Learning to get up and Waffles

Posted on February 22, 2012 by wildwagmom

 

I am not a morning person.  In fact, I am a night person.  In college, I would disturb my neighbors by vacuuming at 11pm and one year I would even go running at midnight.  However, I am married to a morning person.  In the almost 18 years we have been married, I have only fixed my husband breakfast a handful of times because I just don’t get up as early as he would like to eat.

At least 1/2 of our kids are mornig people and I have learned to at least get up when they get up.  I am trying to learn to get up earlier.  My 40 something body needs more exercise and if I don’t get it in in the morning, I probably won’t have time to get it in later in the day.  I have also discovered that if I exercise in the morning, I have more energy to accomplish the things I need to do.

In an ideal world, my family would get up quietly, get dressed, fix themselves breakfast and read while they eat.  Then I would be ready to get start homeschooling.  The reality is the morning people talk and their voices echo around in my head.  So the earlier I get up and work out and have a quiet time, the better.

I have really been encouraged in this endeavor by the Inspired to Action blog and her Maximize Your Mornings ebook.  I even joined her Hello Mornings Challenge.  It has been really hard but it is getting better each day.  The ebook is free and full of lots of ideas on how to make mornings go better.

Along these lines, Mom encourager Hannah Keeley suggests having Muffin Monday to help get your week off to a great start.  But between my morning issues and the fact we are out Sunday nights Muffin Mondays don’t happen in our house very often.  However, waffle Wednesdays, that I can do.

And I might even be a hero to my kids, until it is time to open their school books.

 

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Beautifully Imperfect Rocker Recover

Posted on February 20, 2012 by wildwagmom

It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.  That is the saying over at The Nesting Place and it has really struck a chord for me.  I have wasted too much time waiting for perfect.  Of course perfect doesn’t happen this side of heaven.  And learning to embrace the imperfect and even, dare I say love it, will bring great contentment.

Perfect doesn’t even happen in my blogging world.  If it did, I would have taken “before” pictures.  This is my glider rocker that I have rocked all 4 of my babies in and my oldest is taller than me,  Actually my second child is too.  It originally had a muted water color fabric from the 90′s.  Do you all remember when that was popular?  The seat cushion had worn through.  I made a muslin cover for it 5 years ago.  The arm cushions had also started ripping in the last couple of years and the kids would sit there and rip  the foam to bits.

My husband has suggested several times getting rid of it but I love sitting in it and I have my quiet time here every morning.  My mom had bought me fabric to recover it but I never got around to it.  I think I was a little afraid I would mess up.  Then we moved 2 years ago our tastes changed and the new fabric no longer fit.  This fabric is from one of the Monthly Bag Challenges that I decided not to do.

Another saying, I was taught when I was smocking  is “a complete project is better than a perfect project.”  I let go of some of my expectations on how I “should” make this so that this project would get completed.  I didn’t add piping and I didn’t put in zippers.  Both of those things would have made this project last a month instead of the week it did.  Also the prospect of all that tedious work would have caused me to put off doing the work.  And you know what?  I don’t miss those details.  All I see is the cheerful fabric greeting me in the morning.

Yes, imperfect is beautiful!

 

 

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Crocheting

Posted on January 17, 2012 by wildwag girl

I have been learning to crochet, and so far it has been really fun!  I learned the chain stitch from this kid crochet book we have.

My Mom taught me the straight stitch, and I did a practice sample.

Then I started this scarf for my doll.

Here it is finished,

I did make a few mistakes,

But in the end I like it.  I’m planning to make myself a hat also.   It is really fun!

 

 

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Embroidery

Posted on January 13, 2012 by wildwagmom
I have enjoyed embroidery again recently.  I started almost 10 years ago with smocking for Wildwag Girl.
Then about 5 years ago I was inspired by a friend who was embroidering Bible verses into decorative pillows.  I made a couple for Christmas that year and it has been one of my favorite gifts that I have given.
Then a couple of years ago for my 40th birthday I got Doodle Stitching by Aimee Ray.  I have loved it.  I have made kitchen towels from it.

Aimee Ray has also put out a book called Doodle Stitching; The Motif Collection.  It is wonderful.  It comes with a CD so you can upload an image into a photo editing program and make it the size you want.  I really recommend that book.  If you need help with stitches, I really recommend the blog We Love French Knots.  Bari J Ackerman has done a fantastic job making videos on how to do the embroidery stitches.  I also want to try the Tranfereze that she recommends.  I have used a washable fabric pen for transferring designs but recently, I have found it is just easier to use a regular pencil.
Wildwag Girl is working on the Tree of Life.  The embroidery stitches are covering the pencil even if it doesn’t wash out.
And here is a picture of my most recent project.  I saw this here.  It is a great way to practice that hand quilting.  I am not sure right now if it will end up on a pillow or as a wall hanging.
Best of all embroidery is a portable project.  Let me know if you try it.
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Quick Baby Quilt

Posted on January 9, 2012 by wildwagmom

I decided at the last minute that I wanted to make a quilt for my cousins baby.  I was inspired from the quilts in Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.


