David Walker Robots

I fell in love with this fabric a little over a year ago but only purchased a fat quarter stack pack from Pink Chalk Fabrics and have been waiting for the perfect project to use them in. I did cut into a little of it to make this sham but other than that this adorable fabric has just sat. Until now.

It took a special little guy whose entrance into this world is  finally here. There has been many years of praying and waiting and I am so very excited for his special mama. So I was honored to cut into my tiny little stash of robots to make this little guy a quilt.

Inspirations for the front came from these adorable quilts

and the back is sort of a copy cat of a quilt from the ever talented Film in the Fridge.

Christmas Sewing

Well I guess that title isn’t very accurate. I didn’t end up getting much of any sewing in during the month of December. I started these stocking in November for an Advent calendar and realized pretty early that if I was going to get all 24 done by Christmas I’d better find a new method.

It was important to me that they were lined with no exposed seems. I have this thing against  reaching into something to find a bunch of strings. The first plan was to make the stocking and then the lining. Stuff the lining inside the stocking with wrong sides facing and hand stitch the top closed. This just wasn’t going to happen. I ended up doing it such a way that sewed the lining and stocking together at the top then sewed around both the stocking and the lining leaving an opening to turn it right side out. It was all great in theory. I even got the first nine done by the 9th of December but that was it. Sad. I went ahead and hung them in hopes that I would catch up by Christmas but that never happened. Sewing time just slipped through my fingers as took it easy and relaxed.

I wouldn’t let myself take down the stockings until they were finished and since I had a desire to take down the Christmas Decorations on New Years Day, Thisbe and I got to work on these on New Year’s Eve. I ended up taking down the Christmas stuff a few days late and as it happened we finished the stockings just in time. Sadly, I forgot to take down the Stockings. With the added effort it would take to dig out the Christmas stuff again, I put off taking them down. Again sad.

Here we are in February and they still hang in my entryway. Maybe this post will prompt an immediate removal of them. It is almost Valentines Day afterall and a string of heart would be much more festive.

For the stocking I just used what I had on hand. A mix of fabric and repurposed clothes. I love difference in textures.

Now to go take these down…

A Birthday and String Quilt

It has been way to long since I visited this space.  I have some Christmas sewing to share, a robot quilt, an adorable bunny, and some fun backpacks. We’ll see if I can get to those posts over the next few days. 

For today a quick little post to say

“My baby has turned 4!”

and “I’m making my first string quilt.”

I am using the Film in the Fridge tutorial and am really loving it. This is for a special friend who just had a baby girl. I couldn’t decide on what type of fabric to order and decided to go to the local thrift store and choose some clothes in pink and green to repurpose. I’m anxious to see how this one comes out.

Pride

 

“We have to best tree ever.”

It is an old tree that really never had a chance to be great. This year in particular it lost many, many “needles”. As you can see from this picture, to my three little kiddies, non of that matters. So, it doesn’t matter to me either.

Biloxi, Mississippi

If you haven’t heard we will be leaving Turkey and moving on to a new location.

Now my true love is the forest and the mountains but I don’t think it will be  hard to enjoy my upcoming  surroundings. A friend just came from that city and I sat and listened to stories of boating, dolphins, sea turtles, long boardwalks, and so much more.

While I am getting pretty excited, there is still a ton I want to do and see here. Here’s to making the next months count.

Weekend Sewing

We had a pretty uneventful time this past weekend. It included some sleeping in and really late morning pj lounging. A great time to get out the sewing machine. Thisbe and I got started on our Christmas countdown, and I also finished up a few of my lingering projects that I had cut out from my summer sewing. These are the last of my zipper pouches. I have a couple more notebook covers almost done but I think finishing up these stockings will take priority.

step by step

My creative time is definitely in slow motion around here. Instead of sitting at the machine for a couple of hours or cranking out projects left and right, I am slowly, and I mean slowly working on some projects.

