Sleeping Porch Series

Or,

as I like to call them,

the 3 Sisters.

A few months ago,

my friend, HydeeAnn, started a series of quilts.

She used different fabrics,

but made the same pattern.

When I got my bundle of Sleeping Porch fabrics,

I knew I wanted to do the same thing,

only - different pattern
same fabrics -

and my Sleeping Porch Series was born.

First up, 

was Diamonds

Bold, flashy, beautiful diamonds.

Next was Squares.

I thought she was going to be the easy one, 

the quick one,

but I thought wrong.

For all of her simplicity,

she took way more time and attention than I'd planned.

But -

with bamboo batting

and that lawn backing,

and the quilt top being 91% lawn, too

she is the dreamiest of them all.

Last, but not definitely not least,

we have 

Sparkling Stars

(because I obviously don't have stars out of my system yet 😏)

She took quite a bit of time,

what with all that piecing

but the quilting went pretty quickly

and, man!

I could just look at her all day long.

And guys - guess what??

They are all available

in my shop.

Yes!!!

I have a shop now!!!
(Free advice gratefully accepted)
It's called Lily and Lex 💗

and, of course,
100% of my profits will be used 
to buy sewing machines for Rahab's Rope.


linking up with Amanda Jean and the Finishers 
and Julie over at Sew,Stitch,Snap, SHARE

flowering snowball, a finished (squishy!) quilt

I never shared my finished flowering snowball quilt!!

This was made simply for the pleasure of it.

I dreamed about this quilt for over 2 years,

and made it in just a little over 2 months.

I loved making the blocks.

(well - maybe I didn't love all of the seam ripping... ;-) 

I loved sewing them together.

And carefully pattern matching 

when I sewed up the scrumptious voile back.

(I used the same fabric that I used on Hadley's quilt 💗)

I loved basting it with my girl

(okay. Maybe I only liked that part.

But I loved that Lily helped me...)

I really loved hand-quilting it.

and machine quilting it was an absolute breeze,

once I decided to simply (free motion) quilt

 a small circle where the blocks meet.

And of course, 

I loved adding the binding,

and sewing it down 

by hand.

In short - I just really really love this quilt.

(a lot)

And I'll quite possibly make another FSQ someday. 

😊

linking up with pincushion princess, Amanda Jean

things that make me smile

Some things that are making me smile

these days:

My man.

He makes me swoon;

I love him so.

~

Lily is home from camp!

She had a really rough time Monday night

but she had the best help getting through it

by a sweet Momma who pulled her bed right by hers

and held her hand,

and knew that essential oils

(even ones not exactly for sleep and calming...)

would make her feel more at home.

I hate that she was so sad,

but I am so thankful Mrs Amy was with her!!

~

Also while at camp,

Lily passed on buying a camp t-shirt

because she wanted to save her money to share with her friends

who were running out of cash.

(some of whom - you guessed it - had bought t-shirts

instead of saving their money for snacks)

(It doesn't make me smile that they have to buy their own snacks though...)

~

Lexi's wound is healing nicely.

It was tricky to let her go to camp, to be honest.

But Brandon will be going up tomorrow,

so that helped,

and Mrs Amy texted me last night

that she would be going again, and Lex' would be in her cabin,

which eased my mind tremendously.

~

Pretty pink flowers.

Tyler brought me flowers Friday,

and they definitely make me smile when I walk into the kitchen.

Also,

we have some wild roses by the creek;

I love being surprised by flashes of pink among the green.

~

I *think*

I've finally got the pool balanced.

I'm telling ya - it's been tricky this time!

Most likely because it took 3 days to get it filled,

and we left town right after...

~

My boy is 40% done with his summer class!

And,

he won't have to take the second session class

he'd planned to take.

His favorite teacher will be teaching it in the fall,

and even though it overlaps another class one day each week,

he's managed to work it out so he can take it then.

~

Neither my hand or my elbow is terrible these days,

even after some pretty hard labor.

~

In one of the groups I'm in on FB,

someone asked a question about swimsuit sewing.

Since I am such a fan of it,

and have a fair amount of experience,

and had just posted,

I answered her question and included a link.

Another gal checked out my post,

and then asked if I sold my pattern.

I wouldn't have the first idea on how to go about doing that,

nor do I have the inclination to (attempt to) figure it out,

but I was flattered that she thought it would be worth buying

~

The boys spent some time with a friend 

while Lily was at camp,

so I was left with just Lexi for an afternoon

so we went out to eat

and  watched the new Beauty and the Beast movie.

We both thought it was really well done,

and can't wait to share it with Lily when it comes out on video.

~

I've had a pile of crap stuff at the foot of my bed for several weeks.

