Just popping in to let everyone know the Fast and Fun blog hop begins tomorrow! This hop celebrates the patterns created at Villa Rosa Designs. VRD patterns are sold in lovely postcard formats and promote quick and simple quilts. Often graphic and modern in design, these can be used for wall quilts, baby quilts and lap size quilts. They are easily expanded by making more blocks and adding borders if you choose to.
The line up of bloggers promoting these patterns is shown below. Be sure to visit each one for loads of inspiration as well as the chance to enter and win some very generous prizes.
Come back to this post and start visiting the various blogs tomorrow! I will be sharing my pattern and the quilt I made on Tuesday of next week. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have even seen a sneak peek already. Just a hint there…. 🙂
The third annual Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) is starting this week and I am joining in. I have never done any sort of round robin but I am looking forward to playing along with Gail (Quilting Gail) and the other bloggers that are presenting during this event. Several years ago, Gail decided to do a riff on the traditional round robin (where a quilter makes a center block, it is passed along to the next quilter who adds a border of their choice and passes it to the next quilter who does the same). Instead, Gail has lined up five other quilters who have each designed a border for us to use as we see fit. It is very flexible in that a person might choose to use part of the border, to change it a bit or skip it altogether if it doesn’t work for them.
This is my center block. I had a stack of these HST’s and made this star block with them. They were from a quilt I started a couple of years ago and decided I didn’t like where it was headed. In the project bag, I have loads of cut pieces. Several colors of the batik (red, orange, blue, green and purple) and tons of the polka dot fabric cut into various size rectangles and strips. I am hoping to repurpose many of the pieces in this project. If I need to tame it down a bit I may add some solids to the mix. The star block measures eight inches square.
This feels like a mystery quilt since I don’t know what is coming next week. Because I don’t know the plans for the five rounds we will be offered, I have no plan for the size of this project. Wall hanging? Baby quilt? Lap quilt? Who knows! Not being one who is known for spontaneity, this is a reach for me. But this is a way to use lots of pieces that have been sitting patiently waiting to be put into a quilt!
If you want to join in, below is the list of bloggers who will be posting for one round each. If you click through, you’ll be able to see their starting block. For more information on the event itself, click here.
March 13: Parade – showing all of the finished SAHRRs!
For those who are participating, there is a link up to share your center block. Click here to find that link. I am excited for the next set of instructions which will be provided in a week by Roseanne and Sue. Join in and sew with this group. It is going to be a lot of fun!
Last October Ray and I had the opportunity to bring our youngest grand daughter home and spend a few days with her, one on one. It was delightful. We promised big sister she would have a turn to have a sleep over by herself too. Then everything got crazy with all of us being sick for weeks on end. Finally the week after Christmas we made it happen.
When I took Julia to the airport to go back to school, my son met me (this is about the 1/2 way point between our homes) and I picked H up. We were worried little sister wouldn’t understand why she wasn’t coming along. However her father had the good idea to meet in the Ikea parking lot and the promise of Swedish meatballs for lunch with dad was a good distraction; everyone was happy!
Spending time one on one with a grand child (or a child) is so special. The dynamic changes and it seems like the relationship deepens. I grew up in a big family and then had a big family (four children) which is wonderful. But having the chance to single out a child and focus on them entirely is such a blessing. (On the flip side, little sister was getting lots of extra attention from her parents while H was at our house.)
Quiet time at Grammy’s
Planning to have this time with H, I had a mental list of fun things we could do. It was supposed to be very rainy so outdoor time would be minimal. Letting her take the lead, we did the things she suggested as much as possible. Board games, jig saw puzzles and coloring are activities she favors so there was lots of that happening.
This little girl loves to make things. She also loves to cook. Her parents give her a lot of room in the kitchen and she is developing a really good understanding of how to bake. For Christmas, Santa bought her a Disney Princess cookbook and she brought it over. I asked her what she wanted to make and she chose Monkey Bread. The recipe was simple, biscuit dough rolled into balls and rolled in butter and cinnamon with sugar.
H is careful and able to measure most of the ingredients on her own. ( In the photo you can see the apron I made for her for Christmas. She also got a new nightgown and was looking quite the princess when making her Monkey Bread).
