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So on my to-do list for a long time has been to make my girls each a quilt. Remember Charlotte’s?
Well, I am so happy to announce that Ivy’s is finally finished, too. (Along with some fresh-for-summer gingham sheets from The Company Store.)
(sorry about the dark pictures. we’re having sunshine/clouds/sunshine/clouds weather today.)
So now that the quilt is done, I think I’ll take a break from sewing for a little while. Who knows…I’ve said this before and ended up making something anyway. For now, I’m happy with just adding away to my sewing wish list.
:: this will be near the top of the list. Don’t these look wonderful? Citronille. The name alone makes me want to move to the French countryside, live in a stone farmhouse and dress my children in whites and pale blues. (And I’m happy to have a husband who knows a little French. There is hope for figuring these patterns out!)
:: I’d like to make something from these fabrics. Can’t decide what, though. New quilt for a little niece? Twirly skirts for the girls?
:: I recently acquired this book, One-Yard Wonders, and I think I’m going to really like it. Most books like this I always feel like the project ideas are time-wasters, but I liked a lot of the ideas in this book. First pick from the book: a sewing machine cover.
:: sewing aside, this looks like a lot of fun. a paper city you can color? with stick people? yes, please.
:: I’ve been wanting to do this as a piece of art for Scott and myself, but I wonder if the girls would enjoy a little version of their own? A poster of things they love, via MommyCoddle.
Using fabric leftovers to whip up reversible tote bags sure is easy.
Making handbags is pretty fun. Not much fabric is required, and after you make a couple of them, you probably won’t even need the directions anymore!
This is from a pattern off of Etsy, and after making a couple, I’m loving the bags more and more.
(both of these bags are on their way as gifts for friends)
And I finished Ivy’s quilt! (uproarious applause) This is pre-quilted (so, just the quilt top), but in a few days I hope to have the entire project done, washed, and on her bed. We are looking forward to finishing out the summer with a fresh quilt on her bed.
In other sewing news:
:: I have a new dress pattern that I have really wanting to try out (New Look 6887). I have my eye on style B, in a light blue cotton blend. Love that ruffle on the neckline.
:: Another new dress pattern that might get made this summer (New Look 6778). It seems to be a good idea to just go ahead and pick up a pattern, if I see one I like and will potentially use one day. Patterns seem to go out of print so quickly. I am getting to the point where I need an alternate storage solution for my patterns. Any ideas?
:: This isn’t sewing, but after seeing some fantastic silhouettes of my niece and nephew at my sister-in-law’s house (made by her sister!), maybe it couldn’t hurt to try making some myself?
:: Scandinavian designs are so beautiful, aren’t they? Makes me want to read Kristin again. I’m starting to make use of these embroidery patterns (from So September, one of my favorite blogs to read).
(If your name is Dawn R., and you are very wonderful and have a pretty baby girl named Esther, please do not read this blog post. You know you have something coming to you and that something is pictured below. Thanks.)
I’ve finished a couple of exciting projects these past couple of weeks, and I am so excited about them. First is a monster. On a shirt, of course. I sketched some aliens/monsters/robots up a couple days ago on paper, and transferred the drawings to fabric.
Fun is had by all. I am so pleased with how these turned out.
Best of all, Asher loves them.
Here is my above-mentioned friend, Dawn, with her beautiful baby girl. We all love this baby so much!
And here is a little quilt that I stitched up, finished just a couple of days ago.
The center squares are from a favorite etsy shop of mine, whimsiedots. Vintage bed linens, cut into three-inch squares and framed with Kona cotton (can’t remember the name of the green for this).
A little boy trying to finish his big breakfast.
Aunt Judi sent Ivy a purse for her birthday. She immediately stocked it with all the necessary purse things: lip gloss, tissues, a book, a pencil, and a notebook. Then she got on the phone.
We sure have been enjoying the outdoors lately. What a pretty spring we’ve had…a gift after such a long, cold winter. Seems like things have been just right all spring.
I moved out back to finish up a sewing project: a sweet blanket for a sweet baby girl born a couple weeks ago.
My rhubarb has really taken off this year. This thing is HUGE. I see strawberry-rhubarb pie in Scott’s future, and he is happy about that.
I’ve planted mostly herbs and flowers this year, in an effort to simplify and focus on things we enjoyed the most from our garden last year.
Bringing cut flowers inside is such a pleasant way to brighten up a room, no?
I found this in the garden, too.
He brightens a room when we bring him in.
A friend of the girls (a friend who’s a little older than my girls) has been learning to sew for a couple years, and she made these aprons for Ivy and Charlotte.
Didn’t she do a fantastic job? This picture will be on her website, and I think she’s going to start selling her wares. Maybe I’ll keep you updated, or you can send me a note for more information.
