Washington DC

We spent some time during spring break being tourists in Washington DC.  Buddy has been learning about money in school and wanted to see the Lincoln memorial.  (it is on the penny)   We went there plus saw some other fun stuff and even wandered around the American History museum before the kids figured they were too tired and too sick of walking to continue.  It was a fun day.

 We also found the Boy Scout Memorial for the 1st time.  It was Constructed at the 50th anniversary of scouting. They didn't add to it for the 100th anniversary.  Daddy thought is was funny that there was a sculpture of a fully dressed scout with 2 partially clothed adults.  Seems kind of strange.

Quilt #3

I have finished the 3rd quilt, it is a kit that I bought at the quilt show and then assembled and machine quilted.  I like this one.  It is an improvement over the ones I made for the kids, but it still has room for improvement.  I will never make a perfect  quilt, so they will all have their challenges, but I am improving. 

I was going to give this to some friends as a wedding present, but then we got the invitation and they have requested we give donations to charity rather than give them a wedding present.  So now I am debating what to do with it.  I would like to give it to them anyway, but maybe I should make my other kit quilt and donate that one to the Linus Project or the Children's hospital and give them this one with a note explaining that they got one and one was given away in their name.  I have started the other kit quilt and don't like it very much.  I will see how it looks when it is assembled. 

The Dolphin swing is amazing, this is the second one we have. The 1st one was purple and was taken from the park near our house, (where we left it)  But my amazing family found another one and sent it to us.  We love the Dolphin swing and all of the kids have used it.

Scout- 10 months

 Buddy - 9 months in California at the park across the street.

 Munchkin - 11 months in Virginia in the back yard.

 Princess - 8 months in Hawaii, hanging in the car port.

Some days I think we may need a bigger swingset, but they manage to get 3 of them playing on this one.  The big one on the left used to be that little baby... not so little anymore.

Baking

I have a little helper who loves to help me bake and cook.

Maybe Because I let her lick the spoon, and the bowl and her fingers.

Window watching

How do you entertain a little one. 

I like to put one child inside the door and another one outside.  They entertained each other for at least 30 minutes.

Maybe I should wash that window now, I am sure it has plenty of drool and fingerprints on it now.

Kids

I haven't spent all my time sewing lately.  I still spend the majority of my time taking care of the little ones.  I do thing like put an empty rum box on the floor and leave it there for days at a time.  It makes the best toy.

 The best part of the toy is the inside part.

 Buddy loves to make this face at me. I keep telling him his face might get stuck that way, so he just does it some more.  At least he can make loud noises while making this face.

 This little guy is also getting much bigger and into everything possible.  He has hit a growth spurt and seems to eat constantly.

Pie

Lest you think I am the only one who takes pictures of my creations. Daddy is on a pie making frenzy.  We have had lemon merangue pie, 2 apple pies, 2 pumpkin pie, an Ohio lemon pie, and  a blueberry pie.

He can make some great pies!

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show 2012

I thought I would post some of the inspiring quilts we saw at the quilt show.  (Click HERE for my picts of the 2011 Quilt Show.)  They are pretty cool.  Since my mom was in town for the show, some of these pictures are for her. She would nudge me and say "Take a picture of that one. "  There is no real rhyme or reason to these, other than they sparked an interest.

This one had pre-printed panels, but had spots at the bottom to embroider, 1st tooth, 1st steps.. it was cool.

This one was very cool, it looks very realistic and is thread painted.  Thread painting is something that we saw a lot of this year.

This was a winner, and was a crazy quilt with a defined pattern. The embroidery in it was amazing. 

This one just made me laugh, it is actually painted and then quilted.  Very cool look to it.

I think this one was thread painting too, but the topic was totally different from almost every other quilt it was fascinating.

This quilt was made by a friends mother in law. It shows her husbands deployments and a lot of his patches. She photographed his patches and then printed them on fabric. She also embroidered the path of his deployment on maps, along with the ship info.

 This is my mom's new work.  It is called Sashiko, and she bought a kit for one quilt.  I am interested to see how it turns out.

This is thread painted and just makes me smile. 

