Sept - Oct - Nov - Dec

I didn't get back into sewing so much in September after the kids went back to school, because that's when I was asked to take on a major leadership role in our church ... one of these days ...

But I did SOME sewing through the end of the year!

SEPTEMBER
September is National Sewing Month and I set a goal to sew every day. I got 10 of 30. Sigh. Of course, on the 15th, I got the leadership assignment at church so that definitely threw things off.

mending: 3

quilt blocks: 4. I made four letter blocks to start working on RG's Extreme Reader quilt (even though I'm still not done with Night Sky).

a skirt for ME!: this was a long time coming. I even assigned it to myself as my last Faith in God pass-off - the children's church goal program that I was the leader for (so I did it myself with the girls, to encourage them along). When we wrapped up the program in September because of transitioning to a lot of new things, I had one week to just do it - park my butt down and make my skirt.

It's brown linen, made with the Anywhere Skirt instructions from Made Everyday. (This is the second time I've used this pattern - the first was for SM's theater costume in 6th grade.) It suggests you use twice your waist-measurement for a full skirt - I did about a quarter more than my waist because I wanted it pretty toned down. I ordered painted wood buttons specifically to go with this fabric, and they're my favorite thing about it.

OCTOBER
Night Sky quilt: the top is 100% done! And pinned in its batting/backing sandwich! HOORAY! It's 60 by 80 inches, so a scaled down twin bed size. And then I set it aside for another month to take care of some other things on a deadline ... sigh ...

other quilt blocks: while finishing the Night Sky top, which took some Tetris skills to get all the differently sized pieces together, I needed to just sew something fast. We had a bunch of cut 4-inch squares left from the "A Doll Like Me" doll quilt project in February, and someone had contributed a bunch of brown. They were just laying around on my table - I think one of the kids got them out - so I mixed the brown with other colors to make what I'm calling a "chocolate checkerboard." To get it big enough for a 48x48-inch back for a jeans picnic blanket, I need more brown ... Checking the scrap bins, and then I'll send out a request to quilting friends to raid their scrap bins. I have 28 4x4 blocks so far. Laid out for the photo, I like it even more than I thought I would!

NOVEMBER
mending: 2

quilt repair: Adam's mom made a quilt for him incorporating his baby blanket. We let RG have it on her bed because it's quite heavy and it acts as a sort of weighted blanket for her. Unfortunately, her autism fidget issue is that she shreds things - paper and ... fabric ... and she was rather extensively destroying the baby blanket section literally one thread at a time before we caught on. So I confiscated it from her and got some large flannel pieces from my stash. They had been intended to be made into baby blankets if we'd had a boy, but obviously that didn't happen so the fabric has just been sitting here all this time. What's left of Adam's baby blanket is now entirely enclosed and quilted under Dr. Seuss flannel and some flannel pieces left from making Adam's pajama pants - it looks kind of new but it's not really. Just a new piece added to an older quilt with some additional quilting.

baptism dress: TA was baptized on November 30, and per our family tradition (let's be honest - Adam insisted on this one), I made another baptism dress. It was down to the wire - I finished it the day before. The pattern was the Oliver and S Pinwheel dress, because of the flounces on the bottom. It's actually two pieces - an under-dress with the lower flounce, and a tunic over the top with the upper flounce. I made the under-dress out of lining rather than cotton because TA likes silky fabrics against her skin. The pattern idea is that the two pieces can be worn separately if the child wishes - this one can't because the lining is somewhat sheer. But that's okay. I can make her another.

It's also TOTALLY typical of this girl to insist that she wear sneakers. She hasn't worn "church shoes" in ... I don't know when she ever did. So Daddy took her to get some new white ones to wear with her white dress. The only thing missing was that she wanted white leggings to wear with it too, because that's her style - dress or t-shirt, a hoodie, leggings, sneakers. I need to get a picture of how she has styled this dress to church since her baptism: the white dress with black leggings, the white sneakers, and a black/silver zip-front puffy vest over the dress with the ruffles sticking out underneath. It actually looks pretty cool.

