A Bitter Sweet Year

What a year it has been!!

It has been one long roller-coaster of a ride...& to be honest, 
I'm glad it's coming to an end & we can start a new year afresh!

I'm thankful each year offers new beginnings! 

I'll spare you the all the details of my 2014 because I could fill a book.

But in short, we found out I was pregnant in January & were as thrilled as could be!

There was a small scare but miraculously that vanished & I continued to have a healthy pregnancy.

Those 9 months seemed to go so terribly slow!!

It was a very uncomfortable, worrisome, stressful time.

Especially because we were without a home for a couple months.

In June we were literally "camping" in a vacant apt a dear friend let us rent for a month last minute.

We didn't plan to stay long so we packed only what we *needed.

Imagine being 5 months pregnant with no furniture, no tv, and sleeping on an air mattress. 

My husband was so patient and willing when it came to helping me get up from sitting on the floor.

I tried not to complain too much but I was miserable. 

And the stress and time-crunch of trying to find a new home with a toddler and a baby on the way was quite overwhelming. So many ups & downs with house hunting!

June came & went and took with it the apartment.

Meanwhile, I just continued to get bigger & even more uncomfortable.

But our prayers had been answered & we found a house perfect for our family.

The paperwork took longer than promised so once again we were searching for a place to stay while we waited to move into our new home.

My parents generously offered us to stay with them while we waited for the paperwork to go through.

That "short" wait ended taking three long weeks.

I prayed endlessly for this little man through it all. 

I didn't want all of the stress & instability with moving so many times have a negative effect on him.

Once again, prayers answered because he did AMAZING through it all. Better than I could have imagined and handled it all better than I did. 

He didn't seem to mind his toys were packed away in storage somewhere or that he only had 5 outfits to pick from.

He such a well-behaved happy boy through it all. And especially loved when we stayed at his Papa & Nonna's house! 

I think familiarity was refreshing for us all. 

At last, the paperwork went through and it was MOVING TIME!! 

We were ecstatic!! 

We got busy right away turning our house into a home. 

My nesting instincts kicked in and I got right to work on a room for our baby girl.

A huge weight was lifted from our shoulders and hours of prayers had been answered. 

We were home at last.

We unpacked Ashton's room & toys before he came home and when he saw them all it was like Christmas morning! He kept squealing, "My toys! My toys!" He was so excited to have all of his toys again!

Two months later....

My sweet little Alaya was welcomed home as well.

Such joy.

She has the best big brother. 

He loves on her CONSTANTLY.

It didn't take long for me to start dressing her up & snapping a bajillion pictures.

I can't get enough of that tiny round face!

She is the sweetest baby. So content & happy!

I'm very thankful to be able to stay home full-time with these two kiddos.

We are so very blessed.

The past year had it's rough spots but it was also filled with many blessings.

Sure there were times we were without a home but we always had a roof over our heads. 

God was with us through it all.

Our needs were always met & there were so many blessings even in the rough times.

I'm so thankful He was always by our side and gave us the most amazing family who provided us so much support and love this past year as well.

It is a bitter sweet goodbye to the year 2014.

Deuteronomy 31:8

"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; 

he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

Big News!!

If you don't follow along on facebook or instagram, you may have missed my big news....

I'm Preggo!!

Baby #2 will be here this fall!

Due October 1st. 

We are as thrilled as could be!

You can keep updated on my "bump" pictures on Instagram! (@runningstitchwhit)

What I'm working on...

It's been awhile since I've been on here!

First I had computer problems, and then I got crazy busy with sewing & orders.

Which is a good problem to have! I like to stay busy! 

Thanks everyone for your orders & thank you for being patient. 

I thought I'd share proof of all I've been busy with so here is a flood of pictures from this past month:

A finished quilt top.

 420 squares later...
I now have another quilt top but you'll have to wait for pics of that!
It's getting quilted this week!

Another small quilt in the making. The top is almost done but here is a peek at the design.
I LOVE Dresdens.

I've made countless zipper pouches.
Between 15-20.

A cuddly baby blanket for my new niece

I got started on a Valentines project..I was hoping to make these pretty little dresdens into a 

table-topper to place a vase of flowers on. But it's been on hold so I could get caught up on orders.

I'm a little bit sad it won't be done in time for Valentine's Day. 

A quilted camera strap cover!

Little story behind this one, it was actually supposed to be a guitar strap cover.
Unfortunately I made it too skinny & it wouldn't fit so I tweaked it and made it even smaller in order to become a camera strap cover now! ha! Worked out in the end!

And lots of baby shoes. 

These seem to be quite a hit because I have a flood of orders coming in.

I haven't taken any orders yet because I want to perfect the baby shoe first.

I'm playing around with sizing, linings, fabrics, & designs!

Aren't they adorable?
The baby shoes are pretty cute-but boy do they take awhile! It's hard to work with something so small!
But worth it in the end for such cuteness!

I have a few other orders I've finished or finishing at the moment but I'll have to show pics another time!
Just wanted to give you a peek to prove I've been busy and I haven't gone anywhere!
Still here!
Sewing to my hearts content!

Ka-Chow! Cars Quilt

One of my goals for 2014 was to make a quilt for my son.
This past week I did just that!
Boom. New Year's List get dominated!

 

My son is 18 months now and loves the Disney movie Cars.

