Do. Good Stitches Again

Hey everyone! I'm still here! The babies are doing great and growing every day. They have learned how to say 'Ah Goo', roll from tummy to back and back to tummy, and sit for a few seconds on their own. They love eating solid foods and when I get on the floor and roll around with them.

Mason (top) is a serious little boy anytime technology is in front of him (like a camera) so I rarely catch him smiling, but when he's not distracted by gadgets he's a very happy guy. Ronan (bottom) is a ham and likes to entertain us with his chattering and giggles. He's almost always smiling except when he is hungry (he thinks he's starving).

The past few months have flown by what with the holidays and the schedule I have to keep with the twins. I have managed to get into my sewing room all of two times, but those two times were lovely. I decided to join Do. Good Stitches again to force myself to take time to sew. It's hard as a new mom to peel myself away from the babies but D.GS is worth it and I love that I'm sewing with my buddy Hollie again!

This time around I'm a sewer instead of a quilter which means that each month I make 2 blocks for the quilter of the month. What did I make you might ask? Well...I don't have much to show for my efforts in December. For some reason I never took pictures of the finished blocks.

These blocks were made using this tutorial by Little Miss Shabby. The grey, white, and black prints and solids were trimmed in pink or orange.

January's blocks were made using this tutorial by Modify Tradition. We were asked to make the quatrefoils using bright solids with a white background. I ended up making both of my blocks with the same color scheme to minimize the amount of time needed for cutting.

I'm hoping my yellow doesn't stand out too much in the quilt because it sure photographed a bit louder than the other colors I used in my blocks.

I really appreciate Hollie getting me back into the sewing room! Thank you all for reading and hanging with me even though I don't get to check in very often!

Happy Quilting!

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