Long Time no Bloggy

Howdy ya'll

I've been pretty busy lately and this is what I made...

No not the quilt.

The babies!

Introducing Mason and Ronan!
Born August 6th 2012 at 12:44 and 12:45 pm via c-section weighing 4lbs 11oz 17.5" and 5lbs 18.5".


Long story, sort of short: I had some pregnancy complications and in my convalescence I accidentally allowed my domain ThreadedMess.com to expire. It was too complicated for me to try and renew the domain while in the hospital so I didn't but I am working on it now. You can still find me at threadedmess.blogspot.com and if you are reading this post you probably already know that.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers while I was gone. I have two beautiful baby boys to love on and couldn't be happier. I was on bed rest for 155 days from weeks 13-34 when I gave birth. I have never done anything more physically or emotionally difficult in my life. I am still recuperating from being in bed for so long but I am pretty much healed from the c-section. 

Not a lot of sewing (or sleep) happens in my house these days but I did manage to make some burp cloths:

They get used a lot!

I'm still not sure how much I'll be able to blog or what I'll be blogging about. The babies require a lot of attention and there's just not enough time in the day yet to squeeze much sewing in. I'm back though, and you can reach me here or at threadedmess@gmail.com anytime :-)

Happy Quilting!

Things Don't Always Go As Expected

Some of you have already heard about this through the grapevine, but for everyone else... After a routine ultrasound on Wednesday May 9th, I was admitted to the hospital for preterm labor. I'm not a candidate for a cerclage because I'm too far along with the twins, so the only treatment the doctors can offer is hospital bed rest, daily doses of progesterone, and monitoring. So far I've been pretty stable, but if my symptoms escalate to labor contractions there is medicine they can give me to stop them. Next week they will give me steroids to help the boys' lungs grow. We are praying every day that the boys continue to stay safe inside me. Every day I can give them is a fighting chance for their survival. They are still too young to survive on their own. We are pretty scared but our faith is with God. Send a thought our way or say a prayer for us if you can. We need them! For now I'm going to take a blogging break but if there are any major updates I will make a post. Happy quilting and thanks in advance!

More Pants for my Boys

My wonderful mother in law finished up another couple of pairs for the boys last night. This set is my husband's favorite so far! I love how one side is a bit more playful and one side is a bit more subtle.

I'm in my sewing room today whipping up some quilt blocks for the boys. More pics to come but these are from yesterday:

Please excuse the poor quality phone photo...

Happy Quilting!

Quick Change Trousers for the Twins

I couldn't resist getting down to my sewing room tonight for a bit of fabric fun. I have a few projects in mind but my space is such a mess that it was difficult to get started on anything major. I spent an hour or so 'straightening up', and by that I mean that I moved piles of stuff from one place to another. I will definitely need to spend more time down there getting things sewing ready!

I have been really stuck on making Quick Change Trousers (pattern by Anna Maria Horner in her book Handmade Beginnings) for my little boys. My mother in law was so very kind to make a few for me while I was on bed rest including this adorable pair:

I LOVE how these are reversible! The other side looks like this:

My little boys are going to look so cute in these little pants! I plan on pairing them with onsies or tees which will possibly be appliqued with the prints used in the pants, or might just be paired with coordinating solids.

I spent the rest of the evening watching the Capitals beat the Rangers with my hubby and pulling out some of my favorite fabrics from my stash for a few more pairs in different sizes. I'm finally making use of my Heather Ross Mendecino and Amy Butler Lotus dots. I've been hanging on to these for so long, but I'm glad I did because these pants will be the perfect project for these coveted prints!

You might be able to tell from the above sneak peak that I've picked groups of 4 coordinating prints and that the prints all 'go' with each other. Two of the prints will be the butt of the pants, and two of the prints will be the legs of the pants or the cuff on the opposite side. I've tied off each grouping with a bit of spare fabric so I can keep myself organized when I go to cut.

I plan on making two pairs from each set of 4 so I can dress them alike if I want to, but I'm not necessarily dressing them alike all of the time. These combinations will give me lots of options to coordinate without being too matchy. I like having options! My MIL has my book/pattern at the moment, but as soon as I get it back these stacks will be chopped up pronto!

