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

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!

 

 

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

Josefina is ready!

I finished my daughter’s camisa (shirt) and it sure turned out cute! She had me braid her hair and put flowers on the end of the braid so she’d look just like Josefina does in the book. :)  (Minus the rebozo and sash. I’m working on it!)

    

Having fun posing!

It’s a cute shirt and it went together rather quickly. Now I’ll be sewing 3-5 more girl outfits and 2-4 more doll outfits.

Besides sewing, it’s also been a busy week of cutting and preparing packages of fabric, etc.,  to go to the moms of our Liberty Girls group, and I think I’ve just about got them done!

Looking at them piled up in ziplocs like that sure doesn’t look like much, but believe me, it took some time. : )  But it’s all worth it.  I’m really looking forward to the Fandango we’re going to have in September. I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures and post about it here!

One thing about this shirt pattern is that it’s short! Either that or I totally read the pattern piece wrong (which is entirely possible.)  I thought it looked short so I added about 2 1/2” to it and while the finished shirt will tuck into my daughter’s skirt, it comes out easily. I wish I would have cut it about 2"-3” longer. Oh well, live and learn.

Myra

What's a mother to do???

It's summer time, and I thought that I might actually have more time to sew...  That's what I get for thinking, right? ; )

Well I thought I might have a couple of hours to sew this afternoon, but one of the kiddos was having this "I hate summer - there's nothing to do" thing going on.  After a few suggestions, he finally seemed interested in the idea of learning how to do wood burning.  So off to Walmart we went to buy some cheap balsa wood plaques, then home again for a lesson on wood burning.

Anyway, long story short, he's in the kitchen happily wood burning away - and there went my two hours.

That's ok. That's what mothers are for. : )

Myra

Operation Wood Hollow

You may have heard about the fires sweeping across the west of the US.  Sanpete County in Utah has been rather devastated by fire with over 39,000 acres burned, about 300 homes evacuated and at least 29 homes destroyed.

Julie at Having Fun Quilting and her family were ones that were recently evacuated and is working hard to help others who have lost everything.  She is organizing “Operation Wood Hollow” to collect quilts and supplies such as quilt tops, fabric, money, anything that can be contributed to help these families.  All help is welcome, so stop by her blog to see if there’s something you’d like to do!

I knew I wanted to help out, but also knew I wouldn’t have time to quickly make a quilt, so I remembered I had some really cute pink floral fleece in my stash.  I thought it would be a perfect way to have my kids join in on the service effort!   

We had fun tying the edges of the fleece and my kids thought it was pretty neat to be helping in some way.  This afternoon I drove the blanket down to be delivered to Marion as she is helping Julie out.

Thanks for the opportunity to help, ladies!

Myra

Ball at the Governor’s Palace

A while back I posted about one of our Liberty Girls escapades and said I would post more about them sometime- so here’s another one!
The third book of the Felicity series has Felicity and other girls attending a dancing lesson at the Governor’s Palace. It’s quite a big deal and is a real sign of a girl growing up.  The story behind Felicity’s dress is a really sweet one, and if you want to read my synopsis of it, go to the end of this post for a few short paragraphs. 
The mothers in our group and I decided to recreate the ball at the Governor’s Palace for our girls and sewed each of the girls a beautiful blue satin gown, just like Felicity’s!

This is my daughter ready to go to the ball!

We reserved a room at our local government building and it certainly looked like a palace to the girls!

I’m sure this is what Cinderella looked like going to her ball!

 

The parents of one of our girls went all out and rented costumes to play the part of Lord and Lady Dunmore.  They were fabulous!

And the dancing lessons begin!

      

 

We had quite the fare of delectable refreshments!  

Of course we had to make matching dresses for each of their 18” dolls!

 

What precious girls these are and what a wonderful time we had! It was an extremely memorable event for sure!

Synopsis of the 3rd book of the Felicity series:
-Felicity has been invited to attend a dancing lesson at the Governor's Palace in early January! What a thrilling opportunity! For the first time in her life, she is dreaming of having a beautiful gown so she can wear it to the Palace.  One day while in a store, her mother notices her gazing lovingly at a doll that is wearing a beautiful blue gown, and is surprised, yet pleased, that Felicity is dreaming of it.  She talks with Felicity about it and decides to make a gown just like it for her to wear to the Palace.  It is just before Christmastide and Felicity's mother goes right to work on the dress.  Felicity is beside herself with excitement!  However, just after Christmas, Felicity's mother falls very ill, and the doctors are concerned she might not live.
-Felicity loves her mother dearly and grows up a lot during this time as she puts aside everything and cares constantly for her mother, her siblings and the house. She puts all thoughts of the dancing lesson at the Palace aside as it is now trivial to her compared to the more important things in life.  Her father sees how much Felicity is devoted to caring for her mother and siblings, and goes and buys the doll with the blue dress and gives it to her as a gift. She is thankful for the doll, but inside she doesn't want to have anything to do with the doll or the Palace.  All she wants is for her mother to get better!  So, she gives the doll to her friend Elizabeth, but Elizabeth says she'll just hold it for her for a while.
-Well, after many days, her mother gets well and is able to sit up in the parlor. Felicity is so happy and relieved! That day also happens to be the day of the dancing lesson at the Governor's Palace and Felicity has no thoughts of going. She goes upstairs to retrieve something for her mother, and she finds in her room, spread out on her bed, the blue dress all finished! And beside it sat the doll!  She discovers that her friend Elizabeth came and secretly got the gown and took it home and she and her mother finished sewing it for her.  When Felicity shows her mother the dress, her mother is so happy and really wants Felicity to go to the Palace.  Felicity is super surprised and thrilled, so she gets all bathed and prettied up and goes to the Palace. The Governor's mansion is exquisite, and everything and everyone is so beautiful and she has the time of her life!