Camping, School, Work and everything in between!

I need a million extra hours in the day. What in the world. I'm sure you know the feeling.  There's just never enough time in the day for everything you have to do and everything you want to do.

Like blogging. :)

Bryce and I recently went on two AMAZING trips and I'm dying to blog about them and post my zillions of pics. We flew to California for our 6 year anniversary, rented a Camero Convertible and drove Highway 101 down the coast from San Fransisco to San Diego. Then for our summer trip and Rowley Family Reunion, we got all our gear ready and made a camping road trip out of it. We started from home here in Texas, drove to Palao Duro Canyon and camped. Next day we drove up through Santa Fe and almost to Durango, and found an amazing spot up in the mountains and camped. The next day, Sunday we got up and got ready for church, headed down the mountain and went to church in Durango and then headed up to Telluride, CO. We camped that night up at Alta Lakes, CO. It was seriously the most beautiful place!!! We were going to stay a second night but had troubles with the truck so we left the next evening and camped in Moab, UT. The following day we drove to Heber  City and stayed at my sisters house and saw her family and Eric's family. Then headed into Logan and saw some old friends. Then went to Bear Lake and met up with my family for our family reunion!! It was so fun and awesome to see everyone. (Except Jana's family :( but at least I saw her back in March for Kimi's shower in VA!) Once it was over we drove super fast back to Texas......PHFEW!!!! It was a crazy but totally awesome trip. I can't wait to post pics!!!

In the meantime I can do a wordy post about what's going on with us these days.

I'm learning more about blogging. As you can see up top, I've added PAGES. I was crazy excited (like total nerd excited) when I found out I could add that feature. I'm so behind the times but ... that's ok. I also added LABELS. I've seen them on blogs alot in the past and never felt like I needed them but in the last year or so, I get so many hits from women looking up info on IVF or quilting or my Art or whatever....I figured it was time. :)

Bryce: oh man, he's kickin butt in school. He's getting so close to finishing. We can taste it! Last week he was turned over from his normal instructor to a more advanced pilot for some fine-tuning and then just yesterday he was turned over to the chief pilot. They went on a two-hour flight and the chief pilot just sat back and let Bryce 'teach' him. He was telling me last night about the flight and all the awesome maneuvers he did and how one of them he did it 'passably' but wasn't amazing so he asked for some tips so the chief pilot demonstrated and talked him through and then let Bryce do it.....and it was perfect! He was super happy. Bryce loves perfecting his flying. :)
So when they landed, he told Bryce he'll be more than happy to hire him when they have a slot open up (and after he actually takes his tests!) The school is expanding so they're expecting to need more pilots in the next few months so we're hopeful that he'll be hired on as a Helicopter Flight Instructor once he finishes here in 2-3 months. (hopefully less).
So I'm really proud of him. These tests are seriously intense and he's doing fabulously.

My art business is picking up - which is awesome. I just have to find the time to do it all!! I have several orders to fill (2 acrylic paintings, curtains, two possible quilts and nursery decor). I love the variety! I'm feeling more and more hope that this will continue to grow so that down the road, I can stop working outside the home and be able to focus solely on my Art/Sewing/Crafting business....and hopefully babies, of course.

Work is the same for me. Still driving 45 mins to work every day and draining my gas tank way too fast.

I'm still working with the YW in our ward. I'm the first counselor so I'm over the Mia-Maids. Right now we only have two active mia-maids so we combine with the Beehives. But we're considering making a couple changes so that my girls can feel like they are their own class still. .... it's a work in progress.

Three of our YW asked if I could help them make their own quilts. So we went to JoAnn's....twice and picked out their fabric. At first they were worried they'd choose similar fabric and they didn't want that to happen but once we got there, they all had TOTALLY different taste. One is doing bright colors, one is doing grey, yellow and teal and the other is doing a grey, mauvey pink and maroon quilt. They're all going to turn out adorable. Morgan is working on sewing her squares together and Hailee and Michelle are still cutting our their squares. Cutting is definitely the worst part, It takes forever and can be difficult at first to get everything perfectly square. The rotary cutter and big cutting mat is definitely a life-saver but it's still slow going when you need 80+ squares. :)

Art lessons have been fun. I'm still teaching Sheridyn once a week and teaching Maddi once a week as well. They're several years apart in age so I don't teach them at the same time. We've had fun this summer, painting outside and trying new things. That's my favorite part of teaching, is introducing them to new experiences and new mediums. I didn't paint on site until I was in college so I love giving them the opportunity to do it when they're so young.

