After finding out that JoAnn Fabric released a line of fabric for the Kentucky Derby, I ran to the store to scoop up some of it. The patterns were awesome and complimented each other so well. I knew that I wanted to try to make a simple quilt out of it but knew that I had one week before the big race. I also knew that naptime was going to have to become the time when I worked on it.
Lucky for me, my little man was super good last week and he allowed me to work and finish his quilt. I wanted something special for him to celebrate his first Derby. I have to say that it turned out super cute and it was a good thing because it was cool out that day and we needed the extra blanket.
Here is little man watching the race coverage on the first Saturday in May on the boat. We had a great time watching the race!
We were all excited to see Nyquist win the race and look forward to Black Eyed Susan Day and the Preakness. We just might have to pull the blanket out for that race as well and use it over the next couple of races!
While pregnant, especially towards the end, I became absolutely horrible about cooking. I was just not feeling up to it and even when I did cook, it didn’t always appeal to me after it was done.
Needless to say both Sean and I are very happy that I am back to cooking and he has been a huge help in cooking lately. Give him something to grill and he is completely down for it. Some of the recipes that we have tried lately, are definitely blog worthy. Unfortunately, the first two I didn’t take pictures of the finished product.
The first was spinach artichoke stuffed mushrooms. We had these with steak one night and they were sooo good. Sean even took one of the leftovers for lunch one day which says a lot because he isn’t always crazy about mushrooms. Here is where I found that recipe.
The second one was pesto stuffed scallops. This we had with a side salad and they were simply amazing. We should have gotten more scallops but we had no idea that we were going to like them so much. These were also super easy to fix. Here is where I found that recipe.
Two more. These I actually remembered to take photos but one I made up the recipe so I will have to see how much I can remember. The first was a zoodle with pesto and shrimp. This is the one without the recipe. I used a squash and zucchini with my spiral cutter to make “noodles”. I sautéed them with some onions and spinach. Topped it with pesto and shrimp. I am pretty sure my 5 week old probably hated me for this meal but it was so yummy. Sean wasn’t home for this meal and we would have had to do it much differently because he can’t have the shrimp. I thought it was fantastic and will probably try to fix it again sometime when he isn’t home.
The last one was incredible and I think this is the dish that Sean said, “Thank goodness you are cooking again.” It was a spinach and sun-dried tomato stuffed salmon. Oh so yummy and we will probably try to make this one again in the future. It was that good. After looking at the recipe, I did change one thing though. I don’t like feta so we used what we had and used Brie. It gave it a very creamy filling.
That is all for now. There are big plans in the works for Derby week as Sean has requested we make lots of traditional southern and Derby dishes for the week leading up to Derby. And just for cuteness factor, I leave this post with this picture..
Finally, I feel like we actually have the nursery complete.
I knew before we even got pregnant that I wanted to do the nursery in a nautical theme. I didn’t really care if it was a girl or a boy because I could always add splashes of pink if it is a girl. You have already seen a couple of posts about the inspiration board I made for the room. This gave me a good starting point with a few changes and progress was made. I’ve also talked about the quilt that I made for the room.
The one project I haven’t really talked about was the curtains. I decided that I wanted to make the curtains for the room, that way I got exactly what I wanted. I got extra luck and a blizzard came and my mom and I were trapped in our house. She was soooooo much help, I am not sure what I would have done without her help on this one. They turned out really nice and of course I forgot to take pictures of us making them.(Probably due to the number of times I walked from one room to another between sewing and ironing.)
So what did the room turn out looking like? Without further adieu …….
Only thing left is the rocking chair. The rocking chair will make its journey out east once Baby Caff decides to arrive. My mom and dad will be bringing it. It is an antique from my mom’s side of the family and we are looking forward to having it in the nursery when they get here!
Credits for the Nursery Project:
Quilt Pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew
Book Case from eBay
Prints on Wall from Etsy
Pattern I used for curtains
Tutorial I used for book bin
Sewing through tears can be a difficult task. This project took me longer than what a normal project would take me but emotionally, I could only do a little at a time. I knew that I didn’t really have to get this done right away but I really wanted to get it done before Baby Caff gets here. I achieved that goal with the help of a Blizzard and an extra snow day.
Every time I would sit down to work on this project I was flooded with tears or memories, sometimes both. Back in December, I posted about losing both of my grandparents in a short period of time. That week we worked on cleaning out their apartment, right before Christmas. My job along with my cousin and her girls was to clean out their closet. As we were going through all of these clothes, we started talking about remembering them wearing certain shirts to certain places or things we did with them. All of a sudden, I decided that I would try to make a quilt remembering the two of them together in one place. I let everyone choose what they wanted, a wall hanging or a full size lap quilt. The final order was 5 wall hangings and 4 quilts. At 27 weeks pregnant, apparently I thought I could do anything.
