Rebecca Danger

Happy 2016!

Hey friends!

I know, I know, a little late on the New Year wishes there, Rebecca. But since I haven't posted since August, and it is not even February yet, I'd say I'm doing OK.

Just a quick note to say hi! I am still alive. I did a little blog facelift here (still working out the kinks, like I didn't know you could automatically do a signature...), and an etsy shop facelift, and I've even been working on a couple patterns! I'm planning to start getting them posted pretty quick here, too.

Oh, and did you see I have a new book coming out very soon? Exciting stuff!

Hope you all are doing well. Post soon.

Planning and Scheming

Hello friends!

How are you guys? I went to the Epic Meetup for the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild this weekend and had a blast. Didn't get a ton of sewing in at the sew-in, but did meet a bunch of awesome people, get lots of good conversations in, and saw some spectacular projects. Oh, and I won a door prize!

I have 4 gift quilts I am working on right now. Two I mentioned last week for the neighbors, and 2 more for a couple of P's therapists because we will be moving from our current clinic to this new ABA clinic next week, and once school starts, we won't have time for the therapy we have been doing until this point. These gals have been so helpful and P is doing so much better in so many areas, I want to give them a big thank you. The neighbors quilts are all ready to get quilted, but I bought a new sewing machine last week (!!!!!) so I was waiting to get it before I quilted them. And since I was waiting, I started piecing these other 2 gift quilts. Sheesh. When I do something I go all in. 

So anyway, I am going to get these 2 tops pieced hopefully today, and then this will be the week of quilting. I bought a "quilting" machine, so it has more space not only from the needle to the right side of the machine (throat, or harp space), but it is also like twice as tall as the space on my old machine, which means I will be able to fit my quilts through a wee bit easier. I think I will do a post about my machines at some point because I always get questions on them. But not today since I am really looking forward to sitting down and putting in some hours and bonding with my new machine. I've got to name it. Hopefully I will come up with something as I get to know her. Or him?

And while I am sewing, I have been feeling like making some changes in my life here recently so I am going to contemplate those. Hence the scheming in the post title.

Hope you all have a great week! I will be sure to stop in here and post some pictures on my progress. Also come follow me on Instagram for even more pic updates!

Thanks for visiting me!

This Week

Hello friends!

I've been quiet this week since I decided last Sunday to make a kid's quilt and a baby quilt and have them done and ready to give by 3pm this afternoon (today is saturday). Sheesh. P has discovered our 2-houses-up neighbor is a 4 year old girl, and we spent the afternoon last weekend playing with her. He then got invited to her 5th birthday party today, so I immediately decided I would make her a quilt. Because that's what I do. Oh, and did I mention they have a 3-week old baby boy, who I also decided needed a quilt? Oh yeah, that too. Hence 2 quilts done in a week. And also hence no blogging, since I have been sewing like a maniac. Although, that pretty much describes me every week.

Well, I have been working this week, but we had a couple out of the norm doctors' appointments again which took a chunk of sewing time, and I have not gotten nearly as much done as I had hoped this week. Also, I got to 11pm wednesday night, sat down to sew all my blocks together and add the sashing on the little girl's quilt, and realized I had done some fuzzy quilt math and was 6 blocks short. D'oh! Since thursday and friday we are out pretty much all day for therapy, I ordered an emergency present on Amazon and decided I will finish the quilts as I can, and just call them "new baby gifts" hopefully sometime this week. I got this.

Oh, did I mention I have 2 more quilts I need to make as thank you gifts by the first week of September? If I am going to do something, I am going to do it well.

Hope you all are having a lovely week! I will hopefully have lots of finished quilt pictures here very soon! 

Thanks for visiting me!

Blargh.

So, though it looks like I was productive last week with my finished Fox Quilt post and my Fox pattern posts, those things were ready in advance and behind the scenes we have been hit with the plague. OK, maybe plague is a little dramatic, but seriously, whatever this is it is horrible. We have all had fevers, Mr Danger has had this for 2 weeks now (and happily shared it with the rest of us last week), none of us are sleeping because we are up all night coughing, there is throwing up, cold sweats...you get the idea.

Needless to say not a ton of craftiness has been happening for me. Since I have been on the couch watching movies with the kids, I did start working on designing my next knitting pattern, but I am wondering how it will look once out of this cold pill induced, flu-headed crazy state I feel myself in. We will just have to see.

