quilting/sewing

Weekend Fodder

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Happy Monday, everyone :). I hope your weekend was lovely.

It rained quite a bit around these parts. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t good anyway.

So, I don’t have pictures from all of our weekend activities, but let me tell you, it was busy!

I’ve mentioned before that we go to a bilingual church – about 1/3 of us are “white” and the other 2/3 are Hispanic. About half of the Hispanics speak both English and Spanish (which is why we’re making Spanish our foreign language in our homeschool this year – we want to be able to communicate more easily with some of our brothers and sisters [hermanos y hermanas :)] in Christ). My husband is the youth leader in our church; there is one “white” teen and a dozen or so Hispanics. One of the girls turned 15 earlier this summer, and that means a Quinceañera! This one was on Saturday. It was the first time I’d ever been to one, and it was quite an experience. If you ever have an opportunity to attend one (without crashing, lol), I definitely recommend it. It was interesting to see their culture outside of our regular church service – which to be honest, includes the Spanish language, but not much of the culture. They did the “whole shebang” from the dress to all the gifts to the fancy reception afterward. I said afterward that it was like a wedding with no groom! That’s how fancy it was.

On Sunday after church, we had a wedding reception (with both bride and groom this time!). My husband’s cousin got married. The happy couple won an all-expenses-paid wedding cruise in Portland, so they had limited space for the ceremony, which meant we only got to go to the reception. It was nice to see some of the extended family again.

I also spent a little bit of time with my sewing machine. Remember that I only have a few outfits? Well, the spaghetti straps on my dresses broke, so I had to fix that. It’s not the first time I’ve had to do so with these particular dresses, but it’s an easy task so I don’t mind doing it too much. Unfortunately this time, though, one of the straps completely detached in the laundry a few weeks ago. I remember setting it aside so that I could reattach it, but do you think I could find that strap when it was actually time to make the repair? Of course not! So I cut two inches off the bottom of the dress and made new, thicker straps and then rehemmed the bottom. It was a little terrifying to cut up my dress – I love it! – but as my hubby said, I couldn’t have made it worse. It was already unwearable. In the end, it turned out perfectly though. I’ll do a full post on how I did it later this week :).

What did you do this weekend?

–Wendy

It is Finished

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I actually finished this last week, just haven’t posted about it yet.

In case you missed it, you can see close-ups of the blocks here, here, and here.

I just love the gray with pink flowers. It was on sale for half price a few weeks ago, so I bought a whole bunch of it. (You might recognize it from my purse.) I think it was just perfect for the lattice between the blocks. I also used it for the quilt’s binding (the small strip around the edge that hides all the raw edges).

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The plain gray for the border and the gray with purple flowers was also super cheap, so I bought tons of those two fabrics also. I haven’t used them for anything else yet, but they’ll make great elements in other projects later.

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–Wendy

Another Birthday

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Some friends of ours have a baby just one week older than Small Fry, and his birthday party was on Saturday. I didn’t think I’d be able to go to the party because hubby had to sell books that day, but Friday night, our neighbor (who was also invited – these friends are also the previous tenants of our house, so they were friends with the neighbor too) said she’d drive us over. I didn’t think through until Saturday morning that this meant we should bring a gift. So I spent the bulk of Saturday making a quilt.

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Thank goodness for fabric scraps! The party was at 5:30 and I finished the quilt around 4:00. everyone was super impressed that I’d made it in one day. Which wasn’t why I did it, but still nice all the same :).

I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well.

–Wendy

The Only Purse I Don’t Hate

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I haven’t bought a purse in years. Whenever I feel like I want a new one, I just make one. I’ve tried several patterns over the years, but always come back to the Lindie bag. It was the first one I ever made, and to this day is the one best suited for me.

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It’s small enough that my family doesn’t feel the need to put all of their stuff in it but big enough to hold my stuff along with a single diaper for short trips out when I don’t need the full-on diaper bag I made.

So if you have even a little sewing experience (the tutorial is very well-photographed and clearly explained) and need a new purse, I highly recommend the Lindie!

–Wendy

Quilts for Kids

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I’ve never blogged about Munchkin’s heavy medical issues from when he was younger – they all took place long before I started this venture – so with what I have to share today, the timing is right now.