And now, for some viewing pleasure! Ivy and I have been “dueting” and it has been so much fun. She has worked really hard on her piano, and we are finally starting to see it pay off. Without further ado, here’s Miss Ivy June on the piano. Accompanied by Mommy.
The children-at-grandparents’ week is coming to an end. I am pretty sure the kids had a blast (and grandparents too, I hope!), and we are so glad that they have the opportunity to spend weeks like this with each set of grandparents from time to time.
Here’s a sampling of what filled the week. Apart from the whole snowed-in episode last weekend, which turned out to be quite pleasant.
:: baby gifts
:: quilting
:: summer pajamas (1 set down, one nightgown and one little boy’s pajamas to go)
I must have won some kind of thrift store prize a couple of weeks ago, because I happened upon several yards of fabric at one of my favorite thrifting haunts.
This green was perfect for a little Charlotte, paired with a vintage pattern picked up at a yard sale several months ago. I put this together in an afternoon, and she was delighted. Unfortunately, my camera’s memory card seems to have given up on life and didn’t save most of the pictures I took. Picture a sweet rounded peter-pan collar at the top, and there you go. You can see it a little here:
This fabric is not from the thrift store, but I am very excited about it. Baby blankets for friends (can you guess which one, Melanie?), dresses for the girls, and a few summer nightgowns are in the plans for this pile of loveliness.
And what day is complete without some button-sorting with Daddy? Charlotte was most interested in sorting out the pink and orange buttons, and then counting them to make sure of the amount.
The button jars are usually brought out on special occasions, and it’s always a treat for the children to look at them!
We’ve been keeping warm around here, and moving along after the holidays. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season…!
We had a good Christmas, filled with family (that I didn’t get many pictures of, unfortunately) and rest. Fabulous food, too, which is always nice.
There’s something so nice about candles at Christmas, isn’t there?
Ivy had her very special Christmas piano recital, in which she flew through her songs fantastically (video to come, eventually…).
Her friend Jonathan also did very well…I happened to glance at them as we were waiting to start the recital. No nervousness here. Nope.
My mom made the girls some fancy dresses for the occasion, and they turned out great.
I’ve managed to carve out some time in the past few days to do a little sewing. Pretty fun, especially when the most perfect fabric is on the clearance rack in all its glory.
I’ve also had a chance to try some projects I’ve had on my mind for a few weeks. This one took just a few minutes to put together, and it’s destined for a sweet boy who’s turning 5 soon.
Post-holiday winter always tempts me to start thinking about Spring, and there are few things more wonderful than fresh summer-time dresses and nightgowns for some little girls, right? Just doing a little fabric dreaming…hopefully the dreaming will turn into a little fabric ordering soon.
The girls have been more and more interested in making little things with fabric and paper lately, too, which pleases their mother. I sorted through my scrap fabric basket and let them have at it with the leftovers, and they spend lots of time now creating little treasures. They have also requested empty paper towel and toilet paper tubes for making things.
I’ve picked up children’s craft books here and there over the years, while yard-saling and thrifting, and it’s finally paid off. So nice to have them reading above their age level and also able to comprehend instructions. If anyone has any children crafting/art book recommendations, I’d love to hear them!
And then we have our sweet boy. He became the proud owner of a can of Tinker Toys a few weeks ago, and when the pieces aren’t used as swords, guns, or drumsticks, he asks if we can make him a guitar. Then he plays it and sings about how much he loves his Mommy.
Right now little buddy is pretty sick, though. Poor guy…he’s a pretty pleasant patient, though.
Thanks so much everyone for all of your well-wishes, thoughts, and prayers. God always provides these things when we go through something terrible, doesn’t He?
Our days for the past week have mostly consisted of a lot reading together, resting in bed,watching tv, and talking. My girls have a lot of questions about everything that’s happened, and we’ve been trying to make sure we take the time to answer them. I’ve also had loads of time to do some hand embroidery, which has been a bit of an unexpected gift. (Can’t show any more pictures because some of these things will end up as Christmas gifts….!)
It struck me yesterday how fast Christmas is coming this year! We’ve tried to take the time to enjoy the little things, including the fact that our children are here with us today. A few decorations are up, we managed to get a tree, and we unearthed the christmas music from the CD pile. Things are feeling a little more normal, bit by bit.
For some of us around here, enjoying the “little things” means loving the scarf that Mommy picked up at the thrift store. A scarf complete with “puffy meatballs” is just what he needed, apparently.
Something else exciting has been happening besides Christmas coming…
At least we’re pretty confident we know what she wants for Christmas!
We visited the Moonen side of the extended family over the weekend.
I don’t know what I was (or wasn’t) thinking, but I didn’t get nearly as many pictures as I thought. We had a really nice time, though. Spent time at a really fun park, went thrifting with a wonderful sister (hi mary!), and did quite a bit of reading.
There were definitely some naps happening, too.
