Getting There

A zippered pouch.

A little while ago, my husband bought Jasper a collection of little plastic horses from the dollar store. He loves those horses! But they have been scattered all over the house for weeks now. I decided to do something about it. I had a bit of fabric (that was generously given to me) with cowboys and horses on it, and I had seen this tutorial a while ago - so I gave it a go.

I was a little bit nervous when I read in the tutorial that I needed to use a zipper foot - because I had never done that before, and in fact had no idea what my machine's zipper foot looked like. I figured it out though! And this little bag was quite easy and quick to sew up. Of course, if you look closely you will see that none of the seams are quite straight and the lining is all bunchy...no problem though. I'm pleased with myself, since it's the first time I sewed a zipper into anything.

Jasper was quite thrilled with it, which warmed my heart! I love making things for children.

Hit by the flu.

I guess it's that time of year. A few weeks ago Kira came down with the flu. Then last week, Chris got sick...he got it the worst of all of us, and had to take a day off work to just sleep. Jasper was very sick last weekend too. A few days ago Owen started with the fever and cough and sore throat, and today I find my throat is sore and scratchy, and I feel weak and dizzy...humph. I thought I was going to fight it off, but I guess not. Perhaps it has something to do with getting only about 5 hours of (broken) sleep the last couple of nights.

Amazingly, Amy has not gotten sick...surprising considering the number of kisses she gets on a daily basis!

Last weekend when I was walking quickly into the grocery store an elderly gentlemen took one look at me, made a gesture moving his hands towards the ground and said (with a smile) "Slow down! Slow down!" I didn't respond; it sort of stunned me for a moment, but once I was in the store I got it and started giggling. I must have looked silly speed walking into the store so seriously. I resvoled anew to stop rushing around and start taking on my daily tasks at a gentler pace.

This sickness has certainly forced me to maintain that resolution. The way this flu bug has picked us off one at a time, and then lingered...we have had sickness in the house for weeks now and it's still going. We haven't gone anywhere (other than me to the grocery store and Chris to work), and our homeschool activities have been put on hold...we've all just been basically hibernating here, reading, relaxing, playing video games, making paper snowflakes...actually it's been rather nice, fevers and runny noses aside.

I put some winter and Christmas books into a thrifted basket...I rather like how it looks. (Once the holidays are over, these books will go away until next year.)

My Christmas shopping is done too, which helps me to feel relaxed--although I haven't made any headway on the quilt. I thought I would just try to do the top and give that to Jasper on Christmas morning, but alas! When I went to press the very first seam with the iron, the fabric wrinkled and melted. I guess some of the scraps I had received were polyester. I am not sure if it's a good idea, but I have decided to proceed, and just keep the iron on low...wish me luck. :)

Today we woke up to the very first snow fall--it's the first time the snow has stayed on the ground, anyway. As I was looking out of the window at the lovely snow-covered branches I saw two "V" formations of Canada geese flying due south. I guess winter is truly here...and like every year, now is the time to put on some slippers and spend some quiet, restful time in the house. I'm going to be shutting down our Etsy shop for a holiday break in a few days, too, and I'm looking forward to that.

I do hope though, that we'll be free of this flu bug before Christmas arrives! Has anyone else been hit by the flu?

Getting started on my boy's quilt.

After taking a week off homeschooling, I feel better. Not only did it give me a bit of a breather, which I really needed, but I trained the boys to put away their own laundry and clean their own room, and Kira to do the laundry. This is a big help, and I feel content.

Another thing I feel happy about: I have finally gotten started on the quilt I wanted to make Jasper for Christmas. I know, I know, I'm starting late...it's just going to be a simple patchwork of squares, but I did want to make it full size (to fit on a twin bed) and I also am not exactly experienced. The only other quilt I made was a doll quilt.   And I guess I made a quilted purse too, although it wasn't very impressive--the seams were all crooked.

Plus, I am planning on embroidering his name over a few squares...and hand quilting the entire thing. Hmmm. Well, it's good to be ambitious, right?

The past few days I have left my cutting mat out on top of the freezer in the back room, and I have been cutting a few squares every time I go in there to do laundry or get something out of storage. At least I am getting started. I will just have to see how far I can get by Christmas.

I was lucky to receive some really cute fabric from a kind reader to help with this project. I really appreciated that because cost is an issue for me--the entire reason I decided to make a quilt to begin with was that we needed more blankets and I wasn't able to spend the money on all-cotton bedding. I did however, decide to buy just one yard of fabric to add in. It was only $5. Jasper really has a thing for horses, and I found this fabric on Etsy that I think he will love. I hope it gets here soon!

