Handmade Gifts for Christmas Could be a Possibility

There is only one drawback to having a large family, at least in my book, and that is the fact that it is almost impossible to finish a handmade gift for everyone by Christmas, especially if you are a procrastinator!   Here is a peek at the beginning of what may be Christmas gifts, but could very well end up being birthday gifts instead. 

If that ends up being the case I probably should have started in order of birth months, which, of course, I did not.  (sigh)

I guess that's all the more incentive to get on the ball....ummm....yeah, right after I decorate and clean the house, make goodies for all the Christmas parties, and do the rest of my shopping.   Oh, yeah!  I got this,  really I do.

A Little Sewing and a Show Like No Other

My sewing seems to come in spurts. So here is part of  the result of my latest spurt. I've made several diaper bags lately, but this is the only one I took time to photograph.

I also made a few bibs and burp cloths

 This bag I did from a tutorial I found on Pinterest.  It is reversible, and I actually up-cycled the outer layer from a pair of pants. The reverse side is small red gingham. It needed a little something so I embroidered a little flower based off a design I found in this book.

While some of the grandchildren were here they decided to put on a show.  Angel Eyes asked me to stay in the kitchen while they got ready.  Soon everything was set, and they called me into the room.  I was informed that every audience member would get their back scratched during the performance.  

They had a stage set up with props, and upon seating me the promised back scratch commenced.   However, the actress of this one child show, staring Sweet Cheeks,  developed a serious case of stage fright.  

The play was cancelled, and I started back to the kitchen to finish my work.  As I made my way to the doorway the crew began to invite me, gently at first and then more insistently, to fill in and put on a show for them.  I agreed and did an impromptu monolog that brought a great deal of laughter. 

When they saw that I was willing to make a complete fool of myself they began to open up and lose their stage fright.  They all wanted to participate and asked if I would pull out the dress-up box.

Soon they each had a role and I was delightfully entertained for the rest of the evening.

These two put on a fashion show.  

This little nut put on a combination opera/comedy routine.  It was hilarious!

And who knew that Superman played the violin?

"What violin, Mimi?  That was a fiddle!"

Catching Up

 I'm back once again.  I'm becoming like Jack, the music plays, life goes on, and suddenly I pop back up and surprise you again.  My blogging has become consistently inconsistent.

I've done a bit of sewing through the summer, but I hardly have any pictures to show for it.  Here are a few of the projects I documented:

I'm back once again.  I'm becoming like Jack, the music plays, life goes on, and suddenly I pop back up and surprise you again.  My blogging has become consistently inconsistent.  

I've done a bit of sewing through the summer, but I hardly have any pictures to show for it.  I made a couple of aprons, 3 sunsuits from vintage patterns, a few little dresses, and one for myself, a couple of diaper bags, some bibs, hot pads, and these quick little market bags that I made from this tutorial.

I really need to get busy working on some things for Christmas.  I always have good intentions of handmade gifts, maybe this will be the year I follow through.

Gathering Apron and a Little Catching Up

I know I've been missing in action for a while now.  It has been a busy time here.  The whole month of February was full of sickness.  February is behind us now, and spring is on it's way so here's to better things to come!

We've have had several birthdays around here, Pooh Bear is three now, Sweet Cheeks is five, and my daughter and myself are a year older as well, but I won't give out the digits on those two.

My daughter has been wanting a gathering apron for quite a while now, ever since she saw the one here.  Quinn, from Reformation Acres, did a lovely job of showing and telling just how to make one, but I generally work from a pattern so I wasn't very confident about trying it out.  To be honest, I don't really trust myself much when it comes to measuring.  However, I knew it would tickle my daughter to have one made from that very tutorial so not long after she told me about it I bought this piece of Mary Jane's Farmgirl fabric.  I just knew I had to work it in some way. It took me a while to find just the right fabric to use with it, and to get my courage up to try it without a paper pattern.  I finally decided this birthday was just the occasion to get my gumption up and do it.

I chose to use this square for a pocket.  I'm sorry for the wrinkles and poor picture, but you get the idea.

Nice roomy pocket

It really wasn't hard to follow the tutorial, like I said it was written clearly, and the pictures documented the steps nicely.  The only real problem I had was my button holer wasn't cooperating.  It made a nice little mess that took me forever to pick out, and when I finished I decided I would work them by hand rather than go through that again.  Other than that it came together pretty smoothly.

The apron is so neat because it can be worn as a regular apron when the skirt is down, or you can use the ribbon at the waist and run it through a series of button holes at the bottom of the skirt to scoop the whole skirt up into a gigantic pocket to gather produce.

Okay, so where are those seeds?  It's time to plant something so we can fill this baby up!

