A good morning for Prudence

Ever since we got Prudence with her own little potty and her once upon a potty book and her potty seat, I was hopeful that she’d help in potty training Alice.  It turns out she’s been great!  I’ve not actually used the potty chair as we skipped that and went straight to the big potty for Alice.  But we’ve used Prudence a lot.  Alice loves to hold long conversations with her while she tries on the potty.  I talk for Prudence and Alice tells her what a big girl she is.  Prudence of course enjoys trying on her own little potty too.  Well Prudence came with panties on, but we can never seem to find those little things and it crosssed my mind that she’s really needing to be a little more modest.  So Prudence now has a little skirt of her own.  I gave Alice the choice of 3 different fabrics to make the skirt and she chose this cute flanel (it also happened to be the one I liked the best).  We had fun doing it together (well mostly Alice watched, but someday I’ll teach her to sew) and Alice is thrilled that Prudence has her very own skirt.  I now really want to make a skirt out of this fabric for Alice.  I think it would be SO cute.  Enjoy the pictures.

Poor Prudence needs some clothes!             Alice and Prudence wait patiently.
             

             Prudence checks in on the progress and thinks she likes it.
                 

                Alice lets us know what Prudence thinks in this little video.

Prudence is all set in her new skirt.  She loves it!  Alice loves it too.
  

         Prudence is so relieved to have her own cute little skirt.  
                         

I’ve been working hard on Christmas presents for family these days.  So maybe that skirt for Alice will have to wait.  I also have hopes of making two things for the kids for Christmas and hopefully something for the new baby too!  So even though its just the beginning of October, I don’t have much time to crank out all of this out before the baby gets here.  Because I will NOT be sewing after this baby, at least for a while.  So I only have 2 more months!  Wish I could show pictures of the progress on Christmas presents, but you’ll just have to wait until after Christmas for those.

1939 Electric White Rotary Machine

While we were in Vermont my mother-in-law asked if I’d make her some curtains for the guest room (the room we stay in).  So I spent some time sewing over vacation, pretty fun.  But I’ve never sewn on a machine quite like this.  This machine was Bob’s grandma’s that she apparently received in December 1939 (this was written in the handbook of course!)  I was super sceptical that the machine would still be working but plugged it in and it worked!  I had to follow the handbook to learn how to thread it and to wind the bobbin.  The strangest thing was that the needle was threaded left to right (the eye being sideways) instead of front to back.  Something to get used to for sure.  I had to replace the needle to get the machine sewing, but that was the only thing I did to it and it did wonderfully.  It didn’t have a foot pedal but a leg pedal instead.  I kind of like that better than a foot pedal actually.  I had fun doing these curtains for her and fun figuring out the machine.  How cool that it still works! Its inside this beautiful end table type piece of furniture.  I should have taken a picture of that too, oh well.  Check out this machine and of course the finished product.

   

           

Superhero Capes

While on the subject of superhero capes, I realized that I never posted pictures of the ones I made for my nephews for Christmas this past December. They are reversible batman and superman capes. I followed this pattern to make them. The boys love them!

(look how short both of the kids hair is in this picture! Alice looks almost bald compared to her curly curls she has now)

Livia’s Cape and Mask

Recently Rebecca commissioned me to make a cape and mask for her daughter’s 4th birthday. I had fun choosing the fabrics and making the incredibles emblem and the crown. I’m happy with how they turned out and hope that Livia loves them!

And just in case you’re wondering, I hate the new format for posting pictures using wordpress! ERRGH. I’ve not been posting much for various reasons, but one of which is they changed everything and I don’t like it. I like everything to be lined up and equally distributed, but I guess I just have to give in and let it do what it wants. Plus I can’t get the thumbnails to go as big as I used to get them. I’m so frustrated! Ok, enough ranting and raving about wordpress.

Hannah’s Baby Presents

My niece Hannah had a baby shower at Bob’s parent’s church this past weekend in North Carolina.  My sister-in-law (Hannah’s mom) absolutely loves bunnies.  So I made Hannah a bunny quilt!  It was a lot of fun and wow those bunnies took a lot of time.  But they were worth it.  Though I might try to avoid too much applique in my future quilts!

