Lily and Lex' build a barn (out of fabric, of course)

You may remember

(though - you may not, since it's been ages....)

that the girls and I are reading the Little House books 

and they are sewing up quilt blocks to go along with them.

(thank you, Amy!!)

They started out gung ho,

but lost steam after just a few weeks.

I wouldn't go any further in the books

until they got caught up on the blocks,

so we were sort of at a stand still for several months.

There's no 'sort of' about it - we were at a standstill...
Smack in the middle of Farmer Boy.

I'd ask them periodically about the quilt

(if they didn't want to make one -

then we could proceed with the books)

and they always said they still wanted to make the quilt,

but they never felt like working on it.

Then one day,

a few weeks ago,

out of the blue,

Lexi said she wanted to sew.

I said, "You going to finish your cat block?"

(she only had 2 seams to go...)

and she said she guessed she would.

And she proceeded to finish it,

and then made another block,

then both girls chose fabrics for their barn blocks

(and their maple leaf, and sheep blocks, too

but let's not get ahead of ourselves...)

Because I am a little bit template challenged

(though it's not nearly as bad as my paper piecing challenged!)

I changed up how we did the barn block

so that it could be made with just rectangles and squares

and I removed seams where I could.

As a reminder,

I cut, and sometimes pin for them,

(they are 10 and 8)

but they sew and press.

Lexi starches;
Lily does not.

With this barn block,

the girls learned what a flying geese block is

and how to make one.

They also learned about adding corners to create diagonal seams

without using half square triangles.

Lexi wanted to frame out her door, 

so she learned one way to do that.

They are both so different in their approach to sewing.

When I was cutting Lily's silo,

I asked which way she wanted the fabric to run,

and she said, "I really don't care".

And she meant it.

Lexi not only cares,

she knows which element in the fabric she wants centered...

Lily likes making the blocks okay,

but what she really loves,

is making tiny things.

So while Lexi was taking her turn at the machine,

Lily was working on another Little House quilt.

Now that they are all caught up on their blocks, 

we can get back to reading

😀

linking up with backpack-makin' Amanda Jean

Lily's blocks

As you know,

the girls and I are reading the Little House books,

and they are sewing along with Amy's girls (sorta)

As with Lexi,

the first block Lily made was the log cabin.

(she has a fabulous 1/4 in seam!)

It was quickly joined 

by a block of our own design,

Calico Dress.

I simply drew a dress 

and enlarged it,

then traced it onto the back of fabric that we'd 

adhered lightweight interfacing too.

(No more applique without stabilizers for us!)

After cutting out the dress,

we glue basted it onto Lily's background fabric of choice,

and she sewed it on with invisible thread.

Then she added some stitching,

to define the waistband,

and give the appearance of gathers and folds in the skirt.

That was when she learned about pulling your top thread

to the bottom

for knotting,

instead of locking stitches with the sewing machine.

Black Susan was a super fun block to make,

and in making it,

Lily learned (one way) to make half square triangles.

When cutting the fabric, 

I realized I could eliminate 2 seams,

which made it even easier to put together.

The girls wanted a black fabric that wasn't entirely solid,

and when we couldn't find anything locally that was suitable,

I ordered  'black dress' Basic Grey Grunge

 from the only shop I could find it in

because we all agreed it was perfect.

Lil' started working on her next block,

(another one that we've added)

by sewing it as leaders/enders,

and she's already pieced a good chunk of it.

Lexi's sewed her dress block also,

and most of Black Susan.

We'll share them when she's finished.

We're having a great time 

reading and sewing

together,

and I admit to considering

more than once,

catching up with them,

and making a Little House quilt

right along with them.

A sweet friend gave us a hard cover copy of 

On the Banks of Plum Creek,

and we've decided we'd like to own matching hardbacks

of all of the Little House books,

so if you happen to have some that you no longer want,
we'd be happy to take them off your hands :-)

Little House in the Big Woods, first 3 blocks