Every single one of them turned out completely different. All I could think about was that each of us has different memories with Grandma and Grandpa and that it was completely appropriate for them to be different. I also tried to include shirts that were specific to that person or something that they shared with one of the two of them. There is one thing that was consistent on all of the quilts and that is each one has a shirt and tie of Grandpa’s on it. The tie is overlaid on the shirt like it would have been worn.
The wall hangings were the first part of this project and they turned out pretty much how I was thinking that they would come out. I wasn’t exactly sure how big they would be though and they didn’t really turn out to be a traditional size but I think they turned out to be just right.
First up is the one for my aunt. She was the oldest of the two girls and something that she shared with my grandparents was working at the Salvation Army. Ultimately, their involvement at the Salvation Army has now led to the whole family being involved, especially at Christmas. I found a t-shirt that belonged to one of them in a drawer and knew that it was to go on my aunt’s wall hanging.
My mom’s was up next. Her wall hanging ended up getting a couple of different pieces on it. She ended up with a New Albany Bulldog towel from a basketball game and one of grandpa’s Kiwanis shirts. I’m not sure why she got the Kiwanis shirt, it just worked out that way but the Bulldog was where she went to school and her love for basketball just like my grandparents.
My one and only cousin was the next one I worked on. I knew exactly what I was going to try for her. We found Grandpa’s IU hat that he wore all the time. Since my brothers and I all went to Purdue and she was the only one that shared their love of IU (besides my mom and aunt), it was only appropriate. Luckily I was able to get it cut off of the hat and it worked, even though I doubted my abilities.
My brothers are probably the two that are the closest when it comes to looks. The blocks are in all different order but the only difference is that the color of the Lackawanna shirts are different. I knew as soon as we found them that the boys were the ones to get these. The first one below has extra pieces of Grandpa’s shirts worked into the corners as well. One of the boys has already mentioned that he is going to try to put a couple of Grandma’s broaches in the corners that don’t have a shirt. I think it is going to look really nice if he decides to do that.
Next up were four regular sized quilts. At first, I thought I was going to be able to make the whole quilt out of blocks of their clothing. Then I started sewing all of the fabrics together and quickly realized that it was going to be super hard to make that happen. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t going to make up the whole blanket but all of the different fabrics were making it very difficult to sew and quilting the small ones was hard enough. Instead I decided to make them the center piece of the blanket with a thick border. Since it wasn’t working out the way I decided to go ahead and make the back of the blanket more personalized with fabric that fit the kids’ personalities. I was also able to get fleece for the backs as well making them much warmer. The last one pictured is my quilt.
Mine has a jacket from Grandpa’s school and a t-shirt from Grandma’s days in the Administration building. I was the only one to follow in their footsteps into education so it was a neat to include those on mine.
Hopefully everyone likes them. I am glad to have them all wrapped up before Baby Caff gets here.
What was I up to over the week long break where I was pretty much snowed in? A little shopping for Baby Caff, trying to keep the house a little cleaned up from all of the dust, and TONS of sewing. Upon coming back from the holidays, I set a really, really ambitious goal for myself. 3 baby blankets for others that are having babies right around the same time, curtains for the baby’s room, and a project for the family that includes nine different finished pieces. I can honestly say that I have finished almost all but the family project and it is well on its way. Just
On to the quilts though. I can’t believe I actually finished five quilts over the last week. Granted two of the quilts were already put together but needed to have edges put on them but still they were finished this week. So here you go!
Here are the two that needed edges. The first is one for the boat that I worked on last summer and just slacked off when it came to finishing it. The second was one that I worked on last July at home in Indiana and was too lazy, again, to put the edges on it. This one will end up getting shipped to somebody, someday for their new bundle of joy.
After that it was on to the quilts that I was planning on making for others that are having their first little one. The first one is for a co-worker from the job that I left last June. Her and I had become really close and we would have had so much fun comparing bellies at work, had I still worked there. She is having a little girl and I LOVE how girly this blanket came out. I think that she is going to really like this a lot. 
The next one is for someone in Sean’s family who is due in May and they don’t know the sex of the baby. I fell in love with this one in general. It turned out even better than what I thought it was going to turn out and they got lucky. I had just enough material left to make them a couple of matching burp cloths to go with the quilt.
The last quilt is for a friend from college. I just found out that she is having a girl last weekend but knew that I only have a short period of time to get it finished before our little one gets here. I really hope she likes this one.
More to come on the curtains and the family project soon.
Leave A Comment