And when I say loves, it's more like obsessed! 

I have to limit how much he watches it because he would watch it all day every day if I let him.

He wakes up saying "Cars, cars, cars!"

So when we were out shopping for fabric, he spotted this wild Cars fabric right away!

And how could a mother say no?

  

As soon as I gave him his quilt, he grabbed it like a hug and walked around the house saying, "Mine! Mine!"

Needless to say, I think he loves it!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!



Linking up: Blossom Heart Quilts

Courage & Sewing Fears

Courage. 

It took me a long time to find what word I wanted to have that was special to me. 

I thought about it, prayed about it, and thought some more. 

It wasn't that is was hard for me to find a word, the problem was there were many words that I liked!

But Courage kept popping into my mind. 

For so many different reasons. 

Today I'm sharing just one of those reasons.

As I shared from this previous post, I'm new to quilting & blogging. 

I'm self-taught which means I've had to learn a lot through trial and error.

Sometimes it's discouraging.

I make mistakes, I don't have a huge amount of blog viewers, and sometimes I'm hesitant to share what I've made because I know someone (with more experience sewing) could have made it better. I have the tendency to only see flaws in my work. 

It's something I'm working on. 

When I first started sewing, I wanted to hide all those "flaws" and not let anyone see. 

Or when I made mistakes or sewed something completely wrong, I didn't want others to know that I messed up or had to take a seam ripper to that project 5 times over. 

(Or that I've scorched and melted fabric with an iron way too many times.)

I've learned a lot of things the hard way. 

But I'm learning it's better to laugh at myself than to let it get me down. 

I want to have courage to share my sewing journey sharing all the good...as well as the bad.

So that's what I'm going to do this year.

I'm not going to let myself get distraught when I have days when nothing goes right.

Or when I feel overwhelmed by all sewing techniques I have yet to conquer.

There have been times this past year where I wanted to give up. 

Tears were shed. 

But I love how Mary Anne Radmacher put it, 

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."

Sometimes my fears hold me back and tempt me to give up.

My fear of never conquering this or that sewing skill.

 Fear of never being good enough.

Fears of what others think of my sewing.

Fear of messing up.

Fear of others seeing flaws.

This year, I'm not going to let those fears hold me back and keep me from doing what I love.

Because at the end of the day, I love what I do. 

I love creating. I love cutting up fabric and sewing it all back together. 

 I love my work; flaws & all.

Truth is, each and every time I sit down to that machine, my skills are only going to get better and better. And looking back at this past year as only been proof of that. 

Practice makes perfect.

It just takes time and a little bit of courage.

Just listen to that quiet little voice saying, "I will try again tomorrow." 

My First Year Quilting

It was a year ago I dusted of my basic Brother Sewing Machine from the garage. 

It hadn't been used for at least 3 years and was hardly used before that. 

I had learned to wind a bobbin and sew a straight line in Home-Ec class in school. 

I had even sewn a couple blanked but nothing to brag about. They weren't even quilted or tied together. And as for binding, the edges had just been folded over & sewn down. I knew nothing about quilting and binding. In fact, I had never even heard of the term "basting" before! 

I was clueless but determined to learn all there was to know about sewing and quilting. I actually had to Google what it meant to baste a quilt and even had to learn what quilting a quilt really meant.

So even though I knew how to run a sewing machine, I still felt as though I was starting from scratch when it came to quilting. So you're probably wondering why I became so interested in quilting? 

I've always been fascinated with quilts and growing up my home was always filled with quilts passed down from my grandmothers. Even my mother had made a couple quilts, but I was too young to remember. I decided to pull out my sewing machine again when I discovered the magical land of Pinterest! Which also led to falling in love with crafting blogs! A blog that inspired me and made me want  NEED to learn to sew was Maureen Cracknell Handmade. Seriously, she makes the most beautiful things! She's my sewing idol. As well as Mommy by Day Crafter by Night, Stitchery Dickory Dock, and Nana Company. I could go on and on with all the inspiration I got from these blogs as well as countless others. I knew I just HAD to learn to quilt and sew right away!

I already knew how to sew 2 squares together, I wanted to branch out from that. 

The first quilt block I ever pieced together was this Square in Square block (I believe it's also called Economy Block).

I remember the moment I finished this block I was hooked. 

And my obsession began...

50 blocks later I had a quilt top!!

And the most unfortunate thing about this is, it is still a quilt top! 

It's so sad I know! It is on my WIP list to finish this year.

The moment I finished this top, I could hardly wait to start another!

I was antsy to learn another quilt block so I started finding tutorials and trying my hand at different patterns. 

I loved learning new techniques and patterns! So much so, I have a handful of random quilt blocks lying around just waiting to become something! I was too anxious to learn another new quilt block that I never finished and turned my past blocks into something! Oh well. 

Having WIPS is part of being a quilter, right??

While I do have countless WIPS, I also have many finishes I'm quite proud of considering I hardly knew anything about sewing. 

Here are a few projects I love from the past year:

Seeing how far I've come the past year only makes me more excited thinking about how much more I will learn in 2014 and how much better my skills will become! 

I'm far from perfect, and may never be classified as "professional" but we all have to start somewhere right?!

So here's to a great new year! 

A year full of fun, new, and exciting projects!

...and crossing off wips from the list ;)