Placemats and Potholders

I'm posting this now because
a) I have nothing else to post
b) I will have nothing new to post until after my children head back to school
c) I am working on a project that is somewhat secretive that I can't show yet
d) Suzanne also has nothing to post

So, if you find this a somewhat boring blog entry you can find my excuses right there at the top. :-)

Two placemats using Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow. I gifted these already but I plan to make some more placemats for my own house too.

My s-i-l gifted me with several spools of rayon thread. Doesn't it look great here?

Potholders using Sandy Henderson's Meadowsweet line. I love these two fabrics.



Enjoy your last day of August. I'm checking out until after Labour Day. See you on the other side!

Bibs Galore!

This past week I spent my 'spare time' in my sewing room making a stash of bibs.
A few are ready to give away to newly born babies.
I also made 8 bibs to sell in my etsy shop. I have no idea if they will sell, but if they don't that's okay too. There will always be babies to give them too!



Bought the cute house/flower/butterfly print at a sample sale at Quilt Essentials.
Love the mushroom print paired up with those dots!
A bib is a small project to try a new (to me) quilting technique.


Take a look at the bibs in my shop. Tell me, how do my listings look? Do you see anything I need to fix up or add? I'm just a newbie at this so any advice would be great. (I only listed 5 of the bibs so far. I will add more in a couple of weeks.)

Now I have a few other projects that need my attention. Have a good day!

It's done!

I finished Lukas' Paintbox quilt last week and am so happy!  We took it along when we went to the park tonight to take some pictures.

It's bound with strips of the leftover colours...

The backing is an old duvet cover from a friend. The diagonal lines are printed on the fabric not the quilting.

I quilted vertical and horizontal lines...lots of them :)

I'm sure happy to have it finished and Lukas loves it too. Now we just need to get his room painted!

Sewing + Kids

I did manage to get in the sewing room with my kids and make a project together. It was easy and fun! Really, I had fun sewing with my kids.



We chose to make a simple drawstring bag.



They all picked out their own fabric from my stash.



I made Carolin's bag to demonstrate each step.



They did surprisingly well. Deanna needed the most help, but it worked out really well.



What's next?

I Love My Mom Quilt

It's my mom's birthday today.



I love my mom very much. I think that all of her children would agree that she is pretty special. She is well-loved.



I started this quilt in May of 2009. Zachary was only a few weeks old. I gave her a quilt block for Mother's Day.



I gave her quilt blocks every few weeks or months. With a card or in the mail, or just by itself.



It was fun to give her these little surprises here and there. She loves surprises. And mail. She loves mail.



Then one day I demanded them all back. I finished the quilt top around Mother's Day 2010.



And this morning I gave her the completed quilt. She likes it very much!



It will be quite at home at their place, don't you think?

Itty Bitty Baby dress

It really is itty bitty - I hope it fits!  The dress is from a tutorial by Made by Rae and the bloomers are from the book Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter.

This is the first time I've made bloomers...hard to believe with having 3 girls :)

And now it's off to a newborn baby girl...

The Fair

This year the kids and I decided to enter a few items in our local fair. It was fun (but a little stressful to get all done!) Benjamin and Melissa also entered some of their vegetables with the School Garden Contest and won ribbons and money for that.
First up is our little Zachary. Loving the animals!
Here is Carolin grinning like crazy. She is standing beside her "Abstract Watercolour" painting. It's abstract, all right! She got second place (out of two, but that's okay!)
Here's Benjamin by his award-winning drawing of a castle. I actually got the guy to smile for the camera.
Deanna with her first-place collage. Deanna won the most awards and money of all the kids! Melissa with her quilt. She won a third-place ribbon.
And finally, our monkey Melissa. She climbed to the top of the climbing wall. Her older brother, not even close.

When thinking about entering artwork and vegetables in the fair I ponder why we do it and whether we will again. I do think it is good for the kids and I to have some goals during the summertime. It also makes me do art with the kids. Though I love crafting with the children, it can be difficult with the little ones around. I am glad that I could glue, paint, sew, cut and more with my children. They learned a bit about using a rotary cutter, a hot glue gun and working together. On the other hand, we have to fill out our entry form and pay the entrance fees by the beginning of July. And that's where the pressure is. We have to finish what we said we would do.

Tomorrow I will post about the things I entered into the fair. The ones I haven't posted yet, anyway.

Do you and your children enter items in your local fair? What types of things do you enter? Why do you do it? Do you stress about it, or is that just me?

Sewing with Knits Series

At the end of July I had the opportunity to review the new Michael Miller knits and write a series of guest posts with tips on sewing with knits. I still am not an expert but am getting better.



Here are the links to the four posts I wrote.
Sewing with Knits: A review of the Michael Miller knits
Sewing with Knits: Needle and Stitch
Sewing with Knits: On Hemming
Sewing with Knits: Everything Else



I only wish I had better photos. One day...

Pre-baby gift

A friend of mine is expecting her 7th baby very soon (Update: They just called to say their little boy arrived early this morning!!) I thought I'd give her a little pre-baby gift as she needed a little lift. They had multiple things going on in their life that were pretty stressful.



I received the fabric on the front of the bib from Lera awhile back. I won it in her giveaway. Thank you Lera!



I can't get over how cute the print is.



Had to try it on a real life model.



I hope it get's lots of use. I love seeing my bibs looking well-used.

Back at it!

My Paintbox quilt that is.  Notice the beautiful machine?  A wonderful friend lent it to me while she is on holidays!  I think it was partly a kick in the butt to get this one done :)

I'm a little torn on how I'm quilting it. So far I've stitched in the ditch on each side of the vertical sashing and have started the horizontal. I don't love it though and am thinking I should've meandered and put a little star or something in the center of each block. But...I don't think I'll be taking all this stitching out so a grid it will be. I hope in the end I'll like it more.

Camping: A Child's Perspective

Letting our children go behind the lens for awhile allowed us to view things from their perspective a bit. Daddy cooking breakfast. Truly, it's not daddy that's important, just the yummy breakfast he's cooking up for us. (Melissa)
Wildlife. (Benjamin)
More wildlife. (Benjamin)
Daddy relaxing at the beach. (Melissa)
More relaxing. (Melissa)
My feet. Giggle. Giggle. (Melissa)
Me. (Melissa)
My parents. Again, just the important stuff on the photo. Maybe Daddy is too tall? (Melissa)
Zachary having a bath in the dish bucket. (Melissa)


The next three photos were taken by me. But they are so cute I had to include them.


This kid is all boy, that's for sure.