Where did January go?

...and where have I been?

I've been here, doing the things I always do, but for some reason there seems to be fewer hours in the day, or at least less time during the afternoon nap.  I just can't fit as much into that time slot as I used to.  We have been furiously filling out financial aide forms, scholarship applications and tax information. (My husband is a full time student)  We finally signed up the Dancing Queen for a dance class like we've been promising to do for at least a year, and that sends us hustling down the road each Thursday.  I'm also a cub scout leader, oh joy.  One hour a week with some wild and funny boys keeps life interesting.

We seemed to spend January shuttling our kids to and from birthday parties.  What's with everyone being born in January?  We took advantage of those parties to take the other, not invited, child out on a "date" with Mom or Dad.

We just had a February birthday.  My "baby" is now 2 and I suppose now she has an excuse for her monstrous behavior.  We celebrated by letting her run around naked and trash the house, her two favorite things.

This is the PG version.  There's usually more skin.

Okay, she does that everyday, so it wasn't that special.  We will be doing the whole cake and ice cream song and dance this weekend when we go to Grandma's.  I did make her some leg warmers to keep her somewhat warm while she goes through this phase of needing to be naked.

Still need to fix the gray socks to make them leg warmers.

Her birthday hits at a perfect time, as far as my crazy creating whims go.  During the month of January, I discovered this blog, and was inspired to make some stuff.  Lucky for me, I just happen to have a couple of little girls that like to play with kitchen stuff.

Beets!

Bananas!

The carrots took forever!

Eggs over easy...

A few varieties of cheeses.

The radishes aren't finished yet.

I think everyday for a week or two, my husband would come home to find me in the middle of some other felt food project.  I find it makes me happy to create something fun and quick like this.

What have you been up to?

After a lovely little cold and some house cleaning, I finally feel like I'm myself again.  For some reason, I feel the need to catch up on some past stuff before I can move on to the new year and future plans.  I forgot a few things that I made for Christmas.  The pictures were still on my camera until this morning.  My siblings and I have a gift giving rotation.  Last year, I tried to finish a quilt that one of my sisters had started.  The top is finished, but I haven't finished quilting it yet.  Maybe by the time the rotation goes around to me having her again?

This year I took another go at finishing an unfinished project for another sister.  Several years ago, she had started working on a wool saddle blanket, like this one.  I knew she had stowed it away in her attic, so sometime in October, I snuck into her house and swiped it.  Sort of.  Actually, I broke a shelf while trying to hoist myself into her unfinished attic access door.  It took some stealthy gluing and sweater rearranging to cover my tracks as well as a more flexible and tall husband to finally get up there and hand down the project.

I also made her some sheep potholders from old sweaters.  I originally planned on making a pillow, like some of these, but I just didn't have it in me.

I found a picture of the ninja suit, which was an even bigger hit than I expected.  Too bad we left the pants at Granny's house.

And here's the football cake that he requested.  The kid didn't pick a theme, unless it was just "BOY".  He wanted a dress-up party with a football cake at a bouncy house place.  So that's what we did.

We've been enjoying this July January weather.  Yes, that is my husband wearing a t-shirt outside in January.  We actually got outside to do the fall clean-up that didn't happen in the fall because winter was here then.

My husband and I celebrated our 8th anniversary.  "Celebrated" gives the impression that we did something special.  We cleaned the bedroom.  It really needed it since that was the dumping place for all Christmas projects and supplies.  He also brought me some flowers and a sweet card, once again proving that we have completely switched places on the card giving spectrum.  I guess "special" is all relative.  He also called me into the office and surprised me by playing 'our song' and dancing with me right there.  That was special to me.

I have a few other things on my mind too, such as trying to figure out why the salt is sabotaging my baking.  Is it possible for salt to be saltier than it should be?  Everything is coming out too salty, no matter how much I cut the salt back.  Maybe I have a little kitchen elf "helping" me...

I'm also needing to go through my pantry and figure out what I need more of, and how much has been used, but I'll probably never get around to that, so don't hold your breath.

Hello 2012!

Wow, the last few months flew by!  I entered my Christmas preparation hibernation sometime in November and I feel like I'm just barely coming out of it.  It seems like once I get a few ideas of things to make, I just can't stop.  Here's a few snatches of what kept me busy for the past two months:

I decided that we really needed Thanksgiving napkins when I found a yard of clearance fabric.  One yard of fabric makes a lot of napkins.  Napkins take longer to make than you would think.  I'll finish the rest next year on Thanksgiving Eve.

