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.

Baby-time

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.

Completed spring projects

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?

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.

Making a blanket and a baby

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.