What really impressed me with this part of the process was she controlled that incredible impulse to lick her fingers between rolling the dough balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture. I watched quite closely and at the end of the process we celebrated by licking all ten of our fingers. The Monkey Bread turned out so pretty and H was satisfied. However I made a mistake and forgot to have her put the salt in so it tasted rather flat. Oh Grammy. She didn’t seem to notice but Ray and I sure did. Sigh.
Next this girl went straight for my heart and asked if we could ‘make something in the sewing room’. As if I would say no to that request. Upstairs we went. I have a huge bin filled with flannel and minky scraps. There really isn’t anything in there that I would miss if she cut it up so I let her have at it. Wanting her to take the lead, I worked hard to bite my tongue and not suggest anything. (This wasn’t easy!!!) She was immediately drawn to a scrap of black minky with a bubbled texture on one side. When she asked what we could make with it, I suggested a stuffed animal or a pillow. She chose pillow. I told her she could put a different fabric on each side or the black minky on both sides. She just lit up and went digging through that bin, turning into the Tasmanian Devil with fabric flying everywhere. But this sort of mess is creativity in my book. She chose a crazy tie dyed flannel and then found a pale mottled fabric that she liked. Wanting to incorporate all three, she kept thinking. Finally she decided to cut the mottled cotton fabric into squares for each corner of the minky side of the pillow plus a bigger square for the center.
It was interesting to see how much concentration it took for her to pin her squares where she wanted them. (I couldn’t worry about turning under the edges of the squares. Pinning them was hard enough!) This part took a bit of time. When we went to the machine to sew, she chose to work the foot pedal and I guided the fabric under the needle. My machine has a speed control which was set to slow.
We stuffed the pillow with polyester stuffing and this is the finished result. The project took well over an hour and she started to lose interest during the stuffing. Off she went to shop in the fat quarter baskets for something else to play with. She also found a bag of pipe cleaners and decided she needed to twist them all together.
Honestly I could watch her play in here all day (well actually we did spend the larger portion of the day in there)!
Hmmm, what can I make with this???
Finding a cheetah print minky scrap, her wheels started turning again. The thinking process for this project was super interesting. H decided she wanted to make a snake. She told me she wanted to “use insulation for the middle, not stuffing.” This was momentarily confusing… Insulation? Then she pointed to the bin of batting. OK – there’s the ‘insulation’. (Why did she even know that word?) Looking at the picture you’ll get an idea of her plan. She wanted to layer the batting and the fabric and roll them up into a snake. She was very firm that she did not want to make a tube and stuff it. I left her to play with it for a bit and she finally figured out she needed to get the fabric under the batting to roll it up or the fabric would be on the inside of the snake. The issue for me was I didn’t want to roll up all that minky to the inside of the snake. I stepped in and suggested she could roll just the batting and then cover the roll with the cheetah print. She understood and that’s what we did. As we rolled, she thought and said ‘you know, a snake’s head isn’t just round’. OK – after we tapered one end to a sort of triangular shape this girl asks for a ‘forked tongue’ and eyes. Out came the tubs of ribbon (tongue) and buttons (eyes).
Success!
H was so proud of this project. Making Elizabeth (this is what she quickly named her snake) took much thought but what a great finish for her! The minky was wrapped around the batting (aka insulation) that she rolled up. We pinned it tightly and hand stitched a seam the length of the snake. H did about three inches of hand sewing and grew bored of that so I finished it up.
After making her snake, big sister told me that her little sister would be sad if she didn’t have a snake. Back to the tub of flannels! She picked out a piece of solid pink and another of solid purple plus two green buttons for the eye. This time I made a tube with the mandated triangular head and ribbon made to look like a forked tongue. Big sister had no interest in helping to make this – she chose the fabrics and moved on. While I sewed H found scraps of orange fleece from the pumpkin costume I made for her several years ago. She didn’t sew anything with it but played with it for a long while – arranging and rearranging the bits and telling me what it looked like. Also, if you look in the background of the photo, you will see a big fluff of poly stuffing with ribbon around it. She spent a long time tying ribbons around this fluff. She wanted to contain it somehow. Finally she wrapped it in a piece of fabric and then tied it with ribbons.