Quilt #2, Camper

I finished another quilt, and actually I have two more that have the top finished, but have not been fully assembled yet, but I let those ones sit and wanted to work on this one. 
I went to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt show and was inspired.  I bought 2 quilt kits, and then fell in love with a paper pieced pattern. I finished one of the kit tops (post coming later) and then started on the paper piecing.  I think I like it.  It is exacting, and kind of tedious, but the end result is pretty cool. 

To really challenge myself I also hand quilted it.  I am now in awe of my mother for doing this and for having perfect exact stitches. This is a lot of work for my tiny little quilt.  I can't even imagine doing this for a queen size.  It is a real labor of love.  So here is the back.  My stitches are not toenail hookers, but they are not even close to even in size and it really made my fingers hurt.  I could only quilt for about 20 minutes at a time before I needed a break.

There are tons of mistakes, but I am not going to point them out.  I will let my sister do that for me.. :) 

I am happy with it, and I still haven't finally decided what to do with it yet. 

Boys Wallet

I like small litle projects that I can finish quickly.  This one was perfect.  I have a suit jacket that we bought for cheap and then after having it cleaned discoved some challenges with it. Daddy couldn't wear it so it became a great source of fabric for me.  I made this wallet, great for a little boy.

It was a simple project, and turned out  great.  My own little boy already has a wallet, so I don't know who this will go to, but I will add it to my gift pile, so maybe it will be a birthday present for the next party we attend.

Snow 2012

We finally got a dusting of snow this year, and of course we had to go out for a walk in the dark and snow.  The kids loved it, even Scout put on his snow suit (for the first time) and went for a walk in the wet snow. Buddy was there too, but he would not cooperate to get his picture taken, he was too busy trying to make a wet snowball.

1st quilt

My kids can get me to do things that I would never do on my own.  This week Princess asked for fabric and help making a quilt.  So I got her started with scraps of fabric and a cardboard square to trace and cut out a bunch of squares.  She started and then Buddy wanted to make one.  He got his own square and scrap fabric.  Then Munchkin wanted one.  She is a little bit too young to cut fabric ,so I let her pick fabrics and I cut out 5" squares.  I can use a rotary cutter, so it went a lot faster. 

She got her squares/rectangles cut.  Then she laid them all out on the floor in a pattern that she liked.  So of course I got to sew them up.  It took 2 days and the addition of a border, but we finally finished the top. After a trip to the fabric store, I finally got it finished.  It is not perfect,but she loves it.

 Minkee on the back, I had to add interfacing on the back of the minkee for stability.

Upcycling

I was cleaning up around the house and found these....

 The offering envelopes that you get from church but then never remember to use.  Then even if you do use them, most people don't use every one, maybe only one a month, so there are a lot left over.

I decided I needed to find a way up Up-cycle them into something useful or pretty.  However they are not quality envelopes, one side is perforated and they don't have a large flap on top, so all of the projects I could find on Pinterest weren't very feasible.  So I was at a loss, until I opened them up.  And found the security print on the inside.  A very nice thin gray stripe.  So this is what I did.
First, made a thick base with a few layers of cardboard and some duct tape.

 Then use some mod podge and cover that with the envelopes.  (see the pretty gray stripe)

Then take some stencils and paint. And add some words.  A cookie cutter was my tracing shape for the heart.

 I think it turned out great and I gave the first one to a friend who works at church. She made fun of me for reusing these instead of just throwing them in the recycle bin. I had to show her that it turned out pretty cool. 
Then I made a second one for home and this one I sanded and then tinted the finished project for a different look.  I think the tint is too dark, but it is OK for a decoration that will go in the recycling bin after Valentines day. 

Now you know why my house is never clean.. Because this all started when I was picking up the house and it turned into a project.   It also shows why my sewing/craft table looks like this:

I love that I have 4 pairs of scissor, and lots of other stuff in the picture.  Plus my piles of fabric under the table.

Chess

Chess is the name of the game lately in our house.  Daddy is teaching Buddy and Princess, they are learning quickly. Buddy even beat Daddy once already.  Though to his credit, Daddy was playing 2 games of chess and one game of checkers all at the same time. 

Brother Pajama time

Buddy wanted his picture taken when the boys were wearing matching pajama's.  He loves to match his brother.