I read DIVERGENT last month. Yup, I finally jumped on the bandwagon. I really enjoyed it. It was more violent than I had expected but overall I really did love it. I got it for $6 at Walmart....can't really go wrong with that price. So I'm excited to read INSURGENT next.

And that's all for the moment. But I'll be giving an update about ADOPTION soon. :)

{Pink, Blue and Yellow Pieced Quilt }

I decided to finally do a square block pieced quilt. I had never done one before and wanted to try.

I used scraps from other quilts I had made. 

When I started planning it, I started with a different solid color for the back. I ended up going with a darker pink later on. Also, I was placing my blocks out in different ways, trying to decide what I liked best.

Here I was trying out placing them in diamond shape and off center from each row.

I decided I didn't like it.

 And went with the more traditional route. 

 Here it is once it was all sewn together, prior to quilting and binding: 

 It sat there over the back of my couch waiting to be quilted for almost a month while I worked on our camping trip and the painting for Cindy.

Here you can see that I had changed to the darker Pink for the back. 

I also added a linen border, which I love love love. 

And this time, I didn't add binding separately, I pulled the back fabric around the edges to bind it.

Final product after quilting and binding: 

(Wish the colors weren't so off. The colors in the above pic are actually the most accurate)

{Story Time Blanket} Simple Blanket with 2 Helpful Tips !!!

So recently I made a blanket and quilted it.....so I don't know if that counts as a blanket or a quilt.

Either way, I wanted to share a couple tips that I've learned that are helpful and that make the process easier.

Here's my finished product:

Now, I used the Warm Natural batting, flannel on both sides and cotton binding.

HELPFUL HINT #1:

Batting can be pricey and I hate wasting it when I have random/too small pieces from previous projects. So I looked it up and found out you can sew them together!!!

Cut them all with straight edges and place the pieces out to make the size you need. 

DO NOT OVERLAP edges. (Otherwise you'll have bumpy batting, and that's no good)

Just place them against each other as close as you can without overlapping and run it through your sewing machine on the biggest zig-zag stitch you have, catching each piece as it crosses. 

 This held up perfect and was completely surprised at it's stability and how smooth it was in the end!

This saved me time (not having to run back to the store for more batting) and money.

 So I picked out my fabrics. The teal is a little unconventional and quite dark compared the the front. 

I'm still actually on the fence about my decision but I love it anyway.

HELPFUL HINT #2

(Don't miss this one!!)

Batting Spray.

Batting Spray can be your best friend when quilting.

I use it for blankets that I quilt like this one and for when I piece.

Essentially you'll glue all the layers of your quilt together. This should prevent the need for needles and pins (thank goodness!!!!).

Lay out some kind of protection for the carpet or table or whatever you lay it out on. The spray is in an aerosol can and you don't want to get it on anything but your blanket.

I use recycled sketch paper because I have it and it's cheap. Newspaper is a really good option too.

So place one of your (previously ironed) blanket/quilt out as smooth and flat as you can WITH THE BACK SIDE FACING UP (the print or outside of the fabric should face down).

Place your batting over and smooth out to make sure it all fits right. 

I fold back the top half carefully and spray the adhesive on the fabric.

Carefully roll the batting over it and gently smooth. 

Repeat the the bottom half.

Lay the fabric for the other side of the quilt out, roll one half back, spray

and gently replace the fabric over the batting, smoothing as you go.

 This should be your end result: 

All three layers glued together perfectly and ready to quilt over! 

I don't have pics for the quilting and binding on this quilt. But I hope those two tips were helpful!

Baby Boy Blanket- Brown, Green and Orange

So, what qualifies a quilt as a quilt vs a blanket???

I don't even know. 

This blanket is quilted but not really pieced so I guess you can decide. :)

This is the blanket I made for my newest little nephew!

He lives all the way out in VA but I got to meet him and snuggle him a few weeks ago at our family reunion.  He's totes adorbes. ;)

This is a flannel blanket on both sides and the binding is cotton. 

It is quilted (though you really can't see it in this pic)

So Kimi is going to send me more pics but here's one that I do have of it with it folded over so you can see the back and front at the same time. 

I'll add more pics of the final quilt once I get them! :)

Here's a couple from the process:

My fabric choices:

After basting all the layers together, prior to quilting and binding:

{Once Upon a Time Quilt}

I call this one my Once Upon a Time quilt because if I had my babies.....and when I have my babies in my home, I'm going to snuggle them up in this while I read them fairy tales. I loved this fabric so much as well. The little characters are just too adorable. The little girl looks like Little Red Riding Hood and then there's a fox/wolf guy and owls and birds. I'm in love....