When a younger child is making something, it often is more about the process than the final product. Playing with the orange scraps, playing with the wad of stuffing – H spent a long stretch of time doing this without any desired outcome. As adults, we often want to ask ‘what are you making’. I think this is a mistake. Much of the time, the child doesn’t know what they are making. When I asked H is she wanted help with that fluff and her ribbons, she said she couldn’t get it to stay together. I suggested she look for fabric to wrap around it and off she went. There doesn’t have to be an outcome or a finished item. She is thinking, playing, and imagining and that is what is important.
Whether it is fabric and ribbons, flour and sugar, or paper and crayons, I love watching this girl make her projects. She gets so absorbed by her ideas. As a grammy, it is my job to step back and just enjoy her. Making the craft supplies available and then keeping my mouth shut unless help is asked for; that is my job!
Linking up with my favorites. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
Lots of us share a love of books. It is a treat for me to read a post where a great book is shared (or a not so great read is shared and thus avoided). Last year I started keeping track of the titles read or listened to. That list was shared here. It isn’t a surprise I read quite a bit less in 2022. There was much to be done.
I was raised to be a reader. My mother, age 87, is a voracious reader and usually has more than one book in progress at any single time. All of my sisters are readers and share their finishes via our group text on a regular basis. My kids read as well – different genres that reflect their personalities, some are fans of reading on a kindle, some on paper or their phone. But they read.
Bookshelf made for Julia by my father
When Julia was a toddler, I asked my dad to make her a bookshelf. I had seen a picture of one like this and he replicated it. I loved it and Julia got much use out of it.
Julia and a stack of books balanced on her legs.
She quickly outgrew this sort of bookshelf so my father built her a more standard shelf for the larger books she was constantly reading. (When she was about 12 or so, I walked into her room and she was sitting between her wall and her bed building a tower of books on her legs. Because you know, sometimes a girl has to do these things.)
Now that we have a room set up for my grand daughters to play in, Papa’s book shelf is back on the wall and they love choosing books to read.
Thirty-five books were read and most of them I really enjoyed. I had a few that were not so great. I listened to Love Warrior by Glenn Doyle Melton and didn’t like it. When Glennon first started her blog years back, I read her posts somewhat regularly. I liked her encouragement of her readers, her warriors. For some reason, this book just annoyed me. Hard to explain – I know she has had a lot of tough times, but the audio book seemed really whiny. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it? I also had mixed feelings about Excuse Me While I Disappear by Laurie Notaro. She writes about being a middle age woman and while some of it is amusing, there is a bit too much self-deprecation for my taste. Note – there was a bit about the NextDoor app that was hilarious. If you have read it, you’ll know what I mean. That part was spot on.
Authors I very much enjoyed included Laurie Frankel, Lianne Moriarty, and Olivia Hawker. Seems I can always count on these authors for a great book. New to me are books by Lee Child. My husband has read many of his books and I picked one up to give it a try. They are not my usual thing but I liked them. Who knew? That Jack Reacher is pretty darn smart. (There is quite a bit of violence in the Jack Reacher books so if that is not your thing, you might not enjoy these.)
OK – here is the list for 2022.
JANUARY
Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple
Minding Frankie – Maeve Binchy
Not Our Kind – Kitty Zeldis
FEBRUARY
Maisie Dobbs – by Jacqueline Winspear
Where the Crawdads Sing – by Delia Owens (audio)
MARCH
December Wedding – by Anita Shreve
APRIL
Blue Shoe – by Anne Lamott
The Lobotomist’s Wife- by Samantha G Woodruff
Lydia Cassatt – by Harriet S Chessman
The Silent Patient – by Alex Michaelides
MAY
Love Warrior-by Glennon Doyle -audio (meh)
Gray Mountain – by John Grisham
The Good Sister – Sally Hepworth -audio
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate – by Alexander McCall Smith (meh)
JUNE
One Two Three – by Laurie Frankel
A Serial Killer’s Daughter – by Kerri Rawson (meh)
JULY
Bad Things Happen – by Harry Dolan
The Brighter the Light – by MaryEllen Taylor
Monogamy – by Sue Miller
Apples Never Fall – by Lianne Moriarty
AUGUST
The Not So Perfect Mother – by Kerry Fisher
Child of My Heart – by Alice McDermott
SEPTEMBER
The Lamplighters – by Emma Stonex
The Fire and the Ore – by Olivia Hawker (an excellent book!)
