Catching Up

I've been avoiding my blog like I avoid my sewing areas after big projects!  :D  Seems like the weekly homeschool posts were too much for me to keep up with.  Since I keep up on my Homeschool Tracker software as well as a yearly binder, I just find it to be a lot to post about it too.  I may find another way come fall...maybe a highlights vs. a log.  We're about 1/2-3/4 done with the ITBS (our standardized testing) for the year- hoping to finish that up by Saturday.

Onto the pics!  Mostly some of my most recent projects.

This is a sketch of a chicken I made for Mother's Day for my mom.  The frame idea is from Pinterest.  If you are curious, I can dig up the pin and subsequent tutorial.  Otherwise, if you follow me on Pinterest, it'd be in the house and home section.  After J cut the frame, I taped to paint the inner border white, then painted the outer area black and the inner frame with the black boxes to make it checkered.  I sanded a bit to rough it up and then coated with a couple layers of sealer after modge-podging the sketch on (which I'd sealed prior to that as well so it wouldn't smudge).  I'm very pleased with the final result and now we have a way to frame our own artwork at home in a very cost-effective way!



J participated as a delegate at the GOP State Convention this year.  He got to meet Ron Paul- the reason he got so involved this time around.  Met up with some people he knew and was able to have some good conversations with new folks as well.  
 

I made a few things to welcome my new niece, Imogin, who was born the end of May.  I made her 2 outfits, then had to make big sister Romi matching pj's and a little doll outfit too.
Here's a pic of her in the hospital:
 
Ooga Booga monsters:

Little frogs:

Romi's pj's with her doll:

The doll outfit looks huge here, but Romi's doll is bigger than the ones we had here at home:


Following Imogin's arrival was Emily's 9th birthday!  My sister Cassie made an awesome Perry cake!:  


We had a nice birthday.  A family party at the farm, and a good time out with a friend at the Mega Mall- rides, treats, Build-a-Bear, and the Rainforest Cafe.  

I participated in a charity dress sewing group online in May/June.  I took some of the older girl sizes and sewed up these two dresses to send to Haiti with some missions groups that were going.  One of the groups left a little early, but we're hoping to catch another group the end of June.  Both dresses have ties a the shoulder so they're more adjustable.  The grey one has ties in the back as well, with a flower and hummingbird appliqued on each pocket, size 10.  The printed dress is a typical 'pillowcase' dress, with pockets, size 12.



Also participated in a doll clothes swap on my favorite sewing board.  Sent them in yesterday and will hopefully have outfits back in a couple weeks!  I made 2 ballerina outfits, plus one for E:

2 tunic/legging sets:

And my favorite- a woven wrap dress with a belt a matching headband.  I made 2, but we kept one of them.


Out at the farm this year, if you're lucky, you'll spot some really cool hummingbird moths!  We thought it was a regular hummingbird at first, then saw the antennae and proboscis.  He wasn't afraid at all...this is a cellphone pic- nothing fancy.  We were able to get really close and he kept coming back.


I turned 29 just a couple days ago, so it's my last year in my 20's!  J's started back at school and it's been a grueling month.  We're hoping July will be a little less so.  We're shooting to get all of his pre-requisites done by the end of fall so he can apply for a master's program in Jan that starts Fall 2013.  He's going for occupational therapy.  It's a pretty competitive program, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  That field would be a dream for him- very fitting for his personality, skills, and work history.

Phew- hope I'm caught up now!  :)

Swimsuit swap

I participated in a  one-to-one swimsuit swap on my favorite sewing board.  We each sewed 2 suits...I sewed 2 sizes for her 2 girls and she did 2 for E.  E had decided she'd rather have 2 suits than 1 suit and 1 coverup- so I let her choose that and which fabrics she liked best.

I altered my tried-and-true KS pattern (I did buy the newer version for the smaller sizes) to make it 1-shouldered.  I sewed them up here on my serger and used another sewingmama's coverstitch machine for all of the elastic topstitching.  E's suit I used my triple-stitch zigzag.  These were fun to do, and I learned a new technique of binding with elastic inserted in the seam.  When you fold it over, it keeps a nice, even binding- which was my biggest worry in binding knitwear, especially swimsuit material.  I also lowered the rise on the bum of the suit...way too much fabric back there.  This was also my first time doing a tankini- I was nervous about hemming without the elastic, but it wasn't a problem at all.  I didn't have enough fabric to do a 1pc...barely eeked out this suit!  The fabric I bought in DC a couple years ago shopping with my older sis.  We'll love having a 2pc in rotation for longer beach days!

Dd's suit by me:





The suits I made for the swap- the younger one is a size 4/5 with ruffle, the older is a size 7/8 sans ruffle and with a bit of fun colorblocking and an extra strap for fun.

4/5suit:




7/8 suit (looks wrinky on my size 5 body double):



These were the suits we got back- we were so pleased with this swap!  We both love the little skirt with the bottoms attached- so cute!  I'll sew the straps to the back later...we both left those to adjust when we received the suits. 

Ugh.  The fish lips start already!  :P

I'll attach the straps in the back to the suit- not halter-style as you see in the pic:
 

The blue suit (I pinned that strap too far over here...I'll adjust it when I sew it on):



This was a great way to use up some of the fabric that I've already used for dd in other suits, as well as to have another style or suits without buying a new pattern.  We're set for summer- probably next summer too!

