Yes, it's been a while

There's been plenty going on around here, but mostly I want to brag about all the projects I have been able to finish! We stayed home for spring break and it rained most of the time. At least we made it to the dentist and had NO CAVITIES!! That made one mom very happy. I don't know what my kids did that whole week, but they also had two days off this past week and I was still able to get some things done. So, without further ado, during those two weeks with 5 kids home all day except three days, I completed all of the following:

I made up some recipes for swirl bread. It was much easier than making cinnamon rolls, but I think next time I will do the raspberry/cream cheese one with only raspberries, so it will rise a little better and then add the cream cheese with each slice (you can see that it was more flat than the cinnamon one). These were delicious!

I finished a new quilt for Savannah. She has needed one for a few years now, and I finally had an excuse to give the room a makeover. I designed the blanket, pieced it and machine quilted it.

I then hand quilted some designs on the larger squares with butterflies, dragonflies, flowers, and hearts.

I also made curtains to match for the girls' room.

My favorite part of these is the accents with the darker green fabric (which also has pink in it) and the buttons along the tabs.

I made a book caddy for Savannah to hang on her bed in hopes that she can keep books in it instead of all over the place. 

It tucks between the mattress and box springs.

It also hides the reading light we got for her from her brothers, but now she doesn't have to have her light on all hours of the night to read anymore (Savannah says she's spoiled-and I think she's right).

I also completed 90 scrapbook pages to get six books caught up to November 2011 (I didn't take a picture of these, but maybe I should).

AND NOW THE REAL MIRACLE....

I FINISHED THE LIGHTHOUSE QUILT!! I designed this quilt when we lived in California five years ago and pieced it in our other Idaho house. It only took about a month to cut all the pieces and get it put together, but then I decided to hand quilt it and it's been at least four years now.

By the time my littlest person got big enough to let me work on it I didn't have much time before we had another little person, but it is now officially finished. I did the pillows in two days. That was fast and easy!

This is to prove that I really started from nothing with this one. My design is on the left along with a sheet that shows all of the individual pieces it would need (separated into individual segments so I could create templates--yes, out of cereal boxes). The last papers were my cutting layouts so I would know how much fabric I needed of each color (and yes, I did calculate correctly and have just a bit left over of each) and my beautiful cereal box templates are there on the bottom. When I got this out again to make the pillows I was very impressed with my own organization and as I cut the pieces for the pillows I honestly wondered what in the world I was thinking on this one and how I was ever able to do the entire quilt. I guess all of the meticulous planning paid off because the piecing went together perfectly!

Now I am going to officially inform our new baby that I have no projects left and she needs to come before I go crazy. We will see if it works!