May the 4th Be With You!

Good morning Friends! It's been a couple of weeks so I thought I would play catch up and show you all the fun things I've been working on! First up - since today is Star Wars day - Here is a hilariously adorable crochet project that I decided to make for my kids. A Death Star! A friend of mine showed me this pattern link on Pinterest and I knew my kids would love it. (House full of Star Wars nerds here.)

If you'd like to make one, I found the pattern HERE

It took me a couple of days, only because I was trying to be secretive and work on it after my kids went to bed. But it was fun and fairly easy!

I finished making the backyard cushions that I promised for my friend. They turned out pretty well, considering I've never done anything like that before! They were a bit of a hassle, and at one point my sewing machine just decided to FALL APART. It didn't like sewing through so many layers of canvas duck cloth. So I changed plans and made the tie-downs with 2 layers of matching gross grain ribbon sewn together, instead of making them out of the duck cloth. (Duh) ;) He was happy with them and best of all, they fit his furniture! WHEW!

Yesterday I finally finished this little cutie! My little Cinderella felt doll, made from a Gingermelon pattern. (I posted a link to her patterns in my last post!)

Now Piper has a Cinderella AND a Snow White, all a little girl could ask for, right?? ;)

A few days ago, Piper really wanted to paint peg dolls with me, so I finally made this little set I've been wanting to make. I found these little house-shaped tea tins on Etsy a couple of years ago and bought them just for this purpose. I've seen little sets like this that were stored in decorated Altoids tins, which were ADORABLE! But I saw these little house tins and couldn't resist!

And it all fits perfectly in the little house tin so a little girl can carry it in her purse to church or wherever you need some quiet entertainment for her!

Here's one of Piper's. She did a great job! She painted 4 other dolls, but can't find them now. (Story of our lives.) ;)

And last, but certainly not least: It was the Friday I've been waiting for!!! The first Farm Girl Friday! Lori Holt's latest book, "Farm Girl Vintage" is probably the most exciting thing in quilting for me! Eeeeeee!!! I absulutely love everything in it and when I first got it in the mail, I just couldn't stop looking through it. I just love all of the traditional looking blocks, plus all of the "Farm Girl" blocks that she has designed. Baby chicks, cherries, teapots, there is just so much drooling over this book! I want to make every single thing in it! So I got my stash ready and I'll be making 2 blocks a week along with her on her blog.

Ready, set, sew!

Here is my first block, and the first block in her book, "Apron Strings". I'm in love!

Lori is also posting directions for making all kinds of fun things out of the blocks. On Thursday it was this pin cushion. I've been desperately needing one, since Piper lost mine. I went and bought a bag of ground walnut shells quite a while ago just for stuffing pin cushions, and I FINALLY made one! YAY!

It's BIG and it holds tons of pins!! LOVE!

Well, that's all folks! This week will be spent on some yummies for Mother's Day! Shhhhh, it's a secret! :)

Thanks for stopping by my beautiful friends!

XOXO
~Elizabeth

A Week of Reality (and a little sewing)

...And then there are weeks when I have very little time for sewing. The reality of having 5 kids that all have something different going on hits hard and I barely have time to sit down, let alone do any frivolous crafting. ;)

I did manage to get the pattern pieces cut out for the most recent pattern that I bought from Gingermelon. Gingermelon is only one of my very favorite Etsy shops on the whole entire planet! Shelly is so talented and makes the cutest little patterns for felt dolls and animals that I've ever laid eyes on. Not only that, she is so friendly and lovely to work with. I have messaged her several times with questions about materials or colors she has used and she is always very quick to respond and very willing to help. I adore people like her! I recently bought her Cinderella pattern because Piper LOVES Cinderella. However, Piper has no interest in seeing the new movie. She watched the preview and realized it wasn't a cartoon, and Cinderella's hair wasn't yellow, and it wasn't up. So, NO, she didn't want to see it. She has her standards, you know. But I think this doll, once I finish it, will meet her approval. Her hair is a lovely shade of yellow, and it's UP!

I'm happy to say that the folder I keep my Gingermelon patterns in is busting at the seems. It's time to upgrade to a 3 ring binder. :)

You can shop at Gingermelon's Etsy shop HERE

My Owen had the Hope of America program that the 5th graders participate in every year, this was our 3rd time around. It's a really great program that always brings tears to my eyes. And it's so fun to watch your kids feel so proud to be a part of it. Seeing his little face, so happy that we had all come to watch, made the traffic, and the parking, and the crowds getting to the Marriot Center at BYU well worth it.

