Quiara Tunic Shirt

I made another Quiara shirt last night, this time in the tunic version with hood. The fabric is more from my Mom's closet that she didn't want anymore; so in other words ... FREE! This is one easy pattern. The only problem this time was this funky stretchy fabric. It was stretchier in some parts than in other parts; and it kind of stretched out in the neck when I added the hood.




My model wasn't quite so cooperating as the previous post. Although, the more she pouted, the more I made her stand there and pose. Don't let her apathy fool you, though, she loves her new shirt.





Finally a semi smile.



And then a full blown smile when the dog comes in. Nice that she smiles for a mutt and not her own sweet mother.



I didn't realize that Mom had promised this fabric to Red for a skirt, so I made one little girl mad in the making of this shirt.

Not knitting, but knit shirts

I don't know why, but I've always been a little intimidated by knits and never felt I could sew with it. I thought I'd give it a try, though, after my Mom de-stashed her closet and gave me all her knit fabric. It was a perfect opportunity to finally try the Quiara shirt pattern from Farbenmix. As with all Farbenmix patterns, the seam allowance is NOT included. I found, however, that I shouldn't have added it. I kept taking off and taking off more in the shoulder to make it fit just right. Because of that, though, the body is snug - but still super cute.

I used a rolled hem on the short sleeve edge and along the bottom of the shirt for the rippled effect; and instead of hemming the sleeve, I just used the 3 thread overlock. Very easy and very fast.

What's great about this shirt is this: Red had fallen about 20 minutes before the pictures below were snapped and insisted she couldn't walk. She had literally been crawling around from place to place with her right leg dragging behind her. As soon as I pulled out a new shirt for her to try on and model; she jumped up and the following are just a FEW of her many poses she so sweetly gave. (Please excuse the pizza on the face).












I will definietely use this pattern again and I'm not quite as afraid of knits anymore. This was so easy and took less than an hour to make, even with all my fixing and taking in.

Rag Quilts

My Mom has a major fabric stash. She has been cleaning out her three closet fulls of fabric and decided she has way too much flannel (among other things). So she threw a Help Me Get Rid Of My Stash party and invited a few friends over to make some rag quilts. Kind of like when your friends come over to help you shuck corn or shell butter beans. Don't you have friends like that?

There ended up being seven of us and at the beginning of the day, we had all seven machines going.



This was the "fun" table. My OLDER sister, Kim, is the one on the right with her long time BFF Kimberly - known as "Kim's friend".



We had five machines set up in the Dining Room. This is my Aunt Judy, which isn't really her name, but that's what we grew up calling her. You can see my trusty Pfaff 1471 (the older brown and cream) that I wouldn't trade for 10 brand new sewing machines.






My boys love my rag quilt that my Mom made for me several years ago; so Mom decided to make one for each boy's bed. It takes 80 squares (each square consist of 3 flannel squares sandwiched together and sewn together with an "X") to make a quilt to fit a twin size bed.



Once we had a huge stack made, Judy moved to the bed to arrange the squares while the rest of us kept sewing squares up. Then a couple of us moved to sewing up the quilts while Judy adjusted and arranged. It was quite an assembly.



My Mom working on piecing a quilt.



Kim and Kim's friend at one point were extremely pleased with themselves because they figured out how to work on the same quilt at the same time one two different machines.



The girls begged and begged for Judy to quit sewing and play with them. Of course, her being the cool aunt she is, she did. Judy was the fun aunt that I would go and spend the night with when I was younger. She would take me to movies and give me all her old makeup. I'm not so sure why the girls chose Monopoly; but she obliged and let them think they knew what they were doing.



At the end of the day; nine hours later and two ladies down we had five rag quilts done! Four quilts went home with me and one went home with Kim for a lap quilt to cuddle up with watching TV.



I do have a lot of work ahead of me. I still have to cut all those pesky seams and then wash them to have them ravel up. The boys couldn't wait, though, they are sleeping with their new quilts tonight!



Many thanks to my husband for coming home early and getting the boys off the bus so I could stay and play. I love you, babe.

