Cassie – Page 5 – Kelly's Kwilts

Guild Block Exchange – Xmas

Well I finally did it and finished the quilt top for the guild block exchange! I only had to put the border on, and had originally intended on putting 2 borders – a thin one using the background fabric and then the thicker one using the focus fabric. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough of the background fabric to do a border, and not enough time to order more. So I just took that border out and put the thicker one on with the focus fabric. I do like how it looks, and I have NO clue how I’ll even quilt it. Now that it’s done I’ve folded it and hung it in the closet with the other tops needing quilted. I’m trying to get people interested in next years exchange, but I don’t have a single person that has signed up yet. I’ll keep trying, if I don’t get any takers I’ll order the fabric and make myself a quilt instead!

Last year I had found a pattern online and made a hexie wreath for the tree with a jingle bell in the center. I had pulled the 2.5″ squares to make 3 more but never finished them. I found them while looking for something else and decided that I needed to finish them this year. Didn’t take me long, when I was awake enough to work on them, they are now all hanging on the tree!

I did make a few items for Christmas gifts this year, however I will not be posting any information about them until after they have been received. Right now the embroidery machine is humming along stitching out some free-standing lace gingerbread men ornaments. I found the design on Embroidery Library – my favorite site for embroidery designs. I love doing lace designs, they turn out so cute and there’s really nothing I need to do for them. Put the same color in the bobbin and on the top and let it go. This design stitches out in under 20 minutes, so I can work on lots of other things while it runs.

I spent a little time working on cleaning things up in my office, things have gotten WAY too dusty and unorganized in here. Since I’m now done with pretty much all my Xmas gifts and just have to finish decorating and get a few items ready for folks the hubby works with I can spend some time working on items for myself. I’m hoping to finish Scrappy 9-patch this week and since they announced at our guild meeting last week that the next quilt show is going to be in October 2014, I’m planning on seeing if I can get hexie diamonds finished for the show. Of course I’d really rather it be ready for the 2014 camping season, but we’ll see what happens.

We have just barely started getting the baby’s room ready, which means my mini-pinni frame needs to come down. I asked hubby to leave it in the room for now, I have a few quilts I’d like to put on it to pin before we take it apart. The basement isn’t finished yet and I don’t want it setup in the basement until it’s cleaned and looking better down there! I think I’ll be able to easily quilt some of the scrappy quilts and get them finished before the baby is born.

I think I’m going to go play with a few of my Go dies and plan a few more quilts – I think baby girl needs something made by mommy!

Design Wall Monday – November 4th

I managed to get a lot done yesterday on my scrappy 9 patch quilt. Got all of the 4 patch blocks for the border pressed and ready to be put together, pulled all the black squares I have cut out and matched up to the scrap squares. 7 9-patch blocks are put together, 6 more are almost put together. I think I’ll be cutting out more black squares this afternoon and hope to put more blocks together. I also have a bag full of fabrics that my mom gave me when she was cleaning out her stash, some of them are small pieces that are going to get cut up into 2.5″ squares. Unfortunately I have laundry to do too and that has to be done before I can get back to work. *sigh* The things a mommy has to do! 🙂

Had a check-up today with my OB and everything is going great! Baby’s heartbeat was 164 and is growing like she should. I’ve started to feel her moving around the last week or so and it’ll get better as she gets bigger. Other than fatigue I feel great!

Back soon with updates!

Where have I been – Part 2

Ok, lunch is over and the laptop is plugged in charging. I said I’d explain why Alex and I stayed home from the CA trip right? We’ve been trying for awhile to get pregnant, we really didn’t want Alex to be an only child. Since we had so many issues getting pregnant with him, and after a few months of trying ourselves and doing IUI’s, we started the IVF process again. With a failed cycle in December and another failed attempt in the spring, we were finally lucky enough for it to work in July. The IVF transfer was the day before the hubby left for his trip and we didn’t want me to attempt flying after all of that. So Alex and I stayed home, I had to do all of my shots myself instead of hubby helping me. Let me tell you, progesterone shots in the thigh are not pleasant, but it’s better than not doing it at all and losing the baby. I have a genetic clotting disorder called MTHFR that requires me to take extra folic acid pills in addition to my prenatal vitamin. I also take a low dose baby aspirin and do twice daily heparin shots to prevent my blood from clotting.

So needless to say it’s been a rough couple of months with morning sickness, not in the morning as you’d expect but at night right before bed. And not once in awhile like it was with Alex, but every night! Lots of doctor appointments with the specialists and various OBs (due to my age and clotting disorder I’m considered high risk so I have to see a specialist because of that!). We’ve had lots of ultrasounds which gives me lots of chances to see that everything is ok. I’m a paranoid person when it comes to this since we’ve had LOTS of problems in the past. We have a doppler that allows us to hear the baby’s heartbeat and I ask the hubby if we can hear it every couple of nights or so.

Due to my high risk issues, we had a blood test done called NISP that checks for Downs syndrome and other chromosomal issues. Not that we’d terminate if the results were bad, but if we knew we could do research to find out what special things we’d need to get. The other benefit to the test is that since they are testing fetal DNA in my blood, they can tell the gender. So the doctors office called one Friday afternoon close to 5 o’clock. The nurse tells me that the test was negative so we didn’t have to worry about any disorders. Then she asks if we know the gender and if we want to know. Of course I say yes, but that I’m afraid to know the answer! She says “They found no Y chromosomes”, and I’m sitting there for about 30 seconds trying to remember what that means! She must have realized I couldn’t think so she says “It’s a girl” after which I immediately start crying because that’s what I wanted! As soon as I got off the phone with her I called the hubby and told him. He was just as excited! Hubby posted this picture on his Facebook page with no comments and we don’t think many people got it.

So come March 2014 we’ll have a new face in our house and a daughter in our hearts. I am hoping to start sewing again soon, now that things are calming down and I’m getting my energy back. I have a few scrap projects in mind and can’t wait to work on. Also hoping to work on cross stitch again at night while we watch tv, it’ll keep me from going to sleep too soon! If I can start working on projects, you’ll be seeing posts!