The fun is in the details.

When I feel like doing something, and I have a free minute, I sew. It often seems like a trade off, that if I update my blog, then that's taking time away from sewing. I also tackled some projects that will be taking me a long time to finish, so I don't have much progress to show. I've been spending most of my sewing time hand quilting Maria's quilt. I am using the Thimblelady's thimble and I really like it. I ordered the plastic one, and it works great. I don't really have much experience with any other thimble, but I do like this one, and would never use any other.

But with all this sitting and quilting with the end just barely in sight, I started to daydream about the satisfaction of completion. This quilt was not going to be done fast enough to scratch that itch, so I started a new doll. She was going to be for a birthday present for a friend of the girls', but I had a change of heart. It took about 6 hours to do the hair alone, and the birthday was coming up too quick. Betsy named her Lucy Anna. Here she is sitting on the Maria quilt.

Here's more of Lucy Anna looking cold, because it is still freezing cold here in Chicago.

Maria did decide to go the handmade route for a gift. Every few months she tries to do some embroidery, but it has never gone too well. Too many knots and tangles for her to do it independently. This week it was different. Maria is no slacker when it comes to fine motor skills, attention span, and most importantly artistic talent. It's not that I'm bragging (it's my blog, I can if I want to anyway), but she really is something. So I set her up with some muslin, a hoop, and some thread to get started. She drew her design with a water soluble pen. She did all the sewing, and I threaded the needle and tied knots as needed. At one point she said, " If I make big stitches, it goes really fast." I said to her that if she makes smaller stitches it will look much better. She continued to work for a little more and then said, "If you do big stitches you miss out on all the fun of sewing." What a great attitude! We picked out some fabrics to go with her design and then made it all into a pillow. I totally tried everything to get her to keep the pillow, but she insisted on giving it away as a gift. She doesn't get her nice from me apparently. But look at how cute this pillow is! Not bad for a five-year-old.