            

               

               

                                    

Alice was sick the end of last week so we actually had to stay home and miss the baby shower.  I was pretty bummed.  But I was also feeling really tired out, so it was nice to have a quiet weekend at home.  Alice slept a ton, even more than usual, so I watched movies and just chilled.  It was great!

I also made Hannah some jingle bell blocks and a bib.  For the blocks I used a foam cushion and cut them to size (an electric meat slicer works great).  I cut a hole in the center to put a jingle bell inside.  They are so cute and I love the slight little ringing.  Can’t wait to see Hannah chomping on them and shaking them with delight!  I really like how they turned out.  The bib I made from following the pattern in this book.  It ended up little on the big side.  I guessed at the pattern a bit.  Still cute though. 
             

Organizing

I’ve been busy working on making a few more gifts, so of course I can’t post on them until I give them away!  But I’ll get some pictures up once they are given.  I guess I should get better about taking pictures of the process, so I can at least give sneak peaks of the fabric.  (and have something to post about while I’m sewing away)
         
Speaking of fabric, I’ve been organizing this morning.  I now have a small chest of drawers in my sewing room and it has rows of lovely organized fabric.  A lot of my fabric has been given to me, so some of it I don’t like, but don’t get rid of it either, because you never know when I might want to use it right?  That’s a hard one.  One blog I read says life’s too short to sew with ugly fabric.  And I think that’s a good motto to live by when sewing.  But sometimes when I’m making a gift for someone I choose fabric I know they are going to love, but its not always my style or first choice.  I guess its the balance between personal artistic expression in what you make and what you know someone is just going to love.   

I’ve been thinking more and more about starting up an etsy shop.  Bob and I have made some strong goals of getting our mounds of student loans paid off.  His plate is more than full so he’s not in a position to take on extra work at this point.  So I’ve been pondering sewing some things to sell and get rid of our debt faster!  I’m contemplating some names for an etsy shop.  I’m not good at this.  There is already a “sew much more” shop, so that’s out.  Here’s a few ideas I’ve come up with.  Water Oak Creations or Designs or Handmade (we have this amazing water oak in our yard that I just love), Washing Room Creations, Laundry Room Designs,  (my sewing room is also my laundry room), The Blue Paisley (after my curtains in my sewing room), St. Elmo Handmade.  I’m really not sure if I like any of those yet or not.  Any ideas?  I really need some input.  Maybe if selling on etsy works out well I’ll end up changing my blog name too.  We’ll see, I can dream right?

Super Why!

Caleb simply loves the new PBS show Super Why.  He’s always headed off to the bookclub and talking about Super Why doing this or that.  So in keeping with this year’s Christmas present theme for the kids, homemade gifts, I made him a Super Why cape and mask, along with his very own Super Why doll.  I had so much fun making this for him.  The doll got more and more intricate as I went along, but it was a blast doing it.  I hope he loves loves it! 

I used freezer paper a ton when making the doll for him.  See the bottom of this post for some tips on how to do this.  I also used this pattern for making the body.  Then Bob printed a blown up picture of super why off of the PBS kids site so I could pattern his head and face after that. (you can see what I mean in the picture below of me laying out his face on the ironing board)  Bob helped me with making Super Why’s logo that I then put on Caleb’s cape as well as SuperWhy’s cape.  I also made Caleb’s cape reversible, based on this pattern, so he can be either Super Why or Alpha Pig.  (by the way that cape pattern is super easy!)  For the most part I used felt and fleece to applique everything onto the doll.  I did some hand sewing and some machine applique.  I learned a lot about applique through making this doll.  Its always fun to have a challenging project that teaches you new things. 

I can’t wait for Christmas morning when Caleb gets to open this gift.  There’s just something about making a gift for your kid that you know he’s going to completely love!  (and making something that you can’t buy in the stores!)  Enjoy the pictures.  I kept them small so Caleb doesn’t happen to see a picture of his Christmas present too early!

   “Super Why contemplating his next adventure.”

           

 And here’s some tips on using freezer paper when sewing.