I still haven't decided if I will stuff the quilt with sewn-together old cloth diapers, or if I will use two flannel sheets sewn together. I am leaning towards the sheets though, because I don't want to make this project overwhelming for myself.

Is anyone else working on gifts for Christmas right now?

Just a little thing.

Our house has been so chilly the past few days...and I am loathe to turn on the electric heaters, because I know that once I do our utility bill will suddently skyrocket.

I worry about the children though, so I have been trying to make sure everyone is warmly dressed. I didn't have a hat for Amy--I had plenty of newborn hats, but none of them fit anymore. And I didn't really want to buy a hat. I thought of making a cute aviator style cap, with a ribbon tie, but I couldn't find any patterns that didn't look much too complicated for me.

The house was really quite cold yesterday afternoon, and I wanted a hat for her pronto! So I grabbed an old plum coloured work shirt of Chris's that had done that annoying thing that shirts do--become wide and short. I laid it out flat, cut out a rough hat shape (I didn't even bother to draw it first) and then sewed both sides together. It took me more time to find a chopstick to turn the end out than it did to make it, for real!

Amy seems to like it. Now I want to make more hats. It really struck me how easy it was for me to find a solution to the problem at hand (cold, bald baby head) using what I had, without spending a penny. I know I know, it's just a hat, it took zero skill, but a few years ago I wouldn't have even thought of doing that. I would have dragged the baby out to a department store and spent $5 or $10 on a little hat which might have looked fancier but wouldn't have been any more serviceable.

I am inspired. From now on, I will look at every cast-off T-shirt as potential baby garments. I can't wait to experiment!

Thinking toward Christmas.

Last year Chris and I made most of our children's gifts, and we all agreed it was the best Christmas ever. This year, we would like to make gifts once more. So I am trying to get my act together and get some things started. Last year, I pretty much waited until early December and ended up regretting that!

One reason I haven't done anything yet is that still, my sewing machine has been giving me problems. Maybe I am not mechanically inclined, but I seem to have nothing but difficulties with sewing machines! I thought it had been fixed back in the summer, but it still jammed up, and also had a new clicking sound--the repairman that came to our house and charged me an arm and a leg turned out to be rather unscrupulous, it would seem. This time Chris took the machine to a reputable shop and they gave it a complete overhaul. It now runs perfectly (for the first time ever), and no weird clicking sounds. I am so excited about this!

I have learned my lesson. If I ever have problems with it again, I will not mess around and take it straight to the professionals!

The first thing I want to make is a quilt for my youngest boy, Jasper. We don't have enough bedding in our home and lately when I tried to look for blankets in the store, I was disappointed to find that bedding made of natural fibres is beyond our price range. My boys sweat a lot when they are sleeping; it seems cruel to wrap them in polyester at bedtime! So I thought an all-cotton quilt would be a nice thing to make for either one of them.

I don't have much to spend at all, but I do have a good quantity of fabric that was given me by a friend earlier in the year before she moved. I looked through the bag, and there are a number of fabrics that would be all right for a little boy.

Yes, it's a bit of a loud combination, but as a simple patchwork it might look okay, and besides, it's what I have to work with. :) I was thinking of purchasing maybe one yard of fabric in a horse print to add in, since Jasper adores horses. I think that would make it special for him.

I found a navy flannel sheet I can use for the back. For the filling, I had a weird idea--somebody tell me please if this is crazy. It's necessary for me to do this as inexpensively as possible. I have a lot of cloth prefold diapers from Jasper's baby days that are not being used. They are quite worn and I don't know if they would survive another baby. So I thought it might be possible for me to sew together the cloth diapers to create a nice warm center for the quilt. Is this a bad idea? I am well aware that it would probably look a bit lumpy, but I don't think my boy would mind. Anyhow, my main concern is to keep him warm, more than anything else, since our house is very drafty and cold in the winter.

I have a small quilting project in mind for my eldest, too--but of course I can't say what it is, because she reads my blog!

That's all I have planned for now. But I will continue to look for more ideas. I have placed a button on my right sidebar for Handmade Holiday 2011, which is organized by Tonya of Plain and Joyful Living. If you click on it you will see a list of blogs that will feature posts this holiday season on making handmade gifts.

Is anyone else planning any handmade gifts yet? Please tell me about it!

A satisfying day.

Yesterday was a busy day, filled with doctor's appointments and shopping. That type of busyness, I can do without. I greatly dislike crowds, and I especially dislike driving when traffic is heavy. But today was a busy day of a different sort; today was filled with activity at home. And those are the days I love!

