I've been away, but not idle...

I apologize for my absence!  My husband and I have been sucked into the whirlwind that is purchasing a house.  We found one we liked, made an offer on it, and that offer was accepted, which set into motion a chain of events we weren't quite prepared for.  For example, we didn't realize that once the sellers accept your offer, you have just five days to do EVERYTHING.  We had to get a lawyer, drop off earnest money, get a home inspection, start our loan paperwork, and have all the down payment money ready right away! It's a "hurry up and wait" situation.  We ran around like crazy people getting everything together, and now we have to wait to get our loan approved (apparently FHA is backed up with loan approvals).  We got word today that the appraisal went well, but otherwise, this week has been blessedly free of anything house-related.  While we are excited to move in and make it our own, we cannot wait to be done with all the legal and monetary aspects of such a purchase.  Seriously, if you ever want to test the limits of your sanity or the strength of your marriage, try buying a house.

On to other things...

Last week, my mums and I got together to work on my first quilt.  We were both sick with colds, so we didn't get as much done as we would have liked, but we are making awesome progress.  Here is the pattern we're working with.  I got some great fabrics from the Summer House collection by Heather Mulder Peterson, and here are some of the blocks so far:

This week my mums and her bestie are in Paducah for AQS Quilt Week, so no work on the quilt this week.  In the meantime, I sewed my very first top!  I used Butterick 5364, which is super simple: just seam the shoulders and sides, then hem the sleeves and bottom.   It also calls for making a neck facing using lightweight fusible interfacing, which I did, but rather sloppily.  I've read of other people making this top without the facing and just making a narrow hem along the neckline.  I may try that next time.  For this top I used a blue cotton lawn by Lisette from Joann.

Tonight after my run, I cranked out a pair of pajama shorts.  I used a McCall's pattern, which I got on sale at Joann for 99 cents, and an adorable whale-print snuggle fleece (my husband thought they were sperm. Go figure).  This was an easy enough pattern, but next time I'm going to shorten the waist, as right now I have the waistband rolled up to prevent a too-baggy crotch.  Very cute and comfy though!

Sorry...not sure why this picture ended up sideways...

A close-up of the adorable fabric!