February journal

1. Squared Away block of the month: 4 blocks. I finished two more blocks for light blue-January that had already been started. I did just two purple blocks for February, and Mindy and I will each get one of them. So Mindy and I each have a set of blocks that looks like this, so far:

2. Valentine's hearts in plastic canvas and yarn: my little girls wanted Valentine's decorations, and one of them found a few random sheets of plastic canvas that have been kicking around for forever. No more. It's all been cut into hearts, and yarn or ribbon looped through them to hang in the windows. TA and JK took turns stitching and we made a bunch of them. JK keeps calling it "knitting" and I keep correcting her to "embroidery." (There is no knitting in our house - I tried and it didn't take.) Happy Valentine's Day!

3. Night Sky quilt: only two more 10-inch blocks (the center one was January's block), but I finished what will be the top row of the quilt! Next target is to finish the entire second section.

4. Clothing: SM came home one day with costume instructions for the school play, and I had all of a week and a half to figure it out. And we were traveling for 5 of those 10 days. Thanks for the advance notice, School, that you don't have a costume shop and I had to take care of it. She's a "fairy tale peasant," in the chorus of Into the Woods. So I knocked out her peasant top using some white fabric from my quilting pile (I think it used to be a bedsheet) and these directions from Things of Cloth. It only took me a couple of hours, I was surprised but pleased it went that fast. The skirt is in the works, and I also need to make an apron. I'll do pictures of the whole costume together when it's done.

I'm glad that this got me kicked into gear on making clothing - the target is 12 items for the year, and here's two right together.

5. A Doll Like Me doll quilt drive: I committed to 6, and the first one is done. The traveling and the theater costume took cuts in line for my time.

I meant to do T and U for the Alphabet Challenge before going to V for Valentines ... I know what I'm doing for them but other things have obviously taken priority.

For March, it's time to make dresses and skirts for Easter, because it's April 1 this year. I've made Easter outfits only once before. Last summer, my mom found a close-out sale of a fabric store in Idaho and FaceTimed me (in Connecticut) while walking around the store choosing fabric. Best fabric shopping ever! The catch was, you had to buy what was left on the bolt. (I also got major yardage of flannel to use for quilt backs, and the whole load cost me only 50 bucks. And they were coming here on vacation anyway, so we didn't have to ship it!) I ended up with 8 yards of this lightweight cotton that's perfect for skirts and dresses. I'm going to try to use it ALL. I have the Carousel Dress pattern traced off and trimmed for either TA or JK.

doll quilt one from TA

It's not a family service project quite yet, but we are underway in the Needle and Foot doll quilt drive for A Doll Like Me! TA started us off.

Photo of the 6-year-old sewing taken by the 5-year-old

6 inch squares - the finish is 18x24 inches

Doll Quilts

Trina's last post talked about making doll quilts.  So I followed the link and read all about it.  I had been in the middle of cutting out two new patterns (here and here) but I was inspired and immediately set those aside and started digging in my scrap box. 

Throughout the last year I had been cutting out 2.5" squares out of scraps - it helped my scrap bin stay somewhat organized and seeing a nice stack of squares made me happy.  I didn't have a particular project for them, just something to save up.  But now was the perfect time to use them.  Having pre-cut squares sure helped this little quilt come together fast.  I already had the backing (leftover from this shirt) and the binding was leftover from a recent project too. 

Also found in my scrap box: the leftover pieces from the Woven Star quilt.  I also had exactly enough navy for the backing, and one long piece of teal that demanded to be used for the binding.  The quilting was the most time consuming part of this project, but was worth it.  Maybe someday I'll even get good enough to not have any puckers in the back.  At least my binding skills have improved, just between quilt one and quilt two!

family service project

Last fall, I started doing a Family Service Project every month. We participated in the town clean-up in East Hartford in September. We don't live there, but our church congregation boundaries include that town. In October and November, we committed our time to relief efforts for the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico. We made hygiene kits, and fleece scarves to be given to PR natives who are moving to the Hartford area. In December, we went caroling at a senior home on Christmas Eve.

January's service was a bit of a bust. The girls were supposed to serve each other (in an effort to help them stop fighting so much). Maybe Adam and I didn't stay on top of it enough but it didn't get anywhere. 

So we're regrouping for February. Our next family service project will be making doll-size quilts for A Doll Like Me.