Folk Art Wands

I am always looking for interesting little projects to take with me when I am out. I work on them in the car pool line and while waiting at group violin or doctors offices.  These little wands were perfect. They are from a tutorial and pattern on  Wee Folk Art  They were simple to make and the kids LOVE them.  I did not use traditional girly colors on the girls ones, but I like them in these colors.  I also used the. same concept and made Star Wands for Buddy.

 My collection, the black star is with craft felt and it is not nearly as nice to work with as the wool felt.   I just don't have very much wool felt in my stash.

 Of course when you have a wand, you need to be wearing your wings to play with it.  She is one happy little girl.  We did have a little lesson on using them to give wishes, NOT for hitting each other on the head.

Quilt #7 - Log Cabin

   We had a birthday party for a friend turning 5 years old.  I thought I would make her a doll sleeping bag and pillow, I didn't want to drag 4 kids to the store on a nice day, so I would use stuff in my stash.  I was going to do a simple pieced front.  I looked through the pattern books and I decided to do a log cabin. It would look funny with just the front pieced, so I did the whole thing.... Well after many changes, she got a doll sized quilt and a not quite square turned into a pillow.  I actually like how it turned out, even if it wasn't what I had originally planned.  I used all stuff in my stash and never went to the store.  It is about 30 inches square, and my piecing is getting MUCH better.

This is the pillow.

The back and binding uses more of the sparkly purple

It will still work for a sleeping bag, it just doesn't zip up.  This is why I didn't make it as such.  It doesn't look very good.

The picture of the machine quilting on the back, pretty simple.  It is some very thick fluffy batting, but it was what I had in the house and it just makes it nice and thick.

Sewing Practice

I have been working on improving my piecing on the quilts, so I have been doing some little stuff to practice.  I made a couple little doll size quilts with extra blocks from quilts.

This is some leftover scraps from a quilt that is not completed yet.I will post pictures of it when it is done.  I made the scraps into HST (half-square triangles) then I tried some zig-zags, they are not perfect but were made for practice and they are OK.  So what should I do with it?  It is only about 5 inches square. Leave me a comment.

Photographer Munchkin

We had a little road trip to celebrate a friends wedding near Masanutten.  It was a long drive and I only have 2 electronic devices for 3 kids.  So Munchkin got the camera for a little while.  It was fun to look at the pictures she took.  Most got deleted, but some are pretty cool.

This is her view for most of the car trips.... pretty boring

 Her companion, checking out what she is doing.

 Of course her doll - It looks a little dirty this close up.

Quilt #6 - 9 Patch

This quilt is definitely not my favorite. It is well made and I am getting better at matching corners.  It was a good one to work on and good practice.  But the colors do not make me happy. The big squares are way too busy and make me think of the snow on an old TV screen. 

 When I was machine quilting it some of the squares stretched and are not quite square anymore.  I machine quilted straight lines in a huge checkerboard pattern.  I finished it and already gave it away, but I almost didn't put my name on the back.   The fabric on the back was picked out by Princess, I don't love it, but she absolutely loved it, so of course it came home and was used.

I am proud of one part of this quilt.  I finally mastered a good mitered corner on the binding, all 4 corners look great and I will have great corners on all my other quilts too. That part made me very happy.

Star Wars Training

Buddy and Daddy have been playing a new game.  Daddy throws pinecones at Buddy and he tries to deflect them with his light saber.  It is amusing because the helmet adds to the fun but severely limits his view of incoming objects.

Munchkin can RIDE

We have another big kid.  Munchkin is really doing well riding a bike without training wheels.  She wanted to show off for Daddy and did really great, taking off all on her own. She still prefers the one with training wheels for most days, but she is getting better!

Fabric Envelope and DVD case upcycle

I have been working on some little projects that I can complete in a short amount of time.  We are showing the house to rent, so my sewing area has to be kept fairly neat and the ironing board has to be put away for showings.  It is a challenge, but I am finishing lots of big projects and some small projects are being attempted.
I made this fabric envelope to stick in Daddy's suitcase when he travels.  The kids love making little notes and hiding it under his socks in the suitcase. It is kid of girly, but I had girl helpers and they chose the fabric. The black stitches are actually done by hand... I am starting to do a little bit more hand work.

Another little project was one I found on Pinterest, it is upcycling a DVD case into a writing kit for travel.  The tutorial is here.  It was pretty simple, but cutting the case with an exacto knife is a little challenging.  It turned out great and is finally something not quite so girly.

Tea Wallet

I made a cute little tea wallet for my mother-in-law, she always carries her own tea and sweetner in her purses.  It turned out very cute and I like it.  The tutorial is here.

Box of Toys

Scout makes me smile.  Princess has learned that if she puts him in his birthday box and covers him with toys then it takes him a while to get out and he doesn't try to get at whatever she has in her hands.

 It takes him even longer if you give him a balloon to play with.

This is his expression he gets on his face when he is excited... he loves playing with the balloon and he makes this face a lot.

Traveling

We have been doing some weekend traveling lately to prepare for our move.  It has been a little rough on the kids, but they are dealing pretty well.  We manage to have fun no matter what we do.  The big kids laughed when they saw Munchkin in the van this week. 

It is amazing the positions in which my children can sleep.

Munchkins bike

Munchkin has been riding the bike with training wheels very well, so I thought it might be time to have her try the bike without training wheels.  She could ride it for about 10 feet before she decided it was too scary and she might try another day. 

She is almost there but is not quite confident enough.  We will try again later in the summer.

Strawberry Jam

We went and picked strawberries this year.  They are ready REALLY early due to the mild winter.  We made 4 batches of Jam so far... I am doubting if it will last until spring. 
Buddy thought it helped to mash the berries if he used his head.

Scout's 1st Birthday

Scout is One!
That year seemed to go by very fast.
We had a party at home for him with just our family, it was a fun day to celebrate our little boy.

 He did not like his cupcake at all.  It was fun for us to watch, but I think he licked the frosting and then then played with it for a little while before we just took it away from him.

The presents that we game him, measuring spoons, measuring cups, a can of tennis balls and a cardboard box.

I think he liked the cardboard box the best.

Mermaids in the park

The park where the Easter Egg hunt was held also had a Mermaid. I couldn't even find the boys to add to the picture.