Normally, I agonize over fabric choices for other people, but our mutual grandmother loved butterflies. When, I saw the butterfly fabric, I knew it was perfect. I love it when things fall together.

It is 1/3 the butterfly fabric and 2/3 the floral fabric.  The back is a simple polka dot flannel.  Beautiful and simple.

Originally, I was going to hand quilt this but it was harder than I realized and not going to get done in my deadline.  So, I machine quilted it.

I outlined the butterflies with free motion quilting.

This was a really fun quilt to make.  I can see making more like this.

 

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I have found my sewing love Again

Posted on January 2, 2012 by wildwagmom

I have been taking a break recently, from sewing and blogging. I found it really hard to keep up with sewing after we started homeschooling back up in the fall. I also was working on losing weight, which, for me, takes a lot of effort. With my concentration elsewhere I found sewing not so much fun. I may also have been a little tired of making bags for the Bag Challenge. There was actually an entire month where I wondered if I didn’t want to sew at all. I did a few other projects which I will blog about later but here is the project that made me remember how much I love sewing and fabric.

I started this back in June intending for it to be my mother-in-law’s Christmas present. I love this quilt. I almost couldn’t bring myself to send it off. It is the “Square One” quilt from Camille Roskelley’s book Simplify. The fabric is scraps my mil sent to Wildwag Girl and me to sew with. They are scraps from dresses she made for her grandaughters. I was concerned half way through the quilt that the fabrics didn’t go together but once the quilt was put together, I loved it. I quilted the quilt with a varigated pink/lavender thread. I loved the thread. This was also the first time I free motioned quilted a quilt. I definitely need more practice but I am ready to do it again.

I also pieced the back. I was much easier to do than I thought it would be and I really liked the result.

I can’t wait to start my next quilt!

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Year End Wrap Up

Posted on January 2, 2012 by wildwagmom

Quilts.  I can’t believe I have completed 5 quilts this year

Zig Zag quilt

Postage Stamp Quilt

String Quilt

Square One Quilt

Quick and Easy Quilt (I wrote a blog post about this but I never hit publish.)

 

Bags

January and June’s Bags

February’s Bag

 

March’s Bags

April’s Bag

May’s Bag

July’s Bags

August’s Bag

No wonder I got tired of bags.

And a dress for a beautiful daughter.

Who knew it had been such a busy year?

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Sunny Scallop Dress

Posted on October 5, 2011 by wildwagmom

Wildwag Girl needed a new summer dress. After much shopping,  she chose the Sunny Scallop Dress by Jona G. It came out beautiful. .The dress sewed sewed together very easily. It is the same fabric as her Perfectly Pleated Clutch. Because she is tall, I used directions to make make the pattern  longer.  I think I spent more time tracing and adjusting the pattern than I did sewing the dress   Of course we got it done at the end of summer which comes early in upstate New York.  I am hoping that she will wear it with a sweater.

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Christmas Project

Posted on September 28, 2011 by wildwagmom

Normally, I am not a Christmas in September kind of person.  I might be thinking about Christmas projects but not making anything yet.  However, this past weekend, I completed these.

These potholders came together really quickly. I was between projects so it seemed a good time to work on them.  I should probably admit that the fabric had been cut earlier in the summer.  I was worried about the greens going together, but once they are sewn together, they work.  The potholder on the right is hand bound, while the one on the left I machine bound.  That was harder than I thought it would be.

Should I make more of these as gifts?  I try to choose a project and make several as gifts.  Last year I made these tote bags.  What are you making this year?

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String Quilt Tips

Posted on September 5, 2011 by wildwagmom

I wanted to share some things I learned making a string quilt.

If you use glue stick you need to use plenty, otherwise the fabric will slide across the paper and bunch up like in this picture.

Using lots of glue stick will cause the paper to stick to the fabric.  Wetting it down and using one of these scrapers from Pampered Chef makes the job a lot easier.

I preferred quilters spray adhesive and my walking foot. Spray adhesive without a walking foot may or may not work.

Yes, the stitch length makes a huge difference in being able to remove the paper.  The good news is that if you have kids they love to remove the papers.

If you have a little tiny corner, you don’t want a little tiny bit of fabric.

I solved the problem by not lining up the edges of the pieces and cutting away the excess seam.

Finally, I learned that string blocks stretch, a lot.  So when sewing the blocks together, pin well and sew carefully.  There are some places in my quilt that have slightly curved seams.

This was a really fun quilt to make and great for beginner.  There are  wonderful directions here and in the book The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman.

 

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