spring thinking

Don't bite your friends

2010-10-28T18:02:00.002-05:00

She is Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba. I made it using a pj pattern, polar fleece, and some cool shiny material. Easy and fun. She was insisting on Strawberry Shortcake for a long time, but we couldn't settle on which version old/new and what outfit. When she finally changed her mind to Plex I quickly seized on the moment to get it done before she changed her mind again. More to come soon.

Prairie Days

2010-10-06T12:50:00.003-05:00

It would be so cool if they gave us more than a weekend to pull together a costume for this event. In any case, I was not going to let the opportunity to make a prairie dress pass me by.

A Pirate Stole My Horse and Treasure!

2010-03-31T19:08:00.004-05:00

Patrick has been a huge fan of Lego for years. Recently he has discovered YouTube and has spent lots of time watching homemade videos of Spongebob, Mario, and Lego. He took a class at the Park District and learned some of the basics of stop-motion animation. Oh the fun! We figured out how to do it very easily using our digital camera and imovie. This is a fantastic next step for him to extend the ways he plays with his Legos.

He did this all on his own. He took all the photos and did the voice over himself. Most of the time I was not even in the room with him. The song at the end is The Entertainer, his latest piece on the piano. I love how his narration is so much like how kids talk while they are playing.

Here's a link to the youtube version if this doesn't work

Maria's finished quilt

2010-03-08T13:50:00.004-06:00

Should I try this again? Maybe.
Recently I finished a quilt for Maria. I slowly worked at hand quilting this quilt for about two years (!). Now it is done. It was nice to get to the end or find the end of this everlasting project. Hand quilting is worth it because I think it looks far better than machine. It just takes sooo long, and would be discouraging when I couldn't wrangle up the motivation to keep at it. In any case, it looks beautiful on Maria's bed. I remember starting this quilt at a time that Maria was very frightened of many things. She couldn't sleep at night and wanted me there with her until she fell asleep. I was so sorry for her and wanted to be able to help, but it just took time for her to work through her worries. I didn't get the quilt finished in time for it to be of any comfort. The entire quilt is backed with one of my all time favorite fabrics, a little red riding hood toile. I thought the story was appropriate because it deals with a young girl who is both afraid and brave.

Betsy can't wait for me to get started on one for her. I don't know how many more twin size hand quilted quilts I can make.

for the birds

2009-03-11T13:32:00.003-05:00

Here I am. Wow! A month goes by fast these days. I've actually been a little reluctant posting because I use an old computer that has reached its max and I don't like to put any new photos on to it. Probably time to back up iphoto and clean things up a bit.

I've been working on a few crafts. First was this pair of wool needle felted birds and nest. I made them for Jim for his birthday a few weeks ago. I had thought they would be a Valentines gift, but they ended up being rather time consuming. Needle felting is fun but it might be hard to appreciate how much time goes into them. It might be hard to see, but the boy is wearing a bow-tie and the girl has a flower in her head feathers and a pearl necklace. They're dressed for an evening out I guess. The nest is made of fabric strips and pipe cleaners. I like the sturdy feel the wires give to the nest.

I've also been doing some knitting. After a lot of time spent trying to learn to continental knit, I've finally figured out something similar. Many years ago in college I went to the library and checked out a few books to teach myself how to knit. I figured out how to do it, but I was not really doing it the way everyone else does. I should say that I had no idea I was doing anything wrong. I came out with the same results, but it was slow. So when I tried to learn the faster continental way, things got really mixed up because I didn't have a proper technique to begin with. Despite looking at a million "learn-to-knit" videos on the web, I could never get the hang of holding the yarn in my left hand. My stitches would always get very twisted. Finally when I was at the end of my rope (or should I say yarn) I decided to try to copy exactly what I was doing in my old (wrong) way and just hold the yarn in my left hand. What I've ended up with is the absolutely BEST way to knit ever. Trust me, I've seen all the videos and nobody does it quite like I do and my way is great! Speedy, perfect stitches, perfect tension, most minimal hand/finger movement. I can do it without looking, switch from knit to purl without letting go of the yarn, switch to a new row without letting go of the yarn. Truly! Crazy! Now I can knit without it taking me forever. I made this cute vest for Tess. The pattern is here. I just cast on more stitches (100?) at the beginning to make it a little bigger to fit Tess. Here she is modeling. I know it is not the best view of the vest, but I picked to photo for other reasons:)

Valentines Day bookmarks

2009-02-14T18:52:00.003-06:00

Things are always busy around here, so I've been doing a lot of starting and stopping on various crafts. I've been trying to teach myself a new and hopefully faster way of knitting, but old habits die hard. I want to start a new quilt, but need to finish one first. The past few weekends have been more about crafting with the kids.

We/I did Valentine bookmarks this year. I thought this would be a fun sewing project to do with the kids. The kids helped with the sewing and then made cards out of construction paper to tie on with ribbon. Joann Fabrics really came through with some great prints. It took a little digging, but both prints I ended up choosing were Alexander Henry. Cute stuff.

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-10T14:27:00.003-06:00

One last peek at a big project from the end of 2008. I made 9 of these wreaths for all the families on my Christmas list. While they did take a lot of time to complete, I really liked not having to figure out many different gifts for many different people. I think everyone liked them, I sure thought they were cute.
In my spare moments before Christmas, I also worked on another house for my advent village. Since, there was no way I was going to be able to finish the whole thing before Christmas, I think I will just aim for having it done before Christmas 2009. That will give me plenty of time for all the details.
My brother is expecting a new baby soon and the shower is today. I'm not able to go, but I wanted to have a gift there for the special day. I made this baby quilt for the upcoming bundle of joy in this really simple snowball pattern. I went through all my fabric and pulled out only the stuff that I LOVE. I have so many wonderful novelty fabrics and I'm always looking for a reason to use them up.

Taking a good photo of a quilt is next to impossible, especially when the "help" is not so cooperative.

Here is my little helper on one of her favorite Christmas presents from Grandma. In the background is Maria's big present, a Hello Kitty sewing machine. It is so stinkin cute and works great. I found that cute little desk and the consignment shop and painted it red so it would look new. It's her own little work station. Excatly what a busy girl like Maria needs.
Ah! I'm so glad I put this post together. I had been feeling all out of sorts and unproductive for awhile now. Thinking I wasn't making use of my time and not completing anything that I start. Nine wreaths, 3 coats of paint on the red desk and chair, one quilted house, one baby quilts, and a handknit cotton washcloth I didn't even take a photo of is not so bad for one month of crafting. That's why I do this. No time to spellcheck, I gotta go.

Piano recital

2008-12-24T07:34:00.005-06:00

Among all the making, baking, planning, and prepping, we have enjoyed a steady soundtrack of practicing. On a very snowy night, just days before Christmas we gathered in a beautiful church to enjoy over thirty children perform their holiday songs. It was such a treat. My two performers were well prepared and took the stage with such confidence and grace it nearly made my heart break. So without further ado, I give you...

What I'm Makin'

2008-12-04T21:38:00.003-06:00

Leaving behind some slow moving projects, I've jumped into some new Christmas crafts. So much more fun. First is the wreath. The idea came from the pomander tutorial of Betz White. She really comes up with the best ideas for using felted sweaters.

My really big great idea, though, is an advent village. I'm so excited about this idea. I can't say I've ever seen something like this before, but I'm sure there must be something like it somewhere. It will be made up of 3D patchwork houses with numbered windows and doors that have pockets behind them with things in them. I've made the first and biggest house already. It took a lot of brain twisting to figure it all out, but I love the way it looks so far. In the picture you can see one of the pockets on the roof. That will have a chimney over it and a Santa will come out on the 24th. Ha Ha! I think the snowman will come out of this house also. So will a Christmas tree and decorations and more. Do you see the apple pie cuties looking out the windows and doors? I had to make the whole house scaled to their size to make that look right. I've had that fabric forever, and never knew what to do with it. Another house will be a rustic cottage and out of that will come the squirrel and garden gnome and more. I had to learn a whole new craft, needle felting, in order to execute all the ideas for this village. There will also be a church with the Holy family in the pockets and a barn with reindeer and other seasonal animal and barn stuff. Wooo!

OK there are a lot more ideas as far as this project goes and I really have to get a grip on my Christmas shopping and stuff, so there is no way it will be done before Christmas. I'll just add it to the rotation of large long term projects I'm working on like the quilted chair, and the hand quilted twin quilt for Maria and the log cabin quilt. They are all more done than not. Really and truly these will all be in their completed glory one day real soon. I just need to stop adding to the list.

Everything all in one post

2008-11-13T20:30:00.003-06:00

The camera-napper was apprehended lurking in some neighborhood bushes, but not before he sold off my camera. In any case, I'm glad he's off the streets for now.

Firstly, I dressed up Maria and Tess and tried to reenact Halloween. Maria was Little Red Riding Hood.Between the cape(red corduroy), the lining(Marcus Bros. fairytale), the pinafore(light green wool) and the petticoat(white linen) this outfit used some serious yardage. Trying to catch Maria in a still pose is seriously hard.
And not to be outdone in the difficult to photograph department, here is Tess letting it be known that she will NOT be a happy Strawberry Fairy again.
Unless she can ride on the trike.
Another major project I've had going on is this vanity that my mother-in-law gave us this summer. It was old and the finish was in pretty rough shape, so I thought I would either paint it or strip it before setting it up in the house. Never having refinished anything before, naturally that's what I decided to do. I'm glad I made the effort. It certainly wasn't as hard or time consuming as making a quilt. I'm very happy with the results.

A little bit of good luck was found at the thrift shop this week. A lovely wool granny square afghan. Absolutely perfect condition and only $16. I know this is the going price for these, but I've tried making one before and these blankets are a LOT of work. Yet another example of how handmade things are under-appreciated.

Phew!

2008-11-05T08:33:00.002-06:00

Wow! I'm so happy Obama won. I've been smitten since his keynote address in 2004 and I'm so proud that so many Americans came out and supported him for President. I don't just think he will be a good President, I think he will be a great one. I could go on all day, but I won't.

So I made a very sweet little red riding hood costume for Maria for Halloween. I'd love to put some of the beautiful photos of her wearing it right here. I would write about the lovely, soft blue wool I got for a song on E-bay (that never happens anymore). I'd show another photo of the darling fairy tale fabric I used to line the red cape. I'd even love to upload some cute photos of Tess as a Strawberry fairy and Betsy as a Princess. It would be the photo fantastic post I've been working towards for weeks! But I can't do that because somebody stole my camera out of our car in the driveway last night. Very creepy.

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

2008-10-23T22:07:00.002-05:00

With the kids back in school and the upcoming election, I've been completely consumed with things not related to crafts. To match my current obsession I, made this shirt. I made it with some old tees and reverse applique.

Jim said I shouldn't get into politics on my blog, but whatever. I've been beyond disappointed with the Bush years, so voting for a Republican was out of the question for me. I think Obama recognizes what's right and wrong about where our country is headed and I think he's smart enough to get us on a better path. One interesting thing that I've learned in my endless web searching on all things related to the campaign, is that Bill Ayers grew up in the home directly behind the home that I lived in as a child. He would have been on the run from the law by the time I was born, but I think his parents still lived there. Feel free to draw you own conclusions at this point about my character and associations. I think it probably explains a lot about my left leaning tendencies. Who knows what they were putting in their Halloween candy? Was it laced with liberal? This is probably why Jim told me to keep politics off the blog.

I'm deeply entrenched in Halloween costumes. Nothing extra creative, but they will sure be cute. I'll be back sooner that later.

The Twist

2008-09-13T15:34:00.002-05:00

Trying some new things on this rainy day. imovie, tricky but I think I got a good start. The quality is poor because this was all shot with our point and shoot camera's movie option. In any case, I think it is really cute.

Woven Chair Seat

2008-09-11T11:29:00.003-05:00

At Maria's age, the days are limited that she will be excited to wear a homemade dress on the first day of school. She's the sweetest girl and did so without even the hint of hesitation or complaint. In fact, she seemed happy to do it. Of course, once I saw what her best friend wore on that day, I know I won't be able to get away with this for too much longer.

On a slightly different crafting front, I decided to do something about my kitchen chairs. I am embarrassed to admit that I have had two completely broken cane seat chairs in my kitchen for more than two years. I've had throw cushions to try and make them a little more usable, but really they didn't work at all. Poor Patrick's assigned seat (yes, it is necessary and put an end to the endless fighting of who sits where) has been one of these broken chairs. He would never sit down and now pretty much eats all his meals standing up. Nice, huh? Here's what one of the chairs looked like before, and the other one was just as bad.
This was actually a chair that my Dad gave me years ago and I think he might have done the cane seat. I remember a cane seat project going on in the basement when I was little and I know it took a long time and was tricky to do. I always thought I would re-cane these chairs, that's why I hung on to the chairs for so long. Well, finally, after all these years I had the idea of weaving fabric onto the chair seat. It was a fast and easy project and now the chairs work like a charm.