DECEMBER
I still have A LOT of church work (it's at least three years in this position), and even some editing work ... but WAY less than last year. Just a couple of hours here and there - not rewriting an entire freaking book in two months.

I did no sewing at all this month until Christmas day, when I spent the entire afternoon quilting the Night Sky quilt. And then some more the next day, and I got the diagonal lines done in one direction. I thought about leaving it like that because it looks kind of cool, but Mindy said that she was told that if you quilt only one direction, the quilt will eventually warp. Sigh. So I will go the other direction for the criss-cross. Then fold the backing around to the front to be the binding.

Y is for youth camp

One of these days, I will get back to my original Y plan and actually execute it!! But first ... youth camp. At our church, there's day camp for ages 8 to 11, and when you turn 12, you can go to sleep-away camp. SM turned 12 this spring, so it is time for Girls Camp! Our area always goes the third week of August.

I weaseled my way into being one of the adult leaders because I just wanted to go to camp myself - I LOVE CAMP!!!! - and I want to experience this with my daughters. There's also the fact that she has ADHD limitations and I felt like I should be there to help her navigate this new thing. (Second daughter is on the autism spectrum, so this will not be my only year as an adult leader at camp.)

Because it's GIRLS Camp, we decorate. My contribution was this pennant garland that kept going and going and going ... it ended up being put together in three different sections that were each 20 feet long.

It turned out to be a good thing that it was in sections. I had planned to put it around our central pavilion ... which we didn't have. The tents were in an oval grouping with just some picnic tables in the center but no covered area, not even a pop-up canopy or tarp. So I strung it between the tents.

I also made myself a small cross-body bag for my phone. The kids were banned from even bringing their phones to camp. The adults, on the other hand, were required to have them on their person at all times. I had a backpack, but I wanted my phone more accessible. Plus it will be handy to have going forward when I want to carry my phone and just a couple of small things instead of an entire purse.

I used the same zip pouch tutorial that I've used all the other times, so this is number 14, I think. But I resized it to 6x9 inches to start, and put the zipper across the short end rather than the long side. That made for a really small opening to flip it right side out after sewing, but it worked. Eventually. That was some tight maneuvering. I couldn't figure out how to insert the strap (which was just 5 feet of 2-inch grosgrain ribbon) between the outer and lining fabrics with the zipper there, so I just attached it to the outside.

And now I have a small cross-body bag for my phone! Camp or no camp. Yay!

April journal

Aren't I so great with post titles? Ha ha!

SEWING
Major progress on my Alphabet Challenge! I got U, V, and W done just this month! It helped that they were small projects ... X is in process. Y has the fabric washed and ready, just need to trace off the pattern. Z is going to be EPIC. Definitely planning to end this challenge with a bang!

1. U: JE's pillow that matches her quilt.

2. V: Finished my contribution to the doll quilts for A Doll Like Me - the top was complete in March, but I still had to quilt and bind it. All done now. I'll give us a little more time to work on the doll quilts from the girls, but if they're not done by the end of the summer, I'm calling it good and sending what we have.

3. W: JE's white baptism dress.

4. Night Sky quilt: I made a couple of these blocks, called Clay's Choice from 1920. I think it's cool to make old-time blocks, and learn their names. I had planned to do more, but I got sidetracked with making plans for summer clothes for the girls. My new target with this quilt starting in May is one block per week. Otherwise, it's never going to get done.

5. DC map quilt: just a few stitches here and there, but that means I'm a few stitches closer every time I pick up the needle! I have it set out in my bedroom where it's accessible to me, but the kids aren't going to mess it up. I have the entire bottom "row" almost done.

6. English paper piecing (EPP): yet another WIP started! A couple of years ago, I was visiting my bestie Sarah in Utah who was working on EPP at the time. She showed me how to do it and gave me a couple of samples, and they've just been sitting here waiting for me to figure something out with them. Recently, I saw this tote bag online and I. Want. It. My EPP is diamonds, not hexagons, so it will look different ... but the concept will be the same, all the way down to the grommets. I can't buy her pattern because of the money exchange - this a blog in Ireland ... but I've figured out enough about bags by now that I think I can do this one on my own with just the photo for inspiration.