Some Vday, quilt, journal and misc

Quickie pair of Vday yoga pants from our favorite Kwik Sew pattern.  I went with a ruffled leg theme after getting distracted tracing and cutting one leg off at capri length!  Heh.  So I hacked them both up more and we now have yoga pants a la Matilda Jane.  Quite cute!  This fabric isn't the best choice for yoga bottoms...they don't have as much recovery and therefore get a little bagged out by the end of the day.  But we like them for around the house and for Valentine's Day.  :)  Plus, they brought back memories of when I first started sewing knits...she had a pair, same style with a white waistband that I sewed when she was 4.  Her dolly got a pair too.  I'm pretty good with that lately!

 


The cute tag:


Her doll also got a new hat, scarf and pair of socks from an old pair of knee highs that became ankle socks as the years passed for E.  Saw the tutorial on Pinterest- quite cute!  We tried tights out of another pair, but I biffed that by not accounting for the lack of stretch in a sock vs. the doll nylon-tights.  Next time!  :)


My favorite sewing site  was having their annual doll quilt swap, and while I was too nervous to sign up this round, it did inspire me to give it a go on my own.  J and E also cut out their squares the same night, but have yet to sew them up.  A few of these fabrics date back to late middle school or early high school when my mom was on her quilting kick.  I remember picking out a handful of fat quarters at a cute quilt shop.  The black paisley backing and the brown swirly squares on the front are from that trip.  :)  I also tried free-motion quilting!  Harder than it looks and I've got lots to learn.  I love the stippled quilt look though- definitely want to try more of that sometime.



The binding isn't too shabby if I do say so myself!


I finally remembered to take a few pics of my journal I made this last summer.  It's a smaller size as that's the size leather I had hanging around.  Quite proud of it!  Someday I'd like to learn leather tooling and/or painting.  The pages are hand-torn which didn't take as long as I'd thought it would.  The closure is leather and a little button I had hanging around in my stash.  There's a little bookmark of a few beads and a cross- next time I'd make it a wee bit longer so it wouldn't shut in the book, but would hang right below it when closed.  It's lined with felt.





Other odds and ends this past week?  Yogurt making again...this time I overcooked the batch by not turning the crock pot off when it was time to let it cool.  I just shut the thermometer beeper off and set the time for the cool-down period and walked away.  Oops!  So this batch was quite runny.  Made great yogurt-fruit pops though!


And lastly- this was E's Vday gift from us this year.  We don't usually do large gifts, but we'd gotten this off Zulily about a month ago and couldn't wait until her bday.  It's to replace 3 dress-up dresses we had to finally retire.  She loved it!  She enjoyed swooshing around, dancing with her Daddy:
 

The next day, she spent most of our school-day in it.  Here she is curled up in the chair reading:


I'll have to post our cards and my gift to J later, I forgot to take pics of those before uploading this week!

Chocolate and Pink

No, my Christmas tree is not up!  This was from a few weeks ago.  :)

I bought this fabric a year or two ago from Chez Ami.  I love that it coordinates, but not overly so.

Sorry- the first pic is a bit grainy as it's a phone pic.  It's my favorite of the bunch though with her smile- she'd just gotten the matchy doll dress/tunic.  I made the leggings later to go with.  She has a white shirt underneath...too cold in MN for short sleeves this time of year!
 
I had seen a Hello Kitty dress at Target with the ruched elastic waist and the kimono-like sleeve (not set-in).  I decided I wanted to try it out and it worked pretty well! 
 
Next time I'd lower the sleeve a little more, and give a bit more ease in the elastic.  I tend to cinch things up a bit much as I don't want it floppy.  It fits fine now, but I'm thinking it will be too small next year and I like things to fit for a long time!

I made the leggings slightly cropped like her Lands End ones.  I made them with plenty of growing room too...I don't know why as she tends to wear the knees out in a year of regular wear.

My serger sure speeds things along for me!  I cut and sewed this dress, the leggings and the doll outfit in an evening with interruptions- not too shabby!  Now a coverstitch...that's my next wishlisted item to save up for.  Nothing could stop me then!

I whipped up another 4 pairs of the same style of leggings.  These ones are full length or more.  The brown and pink are cotton/lycra, the grey is mostly bamboo with cotton and lycra (so soft...almost pj-like as leggings, actually) and the white is a thinner c/l.  Not the most practical, but they're meant for under skirts.  They have a bit of ruching at the side and a double lace hem.  I'll be getting an outfit shot of a skirt I made for her sometime here and will get a closeup of that pair.

As you can see, the grey and white have lots of growing room, but since they're tighter leggings, they tend to pool about the ankles and aren't in the way.

I made J a quick headband to keep his ears warm on his route after measuring mine.  This was a tester one...I'll need to get a little black fleece so the gals at the post office and the kids in the hallway here stop teasing him about his dogpaw 'hat' that's missing it's top, lol!  His fault for losing his old one!  :D


Another thing we've started lately is making our own yogurt!  It's soooo good! 

Ours takes a little longer to heat and cool.  We also wrapped it last time in the oven with the heating pad (heated, then unplugged) and a rice bag.  Seemed to come out the same though.  It's a wee bit runny for our 'greek' yogurt, but still thicker than regular.  We strained it to thicken it up a bit more and are messing with the temps and whatnot a bit to get the perfect batch.  Someone mentioned a bit of dried milk powder so we might try that too.  At any rate- the recipe is delicious as is!  We drizzle a little honey or caramel on it to sweeten it at times for a little dessert.  Or add fruit for lunch.  It's good alone too- never thought I'd say that about yogurt!

 I'm making another batch today...it goes quick here!