I only recorded one song, but it's the last song and the one that always makes me cry:



My Benjamin turned 15 this week! I kidnapped him from school and took him to lunch and on a little shopping spree for some desperately needed clothes, and the thing I hate spending money on but he just couldn't live another minute without, an XBOX Live Gold membership. I suppose his sweet and innocent looking smile is worth it. ;)

Instead of having a family dinner party, he chose a friend party instead. I'm not one to have friend parties for the little kids. Entertaining a whole crowd of little ones is NOT one of my talents. But when they're teenagers and I can throw pizza and cake at them and let them entertain themselves, I can handle that. Benjamin chose cheesecake for his birthday cake, which you wouldn't think would be that big of an ordeal. But leave it to me to make it one! 10 hours in the kitchen and 3 cheesecakes later... Yes, 3. Don't ask. One of these days I'll be more experienced with cheesecake and it won't be such a thing when my kids request one for their birthday. But this time we've got enough cheesecake leftover to feed a small army. :)

My Oliver had his Pinewood Derby race this week! Sadly, we forgot that it was on Friday, the same time we planned Ben's party. So Bruce got to go watch Oliver race his Rhino car, which he designed and painted all himself, and I got to supervise the teenage boy party.

And last but not least, my PK had State Finals for Winter Drumline. This was the first year that Westlake had their own indoor drumline team and they ended the season in 2nd place! They had an awesomely intense and dark show that was SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH! PK's been playing the first bass drum in Westlake's marching band for 4 years now. But this was the first year I've ever been to indoor drumline competitions and they were a ton of fun. This Saturday was the end of his career as a high school drummer and it makes me so proud and so sad at the same time. He's been closing a lot of chapters in his life with graduation coming up. But dang, that boy has done so much, he's worked his tail off and I couldn't be more proud of him. *sniff*

If you want to see their show:




And that was my crazy week. Somewhere in there I did manage to squeeze in some work on sewing projects that I've taken on for some friends. A dear, lifelong friend of mine is having his wedding reception in his backyard and asked me to make some new cushions for some backyard furniture he has. It's something I've never done before, but I told him I do it, so I'm figuring it out! Pictures when they're all done. :)

And when we got home Saturday night from state finals at Weber State, I swore I wouldn't get out of bed until Monday. And boy I made good on that promise. I finished hand stitching the binding on this beautiful quilt that my friend Barbara made for an auction for a local fundraiser that's coming up.

I had originally told her I would machine quilt it for her. But it turned out too big for me to quilt with my sewing machine. So my wonderful and thoughtful friend, Heather, quilted it with her long-arm quilting machine. So, feeling like I had done nothing to help, besides passing it from one hand to the next, I offered to bind it. I got the top side machine sewn and one side of the back hand sewn last week. Then yesterday I finished hand stitching the other 3 sides. It only took me a whole Star Wars Trilogy! Sewing and Star Wars. The perfect way to give my screaming knee a rest. Here is my beautiful and talented friend, Barbara and her finished quilt. This quilt will be up for auction at Wines Park in Lehi, Utah on Saturday, May 30th during the Walk with Angels fundraiser. All proceeds will go to the United Angels Foundation, which helps families with children that have special needs. You can get more info on the fundraiser HERE

This week, with much less on the calendar, I hope to finish with Aaron's backyard cushions, and maybe even hand-stitch a Cinderella doll for my only princess!!! :)

Thanks stopping by for a visit! I hope you all have a fabulous week!

XOXO
~Elizabeth

Hexies!!!

Hello my beautiful friends! I promised more details about my projects in my first post and I'm here to deliver! A couple of years ago I started seeing a lot of posts and pictures of quilts and other projects made with paper-pieced hexies and I absolutely fell in love. Yes, it seems a little bit loony tunes to think about, a completely hand stitched quilt, made by someone who actually owns a sewing machine. You'd have to be crazy! Well, that may be true, but I can think of no greater accomplishment, or gift, than a quilt that has had hours and hours, months and months, sometimes years and years of someone's hand stitching. Hand stitching = true love, people. If you ever receive anything that was hand sewn, know that that person loves you. If they're anything like me, their fingers bled, their hands ached, and they just kept on stitching because they loved. Don't get me wrong. Machine stitching is love, too. A lot goes in to making a quilt, or a dress, that you just don't understand until you've made one. But hand stitching... it's what my Great Grandma Baker did, decades ago, with a house full of children to care for and responsibilities that I cannot fathom, she hand stitched, clothes, quilts, dozens of quilts. A few of these quilts I'm fortunate enough to have in my possession. I treasure them more than any other things in my house, because my Great Grandma Baker, who I never really knew because she passed away when I was a year old, hand stitched them. They're not just old pieces of fabric. They're weeks and weeks, months and months of her aching, needle-poked fingers, because she loved. And so I make hexies.

I saw this picture of a hexie quilt online and this is the quilt that made me want to make one myself.

I've learned a lot of little tips and tricks for making hexies that make it go a little faster, especially if you're wanting to make a whole quilt's worth! There are a lot of different ways to make hexies, some people like to glue the edges down, instead of stitching them. Some people sew right through the paper. But I learned to make them from Lori Holt's blog called "Bee in My Bonnet". Lori Holt is the queen of all things quilting and I would give anything to spend a day in her sewing room. But for now I'll have to settle for reading her blog and buying her books. :) I could give instructions on making hexies but she's already done a perfect job of it! Her tutorial on making hexies can be found here

Since I wanted to make a whole quilt, I went and picked out several fat quarters, 33 to be exact, (I might have had a few of those to start with, I can't remember) that I thought went well together. I found it quite easy and fast to cut the fat quarters up into 2 3/4" squares (for the 1" hexies). I got 42 squares out of each FQ. You can stack the FQ's together, 4 or 6 at a time, as long as your rotary blade is good and sharp! Then you end up stacks of pretty squares!

