In the New House

Remember the house we've been remodeling for the past year or so?  Well, we started moving in!  So now our new house is a mess as I try to find a spot for everything; our old house is a mess as we are still slowly moving stuff over.  At least all the big items (i.e. beds, couch, etc.) have been moved.

Unpacked boxes - ready to be repacked

I haven't sewed a thing in days and am starting to go a little stir crazy.  Not a good thing either with the Christmas season quickly approaching.  I need to sew something!  Anything!

The internet was just hooked up today!  In between unpacking, moving, work, and kids I've been trying to catch up on my blog readings.  At least I can live vicariously through others and their pretty sewing projects until my little sewing nook is back up and running!

Goal is to start sewing this weekend!!

A Swap, A Tote

After the sewing summit, I received an e-mail about a post sewing summit swap; which I decided to jump on.  This was my first "handmade" swap, so admittedly I was a little apprehensive.

Now most of you are swap veterans, so you can skim past the details to the good part.  ;)

The idea of the swap was to keep up with something we learned from sewing summit.  Everyone who wanted to be involved filled out a "profile" form with likes, dislikes, what they would like to receive, etc.  My one sewing class was a pocket one, so I thought this project would be good. 

My partner (who I will not reveal as she has not received this yet) said she would like to receive a zippered or metal frame pouch, a tote bag, or a pin cushion.  I fixated on making a tote.  What's silly is that tote bags are probably one of the easier bags to make (depending on how you make yours), yet they are not my strong suit.

However, I am also not one to back down from my faults challenges!

I found this pattern in an issue of Modern Patchwork.  Duck fabric makes up the body and the pocket is pieced with fabric from Pat Bravo's Indie collection.  The original pattern had interchangeable pockets, which I decided not to do.  It also did not call for lining the tote, but I did do that to make it seem a little more refined.

I hope she likes it!

Scrappy Stash Quilt

It's completed!  My scrappy stash quilt from the Ellison Lane Quilt A Long.
This quilt is 40 x 48 inches, with 6 monochromatic colored blocks in 5 rows.

I chose to lay my blocks in the same order as the colors of a rainbow. 

For the back, a large piece of Kona Cotton solid in pale flesh.  The binding is more scrappy goodness with half of it being leftover binding from other quilts!  Can't beat that!

Usually when quilting a quilt, I wake up while everyone else is asleep so I can get it done without kids pulling on me and having to stop every two minutes to answer everyone's needs.  This quilt, I did in lines without a care of how straight they were or how far apart.  That way, if a kid decided to jump on my lap and "help", I wouldn't need to stress and pull out a million stitches.

Aslyn and I had such fun doing this photo shoot in our hay barn! 

Our large hay bales were the perfect size to hang this quilt from. And when I was done taking pictures, a quick game of hide and seek (shh, Aslyn is hiding behind the corner of that haybale.) 

Community Quilt

Logan's preschool has a program called "Community Elder."  Basically, someone from the community comes in and teaches or talks to the class about something.  There have been lots of music, paper making from recycled egg cartons and paper tubes, as well as potion making (for Halloween.)

Yesterday was "part 1" of my community elder project.  My job is to teach the kids how a quilt is made.  The idea is to have each kid sew a block and then I quilt it for the school.

These are some of the fabrics I chose to use.  Silly me, I didn't take a picture of all of the fabric before I set the kids on them!  The reds were the first to go.

My example block.  In my haste (I decided to do an example block right before I was to leave to teach the class) I used my sewing machine to go around my hand - the kids are all hand stitching theirs on.

Each child wrote his name on his block; I think I'm going to embroider the names.  One little girl was so excited about this project - I'm sure if I showed her how, she could probably embroider her own name.

They are all doing such a great job on their blocks!  In fact, Logan's teachers told me that instead of resting at rest time, all the kids were sitting around stitching away!

Photo Friday - 2012

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

I mentioned a while back that my oldest, Logan had a loose tooth.  Well last night it finally fell out (with a bit of help from Dad.)  After the tears slowed, w gave Logan his caboose pillow, the pockets ready to hold his precious first tooth.  Though we have talked about it before, we gave another explanation on how the tooth fairy will come, leave a token for him, and bless him with sweet dreams and good luck.

It's funny - I remember losing my teeth as a child.  The excitement of the tooth fairy bringing me a little something in my elephant pillow.  Logan seemed to care less!  He was more concerned about his tooth falling out than anything else.

As of tonight, here is his pillow.  Laying there, untouched.

In this pocket you will find
A teensy, tiny tooth of mine.
So while I sleep where
dreams are made,
Let’s see if you
can make a trade.

In this pocket I will lay,
the little tooth I lost today.
Please, dear fairy,
tonight as I sleep
leave me a coin.
My tooth you can keep.

- Author Unknown