This morning after breakfast, I left the children with Chris for a few moments and ducked over to my mom's house (she lives only a few blocks away) to go through her box of vintage patterns. She kindly let me take home some patterns for children and babies, which I can't wait to try out!

She also gave me some kits for designing my own patterns, for children's clothes, and women's skirts and shirts. I'm really looking forward to examining these more closely. Because while I love the idea of designing my own clothes, I think at least for now I need a bit of assistance in this area!

Our dryer broke down today, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it forced me to hang the laundry outside. Normally I feel like I don't have the time, and besides, I don't have much line and it's hard to cram everything on--but today I did hang all the laundry, and it was wonderful! It was so hot today that even towels were bone dry in about an hour and a half. So I was able to dry two loads this afternoon in our very small yard.

In the kitchen this afternoon, I made some homemade granola bars which are just delicious--I plan on sharing the recipe here once I perfect it. And I made up another batch of homemade bread. After that, I whipped up some chocolate pudding for dessert, some chocolate popsicles for tomorrow, and put a chicken in the oven to roast. (Let me tell you, our house smelled awesome with bread, and chicken stuffed with onions and fresh rosemary in the oven!)

After supper (and a delicious one it was), Kira took her brothers to the park while I cleaned up the dishes. Then I put Amy in the stroller (it was too hot for the wrap) and went for a walk myself. I have to say, I enjoy walking with a baby in the stroller...because I get to look at those tiny baby toes all the way!

(Don't worry, she wasn't chewing on the daisy, she was chewing on her fingers.)

I went over to the far corner of the park, where last year I picked some black raspberries growing wild, and sure enough they are still there. And still, all the mosquitoes in this part of town are seemingly congregating on those bushes! So I picked as many as I dared, and then joined my other children over at the play structure so we could munch on the berries together.

On days like this, filled with baking, fun with the children, and domestic tasks, I feel so happy and blessed to be living the life I am. Dedicating my days to being a good wife, mother, and homemaker is deeply satisfying to my soul. Like the poem in my sidebar says: "Very close to home the great joys are."

A frustrating project.

Thanks so much to everyone who shared their bread baking tips with me! I can't wait to give your ideas a try...I have not had a chance yet though, as life is so busy!

Today in particular was a busy day, because I spent much of it at the sewing machine. It all started when I saw this post on Soulemama this morning, and I fell in love with the little pink overalls Amanda made for her new baby girl. I suddenly felt inspired. I just bought some new good quality sewing machine needles, I have a whole stack of new fabric--why can't I make some little pants for Amy? And who needs a pattern?

Well...me, for starters. I definitely brought more enthusiasm than skill to this project. What I did was, I laid Amy down on a big piece of paper and traced around her to get her basic measurements. Then I drew free hand what looked like a good cut out for pants, folded the paper in half and cut out the pattern.

I pushed housework and laundry to the back of my mind and started cutting and sewing. I was having so much fun, at first--but the fun dwindled as I made mistake after mistake. Good thing I own a seam ripper--I used it a lot. For some reason, I had a hard time envisioning which two sides of fabric should be going together when sewing...

Then I had major problems turning the straps right side out. To be honest, I almost started crying because the safety pin I was using kept opening up and pricking me and those dang straps just would not turn right side out for me...And they ended up too thick to really be able to tie. I can't figure what I was doing wrong.

After all was said and done, and I had spent several hours toiling over this garment, I was none too pleased to discover that they didn't fit. When I was drafting that ingenious free hand pattern, I forgot to allow for the seam allowances going up and down. I was so concerned about making sure the pants were wide enough, that I forgot about that tiny detail.

So sure, I can get the pants on her, but they are much too short. And instead of the top of the "overalls" coming to chest level, it's rather below that.

Okay, this is where I am blushing, because I have to show this embarassing project to you, don't I?

Um, they don't really look like overalls, do they? Kind of more like some weird sort of leiderhosen...

At least Amy was polite enough not to complain about her ill-fitting pants.

I think these pants are going into the next bag I donate the charity. But it wasn't all a waste. I learned a few things about sewing; namely, don't forget about seam allowances, and also, maybe it's a good idea for a beginner like me to do something crazy and use a pattern!

Making homemade napkins.

First of all, let me say thank you so much for all the lovely and encouraging comments I received on yesterday's post. I really, truly appreciate it, and you all made me feel much better about where I am right now. :)

So today I was in the mood to do something self-sufficient-ish. I decided on making homemade napkins. I have wanted to make some cloth napkins for a while now, but I couldn't find any that were affordable at the thrift store (really, the Value Village near me is ridiculously expensive), and I wasn't sure what I could make them out of. I knew I wanted it to be something soft and absorbent, and preferably free.