Sewing Books

I’ve been keeping a list of intriguing sewing and quilting books lately.  So last night I went out to Barnes and Noble to check some out.  I pulled 8 or 9 books off the shelf and sat for a long while reading and completely enjoying myself.  By far the two books I spent most of my time looking at were Bend-the-Rules Sewing: The Essential Guide to a Whole New Way to Sew by Amy Karol and Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts  by Joelle Hoverson.  I very nearly bought the patchwork one but I knew it was only $18 on amazon and it was almost $30 in the store.  So maybe sometime soon I’ll be placing an order.
 
Joelle had some suggested books listed in the back of hers which I’ve added to my wish list too.  I want to see some of them before I know I want to own them.  But one of them the library has, so I’m pumped!  I’ve already put it on hold. 

I’ve been wanting a good resource for quilting.  And after I made baby Cooley’s I especially wanted to find a good book.  I want to start making a quilt for Alice, maybe finish it by Christmas?  I don’t know, we’ll see.  I think the patchwork book will really be the resource I need. 

Fabric Source

I worked at JoAnn Fabrics in highschool and that was always a great resource for fabric.  I wish we had one around here.  There are only a handful of places where I buy fabric.  Walmart is my first stop, and if I can’t find it there, I go to Hancock’s.  I know that Hobby Lobby has fabric but I’ve never checked it out before.  Any opinions on Hobby Lobby?  Where else is there in Chattanooga to get good fabric?  One of my main problems is that I’m cheap, hence the reason I start at Walmart.   I don’t want to pay too much a yard.  But I’m starting to realize that for some projects, especially gifts, I want to find a little nicer stuff.  I’ve thought of looking online, but I really wouldn’t know where to begin with buying fabric online.  Any tips for online shopping? 

Baby Quilt

I made a baby quilt this past week for little baby boy Cooley.  I had so much fun doing it.  Amber had registered for some receiving blankets so I used one of them from the package to make the quilt.  I was hoping to find a solid blue flanel that matched the darker dot in the fabric.  But ended up with the lighter blue dot color.  I still liked it though. 

I’ve only made 2 other quilts and after the last quilt I made for Caleb before he was born, I was determined to never quilt again!  But that was before my new machine.  Quilting with this machine was a breeze.  I love my machine.  It has an on machine dual feed quilting foot which makes all the difference.  Though with this quilt I was determined to not have puckering so I used all straight quilting lines without having to cross so I could avoid the puckers.  The next quilt I do I’ll have to test out the dual feed foot with crossing some lines.  You know live dangerously.

I’m happy with the way it turned out.  I like the three simple panels on the front and then bringing in interest with the top quilting.  I’ve determined after this quilt that I need to get a quilting basics book so that I’m not just making it up as I go along.  Any suggestions for a good basic quilting book?

Of course I have to include what I’d do differently next time, so as not to make the same mistakes twice.  When I was quilting close to one of the corners, I hadn’t pinned down the backing of that corner and it pulled the fabric over on the back too much.  I didn’t know how ripping it out would go.  So I ended up having to make my binding on the back 1 1/4 inches to reach past that pulled corner.  I was kind of bummed about that because I really liked the look of the 1/2 inch binding on the front.  Oh well, I learned my lesson.  And I guess its not that big of a deal. 

I think I get to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to quilting.  Sewing clothes you can fudge things a lot.  But with quilting, I like things to be a certain way.  I had fun using a different stitch for the seams that joined the three panels.  I pieced it normally and then just top stitched that different stitch (mode 2, #66 on my machine). 

Another thing I didn’t expect to come up was the backing to not line up with the front.  I pieced both the front and the back, not something usually done in traditional quilting.  Now I know why.  The lines didn’t match up completely, so if you look closely at the back you can see the difference.  Again its not a big deal.  But if I decide to piece the back of a quilt again I will need to be more certain that all panels/sections are exactly the same size.  I didn’t pay attention to this detail until it was too late.

This was a fun project.  I loved making it for Amber in particular because she is so creative herself and is always giving away lovely gifts.  So I was especially excited to give it to her.  Now to meet this little boy in less than a month!