So I wanted fabrics to go with it that were a little vintage looking and so I chose a couple small print florals because it seemed to fit.

(my only real regret it how bright the blue looks on this side compared to the yellow in particular. But I still love it anyway.....

 Doesn't it look so snuggly???

This time I tried the wavey quilting both across and down the blanket. It's hard to see it in any of the pics. 

 Seeee???? Totes adorbes.

{Baby Girl Quilt: pink, green and grey}

I mentioned that I made a baby quilt while I was miscarrying.  Maybe a funny thing for me to have done but I'm so glad I did. It was really therapeutic for some reason.  Creating something and staying busy was really good for me. 

So I went to the store and just walked around looking for inspiration. I ran into this adorable flannel that I just could not resist. It says things like "April showers" and "Cycling in the park". It's kitty cats riding bikes. How cute is that????

So once I had the flannel, I just walked around with it until I found these cotton pieces I liked with it.

Once home, I sat down and drew out my idea for the stripes. How I wanted them placed and the color order etc. 

Then I just jumped right in! I cut out and sewed the stripes together. Then placed the batting with the flannel pieces on either side and sewed the striped right on top. 

 Then, as you can see above, I did freehand wavy quilting across the blanket. Then cut out the little trees and birds and just sewed around each of them right onto the blanket as well. The edges are raw. One day I'll learn to applique but for now, I'm happy with this. :)

Here's the back. You can kind of see the quilting in this pic too. Just a little.

This is by far my favorite quilt so far (other than my hope quilt, for sentimental reasons). 

And actually I did the border in two different colors because I really wanted green all the way around but ran out so I thought it would be fun with two and I ended up loving that about it too!

My label is the rectangle above the birds and trees. :)

{Firemen Baby Quilt}

My girlfriend Meagan and her hubby Garrett had their baby Hudson back in November. Their first baby and he is just too darn adorable! 

Just before he was born I found this firemen flannel at Joann's and had to make a blanket out of it for them because Garrett is a Fireman, so now Hudson has a daddy blanket. :)

I mad it like I made my hope quilt. Squares of fabric sewn right on top of the full sheet of fabric. 

This was the first one that I tried hand-stitching on my label and now I do this on every blanket. It last longer than permanent marker.  

HOPE QUILT: The final product!

A while back in March, I did a blog post about making a HOPE QUILT. I had been wanting to do one for a long long time and So in the midst of all the IVF stuff I decided it was time. 

I asked for anyone- family or friend- that wanted to, to give or mail me a scrap of fabric, new or old, along with a note explaining why you were contributing.

I would use all the pieces to sew a baby quilt.

This quilt is what we will wrap our baby or child (now that adoption is a possibility too!) in when we bring them home----wrapped in the love of all the wonderful people in our lives that have prayed and hoped with us over the years for that child to come into our home and our lives.

So I started asking for fabric. It came slowly, bit by bit. The notes were tender and the fabrics all so beautiful. They all touched my heart so much.

It took months and months to get them all. A few sisters eh-hem eh-ehm...were slackers. ;) but that's ok because it gave other friends and family members time to find out about it and contribute which made me so so happy! 

Sadly I've talked to a couple people since I finished that didn't know about it and so couldn't contribute and I'm sad about missing out on them but their love is sewn in there too. :)

NOW let me tell you about how it went!!

Here's my cute little stack of all the fabrics we received! I couldn't believe how it just kept growing! :)

I had found a tutorial on how to make..... an easier quilt. :) A beginner's love, I guess. Very simple and forgiving and has character! 

Then I found a picture of a quilt with the squares turned like diamonds and decided I wanted that as well.

So I set out to do a practice tiny baby quilt with some fabrics I had that happened to work together. 

I was so incredibly happy with the result! It was fast and simple and right up my alley! I had never quilted before and hardly ever even used my sewing machine so to have it actually turn out had me jumping up and down. I love showing it off.....I hope no one thinks I'm a bragger. I just can't believe it actually worked! Ha!

I am in LOVE with the quilted look on the white flannel. I think the texture it just gorgeous. I don't know why, it just is so lovely. Even though my lines are uneven and crooked in areas. I think that's what it so cool about homemade quilts anyway. They have character. 

I learned from Bryce's grammy that you always put a patch on with the date and your *signature. 

It makes them so extra personal! 

SO here is when I started out. I was originally going to do it on white flannel: 

But realized I needed something with color so I went with teal/light blue. It's my fave lately and I'm happy with the results.

