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.