Special Announcement!

Big things happening over at The Crafting Accountant!

We shared this announcement on Facebook last week:

It's true! I'm pregnant! If you'd like to know why I don't say "we're pregnant", I'd encourage you to watch this video:

Sassy was of course star of the show. Her bib is a big dog and little dog that says "Mommy Loves Me". It was just too perfect to pass up. This dog puts up with quite a bit from us!

To preemptively answer a lot of questions people tend to ask:

• No, we will not find out the sex of the baby
• No, I don't feel wonderful. It's the first trimester. Hand me a gingerale.
• Yes, we have names picked out. No, I won't discuss them at length with you.
• No, the beer belly did not disappear when I got pregnant. It just got pushed out. I'm fully aware I look weirdly pudgy right now. Leave me be.
• Of course we are thrilled. But we are also terrified. Because we are normal human beings. 
• Yes, we are keeping Sassy. 
• I'm glad x, y, and z worked for your friend to stop all day sickness. I have my own thing going, thanks.
• Yes, I've been to the doctor's.
• Yes, I'm taking my vitamins.
• Yes, I've had an ultrasound. Everything is where it should be!
• Don't you dare mention chicken to me unless you'd like to be puked on.

Lessons I've learned

While the above list may seem a bit snarky, your first trimester is an incredibly humbling experience. The amount of things you don't know is utterly overwhelming. You don't even know where to start, and you just want to hide under a blanket in bed for a little while. 

I've known lots of pregnant women. That doesn't mean I have any idea what it's like to be pregnant. I'm experiencing a lot of "foot in mouth" moments right now. I think in the back of my mind I always thought "it can't be that bad. she must be playing it up to some extent". Let me assure you, this is not the case. You know when you have a stomach bug? You're exhausted, not a single part of your body is working right, and you are on the edge of throwing up at all times? The solution is fluids and to lay down for 3 days. That is pregnancy. Expect for 3 straight months. Except the solution is to suck it up, walk the dog every morning, go to work, continue to work at the same caliber you were before, and do it with a smile on your face if you wouldn't mind. 

The smell thing is really just for show right? I mean, it can't be that bad. How could a smell induce a puke-worthy reaction? Let me assure you that the smell of cooking meat is perfectly equated with the thought of me shoving a bag of dog poop in your face. 

If I have an extended conversation with you while standing, I will be as winded as if I just ran 10 miles. I'm still not 100% clear on the science of it, but it has something to do with the excess blood I've got flowing through my system. But I assure you, it's science. I don't enjoy being winded from climbing the stairs. 

I know there are some people who think these things about me as well. And honestly, I'm not even mad about it. Because until you are pregnant, it is impossible to understand these feelings. 

Most importantly, know I am taking care of myself, and my baby. Know I've read the books and blogs, and asked the questions. Know I would never do something that would hurt my body or baby. So if I'm having a tuna fish sandwich, it's the only one I had this week, and the doctor encouraged at least 1 sandwich a week.

I know I will need help, and will want help. I value the great source of knowledge that lives within the wonderful support system we've established. And I promise to ask for help and advice when I need it. But sometimes, I'm just so overwhelmed already, I just want to lay down. 

But for now, we got this. 

Irish Chain Quilt

I am OVER THE MOON to finally share this quilt with you all!

This quilt, by far, is the most labor intensive and beautiful quilt I've made to date.

Our very very dear friends were married this June. I wanted to do something beyond special for them, as they are beyond special to us. I decided to make them a wedding quilt. I knew a queen sized quilt would take a very long time simply because of the size. When I decided to do Irish Chain, I knew it would take a long time simply because of the piecing. And it would take a long time for Terry to quilt that much quilt. So I started this quilt in the Fall. Hubby helped pick out the fabrics, and I worked on this every available weekend through January. At that point, I gave it to Terry, and she returned it in late April.

So much love and time went into this quilt. Even Terry was so pleased with it.

To make this quilt, I followed Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorial here. The fabrics were mostly pulled from Moda's Civil War line.

I used the deep purple for the binding. All the colors were used for the squares. And a nice antique cream was used for the background. I didn't want to use a stark white because stark white never stays white. Cream is more forgiving, and fit the feel of the quilt better.

The star of this quilt is Terry's quilting. Here is a link to her blog if you haven't visited already. Terry knew this was an important quilt. She was so excited to be part of it. Her amazing attention to detail made this quilt what it is. I mean, look at this!

In every single background square she made this AMAZING detail. Absolutely mind blowing. I can't thank her enough for the work she put into this quilt. It truly is a work of art. 