I’m so glad that these magnets are in the final stages. You’d think they’d be quick and easy. They are, just not these days, not in my house anyway. Half of the buttons were covered back in June. They sat for a long time until I got all the rest covered on the long car ride to Urfa. I sorted them one evening in October and put them into groups of 4. Finally this weekend I got the glue gun out and stuck on the magnets. Late saturday night I cut out paper. Sunday I cut the holes out. miraculously today I had about 40 minutes (interrupted of course) to work on putting them together into little packages. Now for the final steps I need to get the camera out and take some photos and then get them up into the shop.

While it may sound like I’m complaining, and I may be, a very little bit anyway, but I am so happy how life is going right now. Now that I have owned up the responsibility to be available to my kids as their homeschooling teacher, and come to grips with the fact that we need more than just the morning to get all the things we want to do in, I am much more at peace. I love having the kids home with me. I love to see them playing and sticking up for each other again. I love  it. While my own time is pretty scarce nowadays, I find that the balance is better, and I treasure it more. I steal less long stretches but take advantage of the little moments I have here and there. So for now it will be step by step.

Slowly Restocking

It’s crazy how busy my life has gotten, but I love everything that has filled it. I’m learning a ton about balance and priorities. So, with that said, I’ve opened my shop back up. I’ve got a stack of items still to add and will be adding them as windows of opportunity arise. Have a look around but be sure to stop by again.

Winners

I don’t know what it is but I love using the Random Number generator. Here are the results.

Tissue Holder – Sara

Coaster Set – Kris

Zipper Pouch – Kristen

Covered Notebook – Lu

I’ll be sending out e-mail real soon, so please get back to me with your addresses.

Now it seems that these ladies weren’t the only winners. At the end of all the Halloween festivities, these three fish have very proud owners. (how did that happen?) Anybody know anything about goldfish? Do I now need to get a tank or are these guys actually ok in these little bowls?

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween.

*Update: Thanks ladies for the links and information. It seems that a Halloween carnival is not the best place to pick up a fish. I want to say shame on the organizers for giving out fish as prizes to families where 90% will be leaving the county within the next two years and will not be able to take these new pets with them, but when I said “Sure, we can take them home,” I know that I am greatly responsible as well.  We’ve got our little swimmers a decent set up and a family who has already agreed to take over as pet owners when we leave, but we all know that these guys will probably have a hard life since our resources here are minimal.  Who knows though, I might find them a nice home somewhere. I’ll just try not to think about all those other fish that made it into unsuspecting homes. Lesson learned.

my stash of covered notebooks

The plan was to post these on Friday and then a few more items on Saturday but that didn’t happen. Friday was just plain busy, Saturday was a wonderful trip to Urfa, Sunday was Sunday and Monday was, well Monday. So, here we are Tuesday, a little later than planned but you all know how that goes.

This will be my last give-away post. I have a few more items to add to my shop but I’m going to plan on the not having enough time to send out a separate post about them. I (hopefully) will have a shop update announcement and the give-away winners this weekend. Monday at the latest.

First up is a couple of mini notebooks. Each holds a 3×5 inch notebook with 60 sheets

A couple of fat lil’ notebooks that are 5 1/2 x 4 inches with 200 sheets. (Do you recognise one of those from my tutorial?)

Last up some 7 x 5 inch notebooks. Each has 100 sheets. (This is my favorite size)

Each of these notebooks is spiral bound and the pen fits nicely inside it. With the smaller notebooks you can see that the pen doesn’t fit inside the spiral binding but the cap catch (?? what is that called) does.

So, if you would like to have one of these notebooks for your own and be apart of my give-away, leave a comment on this post. I will close comments on Saturday and have a drawing. All other notebooks will be ready in my shop on Monday the 2nd. (thats the plan anyway) *** Update – Don’t forget to tell me which notebook you like best for the give-away.

 

**Ok comments are now closed for all the give-aways. I’ll get to work on figuring out winners and give out results in the morning. Thank you for all your sweet comments.

