2019 Color Block - March, April & May

Life has sure been busy!  The Snow Storms of February meant extra hours needed to be worked in March, April, and I finally finished them in May.  On top of that I did a 5 week almost full time substitute position at my son's middle school.

Here are the blocks for:

March

April

May

2019 Color Block of the Month - February

This month I am a rebel....a color rebel....you see, I have two boys and I just don't own a lot of pink fabric.  When I looked at Jen's color listing I noticed that there was only 1 pink month.  Remembering that  I wanted to have things a bit more cohesive I went in search of a different color.    The color inspiration for February was a carnation and there were tons of images on Pinterest.  I looked for one that was a yellow because yellow was another color that only had one month.  I also wasn't in love with the pattern, so I tried three colors to highlight the center pinwheel to see if I could add a bit of interest.

Here are my inspiration pictures:

Here is my block based on these colors (it is hard to see, but the pinwheel has just the slightest bit of orange):

2019 Color Block of the Month - January

I had so much fun doing the 2018 Color Block of the Month by Patterns By Jen that I decided to do it again.  So.....2019 Color Block of the Month Challenge here I come!  This time Jen is using flowers as her inspiration.  I had so much fun creating a Pinterest board with inspiration for this year's quilt.  I even asked Santa to bring me a new pack of fat quarters to help me along.  I think I want to try to make this quilt a little more cohesive when it comes to color selection.

January's inspiration was Bells of Ireland:

Here is my block....and yes, I did switch things up.  Someone on the Facebook Group switched their colors so that the dark was the background and I thought that would be an interesting challenge/look so I decided to do the same.

2018 Color Block of the Month - Top Completed

Well, I actually did it.  I have the top completed for the 2018 Color Block of the month by Patterns by Jen.  I wasn't 100% sure that I would like this given that some of the blocks were not my favorites and I was completely fine with finishing it and then donating it somewhere.  However, once I started to put the black sashing in, the quilt came to life and the colors blended so well.  It will be off to the long arm quilter soon!

December Color BOM - Black/White

This is the last month of the 2018 Color Block of the Month by Patterns by Jen.  The colors for the month of December were Black and White.  This month I chose the pattern by Jen which can be found here.  However, I didn't want to use solid white or black because I was pretty sure that I was going to use those colors in the final setting for sashing and borders.  So I modified the pattern a bit to fit the scraps of black, gray, and white that I had.  Here is the block I created:

When I first finished the block, I didn't like it at all!  But once I got it with all the other blocks and put some black sashing near the block, it started to look a whole lot better....more on that to come once I finish the top!

November Color Block of the Month - Blue/Green

Normally I use one of two designers taking part in the 2018 Color Block of the Month, but this month I really wasn't all that crazy about either design.  I am toying with blocks for my last quilt on my yearly quilt goal list.  So, I decided to make my test block out of the Blue/Green fabrics I had and use it as the November block. Here is the result:

What do you think?

October Color BOM - Blue/Purple

Coming on the heels of September when the color was Red/Purple, this month's color challenge was indeed that...a challenge.  I was thinking blueberry colors....blues so dark they looked purple.  I definitely had some help with the fabrics this month.  A huge shout-out to my friend, Molly, for providing half of the fabric for this month's challenge.  Here is the block:

The designer of this month's block is Jen from Patterns by Jen and you can find it here.  You can find out more about the color challenge in general here.  Now, when you look at the directions and my block you might see a little divergence....well, I found the directions to be a tad confusing and I would label the fabrics A, B, C, & D instead of trying to rely on your memory as to which fabric was which shade of blue/purple.  While I like the block and am not taking it out to put fabrics in the correct place, I think it would have been better had I followed the directions exactly.  What do you think?

September Color Block of the Month - Red/Purple

AKA....

Fuchsia

Digging into my stash revealed 2 of the 3 fabrics needed for this month's color block challenge put on by Patterns by Jen.  Thank you to my friend, Molly, for coming to my rescue with the 3rd fabric. I also chose this month to make her pattern, which you can find here.   I learned that flying geese still aren't all that easy and I lost a couple of my points, but maybe I will be the only one to notice.

July Color Block of the Month

This month's color combo was a weird one....yellow-green....you mean like puke green....kinda.  This would not have been my first choice of color.  I have a plethora of green in my stash from two past projects, but I had a hard time finding 3 fabrics that would work.  If it had been dark green, not a problem.  It took several tries to come up with the right combo. In fact, I was in the fabric store getting fabric for a different project and ended up looking in the remnant bin.  Guess what, I got lucky!  There was a small piece of a lighter green-yellow for less than $2.

While this Block of the Month is being devised by Patterns by Jen (and you can see her block here), I chose to make the block that was designed by Powered By Quilting.  It is funny, I seem to have this every other month thing going on between these two wonderful designers.  Even though I bought some fabric for this block, the bulk of the block was made up of scraps, which means that I had limited amounts of the colors.  It also meant that I had to rearrange the colors to fit what size fabric I had left.  I am loving this block that is the result!