Finally I figured out what to do. I had an old cotton tablecloth that my grandmother had given me. It was already quite old when she gave it to me, and at our house it's been washed and used so many times that it had developed a few holes (see picture below). And it had some pretty bad stains, too. But I was able to cut 5 good sized squares out of the good areas.

That part was easy. After that, the frustrations began. First of all, this fabric was so old and worn and soft that it was very hard to work with! It was difficult even to press the hems, it just kept rolling all over the place. And while I was doing that, I accidentally melted my new seam gauge with the iron. I was trying to make mitered corners, using these instructions, but I accidentally cut way too much fabric off the first corner...No big deal I thought, on to the sewing, which is the fun part! But then when I was trying to fold over the messed up corner and sew it, my needle broke. I put in a larger size of needle, and then that one immediately broke! (I'm not sure why...are the really cheap needles really not able to go through several layers of fabric?) I put in one more needle and that one allowed me to finish the first napkin, but alas, by then the baby was crying...so after about an hour of work, I only had one napkin complete.

Well, at least it's a start!

(Before taking this picture, I carefully hid the one mutilated looking corner!)

I thought making napkins out of such an old tablecloth was a great idea, but I think next time, I won't bother doing this with something so very old, because such worn and thin fabric is so challenging to work with. Lesson learned.

A big boost to my fabric stash!

A local online acquaintance of mine is moving, and wanted to get rid of some of her excess fabric. She offered it to me, and I accepted, and when I went to pick it up I was so happy!

Joy gave me not only a lovely vintage pillowcase with embroidery of spring flowers, but enough fabric to keep me busy for some time! Some peachy-pink florals that would look lovely in the quilt I want to make for Amy, some cute boyish prints that I could put into a quilt for either of the boys, flannel to make pajama pants, blue florals to go into throw pillows for the livingroom, enough Christmas fabric to make gift bags or table runners or placemats, and more. If only somebody could give me an extra 2 hours or so every day! :)

My poor neglected sewing machine...

I am finding it challenging to adjust to life with a brand new babe, whilst still homeschooling, running a busy Etsy shop, and trying to get a wee bit of housework done now and then. Most days, if everyone gets three meals, is dressed in relatively clean clothing by noon, and gets to bed on time, I'm happy!

I haven't had time to really think about this year's garden, although I did get some herb seeds planted. They are all lined up on my ironing board in the back window, like last year. I just stuck the seeds in some dirt in some styrofoam meat trays, and it seems to have worked very well.  Although I know it is getting late--and my ironing board is full!--I also planted some heirloom tomato seeds and some parsley seeds today, and when I get another few minutes I'm going to plant some red pepper and zucchini seeds. I don't know where I'm going to put the plants (or even the seedlings for that matter) but I'll think about that later!

The calendula seeds (seen below) sprouted very quickly.

Has anyone ever planted calendula? The seeds are just freaky looking! At first when I opened the packet, I thought there was some mistake. But no, this is what the seeds look like!

Although caring for my family is my main activity every day, I have been quite busy with our family business as well. The job we thought Chris was going to start back in March seems to have fallen through, which is disappointing but perhaps a blessing in disguise, because he's been working full time on his toys anyway. I don't know how he could manage two full time jobs. We've also had some custom work to do on top of the Etsy shop--for example, just a few days ago we sold a large order of spinning tops to our local farmer's market, who hands them out to children in the summer.

With all the general busy-ness around here, my sewing machine has been sorely neglected. I look at it longingly when I go into our back room to do up shipments of toys, or to do laundry, but somehow I never get around to using it. In fact, the thread got all jammed up before the baby was born (which is over a month ago now) and I still haven't untangled it. The entire area is so messy too. It doesn't help that when I am back there wrapping up packages, Jasper follows and starts rummaging around through my things!

I know what I need to do is become more competent with the baby wrap I have, so I can wear Amy around the house while I get things done. But I can't seem to get it right--that piece of fabric is just so LONG, and I don't seem to be coordinated enough to arrange it properly. I tried looking on Youtube, but every video shows a different technique and most of them are not for newborns. Well I will keep at it! It would be super convenient if I could nurse the baby while she is in the wrap, too. My sister kindly loaned me a couple of simple slings (the kind that are not adjustable) and unfortunately they are too small for me, since my sister is petite and I--ahem--am not. :)

And speaking of the baby...she is hungry, and so I must away...