This is also the first time I made a tag for my quilt. I was shocked at how EASY it was! I drafted the tag in Word, and printed it to paper first. I just have one of those run of the mill at home printers. Nothing fancy. Once I liked the placement and size, I took the cheapest spray adhesive I could find, and attached the fabric to a regular piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Finally, I fed the paper into the printer as normal, pushed print, and it was as simple as that!

When I was at Michaels, I asked the store associate which was the worst spray adhesive, and ended up with the cheap Elmer's Glue spray. I wanted the cheapest because I wanted to easily remove the fabric from the paper once I printed it. 

I used a decorative stitch to roll the unfinished edges under the sides, and sewed the tag into the binding. MAKE YOUR TAG BEFORE FINISHING YOUR BINDING. We don't want to undo binding we've already sewed!

I used a simple antique quilting stitch on the binding to complete the antique theme of the quilt. 

I'm so darn proud of this quilt. I'm so glad Brian and Maggie loved it! Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

The quilt received Sassy's Paw of Approval

Baby Clothes Quilt

I can't believe this quilt never made it to the blog!!

2 years back I made a quilt for a friend out of her son's baby clothes. And it would appear I only have 2 pictures of the whole thing! What a shame! These quilts are loads of fun to make. Lots of memories live in these clothes. I made sure to go through the bag with my friend to find out which ones were most important to her, and gave them a front row seat in the quilt.

Baby clothes requires smaller squares. All these squares were made with my 6.5 x 6.5 inch square ruler, which results in 6 x 6 finished squares. I used the same adhesive batting for this quilt as I did for the quilt I made here.

As you can see from this assembly, I first sewed the squares together to make rows, and then sewed the rows together.

The quilting was a simple meandering patter done by my good friend Terry. Unfortunately, there is no picture of the back. The back was a fuzzy red fabric her son LOVED. Red is his favorite color, and it was just so snugly to lay beneath.

The hardest part of making this quilt was cutting into baby clothes. I actually shed a tear and asked my friend if she was absolutely positive she wanted me to do this. Also, you need to be judicious in those initial cuts. Baby clothes are SMALL. If I cut something haphazardly, I ran the risk of having an uncentered detail or a piece that was simply too small.

Tee Shirt Quilt

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night internet world!

I thought I should share the tee shirt quilt I made my sister in law for Christmas 2013. I know, took me long enough...

Anyways, the "tutorial" part of this post may not be the best, as I was rushing and didn't even think to take progress pictures. 

Here is the finished product:

As it was a Christmas present, and I live in NH, outside pictures with nice lighting just couldn't happen. This quilt was 5 squares across x 5 squares down, with black 2 inch sashing in between. The border was made from tee shirt scraps and a bit of my sanity. 

The first thing I do when making a teeshirt quilt and rough cut the shirts. I use my fabric scissors to cut the face of the shirt out from the rest of the shirt. 

Next you need to stabilize the shirts for precise cutting. I used a batting that has heat activated glue on one side. You simply iron the shirts to the batting. WARNING: Screen printed tee shirts WILL come off on your iron and ruin your very expensive fancy iron... do NOT iron over the screen printed parts! Your quilting will hold those portions down if you are concerned about it.  For my next tee shirt quilt, I will NOT use this method. Cutting the material is very hard because it's so thick. The fibers from the batting will ruin your sewing machine. And it's incredibly expensive! Next time, I will buy a less expensive, thin stabilizer, and a separate batting. 

You cannot cut the tee shirt without stabilizing it in some manner. The material will stretch even under the best rotary cutter. 

I used my Fiskars 12.5 x 12.5 inch square ruler for each piece. This makes the finished square 12 x 12. For the shirts with only a small logo on the chest, I used my 6.5 x 6.5 inch square ruler to make the mini squares you see in the third row. 

Once all the tee shirts were cut, I attached the Black Moda jelly roll strips. First, you add the strips in between the shirts to make the long rows. Once the rows are done, you attach the back strips to pull them together. Simply put, you first add the black going vertically, then attach the black horizontally. I use the Missouri Star Quilt Company's method of lining up my sashes: Carefully. :) This is where you take your time, pin, double check, repin, and then sew. If your sashes don't line up, it doesn't have the appropriate window pane effect. 

