It's Wild Here

sewing completed

Birthday frog for Jeremiah.

drawstring backpack - I've been snagging Jamie's soccer string bag, to his dismay, and then found this pattern in Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing :

I learned a lot from this pattern.
1. I really love to iron. I'm glad you need to iron a lot in sewing.
2. Replacing the needle on the sewing machine can make a big difference.
3. Don't sew the bag closed; you can't use it that way.
4. Don't give your 3-year0ld a seam ripper and walk away from the project (see final photo, below)
5. Who needs expensive fabric when you have nice old flat bedsheets?

In case you can't tell, this also has a pocket.

more practice

Maybe it will be a doll quilt for one of my nieces' babies.

the pillow

Crooked stitches and all, I'm pretty pleased. This is the back, really - it's an envelope-style pillow cover. The inside is definitely not beautiful, but I'm ok with that for now. I did iron it...

I can sew!!

That's all I have to say right now, but stay tuned!

sewing FO

From a felt sewing library book - much too large for Ryan, but that doesn't stop him from wearing it. Anyone know how to clean felt?  Wet rainy blacktop on a yellow felt hat?

I don't think I talked about Christmas for R this year. (I know a lot of you have heard about this already, but for the record...) He had a wonderful time on the 23rd when everyone came here. He seemed to have a good time on Christmas Eve, visiting my dad (who gave him this very fun and busy truck ) and running around Uncle D's house and touching all the things a toddler shouldn't touch. He had a great time with his cousins and second cousin. Unfortunately, on the drive home he  complained that his tummy hurt, and proceeded to vomit several times before we made it back. Car full of winter clothes and gifts, into the carseat, etc etc. It was pretty awful for everyone, especially him.  His gifts sat under the tree for nearly 3 days - he'd make a half-hearted attempt to open one here and there, and then need to sleep. A pile of untouched gifts for a 2-year old on the 25th is just Very Sad.

Just typing this post is making me queasy, so I'll end it with a very concise summary:  we all caught it, and well, Christmas comes every year so we'll just look forward to the next one.

The highlights in gift-giving:

DS games for the big boys
Lego Creator Mythical Creatures for Evan
Star Wars lego for Jamie
Bionicle for Jeremiah
Climbing dome for Ryan
Giant dinosaur for Ryan
Wrapping paper and ribbon (and lots of socks) for Kellen
((drumroll please))  the #1 gift of the year, resulting in near-weeping from mama and very toasty toes:

handmade slippers for both parents - handmade BY their talented and generous older sons.  I can't wait to get pictures of these slippers up here for you to see. Grammy took J and J on two occasions to visit a special older friend who is a master sewing goddess. She and her daughter and Grammy helped the boys to sew these fleece slippers. It was hard work! They couldn't wait to give them to us, and tell us everything they'd learned. Did you know Mrs. K sewed parachutes in WW2?  Do you know how a serger works? We made all the pieces for these slippers and then we couldn't figure out how to put them together!  Can we have those slippers back now because we have to reinforce the seams for you...

::: love and thanks to all the slipper fairies this year :::

Your daily dose:

did I mention the sewing?

I thought I wrote abut this, but I don't see any pictures. Here is Jamie the night he and Jeremiah  discovered this book .

And Jamie the next morning...

I need to get a good picture of their finished products, still. Neither actually found the need to follow directions in the book - they just read the hilarious descriptions, looked at the pictures, and went with their inspirations. The nice thing about a stupid sock creature is that it doesn't require tidy sewing - quite the opposite, really.

package!

This came the other day; isn't it pretty?  I've been wanting to learn to sew for a long time. The sewing machine hurdle is just so high, for me. I find it really daunting to learn the machine and find space to be all set up. So, I had a couple of ideas. Grandma taught me to embroider as a child, and I enjoyed it. I think I might take that up again. Some vintagey looking things like flowers sewn onto pillow cases. (I crack myself up completely)  Second idea - small handsewing projects like this  and these.  I considered fat quarters, and then found even smaller little squares called charm packs (?I think?).
 

Speaking of those yoyos, I dug out my rarely-used sewing kit and found this, interesting thing...

a  childhood toy, obviously made from those yoyo doodads, that I'd planned to repair. Now I think I'll be disassembling it.

adding a new category.....