Hi Craftzine readers! I thought I would update this post with a few more details for those of you interested in how I did the chairs. I used strips of linen cut about 50" long and 2" wide. I used a bias tape maker (this is a common tool that can be found in the notion section) to iron the sides neatly under. I should note that I did NOT cut the fabric on the bias. No need to sew the strips together. I then tied a knot near the end of a strip and brought the strip up through a corner hole. I used a small crochet hook to help grab the fabric and pull it through the holes. You will not be able to get the fabric through the hole without the hook. Then I just wove the strip back and forth until the strip ran out, tied a tight knot underneath, and started a new strip. I used linen, but I think the quilting weight fabric would work fine too because it is made strong by being doubled over with the bias strip maker. A light weight home dec. fabric might work, but the holes on these cane seats are small so the fabric can't be stiff or thick. I just tied all the knots on the bottom and cut the ends short so they can't be seen. I suppose you could also add some staples, but it really seems pretty sturdy. Fun, easy, fast and no-sew project. Thanks for visiting!

The end of summer

2008-08-26T21:28:00.007-05:00

Indulge me with a few vacation photos. We just returned from a week in northern Michigan at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Forest. It is as pretty as can be up there. The forest goes right up to the Lake Michigan shoreline. Those are the Empire Bluffs behind Jim and the kids and in some places they are like 500 feet high.

We had fantastic weather. In fact, beautiful weather has followed me around all summer. I have never known a summer filled with so many perfect weather days. See in this first photo it was raining in Michigan when we got there, but then it stopped. It didn't rain again until the morning that we left.
At the cottage we stayed at there was a hula-hoop that quickly became the favorite toy of the week. It is so funny because we have had them laying around the garage for years and the kids have never seemed so interested in hula-hooping. This little video cracks me up.

I have an awesome back-to-school dress to post, but I'm to lazy to get up and find all the cords and camera and do all the stuff . I'll post it real soon. Maybe it won't be like three weeks before I do another post.

new owl softie

2008-08-09T14:54:00.004-05:00

Can you really call yourself a crafter or a softie maker if you have not made an owl. It was high time I had a go at my version of an owl. I found the inspiration to get up off the couch and get going from this artist. I love her illustration style. I was also looking at the Oaxacan carved animals like these. I had originally thought I would make my owl in bright patterned fabrics to look more like my inspirations. I still like that idea and think I will come back to it. The thing is, I have a ton of fabric, but not exactly the right kinds of fabrics for my idea. I started with natural linen to make a proto-type. It came together rather easily and was looking nice so I kept going.

One of the cool things about the Oaxacan animals is that they are often made up of many pieces that loosely fit together. I like the idea of removable pieces. I've also always liked the idea of button-on wings. I used button-on wings for these two costumes and for this angels wings.

So, her wings and tail are button-on and reversible. I was going to do it all in linen, but it started to look a little bit 70's craft book, so I decided on the newsprint fabric for one side of the wings. Does that make it look a little more contemporary? I think it does maybe. The funny thing is that all the type on the print is about things that happened about 40 to 60 years ago.

The wings are made like a little quilt with batting on the inside and quilted with embroidery stitches around the patterns. She seems so cozy with the wings made like this. Mostly I like the way she looks on the shelf along with all the other toys.

From Coast to Coast

2008-07-31T11:08:00.004-05:00

Jim was in LA for two and a half weeks doing a commercial shoot for Capital One. I decided I would go visit my folks with the kids while he was away. That meant me on the plane with four kids. Let me assure you that screaming was a major factor on both flights. "Really! She's usually such an easy going baby. Must be cabin pressure?" It was all great once we got there, though. We had a wonderful time with my parents and many great days at the beach. Here's a picture of all of us in Woods Hole. Woods Hole is such a cool place. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is there, which gives you the sense that there are all these really interesting, smart people walking around, probably studying cool stuff. We are at our favorite restaurant in town, Captain Kidd. I don't know why the photo looks all misty like that, but I like it.

The day after we got home Jim called to tell me part of one of the commercials was going to be in a toy store and they needed toys that were not "branded". He asked if I wanted to send out some of my dolls or stuffed animals. Yeah! But when I looked over my things, I realized I haven't made much that would look like a "toy" if it were shown real fast on TV. Hmmmm. Patrick had been asking for a monster doll, so I thought this would be a good reason to get that project done. Patrick drew this design.
So I got to work and knocked out the monster doll pretty fast out of some old felted sweaters. As I was working on it, I started to (guiltily) remember that the director of the commercial had a baby not too recently and I neglected to send a gift, even though they have always sent the most beautiful gifts every time we have had a baby. So I thought Ha Ha! I will make another toy! Robot! As fast as I could and with every spare second I made this robot in an afternoon and shipped it all off to "Hollywood". It was so last minute that I didn't have time to take proper photos. I strapped all the kids into the car, propped the dolls up against this moldy tree, snapped a few and then zoomed off to the Fedex store.
Now that you know, keep your eyes peeled for these guys in an upcoming commercial. From what I've seen, the robot might be the one you see most clearly. Jim does this stuff all day, but for me it was very exciting to be able to contribute something.

The Ocean

2008-07-13T19:24:00.002-05:00

Like moths to a flame they are drawn to the ocean. It has been so wonderful to see them enjoy the rare moments these midwestern kids get to spend at the ocean. They love everything about it. The water, the sand, the waves and seaweed for hours of constant movement. Collecting shells and glass and rocks fuel endless imaginations. Warm sandwiches, sticky lollipops and sandy cookies have never tasted better.

Wool camera case

2008-07-07T22:06:00.004-05:00

Like the ulterior motive photo of my new camera case? This blog has a lot of roles to play. It just happens that the piano is on the other side of the room where I sew. Patrick has just started to take lessons and I so look forward to the day when I can sit and sew and listen to my kids practice. He's already doing so well.

Sometimes it happens that I have an idea to do something and then before I get a chance to make it I see someone else has had the same idea. And done it way better. None-the-less, I still think it is important to follow through on my own idea because no matter what, when it is handmade, I think each person has a unique take on the same idea. I've held off on quite a few ideas because I feel they may not be "original". But really that is silly. Look at teddy bears. People still make them all the time. Anyway, back to the camera case. Vacation is fast approaching and the new camera needed some protection. This was such a super easy and fast project, but really I don't have time for anything that isn't right now. Things will slow down one of these days, right?

Plan for the quilted chair

2008-06-25T21:13:00.003-05:00

A while back, ok like January, I posted about my idea to reupholster a chair with a quilt. I have the chair and am making slow progress on getting it done. But it will get done! I'm determined because I think it is such a great idea. So here is the plan. All I've done so far is made a huge stack of four patch squares in assorted feedsack prints. I'm going to checkerboard these with white like I've shown in this picture. The tricky thing is, I don't think all this patchwork would be stable/sturdy enough because of all the seams. So, what I'm gonna do is layer it to flannel and then quilt the two pieces together. That way there won't be any stress on the patchwork seams. This makes sense, right? I would regret it if I didn't do this, right? If anyone out there sees any flaws in my logic or maybe knows a better way let me know.

I'm going to cover any exposed part of the chair with the patchwork, but I will probably use a coordinating basic fabric for the backs and underneaths of the cushions. Then I've got to figure out how to make the piping, which I think I might use a gingham for that, maybe black and white?

Here is a picture of the chair again that I'm going to recover. I think it will be good because it is all pretty flat and square shaped.
Here is a picture of a quilt top (really 2 identical quilts tops) from e-bay that I wanted to buy and then use for this project. I don't think I would have had the nerve to do that to these quilts, but that was why I was looking on e-bay. In the end they went for over $200 a piece. One thing I love about them is the colors. Vintage patchwork often looks very girly and pinky and flowery, but I don't think these are too much of any of those. I'm inspired by these old quilts to incorporate a lot of plaids and some browns into the mix.

Summer fun with the bugs

2008-06-20T19:21:00.004-05:00

I cracked open this new Japanese dress book months ago to start making some summer dresses for the girls. I made some other dresses from Japanese patterns and they came together pretty easily, so I thought I'd try some more. Phooey! I tell you I had to turn my brain inside-out and spend considerable time pretending I can read Japanese in order to get this dress traced properly. Fortunately, I've made a bubble outfit before, so I kinda knew what I was looking for and what I was going to do with all the pieces. I was so frustrated I put it away for a long time thinking that the sewing would be equally as challenging. No need to have worried, the sewing part was very easy and it can be finished beautifully with all the seams enclosed. Nice. I used some nice white linen from Joann's. I stock up on this stuff whenever it is on sale. I wish they carried more colors. In the end, I like the patterns from the Japanese books, but I think they may be better for inspiration. I could probably find a pattern for a bubble dress written in English and save a lot of frustration. But on the other hand, does it do me good to take the more difficult path? Does everything need to be easy? We've been trying to fit in some family fun lately going places like this and this. Great places to visit with kids and not too annoying for the grown-ups. Look at this awesome ant. It's really huge and made out of wood. They had a bunch of different bugs like this at the Arboretum. They reminded me of how people make softies of all kinds of bugs and animals. I've been wanting to make some new stuffed animals lately, but I'm not sure yet what I want to make.
We went to the Arboretum because Betsy has had a hankering for a walk in the forest. Well much of it is really more like a well manicured golf course without the holes. But
we finally found some good looking woods to walk around in. I told Jim to drop me and the kids off on the path and then he and the baby could go wait at the end of the trail for us. He could listen to the "crosstown classic" and Tess could sleep. Off we go into the forest and toward a low swampy area. We must have been the only warm-blooded, carbon dioxide breathing mammals to pass through this section in a long time because we got absolutely swarmed with mosquitoes. We all ran as fast as we could, flinging and slapping our arms and legs. It was crazy! I've never seen so many! This was the only photo I could barely get. I'm surprised there isn't a mosquito crowding the lens. Man, that guy should have made a giant wood mosquito sculpture, that would have been fitting.

From five to six

2008-06-09T21:03:00.003-05:00

What a difference their is between five and six. Maria, a year ago, was such a handful. She always has been and probably always will be, but sometimes she is a fun handful and sometimes not. One year ago she seemed to pick a fight with me just to have the fight. I worried about her being too impulsive. She didn't think about consequences or how she affected other people. None of these things are true of Maria today. Over the past year she has done so much growing I hardly recognize her sometimes. I'm so proud of all her hard work this year. She is such a fun handful now! She is the artsiest, craftiest, most inspired person I've ever known. Here is a link to her favorite site, Sprout. They have wonderful tutorial videos for easy craft projects. She's able to do them very independently, which is very nice. I just get asked questions like, "I don't need your help Mama, just construction paper, a bendy straw and a sponge." Or, "two paper plates, some beans and wet glue." I'm telling you she probably does two or three projects everyday off this site and they are so cute. Great site.

But, coming up right behind her is Besty! All I have to say is that we had a "Battle Royal" over a strawberry tonight and I think it was a draw. Geez! A Strawberry!

One Year Later

2008-05-27T21:13:00.002-05:00

So amazing how fast this year went by since Tess was born, but that is what everyone says. It went by in double time. She is no longer a newborn, she was barely out of the hospital before that stage seemed to be over. She is a total joy to have in our family. The big kids love her to bits. Not an instant of her young life has she been without a smile, hug, kiss or gentle touch from her sisters or brother. Their kindness to her makes me so happy.
She has given me memories of a happy baby that I will always treasure. She has an easygoing nature like Patrick and the curiosity of Maria. She is determined, like Betsy, to keep up with her older siblings no matter what. She has a quick smile and an easy laugh. She loves music and dancing and sitting under the piano whenever it's being played. Most of the time she walks around with a remote control or a cordless phone in her hands, she might give Patrick some competition soon on the video games. If she is not holding a remote control, it is probably because she has found a colored pencil. She watches the girls so closely, it would not surprise me if she is drawing before her next birthday. There is so much in this little girl, just one year old, I could just burst with anticipation. I know this is why it seems to go by so fast. As much as I want to linger in these fleeting days of babyhood, she pushes forward. She is unstoppable and unbelievable. It takes my breath away to say it, Happy Birthday Tess!!

Color Wheel Quilt's

2008-05-27T20:39:00.003-05:00

Three of these. Done. Teachers gifts. Yahoo! I promise there is some crafting getting done around here. I wish I had a photo of all of them together, but they were finished and handed off within minutes in the mad dash that is the end of the school year. Summer has finally come, let the games begin! And I say this with only a trace of apprehension, fear and maybe sarcasm.

silhouette quilt

2008-05-18T20:20:00.005-05:00

I had so many things I wanted to include in my last post, I didn't take the time to really document my process for doing the silhouette quilts. Since this is a project that I intend to try again, I need to make note of how I went about them, what went well, and what I would do different next time. This is an essential reason why I started this blog so I need to keep up with that stuff. I think I will, but I never will, remember how I made them. I go back and look at some things I've made in the past and I have no idea how I did them. I know this would happen with these silhouette quilts. So here we go.

