Sew awesome!

I haven't blogged much this month because... we've been pretty busy. Life is full, but good. Caleb and Chloe both nap well, and sometimes even at the same time, so I have been taking advantage of that! I think Chloe will have a good assortment of baby pictures. She and I get to hang out sometimes during Caleb's afternoon nap and I try to take some pictures of just her. The first child is so spoiled, getting all the undivided attention... :)

 

Hi!!!

 

We have been undertaking several sewing projects lately! I say "we" because sometimes Caleb helps... and with the furniture ones, Grammy and I have been working together.



First up: new pillow covers for the living room

I wanted something "springier" that would tie in with the red throw
and the Turkish rug we are using. This was insanely quick and easy,
and only used 1/2 yard of fabric for two pillows. Low cost, big improvement. :)

Next up: slipcovering the chair and ottoman.
The ottoman was also pretty easy... the chair may be a little harder. :)
I still need to finish hemming the ottoman cover.

 I have been able to get a fair amount of sewing/crafting done while the kids are napping! Working with pins and sharp scissors is not very compatible with kids, I have discovered. ;) I do a lot of "getting things out" and "putting things away" when sewing during naps. I did leave the sewing scissors out on the table once. And Caleb is getting taller... He actually had very good motor control and snipped a hole into my brand-new pillow fabric. Thankfully, he did not cut himself, and there was just enough fabric left, working around the tear, to salvage it for the pillow covers. I learned my lesson.

We have template pieces cut and pinned for the body of the chair (using old sheets).
Next step will be piecing the back and seat cushions, and refining the pattern
before cutting the actual fabric (which started out life
as a set of queen bedsheets, the blue stripes in the background).

I recently threw together a rag quilt for my friend Katy, who's having a girl in August
(their fourth child and second girl)

More sewing!! Here's a new table runner to summer-ize our kitchen!
Again, it provides a good punch of color without using a ton of fabric.

When taking pictures at kid level, I noticed there were often unsightly things in the background. Trash can, backpack/purse storage, shredder... not stuff we need to be looking at. Especially when we COULD be focusing on the most adorable faces on the planet! Or something like that. :) I am biased... 

My original project/intent for this fabric was a
desk skirt to hide the messy things underneath.
The table runner above was bonus!

So I made a desk skirt, also very easy, only straight lines of sewing. Now, it doesn't exactly blend in to the surroundings... subtle it is not. Pretty and soft and cheerful, yes. I call it a success. (Thanks, Mom for providing the tension rod!)

My next project (in addition to finishing the blue stripey slipcovers) is going to be a quilted table runner. I really want to get into quilting, and this is a smallish project to get my feet wet. I've been watching YouTube videos by the Gourmet Quilter, a very sweet gentlewoman with a New Zealand accent. :) I am excited to use up the scraps I have-- I have quite a few bits and pieces from previous projects that I can hopefully cut up into strips or squares and make new, unexpected projects! Stay tuned!

Homemade finger paint!

It was one of those days... I was at the end of my wit's end, and needed something fun and stress-relieving for Caleb and me to do together. Enter homemade finger paint! A little cornstarch and water (and food coloring) later... and voila! It was pretty easy! I just Googled "homemade finger paint" and tried one of the recipes.

 

Can you tell I made a red velvet cake in the past....
so red (and thus purple, orange, and brown) are missing? Caleb didn't seem to mind.

starting to get into it

cool....

It was very fun, and a nice way to wile away an hour or so. We will have to try it again soon!