Zipper Pouch

These are one of my favorite accessories to make. I’ll have to show you how I sew these sometime. It is so simple and oh so gratifying. I like to make these in a variety of sizes, depending on what I use them for. I have some to hold diapers, my feminine supplies, market cash, and a small one that will fit in my pocket to hold my driver’s licence and maybe a little cash.

I made these in two sizes, approx. 7 x 6 inches and 4 x 8inches and is fully lined. I like the 7 x 6 size to hold a variety of things like,  a tissue pouch, band aids, lip balm and other small must haves when you are out with kids.  Just fill it up and drop it in your purse and you’ll be able to find what you need when your ready. The 4 x 8 size is great for pencils. Bron is really into coloring right now and she prefers to use colored pencils, so I’m liking this size especially right now. Having pencils in a fabric bag also helps to deaden some of noise they make. This is especially nice at church.

So have a look and see if there are any you love. If you want to be part of the give-away for these pouches leave a comment on this post and let me know which one you like best. I will close comments in one week, have a drawing and add the rest to my shop.

Update: Thanks ladies for you kind words. I have closed comments.

Next up, some really cute coasters

I just love to look at these. Can’t you just seen one of  these stacks at the end of your coffee table or something? I can. Well, I can only imagine it since we do not own a coffee table. But still, I might just have to get one to put a stack of these on.

Here they are all opened up. (the top pic only shows 5 coasters but one is hiding under dots)

These tow stacks have a cute Amy Butler print on one side and natural linen on the other. (the coaster flipped over is the one you can view from the stack shot. These are on the top row starting on the left.)

The next are also in order, continuing along the top than the bottom row from left to right. These coasters are the same on both sides.(the coaster on the right end is the top coaster in the stack photo.)

Each coaster is approx 4 inches square. To help them keep their shape, I used a super stiff interfacing on the inside, about 1/8 inch thick. It is pretty stiff but still flexible.

If you are interested in participating in my give-away for these coasters. Please leave a comment on this post, letting me know which stack you like. I will have a drawing in one week and add the rest to the shop.

Update: Comments are now closed. I’m so glad you  like these little coasters. I’ll be announcing the winner for this give-away in a couple of days. Thank you for all your kind words.

Shop update announcement and some give-aways

Do you remember how I talked about getting a ton of sewing in this summer? Well, this week is the week to show you some of it. Also, this week, I am going to be stocking  my shop and have it ready to reopen on Monday, November 2nd.

About the give-aways. I’m going to give away one of each of the 5 different sewing projects I’ve been working on. I will feature one project a day and leave the comments open on that post for one week. During that week you if you are interested in being part of the give away let me know in the comments which particular item you like. I will have a drawing at the end of the week and I’ll set aside the winner’s choice. The rest will be added to the shop and will be ready to buy on November 2nd. Does that make sence?

 

Tissue Pouch

 

These I didn’t make this summer but this is actually my most resent project. While we were vacationing in September Bron caught a cold and had the whole runny nose thing going on. I don’t know what it is but I don’t like to carry tissues with me. I didn’t like having a wad of tissues in my pocket or purse just getting dirty gross. I could just buy the small to-go packages of tissue, but that didn’t really appeal to me either. Well, until I remembered seeing somewhere on the net some tissue pouches. I had a few practice runs with making one and soon figured out how to make a cute little pouch to hold one of those small to-go packs of tissue. I now am prepared and proudly carry my tissues around just waiting for a runny nose.

The little pouch was so easy and fun to make I made some more. 15 more to be exact. I kept the original plus my favorite of the group for my own and now have 14 left.

All are made with Denyse Schmidt County Fair decor weight line and are fully lined. One as you can see is made with linen with only a stripe of that cute fabric.

That one is my favorite and I actually made two. Keeping one for myself.

Here is mine with a picture of the Kleenex Tissue that I used to fill it with.

Ok, so if you are interested in any of these cute little pouches and want to carry one around in your purse as well. Leave me a comment on this post letting me know which one you like best. I will leave comments open for a week, have a drawing and then add all the rest to the shop.

