-cherishing-

I didn't intend to take such a long break from blogging.  Life just seemed to happen.  Things like hand, foot, mouth disease(yes, we the parents got this even though supposedly this is a childhood disease.  My feet were SO itchy!), surgery, vacation, home projects, homeschool planning, and this sinus infection that I am still fighting.  Sewing has been very hit and miss over the past six weeks.  I did become obsessed with Anna's Wide Mouthed Zipper Pouches though.  Love this tutorial, and that she has three different sizes.  The top one is the small, and the two on the bottom are the medium. 

My husband and I ran a Color Me Rad 5K at the end of June.  It was a lot of fun even if it was stinking hot at 8:30 in the morning.  At different points during the race they would throw or spray a color at you.  The kids' eyes almost bugged out of their heads when we came home.  My next goal is a 10K by Thanksgiving! 

This girl lost her first two teeth.  Here she is trying to pull out the first one with a hairband?  It turned out to be a rather traumatic affair with a visit to the dentist, her fainting, and dropping the two teeth when she fainted. However, a visit from the Tooth Fairy made it all grand, and the first thing she shows any other kid is the big hole she has at the bottom of her mouth. 

 We spent a week at the beach.  It was a much needed and lovely time.

We spent a day at the Santa Barbara Zoo, which a really lovely little zoo- complete with cardboard sliding hill, train, and dinosaur show. 

I also got to meet up with Chicken Julie.  We have had each other as partners in different swaps.  I made her this mug rug, and she made me this awesome makeup pouch.

We met up at Super Buzzy, which really is super- full of all sorts of Japanese crafty goodness.  So hard to shop in a store when you just want to take the whole store home with you. 

The girls had swim lessons and Vacation Bible School.

Here is a month of Sammy.  Having a little baby around has made me reflect again on how fast it all goes by.  She is already four months!  She is grabbing her feet, trying to roll, and smiles at all the ceiling fans. 

Having a baby also means I have been struggling with getting my "to do" list done, and I have often been grumpy and out of sorts.  I keep thinking that I need to catch up, and I start to feel like I am drowning. 

So, I take a breath.  Say a prayer.

I look at the sweet faces before me.

Play the Game of Life with them. 

(My girls love this game.  They love getting a job, a husband, a house, and filling their cars up with kids.)

I took this girl and her sister swimming last night.  Felicity has been struggling with her confidence in the pool.  We were practicing swimming very short distances.  Her little face started glowing with happiness as she realized she was swimming. 

I told her how proud I was of her. 

She turned to me and asked, "You are just so glad you have a daughter like me?" 

Heart. stop.

These four children of mine are my heart and my life- the best gift I have ever received.  I want them to know that and to feel it as well. 

So, I ignore my list of sewing projects I would like to get done (and all the other "to dos" floating in my head) and focus on the essentials.

I will find the time to sew again soon.

   

-pillow talk swap 8-

I finished my pillow!  I have to say that I really enjoyed making this.  I felt I had a vision for how this pillow was going to turn out, but sometimes my visions are flops.  I kept fretting over the background and whether I should put the dresden off center or not.  I am pleased with the overall effect though, and I have high hopes my partner will like this.

For the back of the pillow I used a coordinating print to the background of the front and made a simple envelope closure.

I kept the quilting on this pillow simple with random diagonal lines.  It already felt busy, and I didn't want to add more "busy-ness". ;0)  The pillow is 20" x 20".

Of course, as I was taking pictures, Josiah thought I wanted to take pictures of him.

Really, how I could I not?  Cutest little face ever.

-dresden making-

So I have my Fussy Cut Bee quilt top all finished and a backing ready.  Now I am just waiting for the inspiration to baste!  I am not the biggest fan of basting (who is really?!).  Plus, this quilt is meant for a full bed, and my house is just not set up with a whole lot of floor space in any of the rooms, so it is going to be a little squishy. ;0)

This week started off busy, but then one of the kids got sick on Tuesday and now as she is feeling better, another one is down for the count.  So I have a feeling it going to go down the line, and we will be spending some quality time at home.  My kids are catching up on all the TV watching that I usually don't let them have.  Gotta have some sort of perk when they are sick, right?

So yesterday I decided to work on my pillow for The Pillow Talk Swap.  This really is one of the most amazing swaps.  I think it has only gotten better over the past couple of years.  This is my third time joining in, and I am feeling the pressure to make something super fabulous.  My partner has a love for warm colors and text fabrics.  I had an idea in my head, but then I found this dresden while browsing and fell in love.  I have never been that big of a dresden fan, but this took it to the next level.  The rainbow isn't really my partner's thing, so I made my main dresden in reds, oranges, and yellows, and the second dresden with some neutrals.  

I was playing around with background fabrics, and I found this one.  However, I only had a 14.5" piece, and I tried playing around with borders.  It just wasn't hitting the right note for me though.      