June Color Block of the Month

I love June....school gets out....I am done with work until fall.....and this month's color for the Color Block Challenge is PURPLE!  This month my block was designed by Jen at Patterns By Jen.  For as much as I love Purple, I didn't have enough of the right purple for this project and had to call upon some friends.  My friend, Robin, came through and had the purple that reads almost solid that I was able to use....you see....I am trying to use only fabrics that make the whole block "read" the color for the month.  I am actually not sure I succeeded this month because my 2nd fabric was fussy cut from a scrap piece that was left from the back of a different quilt....you be the judge, how did I do this  month?

May Color Block Challenge

So....Happy Accident this month!

I was not paying attention when I pulled the fabrics from my stash for this month's color block challenge and I set them in the wrong order to cut...it was supposed to go from light to dark...well....I mixed up the medium and the dark fabrics....I am happy to say that this was a Happy Accident and I actually really like this month's block!

April Color Block

I do have to say that I love this month's block!  I actually really love the color, which is funny because I had to go buy fabric to complete this month's challenge....orange.  For those of you not familiar, I am doing a monthly color quilt block challenge by Patterns by Jen.  This month, my block choice came from Powered by Quilting.

2018 Color Block of the Month - March

I have to be honest with you guys, I am not 100% in love with this block.  This month I chose to use the pattern that Jen made (here).  Yellow is apparently not something that I use all that often in my quilts because I had to call on a friend to send me some fabric because who wants to buy 5 fat quarters (at roughly $3 each) to make one block....that is the same as at least a yard of fabric! 

Anyway.....back to the block....I made poor cutting choices and ended up not having a wide enough piece of plain yellow left to cut all of the background pieces.  So I used the only other yellow piece of fabric that I had thinking that it had to be different than the triangles....not sure that was such a good idea...I think that is where this block went sideways.....overall I am hoping that you won't notice it when the quilt is all put together.

2018 Color Block of the Month - February

No, the winter blues don't have me down....it is this month's color for the 2018 Color Block Quilt Challenge by Patterns by Jen.  This month I chose to follow her block pattern, but since my blue stash is a little slim, I reversed the dark and light colors.  I love the way it turned out.

2018 Color Block of the Month

January

 

I am participating in this 2018 Color Block of the Month to try and use up some scraps.  I must say that the first block presented (here) was very scary to me for a January block.  However, the cool thing about this Block of the Month is that you can do anything in the month's selected color....this month Red.  So here is my block.  I didn't design it and off the top of my head I can't remember who did.  With this block under my belt, I actually think I might go back and try the presented January block, only maybe in white and red instead of all red.

So....how did January Go???

 

Credit Joanna Vaughan  

 

That is a question that I am trying to honestly answer.  When I break down the different parts this is what I get:

Health:
Fairly decent.  I would not say that my eating has been perfect by any means.  I am still working on drinking enough water and trying not to stress eat as the auction draws closer.

Physical:
I can't say that I have been to the gym all that much.  I am continuing to work out with my trainer, but getting their on my own has been difficult.  Again, the auction is almost here and people are placing a lot of demands on my time to get ready.

Mental: 
If I am 100% honest, I am having trouble here.  If you have ready my last post about the Navy Commander you would probably know that I was shaken to the core and very, very, very angry at both this person and myself.  Myself for letting it get to me and thinking that in anyway he was correct. It was actions unbecoming of an officer.  Anyway I think the hardest time I am having was that I went to a private group and asked for a pep talk from people there.  The response I got was that I was completely wrong for thinking this person was out of line, that people have bad days and it was o.k. that he reacted like this.  After four different people told me that I didn't have a right to be angry I deleted my post.  The fact is that I still think I have a right to be mad.  I don't think that my feelings were invalid.  I am actually really hurt that this community of people who are supposed to be supportive were anything but.  It really made me question if I wanted to continue on my journey. 

Self esteem is something I have struggled with my entire life.  I was never the popular kid in school, I take a while to open up, but when you are in my inner circle you are almost there for life.  I worked very hard through high school to get good grades.  I worked my way through college most semesters while studying Mechanical Engineering at Purdue.  I know I am smart.  Getting married and moving to Seattle was tough, I have no family out here.  I got my first job and got my first taste of discrimination and unequal work assignments.  I got transferred from job site into the office with out a reason.  I was given very little guidance in how to do my office estimation job, then fired because I didn't know how to do it.  My son was stillborn at 22 weeks.  My second pregnancy was 16 weeks of complete bed-rest and 11 weeks of partial.  Yes, I struggle with self esteem issues and depression.

I am getting back on track.  The "Commander" can kiss my ass!  I have not been as active on the private group.  I have not left, but I am very selective about what I answer and/or say now....which to me seems not as authentic but.....