Pinwheel sweater + play skirts

Yea, I finally finished my pinwheel sweater; just in time for my littlest one to be too big for it. I finished the body of this sweater fairly quickly because it was so fun to knit. But when I got to the sleeves I put it out of sight, out of mind. I don't know why it took me four months to knit up two sleeves. And those ends to weave in? What a pain! I finally caved, though, and sat today and did it all and it only took me 15 minutes. Why did I wait and wait for something that isn't hard and really didn't take that long?



I love it except for one big problem - see the big hole in this one side? It's right where I attached the sleeve so I must have messed up on something. I'm not sure what I can do to better it, either. Any ideas?



We were visiting with my Mom yesterday after an orthodontist visit and she wanted to make the girls a play skirt. You see, my red head insist on wearing a skirt everyday; and now with it being cold, Mom thought she needed a long play skirt.



Have you ever seen a fleece skirt? I haven't, but that is the warm material Molly wanted. She calls it her snugly skirt and she hasn't taken off since it was finished. Her Grandma explained that this is purely a play skirt and she can't wear it out. Molly can't understand why - she thinks it's beautiful. Check out the fringe on the bottom.



I made the green corduroy skirt and it was supposed to be long, too. However, the serger and I got in a fight; and the serger won. There was a nice huge hole (what's the deal with me and holes lately) right in the middle of the skirt. I got so fed up that I left it for Mom to finish. The green was shortened, a ruffle was added; and all is well.

Hat with ear flaps

I decided to make a hat for one of my friends sweet little baby boy. He is almost four months old so I'm way, way late on a gift for him. Of course, I'm impatient and didn't check my gauge; so it would have been to big for him. John quickly took claim to it. I thought I made it long enough, but it didn't quite cover his ears. So I decided to add some ear flaps. I think they are cute - Derek thinks it looks like a football helmet from the 1920s.



Of course, now they all want a hat - complete with ear flaps.

I really think a pom pom would look so cute on top, don't you? But Derek assures me that boys do NOT wear pom poms on top of their hats. I think this time I will listen to him.

Tree skirt idea

Now that Christmas is long gone and I have a little more time, I thought I'd share one of our traditions. We started this back in 2001 when there only five of us. My Mom made a skirt for me for us to put our hand prints on. The first year, Derek and I added our prints, too; since it looked a little empty.



Every year when we bring it out, all the kids love to see how much their hands have grown since the year before.



Here is Charlie's hand next to the his little print the first year we did it. How sweet is that?



We use a different color every year to keep the years separate. I love looking back to 2002 how it moves from three hand prints to four hand prints the next year; then five, then six all back to back.



Last year, my youngest little devil angel got the permanent marker and some extra paint and added some pizazz to it. I guess it adds more character and I'll always remember how Anna got into EVERYTHING when she was little.



I don't know what I'll do in about five years when the thing is filled up. I guess I'll need to get my Mom to make me a much bigger skirt to fit all the future grandchildren's hand prints on it.

First post of 2010

From my family to yours, happy New Year! This was our kitchen after midnight and the kids were CRAZY. I only wish you could hear the commotion and those horns through the pictures.

Between us, Santa, Grandparents, aunts, and uncles, my kids get so much for Christmas. So much that they don't even remember what all they get; and its overwhelming for Derek and I to find a place for it all. This year we decided to bring it down a notch. We gave the kids each one toy and then the usual underwear and sweater and then we bought a pretty cool family gift - a trip to Wilderness at the Smokies - an indoor water park in Pigeon Forge, TN. We left the day after Christmas and had such a fun time!



Our redheaded daughter got a disposable camera for her birthday thanks to her cool aunt. She was very particular in what she took pictures of and was pretty good at posing us. This picture is one she took first with her camera; then Derek had her take one with our camera.



We also got to see all the awesome Christmas lights in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. This, depicting the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, was our favorite one at Patriot Park in Pigeon Forge.





They had a kid section that was basically a playground with water shooting everywhere. There was a huge bucket at the top and about every ten minutes or so it would dump out the water on the people below. A little bell would ding to let you know it was coming and when that happened, most of the kids would run to get in the dump zone. All except my girls - they hated it and would run for cover when they heard the bell. John, on the other hand, LOVED it - you can see him here; he's the only kid facing me so I could get a picture of him.



