Anyways, I finally made a decision about how best to create the images in my head about how I wanted them to look: wool felt! I’m about halfway done with them so far, so here’s a picture.

Each will have a white cuff with the person’s name on it. There will be a few embroidered details, as well as a few snowflake sequins added to the background of each one. I think I will opt for a “less is more” with these – I want them to be whimsical and too much detail can detract from that. The stockings will be lined. I may use fun prints for the insides…will have to dig through my stash and see what I can find!

I found this shelf at Goodwill a few years ago. The colors were HIDEOUS but the shelf itself was solid wood and in good condition. Here are the before and after shots:

There’s a little bit of yellow in two of the fabrics that I wanted to bring out, so I added the thin inner border. I’m really pleased with how this came out! The black dot fabric was the perfect finish, IMHO, as all of the colors of the dots are in the center. I thought a plain black border would be too plain for the fabrics I used.

Now I’m almost to the third trimester (Kiarda Nicole is due July 11!), and I’ve been busy making stuff for the nursery as well as stash-busting. My sister is pregnant as well, and due about 5 weeks before me. I made a few things for my soon-to-be-here niece, Eva.

Brace yourself, lots of pictures!

First, the nursery fabric I picked out for Kiarda.

I’m glad I bought extra, because it doesn’t exist anymore. This was the Makower challenge fabric, and they told me that it has been discontinued. I can’t find it ANYwhere now. I love it! The walls will be the light aqua color, with an accent wall of the medium blue.

Here is the wallhanging for Kiarda’s nursery, which matches the one I made for my sister’s baby in design. The paisley looks odd from a distance, and the colors didn’t turn out quite right in the picture. The lighting in my sewing room isn’t the best for picture-taking!

Close-up:

Backing fabric and binding – it’s hard to tell but the design on the binding coordinates perfectly with the blue cupcake wrapper!

This is the one I made for my sister. The print fabric is what she’s using in her nursery.

Close-up:

I have been trying to do some stash-busting. As I started pulling out coordinating fabrics, I ended with enough for two tops of similar colors. I didn’t realize I had so much pink, turquoise, and lime green LOL.

A Snapshots by Atkinson Designs top. This will probably end up being a floor quilt/tummy time quilt for Kiarda. The dark pink border actually coordinates with one of the fabrics, but you can’t tell from a distance, or really, the close-up I took, oops! It will also be used for the binding. I couldn’t get the color to come out quite right – there is a pretty dark, royal purple and a chocolate brown with skinny black swirls on it. This entire quilt, backing included, is 100% stash!

Fabric close-up (see the flamingos?). The colors of the dots are pink, blue, brown, and green – so perfect for this top!

Backing for this top:

A Turning 20 top in progress (blocks), also by Atkinson Designs. I just finished piecing the top (sans border – need to get some black fabric) but took this picture once I got the blocks up on the design wall. The binding will be turquoise, which I have also already made.

Fabric close-up:

Backing fabric – LOVE these cute frogs!

I made two crochet baby car seat blankets, using a pattern by my friend Jennifer. One was blue and for my nephew-on-the-way and was given to his mom at a shower two weeks ago. I also did a purple one for a good friend, whose baby is due on Halloween that I’ll get to meet when I go to my conference in New Orleans in November. There is a hole in the bottom center so the car seat straps can hook through it. I took pictures of it on our friends’ baby, Mira. She makes a great model, don’t you think?

I went 4-and-2/+6 in pools, which put me seeded at 34th. Top 80% after pools went up to the DE round, so 39 people got byes into the round of 64. It took FOREVER for DEs to start; I think it was over two hours between my pool ending and when I got to fence my first DE bout. I won my bout in the round of 64 easily, and then lost 15-11 in the round of 32 to the #2 seed. I didn’t think her fencing was all that special – she was a “one-trick pony” her her circle-6-fleche-to-the-body – but I couldn’t move my feet fast enough to deal with it. Did I mention she’s half my age? Yeah… oh well. She lost in the next round to a fellow Texas fencer who had been in my pool.

I got a little revenge, too – remember when I lost at sectionals 15-14 to a beginner, and therefore didn’t qualify for Div1-A? She was in my pool. She lost 5-1. /snark off

One of my online quilting friends came up to see me and DH fence on Saturday! I was really surprised that she wanted to drive that far (about an hour) to come watch. It was really nice of her. My HS French teacher and her husband also came, and stayed for the entire tournament. I can only think of a handful of tournaments that I had a personal cheering squad.

DH fenced Div3 Men’s Epee. He did AWESOME in pools – won all six bouts and was seeded 3rd after pools. He won his first DE but lost the second one in the round of 32. He was a little annoyed, as both fencers he fenced were weird and erratic, which is hard to fence against.

Yesterday was Div III Women’s Sabre and Div II Men’s Foil, so DH and I both fenced. We got to see a little of each other’s bouts, but not all as the events were scheduled for roughly the same time. My goals were pretty simple: not to get blanked in pools (i.e., not to lose any bouts 5-0) and to make the cut to get into the DE round. I went 2-and-4 in pools, with a -4 indicator, which wasn’t too shabby considering I’m not a sabre fencer and the competition was tough! The two bouts I won went 5-1 and 5-2, and I got at least a touch on each other person in the pool.

I came out seeded 55th (of 75), and had to fence the #10 seed. I basically didn’t move my feet at all in the first period, and was down 8-1 at the break. I finally woke up for the second period to make a comeback, but still lost 15-8. If I had fenced like that in the first period, the score would have been much closer! The girl I lost to ultimately ended up 8th place, so at least I didn’t lose to a scrub fencer.

DH did okay in pools. He won his first DE handily, and then lost in the round of 64. The referee seemed to have it out for him because he asked for clarification on two calls – not arguing them, just asking what the referee saw – and the ref carded him, saying he didn’t have the right to argue. Uh…that’s not a card… Later in the bout, the other fencer elbowed DH across the mask really hard, causing DH to land on his rear end. The ref SHOULD have carded the other fencer for corps-a-corps (body contact), if not a red card for jostling, but instead he said that because DH was “rushing forward” it was his fault. He then said that he should card both of them, but because it would be a red card for DH he’d let it go – as if he were doing DH a favor for not carding the opponent! There were also a couple of right-of-way calls that were uh…questionable.

I got to watch some of the women’s epee teams, which was some great fencing! Two Texas teams made top 8, one of which was in the round of 4 when we left.

Tomorrow is Div II Women’s Epee (my main event) and DH has Div III Men’s Epee (his secondary weapon). We both stand a good chance of doing well, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Stay tuned. I have pictures, but I forgot to bring the cable to hook the camera up to the computer. DOH! Maybe our host has one to spare…