Relationships:
I recently read a blog post about this dad's experience observing another dad in Costco.  You can find the article here if you haven't read it.  It is old, from 2010, but the facts still remain that this is the time that shapes my kids and I need to be present to help them grow and not allow TV, X-box, or video games teach them.  I am trying.  Maybe I need to close my laptop between the hours of 6 and 8 pm?

Action items for the remainder of February:
1.  Drink 6 glasses of water a day
2. Track what I eat at least 4 out of 7 days
3. Work out twice a week
4.  Try a new group work out class that I haven't tried before.
5. Once a week take a 1 hour mental (aka me) time break - read a book
6. Have a friend "date" once a month - coffee, MNO, craft night., etc.

Pep Talk Needed

I need a pep talk. This really has nothing to do with my One Little Word Authentic, but....I am in charge of my kids school auction and each school family is required to donate $$ toward the auction either in the form of actual $ or getting a business to donate. These donations were due before Christmas. A month has passed since they were due and I had to send a letter to the people who did not turn theirs in. I got back a hate filled, name calling, unprofessional e-mail... from a set of parents. To make matters worse these parents used the husbands rank in the military as a bully/intimidation tactic to make them seem more important. I tried to stand up and say that there was nothing wrong with my letter (even has my COO relative read it) and this was bullying. I was told to back off by both the PTO president and the principal. Why is it that even though I didn't do anything wrong I am still the loser here? Why do people like this get away this things like this? I am so mad at them and at myself because for the first 24 hours I really did think I did something wrong. I realized I didn't, so I got my ducks in a row to present that I didn't and now I feel again like I did something wrong. I am trying to be the bigger person here and tell myself to move on and just create the most wonderful event despite these people, but it is hard. Any advice?

Why do kids make us so CRAZY!!!!

So, bad parenting moment for today...yes, today because I am sure that I will have another one tomorrow and the next day and the day after the next day.  You get the idea.

 

  This is what I felt like this morning.  While I may not have looked like it (i.e. no rollers because I have short hair) the feeling this photo evokes is what I felt like.  Connor, 10, got a rainbow loom for Christmas.  It is very challenging for him to make the bracelets due to weak fine motor skills and we have only mastered the very simple one.  Well last night, he took the 4 he had already made off of his wrist and put them God only knows where.  Fast forward to this morning about 10 minutes before school. 

C:"Mom, where did Dad put my bracelets?"
M:"I don' t know, let me call him."
R: "I didn't touch any bracelets last night I just moved some pillows"
C: "I worked really hard on those bracelets.  I want them back!"
M: "We need to get to school, why don't you think about where you could have taken them off and we will look after school."
C: "I don't want to look after school, I want them NOW!!!"
M: "If you can't remember where you took them off, then they are lost because I have no idea where they could be."
C (by now crying): "If you can't find them, I want my time back then!  I worked really hard on those and you don't seem to care."
M: "I do care, I love you, and I know how hard you worked, but we NEED to go to school.  I can look when I get home."
C (in car):"Why am I having such a bad day?"
M: "You need to focus on the positive and think about where you left the bracelets"
C (20 minutes into this): "You don't understand how hard I worked and you don't care."
M (completely loosing it): "What the hell do you want me to do about this?  These are not mine and not my responsibility.  I said I would look when I got home, there is nothing I can do about it now as I am driving down the street.  If you continue to cry and yell then you can get the F*#% out of the car and walk because I don't want to listen to it."
C (sobbing in back of car)

Yes, I am a horrible parent and I should have never said those types of words to my child.  Why is he able to push my buttons so much that I completely loose it?  So while I may have been authentic in how I was feeling, I should have never said those words to my child.  I know that his ADHD meds are off and we are working on getting them fixed, but his ability to drive me to the brink is amazing.  Anyone else ever had a day like this?  How do you keep it from happening again?

Fears and Dreams

My fears...

... not being liked as I open up and being ridiculed (yes, I know I shouldn’t care what other think, but is anyone ever able to do this???)

... losing the people who I would like as inner circle friends because they don't like the authentic me

... not being able to open up with my husband or kids about what I would really like and would make me happy

... not being able to find the things that make me happy

... being so stressed that I quit and clam up again

... not finding the authentic me

I dream about...

... maybe making a friend who I can call when I am in need that doesn’t live 2,000+ miles away

... connecting with my kids to become a fun and lovable mom

... falling deeper in love with  my husband

... learning new things (scrapbooking, photography, crafts)

... finally putting the experiences that hurt me in my past.

... our trip across the country back to the Midwest this summer

More and Less

 

This image from K.Pertiet got me thinking.  I want more of these things, but also:

More Shenanigans (to borrow a word someone else said lately)
More Hugs
More Crafting
More Giving
More Love
More Heart
More Connecting - to husband, kids, & people I know
More Dates
More Healthy Body
More Time - for myself, for my family, & for friends

Less Judgment
Less Feeling like a failure
Less Resentment          
Less YELLING!
Less Putting myself down
Less Anger
Less Depression & Anxiety



Someone made this collage of all the One Little Word 2014 words.  Is there one that speaks to you?