First thing I did was take a side view photo of the kids. I turned them to B&W photos and printed them out on regular printer paper. I carefully drew around the profile with a black pen and then held it up to the window with another piece of paper on top and traced the whole profile outline. Then I used paper-backer fusible webbing and traced the outline one more time. I then ironed the fusible onto some black fabric and then very carefully, with very sharp small scissors cut out the silhouette. Everything up to this point is going good, looking good.

Here is where I have some concerns about my design. Because I wanted the silhouette to be set against a white background, I ironed/fused it to some linen. This is something I think I should not do again, it just made for too much unmanageable poofyness in the end. So anyway, I small zig-zagged very, very carefully all the way around the profile. I ironed more fusible to the back of the linen and then cut it out in a big oval. Then I ironed the big oval onto the blue and white striped linen.

For the cross stitch I found some letter designs somewhere on the internet (can't find that link) and I used something called waste canvas to help line up and count the stitches. It's basted to the linen and then I did the cross stitches and when it was all done I undid the basting and the waste fabric can be pulled out thread by thread. I love the way the cross stitch looks, but woo-boy does it take a long time to do. I ironed this onto some more fusible, cut it into a circle and ironed it onto the striped linen. Again with the bad poof.So it's all ironed down, and zig-zagged down and I make it into a quilt sandwich. Here is where I made another mistake that I think many quilters probably think about doing, but don't try because they know better. Before quilting, I attached the binding. It just makes, yet again, for a lot of extra, unwanted poof. I hand quilted it in moderately spaced lines, but if I did more I think the poof would have turned into wrinkles. In a last ditch effort to control the poof, I did the black running stitch around each of the white ovals. It looks good at least. So finally I think that it looks good, but I need to go about it much different next time for a smoother result. Too much fusible web makes the quilt too stiff. Lesson learned.

Here is what I'm working on right now. Another go at a color wheel quilt. Of course the original idea is from Last Minute Patchwork, but I didn't use that pattern. I wanted something smaller like a wall hanging, and frankly I thought that I had I better idea for the construction. I used a 9 degree wedge ruler. In my world, math has always been much better as theory than in practice. It should take 40 wedges to make a circle in theory, but in my quilt it took 41. So maybe my construction idea is not really better. I thought these would make great teachers gifts. Jim's trying to talk me out of that idea. It always comes back to the same question of whether people really appreciate handmade or not, so why invest the time if you're not sure?

Here is a perfect example. I'm at a garage sale this weekend and see this darling painting for $5. I pick it up to pay and the woman is like, "Oh that's an original, I had papers, but I can't find them." So you're selling it for $5? It's obviously hand painted on a hand stretched canvas. The frame and matting are all done beautifully and by hand. There was nowhere in your home, or that of a friend, or your adult children for this painting? Am I missing something here? It's not ugly, right? What is wrong with people? What kind of price is $5?

2008-05-06T10:30:00.003-05:00

Hello long forgotten blog. Sorry about that long break, but April was busy. It went by in a flash, but that's OK because now spring is here and it is beautiful outside today. We have to wait a long time here in Chicago to see the flowers that the rest of the world has been enjoying for weeks.

April was full of celebrations mostly centered around my good boy Patrick. He turned 8, so there was a birthday party of which I have no pictures. Imagine cute 8 year old boys playing baseball and talking Pokemon. Little League has started so we've been going to lots of games and practices. Such a fun family thing to do. I need to remember to bring my camera because it is so cute and fun and often beautiful at the end of the day in the sunset.

Finally last weekend Patrick had his First Communion. We made an adorable banner for the church, but I didn't get a photo before I sent it out of the house. Really it was very cute. Patrick was chosen to do the second reading for the Mass. In front of a large standing room only packed church he went up there and read with complete confidence. He floored me. Again no camera. Nice job Jenna. Here is a shot my mom took.

As a gift for him and his cousin, who also had her First Communion, I made these silhouette quilts. I think they came out pretty cute. I was surprised at how much they actually resemble them. I didn't realize how unique they would look . I guess I figured , at their age, everyones' profile is pretty much the same. Head, nose, chin... how could there be that much variation? Below the profile, I did cross-stitch monograms and the year. This gave me a whole new appreciation for cross-stitch. It takes a very long time. Just one fancy letter took me an hour to complete. Anyway, I love the way it looks so it was worth every minute. I'm sure you would think so too if you could see any detail in these terribly grainy photos.

So the month that was all about Patrick is over and we move on to the end of school, two more birthdays, and more baseball and soccer. I expect I will still be busy, but I will try to be a better photographer, family documentarian, and craft project finisher.

If you don't like cute, you've come to the wrong blog

2008-04-13T20:32:00.003-05:00

A wonderful shaft of light comes through our house before sunset. It comes in through the living/sewing room window and goes straight through all the way to the dining room. Here are some things it caught in its path tonight.

Some sewing bits that are taking me a very long time to pull together.

Tess in all her glory.

I swear she is this enjoyable every single minute of the day.

I thought I wasn't getting anything done...

2008-04-04T10:24:00.004-05:00

I didn't think I had much to show, but when I loaded the photos from my camera, I realized there was some crafting going on around here this week. Patrick came on home on Monday with an open-ended assignment to make a flag for class. Any material/medium could be used. He wanted to use fabric. He's never seemed too interested in sewing, so I was more than pleased when he said he wanted to give it a try. Since this was his first try, I was at his side helping quite a bit. But that being said, he did every step of the flag himself. He used the rotary cutter (yikes that's scary!), pinned, ran the sewing machine, ironed (just one little burn), and embroidered. I helped with the measuring and such by telling him how wide to cut the strips and how much seam allowance to use. I also showed him how to make the x's for the stars and helped thread the needle and tie knots. He sat down and spent about 2 hours sewing all 50 stars. This kid can really focus when he wants to! He was so funny because he kept wanting to take pictures of it as he worked. Where would he get an idea like that? In the end the flag looked great, but he got it off to school before we managed to get a final photo of it. In all he probably spent about 4 hours on it over a couple of days.
On Tuesday I got a last minute call from a mother inviting Maria to a birthday party on Wednesday. This meant either I would have to forgo Tess's nap on Wednesday morn to get a gift, or I would have to make something. I take nap time very seriously. I pulled out my bunny pattern and some sweaters and challenged myself to make this in one nap. Because I've made this pattern twice before, I was able to do it pretty quick, but with not a minute to spare. I hope she likes it. I go through a lot of doubt when I give these things as gifts. I feel like including a note that says "if you don't like it, give it back and I'll go get you some Polly Pockets instead. When my baby's not sleeping. When I have someone to watch all these kids cause I wouldn't bring even one of them anywhere near a store that sells toys. When I don't have a lot of other things to do during those few moments that someone else is watching all the kids. Really, if you want the Polly Pockets that bad, I will do that for you." Sooner or later the local moms are going to catch on to this and either they will stop inviting the kids to parties so they don't have deal with the homemade gifts that they have to convince their kids to appreciate. Or, maybe, the will like them and try figure out ways to invite my kids to parties at the last minute so they can get the beautiful, handcrafted, one-of -a-kind creations to treasure for the rest of their lives. Who knows?
Yesterday when Maria was getting ready for school she pulled out this little smock. I had forgotten about it. I made it to go with the Easter dresses, but it was making them look too Little House on the Prairie, so it wasn't worn that day. Maria found a cute way to wear it to school.

Japanese Easter dresses

2008-03-27T11:00:00.003-05:00

I used this book to make some dresses for the big girls for Easter. I've had the book for awhile, but have never tried any of the patterns. I was a little intimidated by the lack of english instructions. The styles were all very straight forward and easy to figure out from the diagrams in the book. The diagrams tell you in what order to sew everything, which is about all you really need to know. In the book, this dress is shown as short sleeved, but it was as cold as the arctic here on Easter, so I made them long sleeved dresses. The book is very versatile because it had the pattern for the long sleeves included, so I can mix and match depending on what I want to make. I didn't realize how clever it the book is until I started using it. I got the book from here last summer.

The purple dress is made of a lightweight linen/cotton blend from Joanns. It is so soft and pretty, but a little sheer. Maria wore a long sleeved tee and tights underneath, so she wouldn't get frostbite. Betsy's dress is made from some floral quilting cotton I got from Equilter. I thought it sort of looked like a Liberty print, but not $30 a yard. I look at so many beautiful fabrics that I would love to make dresses out of, but at $15-$20 a yard, it just seems like too much to pay.

So when Easter morning came around and I had all the kids in decent clothes all at the same time, all awake, I had to take a photo. I took about 20 photos and I swear Patrick has the biggest smile in each one. He is such a good boy. Who's that kid standing in the middle that looks like a baby? That's Tess! To the best of my recollection she was just born about a month ago, but there she is not looking like a newborn at all. How did she do that? She's almost as tall as Betsy. What a lucky baby she is to have those big sisters and brother. They are so crazy about her.

The fun is in the details.

2008-03-16T12:27:00.005-05:00

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.

Catching up

2008-02-28T13:45:00.007-06:00

I've been quiet lately. There's been a few things I've worked on over the past few weeks so I'll try to bring you up to date.
There was Valentine's day, which involved over 60 cards that needed to be made for the kids to bring to school. I know it's a Hallmark holiday, but I love the crafting potential of Valentines Day. After Halloween, it is my second favorite crafting holiday. We made these fridge magnets to give out with the cards. They are made with 1 1/2" glass floral beads. I cut out little circles of fabric scraps and the kids used Mod Podge to glue the fabric to the back of the bead. Then we stuck magnets to the back. They looked so cute I wanted to eat them.
Mostly I've been working on Maria's quilt. I started this quilt to give to her for comfort during a time when she was feeling very afraid of the dark. I often try to find ways to craft my way out of a problem. She's long gotten over the fear, but it did help me feel like I was "doing" something about it. I got sort of fussy with the back and made these pieced panels to go across the top and bottom. I used every single last triangle scrap I had left over from the front of the quilt. I sewed them all together, and then I sewed them together, and then I sewed them together and then I sewed them to the back fabric. As easy as that. Except that it took forever! (This picture shows the point when I had them sewn together, but before they were sewn together.)

I am just starting to get comfortable with how long certain aspects of sewing really take in order for things to come out looking decent. You have to use pins. You have to iron. Basting is important. I'm a slow worker, so I often try to figure out if I could do something faster to speed things along a little. I'm never as happy with the results or I end up going back and re-doing things which only makes things take longer.

My hands have been very full with little Tess. She's all over the place now and her personality is growing everyday. She is such a charmer! Not so sleepy, but really cute. I'm trying to capture more of her on video than I did with the other kids. I have very little memory of when Betsy or Maria were this age. It is all such a blur. It all happened so fast. I was so eager for them to get just a little older, a little more manageable, that I didn't take the time to commit all these special moments to memory. They are probably there somewhere in the old photo albums. Remember photo albums? I never even get prints made anymore. In college I was a photo major for awhile. I loved the darkroom and black and white photography. I took all the large format classed the University of Illinois had to offer. The whole digital photo thing came on so fast, I think black and white printing is soon to be (if not already) a lost art. Here's a little memory I don't want to forget, because I don't think there is anything cuter than a baby in a sinkbath saying her first words.

Within this post are roughly 7 facts about me. Janet Clare tagged me in a recent post, so I thought I would play along. The catch is that I should tag someone else. What she did not realize when she named me, was that I think I might be the very last person in all of blogland to get the tag. Or am I? Is there someone out there who has not done this AND is reading my blog, well I'd love to hear from you. Consider yourself tagged!

Before my very eyes

2008-02-11T17:02:00.000-06:00

Each day at home with four young children can be monotonous and seem the same, but at the same time they change so fast. It is hard to keep up. Look what's happening this week. Patrick and Tess are so much alike. When I look at these two pictures I see so much sweet pride in each of their eyes. They have no idea how proud I am of them.

Fun WIP

2008-02-08T12:28:00.001-06:00

I mentioned this quilt a while back, and I thought I would post a WIP shot because it is fun to see it come together. Everytime I make a few new blocks I spread it all out to see how it looks. Each block will be 2 1/2 inches square. They are rather fussy, with some taking me 30-40 minutes to complete (yes, I do time myself when I do this stuff). In the end there will be 96 total squares, but not all of them so fussy. Can you tell what it is going to be? I looks very obvious to me.

wool sweater slippers

2008-02-04T17:47:00.001-06:00

Would you like a warm pair of felted wool slippers? Let me show you how to make some real fast. Some of the things you will need: felted sweater, old jeans, embroirdery floss, paper backed fusible webing, sewing machine and basic sewing things (like scissors, thread pins).
Start with an old wool sweater. Run it through a hot wash then a hot dryer a couple of times to get it good and felted. Turn sweater inside out and stick your foot into the sleeve with the cuff around your ankle.
Trace the outline of your foot with a pencil, marker, chalk or whatever you have that will show up on wool. I used a chalk pencil. Then pin on both sides of the lines to hold everything in place.
Cut the sleeve off of the body of the sweater and sew along the line you just drew.
Trim close to the sewn line with pinking sheers.
Turn right side out and repeat all these steps with the other foot in the other sleeve.
So now you have two sock/slippers and you could stop right there and get your feet warm. But let's keep going and make these a little more durable. Take a sheet of paper backed fusible web and trace your feet. Cut these out roughly and iron to the wrong side of some old jeans.
Cut out along the lines and peel the paper off very carefully. Put the gluey/webby side of the denim feet against the bottom of the wool socks. Spray with some water and press with a hot iron.
Now, the glue of the fusible web is not going to stick so hard to the wool, so get out some embroidery floss and buttonhole stitch all the way around denim.
Boom! You're done.