Also in the fabric clearance was this cute scrap.  Since my 5 year old girl has grown out of her old apron, I couldn't help making a new one.

Hand puppets are a lot harder to make without a pattern than  you would think, but I had a lot of fun with these.  The old king is my favorite, although I made his outfit too small to fit my hand into.

Since the little one pretends to ride anything she can while yelling Yee-Haw, I thought she could use a stick horse.  I adapted several horses that I found online to achieve this particular breed of old levi and cast off sweater.  Unfortunately, I think it's too heavy for her.  I'll have to make a smaller version for her birthday.

I had to make another one of these for the little one, since I was lazy last year and never did it.  Coincidentally, her stocking matches her horse.

There's a few more things that I don't have pictures for, like the puppet theater and the ninja costume that we put together out of cast off clothing.  I must have been too tired to take pictures of them.  And suddenly, it's a new year and I'm still recovering from the old one.  Hopefully, I'll get all this holiday stuff put away and get my head facing the right direction soon.

Happy New Year!

I survived the princess party

It's over, and I'm alive.  Okay, actually, there were almost as many parents there as children, so my stress level was very low.  My dear husband hauled bags and baskets of food and gifts and then cooked up lunch, a mother helped me round kids up when we needed some structured fun, and another mother took my camera and snapped pictures for me, since she knew that the birthday mother has her hands full everywhere else.  That's the great thing about other mothers... they know.

Ever see a princess on a tire swing?

We decorated crowns with jewel stickers, markers and glitter glue, which takes forever to dry and magically ends up on everyone's arms and hands.  Next time I'll stick with the stickers.  (Ha! next time... I'm so funny)  We blew bubbles and played a few games.  We ate lunch and then we opened presents.  Do we leave that at the end to build up suspense?  I found myself having to explain often during the day that it wasn't time for presents yet and I couldn't really answer why.  She survived anyway and was soon in that present opening zone that makes their eyes glaze over and they start tossing presents already opened out of the way to make way for presents not yet opened. 

After the cupcakes, and party favors were passed out, I snatched the birthday girl (which is what she made her brother call her all day) and made her pose for a few pictures.  I had to commandeer this bridge from a few kids to get this one.  Unfortunately, while they were happy to loan me the bridge, they seemed to not be able to stay out of the camera lens.   Guess I have some cropping to do.

Oh, I made that ribbon crown the night before.  I thought it would be a quick project, but it took me a while.  Here she is showing the ribbons in back.  I think it tops off the ensemble nicely.  I guess my late night was worth it.

We had the dress sitting out on a chair for her to find when she woke up this morning.  It's not often that she is speechless, but we achieved it this morning.  The dress is too big and would fall off of her shoulders, but it was nothing a few safety pins couldn't fix.  I'm just glad it wasn't too small!

So now I heave a big sigh and listen to the noise makers that my husband insisted on buying.  That is, until they get "lost"...  Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!

Now go to sleep!

Family reunions and pink puffy sleeves

It feels like I've been gone for a month, but it was only a week.  I spent the weekend with cousins and other relatives at our annual family reunion.  It is a camping affair, but we had a great time in spite of being dirty.  My dad nicely offered his camper to me.  There was a time in my life that I would have scoffed at such an idea.  I thought tents were for sissies.  Then I grew up and had children.  Life is different now.  My older two kids really wanted to stay in the tent, so we pitched it too.  They woke up at 6:30 am, ready to play.  Mom was not pleased. 

There was lots of visiting and catching up.  A big pot-luck dinner and an evening listening to stories of my grandpa, since it would have been his 100th birthday this month.

This is the only picture I can find of Grandpa.  With his team of horses.

After coming back, the reality of my daughter's 5th birthday was looming.  I decided to make her a princess dress.  While shopping at the second hand store, I discovered a great big, pink, girly curtain.  It wanted to be a princess dress, I could tell, so we brought it home and I started thinking about how to make this dress.  Usually, I start a project, thinking I can do it by myself and it ends up in a great big disaster.  This time, I decided to follow a pattern.  It turned out to be the most difficult sewing project I have ever done.  What was I thinking?  Sleeves?  Zipper? Miles and miles of gathers?  The amount of fabric on this little dress is simply ridiculous.  But, it's finished. 