OCTOBER
The Last Thing He Told Me – by Laura Dave
Someone Knows – by Lisa Scotoline
The Memory of Us – by Camille Di Maio
Excuse Me While I Disappear – by Laurie Notaro
NOVEMBER
Die Trying – by Lee Child
Lost and Found – ??
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted – by Elizabeth Berg
The Year of Pleasures – by Elizabeth Berg
The Making of Us – by Lisa Jewell
DECEMBER
Five Winters – by Kitty Johnson
One Shot – by Lee Child
Moving into 2023 I look forward to loads of reading – what better way to spend an hour! If you have a favorite book to share, leave it in the comments. So many times I have found my next read from one of you!! Happy reading to all of you.
It is New Year’s Eve today. Lots of people are looking back at their year and thinking forward to the new year. When I think of last year it makes me tired. We worked so hard to get our house ready for sale, listed and then sold. Planning the move was done by my husband but yikes, it was a lot of work! Then settling into the new house, getting things set up and figuring out life up here. It certainly wasn’t a year for loads of sewing, at least not in the first half of the year. I made up for that in the second half of the year though!
Nine quilts finished.
The above collage shows the nine quilts I made. Some of them had been started before our move but most were started and finished since I got up to Washington. My two favorites are the snowflake quilt shown in the center and the bold patchwork shows on the lower right. But they were all fun! Three of these quilts were sent off to Mercy Hospital for their use with terminal patients. (By the way, if you aren’t aware of Mercyful Quilts, click on the tab at the top of the page. I love helping to organize lap quilt donations for them). After I made the collage, I realized I forgot to show one other quilt I finished so to be accurate, there is actually a tenth quilt!
Projects made in 2022
This collage shows a variety of projects I made in the second half of the year. From aprons to tote bags and placemats to teddy bears, I really had fun with these. I love having my sewing room organized and ready. When the mood strikes, I can shop the shelves and find something fun to work on. These sorts of projects keep me motivated. The variety is important to me in order to avoid feeling stagnant. Also, these smaller projects provide the satisfaction of a finish much sooner than quilting. My favorites here are the very spooky ghost costume and the two matching sundresses show in the center row. There are other items I didn’t photograph for whatever reason but those include another apron, a market bag for Julia, a nightgown, and a fabric toddler book.
Meadow Quilt for Nick & Jess
I did take a look at the top post for 2022 as far as the number of views and it was my post on the Meadow Quilt. This quilt is a beauty and I loved making it because it was so unusual. It is one I would make again because I can see it down in so many ways – a fall themed quilt with leaves, a winter themed quilt with dark night sky blues and silvers on the back ground and snowflakes for the collage. It is the perfect blank slate for creative collage. It also is fantastic for using up scraps.
OK – let’s look forward. Goals for sewing? Just to sew. Make things, enjoy what I am making, and try, try, try not to let the comparison demons rob me of that pleasure. (Instagram – I am talking about you!) Otherwise, no real goals. I have enough fabric in the sewing room to make hundreds of quilt tops. The roll of batting still has quite a bit left on it. I think the only purchases I (might) need to make are backings. But you know I will keep my eye out for thrifty ways to obtain backings – guild sales, thrifting, etc.
Goals for 2023? Hmmm…. I will lose 20 pounds, eat whole foods, exercise twice daily, live a totally minimalist life, read all of the classics, meditate daily, and keep my house clean 100% of the time. Bah ha ha ha ha! I have one goal. This is to find a way to volunteer in my new community. I had a few services in California that I enjoyed helping out with. Now that I am here and settled, it is time to find something to give some time to. I have a couple of ideas to look into – this is my only goal.