"Go to Sleep Baby" baby doll

2008-01-31T16:43:00.001-06:00

I've had this idea for a baby doll for Tess, the baby, for awhile. I put her up for a nap and she spends about 20 minutes talking to a stuffed bunny in her crib. Either the bunny or her blanket, but I think it's the bunny. I have no idea where the bunny came from. My best guess is a garage sale this summer. You should hear her, she goes on and on talking to this bunny. It's quite a friendship Tess and this bunny have going. But, if she is going to have a lasting relationship with a toy, I'd rather it be with something that I've made for her. I know it's silly, but whatever. I've had this doll design in my sketch book for about a month decided today to give it a go. I tried to go fast and not get caught up in to many details.
I considered giving her a little heart to hold, but then I thought she might pull it off, stuff it in her mouth and suffocate. So I didn't add the heart.
Quick project like this are always fun because I have so many helpers around.
I hope this sleeping baby reminds Tess what she's supposed to be doing when I put her in her crib.

All I've got is time.

2008-01-30T13:05:00.000-06:00

With my new found enthusiasm for Maria's quilt I have decided to add a lot of applique all around the border. I'm also thinking of trying to hand quilt this one. If it is too slow I can always put it under the machine later, but I really like the look of hand quilting. I saw the Thimblelady on Simply Quilts once, so I'm going to try her technique for hand quilting. I even ordered one of her rubber thimbles. Has anyone ever tried this? So this will be a longer project, but that is OK. I have a few projects in the works right now, so I can switch around if I get bored. I also have plenty of laundry to fold if I run out of things to do. Really, the laundry is ridiculous!

quality verses quantity

2008-01-23T21:03:00.001-06:00

Comments? Not so many. Quantity of comments are low here on the blog. Nonetheless, what really matters is quality right? Lucky for me that's what I got. "Jan in Nagasaki" came in with a late comment to this post which put me on a whole new path with my quilt. I really was stuck and down about how this quilt was coming along. Jan said red. This did not fit in with my original idea and I would never have thought of red. I took about a week to think about red. I started to like it more and more. Soon I was running to the store to get the red for sashing and borders. It's gonna look so cool! It looks so cool! So that's really all it takes sometimes, a few good quality comments. Thanks.
January light also falls into the quality category. It pours into the house in the middle of the day at the most beautiful angle. No leaves on the trees to filter it. Snow on the ground outside makes it bounce around like it does when you're by the ocean. So pretty. Here's Tess playing on the floor in a shaft of light. I was talking on the phone with my mom at the time trying to tell her how pretty it looked. So soon Tess will be up and moving around, but for now she still stays where she's at.

Old ideas coming to life

2008-01-13T21:44:00.001-06:00

With so much free time on my hands these days (ha ha!), I thought I'd take on some elaborate projects for 2008. One thought I've always had since starting to quilt is that anything can be made out of a log cabin square. I've started this new small quilt to put this idea into action. I'm just using left over linen from other projects and I really like how it is coming out. It's a very fussy idea and will take a lot of time to complete, but whatever, no rush.
Another idea that I've had for a long time is that it would be really cool to upholster a chair with a quilt. I popped into the local furniture consignment shop last week and found this chair, so I got it. I'm gonna give this idea at try. Jim asked if I know how to upholster furniture. Great question. Do you really need to know how to do something before you do something? Can't I just learn this off the internets? The other thing about this chair is that it will need about 6 yards of fabric. That's a whole lotta quilting. Lots of ideas on how this can be done. I will think on it more while I work on the log cabin quilt.

Painting is NOT flying away

2008-01-07T10:32:00.001-06:00

Maria is a little creative machine. She's constantly making, drawing, building, doing something. Shortly before Christmas she was asking if she could do some painting and I was saying "No". Which is pretty much what I've said to this request for a very long time. So messy. I tell her to do painting at school. She said they don't have much painting there. She thinks for a minute and says, "Mama is painting flying away from me?" OK, that's horrible. No, painting should not fly away from anybody, and it really should not fly away from Maria. So, we were very lucky on Christmas morning to open these beautiful paint sets with large canvases sent from my brother. I sat with each of the kids and worked on these for a long time.
Patrick and Maria each spent about 2 1/2 hours on their painting. I helped with mixing the colors, but they did all the painting. Betsy kinda did hers on the fly. Hers was really looking great. See the girl, the apple, the tree? Great composition and movement. Great capture of her drawing style right now. This photo was taken just moments before it "rained". I turned my back to freshen up the water and it "rained" blue spots all over the whole painting. She did it so fast. I wanted to get mad or something, but what was there to get mad about? She loved it. I forgot how narrative kids are with their art at this age. It is never just a painting of a thing, but of events.

New Years Eve Quilt

2008-01-01T12:42:00.001-06:00

I finished this quilt late last night, just minutes before midnight. This was my gift for Jim for Christmas. He took a few days off before Christmas, so I was not able to finish in time without him seeing it. I had shown him many of the parts of this quilt, but I don't think he knew that it was going to be put together as a quilt for him.
I used many left over pieces from this quilt. I found the blue linen on clearance at Joann's, and I think it makes the other fabric seen more masculine. About as masculine as lot of floral prints can be at least. In any case, it is a beautiful blue linen with a lot of depth and shine to it, and it is so soft. I went with a design sort of similar to the Stacked Coins quilt in Last Minute Patchwork. Everything went pretty smoothly on this quilt. I tried not to get too fussy or over-think things.

Happy New Year to anyone who has taken the time to stop by and read my blog. It has been fun to share the things that I make and the events of my life here. I've also loved seeing all of the wonderful creations so many other people make and share. It is hard to find people in my real life who share these interests, so starting a blog has been fun. The past few years have been full of many changes for us with moving back to Chicago and having a new baby. It is hard to imagine how our life might change over the next year, but of course it will.

(I was looking for an arty photo image to put here, but I couldn't find one, so I'm going with "kids in the city". This should be resolution #1, take more arty photos.)

Christmas Angel

2007-12-27T07:36:00.000-06:00

Phew! Christmas is done! What a fun, exciting holiday, but I have to say the day after was the most enjoyably relaxing for me. Waking up and thinking that there was nothing that I "had" to do was a pretty good feeling. With all these kids, the holidays start about 3 weeks before Halloween and don't stop until now. I love it, don't get me wrong. There were so many things I wanted to do, but just didn't get to. Maybe next year, or some other year. You don't have to do every holiday "tradition" every year, some traditions will have to be rotated.
I didn't make a lot of Christmas presents this year, but I knocked myself out on the few that I did make. For my parents I made this angel. Dolls are so much fun. When I started getting close to finishing her I realized that I would have to put her in the mail and send her away. How sad! She might get cold, or worse, lost! So I prolonged my stay with her for as long as possible by making her a little doll quilt to keep her warm. All the material I used for her I had on hand from other projects.

I used white linen for her dress that was left over from a dress I made for the girls this last summer. I did a quick little embroidery around the hem with a herringbone stitch and some french knots. It looked so pretty that I wanted to keep doing more embroidery on the dress, but sometimes less is more. The buttons are actually beads sewn down to conceal snaps.

I considered some different face ideas, but I decided to go with an embroidered face like I used on these dolls. Those dolls have become such familiar part of our everyday life, that I thought it would be nice for my mom and dad to have a doll so similar. The hair is done with yarn sewn down to the head. I must say, I think I do a really good job with hair. I don't know how other people do it, so I've figured out a way on my own and it looks great. If anyone is interested I could do a step by step explanation sometime. Let me know.

The wings were made from silk left over from a Halloween costume. I have made wings so many times, but I always spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to do them. For these, I wanted them to have a feathery look, but real feathers weren't right. I used some funky, furry, feathery-like yarn and crocheted a long strip. I made a sandwich that went silk-feather strip-silk-batting. I sewed them together, leaving a small opening, and then turned batting to the inside. Again, less is more, and I decided to not try and quilt feather patterns on the wings.

The quilt is made from more of the white linen and some vintage fabric that might be feedsack, but I'm not sure. I embroidered a small heart in each white square to quilt it. It looks super cute all together with the doll. Sort of Christmasy, but hopefully not so much that she can't be enjoyed at other times of the year.

I worked on another Christmas gift all month, but it is still not done. A quilt for Jim. It still needs to be quilted. I need to go in and clean up the living room with all it's wrapping paper, boxes and presents everywhere and turn the room back into my sewing room.

I'm an idiot

2007-12-20T22:27:00.001-06:00

My only excuse is that I've been really, really tired. That is still totally lame and this is something that will keep coming back and bothering me. I left Maria's name off of our Christmas cards. How stupid is that? Very! And embarrassing too. As if Maria could ever be forgotten. I was so impressed with myself for even getting the cards done. Thinking I had everything under control. I suppose it comes as little surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I have very poor proofreading skills. But really now it's like I've just sent out this card to everyone I know making it perfectly clear that I'm an idiot. So I'm hiding the cards from Maria because I can't bear to think of how she might feel if she sees one without her name on it. It could make a five-year-old girl feel pretty bad I think. If anyone would like to share an embarrassing story, I would love the company.

I've got some really great crafty things to put up soon, but they're not ready yet. I'm also thinking of doing a little recap of the year from a family perspective sometime after Christmas. I think this blog, over time, will make a nice record of some of the things that go on in our lives. I really want to do a better job of keeping up to date with the posts. As I look back over them I see some holes that I would like to fill in. So I think a recap might be nice. Stay tuned.

It's not always easy.

2007-12-04T12:38:00.000-06:00

I've been struggling with my crafting lately. Probably why I haven't been inspired to post much. First it was this quilt I'm working on for Maria. I need to learn that if I am not going to follow patterns, then I need to deal when I'm not happy with the outcome. So far the pattern, or lack of, is looking bad. We have 16 windows in our house that look like this. They are beautiful old wavy glass windows and I love the "on point" diamond. So unique. I thought it would be great to make a quilt that kinda reflects that design. I like that it would add a layer of meaning to the pattern choice. All I see when I look at it, though, are Y seams that would be hard to sew on my sewing machine. Then I thought I could break up that middle diamond into 4 triangles sewn to the corner of 4 squares. I think the general idea is maybe ok, but the fabrics don't pull it off. Solids would work much better, maybe. So, I'm a little stuck and am trying to sew my way out.

I needed a quick project. I decided my big headed baby girl needed a new hat because it is getting cold. I wanted to knit. Could I crochet a hat very quickly? Yes, but I wanted a knit hat. Could I find free patterns online for knit hats? Yes, but I wanted to create my own idea. So I stormed ahead without a clue what I was doing. I pulled out many attempts for many reasons. Here is one try where I thought that this shape would make a bonnet if I sewed those seams together. Well it didn't.
Finally I got my head around how to do the back. Decreases. Duh! It still didn't fit because her head is so big, so I add more around the bottom and made the I-cord for a tie under her chin.
Finally it fits!
I know it may sound like I'm complaining as I work through my thought process. I usually don't tackle my projects because they are easy. I want and enjoy the challenge of trying to do things my own way.

Tess is not feeling well right now and we are not getting any sleep. I feel so tired all the time. It makes it hard to stay focused on what I need to be doing to get ready for Christmas. I feel all guilty that so many people are making so many of their gifts. I just can't do it. I can't even think of gifts I want to buy. My brain is mush.

She'll thank us when she's older.

2007-12-03T22:02:00.001-06:00

Fall Quilt

2007-11-15T20:07:00.001-06:00

Wa-hoo! I've been working and not working on this quilt since the end of summer. I came across the Martha Negley fabrics at Reprodepot and I loved them. They looked like the colors of the end of summer. They looked like fall, but not in the regular fall colors. I loved the oak leaves with the blue background. It reminded me so much of looking up through the scrub oaks in Cape Cod. Most of the fabric is Martha Negley, but there is also some Joel Dewberry fabric, a little Fresh Cut fabric from my last quilt, and maybe a few others. The solid color is a natural colored linen/cotton blend.

It's a wonky flying geese design. I was inspired by this quilt that I saw on Flickr from a quilt show in Japan I think. I mean that quilt is crazy beautiful. Way beyond. I've always liked flying geese and so I thought I'd give it a go in my own way. I drew the designs on foundation paper and pieced the quilt that way. I don't know if this is any faster or what, but it worked for me and it is what I'm comfortable with. I became very familiar with foundation paper when I did this quilt so I often come back to this technique when I want to try something new. I had made a pieced border to go all around it, but I didn't like the way it looked. I almost put it on because it was always in my plan, and I felt like I was wimping out by not using it. It really didn't work though. Made it look too hippy and that is not what I was going for. I still have the border and have a whole new quilt idea for it which I think is going to be cool.