If you think you would like to make one for yourself you should check out Quinn's tutorial.  If I can do it I'm sure you can!

Latest Sewing and Embroidery

Here are a few of the things I've been working on lately

 another bag...

embroidered pillow cases...

a little owlie bag with vintage button eyes...

the end, for now

Little House on the Prairie Dress, and an Recycled Pinafore

Angel Eyes loves the Little House on the Prairie books.  I have no idea how many times she has read them.  She told me the other day that now she has to be really careful when she re-reads them so the books don't fall apart.  She has a bonnet that she likes to wear, and she loves to pretend that she is in the story.  She tries to enlist any willing person close enough to participate her.  I've been "Ma" many times, and her sisters often oblige her by taking a part too.

She asked me a while back if I thought I could make her a Little House on the Prairie dress, and I told her I would see what I could do.  I found a vintage pattern in my stash, and finally got the dress made.  I was about to cut out the pinafore to go over it, when I spied a lone curtain laying across the bed in the spare bedroom where I sew.  It was white with little tucks, and looked very reminiscent of a pinafore.  I cut it in half, folded the top down a couple of times, ran some elastic through, made and attached some straps, and wa-la, a pinafore.  I stitched it together in the front and attached a pretty button to finish it off.  She was pleased, and so was I.  Doesn't she make a cute little prairie girl?

Her next request has already been made.  She wants a cape like Little Red Riding Hood.

More Sewing Soon

You would think by my scarcity of posting that I've not been up to anything the last two months, but actually in between rocking sweet, precious babies I have done a little sewing. I, hopefully, will have some nice pictures of some of that soon. The weather has not been real cooperative with lighting on my time frame. There have been moments of sun, but by the time I finally get things together to take a picture the rain is back. I've made two more diaper bags, and a local business is asking me to make some for their store. I might give that a go. I have also made dresses for the four older girls. I have some poorly lit pictures of some of them, but I'm holding out for something better. In the meantime I'll leave you with another sweet baby picture. I hope you all are having an amazing weekend!

A Little Sewing for Another Little Blessing on the Way

I'm so excited by the fact that we will be welcoming two more little ones to our family this summer! The first is due to arrive next month, and the second in August. So I've been trying to squeeze in a little sewing here and there to prepare for these grand arrivals.

Here is a diaper bag I made for my sweet daughter-in-law. I hope she likes it as much as I do! I have made several bags by this pattern, and while it's a little tricky to get the bottom panel in just right, they always come out nicely, at least, so far they do.

I also made her a white on white wonky log cabin quilt. I'm not sure how well you can see the pattern in the pictures, but the contrast is very subtle. This it the first quilt as you go I've finished. I have another in the works, but stopped it to work on baby things.

I have a gazillion (is that how you spell it?) other things I want to make for these babies, but since I'm trying to doubly do every thing, this may be all I have time to make before the exciting arrivals!

Who would have ever thought one person could be so blessed, overwhelmed at times, but definitely blessed!

Last Weekend

The last two weekends have been beautiful. I'm behind on posting so I'm sharing last weekend's stuff and will try to post tomorrow on this weekend.

Pretty weather almost always means a trip to the farm to feed some of the animals. It was carrots for the horses this day.

And when we ran out of carrots the kids offered flowers, and to my surprise, and the kid's delight, the horses loved them.

Belle just can't get enough of the animals! She wants to be a vet when she grows up, and I'm sure she'll be a great one. She has a way with any animal she's around. Spidey likes them too!

Pooh Bear stayed home and rode his stick horse, upside-down no less.

Part of my weekend was spent making this purse for a cousin of mine, whose purse was stolen out of her car while she was at church.

I also enjoyed going to a quilt show on Saturday.

There were so many lovely quilts, and I took tons of pictures. (I will only post a few.)

This particular one was made by a lady who had made an entire room full of quilts, all hand sewn, hand quilted, and hand appliqued. There was one she had even dyed the fabric for. She didn't start quilting until she was in her fifties, and they said there were forty something other quilts that they didn't even bring! What an inspiration!

The show was in a church and every little Sunday school room, chapel and even the sanctuary were all decorated with quilts made by local women, quilts that people had bought, or had been handed down for generations. They all had such a personality. Some had bits of the history pinned to them. I could have spent the whole day in there! Come to think of it I almost did.

This one had over 20,000 pieces in it! It makes me tired to even look at it! I don't know the name of the pattern, but I think I would have called it Patience!

Quick Sewing Post

I promised to post pictures of the two dresses I made Monday. I was hoping to get pictures of the lovely, little girls wearing them, but I haven't so here they are empty and alone. The one to the left is from a vintage nightgown pattern, and the jumper below is one I hope to make again for each of the other girls.