MOVING.....

I can now be found at

justqltin.wordpress.com

see you there.....

I wish this was me.......

sigh....

Not if I eat you first!

Leanna is at that wonderful stage where she wants to bite everything or at the very least drool on it. She had her first trip to the Zoo on Memorial Day. Needless to say she wanted to chew on the goat....I think it was mutual......

Big one, Little one

This was Blake's HS graduation. One moving on. One just begining. Leanna makes me realize how much you miss as a young mom and never realize you missed it. First you are so busy looking for the next milestone that you miss the tiny moments. Then you have 2 and you miss all the changes in the older one while you cope with the younger one....then you find yourself so busy just keeping up with them you forget to cherish each day. Everyone should have a child at 40 when you are old enough to appreciate each day for the miracle it is. When she cries at night (and amazingly she does not do it often) I hold her close and am thankful for each breath she takes. Yes somedays I'm tired and somedays I stress about what will happen at work when she gets too mobile or too noisy but I am so blessed to have her ... Every day.....

Mothers Day Sewing

I've been quiet for a couple of weeks now. Keep promising myself I won't do that but it
seems to happen anyway. Our chuch does "baby dedication" on Mother's Day Sunday so
I've spent most of my free time racing the clock and Leanna to finish a dress for her.
I got the fabric at Baer's on my last trip to KY. One of those lucky coinsidences that I
happened to be there on the day of their big 50% off storewide sale. So the dress & shoes are 4 ply silk charmeuse with venice lace trim. I had some cotton batiste from a $1 table sale at Hancock's for the lining and altogether I only spent $25. The pattern if from the KS for babies book. Just the basic dress with some minor modifications. I sewed the CB of the skirt up and put a zipper in the bodice back (because like a dummy I only skimmed the directions and forgot to ad the 2" for the facing in back!) I eliminated the sleeves and used my lace trim between the lining and dress front for "cap sleeves" There were two sizes of the lace so the smaller version is on the sleeves and around the waist in a double tier and then I used the wide version sewn to the lining like a petticoat. The shoes feature the selvedge of the silk as a decorative band and I tacked on a cut out from the lace. I used a free pattern from the web morphed with the CT pattern to make them.

I was worried that I'd cut the wrong size she's growing so fast. But this is the KS medium
and it fit her very well. You can't see them but I made the "short pants" from the book
out of the same batiste and finished the legs and waist with pink 1" FOE for simple
bloomers.

We took her 3 month pix in this after church and it photographed really well despite my worries. She wouldn't smile tho......

Revisiting the Past

Meet Ben Franklin. Some list discussion about a childs school costume reminded me of this. He had a wig & glasses too but they were at school when I finished this up. They grow sew fast....He's in 7th grade now.....

THEY FIT!!

Miss Leanna wearing one of her cloth dipes. I have 16 now in size small. I am planning to sew a Medium this week cause she should be just on the border of fitting them......hopefully I can complete my 2 dozen in the next size for transitioning. Then if I sew a diaper a day I'll have my stash in no time. I hope......

My TLG (diaper) Bag

Our church nursery requires everything be labeled so it sounded like a good excuse to make a custom embroidered diaper bag to me! This is the TLG bag from the sew forum. I did this entirely from stash. It could have used some stiffer interfacing but it will be light duty so I'm not too worried about it.

The pink linen and the batik are both from the EFQ co-ops last year. The lining is a yellow broadcloth from my old quilting stash. Embroidery is one of the built in fonts on my Innovis 1500D

You can't see it in the pix but there is a decorative running heart stitch on the top and the two horizontal cross peices. I used a varigated pink thread that almost disappears. My intent was for it to be really subtle and the truth is I wanted to stabilize the SA on the linen since they were ravelly without dragging out the serger. It worked!!

OH and I found that waistband stabilzer works great for straps like this!!






View inside with a couple of diapers & wipes in one pocket and the wet bag in place. I used yellow PUL to do the wetbag with a pink zipper and pink touchtape. The pocket I sorta guessed at since I had no directions for an elastic top pocket. I sewed the hook tape on the bag lining to hold the detachable wet bag. I'm not doing a changing pad cause they won't need it in the nursery.

Crib Shoes

These are from the CT pattern. I had some elastic issues that I think I've fixed and they were really pretty simple. Gotta use a leather needle tho or you get skipped stitches

Easter Sunday

was wonderful. The church was packed. Leanna was 2 mos old exactly and as you can see slept thru it all. I had hoped to have a shot of her awake but nope....Maybe next year.

Road Trip!

This is Leanna at 8 weeks. We took our first trip to Ky to meet her big brother. She slept thru the baseball game and the trip to Baer Fabrics but enjoyed looking at all the new stuff in the hotel room.

She's Here--Her birth story

Wow! I was pretty nervous going into this. Never done a scheduled c-section before but I may be a convert!! Everything went so smoothly - and we are home. Leanna was born at 8:02 am and she is 7lbs 80z and 20 1/2 inches long. I'm sore and tired but look forward to some quiet time with my little one. 