Speaking of wimping out, the quilting. I really just wanted the quilt done. The weather is getting cold and I want a blanket to put over me at night on the couch. Simple machine outline inside the triangles and inside the long blank panels. I don't know if this minimal quilting will come back to haunt me later on down the road. I hope it all stays together. The way I figured was that if quilts can stay together with ties, then mine should be fine. I also thought I could finish it now and then add more quilting later if I wanted. Again, I don't know if this is a good idea or not.

I'm really tired right now. Tess is not sleeping too great at night and so I don't feel like proofreading this post at all.

Don't throw away the PB catalog that is coming in your mail today.

2007-11-03T19:20:00.001-05:00

I saw this wonderful idea for a dollhouse here the other day, and I couldn't wait to try it with my girls. We do a lot of magazine cutting and glue sticking, so I knew this would be a fun and do-able project for us. I was so tempted to go way over the crafty top with this idea, but the beauty of the project is in it's ease. We made two small houses, one for each girl. We cut 4 strips of cardboard about 18"x 11". Then we cut a slit from the center of the long edge to the middle of each board and then slid them together like a cross. I gave each girl some catalogs and let them start cutting for about a half hour. We had the best luck with the Pottery Barn and PB Kids catalogs for images. Then we started gluing. If you have ever wanted to decorate a home like Pottery Barn, this is a strangely satisfying without the price tag. This was a "do together" activity with my four-year-old. It would have been a nice "do alone" for my five-year-old, if I weren't so over-bearing and wanting to "help". I should have just made one for myself. Very fun! Thank you Elsie Marley.

And now for some thoughts on the baby. She's rolling. She has been able to do it for awhile now, but it is much more frequent now. I pretty much find her on her belly every time I lay her on the floor. When I watch her do it, though, it is hard to tell if she wants to roll over. It kinda seems like her muscles start contracting and arms flailing and the next thing she knows, she's on her belly. And then she usually starts crying, but not always. See :)

Halloween is fun.

2007-11-01T15:12:00.001-05:00

Here's my enthusiastic Halloween fans. What a fun holiday for the kids. It was just all fun, games, parades, candy, parties and more all day long. All four of the kids held up great and had a great time. Jim is the one in the big red "star trooper" outfit. We didn't really know what to call him, but it was a lot fun for the kids and adults alike. Yesterday Tess went with the flow for all the festivities, but she is not dealing well today. I need to go tend to her. The glass in the house might shatter if she cries any louder.

This is just a short cliip of the flower fairies in action. It was very hard to keep up with them.

Craft Blog Gal

2007-10-25T17:42:00.001-05:00

I made a new doll today. A friends daughter is turning four in a couple of weeks and I've been wanting to make a doll. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I looked here and here and here for some inspiration. There are so many things that I like about the dolls that these women make.
Hillary of Wee Wonderfuls always manages the best facial expressions. I think my doll is looking a little sleepy, not exactly what I was going for. Lori Marie of Pretty Little Things has such a way with unexpected details. I gave my girl some ruffle bloomers and flowers in her hair.
The striped legs totally remind me of the many girls of Emily of Black Apple. So what I have on my hands here is a craft-blog-fusion of a doll.

Geranium Fairy

2007-10-22T20:42:00.001-05:00

Another day, another costume knocked out, hence, another post. This is my interpretation of this illustration of a Geranium Flower Fairy by Mary Cicely Barker. I used the Simplicity 3588 for the basic style of the dress. Obviously this was just a starting point because I added a lot to it. For the skirt I cut out to the pattern some shiny tulle-like fabric and the layered five large quilted petals over it. In the drawing she had little buds going around the waistline. I made about ten of these and stuffed little bells inside. I thought I would be able to find an easy way to do these buds, but they ended up being kinda tricky and involved a bit of hand sewing. By the time I was done with the buds and the petal details I really wanted to wrap this costume up. I almost didn't do the collar or the leaves on the shoulders. I took a break from it and did a little work on a quilt I have going. When I came back to the dress over the weekend, my enthusiasm for it was renewed. I'm really happy with the way the collar and sleeves look. I think they make it more "costumey". Like she really could be some little fairy walking out of the woods.

Again the wings were a concern for me on this costume. In the drawing, the wings are kinda greenish/pinkish/brown. I didn't know how I would capture that look easily with fabric. It was such a stroke of luck that I was browsing (very generous word) the silk dupioni at Joann's and they had this green/pink combo. I don't know what you call it when two colors are cross-woven like that, giving it a different color depending on how the light hits it. Best yet, it was on sale for 3.99 a yard. Perfect.

Really the best is that this is for such a special little girl. Maria is my biggest fan. She really loves the things I make and I think feels proud when she is wearing them. She is at my side for every stitch and decision I make. She loves to create and is always working in tandem with me on some project or another everyday. She is so fairy-like in her ways. She is not easy. She is far too interested in everything to be easy. She wants to know and do and talk about everything all day long. She is my shadow, but she is not like me. Or I don't think I was like her as a child. Because of that, she is so surprising to me. I love her to bits. I have a quilt that I will be starting soon and it is going to be for her. Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. That's all I have for now.

One down...three to go...

2007-10-21T21:18:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to stay focused here and get these Halloween outfits done. Strawberry Flower Fairy is done. For this costume I used Simplicity 3854. This is an infant pattern for a bubble outfit. Betsy is pretty small so I gambled that she would fit an 18 month size. I think I might have used a different bodice from something else, but I don't remember now. Anyway, it is made from some red corduroy that I had left over from some back-to-school dresses. The seeds are this soft velvet that I sewed down with a green/yellow variegated thread.

After some trail and error I figured out how to make a collar that kinda looks like little leaves. I learned that a collar is not a straight piece of fabric wrapped around the neck. Instead, it needs to be cut out round, as if you are looking down from above. I know this may be "duh" to anyone who knows how to sew or has taken some classes, but I get kinda excited when I figure out how to do something new. The wings are quilted with two layers of batting for some stability and then buttoned onto the back. The wings took me some time decide how I wanted to do them. There are a lot of wing ideas out there involving heavy gauge wire, pantyhose and glitter glue. I was just a little nervous about moving out of my crafting comfort zone for some reason. In the end I like the consistency that the quilted wings have with the rest of the costume. I know that the work I'm putting into these is way over the top, and that the girls would be perfectly happy with many other costume options available in stores or even homemade. Nonetheless, I just like doing it. It makes me happy to cut fabric and see how it looks when I sew it back together. I like adding details like homemade bias tape to the inside waistline. Nobody will see that. But I like it. I like picking it up and thinking that it would look as pretty worn inside out as it does right side out.

The Geranium Fairy costume is very close to being done, but I have no photos yet. Patrick opted for a store bought skeleton despite my urging that I could do a really cool reverse applique homemade version for him. Actually, it is great that he didn't listen to me. I never would have gotten it done. And for the baby? I could not even care a speck if she is wearing a costume.

Let's talk October

2007-10-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

Thinking of October brings to mind cool days and Halloween costumes. I've been working on costumes for about a week now and I'm very pleased with how things are going. Not done yet. Not by a long shot. I love doing costumes because It is an opportunity to try new things, venture away from patterns and instructions without too much worry about how well the finished project is executed. It's a kids costume, who cares if it goes a little wonky here or there. I know some people might contend that this is a holiday for the children, and that they should be allowed to create the costumes themselves. Yeah, well what fun is that for me? Just kidding. I'm sure we will get to that some day. The first year I made costumes for the girls was 2005. Quilted butterfly wings. Made with a black shimmery velvet and silky dots machine sewn on. They came out real cute. I've always wanted to find a way to hang these in their room, like over their beds or something.

Last year I did these. The dress was good in that it was one of the first times I have sewn clothing from a pattern. I also learned that I don't enjoy working with a lot of synthetic materials.

This year the girls and I were talking about costumes like princess, ballerina, fairies and such. I was trying to talk them into flowers, but they weren't biting. Then I started saying how about Flower Fairies. They became a little more interested and asked what these might look like. I had no idea. Only minutes later I sit down at my computer to surf some of my favorite craft blogs and hop onto Wee Wonderfuls. She had just put up this post of a flower fairy by Cicely Mary Barker. What a great inspiration she always is. I ordered a this book and now I'm working from some of the illustrations to design the Halloween costumes. Betsy is going to be Strawberry Fairy and Maria is going to be Geranium Fairy. Here is a sneak peek.

And a final thought about October. If it is supposed to be a month of cooler temperatures, why were we doing this today?

flower fabric

2007-10-03T20:57:00.001-05:00

Betsy came home from preschool with a great project the other day. She had smashed flowers onto a small piece of fabric. The colors in the leaves and flowers left great designs on the fabric. Maria and I were very eager to try this craft for ourselves. The supplies were simple and readily available. Scraps of white fabric, flowers and leaves gathered from the yard and vases, and an assortment of hammers.

Cut a scrap of fabric and spread out on a hard surface like a pick nick table or cutting board. Lay flowers and leaves on fabric in a single layer.Cover leaves and flowers with another piece of fabric and start hitting with hammer. This is the spot where careful attention needs to be paid. If you have safety glasses for your kids, it would probably be a good idea to use them. In any case, you don't need to hit the flowers hard, just a lot. (I swear Betsy was having more fun than it looks like in this picture. She is just very tired when she gets home from school.) The juices come out and stain the fabric both above and below the flowers. Some flowers work better than other, I guess it just takes some trial and error. But really, even the errors look pretty cool. This was a great use for the last straggling flowers around the yard, but the cut flowers from the store also were great because they were real juicy.Once we were done pounding, we carefully pulled off all the flower pulp and let them dry in the sun. I'm not so sure how colorfast this is, but I guess probably about as much as a grass stain. I think it would wear off if put through the wash a couple of times. I ironed them with a hot dry iron thinking that might set the colors a bit. I want to make these into a quilted table runner. I think that would be pretty and special for the girls.

I'm working on some pretty major Halloween costumes. I will certainly be able to share some pictures soon.

O.K that's all for crafty. Now for cutie.

Sidetracked Again

2007-09-20T08:48:00.000-05:00

I am crafting. Getting good photos of my work, though, has not been happening. Here's what I've got so far. In the foreground, piles of wonky flying geese for a throw quilt. This is moving along nicely, if a little slow, but I think it is going to be really pretty. I love all the fabric that I'm working with. In the background, hanging over the chair, is an attempt at a color wheel quilt. I saw this quilt and became completely sidetracked. I thought it was brilliant and that I, in all of my brilliance, knew exactly how to do it. I ordered the book, of course, but got started cutting and sewing right away. Well, let me say that people who design quilts and write books about it for a living totally know what they are doing. They are brilliant, not I.

Wow. I'm sitting here writing this post with the TV on. NBC interrupts the Today show with their "Breaking News" music. It totally freaked me out. I almost started to cry before they even said what the "Breaking News" was. Well, it is only the President (sob worthy as he his), but I think I will forever associate that music with terrible disaster since 9-11. Other than being on RT. 3 in NJ to see the dust and smoke engulf lower Manhattan, I have no personal connection to the tragedy of that day. Kinda strange that it had that effect on me.

Anyway, back to the color wheel quilt. I ended up with a color oval. It is lumpy and doesn't line up in the middle or the outside at all. I like it anyway, but I can't wait to get the book so I can make a good one. So, that's what I've been doing. I've also been trying to not start a knitting project, but I would really like to have something to do at night when I feel like relaxing on the couch. We'll see what happens.

What you can do if you're three months old

2007-09-09T16:39:00.000-05:00

You're in the club. You've gotta love a four-year-old who can entertain an infant for a solid hour with "clubhouse". Yes , that is the "cutieful quilt". After all the work I put into it, I swore it was going to be hung on the wall and only admired from afar. Well, now it's a clubhouse.

You can suck your thumb and look really cute doing it, if you are 3 months old. I hope this video option works well, it could be a very cool feature.

2007-09-04T10:55:00.000-05:00

The last thing I knew, all I was thinking about were the quilts I'm planning to make. Somehow, the first thing to land under my sewing machine was this elephant. She was a gift for Betsy, who had her fourth this weekend. She is just the cutest thing, I can't believe she is 4! Her birthday came up on me kinda fast. One day last week I realized that there would be no point over the next few days that I would be able to get out of the house, without Betsy, and get her a gift. I made the pattern for the elephant myself which is always fun and challenging. I used two thrifted wool skirts for the fabric. I put poly-fill beads in her feet so she might be able to stand, but she is still top heavy. I think I just needed to crank out a fast project before diving into these quilts. Most of the cutting is already done for one of them, so I should be able to start sewing real soon.

O.K, I really want to do this post, but it has taken me about three days to get this far. I feel very scatter-brained right now and I'm having a hard time staying with one thing for too long. The addition of this little beauty has made for a very busy life around here. Thank God she is absolutely the best baby. She smiles like other babies cry. She is so enjoyable to be with and so lovable it breaks my heart. But she is a baby. Babies are a lot of hands-on work. I just feel pretty spread thin at times trying to stay on top of what each of the kids need and all that's needed to make the house run smoothly. I don't think I'm really dropping the ball on anything, but I guess I'm just struggling to find a rhythm. Now that school has started I feel like things might come together. I hope.