I need to thank my mother for keeping the princess for a few days and my husband for hanging onto the baby most of the day so I could knock this project out.  This dress sets the record for fastest project, clocking in at two full days of crazed sewing.  I did stop for meals.  Oh, and I did give my husband some sewing lessons.  He sewed the lining of the bodice, and did a great job.  (don't tell him I told you).

And that is what I've been up to for the last week.  Now maybe the dishes and laundry will get done, but first I need to vacuum up all these little pink strings...

4th of July project

Well, actually I've been working on this for a while now, but finally finished it last night.  It's a patriotic grocery bag!

 I have bought cloth grocery bags before, but they are all gone.  Maybe my sister stole them.  Anyway, I finally got so sick and tired of all the plastic bags cluttering up my pantry.  I gather them and stuff them into one bag, but I never actually get them to the recycle bin.  True, we use some of the plastic grocery bags for garbage bags, but we still have way more than we need.  So, I decided to make a few cloth bags and do my part to keep all those plastic bags out of the garbage.

 It's huge!  That is the biggest box of Kix that there is, with a jumbo bag of pancake mix and a few other things thrown in for good measure.

My favorite part is the pocket to hold keys or a grocery list, or a wallet, or change.  I have another bag in the making right now and I will hopefully finish it while the baby is napping.  Here's hoping for a good nap!

Since I'm showing off projects, I'll go ahead and share that I finished that saddle blanket.  Here it is without the saddle.  (and a very cute puppy coming out of the barn.)

 And a few shots with a saddle.  (It's my little man's saddle, but he can't reach the stirrups yet, so that's why there's an extra pair.)

 The blanket is basically square, so it can go either way.  I can't decide which way I prefer it.  Vertical stripes, or horizontal stripes?

What do you think?

My addiction

I have a problem... maybe it's an addiction.   My husband is thinking about an intervention and I may need it.  See, I buy wool sweaters with the idea that I will re-purpose them into other things, like these baby slippers or these Easter eggs.   Every time I am at the second hand store, I wander over to the sweater rack and come away with a sweater that I just love.  I get it home and try it on and decide to wear it a while and it ends up in my closet.  I now have enough sweaters to wear a different one every day of the week at least. 

The sweaters on the right are the ones that I don't wear because they are too small or have holes in them.  The sweaters on the left are the ones that I bought with the intention of felting and re-purposing, but have somehow ended up in my closet.  This doesn't include the sweaters that I already owned before I became addicted.  I've got a few of those too.

When I first started this wool re-purposing habit, I fearlessly felted and hacked into two sweaters.  I did really well for a while, until my daughter begged me not to cut up one little sweater.  It's on the top of the pile on the right.  Every time I pull it out, she begs me not to cut it, so I hide it for a bit longer.  It would have been perfect for more Easter eggs, but oh, well.  I have continued to use wool from those first sweaters to make more slippers for the baby, but I just haven't been able to do anything with the other sweaters yet.

To try to break this habit, I decided that I can't buy any more sweaters unless I have a specific project in mind for it.  Today, I bought a white sweater vest that I don't like at all, but I have a plan for it!  My husband doesn't really believe me.  He's sure it will end up in the closet with the others, but I'll show him.  I'm on my way to put it into the washer right this minute.  It will become a sheep pillow for my sister.  Her birthday is coming up and I have her name for Christmas, so that's my excuse.  Hold my hand, I'm going to cut up a sweater without putting it on.

Motivation

We're a bit slow here today.  I'm finding it difficult to get motivated to do anything.  Anytime I start to do something, I get called back to assist in the lego Ironman construction.  The little man was so excited to spend his Christmas/birthday money on a lego set.  I should have thought it through a bit more.  It's tough for me to find all those pieces and get them assembles correctly.  It's dang near impossible for a six year old.  I should just turn him loose with the pieces and see what we end up with I suppose.

The dancing queen spent her Christmas money on a princess journal that comes with stickers, stamps and glitter glue.  Oh boy.  It's pure joy.  At least she was able to entertain herself this morning.

At least the baby enjoyed her blocks.  I always worry about something I make not being enjoyed.  She likes to throw them.