7. Flannel rice bags: we've had some aches and pains this month, and some fussing for a rice bag as a heating pad. We had an old sock filled with rice and tied off with a rubber band, but ... yuck. So in literally 5 minutes, I grabbed a flannel scrap, sewed it around 3 sides, filled it with rice, and then sewed it shut. Bam. Done. I did this twice, including with boy flannel for Adam to have one for himself. We don't need everything pink or floral-printed around here.

8. I attempted to participate in Kid Clothes Week, which is a challenge to sew for one hour every day for a week. I sewed for an hour and 45 minutes ONE day. That's all. But I got a pair of shorts and a quickie nightgown done! They were made from fleece pillowcases, from a sheet set that wore out.

THE HOUSE
We've had an antique cabinet grand piano for a few years that we got for free when an elderly person from our church passed away and their house was being emptied out. We figured out that it was built in 1905, and we tried to get it tuned. That ended up killing it. Adam asked around with piano tuners and shops: we could have a $20,000 restored piano ... after we spent at least half that getting all the pegs, strings and keys replaced ... so Adam decided to turn it into a desk. In about 3 days, he pulled it apart, cleaned the pieces he decided to keep, and put it back together ... ta da! We have an antique cabinet grand desk!

So far this year, the house projects have all been Adam's. Sigh.

W is for white

Adam wants each of our girls to have their own white dress for their baptisms, and it's JE's turn!

We bounced around a bit on the pattern - the one she chose from my pattern box was too big, both for her and for the fabric that she selected at the store. (It called for making a circle skirt with the fabric out all flat, and the curve didn't fit from side to side between the selveges.) We ended up here: 

SOURCE: Seams Sew Lo

I was randomly looking at a spring dress round-up, which bounced me around a number of blogs ... and I came across this and thought, "There it is!"

I used my stand-by Oliver+S Playtime Tunic (number 11 of that pattern!) and modified the heck out of it. I:

- used size 7 for the top and size 10 for the bottom so it would be longer and more full.

- left the sleeves off, because the dropped shoulders are enough of a cap sleeve for a spring/summer dress.

- lengthened the bodice by 2 inches so it isn't right under her armpits.

- fully lined the bodice rather than using just the pattern facings.

- lengthened the skirt portion to a dress rather than a tunic top.

- put bias tape over the seam between the bodice and skirt, because wow, that was a crazy itchy edge on JE! I had intended to tuck this between the lining and outer fabrics, but I didn't cut the lining quite long enough. Fortunately, I'd just come across a tutorial about a Hong Kong seam finish. I don't know why it's called that, but I'm glad I found it!

- I didn't worry about stitching from the bias tape showing through, because it was already in the plan to add a band of lace at the divide between the bodice and skirt.

- added ruffles ruffles ruffles! They were first cut at 7 inches wide, and 2 lengths of selvage-to-selvage put together. I looped them all around the base skirt before attaching anything to see how they should be spaced, and I went with 4 inches apart. I started at the bottom, and worked my way up. The base is right side facing up, the ruffle is attached upside down (left side of the picture), and then folded down when it's done so the seam is hidden (right side of the picture).

You gotta be committed when doing ruffles - they take a lot of time, fabric, and thread. The dress would have been done in half a day if it weren't for the ruffles.

LDS ABC

I made Cupcake a little book to keep her distracted during church.  She loves to flip through picture books and albums, so I figured one with a church theme would be just perfect.  It'll be in her stocking to open on Christmas morning.  I came up with my own set of words and scriptures, and used a mix of my own pictures and ones from lds.org.  (I did not alter the photos in any way - no cropping, no adding words on top, etc., to obey their copyright laws.)  About half the letters were double  pages - one page for the scripture, one for the picture. 

 

 

Atonement, Baptism, Creation, Divine Nature, Eternal Family, First Presidency, Golden Plates, Heavenly Father, Iron Rod, Jesus Christ, Kneel, Last Supper, Missionary Work, Nativity, Oil, Priesthood Blessings, Quiet, Resurrection, Sacrament, Temple, Utah, Vision (first), Word of Wisdom, Xample, Youth, Zion