The boarder. The boarder was a labor of love. I wanted to do something unique and colorful for my sister in law, because she is a unique and colorful individual. Each piece was cut 1.5 x 2.5 inches (1 x 2 inches finished) I cut an obscene number of pieces. All of them with the adhesive backing on them. My poor cutting mat and rotary cutter! Then, I sewed them all together. My sewing machine wanted to die after this one! It was very difficult to work with these, as the seams had double batting at this point. I mitered the corners to maintain the look of the boarder. The easiest way to do this was to sew the boarder the length of the blanket. When I got to the end, I measured a 1/4 inch out, and used the diagonal line on my ruler to cut a 45 degree angle. I would sew the 45 degree angle together, and continue sewing the next edge of the quilt. Again, this wasn't the easiest thing to do, as I was dealing with quadruple binding in some points.

The backing was fun to piece together. As this isn't a standard sized quilt, there was no standard piece of backing fabric that would fit the quilt. So I improvised with fabrics I knew my sister in law would love.

You can see the border pieces make an appearance, sewn together lengthwise instead this time. The black jelly roll piece runs the height of the fabric. And I pulled in a sky blue fabric strip to add some more character. I'm really pleased with the back. I think it's fun and different. 

My good friend Terry did a fun bubble detail in the quilting. I felt it offset the squares really well, and also represented my sister in law's personality. 

For the binding, I bought a mini jelly roll pack of bright fun colors, and interchanged the colors. I used my standard 2 1/4 inch binding, sewn to the back, and then the decorative stitch on top. 

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this quilt came out. I think I made it a bit more difficult on myself than necessary with how I chose to do the batting and border. Hubby would like a tee shirt quilt next, and I will definitely take those lessons with me. And hopefully establish a MUCH better tutorial!

She's back! with a Gender Neutral Pinwheel Baby Quilt!

Hello again friends!

The Crafting Accountant's been busy! First I had to do the accounting thing, and now I've been busy crafting. Everybody is getting married and popping out kids left and right! I'm trying to keep up. The blog has suffered. My apologies there. 

I had a hot minute at the end of busy season to throw together a baby quilt for our cousin and her Baby R. It's a tradition in the family to keep the sex of your first child a mystery. Thank goodness I don't tend to make overtly gendered quilts; I was able to use all scrap to throw together this simple pinwheel quilt. 

Remember, just because a quilt is simple does not mean it can be rushed. Accuracy in measurement and cutting is just as important as a larger, more complicated piece.

All the scraps I used were precut squares. I tend not to use precuts anymore, as they never seem to all measure the same.  For quick piecing, I took my neutral pieces and drew a line from corner to corner with my disappearing ink pen. Then, I took a neutral and colored piece right sides together, and sewed with a 1/4 inch seam allowance down both sides of the line. (I used the "archaic" method Jenny mentions here).

This is really important to note- my neutral was one brand, and my colors were many others. This means my "5 inch precuts" were all totally different sizes. When sewing the pieces together, I made sure both points of both pieces always sat on my line (easy enough to do when holding it up to the light). After I sewed them together, I had to trim every square. I did this by using my 6 inch Fiskars square ruler (as seen here). The 45 degree angle line followed my ink line, and I made everything else straight and trimmed around it. 

I didn't have time for my awesome quilt lady Terry to quilt this one for me, so I gave it a shot myself. I chose the simplest method I knew: stitch in the ditch. Because I took my time piecing and lining up my blocks, I knew I could follow those lines and have them be (relatively) straight. I also used a black thread on top and a grey thread on bottom for maximum "forgiveness".  I'm incredibly pleased with the result for my first time. 

I can't wait for Baby R to grace is with their presence! Enjoy the quilt!

Pinwheels can be deceptively challenging. There are a lot of points that need to match up.

I used a circular pattern on the back to contrast the angular nature of the quilt face.

I used a denim binding, and had a very hard time deciding the best color thread to use. I have black fabric on front and white on the back. I finished half the binding in black thread and decided I hated it. The gold worked perfectly. Look at your jeans... what color is the thread?? ;)

The quilting detail isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it for a first time try. 

I have an AWESOME quilt to show you soon. I just have to finish it......

Keep Crafty my friends!

~Bri

Baby Fitz's Blanket

Quilt Post! Woot! I get so excited when I write a quilt post. 1: because that means another quilt is done and in the books, and 2: I get to share it with everyone! Of all the quilts I've made, I've seen only three reactions. And let me tell you- it is the BEST! It's like watching your kid open that one gift they've pined for ALL YEAR.

I won't see this quilt opened by the ultimate recipient, but I will see it opened by my dear friend who ordered it. Tina (of Tina Mortela Photography- I've mentioned her before, have you liked her page???) has a very best friend that finally conceived the baby they'd been hoping for. A lot of love and time went into planning the quilt. We finally decided on a timeless, elegant pattern that can be enjoyed for years.

