Is this thing still on?

OK I did kind of vanish on everybody, except those following me on Facebook. It's been a very busy year and change.

Flashback to March 2013: we finally received approval to buy our dream house, yes, the one that sat empty for 4 years while the bank was making the short sale of the property a complete nightmare. 

We signed in April and after 6 weeks of getting the most urgent repairs taken care of (mold remediation, roof leak, and get the kitchen & one bathroom functional), we finally moved in. 

Since then we have been slowly turning the train wreck into our home. We are reclaiming the jungle surrounding it and turning it into a civilized yard. Our new neighbors welcomed us with glee and helped us along the way. 

Here is a list of what we've done so far:

- remodel 2 bathrooms 

- repaint 4 bedrooms and hang drapes

- repaint the front hall, living room, dining room

- remodel the master bedroom

- spruce up the kitchen

- demo the master bathroom

We still have a long road ahead but since we don't plan on moving any time soon, we are taking things a bit slower from now on. We still plan on finishing the  master bathroom renovation in the near future but the rest will wait!

I think there will be a few posts in the near future to show all the before and after pictures, what do you think?

Oh and on the plus side, I now have a HUGE studio. Really, really huge. 

Sooo forgive me?

Blanket for Ben

A lot of babies arrived in my life lately. I have been busy making blankets !! This one is for Benjamin that is such a sweet boy with gorgeous blue eyes. The pattern is a simple 9-patch with sashing. It is backed with minky to make it extra snuggly and quilted with a blue variegated thread.

And the final touch was to appliqué his initial in the corner and add a blanket stitch over the raw edges

Challenge : Curves

 You know me, I can't resist a challenge. Rikki from Ricochet and Away set the theme to curved seams and since it's something I had never really done, I decided it was time to give it a try. I make a little throw pillow cover for Bug's future pink bedroom.

I think my seams turned out OK for a beginner

The back of the pillow is super simple

And since I'm a glutton for punishment and I try to get outside of my comfort zone, I tackled a second project, this one adding the complexity of random slashing. The result is a small table runner

This one was a lot of fun to put together