About two weeks before he turned 3, he and Seahawk (who was 5 at the time) were playing; I was in the other room sewing. I suddenly heard a thump, followed by screaming. Seahawk came rushing into my room telling me that Munchkin had fallen off the top bunk (we’ve since gotten rid of the bunk beds – even now that they’re older, I don’t trust the safety of stacked beds). As I was hurrying down the hall to the kids’ room, I asked Seahawk if Munchkin was bleeding. He replied, “I don’t think so.” To this day I don’t know if he was lying to avoid punishment (it came out later that he was at fault in the fall – they were playing pirates, Munchkin was at the top of the ladder, Seahawk said “reach for the sky!”, and Munchkin did) or if he’d come to get me before the bleeding started. in any event, by the time I got there ten seconds later, his nose was hugely swollen and his face very bloody. Without further hesitation, I loaded the kids into the car and drove to the ER. Hubs was at a book signing that day; thankfully I’d driven him, so I had the car.

At the hospital, they decided to do a CT scan to make sure he hadn’t done any brain damage in the fall. The scan was inconclusive. There was a shadow there that they couldn’t identify. No one was sure whether it was bleeding on the brain or something less sinister. To be safe, they took us by ambulance to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland for an MRI. I called my mom to come get Seahawk so I could focus on Munchkin. I also put in a call to my in-laws so they could pick hubby up and bring him to the hospital. As we were loading into the ambulance, the local hospital gifted Munchkin with a quilt.

Two MRIs, an angiogram, and four days later, Munchkin was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM. basically, he had a clump of “extra” blood vessels in his brain. Eventually, they would have caused him to stroke.

There was a question with the insurance we had to resolve before we could schedule the corrective surgery. The only doctor in the state who was qualified to perform the surgery (he actually invented the procedure!) wasn’t covered under our plan. Dr. Barnwell and his staff took care of talking to the insurance company for us to explain the severity of the situation. The surgery, with the right doctor, was approved. The initial fall had taken place September 5, 2009. His surgery was October 21, 2009.

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This is his “after” MRI. I wish I could’ve found the “before” one at the time of this post; the difference is astounding. In the before shot, those white coils on the left side of the image (which is actually the right side of his brain) were a black muddle of misdirected blood.

So…

How does this relate to “quilts for kids”? That quilt we received as we were getting in the ambulance really stuck me, even though it hasn’t really stuck with Munchkin. Because of someone’s generosity, he received a lovely gift. I want to pay it forward, so to speak. I was given a bunch of quilting materials by a friend of my mom’s a few weeks ago, so I’ve used them to put together these 5 quilts. There’s enough for one or two more. When I get them all done, I’ll take them to the hospital for them to pass out as they deem necessary.

I won’t ever see the kids who receive them, and I’m okay with that. I just want the quilts to be a blessing for them as the one we got was for Munchkin.

12 for 12

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So, I finished the last four “Sunbonnet Sue” blocks…

You can see the first eight here and here.

March:

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June:

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This isn’t the June one from the book; I didn’t really like theirs, so I made up my own, which I really like :).

August:

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December:

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Now I have the daunting task of making sure they’re all exactly the same size (which they’re not right now…) so that when I put them all together with lattice between, it looks right. I’ll keep you posted on that step when it’s done.

–Wendy

Eight Down, Four to Go…

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It’s amazing how much faster sewing projects go when you have a working sewing machine! Here are the next four Sunbonnet Sue All Year blocks for my quilt.

January:

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July:

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September:

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November:

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The marshmallow in the July block is actually a hot dog in the book, but I didn’t have any fabrics that would make a convincing looking frank. When I asked the kids for thoughts, Seahawk had the brilliant idea of making it a marshmallow instead. I’m raising geniuses! Lol!

–Wendy

Reusable Bags for Produce and Bulk Items

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Eliminating – and even lessening – our waste has been a very frustrating undertaking. I got Zero Waste Home from the library last week and read it, but the main advice in the shopping chapter is “buy everything in bulk using your own containers.” While I’d love, love, love to do that (she even has access to shampoo and conditioner in bulk in her area!), the bulk foods near me are sadly lackluster. So I’m coming to the (unfortunate) conclusion that a true Zero Waste lifestyle just isn’t possible for my family. Unless the local stores start offering more than nuts and organic chocolate chips (at $9 a pound!) in bulk, we’re going to end up sending more than one quart of garbage a year to Junk Mountain. Especially since I have a friend who’s seen with her own eyes what I’ve suspected for years: the garbage company dumps our recyclables instead of recycling them, even when you take them directly to the recycling center (as opposed to using curbside service). I’m going to try to make additional strides this summer by canning my own tomatoes (never tried before…) and making my own freezer jam (did that once) in reusable glass jars. My first step, though, is a little less advantageous: I made reusable bags for the bulk items that are available (including produce). And with even a smidge of sewing experience, you can too! It’s super easy.