Here's a closeup of a few of the square after I sewed them on:

This type of quilting is so easy.

You just cut your squares of fabric.

Use a fabric glue stick on the backs of the squares and place them on one full piece of quilt size fabric.

Use batting spray to 'glue' the batting to the back and then the same thing for the fabric for the opposite side. 

Then you run the whole thing through your sewing machine, one row at a time, all the way across all the squares. Do all the horizontal lines across the quilt and then go back and do all the vertical lines.

Then iron and sew on the binding and the patch. 

BAM! ;) 

Lastly is washing it. This makes the edges of all the pieces fray. Now I will warn you, if you use cotton fabrics, they fray in long threads and have to be trimmed after the first few washes but should* (still testing) stop once they reach the stitching. If you don't want this, then use flannel. It frays nicer from what I understand. That's what they used in the tutorial I watched on it.

The binding was a big question for me. It took me a lot of thinking to come up with the color to use. Because it has such a wide variety of patterns and colors on the front, I realized I needed a bright bold color binding that would frame it all together and 'hold' them all together. Another concern is that this has to remain somewhat gender neutral since we have no idea if we'll bring home a boy or a girl. SO, I went back and forth a lot until I went back to the store and just walked around with the teal fabric I already had for the back. 

I came across this gorgeous orange fabric and just knew it was perfect. 

I was so SO excited when I found it! I even ironed and sewed it to have the circles line of perfectly all the way around. I love how it worked out.

Also, I have to say.... When I was making the patch, I asked Bryce what he thought and he totally helped me pick out the yellow and where to put it on the back and how to place it. He's a doll. I love him so much! 

This time I *signed it as "Made with love by Mommy" instead of by Cherise because this will one day be my little one's blanket. I don't know how our children will come into our home. We still hope that we will be able to have one biological child because we have our one precious embryo still waiting for us. But we also know there are children that will be coming to us through adoption. We don't know when but we know it will happen. :)

Here it is, already being put to use: Snuggles!

Yes, those are my feet at the bottom and my hands at the top holding it up. 

It's about 45x60inches. I wasn't going for a specific size because I just wanted to fit all the pieces (60) of fabric I had but it turned out to be a good size for a crib! :)

I am putting it to good use already. I love snuggling up under it and feel the love of so many amazing people who helped contribute to it (and those who didn't get to as well!). It's a physical reminder of the many people who have blessed our lives. 

So by the time we get to bring our first little one home, this blanket will be well-worn and ready to snuggle in. 

{Art by Cherise Larue: FB and blog based only! No more website!}

My business, Art by Cherise Larue, is now blog and Facebook-based only! 

I nixed the website. Not worth it right now. :)

But I'm still here!

Currently I'm working on a painting for the book cover of  my sister's upcoming novel! 

Can't wait to finish and post it!! 

Then I have a lovely photo to draw of one of the young women in our ward. My work has, unfortunately, been put on the back burner for a while but I'm trying frantically to get back to it! 

So, please please please update your link to Art by Cherise Larue.

www.artlarue.blogspot.com

Have a lovely day!!

{A quilt for our little one}

I completely stole this idea from my beautiful friend Kristin who did this for her babies almost two years ago while undergoing IVF. {and I think she stole it from another beautiful girl!} I've planned on doing this ever since I saw her do it and now that we're so close, I'm determined to get started ASAP!

I want to make a baby quilt for our little one that will hopefully be arriving around the end of this year. {fingers crossed!} Through this whole process we've been so blessed by the love of so many people-friends and family and even strangers! We never had imagined we'd receive so much financial help or so many prayers!

So in making this quilt, I would LOVE it if anyone who has thought about, prayed for our donated time or money for our little one, would mail me a 8x8 inch (or bigger) fabric piece for me to use for the quilt. The fabric can be new or old. Along with it, please write a little note with any thoughts you have, if there's a history behind the fabric or anything else you'd like to include.
That way, when we have the opportunity to bring our little one home, he/she will be wrapped in the love of all the people who helped bring her/him here.

I've been collecting bits of fabric over the last couple of years here and there. Obviously we don't know if we'll be blessed with a boy or a girl so it'll just be all different colors.

Since my blog is not private, I won't post my mailing address but you can facebook me, text me or call me or leave a comment and I'll get in touch with you. :)

I can't wait to get started!!!!

Mail me the following (by April 30th if possible!) :
1. 8x8 inch piece a fabric -- new or old
2. note with your name (obviously) and any history or other thoughts you have for our little one.

xoxo