Laura Ingalls came to visit!

 

For Liberty Girls this semester, we are reading and doing activities based on the book “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

It is such a great book!!!!

Each semester in Liberty Girls we read a historical series or book about a certain time period, and meet twice a month and do activities based on the book(s). I’ve been helping some of the girls by sewing period costumes for them and their 18” dolls each semester as some of the moms of our group don’t sew. (See here and here.)  But this semester I decided I had better not try to sew more than my own daughter’s outfit, and it is turning out rather fun! Each girl is coming up with their own outfits and they are all looking great! We’ll have a family barn dance at the end of April and I’ll take pictures of everyone then and post them here on the blog.

 

 

Since my daughter’s favorite color is pink, that’s what she wanted her pioneer dress to be! PINK!

 

 

Pretty cute, don’t you think?

 

 

The pattern had pantaloons with the dress so I made them. I think they are cute but a little long. :)

 

 

She loves her American Girl doll!

 

We were going to read the “Kirsten” series from American Girl dolls this semester, but I have to say, I wasn’t at all impressed with the series. Sure, it has some nice parts to it, but I felt the story line was quite mediocre and there were really no good values being taught. (IMHO, life is too short to spend time reading mediocre books!!!)  So, last minute, right before the semester started, we switched to “Little House in the Big Woods!” You can’t ever go wrong with Little House!!!

However, I did use for the Kirsten doll dress pattern and it can be found here:

http://www.agplaythings.com/AG%20Patterns/DollDressPatterns.html

 

Linking up with Quilt Story’s Fabric Tuesday

First Operation Sunshine Donation!!!

 Amber from A Little Bit Biased came over to my house today to deliver her donations for Operation Sunshine!

This is a GORGEOUS Christmas quilt top! 

 

This family will Love having this cheery quilt this Christmas!

 

 

Amber also brought some cute little WIP’s!  A table runner and some blocks that could be made up into another table runner or some pillows.  So fun!

 

Thank you so much Amber! You are a sweetheart! It was really good to meet you today. :)

Operation Sunshine!!!

HEY QUILTERS!!!  WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

Hello friends. I just learned of a family that is going through some serious crisis in our community.  I know the family, and to protect the children involved, I'm not going to share too much information about them.  Due to some horrible circumstances, the mother and her 6 children had to leave their home with not much more than the clothes on their back.  Some wonderful friends and community members are working to help the family obtain new living arrangements, clothes and other household needs.

In trying to find ways I could help, I began thinking of how wonderful it would be to make quilts for each of them. And, since I’m not Marion, at My Quilt Diet, I won’t be able to make 7 quilts in my sleep like she could! ;)  (Thanks, Marion, for helping to spread the word!!!) So, I am organizing a collection of new quilts for each of the family members as they are in need of bedding.  Wouldn’t it be great to give them each warm loving hugs every time they get under their new quilt?!?!

We are looking for new, pieced and quilted twin size quilts for each of the children, and their mother. There are three girls ages 16, 10 and 4, and three boys ages 14, 12 and 6, so it is desired to have seven quilts in all. If you would like to help out, please leave a comment below so I can get back to you.  (Please make sure you are not a "no reply blogger," and if you are, please give your email address in your reply.)

We understand that making a whole quilt may not be possible for everyone, so if you would like to help by making part of a quilt, please let me know.  Many hands make light work :)

Thank you all for being the wonderful people you are! Even if you are not able to help out this time, I know there are so many good hearts operating those sewing machines out there!

Have a wonderful day!
Myra

2 Pillow Shams… finally!

I made these patchwork bedspreads for my two youngest sons about 3 years ago for Christmas, and had planned on making pillow shams to match them. (I even had them cut out.)  But, I ran out of time that year and didn’t get them done. And unfortunately, they sat on my shelf for the past three years, mostly forgotten about, until the other day when my son mentioned that he wished he had a pillow sham for his bed. (A bell went off in my head and I said, “Oh ya!”)

So, I finished ‘em up and gave them to them for Christmas this year.

 

First up is the quilt I made for my animal lover. He’s loved animals since he was tiny.  I love this quilt as the fabric colors are so warm and cozy. The dark squares are either dark brown corduroy, or black fake fur.  They make for fun texture differences here and there.

 

 

  The sham’s outer border is out of the dark brown corduroy.

 

In my mom’s stash I found a couple yards of cheetah print corduroy. It wasn’t enough to fill the whole backing, but it fit nicely in the center with a brown cotton border.

 

Next is my youngest son’s bedspread and sham.  He doesn’t have a particular ‘love’ like my other son, so I had to choose something that I just thought he would think was cool. So, since he likes learning about the world, I chose travel/map fabrics.

 

 

His borders are out of flannel.

 

It’s funny… I made these bedspreads before I ever heard about free motion quilting. Up until Spring 2012 I thought all quilting had to be done on a long arm with fancy software… Well, a friend of mine mentioned to me that there are people who ‘tie’ patchwork quilts on their regular machines all the time. It was a foreign concept to me and it was quite a stretch for me to wrap my brain around it.  I dove in and tacked each fabric square corner on my machine, like a dutiful quilt tie-er, and was pretty amazed with myself. : )

 

It’s about time I got these shams done!

 

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict’s Whoop! Whoop!

and Lily’s Quilts

and Crazy Mom Quilts

Fleece Pajama Pants!