I've got some big ideas

2007-08-26T08:56:00.001-05:00

I've been in a big planning/inspiration stage for the past month. I have many great ideas that I can't wait to jump into once the kids go back to school. That still leaves me with one baby still at home, but she's easy. Ha! I know I am probably being too ambitious with these plans, but I'm gonna give it my best shot. I'm going to make a throw quilt for the family room out of the fabric pile on the far left. It is mostly inspired by Martha Negley fabric and the colors of late summer and early autumn. When leaves are bright green against a cloudless blue sky and the flowers deepen to jewel tones. Rather than using a quilting cotton for the background, I'm going to try using a linen/cotton blend in a natural color. I hope it works out OK.

The other piles are for quilts for my two older girls. I've gone crazy trying out various novelty prints combined with florals. I don't have the perfect combo yet, but I'm getting very close. I want to get started on these quickly for my girl Maria. She is going through a fearful stage and I'm hoping a little more nighttime security will help her. Oh, I feel so bad for her. Bugs, bees, snakes, water, dark! What is a defenseless 5 year old to do? Anyway, it has been fun looking at and choosing fabric. I don't think there is any category of fabric that I can't fall in love with given the right opportunity.

Most of the month we have been visiting my parents and enjoying good times like this:

and views like this:

Cutieful

2007-07-30T20:31:00.000-05:00

The neverending quilt has come to an end. I made a big push last week and dedicated every free minute to getting this quilt done. While working on the quilt I had a million things running through my head that I would like to mention about this quilt here on my blog. Right now all I really want to say about it is "Done". But, if I don't go into it now, I never will.

First I want to talk about the inspirations for this quilt. Back about 5 months ago I fell in love with the Freshcut line by Heather Baily. So pretty. Pretty colors. Pretty designs mixed together with cool designs and I just really wanted to make something with this fabric. Lucky for me, I was pregnant with a little girl. What better reason to make a quilt? I couldn't decide (because I had pregnancy brain) which colorway to order, so I got the whole line in fat quarters.

This meant I needed a quilt that would be sort of scrappy. I perused many quilt books, magazines, web sites trying to decide on a pattern. Let's just say now that pregnancy brain held up the flow of this quilt at many points. Finally, I choose Marquee from The Modern Quilt Workshop. I have no memory of why this seemed like the right pattern to go with.
When I had it all pieced, I felt like all those empty white squares needed to be filled with stuff. So, started trying to come up with some applique designs. I did okay on my own for a few of them, and then I came across the amazing Geninne's Art Blog, which inspired several of the designs as well. At the time that I did this I didn't think one way or the other about it. I looked at her drawings and made them into applique designs. Since then I have read on other peoples blogs about how protective they are about people replicating their work. I feel like my end results are quite removed from her work. Nonetheless, I hope I did not cross the line.

Once I decided on all the applique designs, I traced them onto fusible web, adhered them to fabric, ironed them all down to the quilt top and started to stitch around the edges. Nope. I didn't like the way that was coming out at all. I pulled them all off and re-did everything as freezer paper applique. This way all the applique is sewn on by hand and I like the result much better.

I wanted to include her name or initials on the quilt, so I did one square with embroidery. No worries that I don't know how to embroider at all. The name came out all crooked, so I added a flower motif to balance things out a little.
So far, so good. Then it was time to quilt this quilt. I did not have the patience to hand quilt like I think would have been best. Instead, I stuck it under my machine and plowed forward. The quilting is probably my least favorite part of the quilt. I did all the quilting with my free motion foot. This was very hard to do. Don't ever be fooled by people who make free motion quilting look easy, or say things like "it's just like drawing with my sewing machine". It is hard and frustrating. Of course, practice makes perfect (or at least better in my case). The quilting right in the middle, and most obvious, is terrible, while the quilting as I moved toward the sides is much better. Oh well.

At one point while I was working on this quilt Betsy looked at it and gasped "oh! That's so cutieful Mama". In the end, I will agree with her that it is "cutieful". It has a lot of special meaning to me and hopefully to Tess someday. I think it will look nice as a wall hanging over her crib if you stand back and blur your eyes at it a little bit so the mistakes aren't too glaring.

Crafts are taking over the house

2007-07-23T17:46:00.001-05:00

With the encouragement of my reader (thanks Janet), I will do a post without even having a completed project to show. In an effort to contain all the crafts around the house I'm trying to make our living room the primary area where I craft. Mostly now I have stuff all over the place. When I get going on a project, I basically destroy all order in the house. I can make the biggest messes in about one naptime. Now, I don't want everything in my living room, but I would like to keep the fabric, notions and machine in there. One of the key things needed for the room to be more crafty was a good size table big enough to spread out fabric, paper, patterns or whatever. Not to fancy that I would worry about marking it up, but not so ugly that I wouldn't want it in such a highly visible spot. Up until now I have been working with this. Nice table, but too small and the top is uneven so I couldn't use it for cutting.
As great luck would have it, my next door neighbors had a garage sale this weekend and were selling a dining table. I told them I was interested and when it hadn't sold by the end of the weekend, they said I could have it for $60. So, that's what I'm showing in the picture above. I'm so happy with it. It doesn't look crumy at all. I think it is a very pretty table. And it works great! Nice and flat for cutting. Big and roomy for spreading out unfinished projects.

Currently the table is sporting the neverending quilt, which is now a quilt sandwich waiting to be quilted. EEEKK! By machine? By hand? Both? I'm doing a little practice on the machine before I touch the quilt.

In other news, Tess is a jumbo size baby! At her two month checkup she is in the 95th% for her height and 85th% for weight (10.8 lbs). So funny to have such a big baby. Betsy is so tiny she has never made it on to a growth chart, Patrick has hugged the 3% curve for years and Maria has always been around 25th% for everything.

Back to school dresses

2007-07-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

I don't really know where I'm going with this blog. I would like to be able to keep up with it more frequently, but I don't make the time. I do some sort of crafting almost everyday, but right now it might just be sewing a few seams, making a few embroidery stitches, or at the least thinking up some ideas for future projects. I usually have nothing terribly interesting or complete to post about. I also feel like posts without a picture are just boring. So should I take photos of incomplete projects? I've already posted so many photots of the quilt I'm working on that I can't keep doing that. It's really the completed photo and post that is the motivation to get the project done.

Nonetheless, I have finished two dresses this week. The green jumper (Butterick # 4718) has a super cute lightweight canvas from Superbuzzy with a Wizard of Oz print for the bodice. The skirt is green corduroy. I first made the skirt out of a light blue cord, but that didn't work at all. The green looks better, but it is kinda stiff. I hope it will soften up more as it is washed. I think it will look really cute with a red turtleneck and tights for back to school. If you don't wear a dress like this in Kindergarten, when will you ever.

The white dress is a repeat of a dress (Butterick 4176) I made for Betsy in the spring. I had some of this white linen left over, and used scraps (left over from the neverending quilt) for binding. It is crazy cute. I love it.

This has been a good summer so far. I've been getting the kids to the pool all the time. Betsy has totally learned how to swim and she is not even four. Maria and Pat are doing great in their lessons too. Tess loves to sleep while we are at the pool, she must love the sound of the water. She really is a great baby. I've booked flights to the Cape for August. I can't wait to be at the beach. I hope I can manage another post before I leave.

Baby-time

2007-07-02T15:38:00.000-05:00

I have not been able to make much time for crafting over the past month. I added some embroidery to the quilt top that I am working on. I did it pretty much freehand. I was really stuck on how to do this. I don't have any software at all on my computer, so I couldn't type it out and trace. I didn't want to buy any more crafting books that might show some nice ways to do letters. So, I just made it all up myself. And it looks like it. Oh well. Sometimes road blocks in a project can be maneuvered with grace and finesse, and some just need to be plowed through. I hope I can get back some of the enthusiasm I once had for this quilt so I can get it done soon. I don't like starting new things when one is still lingering near completion.

I can't believe Tess will be six weeks old in two days. With a new baby in the house, time has taken on new meanings to everyone. I swear it seams like Tess was born last week but it was over a month ago. The kids think waiting just one year for her to walk will take so long. My mom remembers the cicadas of 17 years ago only being around for about 24 hours. Yep, we are in a weird baby induced time-warp. I'm hoping we will be out of it soon, so when she takes a 2 hour nap it feels like more than 10 minutes.

It's not a doll quilt, but it is for a doll.

2007-06-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

Today is my first day all on my own with all four kids. So far, so good. I even took them swimming at the pool. I didn't swim, but they did and it was fun. I know there will be days this summer where it will be harder. For now I am just trying to chill out and not let things stress me out too much. It is easy for me to place far too much importance on beds being made or laundry folded. It really does not matter at all. What does matter is that everyone gets a chance each day to do something that is fun and makes them happy. This is what will keep us all sane around here this summer. So the kids had loads of fun with Jim over the past two weeks. All kinds of outings to the pool, movies, baseball games and more.

I, on the other hand, picked out an easy craft project to work on while Tess napped and the kids played with Jim. I made this cute little baby quilt. I had all these cute fairy tale fabrics that I never knew what to do with. Well, the best thing for them was this quilt. I used only material I had on hand. If I had more energy or patience I would have spent more time picking out just the right fabrics. But that is exactly what I liked about this project. I just opened the craft closet, pulled out fabric, made one sketch of what I wanted the quilt to look like and then got to work. I tried to stick with the original plan and get the quilt done fast. It worked and I got it done in just a few days. Now I need to get past the road block I've hit on the applique quilt I'm doing.

In other news, my big girl Maria turned five last week. We pulled together a last minute party for her at the "paint your own pottery" place and all her friends were able to come. She is such a doll and has taken to being five beautifully. She gave up the challenging behavior of a 3 and 4 year old several months ago. Now, the kindness of her personality really shines. A perfect example was when I was still in the hospital and she came up to see me for the first time. She walked into the room, rubbed my foot and said with such sincerity "how are you doing Mama." I don't know, I could just tell that she really cared about me and how I was feeling.

The picture is of Maria and Betsy waiting for the other girls to show up for her party at the pottery place. They both picked out new dresses I had made to wear that day and that made me very happy. The one Betsy is wearing is made of natural linen with a binding made of patched strips of Freshcut fabrics. It is a very cute and easy pattern, butterick 4176, and I hope she can wear it through the fall with jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

O.K Tess has been grunting for about 10 minutes, she is a great baby, but even she has a limit to her patience.

Of all the births this week, Tess is the cutest!

2007-05-31T15:39:00.001-05:00

Oh my is she ever cute! She is 8lbs. 7oz of super sweet cuteness. We are all just crazy about her. She has been good and sleepy and smiley and not crying-for-no-apparent-reason. So much fun! Patrick is totally smitten with her and says the cutest things like "that baby of yours' is really cute," and "she's so cute I can't take my eyes of her." Here is a picture of him not able to take his eyes off her. This is not posed, he just truly couldn't take his eyes off her long enough to have his picture taken.

I think it is such a special gift to bring a new baby into the world and into our family. Patrick and Maria won't remember when Betsy was a baby, but I think they will remember how exciting it was to have Tess as a baby.

In other exciting birth news, the cicadas have come. EEEEWWW! We've got it really bad in our yard and it is gross to go outside. Probably millions in our yard alone. This is not an exaggeration and our yard is standard suburban size.
The spots on the trees are the cicadas. The density of them on this tree is typical of every surface in our yard. All the trees, plants, bushes, car wheels, fences, lawn furniture everything is covered like this. They also fly very poorly, fast and with no control. So were not spending too much time outside right now, it's just too freaky.

Jim's home helping with the kids and everything for a couple of weeks and it is so great. I think by the time he goes back to work we will be in a nice routine with Tess and it won't be too crazy to be by myself. Hopefully the cicadas will be in back in the ground for another 17 years by that time and we can play outside again.

Completed spring projects

2007-05-17T13:15:00.000-05:00

I've finished up two dresses for the girls this week. I don't have a lot of experience making clothes. I found making the kimono for Patrick pretty easy so I thought I would try some summer dresses. I used Butterick B4501 and it is an easy pattern to follow. The fit is not great in the bodice. Way too big. I made the orange dress first and I think it looks better worn over a tee shirt. I used a pretty fabric Jim got for me at Liberty when he was in London in January. When I made the white dress I sized down one size for the bodice and kept the same length for the skirt. This made for a much better fit. The fabric on the white dress was ordered from kitty-craft. Both dresses are really for Maria, but I let Betsy model the white one. She got very mad when I said she couldn't ride her muddy bike with the new white dress on. That's why she's not looking at the camera. She is very good at being three and a half.