Finally, I have to say I am enjoying getting back into a blogging routine. When I closed my shop, a number of people asked me if I would stop blogging. While I certainly wasn’t nearly as active on my blog this year (only 36 posts), I do enjoy the relationships within this community and plan to keep it going. I like the writing, the journal that is kept here, and the conversations with readers and friends. Let’s keep the discussions and sharing going this year!
Wishing all of you the best in 2023 – here’s to good health, creativity, happiness, and connection!
Happy Holidays to you! Last I wrote, we were planning to spend Christmas Eve and day with my son and his family. We haven’t had the pleasure of watching the girls experience Santa and all of the related excitement. Alas, it was not to be. My son and his wife came down with the bug and were feeling ill. It was decided that each family would have separate Christmas celebrations in an effort to squash this virus we keep passing back and forth. We will go see the kids when given the all clear. We did FaceTime on Christmas Day and it looked like they were doing well enough. My DIL was on the couch trying hard to get well since she has to be at work today.
This year I made a strong effort to limit the use of paper when wrapping gifts. The challenge was actually quite fun and a bit success.
Here are a few of the gifts I wrapped using either holiday gift bags I made this fall or large pieces of fabric as wrapping paper. The gifts looked really cute under the tree.
The result!!
Check out the small pile of paper on the right. Often times we fill a large trash bag with paper on Christmas morning. Granted there were only the three of us here, but this is still a huge improvement. On the left you see the stack of bags, folded fabric and ribbons all ready for next year. Hopefully next year I will have more gift bags made so when my husband wraps his gifts he won’t have to use paper. At any rate, I call this a success.
Dairy Free Eclairs
Ray was the baker for our Christmas dessert this year. He made these incredible eclairs. The ganache and the whipped cream filling were both dairy free. I was so impressed.
The week before Christmas the girls went to visit Santa. When asked what she wanted, little sister replied “a box with stripes and polka dots and a purple bow”. Santa told her ‘he would see what he could do’. These words from Santa so impressed A and she repeated them to me verbatim several times. She was focused on that box and even before her visit with Santa, she only asked for that exact box.
My daughter in law really wanted Santa to come through on his promise. Not finding any striped and polka dotted boxes, she made her own with stickers. I love this so much – making A’s Christmas wish come true. By the time they unwrapped these gifts on Christmas morning, little sister was so overwhelmed by everything that big sister had to open these for her. But I know she will remember that she got just the box she wanted.
The weather has been fierce for much of the country lately. I am holding good thoughts for those who have been impacted by the tragic storms in the Northeast. Not comparable at all, but still interesting, was the ice storm that happened recently. My husband took this picture of our rain chain. Two days after this storm the temps climbed to 50 degrees and everything melted off.
Today I am meeting a girlfriend for breakfast. We were really good friends in the 1980’s. Somehow we lost track of each other but with the help of the internet I found her last year. We have been chatting on the phone regularly since then. She doesn’t live up here but happens to be visiting family about 40 miles from me. I am so excited to see her! We think it has been 30 years since we last were together. Off to get ready for my date!
Wishing everyone a year of joy, good health and loads of creativity in 2023!
It has been so long since I have written a post, I hardly know where to begin! From mid-November to now, I have been sick with one thing after another. This has been incredibly annoying! There are so many respiratory viruses going around and I believe I have sampled all of them. Our area has been hit so hard that my primary care physician’s office is unable to see any respiratory/flu cases in person because the staff has come down with it and now they are very short handed. It is just wild. The kids have it the worst and the children’s Tylenol and Motrin is flying off the shelves. Anyway, in case you’ve wondered, that is what caused me to go missing. I have been reading and watching TV and doing bits and pieces of sewing as I could.
I think I need to do a general post to catch up with what has happened around here. This blog is somewhat a journal and I can’t just ignore a whole six weeks!
In mid-November my amazing sister hosted an early Thanksgiving for our family. There were about 50 people attending and another 15 couldn’t make it. We haven’t had the group together in a very long while and this was great fun. My parents have six children (my sisters and I) who then in total had 21 children and those grandchildren have had 16 children. If you add in all of the spouses and partners, we have one big family! When I think of the numbers that make up our group, I always come back around to my parents. I am so grateful they had a big family and started this whole ball rolling!
