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

Little House in the Big Woods (in fabric)

A few weeks ago, 

I stumbled upon

something I'd been looking for

for several months.

Ever since Lexi finished her first quilt,

she's wanted to make another one.

Since I have a gift for complicating things,

I thought it would be amazing if I could find 

a block of the month type of quilt-a-long for her.

Something that she could work on 

here and there, over the course of  month,

mostly on her own,

and increase her skills.

Problem was,

everything I found

even for beginners,

was too advanced for an 8 year old.

She'd ask every few weeks

if I'd found one for her yet,

so this wasn't just a passing thought.....

Bloglovin adds posts to my feed

that bloggers I follow

 have 'liked'.

I forget who liked it,

but when I saw a picture of a little girl,

holding a big (simple!) quilt block 

of a black cat,

well, I clicked on the link real quick.

And I was delighted to find

a Little House on the Prarie Sew Along!

Two years ago,

in an effort to get her (then 8 yr old) daughter 

to read the Little House books,

Amy bribed her 

by telling her she could make a quilt block or two 

for each book in the series.

And then she graciously shared the blocks with the world.

Now, she has another 8 yr old daughter,

so they are sewing along again,

and Lily and Lex will be reading and sewing along, too!

They've been chomping at the bit to start sewing just as soon as we started reading.

(the three of us are reading the books together.

Sometimes we snuggle on the bed,

and sometimes, 

I sit on the couch and read,

while they lay on the floor.

Yesterday, while they listened,

Lexi played with our new patchwork design tiles

(a generous gift from a super thoughtful quilt-blogging friend :-)

and Lily built a bunkbed for Titus and Amanda

(who have yet to be photographed)

out of cardboard, skewers, and masking tape.

Other times one of them reads,

and I practice my knitting.)

I was a little slow to get started with the sewing bit,

because I still haven't got my fabric mess put away from Jordan's quilt,

and the whole fabric choosing overwhelmed me.

But,

we finished the first book,

Little House in the Big Woods,

yesterday,

so I had to bite the bullet.

Lily was starting to get sick yesterday,

so after picking out about 5 fabrics,

she was done.

Lex', on the other hand,

chose 18, 

which we then whittled down to 13,

and she determined what would go where in the block.

I cut the fabric for her last night

(no way are my babies using a rotary cutter yet!)

and she got started

- and finished -

today,

though she had to take a break part way through

cuz she was getting worn. out.

(so was Momma.

There is really no such thing as 'on her own'

when the sew-er is only 8...)

She did all of the sewing and pressing and thread snipping,

but I pinned for her.

She was quite purposeful with most of her fabric choices:

the dark blue with dots is a starry sky,

and the light blue with white is a summer sky with clouds.

Obviously, the bottom grassy green - is grass,

and the red above it is for leaves in the fall.

The fabric with deer on it was a charm square 

that I got as a sample with a fabric order

(though sadly I can't remember from where)

so there were only a few spots it would work.

(Deer came up multiple times in the book)

The Heather Ross fabric had to be in the block,

because it had Laura, Mary, and Black Susan

and of course a tree (tree /  big woods...)

(never mind that Mary would never climb a tree ;-)

The gold above the 'hearth' square is for the wheat and oats

that Pa and his helpers harvest,

and the fabric on the right is just because she loves it ;-)

 

I'm so glad to have found a quilt a long that is perfect for Lexi,

and the fact that Lily wants to join in, 

and we can all read the series together,

is a fantastic bonus.

Speaking of houses - 

when we were walking back to the house after taking pictures,

we (of course) walked by the new house.

I said, "Just think, Lex'!

Soon, when we're going back in the house 

after taking pictures,

we'll walk right up those steps,

and in that door." 

💙

linking up with AmandaJean,
because a single block is a big finish when you're just 8!

visit with an old friend

I seem to be in a season of having difficulty getting to sleep.

It's rather frustrating.

After 45 minutes of lying in bed last night,

growing more awake, instead of less,

I got up,

pulled on my 18 yr old burgundy terry cloth robe,

slipped out of our room,

careful not to wake Tyler,

and headed to the computer.

Too tired to actually quilt, 

I figured I'd spend an hour

looking at other people's quilting 

and hope for some form of osmosis.

But one can only hope for osmosis so much,

before one realizes - it isn't going to happen.