I'm so slow, the kids got dry cereal without milk for breakfast.  I'm working up some energy to at least warm up some leftovers for lunch.  I'm having to really fight the inclination to put on a chic flick, wrap up in a blanket and eat cookies.  As nice as that sounds, it wouldn't be, because the kids would be constantly asking me to explain why somebody in the movie did that, or went there, or said that... they would be asking for popcorn, or wanting to eat my cookies and they would no doubt be in my lap, which wouldn't be so bad if they could actually sit still.  Besides, I should do something today.

And we don't have cookies.  We need cookies.  What is a house without cookies?

I thought it would be a great idea to make some sugar cookies and the kids could help cut out valentine shapes.  It is a tradition, after all.  I was getting all excited to do something when I discovered that we are out of butter.  1/2 cup in the whole house!  I always have butter on hand because I use it so much.  So now, I am deflated again.  The baby is napping so I can't run to the store.  Besides, it's almost lunch and the little man has to get ready for school.  If you need me, I'll be under the blanket in the recliner... watching a cartoon... I can compromise.

More projects

I realized yesterday that my baby is turning 1 next week.  I can't believe how fast this year went.  I then remembered that I had planned to make her some cloth blocks for Christmas, but when that got too busy,  I decided to put it off until her birthday.  And then I promptly forgot until yesterday.  I spent last evening and today putting these together.

I was a little worried about how they would turn out with all the different patterns and colors, but I think they ended up pretty cute.  I was worried about them being too small, so I made them big.  Really big considering they're for a baby.  Too big maybe...so I added the ribbon for something to get a hold of.

A few weeks ago, I brought a gray sweater home from the second hand store.  It had a very big turtle neck on it that my husband decided would make at perfect beanie.  So, he cut it off.

Now we just have to figure out how to finish the top of the hat.  Gather it up?  Fold it and stitch?  He can't decide, so this project is on hold.


A few days ago I had a craving for some craisins, you know, raisins, but from cranberries instead of grapes.  Then I remembered that I had some cranberries in the freezer.  I bought them around Thanksgiving time without any idea of what to do with them, so they ended up in the freezer.  I had cranberries, and I have a dehydrator... maybe I could make myself some craisins? 

The instructions I had said to blanch the berries, then freeze them and then dehydrate.  Since these were already frozen, I just blanched and dried.  I expected them to shrivel up while drying, but they didn't.  Unfortunately I just kept drying, thinking they would eventually shrivel up.  Instead, I have dried out berry shells with almost nothing inside.  Maybe I can rehydrate them a bit... probably not.  I kept them just in case I think of something to do with cranberry crumbles.  They do look pretty in a jar though though.  Maybe next year I'll get it right.

Catching Up

Back, finally!  It was only after agreeing to play daycare provider for my sister in law, that I realized she did not have internet.  Two whole weeks.  I'm not an addict, I can live without internet, but those were some seriously boring days.  I do believe we just endured the roughest Christmas break ever.  Here's the breakdown:

Travel:  Six hours in the car.

Wrestling tournament:  A present for my little man.  He loves to wrestle.

Stomach flu:  Yeah, because driving across the country with three kids in the car isn't miserable enough, lets throw in some vomit.  I could tell you just how my baby covered me from neck to toe, but I still get a little queasy thinking about it.  I got it the following morning and then my husband too.  The two older kids escaped somehow

More travel:  Three hours waiting for an accident to be cleaned up.  I didn't have my camera close by to take pictures of the snowmen on the interstate.

Babysitting:  Baby-sitting was pretty uneventful because I didn't have enough seats to take all the kids anywhere.  All week, in the house with six kids until the parents came home around 5.  And no internet.  I did get some projects done.  I made these slippers for the baby out of a felted sweater and I finished my daughter's doll house.  I started another set of slippers, but they are so much bigger than the baby's feet, I'll have to wait till she grows a bit to fit them to her.

Christmas:  Christmas was rough.  I had this picture in my mind of a nice, quiet Christmas.  Opening presents together and enjoying each gift before moving on to the next.  That just doesn't happen when you have cousins opening presents too.  We focused on homemade, personal gifts and the kids love them, now that they have looked at them.  Unfortunately, watching their cousins open millions of gadgets and video games made things a bit awkward at times.  The dancing queen was wonderful about it.  She immediately jumped in, finding what gifts belonged to her three year old cousin, helping him open them and then squealing in excitement for him.  She was so cute, but my little man noticed that he ran out of gifts long before the cousins did.  He felt bad at first, but then I noticed how he really appreciated his gifts, while his cousins were already whining and fighting about who gets to play what video game. 