When we all got together it seemed like every single one of the kids attending was coughing like crazy. The following week, the adults started to catch the bug. It was nuts – but also worth it to be able to see everyone in one place.
Two weeks later was Thanksgiving. We had dinner at my son’s house. Look at this big girl learning to baste the turkey! We enjoyed a smaller group this time. It was pure luck that most people felt decent for the holiday. (The girls have also been sick constantly for the past 6 or 8 weeks).
Being home so much did allow me to work on a holiday quilt. I saw a free pattern by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs called Candy Circle. I have a very large bin of holiday fabrics. Many of them were already cut into five inch squares which made putting this together quite easy. I chose the gray and white background to give it a modern wintry look.
When I had the quilt top on the floor for basting, I decided I wasn’t happy with the large expanse of gray in the center. Not sure how it popped into mind, but I thought adding a big snowflake would be fun. My husband created the template for the snowflake and I found some white, tone on tone fabric with a very slight shimmer to it. Perfect!
I fused it to the center while the quilt top was on the floor and then stitched the raw edges of the snowflake first, before I started to quilt it.
Quilting this piece was a bit unwieldy but overall, it went really well. On each section, white, gray, and colorful, I did a different motif. This kept me interested – honestly, quilting something this big becomes a bit mind-numbing for me after a bit.
It is now on Julia’s bed and I think she really likes it. (I couldn’t resist the snowflake pillow when I saw it in the store. It looks like it was made for the quilt!) Most impressive to me was the fact that I made the quilt top completely from stash. I had to buy the backing fabric but otherwise, this was all made using fabric and batting I had on hand!
In the early fall, I went to a quilt show and as I wandered the vendors, I saw this advent calendar. I know I could easily make this but it was all finished and so cute. Supporting the vendors is important – I know I was very appreciative when quilters shopped my booth at shows in the past. I picked it up for the girls and later on headed over to the Dollar Store. Each pocket has two items in it, one for each girls. Some candy, some hair ties, stickers, and holiday stamps. This picture is from the first December 1st. I think they have enjoyed their daily treats. (It is hung somewhat high because of their Labrador – A calls him a Wabrador– puppy who would surely sniff out the forbidden chocolate).
Moving on! I have also been sewing gifts for the girls for Christmas. I am excited to be able to spend Christmas with them. We haven’t ever been there to watch them on Christmas morning so this year will be extra special.
This apron is for little sister. It is lined so she can wear it either way. This fabric is an older print that has been in the holiday fabric bin for a while now. I think she will love the cookie print. For big sister I made one with princesses and castles. It is already wrapped and somehow I forgot to take a picture of it.
I also made each child a teddy bear. I have never made a stuffed animal and have to say, this was really easy. For me, the most challenging part was stitching the mouth. I had to take it out a couple of times to get a decent result. The teddy bear pattern is from TieDye Diva. Here is a link for you. The pattern comes with some clothes and I did use them for the pants. For the hoody, I went over to Best Dressed Bears. She has lots of simple and super cute teddy bear clothing patterns. Here is the link to the hoody. The patterns over at Best Dressed Bears are made for a slightly bigger stuffed bear so I just made the pieces a smidge shorter in length which did the trick.
OK – I think that sums up the last six weeks. After soooo many boxes of tissues, cups of tea and honey, inhalers, antibiotics, humidifiers, and more naps than I can even count, I think life is back on track. I hope you are healthy and happy. Julia is home and has been patiently waiting around for me to feel better. We love going to some of the cute towns around here for window shopping and just enjoying the Christmasy vibe. Hopefully we will do that tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Linking up with lots of fun blogs. Check it out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
This year I was tasked with making a very, very spooky costume for my grand daughter’s Halloween. A wanted to be a ghost, a spooky, spooky ghost. She was quite specific about this. When asked what a spooky ghost does, she pursed her lips into a tiny ‘O’ and said oooohhhh. That was the extent of it. She is so dang funny.
‘Ooooh’ says the spooky, spooky ghost.
