’m pretty proud of it.  My sister gave me some left over fabric she’d found at a barn sale, and I used other scraps that I had, so I didn’t need to buy a thing for it. =)

I just love the swirls and how they look with the butterflies.  I didn’t quilt the butterflies, so they puff off of the quilt nicely.  If we ever have a little girl, I’m going to remake this quilt for her.  I hope it makes some little girl feel just a little bit better. 🙂

I totally recommend this program if you’re interested in starting to quilt.  These quilts are rather small, so they don’t take much time.  The kits themselves come almost completely pre-cut and with decent instructions.  And because they’re small, they’re very easy to quilt on your sewing machine – you can even just quilt in lines if you’d prefer.

I’m going to wash these two tomorrow and hopefully get them right in the mail.  I’ll be requesting another quilt kit soon. 🙂

Giraffe Quilt

My niece turned 7 a little over a week ago.  She asked me to come to the zoo with her on her birthday.  I told her that if I did that her birthday present might be a little late.  She was down with that, so I went to the zoo with her and my sister and mom.
We had a nice day and walked ourselves into exhaustion.  Hooray for being 7!  I was 17 when she was born, so it’s crazy that she’s getting so big. 🙂

I finished her present last night…

I’m calling it Calli’s Giraffe Quilt. 🙂

The pattern is Amy Butler’s Belle Quilt without the borders and with an extra row on one side.  This one went so much faster and the quilting is SOOO much neater than my first quilt.  I think I’m finally starting to get the free-motion quilting down. 🙂

Petal Quilt

While I should be packing for our Texas trip, I thought I’d take some pictures of my new quilt instead. 😉

I started working on it in January after I got a nice intro to quilting book for Christmas. I’ve been knitting for a long time, and I wanted to start working with a another medium.  I’ve been working on it off and on since then.

In hindsight, I realized what a bad idea it was to start with appliques as my first quilt.  Not fun if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Bella likes to “help” with things like this. 😉

Through a lot of trial and error, I learned how to use my free motion quilting foot.  You can totally tell where I started on this quilt and where I ended up.  By the end of the 24th square, I had definitely gotten the hang of it. 🙂

I also ordered personalized quilt tags.  They’ve got my initials on the front and a mustache on the back.  Why a mustache?  Because mustaches are funny. 😉

4 1/2 months later and it’s finished.  It has a lot of mistakes, but I made the entire thing myself.  I’m really proud of it.  I also really like the pattern.  I think I’ll make it again in a couple years when I’m a little better at it. 😉

And of course, Bella is on hand to quality control.  It’s Bella approved. 😉

Off to pack for Texas.  We leave tomorrow night.  I’ll probably post again when we get there. 🙂

The Big “O”…

And by “O”, of course I mean ovulation.  😉

One of the main things we’ve been working on through my acupuncture appointments is to regulate my cycle.  Our goal is to get it to be as perfect as it can be.  Ovulating at day 19 and then having a 9-12 day luteal phase is not perfect.  Last month, day 17 was the magic number followed by 12 days of waiting.

I think I have proof, however, that acupuncture is really and truly altering my cycle.  Other than the crazy short and light period I recently had, this month, I managed to ovulate on day 12. 12. 12. 12. 12. 12.  For the first time since I started charting. 12. And of course, we were totally not ready for it.  I hadn’t started using my opk’s yet, as it’s a week earlier than I normally ovulate.  I think it’s safe to assume this month will be a wash.  I’m disappointed that we may have wasted a cycle, but at the same time, I think I needed a little break. It’s been a long 14 months.  Now I know for next month that I need to start keeping a closer eye on things.
Of course, next month could very well include clomid (YIKES!), and then it’s going to be all kinds of crazy.

Meanwhile, our weekend was good.  We went back to Oak Park for breakfast on Saturday.  We went to breakfast at The Buzz Cafe every Sunday when we lived there.  It’s been over a year since we’d last eaten there together.

Yum!

They have the BEST pancakes. Mmmm!  The rest of the weekend was really relaxed.  I worked in the garden (the weather in Chicago has been so wonderful!) and on the quilting of my very first quilt.

I only have 13 more squares to do.  The end is in sight! 😉  I’m really getting the hang of my free motion quilting foot.  You can see my progress from the first square I did to the most recent one.  I totally regret choosing this pattern as my first quilt though.  Appliques are no fun.  In a couple years, I wouldn’t mind making this again and seeing how much I’ve improved.  I’ll post a picture when it’s finished.  Hopefully this week. 🙂

1.5 weeks until the urologist!