And some silliness.
Asher has discovered the wonderful world of Mario Kart, thanks to Uncle Jonathan. Oh boy. Boy oh boy.
He actually did quite well, and by the time our visit ended I think he had the buttons all figured out. Christmas gift ideas are adding up, let me tell you.
(This shot was not posed at all, I swear. Completely natural. I smile every time I see this picture.)
Our trip down to Beaufort takes us on some back roads and past some beautiful farms and equally pretty farmhouses. I managed to remember to snap some pictures of my favorites along the way.
This one is a favorite for sure.
It’s hard to take pictures from a moving car. Especially when someone’s tailgating.
Kind of addicting once you start, though.
Just collecting ideas.
The cold weather seems to have set in early around here, and we are working to come up with cozy things to fill our chilly fall evenings. And chilly mornings, too, for that matter. School is definitely getting more defined and is filling up more and more of our day, so that is a big deal these days. I’m working to switch some things around with our vision for school, so we’ll be doing some new things around January. A lot more reading and talking about the books the children are reading will be a big part of it.
Pretty exciting. So far, classical-based schooling is working really well for us.
In other news, I finally (finally!) finished coats for the girls. I saw this pattern over the summer, loved it even more when it was on sale for a dollar, and scooped it up. Next time I make this pattern (which hopefully won’t be for a few more years), I think I’ll look for some wool and see how that works. Maybe corduroy?
This is not my picture. But I do love this coat. Mostly my idea for these coats came from here. Boden has such great clothes for children…I drool over the catalog. (The Mommy clothes are fantastic ($$$) too.)
Ivy’s coat is a dark brown. And fleece was harder to sew than I thought it would be. Enough said.
I think we can assume that summer is pretty much over.
It went fast, didn’t it?
The fall always brings a new schedule and usually new opportunities for the children (two of them have birthdays soon, new sunday school classes, etc…) This year brings the chance for sweet Ivy June to be a “Keepers of the Home” girl, and oh boy.
She is getting to be such a big girl, and I know I say that all the time but it seems even more apparent recently. “Keepers of the Home” is a little program for girls at our church. Apparently Ivy will learn more about little-girl ways to keep a home and be a young lady, including memorizing Scripture, learning new ways to help Mommy, and learning to pray for people in her family and for her friends.
Her first meeting was this past week (I dropped her off, and then left to spend time with friends for the evening before I picked her up…did you read that? I dropped her off…! sigh) and I don’t think I have ever seen her so excited about something before. Ever. She chattered non-stop the entire ride home from church, sometimes not even able to finish a sentence before she thought of something else she needed to tell me. Sometimes she would stop talking altogether, take a deep breath, and say, “Mommy!! There were only GIRLS there!”
All of the children “camped” with Daddy last night on the back porch. The whole event was a huge success (I think it was, anyway…I chose to sleep inside in our bed, but it sounds like everything went well!). We weren’t sure what to expect, but everyone slept just great and are already talking about their next camping adventure.
Asher does keep mentioning the “scary breathing noises” that Daddy made in the night, though. (snoring??)
There’s been a flurry of fabric and thread around here lately, trying to get some fall sewing projects done before they overtake me. I’ve committed to making pajamas for the children from an old stand-by pattern (Burda 9747, if anyone’s interested) and I have made these pajamas so many times I don’t even need the directions anymore.
The pattern turns out great, and I’ve learned what fabrics to use and not use.
Sorry about the picture quality. It’s hard to take pictures of clothing; the picture never looks as great as the actual finished product.
I also found a vintage nightgown pattern (off of Etsy) and made some fresh fall nightgowns for the girls.
Here’s a model, showing off one in that tousled-hair, just-got-out-of-bed look…
In other news:
:: Asher asks for this all the time. “Mommy, can you please play the silly manamana song?” We love vintage Sesame Street. This one is really funny too, one that Scott and I get a kick out of more than the children.
:: we’ve been officially introduced to the world of homeschool curriculum. For now Scott and I are very content to have a steady literature base for the children’s schooling right now, but Math seems to be a different issue. Most of you know that I am not the most skilled at math, but I am excited to teach the children. (I am also really, really glad that Scott has a degree in Math. I think we’ll be okay.) We’re trying out Singapore Math for awhile, as it comes highly recommended by several friends. So far, I like it. I found this post (part 2 of a 3-part post) on homeschooling ideals, which I liked a LOT, and was pleased to see that she also mentions Singapore math.
:: I found this idea and am really thinking about doing something like this. We love making lists of things we love, and to have something a little more permanent would be a really good thing.
:: speaking of sewing…has anyone ever used an Oliver + S pattern before? I am drooling over this dress.
Hope everyone is enjoying this pretty weekend, and that some of you have time for some colored-pencil sketches in the breeze, out back on an old quilt.