More stomach flu:  Christmas celebrations were kind of shut down by the stomach flu, which made its way through all the extended family, hitting hardest on Christmas Day.  20 family members were knocked down by it.  Merry Christmas to all.  :)

Birthday:  The original plan for my little man's birthday was a big bowling party, but due to the sickies, we had a much more intimate bowling  party...and no cake.  The cake happened later at my mom's house.

Bad weather/travel/flat tire:  We delayed our departure because of the weather, but finally just decided to go.  And it went pretty smoothly until I commented on how quickly the trip was going.  We immediately had a blow out.  I'm talking within a minute after my comment.  I had nothing wooden to knock on, or it might  have been avoided.

Baby fever/cold:  Nothing like a crabby sick baby to travel with.  Actually, she slept a lot.  And cut some teeth.

More travel:  To my parent's house we go.

New Year:  We toasted it with sparkling cider while the kids were awake and played games.

A little more travel:  After a sleigh ride at the ranch, we packed up and made our weary way home.

I feel kind of bad that I don't have any huge goals or aspirations to list.  I know I have some, but with the sickies, cranky baby and holidays, the new year kind of snuck up on me.  Hopefully as I catch up on everyone's blogs I'll be inspired and motivated.

*sigh*  So good to be back.

Project roll call!

I achieved a record  yesterday.  I actually started and finished a project in one day.  Well, I guess I was technically up past midnight, but I'm still counting it.  The reading pillow that I was unsure of making came together very quickly, despite having to master sewing with faux leather.  That was a new experience for me.  I had more grand plans for it, but I was thwarted by a scrawny, sorry excuse for a craft section at the Wal-mart near my mother's house.  Pitiful.  If there had been an associate anywhere near the area, I would have told them my feelings, but I didn't see any.  Here's the finished product:

I thought it turned out pretty well considering I had no pattern and I have never made a pillow before. I really wanted some fun tassles hanging from the ribbon ends or from the corners, but alas, it was not to be.
And here's the finished doll house.  It could have used a few more buttons to hold things together, but I had to finish it up and go.

I was at my mom's to drop off (and make) the gifts for that side of the family.  Due to my travels, baking day will have to happen tomorrow.  I for-see many cookies being made.  Ginger, sugar...forgot to pick up an ingredient for peanut butter blossoms... we'll see what is created tomorrow, I guess.  Then Thursday will have to be laundry and packing, as we must leave by noon Friday, on our way to the in-laws for Christmas.  Maybe while there, I can post my feelings about traveling during the holidays versus staying comfortably at home...

I'm feeling so optimistic about my many little projects, I thought I'd make a list of all my undertakings and bring myself back to the reality that I still have more things to do than time to do them.  And since we're getting so close to Christmas, I'll add some festive colors to my list. 

Little Cowboy book:                                             done!

Cowboy Christmas book:                                     done!

Peasant girl dresses:                                             done and done

Fabric doll house for niece:                                  done

Fabric doll house for daughter:                            in progress

Sewing a number onto a hockey jersey for son:   needs to be done

Slippers for baby:                                                in progress

Mend dress-ups for daughter:                              needs done

Cloth blocks for baby                                          sew while traveling 

Reading pillow for nephew:                                done! and in record time

Write and send Christmas letter:                         written, needs sent

Bean bag heat pad for hubby:                             done, even though this is not something on his list

the quilt:     to eliminate stress, I am not worrying about finishing it.  I will work on it in my leisure time, or after the kids go to bed.

Despite the many things left to do, I'm feeling pretty peaceful, and not really frazzled at all, which is surprising.  I must be forgetting some things.  We'll see how I'm doing at this time next week.

Christmas projects and mommy brain

I've been so busy, I haven't had the time to write anything!  I have planned on writing many times, but I am madly trying to finish up gifts for nieces and nephews before we take off for the holidays, so I haven't dared to take the time.  But I pulled a stupid today that just needs repeating, so I thought I'd take a minute while the kids eat lunch to share my sewing experience.  This turned out really long, but I think I got everything off my chest.

I am almost done with so many projects, it's painful.  For some reason I just can't quite finish anything.  Okay, I take that back.  I finished these dresses for my niece, but I still have more to finish for her gift.
 