I asked my daughter in law what she thought would be a good spooky ghost outfit and she sent me a link from The Frugal Navy Wife. It looked adorable and super easy. I agreed to make it and promptly forgot about it! Two weeks ago my son asked me how the costume was coming along. Yikes! I quickly ordered a few things from Amazon and got going on it.
Assembling the costume
This couldn’t have been any easier. One piece of stretch lace was seamed into a loop sized to fit around A’s chest. A spool of six inch tulle was cut into 40″ lengths, or double the length I wanted the skirt to finish at. (Of course the spool I ordered from Amazon is enough to make about a hundred of these, but that’s ok. It will be used up at some point). I stretched the lace around a box so I would have something to work from.
Each piece of tulle was poked through the opening in the lace and the strip then pulled through the loop that formed. (Does this make sense?) I pulled down on the strips of netting to tighten the knot and made my way around the piece of stretch lace. I also looped a long piece of tulle from front to back so it could be tied as needed in back. It was sort of like the straps to a sundress.
Finally, I cut ovals from black and white felt for the eyes and the spooky, spooky mouth. These were hand stitched to the front.
The finished costume
Once it was finished I decided to make a matching headband with the stretch lace and a bit of tulle.
So cute, not so spooky!
Our sweet girl was quite pleased with the costume and headband. She wore them to the Halloween party at her little toddler program.
This spooky ghost went to a party!
Halloween finally rolled around. A was cranky and not in the mood for much. It turned out she was coming down with a virus and by the middle of the night (of course!) she had spiked a fever and was feeling miserable. I am really glad she got to go to the party at her school and enjoy a bit of Halloween there since she wasn’t able to enjoy it on the actual day.
I highly recommend this costume for anyone. It is simple and super cute! It would also be a great way to make a tutu. All different colors of tulle could be used to make it just how the ballerina wants it.
I am working on a quilt but it is going to be gifted to someone at the holidays. So no pictures of it until after Christmas. I am super happy with my progress so far! Take care everyone.
The last couple of days were such a blast. We have been wanting to have just one of our grand daughters over for a couple of days. Ray and I thought it would be fun to see what it would be like to have just one all to ourselves. Because H has kindergarten it worked best to have A over. I went and spent a night at their house and then brought her home with me the following day. (H will have her turn over one of the holiday breaks in November or December.)
We weren’t sure how this would go, having A over without big sister or her parents. What a pleasant surprise! She was so happy and content. Slept great, played and played, and enjoyed a few adventures with us.
A new set of crib linens and quilt
Before she came over, I made a new quilt for the crib. It is getting colder and the quilt she was using is very lightweight. For this one, I filled it with two layers of 80/20 batting and backed it with flannel. It is super cozy.
Very little quilting gave a lot of loft.
I used a Fabric Cafe pattern called Dash for the quilt. It is very simple and requires three, one yard, pieces of fabric. I have a lot of yardage of both of the prints in this quilt and had just enough of the textured blue piece.
Simple yarn ties
For the quilting, I stitched in the ditch around most of the pieces. Also, I tied simple knots in the center of each square with Perle cotton.
Soft flannel backing
The backing isn’t a fantastic match but I had this piece of flannel in my box and it was big enough. In the interest of using up what I have, I called it good enough. The piece is super soft so it feels very cuddly.
Matching sheet and pillowcase
While I was at it, I made a matching crib sheet and pillowcase. Like I said, I have a lot of this fabric on the shelf!! But it looks so sweet to have it all coordinated. This girl was very excited to see her bed with the ‘strawberry’ blankets. She thought the little flowers were strawberries and who am I to argue??
Playing trains with PePaw.
A is in the midst of potty training so she spent lots of time in her panties – I thought it was easier to skip the pants over them in case we had to get to the bathroom quickly. She didn’t have any accidents though so I think she is on her way to success! She and her grandpa played with this wooden train set I found at a thrift shop for $5.99. Great deal and she had a lot of fun setting it up and (mostly) crashing the train so it would derail. Hahaha.
Finding seashells at the beach
I love this picture! We took A to the beach and hunted for shells. She was really immersed in this whole process. When we set the bag down for a bit to climb on some rocks, a couple of seagulls came over and pecked at the corner of the bag, trying to pick it up. Oh my gosh, she went nuts – clapping and shooing the birds away from her bag. It was really funny. Serious stuff for this two year old.