I did manage to piece the back of the little quilt I'm working on for Quilting Mayhem yesterday, and I got it basted, so I am hoping to sit down and do a little quilting today, once my cold pills kick in. Hopefully I can get this little guy finished. And, I pulled out fabric from stash, and bought backing fabric (plus a couple little new matchy fabrics to go with those from stash) plus binding and batting to make another quilt that I got all excited about last week (before the plague hit), so hopefully I will get to a little cutting and piecing on that guy this week, too. Gonna set my crafty plans low again this week so I can hopefully achieve them!

What about you guys? Has everyone realized school starts super soon so you all are heading out on vacation? Or are you savoring the last lazy days of summer and getting lots of knitting and sewing in while you relax at home with the fam?

Thanks for visiting me.

 

Another Update

So I have posted this post and this post about what has been going on around here recently, and now we have even more information, so I thought I would update y'all.

Presley was officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder this last week. I was pretty sure it was coming, but it has felt like a big blow and really threw me last week. Hence the lack of posts.

I think with our "undiagnosed" diagnosis I felt like we might be able to get out of ASD, or maybe I was just crazy and I would wake up one morning and everything would be "normal," or something. But, it is official now, and I am trying to figure out what that means for me, my family, my work, and everything else. For Presley I don't feel like it changes much: the behaviors are still there and we are dealing with each one like we were before having an official diagnosis. For me, I feel like it changes how I feel about the whole situation.

Thanks for visiting me and sharing in my life story.

This Week's Plans

Hey friends!

We had a long week around here last week, but I did manage to get my Fancy Fox quilt done! Not only done, I got pictures taken of it so I will be sharing it this week! Yeah! 

I also managed to get started on a couple things I agreed to make for my local quilt shop, Quilting Mayhem, got all the test knit patterns sent out for my book that comes out next spring, did some knitting on my Campside, made a one hour basket, downloaded and bought supplies for a divided basket, and got some fancy pants shelves up in my office to hold my books. Wow, it didn't feel like a very productive week, but that looks like a lot when I type it all out.

This week I plan to finished up the samples for the quilt shop, and maybe get started on another quilt. Or, maybe finish my Hexi Queen, since the quilt top has been hanging in my office next to the batting and backing and binding fabric for like 2 months now. I just haven't decided if I wanted to machine quilt it, or maybe try my hand at hand quilting it. Or maybe I will make my divided basket. We will see. 

What are you guys up to? As scattered on the crafty plans as I am?

Thanks for visiting me!

Quilt the Fancy Fox Quilt, Take 2

Hey friends! How are you guys doing? Is it as hot where you are as it is here? Yikes.

So, last week was not as productive as I would like it to have been. Our extra doctors appointments ended up eating up one of my work days, and then I took another one of my work days to work on cleaning out the garage. When the weekend finally rolled around I was ready and itching to get quilting on my Fancy Fox quilt. I spent about 4 hours Saturday morning quilting on my sewing machine, only to discover something had gone totally wrong and my lines that were suppose to be 1" apart were running in to each other. So I had to pull everything out. I thought I could salvage 2 seams, but by the time I had ripped out the other 20 (or however may there were. It was too depressing to keep track) I decided to give up on that plan for quilting and go back to my original idea instead and ended up pulling everything out so I could start over. So, I spent 4 hours quilting and about 15 (or so) hours picking out stitches. Awesome. And, it was unbelievably hot for Washington state this weekend, and there I was sitting under a quilt picking out stitches. It was actually so unbelievably hot that we ended up ordering an ac unit yesterday afternoon. It hit 92 in our house and stayed there for about 5 hours until after 9pm. We in Washington state are not built for temperatures that high. I mean, maybe some of us here are, but definitely not this family.

So, my crafty plans for this week are very much the same as my crafty plans for last week: get this quilt quilted and bound and done. I'm setting my expectations low this week so that I can meet my goal this time around.

How about you guys? Are you having better crafting luck than me? Got any big, or little, crafty plans for the week?

Thanks for visiting me!

Plans

Hey friends! How are you guys doing this week?

