Week 26 | Cat's Claw #2 + Open Star

Week 26 | Cat's Claw #2 + Open Star 

Annetta | I planned on making a different square, but my to-do list pilled on high before vacation and I had to pick a simpler square to complete. I think the Cat's Claw is an okay pattern, but not my favourite by any means. I, in the end, changed up many of the rows to make a different type of square. I'm not sure what I think of the end result? Thoughts?! Next week I will be joining ALL my square which might take me forever. I've never joined a blanket before so we'll see how it all goes. After joining it all together I just have the border left and then onto a whole new blanket that will be warm, woolly and ready for winter. Also, excuse my ugly picture of the square. I've had such a busy week that I forgot to photography the square until 9:30pm today. 

Favorite moment of the week: This week has been a crazy week with cleaning. I had to clean because the day Stephanie get back from vacation is the day I leave for mine. We also had invited our church family over for a game night, which was the highlight of the week for sure. With all of that, the best part is sitting back an enjoying your clean house. I didn't just clean it, I spring cleaned it from top to bottom and it took 3 days of non-stop work. So worth it!

Stephanie | I am now officially on round 2 of my blocks. This is the same block from Week 20. When I cut it out it left me with enough fabric pieces to make a 2nd square, so I saved that for my week on vacation. I pre-made this block to have when I am out of town. Everything about this block is the same as the original, based on how it is sewn together, there is no variation.    

Favorite moment of the week: I'M ON VACATION - WOOHOO!

Week 25 | Autograph + Sweet & Fair #2

Week 25 | Autograph + Sweet & Fair #2

Stephanie | Traditionally this Autograph block was used by the maker to put their mark or autograph prior to gifting the quilt. I thought this would be a cool block to have in this project quilt and it allows me to write the name A Year to Inspire. I had to do some finagling with cutting it out though. The pattern had additional squares in the main center block, which gave the signature space a plus sign look. I knew this wasn't enough space to write the full name, so I make the center block one large square. But somehow in all the chaos of my week, I was unable to think properly and cut my center square too large, not taking in the seam allowance for the outside ring. So I had sewn my outside columns together before seeing my mistake, so I had to try and measure the seam and cut the center according to my measurements, but then I ended up cutting too small and my outside seams done line up. Ugh! Then I tried to make a cross stitch pattern for my wording, but that didn't work. So I ended up tracing the letters from the book pictured and am trying my hand at embroidery. I didn't get it finished, I am leaving for vacation and just wasn't able to get it done, but hopefully on our long car ride Ill finish it.

Favorite moment of the week: My girls went to Vacation Bible School on base all well. So that added to the craziness of this week, but it was so good for them! I had to pick an easy square this week because I am running out of colors with only one more square to go before I put the whole crochet blanket together. Who wants to buy more yarn just for a few rows of crochet? I made do with what I had on hand already. The square most definitely didn't turn out ugly, but better than the first version. It also turned out a bit wonkier than the first version, but hopefully, that will straighten out once the whole blanket it assembled. I also used the charcoal I said I wouldn't use anymore, but in this square it just made sense. I could see this pattern as a gorgeous pillow.

Annetta | I am beyond late posting this... Forgive me, it's been crazy! 

Favorite moment of the week: We went camping for the first time! Like in an actual tent! My son's school had an end of the year event where we boat down the river as a school and camp on the other side. It was perfect. I loved the campsite, the experience, but saddened that it was just for one night. It was so much fun that I would have stayed for a coupled of nights for sure. I think we are hoping to stay for a weekend sometime this summer, but we will see because our summer is overwhelmingly full and I like it.

Week 24 | Lisa #2 + Posy Basket

Week 24 | Lisa #2 + Posy Basket

Annetta | I remember the last time I did this square it took longer than 2 weeks for me to actually finish it. In all truth, I finished the first square today this week, week 24! I was worried that it was already time to do my second one. It didn't work out too well last time. To my surprise, I was inspired to get it done and finished it in one day! It is Thursday and my square is done and photographed and I had just started it yesterday. That is such a win for me because now I can focus on other projects and actually getting this house cleaned. I love the way I worked up this new square. There is no blue in it with just a hint of the last of the purple I had. The design pops with a plain white background. It's maybe one of my favourite squares.

Favorite moment of the week: I LOVED going on a date with my husband. We go almost every Friday, but this time it was different. The sun was nice and hot so it made it very romantic as we got to sit outside the European style. We ate at home, like most days, but we went out for drinks and a nice long walk. It's a time where we get to talk, flirt and just be the two of us. I would have to say it was the best moment of the whole week. 

