I strategically saved my floating holidays and personal days so that I'd have this second half of this month off of work. I had grand plans of cleaning, organizing and crafting. But of course, the holidays get in the way and I'm pretty sure not even 10% of what I planned to make will come to be. Stephanie and I had a crafty day today. She lugged her sewing machine and her yummy apple cake over and we got down to some good crafty business!

I had hoped to complete at least 3 new garments over my "winter break" so that I'd have some new clothes to wear to work. If I'm lucky, I'll get one thing sewn for myself. I had given myself the choice of working on the already in progress McCall's 5480, starting my gifts for my friend's baby shower, or starting something new. I knew deep down that starting something new was out of the question and of course Steph shouted an emphatic, "NO!" when I blurted out that option. Being that my friend's shower is less than two weeks away, baby gift sewing trumps any personal sewing projects.

Did I also forget to mention that in addition to it being crafty day, it was also "eat desserts 'til you want to give up sugar forever day"? Okay, it really wasn't that bad. But before I knew that Steph was baking apple cake for us, I had baked us some red velvet cupcakes. But that wasn't all. I also had some leftover dark chocolate tart from my family's Christmas dinner AND some Mexican chocolate butter cookies that I made. Talk about sweet overload. But at least the sugar helped keep us going.

So what's on the baby gift drawing board? Butterick 3405 and, of course, a quilt. I started view B and C along with matching bloomers and possibly a matching hat for C. I've got 1/3 of the fabric for the quilt and need to go shopping for the rest of it along with the snaps for the outfits. I'm going pretty overboard for this baby, huh? But heck, I think it's worth it.

Besides, it just feels good to be sewing again. I haven't sewn a single stitch for the entire month of December until today.

Little baby Ami's jumpers are coming along swimmingly. In fact, the jumpers were finished on Thursday! Only the bloomers are left and the only thing stopping me is the pattern. Apparently, you can only make this pattern when the baby is born and ready to wear the garment as soon as you finish it. The bloomers require you to measure the baby's waist and thighs in order to put in the elastic. Being that the baby is, oh, not due til the beginning of February AND I don't anticipate her wearing it until late summer, there's no way for me to estimate how big her waist and thighs are. Googling did me no good. So the only thing left is to snoop shop with a measuring tape in hand.

With nothing to do until I could get myself to a store, I decided that it would be okay to start something new. Oh, sure it would be fine because the bloomers will be done in time and I was still on a quest to find matching fabric for the quilt. I decided to make Simplicity 4112, the Built by Wendy top. With only for major pieces, I totally thought I'd be able to finish it in a day. The plan was to start the top on Friday morning to finish in time to wear to a holiday dinner later that evening. Everything was going well until 1. I dropped my iron and then it spit gross water on the right front and left a stain... a few shots of OxyClean later, it virtually disappeared. But because of that, no new top to wear to dinner. 2. Today I'm ready to put the buttons on and my button holer isn't working as it should. It works fine going down one side of the button hole. Then as it makes it's way up, it starts to stall and doesn't move up unless I assist it. Okay not good.

Apparently my iron and my sewing machine are trying to get me back on track to get those baby projects done. So yes, yes, the Built by Wendy shirt is on the backburner and full time focus is back on the quilt. I've finally found matching fabrics and I must say, I'm really excited about this one.

As of tonight I've made my practice square and have cut out all of my strips! I'm ready to roll. First priority for tomorrow is to get on that log cabin train!

So kids, the quilt was a HUGE hit! And so were the dress and the top. But let me tell you, BOY was I nervous as the gifts were being opened.

As each present was opened,

"Oh, onesies!"

"Yay, bibs!"

"Cool, pacifiers!"

"Cute t-shirts!"

I was thinking to myself, these are all registry gifts! These gifts aren't fun all all (except for some cute t-shirts and a black bob marley onesie that said "roots rock baby" -- I want one!). But what if what they really want are all the practical things because they need them? Will they like my handmade gifts?

I mean, I would like my handmade gifts, especially if all everyone was getting me were registry items, right? Granted, I'm biased because I'm the one that spent hours and hours on these gifts. But you need something special to be the potential item to start the heirloom collection, right?

So they finally get to my gift, and it is the LAST gift they open. And I'm ALL nervous. The last gift needs to be a good one. She got plenty of other blankets and ones that match the crib sheet set. This is just another blanket and it doesn't even match the pastel pink of the crib sheets. They even got their Baby Bjorn and breast pump and were totally stoked about them. Can a quilt and some garments top that?

And yes, yes it did! (Apologies for the dark photos. It was raining like crazy this weekend so it made outdoor photos and good light nearly impossible)