First, cut your fabric to whatever size you want your bag(s) to be. 12×15 is a pretty good size. For a nice strong bag, you want the bottom to be folded, not sewn, so for that 12×15 size, cut your fabric 12×31 (that extra inch allows room to insert your draw strings without compromising the size of your bag).

Next, fold over 1/4″ on each of the 12 inch sides. You can finger press or iron, whichever you’d prefer. Lay your drawstring material (I just use yarn – 18 inches is a good length, and you need 2 per bag) near the raw edge and fold it over again, capturing the yarn inside. Pin into place.

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Sew that seam down on both sides of each bag, being careful not to catch the yarn – it needs to be free for the drawstring property to work.

I forgot to take a picture of the next step, but it’s easy; you should be able to figure it out. Fold your bags in half, right sides together, with the yarn ends lined up. Sew up the sides, again being careful not to catch the yarn in your seams.

Turn your bags right side out and knot the yarn together on both sides. This keeps it from from just sliding out of the casing.

You’re done! Now go enjoy using your new bags instead of the single-use plastic ones the store provides.

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Feel free to leave me comments with questions; it’s possible I’ve forgotten some details.

–Wendy

Northwest Quilt Expo

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As promised, I’m talking about the quilt show we went to last weekend. There were hundreds of quilts on display and dozens of vendors. A quilter’s dream :).

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We started and ended with vendors simply because of the way the place was laid out. This was the most memorable shop of them all. If you look carefully, you’ll see that each of the three appliques are a single piece. Typically, an applique is multiple pieces of different fabrics (like the Sunbonnet Sues I’m making and will share another day). Because this technique struck me as so different, I snapped a picture of her “how-to” and of an example. This pic is the example one.

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I noticed that owls were a common theme throughout several quilts. This made me reflect on my late grandmother (she passed away less than a year after I got married, long before I had kids). She was an avid quilter and also a collector of owls. Seeing the owl quilts and remembering her love of the night birds made me wonder if owl lovers also tend to be quilters or the other way round. Or if it’s just coincidence.

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Hubby and I were struck by the simplicity of this one. Very little color, as it’s mostly white, but very beautiful all the same.

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This one was Munchkin’s favorite quilt. He really liked the dragons. I’m not sure it was my favorite, but I did really like it.

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Both of the older kids got to have a lesson in yarn making. This woman was so nice to teach them. And she let them keep the piece of yarn that they made as well as a piece of “raw” wool to compare what they started with to what they ended up with.

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This one was neat. I liked the reflection of the buildings in the water. Upon closer look, you could see that it was accomplished not only with different fabrics but also by layering a kind of netting material over the lower half to mute the colors further.

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I loved the decorative stitching on this one. And the colors :).

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Here’s Seahawk with the block he designed. You’ll recall that Munchkin’s was Picture of the Week last Friday.

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The kids also got to learn the proper technique for tying a quilt (as opposed to sewing the layers together). That’s something I’ve never learned. And I spent the time they were doing that feeding Small Fry, so I still don’t know how!

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These two were very similar in their construction: both were composed of hundreds of tiny (probably 2×2 or 3×3 inch) squares. The red and yellow one was hubby’s favorite of the day and my second favorite. If I remember correctly, it was the blue ribbon winner in the pieced quilt category. Rightly so!

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These are just several that caught my eye, in no particular order.

And finally, my favorite:

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Look carefully and you’ll see carrots and a beet under the ground (that’s my favorite feature of this quilt) and all sorts of other features that cross the framing barriers.

Which one is your favorite?

–Wendy

Picture of the Week

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We went to the annual Northwest Quilters’ Expo last weekend in Portland. No one but me was looking forward to it, but once we got in there everyone had a lot of fun. The quilts were absolutely stunning – I’ll try to remember to do a full post on them next week. One of the activities they had for kids was to design their own quilt block. After the expo, they were going to be sending all the blocks to seamstresses to piece them together and turn them into a (or many, I’m not sure) quilt for underpriveleged children in the area. This is Munchkin with his block.

As a side note, this picture was the first time I used the Snapseed app on my phone. Here’s the original picture:

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What do you think? Did I make it better or mess it up?

–Wendy

P.S. This post is completely from my phone; I wasn’t able to go into hubby’s office this week to use the computer to prep my posts. That’s why I don’t have my usual graphic signature today.