Playing with her princess.
Remember this fabric doll kit I posted about earlier? It was a hit. She understood right away to use the velcro bits to dress her up. It was so sweet – she played with the princess quite a bit.
Simple play with flannel pieces
One afternoon I gave her some flannel pieces I had cut out ahead of time. She made Halloween ghosts and was able to use the little bits to create different faces. It is so satisfying to watch her enjoy these simple games and toys. She made happy ghosts, angry ghosts and spooky ghosts; each one’s mood dictated by the shape of the mouth she gave it.
Our time went by quickly. Both Ray and I were thrilled that she was so content to be here. We look forward to having her back soon – well, maybe after we take a couple of naps to recover!
It has been a while since I shared any updates on Julia. She is doing great at school this year. She works at the swine unit on campus and spends a lot of time helping the sows when they farrow. This photo is from the middle of the night when she spent a long while with a mama sow who was struggling to deliver her piglets because they were so darn big. They kept getting stuck and Julia ended up having to manually help them deliver (by reaching in and pulling the piglet out). These little guys are just enormous compared to the newly birthed piglets she usually sees. It is such a great picture because the piglets look so happy to be out in the world and Julia is clearly happy with the outcome of the experience.
That is it for now. I hope all of you have a lovely weekend!!
If you are around my age, you might remember Betsy McCall. This cute paper doll was printed in McCall’s Magazine beginning in the early 1950’s. I am unsure how long the doll was included in the magazine but I did read that Barbie took over in popularity pushing poor Betsy aside. I remember cutting out the dolls and her clothes though. As kids, my sisters and I also enjoyed these booklets made of heavier paper with dolls and their clothing printed in them. I think the printings were perforated so it was easier to ‘cut’ them out.
Betsy McCall in McCall’s Magazine
Fast forward to 2022 and a new way of playing with dolls!
Dream and a Wish, by Riley Blake Fabric
I have had three of these panels in my stash for a short while. I saw them on a destash sale and snapped them up ($3.00 each including shipping)! I thought it would be fun for my grand daughters to play with plus having another panel for a future gift wouldn’t hurt.
The carrying case for the doll.
This week I put this together. It didn’t exactly go together according to the instructions by Riley Blake. Creating the outer pouch and handles was very simple. It is filled with a stiff, fusible fleece to give it some body.
The inside of the pouch
When the pouch is opened, you see a bed for the princess and on the other side is her closet – much needed for her beautiful dresses.
Sleepy PrincessA Full Closet
There are quite a few dresses for this girl to choose from!
Such a fancy wardrobe.
This is where Riley Blake’s instructions failed me (and other makers according to a quick internet search). The company then tells us to cut out the doll and her dresses. We are told to fuse flannel to the back of the dresses so they will stick to the doll. Ummm, nope – that was a fail. The dresses didn’t stick even a tiny bit. Just kept sliding off the princess in the most embarrassing way. I felt so sorry for the girl. Also, for some reason the flannel doesn’t adhere terribly well to the doll and clothes so I did a quick stitch around the perimeter to make sure they didn’t come apart. I think the flannel is helpful in adding substance to the clothes so stitching it is better than just skipping that step.
To fix this, our princess had to undergo a bit of surgery where I stitched a small bit of velcro to her chest and head. It didn’t seem terribly painful and she recovered quickly. Then I stitched matching bits of velcro to the backside of each dress and hat. Now she won’t endure the shame of running around in her nightgown and my grand daughters won’t be upset when they cannot keep her clothes on.
My younger grand daughter is coming tomorrow for a sleepover. Her big sister has a field trip to the pumpkin patch and her dad is volunteering with that. I am curious to see how A likes this new toy. I could see this being great for a distraction on a car ride or maybe in a restaurant while waiting for dinner. But mostly I plan to play with her and see where her imagination takes this princess.
Aren’t these curls amazing?
So excited to see the kids this weekend! I hope life is treating you well – What are you up to? Home enjoying the beginning of fall weather? Doing something creative in the sewing room? Tell me!
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