I suppose you have to know my niece to understand the greatness of getting two plain, peasant style dresses for Christmas.  This girl will wear only dresses, and only certain dresses.  They must be long sleeved and long- usually to her ankles.  In trying to save her Sunday, going to church dresses, we always keep our eyes out for sturdy, play dresses for her to wear.  Last summer we were wandering around a mountain man Rendezvous and she spotted a little peasant style dress and she wanted it badly.  I promised her that I would make her some, so here they are, finally. My daughter is only three months older and was more than thrilled to try them on for me at every stage of making.  She has asked to try them on every day since they were finished also. 

Since these were actually supposed to be a birthday present back in October, I thought I should add a bit to her gift.  I mentioned this doll house a while ago and planned to make one for my daughter, but why make one when you can make two?  Here's her doll house, almost finished.  It just needs some buttons and some felt flowers sewn on.  My daughter thinks it's great, which is good because she's getting one too.  Hers is a bit different though.  I'm making these from my mom's fabric scrap bins, so they are definitely one of a kind. 


 
My niece loves cats, so I thought the crazy vintage kitty fabric would be a hit.  I even made cats looking out the little windows.  I really had a lot of fun making this.  My almost 6 year old son thinks he needs a barn now as well.  We'll see.  I kind of hoped to not be sewing on Christmas eve this year.

My other huge project has taken a back seat to these other little projects.  The quilt top I've been working on was a much bigger job than I anticipated.  I haven't posted about it for fear that my sister might suddenly stumble into blog land, but I think I'm safe now.  When one of our aunts died, family members picked through her many started quilting projects.  My sister liked this one, but it was way too small to fit her bed.  There wasn't enough extra fabric to make it big enough and she kind of became discouraged with it and put it away.

This is what I started with

I spotted it in her attic while she was giving me some other fabrics and decided that since I have her name for Christmas this year, I would finish it for her.  Most of the hard work was already done, I figured it would be easy to add some borders.  It was much harder than I thought.  Just finding fabric that complemented it took forever.

This is what I have now.

I do like the red, and I know that she wanted to add more red, so hopefully she'll like it.  Now, I just have to quilt it.  HA!  So next Christmas, she'll be getting this...  I'm taking it along with me to visit my husbands family.  Hopefully, I can finish it up there.  Maybe the real gift will be in getting to do it together.  :)

So now that I have almost finished most of my projects, (I won't mention the ones I haven't really started) I got the crazy idea to add yet another!  We also have a nephew that we are gifting.  He's 10.  Not really into doll houses.  I am giving him a few books that I made.  *Finished projects!  I do have some!  If they would every get here in the mail.*  I thought maybe he needs more, but what?
In my blog world wanderings, I stumbled upon this.  A reading pillow.  Does he want one?  I don't know.  My sister didn't know either, but she did tell me that they would like to encourage more reading.  Maybe this will do that?  Maybe this will get an eye roll, I don't know.  I want one for me, I do know that.  Reading books about why my baby doesn't like to sleep at night would be a lot more comfortable for a tired mommy with one of these.

I was still undecided about doing it, but since I had to make a trip to Walmart anyway, I figured I would swing past the fabric department.  If, I told myself, they happen to have a cheap remnant of some heavy duty upholstery fabric, I will do it.  How likely is that, anyway?  Apparently, very likely.  I found some faux leather fabric.  A nice manly look to it too.  So I stood there in the fabric area debating on if this was a good idea or not. 

I should know never to make decisions when I have three grumpy kids in the cart.  I really do know better.  Instead of being smart, and looking at the pillows right there to figure out how much piping I would need, I hurriedly added up all sides of the remnant, which is all rolled up in a tight ball, so my visual brain couldn't inform the math side of my brain that I was making a stupid mistake.  The reasonable part of my brain did not kick in until after check out, when it occured to me that four and a half yards of piping was a ridiculous amount for a lap pillow.  Silly frazzled mommy.  You sew pillows to the pillow size, not to whatever the remnant size is.  Which is , by the way, enough for two, maybe three pillows. 

This is not the first time I have made this type of mistake.  I still have a few yards of flame-print fabric from a blanket I made my then boyfriend, now husband almost a decade ago.  I have used it in anything that I could, but there's just so much you can do with flame fabric.  Because of these types of mistakes, I have learned to take pictures with me, or the project in the making so that the knowledgeable ladies at the quilt shops and fabric departments can inform me that unless I am making baby quilts for triplets, I don't need that much.  Sigh... and then I forgot thread.