I finally took care of it this morning.

(now to tend to the other 1600 piles of crap in the house...)

~

Your comments.

Your sweet comments always make me smile.

I have good intentions of responding,

and then I forget to,

and then it's been so long it seems silly to....

But I do appreciate them!

And I love when you take the time to leave them.

Thanks.

~

Two coffee pods.

I'd grabbed one for Brandon when I grabbed mine 

early this morning.

Not knowing that,

he grabbed one for me,

when he got one for himself.

So now there are two pods next to the coffee maker,

and they both say, "I love you. I was thinking of you."

9 stitches

The instant I heard the screams,

I knew it wasn't good.

I threw back the covers,

ran to the door and opened it

to find Lex'

laying on the floor in the hall.

She'd somehow slipped,

and when she went down,

her arm was on one side of the (open) dog gate,
and her body was on the other,
 so that the metal bit that slides into the locking mechanism on the wall

 sliced her side, just under her armpit.

I quickly put a bandage on the gaping wound,

threw on clothes,

and Tyler and I hopped in the car to take her to Sparks 

while Brandon took the other kids to church.

The ER intake nurse asked her what happened,

and Lexi said,

"At Sunday school, we get points for bringing our Bibles..."

I told her she should probably just start with when she actually fell.

so she skipped ahead to 

"I was carrying Lily's pillow and sleeping bag and my Bible..."

The nurse was very patient with her (and a bit tickled)

and she eventually got the whole story out.

She was a trooper,

but getting the (7!) shots needed to numb it was rather awful.

She said she learned a lot about trust today.

And she is pretty dang proud of her hospital bracelet,

and her nine stitches.

I'm pretty proud of my tough little girl!

(Momma was not so tough, 

and almost passed out around stitch 2 😕)

The doc said she could still go to camp on Thursday,

she just can't swim,

so we are aiming for that.

I gotta admit it'll be a bit harder than usual to let her go though.

I guess it's a lesson in trust for me, 

too.

swimsuits 2017, plus a look back

I made my first swimsuits in January of 2010

after being emboldened to try 

after reading some of Renae's posts on the subject.

I've been making the girls' suits ever since.

(though I did buy them each 2 suits a few years ago,

because I didn't want them complaining 

"you never let us have a store bought swimming suit"

when they got big.

The store-bought suits

 turned out to be ill-fitting, uncomfortable,

and they didn't hold up nearly as well

as their mommma-mades)

Lex' said she hopes nobody's jealous of her suit 😊

I thought it'd be fun to look back at a few of the suits 

I've made over the years.

(clicking on the picture should take you to a post)

oh my gosh! what a little sweetie!!!

I already had the suit finished, except for sewing the straps in the back when we discovered the neck was a weee bit high.
She said she liked it just fine, so we left this suit as is, but I took 2 inches off of the pattern,
and adjusted the other 2 suits that were already cut out.

In 2011, 

I made the girls each a set of swim shirt & skirt suits

to wear to our homeschool swimming party,

so that they could cutely comply with the dress code.

2012 brought princess suits

Cinderella and Belle ~ those were extra fun. But that yellow fabric was crap!

Oh, 

here's one made from a suit I bought at the Salvation Army for $.50

Lexi's suit made from the same fabric (from the same big swimming suit...)
was the least favorite suit I ever made. The straps were too far apart.
But hey - I made 2 suits for under a dollar ;-)

I've never made a suit for myself 

but I did make one for Kacy 

before she was even my daughter in law 💜

This was Lily's last year's suit. Since we didn't have a pool last year,
it didn't see much wear at all.
Fortunately, it fits Lexi just fine, and has already been commissioned into service.

In 2014, we had more matching suits.

In 2015,

they started offering input

and this years' suits were completely designed by them.

Lily prefers a one piece with a skirt attached,

and Lex' likes a one piece, with a separate skirt 

that can be worn if she feels like it

(or it's required...)

Lily isn't picky about her straps and leg binding,

which means I use Fold Over Elastic when possible,

but Lexi only wants to be touched by swimsuit fabric

since it's softer.

Note to self: the snaps would be more comfortable if they weren't exactly in the center. Ooops.

Lily had picked out the pink that I used for the skirt for Lexi,

but since Lex' really wanted it,

and Lily is so sweet,

she let her have it, and went with the stripes instead

which, I think,

 was a really good call 😊

They day will likely come

when they no longer want me to make their swimsuits,

but until then,

I'll enjoy it.

And I'll probably still squeal when they put their finished suits on

for the first time.

Because, come on!

I made a swimming suit!

And it's so stinking cute!!

linking up with the Friday Finishers :-)