So I went digging again, and I came up with this text fabric.  I like that it is smaller and a little less busy, while still being different from a solid background.  The plan today is to work on this a little more while the sickies watch La La Loopsy!

-summer plans-

So back in April we stopped in a furniture store to take a look at bunk beds for the girls.  Felicity was still in a toddler bed, and we thought the three girls would probably end up sharing a room at some point.  Of course, the first bunk bed you see in the store was this fort bed.  My girls were in *love*.   We didn't get any further. Honestly, who wouldn't be?  However, we gave ourselves some time to think about it.  Then we decided that we have enough kids to make this bed useful for quite awhile, so why not?  We had to special order it, and last week it came.  It has been a big hit, and they have been telling everyone about their fort bed and having all sorts of pretend adventures.

So, I had a down comforter to fit the double bed on the bottom, but summer here is super hot.  Really you don't need much more than a sheet at night.  Good reason to finish up one of those quilts that I have been meaning to finish for a year!  This is my Fussy Cut Bee quilt.  I wanted to finish it last year when I was hosting Finish It Up!, but I only got as far as adding a bit of sashing to some of the blocks.  I now have the top mostly assembled.  I just have one more white border to add!

I am a slow quilter.  Any other slow quilters out there?  I see people busting out quilts every couple of weeks, and I get inspired.  I can't do that.  Okay, so it might have a little something to do with four kids, but I also find quilts to be such big projects.  I always seem to lose motivation somewhere along the line.   However, I have three quilts I wanted to finish last summer, so I am determined to finish them this summer.

GOAL

June: Fussy Cut Bee Quilt

July: Kaleidoscope Quilt

August: Summer Sampler 

Fingers crossed!  What are your summer sewing plans?

Pursepalooza: Art Student Tote Review!

I am over at Sara's blog, Sew Sweetness, today with a pattern review for Anna Maria Horner's Art Student Tote!  Go check it out!

-needle and thread!-

I have been wanting to link up to Needle and thREAD for awhile, so I am excited it is finally happening this week!

Homeschooling is done and preschool is over for the year.  So this week has been so obligation free!  I have been sewing almost every day!  I wanted to make some new nightgowns for my girls because that is what they like best to wear at night. I decided to use the Sienna Dress pattern by Lil Blue Boo for the nightgowns.  However, I still had a dress cut out from a year ago that I still had not finished!  Shameful!  So before I let myself cut out the nightgowns, I finished the dress.  I meant for this to be Juliana's preschool graduation dress last year.  Their class mascot was Clifford the Big Red Dog.  I wanted to use an iron on transfer and make her a Clifford dress.  However, I botched it.  Once that happened I had no motivation to finish.  

So, I cut out a new front piece and appliqued a "J" on instead, and I was done in an hour!  The dress has a bit of the homemade look, but Juliana has declared it "soft and snuggly". (Also, she is wearing her daddy's sandals for the photo shoot.  I told her to go get her shoes on and she comes out wearing these.  Silly girl.)

After the dress was finished I got to tackle the nightgowns!  I found these super sweet knits over at Girl Charlee.  She has great prices and a nice selection!  These were super easy and quick. I used steam and seam for the hem, and it definitely made the hemming turn out nice and neat.

Juli got rainbow hearts.

 Felicity got pink hearts.

As far as reading goes, I have been slowly been making my way through Charlotte Collins.  One of those Jane Austen sequel books.  Not amazing but a fun little read, and hey...it was free on the Kindle.  I also downloaded Cloudy Jewel onto my Kindle after reading about it on Elizabeth's blog! She definitely has a kind of L.M. Montgomery feel to me, and I think these are perfect no thinking summer books. ;0)

-little shorts!-

Summer is here!  Felicity finished preschool for the year, and Juliana finished kindergarten (homeschool style!).  It gets hot here during the summer.  My girls have lots of skirts and dresses, but Juliana especially needs some more play clothes.  I have been in love with this little shorts pattern by Oliver + S since they came out with it, so I was excited to have a reason to make them.  I love the fun retro look. I used chambray from Joann's for the main part of the shorts and an older yellow print I have had for a long time.  I really like yellow.  It is a good accent color that goes with lots of other colors.  It has been awhile since I made an Oliver + S pattern, and I realized as I was making it that their patterns really are set apart from a lot of other patterns.  There are just so many small details that really make for a nice garment.  

So, she is looking a little grumpy in this picture, but looking at it made me kind of sad.  She is growing up so fast.  Take a look at this picture from three years ago (almost exactly!).

This was the first Oliver + S pattern I ever made.  She looks so cute and chubby.

Felicity wanted in on the photo shoot, and how can you resist these two hugging like that. 

Here they are three years ago in their Easter dresses!  Felicity looks so funny and cute!

The best of friends.  Love them.

The winner of the Field Bag and Tote pattern is

#148 Megan said...

My favorite patterns are free ones that are online!

Congrats!  I will be sending you an e-mail, Megan!