You can then lay your paper hexie pattern on a stack of 4 or 5 squares at a time, again, as long as your scissors are sharp, and cut a 1/4 inch, or a bit more, around your paper.

Your hexies don't have to be perfect when you cut them, since they will be folded around your paper, then they will be perfect!

Hexies are measured by the length of one side. So these hexies I've been working on are 1" hexies, since one side measures 1". I've also recently started some 1/2" hexies. Tiny hexies for some tiny projects. For these ones, I cut the fabric into 1 3/4" squares before cutting around the paper hexie.

I bought my paper hexies at my favorite quilting store here in Utah County, American Quilting. They're 3 cents a piece and I bought 100 of them and then when I ran out I used one as a pattern and cut my own out of card stock. Then when I wanted to try the 1/2" hexies, I went and bought 100 of them and just finished them! So now I have this cute little candy jar full of 100 tiny hexies awaiting some tiny projects!

And to end with, I'll tell you how I lug all of this around with me wherever I go! Hexies make the perfect take-along sewing project. I take them on road trips, to family gatherings, PARADES! My PK has been in marching band for the past 4 years, so there's a whole line-up of parades to sit through. I drop him off super early where the band is meeting up, then I go find a spot and camp out waiting for the parade to start. And while I'm waiting I get a ridiculous amount of hexies sewn! You can find whatever sort of box you like to pack all your supplies in.

And it all fits perfectly in one box like this!

So everywhere I go I can be working on my lifetime project of 1300 some odd hexies. Someday, someone I love will have this quilt. And hopefully they'll know that it took me years. Years of hand stitches and finger pokes, and aching hands. Because I love them.

And speaking of my Great Grandma Baker, today is her birthday! Her 121st birthday! She was a lovely woman who worked hard for her family and left behind such lovely, hand stitched things for all of us to enjoy long after she was gone. Here are a few of them.

Happy Birthday Grandma Baker! And happy day everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO
~ Elizabeth

My Cabin Sewing Retreat

Welcome to my first blog post! One of the things I love to do is read about the creative projects, especially sewing projects, that people are working on. I get so many ideas and so much inspiration from all of those lovely bloggers out there, so I thought I would share a few of my projects here!

For those who don't know me ~~ I've been married for almost 20 years now to my first love, childhood sweetheart, and best man I could ever hope for, Bruce. We have 5 very busy and energetic kids. 4 boys, PK is 17, Benjamin 15, Owen 11, Oliver 9, and the miraculous surprise of our lives little girl, Piper, who is 4. She added a lot of pink and dollies and fluff to our house full of boys and she is the inspiration and the drive behind most of my sewing. I've been learning how to quilt ever since my oldest was a baby, but having a girl made me want to learn how to sew , well, everything else! After working for the past 7 1/2 years, I just recently became a stay-home mom again and I couldn't be happier. I'll admit, it's taken some getting used to, being home for all of the after school craziness. I really have to brace myself for 3:30. BUT, it's also nice to be able to cook dinner, help with homework, have some family time every single night, and work on all the things that have been started and then cast aside! So there's a little about me!

This weekend I got to go on a little sewing vacation! Heehee! That's what I'll call it anyway. We took a trip up to my in-laws' cabin in Wyoming for Easter and the first few days of our Spring Break. The kids and my hubby got to run around and build forts in the forest, make weapons with my FIL's wood working tools, build fires, and drive up to the frozen lake and try to break through the ice by throwing big rocks at it. (You know, the usual boy stuff.)

I, however, am awaiting an MRI and possible surgery because I've had a lot of pain in my knee that's just getting worse. So, knowing I would be doing no such running around, I took a pile of hand sewing with me to the cabin to keep myself busy.

This quilt, with VW Buses and Bugs all over it, I got all quilted, and got the binding sewn on. I just needed to hand sew the back side of the binding, so I took that with me to finish for my youngest boy, Oliver. Depending on the size of the quilt, it usually takes me between 4 and 6 hours to hand sew the binding, so I knew I would need to take other things. ;)

I also took this quilt, which is 12 or 13 years in the making! This one I've been hand quilting here and there for the past couple of months while I'm watching movies in bed. I can get one block quilted during the length of a movie! I got 2 blocks done this weekend so now I have 6 blocks all quilted and still have 6 more plus the sashing and borders. After everything this quilt and I have been through, I'm really happy with how it's turning out.

And last but not least, I took what is turning out to be my eternal project, my box of hexies. I started doing hexies in July of 2013 and this is what I have so far.

In an attempt to keep this first post less than 3 miles long, I will be going into more detail about these 3 projects in separate posts, soon to come! All in all it was quite a relaxing weekend. I got to sew. The kids got to play. The perfect vacation if you ask me. Thanks for visiting me here at my blog! I hope to make lots of creative friends here!

XOXO
~ Elizabeth