Agent E's knee patch

It seems Agent E is always out of pants to wear. He's hard to find jeans for (they always seem to be too tight or too big) and the ones he has get the knees worn out pretty quick. I wanted to get one pair patched up special for him so we talked ideas and came up with the bomb from the Mario Bros. game. Felt plus embroidery thread brought about what you see here. It's already made it through half a dozen washings so I'm hoping it will last the rest of the winter for him. Agent H has requested a Minecraft block for his jeans and Agent L hasn't decided what yet but is sure he wants one too.

Agent E is all rosy cheeked and smiley because he had just come in from sledding out at Grandpa's house. We've been spending time out there getting it ready to go on the market. I find myself praying for the future homeowners in hopes it will soften the pain of loosing such a beautiful childhood home.

 

Upcycled Tights

So here's the shot of Norah and her upcycled tights.  Last week she was wiggling her little finger into a hole in the knee of them making it bigger and bigger.  Now, they are her favorite thing to wear.

The "how-to" is just to free-hand cut out a heart from scrap felt.  I used a blanket stitch and some doubled up thread to attach it.  It might go together faster if you don't have a pile of boys asking questions and sitting on you as you stitch but "hey" it's all about what works for you.  I have to say that my inspiration came from a friend at My Life Inspired.  So cute!

Hugs and Merry Christmas!

Homemade Challange

In 2011 I did a Facebook challange to send something handmade to whoever commented on my post about the challange. Of course it took me till December to really get the ball rolling but I did manage to complete the challange. This is what I made:

For another homeschooling friend: Hand sewn felt fraction manipulatives






















For some other friends: Hand sewn felt initial ornaments

My happy birthday

I love the gifts EH gave me for my birthday this year. Okay yet again I had them listed on my Kaboodle but I'm tell'n ya' you can't go wrong that way. :)

My apron! I felt a little funny in it at first because I don't think I actually know anyone who wears these anymore. The General brings it to me whenever I'm in the kitchen and that has helped me get used to it (he likes to put things in the pocket and to point to the bow in back). Honestly now I could spend all day in it. I feel so industrious in it. It's well made and I love the fabric. I found it on Etsy at Terrace Hill. (Right so that's not me in the picture just a very cute shop model)

New potholders. Lovely even if they don't actually protect me from the heat of hot pans. I found them on Etsy at Tootsytwo.

And as for my birthday . . . well I'm now officially closer to 40 than 30. Babies must make you feel young because I sure don't feel THAT old.

Summer Sewing Project #1

Another sewing project born out of need. For all those books, toys (and yes the nuk that we haven't kicked yet) that fall between the wall and The General's little toddler bed I've sewn a long, narrow pillow (a bolster?) to stuff in the gap. Now no more digging out from behind the bed. Another bonus that I've found is that it wedges his blankets in tight so he comes uncovered less frequently in the night. If a kid sleeps better at night, momma sleeps better at 

night.

 

P.S. I knew that left over fabric cut off from Agent H's bed spread would come in handy someday. And the stuffing - recycled from old stuffed animals.

Baby wipes

Here's a peak inside my night stand. It's filled with these amazing baby wipes that my mom made for me (okay yes there are some Seventh Generation in there too). She cut up an old sooooft chenille robe and backed them with the softest flannel. I'm telling you these things wipe up a baby's hinny lickety-split and in comfy-style. I just run them under some warm water and wipe. If you love them at first sight as I did but don't have the time (or grandma) to sew them up. Get them here and support this wonderful family of missionaries. It's where I discovered them.

Bean Bag Kick

We're on a bean bag kick around here. We use them the most for spelling quizzes. For every word spelled correctly Agent H gets to throw one at the world map and you know that counts for geography because then he calls out which continent he hit. Double whammy!

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Here's a batch that I sewed up. They are made of recycled denim and flannel. I stitched the letters

T-R-U-C-K (one on each bag) in red on the denim side. I hope to add to the alphabet.

So with all this bean bag love around here I was inspired to try some rice bag minis.

I stitched some up to post to my Etsy shop. They are so hard to keep your hands off of. They are palm size and just fun to handle. Agent H was all over them at once and bummed to find that they were for the shop. I made up some in his favorite fabric right away. I love being able to create things that my family loves to eat, use, or play with.

A Reusable snack bag

I received these reusable lunch bags for Christmas. I love using them! They are beautiful and functional. Always a good combination. We have used them for EH's lunches, snacks for the kids, and honestly I could very easily see them traveling from the food world into the home organization world that I love so dearly.

From Plum Creek Mercantile

Some day I plan to increase our stock by sewing some and once I can make them look good I'll send some to EH's sis who introduced them to me in the first place. Thank you!