It's so nice to be moving around and spending some time being creative! Bed rest has been so restrictive. Thanks for staying subscribed to Threaded Mess while I was gone! Hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more from me in the next few weeks...

Happy Quilting

Off Bedrest!

All my hard work on bed rest has finally paid off! The doctor released me to go back to work and resume activities with basically no restrictions! Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and prayers!

Hopefully this will also mean some sewing projects and blogging are in my future!!

Happy Quilting

Twins Update

I just wanted to check in and say hi!!

The twins and I continue to do well on bed rest. My subchorionic hemorrhage has resolved and so has the placenta previa. My next appointment is on May 2nd and hopefully they are going to tell me I don't have to be on strict bed rest any longer!!!

By the way, in case you haven't already heard, the twins are both BOYS! My husband is so excited to have two future hockey buddies on the way and I am super excited to have two mama's boys! Hopefully the doctors will agree that I can start sewing for them soon.

Happy Quilting!!

Grateful!

Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers you've been sending our way! So far the babies are doing great and my condition is starting to improve which is a huge relief.

I still won't be blogging much because I am still on strict bed rest but I wanted to check in.

Happy Quilting!!

Thoughts and Prayers needed

I just wanted to check in really quickly and let you all know that all is not well unfortunately.

I hate to have bad news, but I've been diagnosed with Placenta Previa and a Subchorionic Hemorrhage. I have to be off my feet laying down as much as possible.

So far, the babies don't seem to be in distress but it is a possibility that I could miscarry one or both of the babies if things get worse or don't get better.

Sewing is impossible at the moment so there's not much to blog about.

I will try and keep you posted as things develop but I probably won't be checking in much until things resolve.

Any thoughts or prayers you can send my way would be much appreciated!

Exciting News!

Some news I've been longing to share with you....

(so you see, there were a few reasons for all my laziness!)

Happy Quilting,

Stuck In a Rut

...so I'll be honest...

I haven't sewn since December 8th. That's 2.5 MONTHS!

I have misplaced my sewing mojo somewhere under the piles in my sewing room and it hasn't creeped out to find me. I suppose I'll have to dig for it eventually.

I want to want to sew, but the actual desire eludes me. I want to blog, but I have nothing to share.

How have I been spending my time? Laying on the couch reading or watching tv. Not even hand sewing! So lazy.

I did manage to work on a project with my MIL Ann and some help from Aunt Ginny. I can't share yet, but to be completely honest Ann did all of the sewing. I just helped with picking out the pattern, colors, fabrics, ironing, and cutting out Heat-And-Bond.Ginny was a huge help with ironing, cutting, keeping all the parts and pieces organized, and helped us evenly distribute all the colors. The project turned out great but I can take only a fraction of credit for it.

I do have a good reason for all this laziness which I also can't share yet. All will be revealed in March.

I've thought about buying some new fabric to get my mojo back, but I've been cutting back on expenses to save money. The fabric would have to be really special and stash-worthy to get me to splurge. I would love to pick up some Flea Market Fancy grey and green seeds but it's not available until march. I'd love to pick up some Pezzy but I can't justify paying shipping when I could wait just a little longer, buy both of these lines at the same time, and get free shipping.

I've thought about cleaning up my sewing room and looking at what I already have with fresh eyes. However, I left it in such a mess in December, then I just piled the new stuff in after Christmas, that this task is daunting to say the least.

I've thought about just working on a small project; a quick finish. A Paperback Book Cover perhaps. The desire slips through my fingers like sand, and I'm once again back on the couch resting. I have my hexagon supplies right by the couch just in case I get some energy, but so far they have remained exactly where I originally put them.Untouched.

I'd love some ideas on how to get my sewing mojo back. What do you do when you're stuck in a rut?

Happy Quilting (to those of you who are!)

Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics

Warning: this post is about books not quilting. Reading is actually a big part of my life so you might be seeing more posts here about it. Barnes & Noble has in no way endorsed or sponsored this post. The following is my own unbiased opinion. Images from barnesandnoble.com

Barnes & Nobel Leatherbound Classic

Has anyone seen the newish Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics? I rarely go into book stores these days since Amazon.com prime shipping gets me books in two days with no parking/shopping hassles. However, when I went down to see Liz for her shower, I stopped at her Barnes and Noble to pick up a gift bag and card. On a whim, I walked around a bit and happened to see these awesome books! I couldn't resist picking up a couple to give to the twins...

Now I'm addicted. The bonded leather covers feel soft and sturdy, the edges either embossed in foil or stained, and the stories contain beautiful, classic illustrations. Even the endpapers are decorative! They look and feel like something that should be treasured. I decided I had to have some for our home library.

The first books I picked up were all the 'children stories' like Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, Swiss Family Robinson, etc.

Barnes & Nobel Leatherbound Classics

I'm slowly but surely collecting all my favorite classic children and adult literature to live in our home library, and adding them to my to-be-read pile. You can see some of my recent additions on my Reading Lists page.

One odd addition to our library was the Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classic edition of Gray's Anatomy. Truth be told, I love science. Especially biological science. Knowing full well this book was not the basis for the show 'Gray's Anatomy', I purchased it because the description said the illustrations and text descriptions were incredible.

For it's time (originally published more that 100 years ago), the illustrations are very detailed, even at a cellular level. It's not really a book you 'read' (which is why I didn't claim it in my 2011 Finished list) but I did skim through most of it, and I flipped to sections I was interested in to read in more depth. I am sure I will refer to it for anatomy questions many times in the future. Hopefully it will come in handy for our kiddos' science projects one day.


The first book I plan on actually reading in full is The Iliad and the Odyssey. Isn't the cover beautiful?!

I am just about to finish listening to the Starcrossed (audiobook) which is heavily based on Greek mythology, so I've decided to read the Iliad and the Odyssey in order to understand all the book references to it better. I haven't read a mythology book since the 8th grade when I read Edith Hamilton's Mythology for school. I remember loving that book even though my peers moaned and groaned about it. I am not sure what happened to my original Mythology copy so I've purchased it again.

By the way, I didn't love the narrator of Starcrossed at first, but, as the story picked up, the narration got a lot better. It's probably not fair that I've been listening to the Game of Thrones audiobooks narrated by Roy Dotrice. His narration makes anything sound amateur.

So what's on your reading list these days?

2011

Just thought I would jump on the bandwagon and share a few projects from 2011....

2011 Quilt finishes

2011 Swaps and Gifts

2011 Charity Blocks

It was a pretty productive year because I don't even have pictures of everything I completed. Looking back though, I realize that none of these things, except for a handful of quilted book covers, were for me. I love making things for other people and I love being able to use my quilting skills for charity, but I am running into an issue where one of my quilt guilds is having a quilt show in a couple of months and I have nothing to enter. Nothing.

In 2012 I am looking to change that up a bit. In 2011, I started a paper piecing project which, as you know, is one of the projects on my quilting bucket list:

I've been making flowers from greens and blues with a Kona White border around each flower and a Kona Pond border connecting all of the flowers. This my friends is going to be my main focus of 2012. The hope is that maybe if I dedicate more time than the odd hockey game or road trip, I'll actually finish this queen sized quilt in less than 20 years. Maybe.

Other than this hand sewing project, I am going to continue making blocks for do. Good Stitches, and finish works in progress. I'm going to try to resist flikr swaps and I am not going to join any new charity bees. I was way over committed for 2011 and I'm burnt out. Speaking of being burnt out, I obviously took an unexpected break over the holidays. I needed it but I am sorry for not warning you.

Things might be slowing down for a bit around here. I will still be sharing works in progress (especially the Rainbow I Spy preemie quilts) as they are completed, do. Good Stitches blocks, and if the muses inspire I'll share some new projects. But you might see long pauses between posts. You might also see 5 posts in one week.I can't guarantee one or the other. I hope you'll stick with me and keep me in your reader, even if I am a bit inconsistent with posting.

I hope this new year brings wonderful adventures for all of you, in quilting and in life!

Happy Quilting, and Happy New Year!