There was also a body board and surfer wave. This line moved soooo sloooow since that had to explain the proper way to enter the wave to every person every time. Nate, however, thought the wait was worth it and rode it a couple of times.



I read on their website that this thing has 19,000 gallons of water per minute shooting up at you. Some men tried to surf; but I only saw a lifeguard demonstrate it successfully, and it was pretty cool.



All six of the kids favorite thing by far was the wave pool and the most stressful for me. Those waves were pretty brutal and Anna insisted on sitting on the edge of the tubes; which, of course, she would get tipped over. Thankfully, no one drowned while we were there; although Anna came close.



Another favorite was the indoor/outdoor hot tub. It was nice to crawl in when you got a little chilly. See the plastic door thing in the picture below? That leads to outside. I've always seen pictures of hot tubs at ski resorts with snow all around and people sitting in their bathing suits; and always that it was cool. Now I can say I've done it! It was amazing how hot you really are even though it was in the low 30s outside.



Here's a pic of the family outside. I was freezing outside with my pants and sweater on while they were nice and toasty.



Here's a pic to show you how the water slides are situated. You entered the slide from inside the building and then you ended back up inside the building. That orange and white slide is the Storm Chaser. Let me tell you, that thing scared the hoo hoo out of me. Derek and two of the boys rode it and they wanted me to ride it, too. I figured, if my eight year old can handle, so can I. Behind me in the line, this crazy kid kept telling his dad how fast the ride was and there was a hill that was so steep that you fly up out of your float. Then when we got up to the ride; it had thunder noises and lightning flashes (remember it's called the Storm Chaser) and by that time I really had myself worked up. I screamed the entire time - not fun squeals - but horrified I'm about to die screams. In the end, it wasn't bad at all and I think it might have been fun. I will tell you this, though, I was crazy sore the next day from holding on for my life.



It was a great trip and the kids loved it. They want to go back in the summer because there are more slides and a lazy river outside. Anna wants to wait until she is two inches taller so she can ride the slides.

Birthday girl

My oldest daughter turned five over the weekend. We spent the day at home enjoying each other's company. Check out that huge slice of cake her Daddy cut for her.

Then we put the tree up and it mostly decorated. I need to redo some things because the littlest one seemed to put four ornaments on one branch; so it's a tad bottom heavy right now.



I have another smaller tree in the den that I'm going to let the kids decorate with ornaments that they have made and received over the years. The boys even brought it down from the attic and set it up all by themselves. I'm loving them getting older to do the bigger jobs around the house. The past couple of months, the older three fight over who gets to use the leaf blower. How long do you think that will last?

Lessons Learned

1. No matter how many times I've used a pattern; I always need to reread the directions. First, I forgot that seam allowances are not included on this pattern; and I forgot to add them. The skirt is a tad snug around Red, but seems to fit Ann decent enough. Second, I forgot that you only cut out on the right side of the fabric. So half off my spirals were turned the wrong way and couldn't be used. Luckily I had bought two yards of this fabric and had just enough.



2. I finally used the 4-thread overlock on my serger. I've had the thing for almost ten years and can't believe I haven't taken advantage of it earlier. Of course it took me almost an hour to thread the stupid machine just right; but it was worth it.



3. My girls are pink and purple type girls. I don't think they've ever picked out or wanted to wear green. This just proves that you can add yards and yards of ruffles to any color or pattern of material for any girl to fall in love with what you've made.



Pattern is my all time favorite skirt to make and both my girls favorite skirt to wear - the Redondo that I got from Banberry Place. As you can see, this is the one of the best twirling skirts around.

New skirts + birthday

I made these precious skirts Friday using ModKid's Emma pattern. This was such a fun pattern and very easy to make. The hardest thing to do was figure out my tension settings on my serger.



I made the pink and white one the way the pattern stated. The black and white one I did just a little different in the way I layed out the petal pieces. I put all the white petals in the background with the black on top and I think I like the effect better.