I have, at this time, only one (but I'm not counting a lot of other things at this time:) unfinished project. I've been working on a baby quilt. I fell in love with the Freshcut fabrics and hemmed and hawed for a long time if I wanted to start a quilt, what colorway to go with, what quilt pattern to choose. It went on and on. I got it all together and made up a quilt top. But I couldn't leave it at that. No, that would be too easy. I looked at it and decided it needed lots of applique to make it cuter. I wanted the appliques to be my own designs and some to have special meanings. I started with fusible web applique, they were all cut out and ironed down, some even satin stitched down. Then I got fussy. I didn't want fusible web applique. I wanted them to be hand sewn. Gah! Why do I do this to myself? I pulled those appliques off and started again using the freezer paper method. Well, it is really looking beautiful and cute now but it is taking longer.
It will not be done before Tess comes. In less than a week! I have scheduled a C for the 23rd of May if she doesn't want to come sooner. I'm in a very surreal state during this last week of pregnancy. I spent about and hour in the grocery store yesterday trying to shop. I spent hundreds of dollars and when I got up to make breakfast this morning I had no syrup or milk. What on earth was I doing??? No milk? I'm pregnant and have three children in the house and I didn't even consider milk. Nice work. I hope my next post will feature a photo of my greatest work in progress for the past 9 months.

how much can I get done before baby Tess comes?

2007-05-08T09:18:00.000-05:00

We are scheduled to have Tess on May 23 if she doesn't come sooner. That is two weeks and one day from now and it is so exciting and so soon! I asked Jim yesterday if we should use these last two weeks to get as much stuff done around the house as possible. I gave examples like picking weeds, cleaning the basement, organizing closets. Or should we spend this time enjoying ourselves. The fact that there are so many things to do around the house is proof that we don't fall into the "let's get it done!" type of people. This is a picture of my sewing table. It is set up in our living room and it has looked like this for weeks now. I love it. I've been doing a lot of work in there and I just keep adding projects. I think I will be having fun for these last two weeks at this table.

One thing that I made was this bear for a baby boy who just arrived across the street. His name begins with "S", so I thought it would be cute if it were personalized. Jim really thought this was great and that I should make one for everybody. I liked it, but it ended up looking like other things I have seen before. I don't know exactly what. Maybe after looking at so many craft blogs and Softie Award photos, I think this bear reflects that asthetic. Anyway, I think he was a cute gift and I probably will make more in the future.
I finally put the finishing touches on the crochet blanket I made for Tess. The colors look kinda muddy in the photo, they look prettier in real life.
I have two more projects on my table right now. One that I might finish today, and one that is a longer project that I am being extra fussy about. I hope I will be able to add another post to this blog before Tess is born.

Midnight Kimono

2007-04-23T11:48:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile, but I have been busy. Very busy with lots of crafting. Some of it has been going fast, some slow, and with some I am being endlessly fussy. Patrick is studying Japan in school and needed a Kimono to wear for a play. I didn't think they needed it for a week, but he came home last Thursday and said he needed it for school on Friday. He's an on-the-ball kinda kid, so I trusted that he knew what he was talking about. Fortunately, I had already bought the material and pattern. I was up until midnight finishing the whole outfit, and I think it came out really cute. I wondered the whole time I was doing it what parents who don't sew are going to do for this. I don't have anything at home that I could think of to make a Japanese looking outfit for him. They don't sell this stuff at Target. I guess we'll see.

The thing that kept me motivated until midnight working on this project was that I was doing it for Patrick. I am always making things for the girls, but I realized that I had not made anything meaningful for him since before he was born. When I was pregnant with him I crocheted a few blankets and knit a sweater. I have offered to make him Halloween costumes or a quilt for his bed, but he has always wanted to go with the store bought options. That is totally fine with me. He knows what he wants and if I try to push him too hard for my idea it makes him very uncomfortable. He hates conflict and has a hard time if he thinks he's disappointing me in some way. I was so, so happy that he liked the fabric I had picked out for the kimono and he seemed so excited about all of it. He is just the sweetest kid ever and I feel terrible when he feels upset. I didn't want him to bring something to school that he didn't like just because I made it for him. He was so happy when he woke up in the morning to see it and try it on for some final adjustments. Of course, he was the only one with a costume because, in fact, they didn't need it for another week.

Making a blanket and a baby

2007-04-02T18:44:00.000-05:00

I've been reading all these crafty blogs where everybody is crocheting blankets. Granny squares, ripples it all looks like so much fun it made me want to pull out my crochet hooks. I like the shell stitch and I found this beautiful purple variegated yarn that I thought would look great paired with a subtle neutral like white. Well as I got going I really didn't like the purple and white contrast. It was just way too much. I stopped and made it into a cute scarf for Maria. It is just her size.I still had a lot of this beautiful purple yarn to work with so back to the yarn store I went to pick out more yarn that might go better. I also went to my sketch book to come up with a better blanket design than stripes.
I have made it about half way through this purple/green with applique flower concept. It will be very pretty. When done. Wow am I slow at crochet! Is crochet slow? I'm sure it must be me, I am very slow at everything.

So my mind wanders off onto other future craft projects while I'm hooking away. When I heard that a friend just had a baby boy, I seized the opportunity to jump to another project. I grabbed a stack of wool scraps and started cutting. I did not get very far into it when I started to consider how well I really know this friend. I mean I have no idea if she would even appreciate a handmade gift. She might say, "eew! This was made from thrift shop sweaters?" But maybe not. I don't know her very well. I think I am really trying to come up with an excuse to keep it for myself. I think it came out really pretty. I love the colors. I was going to use a pretty light blue baby wale cord for the binding, but by chance I put a little black/sparkly gold next to it and changed my mind. I love it when fluky things like that happen and end up being a great idea. I never would have thought of it on my own.

I need to get back to this crochet project and finish it up fast. I have so many more ideas and so little time before this new baby comes. Honestly though, this baby girl is the project I have put the most amount of energy into over the past 8 months, and more than anything in the world, I can't wait to see how she comes out.

three dolls for three sisters

2007-03-13T18:19:00.000-05:00

I have spent the past three weeks working on these dolls. I just love the final result. I will be having another baby girl in May and I figured if I didn't make her a doll now I might not get around to it for a long time. Dolls are so much fun because it really is very difficult to ever be totally done. They could always use a new dress, or shoes, or maybe a new knit sweater. I guess the fun of playing with dolls is just as great for a 36 year old as it is for a 6 year old. I was very nervous about the faces. I have done very little embroidery in the past so it was a very slow process. I didn't really like the way the faces looked at first, but once they were all done their personalities grew on me.

I have now started working on a crochet blanket for the new baby. Tess is what we have been calling her for a couple weeks now. Jim came home from England and said he only heard one name that really jumped out at him that he liked and it was Tess. While he was away I was talking to my mom and she said that one of her favorite names in the whole world was Tess, and that she would love to have a granddaughter named Tess. I was so amazed that two of the most important people in the life of this little girl would feel this way about the same, somewhat unusual, name. I figure it must be a good sign. Everyday I'm blown away by the fact that I am pregnant, still pregnant at 29 weeks, and that this will be the last time I will ever be pregnant. It is so exciting and yet bittersweet. I wish life was not so linear. That I could return some day to the feeling of a baby moving in my belly or that I could jump forward right now and smell her newborn head.

I'm hoping to crash through through this crochet blanket quickly so that I might be able to get through one or two more projects before Tess is born. The thing is, I am super slow at everything. I try to be fast, but I just am not. I don't know how people get through their projects so fast. I've always done everything slowly. Even writing this post is taking me too long!

two turtles and three months

2007-02-21T13:59:00.000-06:00

Over the past week I made these two turtles. I had originally wanted to use more shapes to create the shell part, but I learned that pentagons are one of only a few shapes that get 3d when attached on all sides. I like the way they came out I just wish there could be more variety. I started by making mock-ups in muslin to get the pattern right and then did the "final" one in the greens and browns. I don't know what I was thinking with theses colors, but they don't really appeal to me. So I went back to one of the muslin ones and tried to pretty it up. I appliqued repro feedsack pentagons on to the shell and then made yo-yo's with buttons to sew on top.

I have not done any hand applique in a long time and it was so much fun. I feel like doing some big ambitious applique wall quilt now. Since I'm having a baby in 3 months it would be a really good time to start some big million hour project. I'll do it right after I make the three cloth dolls I want to make, and the blanket I'm going to knit or crochet with the yarn I'm bidding on in E-bay.

What I'm really feeling like is that in three months from now everything in my crafting world is going to shut down. I want to get as much done now and maybe it will carry me over until I can get some time back to myself. I want to stockpile the satisfied feeling I get from creating things. It was about a year after I had Betsy that I started the dollhouse project for the girls.

This was probably the most fun I have ever had making anything (do I say that after every project?). I got the house off e-bay and it was just bare, unfinished wood. Beautifully made and incredible just as it was, but I went ahead and painted and stenciled all over it. Then I made the dollhouse family from a great pattern by Barbara Graff. They could not have come out any cuter. There are some brothers somewhere, but I could not find them for the picture. Then I painstakingly hand painted some of the furniture. My whole goal was to handcraft everything in the house. I decided that they would need tiny little quilts for their beds. Little did I know what I would fall into when I started looking into mini-quilts. Well those dollhouse dolls still don't have any quilts for their beds, but I have enjoyed making several other quilts since then.

I don't really know where all this is going. I guess I just want a reminder to myself that when the time is right, I will to come back to doing this stuff because it is something that I really enjoy. Many moms, after having a baby, look forward to getting back to their jobs or to the gym. I know, for me, it will be crafting.

Frozen February

2007-02-13T09:14:00.000-06:00

For a month that most people in Chicago find miserable, this February has been pretty fun so far. Jim got surprise tickets to the Super Bowl in Miami! Yea! Go Bears! We went all out and stayed at a nice hotel on the beach and ate nice food. It was tons of fun to go to such an exciting event and amazing that it was the Bears playing in the game. I wore my Patagonia raincoat and was confident that when the rain started I would be fine. Well, by the end of the first quarter I felt drops running down the skin of my back. I didn't know why that would be happening when I was wearing this excellent raincoat. Must be condensation.
It ends up my thinking was as cloudy as the skies on many things that day. It was not condensation on my back, that was rain. I was not wearing a raincoat, just an expensive piece of twill with a hood. Rex Grossman would not finally be redeemed, the Bears lost. It was very fun no matter what.
It was great to get away and be with Jim. He has been off travelling the world for the past month and having a lot of exciting new experiences. I have felt very left out that I couldn't share those with him. This trip to Miami really came at the perfect time.
The other fun thing about February are all the Birthdays. Mine, Jim's, our niece, our nephew, my father, Abe Lincoln, George Washington. For my niece I made the doll in the photos above. I just loved making her and I think that she came out really pretty. The pattern is from Martha Stewart's web site for a cloth doll. Of course, both Maria and Betsy want one too. I went right out yesterday to get supplies to make more of these girls. I'm well stocked for some fun indoor crafting during this big snowstorm and deep freeze we have going on this week. I can't wait to get started.

A Swamp

2007-01-30T15:45:00.000-06:00

Since I had so much fun working out a pattern for the bunny, I thought I would try another animal. I chose a swan (obviously I hope) and am pretty happy with the result. I showed it to my 4 year-old nephew the other night and asked if he knew the type of bird. He looked at me completely straight-faced and said "a swamp".

There are a few things that I think I would tweek if I had another go at it, but I'm not quite sure about how to make the improvements. I like the body and wing shapes very much, but the beak is goofy. I think it might better if it were attached by hand after the body is sewn. I love the way the wings worked out. After sewing the wings and turning them inside out, I used my free-motion quilting foot and added the feather shapes. The baby swan was done sort of rough. I left the seems exposed and stitched in a black thread. The baby made the whole piece work much better as a toy. Betsy has had a lot of fun playing "mama and baby" games all day with them. For both, I might still add eyes, but maybe not.

What next? I don't know. I have a couple of ideas, but nothing real solid yet. Kinda strange. I usually am so anxious to start my next project because I have so many ideas for it. I am starting to feel like I should switch gears and start doing some crafting for the baby. Quilt? Crochet? Knit?

Part of my crafting problem right now is that I don't have a dedicated area to craft. Fabric is in the basement, open projects are in the family room, sewing machine is in the living room. It's just all over the place. I would love to be able to start something and be able to just leave it and then come back later and pick up right where I left off. Now, I have to have enough time to get to certain point (ie. get all pieces cut out) and then get it all cleaned up and put away. It takes me a little more motivation to get started this way.

Happy bunny and sad fish

2007-01-25T09:56:00.000-06:00

Over the past week I have managed to get a little bit of crafting done. I made this bunny from more of the wool sweaters from the trift store. I did a few mock-ups in muslin before I was happy with her shape. She was fun and I'm happy to have a design that I can use as a quick hand made baby gift. I have started on another animal that is coming along nicely, but there is still more work before I will post the photo.