Oh, let me also mention. If you find that you like more than just one of my projects, don’t hesitate to comment on each project you like. While I ask only one entry per post, you can win more than just one item.

Update: Comments are now closed. Thanks for you sweet comments.

Come on now

99 deg F in the shade. I thought it was support to be fall. Apparently, not today.

Using what you’ve got

September it was family, and now in October my mind has been filled with thoughts about home schooling my three kiddies. Lucky for me a tiny, and I mean tiny, little girl was born and has distracted me back to the sewing machine. There was no time to order anything special, so I had to use what I had around the house. For some reason I knew I wanted pink, but my pink supply was limited to the pink scrap bag. With the pink and yellow scrap bag next to me I searched flickr for some inspiration, followed some links and found this. I knew right away that this would be perfect. My squares are 6 inches each with 3 inch sashing. (a little more on the side)

I am having mixed feelings about the inscription square but felt I should use it regardless. If I had more time I would make it again and use 2 strands of floss instead of 3.

Weekend Hike

Growing up in Washington has spoiled me. I have always been used to seeing green. Around here we have been searching for green spots on base and have not been able to find many.  I long for a walk through the Point Defiance Park. Alas, that is just a dream but I decided to give an Outdoor Rec. hiking trip a try. In desperation I braved it without my husband. Luckily for me a few ward members also were taking the trip. To be honest I didn’t know anything about the hike. Only that there was trees and it would be in the mountains.

It wasn’t the Hoh Rain Forest (oh I miss that place) but I did see some moss, trees, and other beautiful scenes of nature. We came home tired and some of us, a little bruised. Here are some favorites. More can be seen in this set.

Who’s teaching this girl.

I don’t know if any of you had read this post, but I had another one of those moments last night. 

We were watching conference last night. (tangent- We aren’t as lucky as our American LDS folk. If we are to watch conference live it is in the middle of the night. I watched the last two and now this one the weeks afterwards, in the evenings, in small doses. I do like it this way since I’m not overwhelmed in talks all at once but it does require a bit of discipline to make it happen. tangent over)

So, we were watching conference last night and in the middle of it Bron brought me her conference kids packet and very excitedly showed me the letter B on the cover. After we finished up the talks for the night I was looking at Bron’s packet and was impressed by her coloring. She has been making great improvements in her control lately. I noticed these suspicious marking at the bottom of the page.

Look for yourself.

Those markings are b’s, big and little. I was skeptical at first if that was indeed the case since I had only talked about how to write a B once, and that was months ago, but I asked her what they were and she proudly declared they were indeed b’s and demonstrated some more for me on a new sheet of paper. 

Last night I was one proud mama.

fun finds and some rambling

Thisbe is so excited about a patch or 6 leaf clovers growing right outside our fence.

While watching the kids play in the Mediterranean this last weekend. I notice that the tide line was full of these tiny little treasures. I even found some as small as a grain of sand.

So it seems that life is returning. We started official school this last week. I’m sort of crawling into it. For my sake and theirs. Hopefully we will be fully operational by November. It’s so nice that I don’t have to worry about and stick with the standard September – June routine. When life give me a three week vacation, I can just go ahead and take it.  There is so much to learn on vacation anyway. Here or anywhere.

With this new routine, however, I have been struggling with being tired. (No, I am not pregnant) I’m not used to being “on”, for such long stretches of time.  All this last week, come about 10:30am, I’m struggling to stay awake.   I do make it past lunch, but come about 1 or 2 during reading time, I’ve opted for a nap instead of a good book.  I’m hoping my stamina will build.

On a different note, we had an interesting storm come in. Well, the storm its self was pretty typical, you know the lightning and huge amounts of rain that fill the streets with water kind of storm. The cool thing was that it was approaching so fast that Magnus and I watched  those beautiful puffy white clouds in the distance passed over us and revealed their dark, scary underside, in only a couple of minutes. I love a good storm.