SNOW DAY!!

I should say "days". The kids got out both Thurdsay and Friday. Only about 2" worth but when you are 16 and have wheels a 4 day weekend is a big deal!!! I think the stuff is pretty but only if I get to stay home! My youngest (9) took the wheels off his skateboard and used it as a snowboard where the ground slopes off to the creek in back. No Worries the water is never more than about 8 inches deep! OH and to brag on Greg...this also shows the fence and building he worked on all summer!! The fence got moved up when he found out baby was coming....we needed a place to put the dogs occasionally and a safe place for baby to play in a year. 

And the diaper stash....

Just a dozen AIO in newborn size. I've found about 1/2 will probably need an extra soaker but she wont be in these long enough to worry about it. I've got one pocket and 2 fitteds in a small so far but I need to knock out 2 doz more pockets in small. The first couple of weeks after the c-section laundry will be hard for me so we'll use a few disposables until I can bend easily! 

Nursery 5

The Wardrobe in it's new place (other wall beside changing table) with Pooh and a "heffalump" on top. The light pole is an old one but with a low wat bulb it will make a perfect night time changing lamp.... 

Nursery 4 - the crib set....

It doesn't show the dust ruffle but here is the set I worked on for her crib. The pillow is going in the rocker as soon as it gets one more coat of paint (the rocker not the pillow!) 

Daddy hard at work!!!

 

Nursery 3

From the doorway.....the wardrobe used to be part of my sewing room set up but it has been "repurposed" for baby! It has since been moved as we decided to put the rocker in this corner! 

Nursery 2

The changing table partially assembled on the inside wall. 

The Nursery is done!

From the stairwell - looking in the new door way - (notice the 2 different paint colors on the near and far walls!!) 

20 days and counting...one more project done!

Finished the throw pillow for baby's room. It will go in the rocker. The pillow form was in stash (don't know why or from when?!?!) The cover didn't take too long but the emb design is 66 minutes without thread changes. I think I'll pull out the dipes I'm done with so far and put them up tomorrow! 

One more project off the checklist -23 days to go

I finished up the bumper pads this weekend. Reversible -dots on one side, solid pink on the other with the "pooh" design centered in the middle of the long side that will run along the back. That may sound odd to some but we have one of the newer "sleigh" stlye cribs and the lowered front doesn't lend itself to making a large headpiece since there is no real head or foot of this crib. . .so I just put a simple design in the center back. I'll post a pic of it all set up when the room is finished. I resisted the urge to put an embroidery design in the center of each panel......might make it to "busy". And DH came to my rescue as I struggled with how to put a ruffle on top.....with the simple question....WHY? He scouted the stores for me in nashville to see how many ties and how they were finished on the RTW ones and came back with the info that it varried widely....most common being on long piece as opposed to four smaller ones and that they seemed to tie most often at the corners and center and on the top only. I opted to put bottom ties on mine....it just seemed more secure. I had a little trouble with quilting lines down the pads. Kept skipping stitches.....I went up t0 a 90 quilting needle but it still didn't like the combo......took the walking foot back off....helped some but not completely. Finally I sent myself to the Rusty Bobbin's site and told myself her draft snake instructions applied. Repeat to self.....ITS A BUMPER PAD....baby will never remember it.....it gets used for maybe 6 mos. max....closer to 4 if she follows her big brothers developmental scale. That was DH's take on the whole ruffle thing too.....why put that much work into a piece that gets very temporary use. Save the energy for a throw pillow or curtain that we will use for 2 years. (BTW he thinks the entire set looks as good as anything we could have bought for $200.) Approval is always nice --and why are we so critical of what we make when we'd never even look at the same details on something we bought?? 

The Pooh quilt...

Here is a better shot of the quilt. The pattern is just a framed one patch from a book called ABC baby quilts that I modified a little. Embroidery from my Brother machine with a little help from the local sewing shop on stabilizers. I have not played with my machine nearly enough.....course I got sick and found out I was expecting 2 mos after I got it!! I love it more each time. More than worth a couple of Christmas's.....not that I was ignored at Christmas....I just got practical inexpensive stuff for my hospital bag like a robe and slippers!! I knew when Greg bought it for me that it was my "big ticket" item for a couple years. It's paying for itself tho over time.......Have you looked at nice crib ensembles? $200 for most of them......I paid $50 for the fabric to do the dust ruffle, quilt, bumper pads, a chair cushion, and maybe a curtain and diaper stacker if I get to it. Okay that's all for tonight!! 

dust ruffle close up...

this is a little washed out but I used a decorative stitch on the hem....it reminded me of the bow in eyore's tail..... 

Baby Projects 1

On my cutting table ( that usually I keep one leaf folded down of for space sake) is the crib dust ruffle and quilt for the comming little one. The quilt was fun. The dust ruffle is real high on my list of projects to never do again!! I need to learn how to use the ruffler attachment on my serger I guess. Hand gathering and pinning and arranging all those gathers was a bear. I have bumper pads cut out ......