I got our fleece pajama pants done for Christmas and they turned out really cute, don’t you think??

 

We’re laughing in this first picture since my husband was trying to set the camera to take a timed picture so he could be in it… well, he missed getting there in time for the first picture…

 

And, he made it! : )

My oldest son on the right, the one who said he wanted his fleece pj’s to be basketball shorts length, is still trying to convince me that he was kidding… well, too bad. His are short!

 

My second oldest son is not in the picture since he is on a mission in Kentucky for the next two years!  

 

I even made a pair of jammie pants for his girlfriend (who he is not going to get to see for three years, since she is planning on going on a mission, too, and their missions will overlap!) 

She really liked them! : ) 

 

What a doll she is!

And yes, if you happened to make the connection… she is my quilting mentee. : )

 

 

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict’s Whoop! Whoop!

and Lily’s Quilts

2012 - A Great Year to Start Quilting Again…

So here we go again… ending one year and beginning another.  I’m so glad I started quilting again this year as it’s brought me a lot of joy.

Here’s a collage of a lot of the things I sewed this year…

 

The best thing about sewing and quilting is that, usually, the things you make are for a gift for someone you love. So, the project often evokes a feeling of love for that person when you see it.  What a wonderful hobby!

 

 

Sharing the love of quilting…

Today a very special young lady came to my house to begin learning how to quilt.  She is such a sweetheart and is very eager to learn. Last week I showed her some pictures of quilts that would be good beginner quilts and she chose to make a chevron twin bedspread.

When I took her to the fabric store to pick out her fabrics, you would have thought she had died and gone to fabric heaven!  So many lovely fabrics to choose from! She’s a lady who knows what she likes so she was easily drawn to her fabric choices.

She told me a couple of days later that she had dreamed about her fabric. A true quilter indeed!

 

Here are her cute little 5” squares.

 

Her first little chevron! She was so excited!!

 

 

And here’s the darling girl herself. How fun it is to pass on such a joy as quilting!  

Fandango!!!

Tonight was our Liberty Girls Family Fandango!!!

Wow! What a night! It was so fabulous! We had delicious food, terrific company, and amazing performers!!!

Don’t our little Josefina dresses look adorable on them!

 

Each of our Liberty Girls moms brought a dish that would have been typical of mid 1800’s New Mexico. We had Carne Adovada (meat marinated in red chile sauce, yum!), refried beans, flour and corn tortillas, Quelites (cooked spinach), Calabacitas (yellow and green squash with corn). For dessert we had hot chocolate and bizcochitos (yummy cookies).

 

And the girls brought their 18” dolls dressed up in their Josefina outfits too! Cute!

Here’s all the girls waiting for the performance to start.

 

We were then treated by an amazing group of young dancers called “Viva Mexico!” They were SO great! WOW! These kids did such a lovely job doing their dances.  So adorable. And their costumes were beautiful!

When these girls came out in these lovely skirts, my first thought was “Hmmm… I think I know what my daughter is going to ask me to sew for her after this!” And you know what? She did! She wants a skirt like the pink one on the right. : )

These dancers were so adorable!

I need a faster camera to catch the action better!

 

This picture is of all the dancers and all of our Liberty Girls.

I’m on the left with the teacher of this group. And yes, I made myself a Josefina outfit, too!

What a great evening!!!

 

After it was over, my daughter ran into her room and put on this long circle skirt I had made for last year because it was the closest thing she had to the kind the dancers had. She danced and danced to the music…

Yes, she loves to dance and is in dancing lessons. : )

My little girl is growing up!

My daughter is turning 7 years old, and she is my baby!!!  I can’t believe I’m on the second half of my time of raising kids!

Time sure flies when you’re having fun!

I sewed a new dress for her birthday, but since we had lots of family in town for a family wedding this weekend, I thought I’d give it to her early so she could wear it to the reception.

 

She is so tall and skinny, it’s hard finding dresses that would be long enough for her at the store.  I made this one plenty long so it will fit her for a few more months – I hope!

She wasn’t a flower girl for the wedding but she was lucky enough to get to have a little bouquet of flowers to keep.

Here’s big brother showing off his manliness, to the delight of one little girl!

And if you didn’t notice it in the first picture, she quickly initiated this dress as she tripped and fell and smudged her skirt.  So, it had to be washed right away so it would be ready for church today. : )

Myra

Christmas in July : )

Yes, today is July 7th and yes, I just sewed a Christmas table runner!  I didn’t plan on starting Christmas projects in July, it’s just that I saw a table runner like this on a blog I LOVE and I just had to make one! I say one, but I actually have 4 going right now. Do you do that to yourself? If one is good, then four is better! ;  )
 

I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do a different fmq design.  I don’t know it’s official name, but I like to think of it as ‘whimsical’ although it looks an awful lot like waves. : )  Do any of you have a better name for this design?

     

I’m going to give this one to my sister-in-law as a thank you gift.  She and her cute family drove all the way here from Arizona to celebrate Independence Day and while they were here, she took our family pictures. She is one amazing photographer!  You can go see her work here: http://www.gwendolyngracephotography.com/

I hope our pictures turned out ok. We had scheduled them for Thursday evening and of course, the sky became majorly overcast and rained.  We hurried from one pose to the next. She was great though. I’m sure she’ll be able to make us look good in spite of the weather. : )

Myra