September

While I had a wonderful month, its time to get on with my life.  Here are a few favorites from our trips. If you’re looking for details about our trips. Dave has a few posts over on the family blog. *** Update – I just realized that it will be find the vacation posts if you just click the last link. So let me give you the specific posts. Kusadasi, Day Two: Ephesus, Day Two: Selcuk, Days Three and Four: Pergamun, Day Five: Troia, Trip to Kizkalesi, Proud Father, Bonding Time Dave left during the middle of his parents trip for some training back in the states so he missed Cappadocia and some other fun day trips.

You can see all the uploaded photo’s here.

vacation time and a pencil roll

We are gearing up for a trip around here. We are getting ready to explore some new and exciting places at the end of the week. We’ll be returning from our trip with a twice as many people. I am so excited to receive 5 family members into my home. (Both parents and my brother) Magnus’ baptism is next week and they’re all coming out for that. I guess if you need an excuse to come to Turkey that’s a good one. Izmir, Troy, Cappadocia, the Mediterranean Sea, and who knows what else. I’ll let you know how it all turned out.

Here’s pencil roll from my summer sewing. I made it with a flap this time to hold those pencils in better. The last one lost its pencils if you flipped it over when it was rolled up. This was another little girl party gift. I need to make one for Bron to bring to church. She has just starting drawing and a stack of colored pencils can be a little noisy and disrupting in a quiet chapel. It would be nice to have them all quietly tucked into their own little pocket.

The construction of this one didn’t go as smooth as I’d hoped. I tried to make it from memory and forgot to do some essential details which caused some seam ripping. When I was getting ready to put the button on I realized that I forgot to add the elastic. I fixed that by adding sewing it to some scrap fabric and then sewing that onto the roll. I don’t think it hurt things too much.

Geese and some firsts

I started this quilt way back in early 2006 using fabric left over from this quilt.  This is the Denyse Schmidt Flock of Triangles quilt.  I had sewn up a few rows and was discouraged that I couldn’t get the triangles to work. The problem probably had something to do with the fact that I don’t follow instructions. I think I did try to read them but since I really can’t learn that way, I went about it my own way. Well, for some reason I was determined to finish it, but not then, of course, but at some future date, which turned out to be this summer. I looked over the instructions again and gave another row a try. I turns out that my sewing skills have changed much since then. This row was like 3 inches longer than the other rows. I consulted my afternoon sewing buddy and talked myself into ripping seams and starting over. One evening in front of the TV was all it took to take out all those stitches and by the end of the weekend I was back to where I left off.

I had a little neice (so I had hoped) due soon and decided that she needed this blankie. I got news that she had arrived and that she was indeed a girl, quickly finished it up and sent it on its way.

So about the firsts.  While making this quilt I: did a major seam rip instead of just trashing it, bound the quilt by hand, and embroidered for the first time. We all need an afternoon sewing buddy. We do things we never dreamed possible. Thanks Kim

Hello!

It’s been a while. How has your summer been?

I had no intentions to stop blogging; it sort of just happened. There has been plenty of blogging material, but no blogging. Hmmm.

Well, here I am again and I am glad to be back. There is so much I want to tell you about. This summer has been so relaxing and laid back. We did all of our vacationing in May and June so we spend most of our time here on base. Nothing but working on routine, reading, sewing, and lots and lots of friends. I was lucky enough that the last two got to happen at the same time. There has been many afternoons here with multiple sewing machines. Sometimes it was little girls making them hum and other times it was their mothers.  Needless to say there have been many projects going that should have been talked about. Oh well. Maybe I’ll get around to showing you a few favorites. We’ll see.  Well, I do have one now that I’d love to show you.

A new shirt for Bronwyn.  She as a friend that has the cutest little gymboree shirt. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. It looked so simple and sweet that I knew right away I had to try and copy it.  Here is my first attempt. ( Thanks Annie for letting me borrow the shirt) It turned out pretty cute. I’m hoping to give it another try soon and maybe add some pockets or something to the front.