Today is my baby's 4th birthday. Last night we got dolled up and just her and I went out for the night. She wanted to go to the mall and shop and see Santa. She also got to pick out her own present - which ended up being the Three Muskateers Barbie.



Today Derek stayed home from church since most of the kids are a tad sickly this weekend. I was planning on buying a cake on the way home from the grocery; but when I called he let me know that he had lunch made and a cake from scratch. What a man!



We had a good laugh at the "swampy" looking decoration, but Anne didn't care. He even colored the cake part pink like she wanted.



It's been such a fun day full of Barbie playing and My Little Pony. And .... I have TWO four year olds for a week. Red's birthday is next week.

Corie from Banberry Place is having the greatest giveaways over on her blog.

Some of you might remember the Redondo skirts I've made. If you don't, you can see one here and both my daughter's absolute favorite skirt here.

I've made a couple of the Anna wrap dresses and am about to make a couple more this week. Here and here are a few examples.

These two are probably my favorite patterns to use because of the easiness but mostly they are so darn cute. The reason of my raving over these patterns is to tell you I got them from Banberry Place. It's a great store with great customer service and one of the few that carries Farbenmix patterns. They also always seem to have a sale going on - like 20% off their Japanese fabric going on now - so go on. Click away to Banberry Place and the blog Stunt Sewing to see the AMAZING giveaways she is, well, giving away.

Um ..... a bad idea

So maybe those rag curls were not such a good idea after all. These were the kinkiest, curliest curls I've seen. I tried so hard not to laugh as we were undoing them; but when my 6 year old told her she looked like a clown I couldn't help it.



As you can see she wasn't so happy with her do.



I decided it might help to put it up. So we gave her a "princess up do" and she was quite pleased. Even when I offered to wet it, she declined.



My 6 year old then thought that she looked like a Trojan. You know the Trojan warrior with their mohawk type feathers in their helmets. Again, I had to laugh; but it didn't matter to Red.



She has now decided that she wants me to curl her hair every night. I have decided that I will not roll them as tight and I will definitely take bigger chunks of hair. We'll see how it works tomorrow.

My try at hair

Nate was in big need of a haircut... Derek was very tired of his mop hair. My opinion is, who cares? With his genes, the poor boy might not even have much hair in 15 years; so why not let it hang over his ears? So Derek decides to cut his hair tonight. I wish I would've taken a picture of it before I fixed it. It was sort of a Barney Fife bowl cut and not very flattering.



Guess what! I couldn't find a single comb in my house. So I used a round brush and scissors. You can imagine how uneven it is. But from afar, it looks pretty darn good, don't you think? I haven't seen a clean cut on this boy in over a year, and I must say .... I LOVE it.



I also decided on a whim to try rag curls on Red. In retrospect, I probably should have looked up how to do this. I'm not sure how this will look in the morning; I'll let you know.

Fairy Tale Ball

The entire 2nd grade has been doing a Language Arts unit on Fairy Tales. Tomorrow will be the annual Fairy Tale Ball in which all the 2nd grade students dress as a character from a fairy tale. Chuck decided on Peter Pan. This was such an easy outfit to make and cost $10 to make. I bought a plain t-shirt from Hobby Lobby and cut the bottom and sleeves; then a slit in the top and used some leather cord to tie it up. The bottoms were a brown jersey knit and I used my pajama pants pattern that I'm wearing out. I've never sewn a knit before and have always wanted to. For some reason it scared me. It wasn't bad, although it did roll up as I was trying to sew. I will definitely be using it more, though.

Oh - and the hat. The hat is borrowed from a friend who had a Peter Pan costume. The costume was too small for Chuck; but we were still able to use the hat and the felt boots that fit over your shoes.




About the ball. There will be games, refreshments, pictures, and DANCING! The students even had to pair off and learn a few dances for the event. Chuck learned the box step, waltz, and swing and the lucky girl is Madison. I don't know her, but Chuck showed me his moves so I know she'll be impressed.



Isn't he the cutest? He has yet another tooth loose up top that should be coming out any day now - I don't know how the boy is going to eat.