A winter cap

LE Babe gets lots of attention from strangers with this cap. Everyone seems to love it, including LE. Today, he insisted he wear it around the house (with his winter boots of course because they make such a wonderful clomping noise). It even tagged along to nap time, it was still on when he woke up.

Thank you mom for making him this happy cap.

Grumpy Day Frogs

These little froggy fellas look like they are longing for the pond to thaw. Now if only we had a pond.

My mom and I went to a local quilt shop and learned how to make chenille. These frogs were the results of our labors. I consigned an herbalist friend to make me some scented packets to fit inside my frogs. So now these frogs are good for the grumps and bad days. Snuggle up with one of them and let them work their happy wonder. Now that I think of it, I should send one of these to naptime with a certain four year old, maybe it would help with the wake-up crabbies.

Ornaments to stitch

Aren't these ornaments simply sweet? Ooh my fingers are itching to stitch. Now if only I could get my cracked, bleeding fingers to heal up so I could stitch. (I do have a new cream I'm going to start using on them, fingers crossed!)

I added this pattern (and her book!) to my Kaboodle list. EH's birthday is coming up next month so I'm going see if there is any camera gear under a few grand listed on his wish list. Okay so I'm kidding, that is so not in our Dave Ramsey budget but it will be fun to check out what he's been adding lately.

Homeschool Co-op & a book bag

I'm so glad that I followed through on the encouragement I received to join up with the homeschool co-op at our church. Every other Friday morning we'll meet up with other homeschoolers and Agent H gets to hang out with other K and 1st graders. He has PE, art, and music. Ebug has joined the preschoolers class. He's a little young but the teacher says we'll just see how it goes. I'm working in the nursery for a couple of hours and then I get to go rub shoulders with the veteran homeschoolers and get ideas (and a few other newbies!).

Agent H needed a book bag and I still have fond memories of the Holly Hobby one my mom made for me back in the day so . . . I was convinced I needed to make him one too. He was all about doing stunts and tricks for the camera. At least you can kinda get the idea. It's a messenger bag - I found the tutorial at Lang Lang Creations. We repurposed an old jean skirt for the outside and lined it with some !TOTALLY COOL MAN! car fabric. Agent H picked out his favorite car and we sewed it onto the front of the bag. Ebug keeps asking for his so hopefully I'll get one made for him to show off as well.

A Fella's quilt

Thanks to my mom for helping out with the piecing (not my favorite sewing task) a little fella's quilt is coming along. Now I get to have the fun of stitching.

Girl quilt

A work (the girl baby quilt) in process.

Baby Quilting

Nothing like cutting it a bit close but that's not new for me. I'm making (or planning to make) a boy and a girl quilt for our babe in the next 60 days. The idea is that I will bring it to the hospital and have their hospital photo taken on it. Agent H's was all done on time, E's was sewn but not quilted . . . we'll see what happens this time around.

Here is the inspiration for my girl quilt (found at quilttaffy's ebay store):
I love the soft colors and design of the Moda Simplicity fabric. Now if I can get the alignment right it should be easy cheesy.

For a boy quilt I have decided to embroider a blue snoozing bunny and some other sleepy designs from the Doodle Stitches book and boarder them in blue and light green fabric.

I have started the girl quilt first - just because I love the colors and they are so different from my life of boys. Agent H faithfully asks "when are you going to start the boy's quilt?" I wonder if he has some inside information?

Results of sewing inspiration

So all those sewing blogs that I've been finding have left me longing to do some crafting of my own. During nap time last week I thought I'd try to sneak in a quick project. I saw this idea in one of Martha Steward's BABY magazines long time ago. (It's actually to prevent pinched fingers when babies are learning to pull themselves up on things.) It's not hugely amazing but very pretty practical. It's for those soon to be gone days when the house windows are wide open and the wind catches the doors and slams them shut shaking a person to the core.
Here's my old solution, so lovely.






Here's the finished product.

Oh so full!

A wonderful blog was recently brought to my attention. It's called the angry chicken (I'll have EH help me figure out how to make that a link sometime). This blog let to another blog, and another, and another. They are all about sewing, crafting and quilting and I feel as though I've just ate a full thanksgiving dinner I'm so stuffed on sewing inspiration. I think I'll go back for some more . . . I'll post some of my favorites after I've narrowed it down a bit.

It is finished

I just put the final stitches in little e's baby blanket - what a relief! Yes I should probably be doing the dishes, rearranging the clutter, balancing the checkbook or something. . . but I wanted to do something that would last for more than five minutes. Now no matter what I get done for the rest of the day, I'll feel like I truly accomplished something. Little e is just over 7 months now, he still sleeps in the office among a myriad of computers, paperwork, scrap-booking & sewing supplies but now it feels like he has "come home" to something that is just for him. Now, I've got to get on his baby announcement!