I was amazed how easily it came together. Now don’t get me wrong, there was a few times that I was baffled and confused as to what to do next (that’s where the afternoon sewing with friends came in handy), and there was the issue that it was a bit narrow across the chest making it difficult to put on. That was fixed by increasing the length of the back loop and arm holes.

Well, I guess that’s it for today. The kids are getting confused and frustrated that they don’t have my full attention. No promises, but I hope to be back to this space again soon.

What a blast!

Saturday I got to participate in the base triathlon. What a blast!

We pulled our team together the day before. Stacey has been training for her first marathon so she was up for the 5K run. I hadn’t been training for anything but had a good bike. On Thursday I learned what the course was and gave it ride to see if I could finish it. Yep, so I was set for the 20K bike ride. Ronda our swimmer had been to the pool a few times that summer and felt she could finish. So we had a team.

There was minor a set back of unavailable husbands to watch each of our stack of kids. No problem, we’re moms after all, we can do anything.  All we had to do was alternate babysitting while the other mom competed.

With no training (other than Stacey, but since it wasn’t planned she had done some major gym work on Thursday and went on a long run the day before and wasn’t feeling up to par) we had no plans of placing well but really just wanted to go out and have fun.

If you have ever participated in a race you know how about the adrenaline and excitement that comes. I have never been on a team before but that just made it all the more fun and exciting. Throw in all the kids cheering for the moms and it cant get much better.

We all did well for where we were at physically, no kids got lost or hurt, and it turned out, surprise surprise,  that we won the team competition.

Being a small base the turn out was pretty small. There was less than 40 competitors and two teams; ours and a men’s team. The first runner to come in was part of the men’s team so I never entertained the idea that we had a chance. But as Ronda finished they announced us as the team competition winners. Apparently the men’s team was disqualified. Something to do with their swimmer.

We had so much fun; the cheering, the racing hard, the excitement to finish and then win. I cant wait until next year.

Our First Week

It really, truly, has been wonderful to have the kids home with me. It hasn’t been smooth sailing but we are still getting used to being around each other full time. A bit crazy at times but still wonderful.

This week included the much planned and talked about butterfly project. Magnus has been dying to get his hands on a net so he can start his collection.

The collection part has seemed to fizzle out since that would require the killing of his new pets, but the hunting and observing is still going on full force.

Library Tote Tutorial

Sorry this is so long coming. I never was able to get pagemaker to work for me, so, I’ll just post it here. Enjoy!

 

Supplies:

Outside Fabric: Base (cut one) – 13.5 x 19 inches , Upper (cut two) – 8.75 x 19

Lining Fabric – 30 x 19 inches

Handles: Outside/Lining (cut two each) – 2 x 28 inches

Interfacing: Bag (cut one) 29.5 x 18.5 inches, Handles (cut two) – 1.5 x 28 inches

Normal Sewing Supplies:Sewing Machine, iron/board, scissors, measuring tape, pins

 

Sewing Note: All seams are 1/4 inch unless stated otherwise.

1.  Sew your top outside fabrics to each side of the base fabric along the 19 inch sides, right sides facing. Press seams towards top fabric.

2. Apply interfacing to the wrong side of the pieced outside fabric and outside fabric handles. There should be about 1/4 inch of fabric showing along the borders. Mine is never perfectly lined up so don’t let that frustrate you.

3.On pieced outside fabric, topstitch on along top fabric 1/8 inch from seam that meets with base fabric on both sides.

4. Fold pieced outside fabric in half, wrong sides facing. Line up top/base fabric seams. Press.

5. Fold up bottom fold of base fabric 2 ½ inches. Press.

6. Turn folded and pressed outside fabric over. Open up the top layer of fabric. (You now see wrong side of the fabric and it should be folded in the middle) Press the fold.

7. Turn fabric over again. (You now see the right side of the fabric and the middle is still folded) Take the bottom side of outside fabric and bring it up to meet the top edge. (Right sides are now together with the 2 ½ inch fold in the middle) Press.      

8. Sew along the sides of folded outside fabric. Be sure to back stitch at top and bottom.

Repeat steps 4-8 with lining fabric.