I used a few fabrics from Moda's Honey Honey line, and added a green fabric for contrast. The background was done with Moda's Snow White fabric. 2 1/2 inch strips were cut in the white, and 5 1/2 inch squares were used for the colored fabric. The nursery theme is butterflies, so I had Terry Burris quilt butterflies throughout the quilt. With the scraps, I made a small accent pillow. The end result is simply breath taking.

Household Budgeting

You ask, I deliver. A comprehensive blog post about how a couple twenty-somethings with buckets of student loan debt and a mortgage keep their head above water.

PREEMPTIVE DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional financial planner. I don't know your situation personally. I can't speak to your specific situation without an intensive Q&A session.  This is my opinion about what works for us. Please don't sue me if you try what I say and it doesn't work.

As I sit here writing this, my roof is dripping onto the coffee table we've strategically place and covered with towels. We need to complete the hearth of the woodstove we just paid an arm and a leg for so we could adequately heat our house for the winter. There are projects upon projects that need to be done, and all I can think is "Where is all this money supposed to come from?!" The answer is a well crafted budget, planning, patience, and persistence.

While we are here, let's clarify what a budget is: Allocating every penny that comes into your bank account. That means if $4,000 comes into your bank account in a month, your budget accounts for $4,000 of expenditures and savings.

Hubby and I fall under the "DINK" category: Dual Income, No Kids. Thus far, that is a strategic move. We both have college debt, a mortgage, and car loans. We like good food, I have a fascination with beautiful shoes, and Hubby has a rather expensive hobby in beer brewing. Where is the balance? Where do we start?

Step One: How you currently spend your money?
This will hopefully be an eye opener. I've helped a couple people through these steps, and every time, they underestimate their spending by at least 30%. Fear not! There's an app for that! ;)

Mint.com is a great, free (secure) tool to help figure out where your money is going. It is run by Inuit, who owns Quickbooks and Quicken. And no, there is no financial compensation here. I've used this website since 2007, and I like how it works.

Mint.com screen shot

Set up a profile, and add all your bank accounts, credit card accounts, and any debt you have the ability to manage online. This will take some time!! You must be willing to devote time up front to save yourself time (and money) in the long run.  After everything loads, start sorting through your transactions and categorizing them. Mint will catch on.

Now you can review your historical activity by month, 6 month, or yearly intervals. See a trend? I'm guessing you probably spend a lot more on your pets, food, and miscellaneous shopping than you thought you did.

Step Two- Identify your monthly required expenditures.
These come in two flavors: fixed, and variable.

Fixed required costs are the bills that are exactly the same every month. Examples include:

1. Mortgage (or rent)
2. Car Loans
3. Student Loans
4. Telephone/Cable bill
5. Insurance

Variable required costs are bills you must pay, but can change a bit every month depending on different criteria. Examples include:

1. Utilities
2. Auto Gas
3. Groceries
4. Pet supplies and food

TADA! Here are the basic categories of your budget! Analyzing your spending history should give you a better idea of a reasonable budget for your variable required costs. After analyzing our spending history, I determined Hubby spends about $50 a week in gas, and I spend about $40 every 2 weeks. Therefore, I set our Gas budget to $300 (rounding up from $280). We have Sassy's nails trimmed every 3 weeks or so, and she gets the best of the best dog food. Historically, we've spent approximately $50 a month on items for her. That now becomes my budget for Pet Supplies. Use Mint to create these categories with the appropriate amounts. 

Step Three- Allocate your remaining monthly income.
This, my friends, is the second reality check. Here is a small list of things that need to fit in this category:

1. Debt pay down goals
2. Savings
3. Shopping
4. Eating out
5. Home Maintenance
6. Auto Maintenance
7. Personal Care
8. Gifts
9. Donations

Once again, review your spending history on Mint.com. See where you've spent money in the past. Make a conscious effort to cut back in realistic areas. For me, it's shopping. I don't need anything else. Stop. Spending. Money. 

For these categories, make sure they "roll over" month to month.

See the check box next to your budget amount? Make sure that is checked!

This works both ways. If you are really good one month, you can "save up" for that one special thing you want. Or, if you need to spend $3,000 on a woodstove in January, you probably shouldn't be spending any money on the "home improvement" category for a while.

When you are done allocating your income, Mint.com will show you this:

Sorry, I don't need the world to know how much we make...

This means I've allocated everything but $155 of our monthly income. I'm not losing sleep over it.

There is a lot more to get into here. Most importantly, prioritizing and paying down debt. I promise that to be my next blog post.

Leave me some feedback below. What shocked you most? Is anything unclear? What would you do differently?

Check back in the next few days for my post about managing your debt!