Stephanie | I saved this pattern for the end of round one. It calls for many different colored squares pieced together to make a basket, a very traditional block. I pulled out all my scrap pieces I have saved through this project so far and was able to use only scraps. This option however left the block not as crisp and defined as it would if I used more of the same tones like the pattern suggests. I did also over look the fact that I have two of the same color blocks touching. I was focused on making the basket print stand out and missed it, oh well.

Favorite moment of the week: My favorite moment for this week was being able to do a photo shoot. I haven't been working on my photography for the last few years and I have missed it. A few weeks back we were in town for a parade and I noticed how beautiful the town streets and building were and thought it was the perfect spot for a photo shoot. I attempted to take some pictures on my girls, but they just wanted to be goofy and not take it seriously. Then I remembered our pastors are expecting a baby soon, so I thought I would offer a maternity shoot. So on Friday night we got to go out and take some pictures. We had a lot of fun, and then both of our families went out to dinner after.

Week 23 | Colorado Beauty + Fantastic #2

Week 23 | Colorado Beauty + Fantastic #2

Stephanie | This Colorado Beauty block came out slightly wonky and off center, but its done! Our power was shut off over the weekend due to high fire risk and high winds in our area. So I was without my sewing machine for a while. This pattern is made of 4 flying geese and 4 left diamond rectangles. These ended up being very similar to the flying geese when making them. With the flying geese, the sew lines are diagonal going down from the top center. The left diamond rectangle has one side sewn like the flying geese, and the other sews in the opposite direction making the diamond shape rather than the V shape.

Favorite moment of the week: One of my favorite moments this week was finishing up this baby quilt and gifting it. I've been secretly sewing this blanket this last month. I was happy to finish it in time. This was the one where the fabric was delivered to the wrong mailbox. 

Annetta | After finishing this square I realized that my crochet blanket was getting way too big. I will be finishing up three more squares before I start another blanket but with time a winter one with wool. Honestly, this is the second time I am writing up this post. For some reason, the first one got deleted and I couldn't get myself to write up another post for the longest time hence why this post is just so late! Lately, I've been working on personal projects and gifts which makes me forget that I have a square to do for this project. When Thursday rolled around I was left a bit surprised that I had forgotten all about my square. Somehow I pulled myself together and whipped up a square only to find I didn't have enough yarn of a particular color. Later I just used another color because who wants to buy more yarn when the whole project is coming to an end. I loved working up the square, but I didn't love it when I changed the background color to blue. I think the squares, in general, have too much color going on and would be better with just three colors. 

Favorite moment of the week: The past weekend we had the church retreat. During the retreat, we all did our own thing. It made me feel a little sidtant from my family so when we went out for ice cream on Monday it definatly was my favorite moment. That time together connceted me again and we had so much fun just taking that simple walk to enjoy the ice cream together. I hope we do more of that this summer!

Week 22 | Bavarian Beauty + Diamonds

Week 22 | Bavarian Beauty + Diamonds

Annetta | Another week, another square! Can you believe it? We have been working on this project for half a year already! Now that I am well into the second round of the crochet squares I honestly thought my second one would be perfect and flawless... well, that's not the case. This weeks square feel like a flop to me. It doesn't lay flat like the first one and it seems like it is smaller and tighter also. I'm also not sure about the colors I picked. What was I thinking this week? Oh yeah, get my square done before our church retreat. In the end, it turns out that this is not my favorite squares to make. If I don't make this pattern ever again I would be okay with that. I'm hoping that it will fade out in the blanket once it's done. Now that I am looking at the square I can see my mistake. The gray should have been a brighter color and not gray.

Favorite moment of the week: This week we had a church retreat. That was my favorite part, well the playing games at the retreat was my favorite part. On another note, my first real rose has started to bloom! I also planted tomatoes and radishes in my urban garden. It's all starting to look so pretty!

Stephanie | I was originally going to work on a pattern called Bear Paw. But the colors in the pattern were uninspiring, and I wasn't able to come up with a color scheme that looked right for that pattern. So instead I picked a new pattern! I liked this one because it gave me the option to use many different fabrics, most of which I haven't used yet this year. There were 8 fabrics, not including white, for this block, all in a blue hue with a few pinks added in. Simple half square triangles arranged to made a diamond shape.

Favorite moment of the week: Celebrating the last day of school for the year and putting together our summer bucket list. We haven't had to live within the confines of a public school calendar before, so now we are "limited" to an actual summer break. And with that I felt it was important to make a summer bucket list of all the things we want to do while on break so we don't miss the chance to do them.