We are really getting excited about the arrival of our bees soon, and to celebrate I decided to do up a little beekeeper fabric over at the awesome Spoonflower. It is made up of a few bees and bee things that I did in pen and ink and then re-arranged together. I totally let the kids (especially my bee-loving sidekick, Rose) help pick the colors and I think they turned out quite sunny and happy.
They can all be found at my Spoonflower shop if you are so inclined.
We finally had Anna's poster made into a tea towel! You can find it over on Spoonflower (My goodness that place is fun.) with only a tiny bit of DIY required. The linen-cotton canvas makes a really nice tea towel fabric, especially after it has been washed a time or two to soften it up. You can even added a bit of cotton twill tape to one corner for hanging. We are hoping to get a couple of these in the shop soon, but as you can see from the photo below, I am somewhat distracted with other fabric ideas at the moment.
Happy Spring!
I managed to squeak in a bit of sewing time this past weekend and tried something I had never done before. I made a child's dress from a lady's shirt! I happened upon the shirt a week or so back at my favorite thrift store and I fell in love with the sweet print. It was not my size (or style), but I thought how cute it would be on Lilly. Now I realize this is nothing new, and I really have no idea why I have not tried this sooner because it was so easy and so much fun!
I used the same Japanese pattern that I used for this dress (goodness, that was a while back). I just cut along all of the seams to open things up a bit and left the existing buttons right on the front as they were on the shirt. Now I have ideas for tops for Rose and more dresses for Lilly and I can't wait to make another thrifting trip.
As I was wrapping last year's gifts with our dwindling supply of sale purchased Christmas wrap, I resolved to make 2011 the year we made the switch to cloth gift bags. Beginning in January, I kept my eye out for any (on-sale) red and white fabrics (because I like red & white) and slowly built a little stash.
I am sewing three different sizes (small, medium & large) using end-attached wrap-around ribbons, as well as side attached "bag tie" ribbons (Very much like these.) The "ribbons" I am using are simply twill tape ordered from here for another project (that never happened), but what I am most excited about are the beautiful branch tags! (*ETA - Tonya's family also makes some lovely birch tags that we are going to add to our collection.) Now I know we probably could have made something similar to these, but I have so many other things on my make-it list, that I couldn't resist. They will be stashed away after Christmas with the gift bags and re-used year after year.
Happy Christmas crafting!
P.S. ~ Thank you all so much for the kind words and encouragement for Anna and her herbs! :)
(The 16yo before he left for work in the morning.)
(The 7 year old. The empty leather knife sheath a prized gift from her biggest brother.)
(Chip's shorts.)
(The 9 year old gets the double knee treatment.)
I have always enjoyed patching things. I think I get some sort of secret thrill from making something last a bit longer. Lately though, I have been patching and mending with renewed enthusiasm. I recently came across the little book
For some reason my kids (the boys, especially) seem to wear out the right knee on their jeans long before the left. (They tell me that is the one they "slide into base" on. Hmmm...) On Noah's (2nd picture) pair that you see above, the hole was so large, his knee went all the way through it when he sat down. I actually used two iron on patches (one inside & one out) on that one. I really am not fond of iron-on patches, but I have a small supply that someone gave me a while back, so I thought I would use a few up. I like to use a method very similar to the one in this video for most jean repairs.
I am also really loving the beautifully hand done (yet totally practical) patching that seems to be catching on. I would love to take more time with intricate hand stitching for my repairs, but it always seems the owner of the item being repaired has no time to wait for such details. So does anyone else do any patching?
These warm (as in mid 70's) days that we have been having have got us all dreaming of spring. There are, no doubt, more chilly days to come, but for now we are soaking up the warmth.
A little while back I ordered this pattern and recently decided to give it a try on some cheap fabric that I had no real plan for. A sort of colored "muslin", if you will. It is quick and simple and I really like it as a day dress. I am planning to make Lilly a few for spring, with just a couple of alterations to the pattern.