I had a lovely weekend filled with knitting. I knit with my friends down here in Everett for like 6 straight hours on Saturday afternoon. It was a lovely, fun time. Then, Shannon and Jane were down from Canada to do a trunk show at Tolt on Sunday afternoon. A couple of my favorite people at my favorite yarn shop? Yes please! My knitting friends came down from Bellingham (where I used to live) and we went out to enjoy the trunk show and get some knitting in. We of course stopped at a delicious bakery in Duvall on the way, since we were driving past it to get to Tolt. Then, after, we went out for some food, and while we were on our way to drop me back at home, Shannon started to text me and let me know about dinner plans, so I got dropped off by one group of friends and immediately turned around and went out to dinner and knitting with another lovely group of gals. What a fab couple of days!

I'm feeling excited and inspired to be back in my office here this morning, thanks to getting in so much knitting and friend time this weekend. I am planning to get my fox quilt top all finished, sandwiched, and quilted this week. Then I have big plans to get started on my next couple patterns! One of my best girlfriends from Bellingham has started dying beautiful yarn and brought some down for me to use in my next pattern, so I am itching to get knitting with it. I also really need to vacuum all the thread off the floor of my office and make a couple organizational things to keep everything together and in place in my office (I've got my eyes on this and these). And we have several beyond-the-normal doctors' appointments this week, which mean less crafty time. Big plans! We will see how the week goes. I am really just hoping to get the fox quilt done, since every time P sees me working on it he says, "I want that on my bed now." Also the vacuuming, since you know, the whole keeping sanitary conditions in your home thing.  I think I can at least do those two things!

How about you guys? Got any big crafty plans for the next few days? Or are we in the heart of the summer travel season and you are off to exciting adventures? Maybe knitting adventures?

Thanks for visiting me!

PS: You can keep up to date with my daily haps on instagram.

What I'm Up To This Week

Hey all! How are you? We are good, just trying to beat this crazy abnormal pacific northwest heat. We are hitting 90 in our house, yikes!

I am pretty excited because I am starting to get back to work, like officially, with work hours even! After much soul searching and agonizing about making the right decision for the kiddos, and myself, I decided to hire a babysitter for a few hours a week, and I have been taking advantage of the time she is here and have been pattern writing. Exciting, right? I have sort of fallen down on the pdf pattern releasing since P was born, and I am wanting to get back into it. I keep getting down on myself and saying, "I have gotten NOTHING done the last 4 years!!!" but then I remember, I have written 6 books, 4 already out and 2 that come out next year. And 5 of those 6 books have been written since P was born, 2 since Wee was born, so really, I am doing just fine. I think the pdf patterns make me feel more accomplished because they are so much more instant gratification, and I can track things with like listings in my etsy shop and of course sales in my etsy shop (I am just shy of 10,000, wowza!!!!!!). 

So, this week I am wrapping up a new knitting pattern AND a new sewing pattern and sending them out for layout and testing. After I get that done, I am planning the next knitting and sewing pattern. I am also making a couple samples up with plans to teach a few classes at a new quilt shop right by my house. And finally, I have a quilt I have been wanting to do, that sorta goes with the sewing pattern I am finishing, that I get to start as a "reward" for getting these patterns to layout. 

Yeah! That sounds like quite the pile of work, now that I type it out.

What are y'alls crafty plans for the week? Any one else finding their hands are getting too sweaty to knit in the heat?

TGIF

Ironically, I haven't really thought about what day of the week it is since high school. Since I have worked for myself and worked at home/worked every day I pretty much always forget what day of the week it is. Even in college my classes were generally 2 or 3 days a week, so I always managed to find chunks of time to do what ever I wanted.

Since kiddos, and especially now with this 4 day a week therapy schedule I am more aware of the days of the week. The last couple weeks in particular Mr Danger has worked long weeks, on 6 days in a row this week, so I find myself really excited today that it is friday! I have big sewing plans for the weekend, since Mr Danger will be home tomorrow afternoon and all day sunday and I can get some uninterrupted sewing time. 

So, my plan for the rest of today and tomorrow morning is to get all the sorting and purging done in my office so I can get to sewing! I am feeling incredibly excited about this, if you can't tell! In fact, both kids are down for a nap at the same time right now and instead of taking a nap as well, I am choosing to be up and working. Now that's excited.

How about you guys? Got any big crafting plans for the weekend?