9. Straps

Take one outside and one lining strap. Place together right sides facing. Sew up long sides leaving the bottom and top open.

Repeat with second strap.

10. Turn straps right side out with a safety pin or turning tool. Press.

11.  Topstitch along the long sides of both sides of each strap ¼ inch from the edge.

12.  Locating Strap Placement

Along top of outside bag, top layer only, find the middle. Place pin. (You want a distance of 7 inches between each end of the strap) With measuring tape, position center pin at 3 ½ inches and place a pin at 0 inches and 7 inches.

13.  Using the placement pins as guides, pin strap ends to the top layer of bag, on the outside of the pins. Make sure outside fabrics are facing and the strap is not twisted inside the bag. Leave 1 ¼ inches of the strap sticking out of the bag. Double pin so the strap doesn’t shift.

Repeat with second strap on other side of bag.

14.  Sew each end of the straps to the bag about 1/8 inch from top of bag.

15.  Pressing Lining Bag

Turn lining bag right side out. Press bottom open.

16.  Fold bottom flap down. Press.

Place lining bag inside outside bag. (Right sides facing) Match up side seams and pin bags together. Make sure not to pin the bag closed. Sew along the top of bag leaving a 5-6 inch opening between one of the straps. Be sure to back stitch.

17.  Turn bag right side out. Press seams along top, tucking opening fabric inside, to prepare to close.

Topstitch 1/8 inch around entire top of bag, closing opening along the way.

Using a quilting guide, topstitch again 1 ¼ inch from top of bag all the way around.

18. Reinforce straps by sewing an X, following the diagram. The circles and vertical lines represent the straps. The top horizontal line is the 1/8 inch topstitch and the second line is the 1 ¼ inch topstitch.

Start and finish by back stitching. Place needle in the down position when you turn corners.

19.  Repeat with all other strap ends.

Press outside bag in same manner as steps 15 and 16.

Trim all loose strings and head out to the Library.

Here we go

School is out, the kids are home, and I  feel like I just hopped on a roller coaster. Right now we are starting our climb up to the top and I have no idea what awaits for me when we get there. I’ve been on similar rides before but this one has the potential to the be the best one ever.

Homeschooling

That word means so much and is bringing on fear.

For so many reasons I know that this is right for my family. I know it promises to be an awesome ride, but for now as I click, click, click, up the track. I’m feeling a bit anxious about the whole thing.

I’ve waited in line, payed for my ticket, hopped on, and am hanging on tight. Here we go!

When did she get big enough to go to a party without me?

Sorry about the delay of the tote tutorial. I wanted to do a pdf version of it and am having trouble with pagemaker. Hopefully I’ll iron out the wrinkles and have it available soon.

Bron has her first party to go to this next week. Well she’s been to family ones before but this is the first friend party where I will not be joining her. I’m a little sad but not her, she is very excited and has her party dress picked out already.

This little wrap is for her to take as a gift.

I made it using the directions from this book but modified it by only making it for 12 colored pencils. I applied interfacing (because that is what I have a ton of right now) instead of the flannel as batting. I’m happy with the results.

Another Tote

I had planned on being busy all day babysitting, but as it turned out the 3 year old I was watching was the perfect playmate for Bron. They kept themselves busy (in a good way) for a  few hours.  This left me time for sewing and photographing the process of this tote. I’m not pleased with the photos at all, but I don’thow to make them better. I do like the tote however.

Next up – Library Tote

The tutorial is in the works. Maybe next week. Today I made some adjustments to the bags I made for my birthday give-away. This one is just a tad larger, has wider straps (feels much nicer when weighed down with books), and has a thingy that’s name has escaped me. (Its a stiff rectangle to give the bottom shape. Anyone know what its called?)

Here’s what it looks like on.

Something for me.

I have finally sewn up a bag/purse for me. I knew I’d think of something to do with that lovely fabric.

Just the right amount of pockets

no zippers

sits just perfectly at my side

not too big

not too small

not too flashy

but oh so cute

perfect