In other sewing news, I am making several little fun pairs of pants for the big 2 year old girl using this pattern. I usually just trace off a current pair or wing-it for baby/toddler pants, but I decided to give the Britches & Bloomers pattern a try... since I had bought it over a year ago and it was just collecting dust. I must say, it is wonderfully quick and easy (like 30 - 45 minutes... with interruptions) and I foresee many more to come.
Around the House:
We are in the midst of completing the hurricane shutters which we began, ahem, 8 years ago (with a 7 year break). Chip has made them all and now it is up to me to get them painted so that they can be hung.
In the Garden:
The seedlings are all started and doing quite well. I am getting somewhat experimental this year and growing several things I have never grown before as well as trying out new varieties and methods for growing old faithfuls. I am also so very thrilled to have made my first attempts at grafting! This has been a skill I have wanted to learn for many years and I can see it will take many more to perfect it. I used to watch my grandfather (who owned a citrus orchard) graft one tree after another. I wish now I had paid better attention to all that he was doing. I'll let you know if any of my first tries are successful. I also plan to start some air layers (blueberries, mostly) in the late spring.
At the Art Table:
I know the art shop has been closed for a while, but I have felt the need to change things up a bit for some time now, and it is taking a little longer than I planned. I am having fun with new ideas and hope to get some of them up soon.
Have a fabulous February day!
I have no idea what it will become, but I just love it.
I hope you are having a fabulous, sunny weekend!
This little blue gingham dress was made by my mother for me when I was about Lilly's age. Somewhere at my parents house there is a photo of me in it and I really need to dig that up and scan it. I put it on Anna 12 years ago, when she was just a tyke, for a quick snapshot. Then Rose wore it for a picture or two 5 years back.
It's definitely beginning to show its nearly 40 years, but today my little Lilly had it on for a few quick shots. Never in a million years did I ever think I would eventually have 3 little girls put on this dress. God is so good, isn't He?
After a completely rainless June, we have had rain nearly every day in July. I'm not complaining, mind you, but it does make for just a teeny bit of cabin fever on occasion.
This little tic-tac-toe set has provided us with a surprising number of tic-tac-tournaments and quite a bit of hilarity as mama gets beat (regularly) by her kiddos. These little letters were part of a recent order to Casey's, and the game "board" was stitched from scraps in my stash in about 15 minutes.
Noah is the undisputed tic-tac-toe champion around here. But I have instructed the other kids to learn his "methods" and report back to me, in the hope that one day I will be able to actually win a game against the 14 year old.
I actually squeezed in a tiny bit of sewing last week! It was total therapy for me and new pants for Lilly.
Inspired by this soulemama post a bit back, I dug into my stash and whipped up a few pairs of cute girly pants for Miss Lilly. Ah, so much fun. Now if I could just figure out how to manage a good dose of drawing or painting...
So I needed a few more "presentable" (read "not total rags") burp cloths and did not want to dip into the super tight budget to get them. I tried to think of what I had that was pretty yet absorbent, and came up with what you see above. Sort of mini flannel blankets trimmed with fabrics I had in my stash. They measure 16" x 20" and are made with some nice thick flannel that I had leftover from making cloth wipes and nursing pads. (I trimmed them using one of these fun toys, which made it a very quick project.) I'm thrilled with how they turned out and I think I'll make a few more. :-)
I am trying to wrap up as many little projects as I can these days, and this one was at the top of the list. Water bottle carriers for all five kids so that they could easily tote, and more importantly, identify their own water bottles when we are out and about.
I used this wonderful tutorial from Pink Chalk Studio and pretty much followed it to the letter, only changing the size slightly to accommodate a Kleen Kanteen. I let the kids choose fabric out of what I had on hand, and believe it or not, I actually had other "boyish" fabrics besides the ever popular camo. A quick bit of embroidery (names) on the bottom of the boys' totes solved the inevitable confusion issues and everyone is happy. :-)