Jim is still away for another week. Can't wait till he gets back. Seems like he has been away for ever! My mom can to visit for the past week and we had a wonderful visit. On Saturday there was a funfair at Patrick's school. Pat really, really wanted a goldfish. We waited in a tremendous line three times to have a try at throwing the ping pong ball in the bowls. They would let him stand right over the the bowls an tell him to drop the ball in, but he would keep throwing the ball super hard and it would go flying away. He was on the verge of panic tears when they finally gave him a ticket to just go get a fish. He turned around and yelled to the crowd of kids in the room "he gave me a ticket and I didn't even get it in the bowl!" Now it was my mom and I in tears laughing so hard.

So Pat goes to school on Monday and, of course, his fish, the smallest of the three, dies. When he gets home and sees the poor fellow floating in the crystal ice bucket of a fish bowl he felt really sad and started crying. He went to his room and spent some time to himself and came back down about an hour later and seemed O.K. I told him it was time for him to start his homework. He sits down with his math worksheet and starts working on some story problems. For the final question he needed to write his own story problem. This is what he wrote. "I had 3 goldfish. 1 diyd. How maeny ar left. 3-1=2."

He has not mentioned the fish again.

Life after the holidays

2007-01-14T12:44:00.000-06:00

Many of our days over the winter break are best described by the photo on the sofa. But I did get some crafting done. The sweater chicken was made from a Martha Stewart pattern that she did on her show in December. I also made the knitting bag, pig and a ball from old felted sweaters. The bag came out really cute. It was made from an old irish sweater and I added handles and flowers and buttons. Really cute. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it before I gave it to my mother-in-law. I filled it with some beautiful yarn and a pattern for a scarf. What a satisfying person she is to make a present for. She carries it with her everywhere and tells everyone about it. So very nice. She has made so many beautiful things for our family over the years I 'm glad she was pleased with a handemade gift from me.

For the old sweaters I went to a local thrift store and found so many great colored sweaters that I have to come up with more uses for them. It 's just an addictive material to work with. I've been working on a bunny pattern that I think will come out great. My only hang up with stuffed animals is that I can't stand polyfil. Yuck! After calling around and searching the internet I finally found some wool stuffing at Magic Cabin. I ordered an ambitious amount.

Jim was home for the week between Christmas and New Years after a long trip in December. It was great to have him home, but now he left just last night for a 3 week trip. It has been a long time since he has travelled like this. He got a promotion in December and I think it might continue like this for a while.

I almost forgot the most exciting news of all. We had our level II ultrasound and we will be having a baby GIRL. Wow! I love knowing that all this kicking and hiccuping is a little girl. It wasn't the happiest news for Patrick. He had his heart set on a boy to balance things out around the house. I don't blame him. I remember feeling sad as a kid when I found out my mom was having a boy when she had my brother. Patrick said he felt that now it would be very hard on him because he will have three little sisters to keep an eye on. He is a good boy and a great brother.

I have started taking progesterone shots each week which will hopefully reduce the risk of going into preterm labor. Right now I'm at 21 1/2 weeks which is not viable. I'm anxious to get to about 27 weeks. Then at least we have a chance if I go into labor. But really I won't be comfortable until I'm at 34 weeks. That is when Betsy was born and she, and we, were able to get through that without any problems. Other than those worries, I am trying to enjoy this pregnancy. I love the kicking. I'm not stressing about weight. This will be the last time (for sure!) and I feel more bitter sweet about it than I remember with Betsy.

The 6 year old spirit of Christmas

2006-12-18T21:01:00.000-06:00

I wish I could post the photo of the kids with Santa that we took today. If there was ever anything cuter in the world I'm sure I've never seen it. At six years old Patrick is still a total believer. They loved going to visit Santa today. Patrick has been so charming about the whole Christmas/Santa thing this year. Every morning he comes in to my bed with a new question about how does Santa do it. Yesterday he asked if Santa needs to practice his magic. Today he asked if Santa does have magic why can't he use it to make a Nintendo DS. I've tried my best to keep up with the whole fantasy reality of Santa for his enjoyment, but it has been tricky because it goes against my more practical straight forward approach I take during the rest of the year. Jim has been out of town for the past two weeks and It has been tough not to have him here to share the excitement with.

After Santa, we went to Ed Debevics for dinner. It was very funny, but possibly not in the way the restaurant intends it to be funny. The servers try to be all flip/rude and funny. They get up on the counters and do dances. I don't know, it is fun for the kids, but also way too contrived to be wacky. I waited tables. I know those servers hate getting up there and doing that dance, as much as we hated singing "Happy Birthday" to a table of guests.

What those servers didn't realize was that there were three totally wacky people right there in their restaurant. Betsy was feeding her fries to our imaginary chicken under the table. Maria spent a long time explaining how we were in outerspace because of the disco ball on the ceiling. Patrick was mostly still going on in awe about Santa. If there are multiple dimensions in this world, we definitely visited some of them during dinner.

I love seeing how their minds can explore like that, and I'm trying to be there more with them. In a different mood I might have been totally irritated that Betsy was throwing her fries on the floor. I'm glad for tonight that I enjoyed it.

Patrick has been saying lately that the spirit of Christmas is not what you find under the tree, but what you find under your heart. Now I'm not sure which Cartoon Network show taught him this sentiment, but it is suitable. As a mom, what I love seeing is the spirit of my kids filled with imagination and joy. They are so much more a blessing than anything that could ever fit under a tree.

Totally, totally lazy

2006-12-09T10:22:00.000-06:00

As I feared, I have blown off my major Christmas project for another year. I have so little energy that nothing gets done after the kids go to bed. I just don't really have the time during the day to complete a big secret project for the kids. I think I might just do it and not make it a gift, that way they can see it while it is made. The other thing is that I really want to knit a blanket for the new baby and I'm not so much in the mood for sewing. Sewing involves to much getting up off the couch for me right now. Of course before I can't do any of my crafty projects because I need to get a grip on sending gifts all over the country and ordering Christmas cards.

I need to focus my spacey mind. This time of the year is so much fun, but also so demanding. I did a lot of baking for Thanksgiving (ginger pumpkin pie, rum cake, cherry chocolate-chip cookies, lamingtons and more!) so I think it is time for me to leave the kitchen for awhile. The weather has been frigid so any outside fun will have to wait. We tried sledding the other morning and Betsy's hands were frost-bit in less than a half and hour even with gloves. She was really screaming, I felt so bad. This brings me back inside and thinking of all the gifts that need to be sent. I get so hung up up on picking gifts for some of my nieces and nephew's. They truly have any and everything they could ever possibly want. I'm not saying it like they are spoiled or ungrateful, they are all charming and nice. It is just that age old question of what do you get for the person who has everything? A charitable donation? Is that too weird for young kids? I would not win any points for being the "fun Auntie" in Chicago with that. Hmmm. It is at this point that I wish I would endeavor in some more speedy craft projects throughout the year. Something thoughtful and homemade might be well appreciated (or maybe not), I just don't know. I will get it all done and if I am good I will sit down and blaze thru it all today!

Halloween fun!

2006-11-01T13:47:00.000-06:00

I finally finished the two costumes for the girls. Princess was done from a pattern that was supposed to be "easy". It was not too hard. For someone who has done a lot of sewing it probably would be easy. I found the 8 layers of tulle a little tricky and putting in the zipper I just wanted to make it work, following the instruction was beyond me.
The maple leaf was a lot more fun in the initial stages. I liked picking the fabrics. I liked drawing the leaf shapes and cutting them out. I liked arranging and fusing all the stems and colors down. I loved stitching everything into place with gold shiny thread. All that was left was to bind all the layers together. What I now know is that there is a very good reason why almost all quilts have straight sides. It is frustratingly, swear inducing impossible to neatly bind around points and curves! It took so long and is more sloppy than I would like. "Kids costume, kids costume", is what I chanted to myself over and over. I was so worked up about it being neat and I have no idea why. Was somebody going to be judging this , or care, or even know that I made it in the first place? The girls had a lot of fun in them for the couple of days that they wore them and I got a lot of nice remarks about the maple leaf.

Trick-or-treating was fun in the new neighborhood. The sidewalks were crowded with kids and all the moms and dads were partying. Space in wagons was reserved for coolers of beer, not for children tired of walking. I think we picked the right town when we moved.

My pregnancy is going along well. I'm about 11 weeks now and feel really sick all the time, as to be expected. My second ultrasound revealed a little surprise. The Dr. thought there might have been what they call a "vanishing twin". This blew me away. I felt relieved that I wasn't carrying twins. Jim and my mom both thought it would have been fun.

Next week is Chris and Angela's wedding in Virginia. It will be a whole family affair and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody. It should be a ton of fun.

I have a big Christmas project planned and want to get started on it soon. I have so many ideas for it I just don't want to get lazy and blow it off. I will need all the time I can get to finish it on time and the way I want.

Really thinking of spring

2006-10-09T16:54:00.000-05:00

I spent a couple of days trying to think up a name for this blog. I finally decided on Spring thinking because of reasons completely unrelated to the actual season of Spring. I had no idea at the time that I would soon be spending so much time thinking about spring of 2007. I have just found out I am pregnant and will be having a baby sometime around the end of May. My first feelings about this were total fear. Jim was out of town and I walked around crying my eyes out for days. I'm really, really scared. I have had three c-sections already and my last baby came 6 weeks pre-mature. I am scared of the whole pregnancy thing beyond words. Jim got out of his trip for a couple of days and came home so we could visit an OB. She was very reassuring about a lot of things, mostly the safety of the baby, but I am very concerned about myself. I have three young children to raise and all this makes me scared. In the end, though, I am very excited about the thought of a new baby in the house in nine months. I just wish we could skip whole the pregnancy part.
I had really intended to use this blog as an outlet to share thoughts on my crafting. Right now I am sewing up a storm for Halloween. I went to Joannes and bought patterns for vampire and princess costumes. My son promptly changed his mind when he realized that I was going to try and make his costume. He was so cute breaking the news to me saying, "Mom, I mean, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but can we just look at the party store to see what they have?" Of course I agreed and bit my tongue at all the yucky, cheap costumes. The princess costume is coming along very nicely. I have such a hard time following patterns and instructions it has been a good lesson in patience. My youngest wants to be a maple leaf. Now I LOVE this idea. I can't wait to get started. I will make the whole thing up myself and I think it is going to come out great. I hope to start on it by the end of this week.

Kitchen window

2006-10-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

We recently moved from New Jersey to a suburb of Chicago. The new house is great. We spent a good part of the spring/summer getting projects done and making the house "our own". We have just finished my favorite project. We had a carpenter put this old window in a blank wall in our kitchen. The actual window is original to the house, but had been removed and saved in the garage to make room for a familyroom addition. The kitchen felt a little closed off from the other rooms, but I did not think taking the whole wall down would look right in our house. I am so happy with how this has come out. On the other side of the window is where the kids computer is so it is easy to keep an eye on them. The bench comes from our old house in New Jersey. We totally remodeled that kitchen and the bench was from a little breakfast nook. It was way too cute, so we kept it. I also love the lamp. My folks sent it thinking it might work for us because they didn't use it anymore. It was a lamp that hung over our breakfast table for my entire childhood. We hung it a little high because my mother must have said "watch out for the lamp" a least once a day while raising her four kids. I wish I had an interesting story about the table, but it was just a find at the Kane county flea market. There are many things going on over here so I will try to be more regular about posting.

Baby quilt is done!

2006-10-01T17:41:00.000-05:00

I have completed one of my major unfinished projects!! Yay! This is a quilted portrait of my daughter when she was about 18 months. It took probably about 300 hours in all to complete. It is all pieced, not applique, in 234 little 2" squares. It was a lot of fun to work on because it had so many different stages. I wasn't sure for awhile how to quilt it, but in the end I was afraid to stick under my machine because it was bulky in some areas. So I hand quilted it which was really fun and not a hard as I thought It was going to be. This is the third quilt I have made and I will definitly do more quilting. It is such a wonderful creative medium. My husband and I have had a lot of laughs over how this quilt looks. I have always thought it makes her look a little like an alien. He just couldn't understand why I choose a portrait. I have no idea why, it just seemed like fun. I also have no idea what to do with it now. It is certainly too strange to hang on a wall like in the livingroom or familyroom. It is too scary to hang over my daughters' bed! I can only imagine the horror of seeing this in the dark at night! After all the hours I put into it I don't really want to look at it anymore. I felt like sending the girls out to the yard to have a mudpie picnic on it! Please note: the image is best appreciated if your eyes are blurred a little bit and from a distance. Then it is awesome!

2006-09-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

I have only recently discovered the many worlds of blogging. Until now I always thought it was for people who really have something important to say that everybody should know about. Like about politics or maybe sports, because my husband reads some sports blog. What I have discovered is that it's not all about saying something really important to everyone, but sharing things that some people might find interesting and maybe on occasion important. I came across a lot of blogs by people making crafty things. These really connected with me because I love lots of crafty things. So, I could sit and browse these blogs and be so impressed with their creativity all day long. Meanwhile, I have couple of unfinished projects that I have invested a lot of time into, but can't wrangle the moto to get them done. Really I just need like 5 hours more on each of these and they will be done and I can move on to a new project. I will begin my blog as an incentive to finish them and show them off.