Ultimately,

beautiful quilting

will come from more time at the sewing machine,

not the computer

(though it does have a part...)

So instead of looking 

- again - 

for inspiration and how-to's,

I quietly crept back into the bedroom

and grabbed a book off the shelf,

already knowing just exactly where

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was resting.

I was smiling in minutes.

I read until I could barely keep my eyes open

(page 64)

and promptly fell asleep when I crawled back in bed.

Ahhh, yes.

A visit with an old friend 

was just what the doctor ordered!

five things on a Friday

Monday was our
Elders and wives appreciation dinner
 /slash/
Ugly Christmas Sweater party.

I didn't participate.

I mean,

I just don't get 

why one would want to purposefully look bad.

(interestingly,
none of the ladies that had on Christmas sweaters

wore ugly ones,

so I'm not alone in my thinking,

I think)

Tyler,

however,

did participate.

He used the same sweater he made last time,

and added lights and tinsel-y puff balls.

He said he was going to keep adding to it until he won.

I'm happy to announce he can retire the sweater.

~

The crud that he had 2 weeks ago,

when we made the pad for the HVAC units?

He still has it.

And all of the kids have had to varying degrees,

though thankfully,

Brandon just today succumbed to it,

so he was able to get through his first semester of college 

without missing any 

due to illness.

I've had it for a week now,

and quite frankly - I'm done!

~

Speaking of Brandon,

and college,

I am so proud of that boy!

Regardless of his grades

(although it looks like he'll have either all A's,

or 1 B and the rest A's ~ so yay!!)

I'm proud of the way he has managed his time

and really just attacked every project and assignment.

College is a big change for most students,

but it's a huge change

for someone who has been schooled at home

his entire life,

and has been mostly self-taught for much of that time.

(My children are all so much smarter than I am.

I am more of a 'facilitator of learning'

than a 'teacher' when my kids get older)

When he left for his Calculus final today,

he said, "Not to brag,

but - it's really pretty amazing - all that I've accomplished!"

He's right!

~

Once again,
I haven't managed to get in any sewing this week.
The blocks that I have left in Jordan's quilt
are both complicated,
and I haven't felt well enough to tackle them.

I actually haven't even managed to get the fabric cut.
After spending about and hour and a half
over the course of 2 days
cutting 3 fabrics for 1 8inch block,
I decided I best just wait 'til I'm feeling better
and my brain's not so fuzzy.

~

I did however read a book
while I've been lazing about.

It's rather sad that I picked up three of the recent acquisitions
 I was keen to read,
and choose
based on largest font size.

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club
was a reasonably good read.
Not so good that I'd read it again,
but good enough that I checked to see if our library had the sequel.
(it doesn't.  pooh.)

books!

Last week, 

when we went up to NWA for our Gramma Day,

we left early

so we could go to the huge Helping Hands thrift shop in Bentonville.

I was so sure we'd find our vanity there,

but alas,

as you already know,

we did not.

What we did find though,

was

books!

The boys and Lily love Erin Hunter's books,

so they were thrilled to find a few to add to their growing collection.

I replaced my (used - bought for $.25) copy of

one of my favorite's,

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

that I loaned out and didn't get back.

This one was a whopping $.75,
for a paperback,

but I was just happy to have the book in my possession again.

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club

I didn't even crack the cover of,

or look at the back;

one glimpse at the title on the spine and I was sold.

Plus, look at the cover....

Little Bee has been on my reading list for quite some time.

I actually wasn't positive I haven't read it yet;

the cover is so familiar to me.

I flipped to several pages and read a few lines each

and didn't recognize anything though.

Grace for the Good Girl 

was pretty popular a few years back.

I was never overly interested,

because I can't really identify with being 

'a good girl',

but for fifty cents,

I figured it was worth a look.

I'll report back when I read 'em.
It could be awhile, though...

Lexi had two books
that somehow didn't come home with us : /
so that stinks.

One of them was a $1.50 pop up book
that wasn't in fantastic condition,
but she loves pop up books and doesn't have any,
so I said she could get it.

All I can figure is they put them in a separate bag,
because our box was full,
and then forgot to give the bag to us.

I was sad Lex' didn't get her books,
and that we didn't get everything we paid for.
Ah well.
At least the money goes to a good cause....