Bib

Today went well.... i got a bib sewed and started on another fun Vday craft I plan to post soon. Here's how i did it:

 Wash, iron and cut your fabric.  You'll need one piece of fabric 1 3/4" wide by 30" long. My front and back pieces are 8" width along the top, 10" width along the bottom, and 10" in length.  I used two different fabrics: floral for the front and white for the back.

I also added a piece of batting to make it extra cozy. Put your back piece front side up, your front piece facing down (wrong side up) and your batting on top. Pin and sew bottom and both sides together.

Turn inside out.

 I took my 30" piece and folded 1/4 inch on both sides and ironed.

 Fold in half, and iron again.

I don't have a picture of the next step, but I folded my already sewed bib in half to find the center point. Mark with a pin. Next i unfolded part of my long strip and placed in the middle as best as I could, and put the top 1/4 along the backside of the bib. Pin, and sew along the folded edge. (this is my back piece)

Then I folded the material to the other side and did the same thing. (Wrap around the top of the bib) Sew all the way from one end of your tie, across the front of the bib to the other end. 

Done!  Sorry, this is poorly explained but hope you get it anyway!

Success

While yesterday was a bad day (in many ways) my Boston Cream Pie was a success. We went shopping in Fargo on Saturday for Peter's Birthday and after getting home at 9:15, the cake was in the oven by 9:45 and most of it stuck to the pan. And crumbled.  But.... to my surprise, I did not panic. You see, this is expected while making this yearly Boston Cream Pie (and has happened before).  I also forgot to mention I ran out of sugar so I had to call my neighbor for some. Thankfully she had enough for my cake. Anyway, So, I somehow got it out of the pan and pieced it back together, waited for it to completely cool, and sawed it horizontally in half... and then that was it. No one even noticed. The filling was exceptional, and the chocolate ganache was really good too!

We made ufta tacos for supper yesterday and with the leftover store-bought bread dough; we are enjoying two loaves of semi-homemade bread.  If you remember, part of my NY resolution was baking more. This counts, right?

Today I have hundreds of pounds of laundry to do... take down our tree (finally) and going to our churchs' woman's meeting tonight. It seems already it's going to be a busy week. A shout out to Kelsey for watching the kids all day at our house... they were in bed when we got home and she even cleaned up the house for us. Well, better go.  I thought i'd share a cute websites too...

https://www.craftstylish.com/item/40130/how-to-make-snuggly-slippers-from-old-sweaters  - Looks easy enough to try!  Til later

sew proud!

I started a pillow project on Thursday.. in hopes to get done for Peter's birthday the next day. I went to go Joannes on Tuesday for fabric...  but really could not come up with much, so I had to settle for the fabric below.  The nice thing about it, is that I can switch it out.  Here's my notes on a scrap piece of scrapbooking paper.

Obviously the first step is measuring the pillow, which in my case was 15x15. So to make a pillow with two inch flanges (I think that's what they're called)  So i measured it to be 17 1/4 width and height. And cut, of course.

In order to make an 'envelope' type of pillow, the back side needed to be 8 5/8 x 17 1/4 and the other was 11 5/8 x 17 1/4 (for overlapping)

I needed to hem the envelope part of the fabric, to make a straight and good edge, so i measured 1/4 of an inch, and folded, ironed, and then folded another 1/4 inch and ironed again.

Then I stitched both envelope peices. It was helpful to fold and iron so that I could keep a straight line.

It is difficult to show with this fabric because both sides were the same... but typically if you have a fabric that has a colorful side, (=the good side) and a white side of the fabric (=bad side)  Typically you want the to lay the good side up, and then layer the 'bad' side on top. Then pin all the way around. You want the part of the envelope that you added the 3 inches, to go on the bottom, and the and like the photo below, the shorter part of the envelope is going on top of the longer part of the envelope.

When you're finished with the pillow, pull it inside out, and press.  Then I put tape on my machine at the 1 inch line out from the needle, and sewed a straight line all the way around the pillow. My original plan was 2 inches, but i messed up with cutting :)  There ya go, i'm not very good at explaining but hopefully it's enough if you've ever wanted to try to make a pillow.

I had to show, also, my deep dish pizza. I'm not kidding you, it tasted exactly like pizza hut pizza, except not as fattening or greasy.  Sooo good!   


I am really tired... i just made another boston cream pie and the bottom stuck to the pan again.  We'll see how it'll piece together tomorrow.. I am going to bed!!!

Yay!

Yesterday ended up being a really productive day. We had another sewing day at my mother in laws and I actually got a lot done on my quilt. I never intended to keep working on it because I can do a lot of it at home.. I wanted to start on a couple pillows or maybe my skirt, but I just kept working on my quilt because it was going fairly smooth. Here are some pictures of my progress. I sewed blocks of 10 across and 7 down, and then I had to sew strips together, which is what I finished last night while peter was still working:

Then, from those strips I have to iron good, and sew two together, then add more and more and then I will be done with that major part! The next step after that would be the borders, and then the backing, and then the binding. So i am excited and sad at the same time... what will I work on? Maybe i will start another quilt- either for maddy or for a gift for a friend. Once I know what i am doing, it goes by pretty quickly. But if i'm lost, then I feel like I dont want to do the quilt anymore. (Especially if I dont even know how to run my machine that well!)

Today I plan to go for a walk with the kids since it is cool, and do a few loads of laundry to ease up on my workload on monday, since that is my meal day. It feels good to not have to cook today-- so today I might do some buns and tomorrow maybe i will make some bars for Monday. I plan to make pot roast on Monday so it can be in the crock pot.  I just have to say that I am praising god right now for no rain.  This means if they get a good day in today, they will have about 2 or so days of combining left. I feel so thankful for their hard work in the field... for peter being able to support our family.I am happy to help them when I can.   Well I better go! Here's the girls yesterday.

Lots to do

Today I have many goals. Get some laundry done, upload photos, cut material for kate's quilt, and possibly stain a few grills in the door. I am almost done with it. I also want to work on a rough draft for Kate's birthday invitation. I realize I cannot get all this done during naptime but I want to do a little of each, as I have so much projects going on at once!  As the pictures were uploading I cut 4 peices of kate's fabric into 12 sections for her quiilt. So i am getting double done at one time. 

In the previous post I talked about Aria. If anyone feels on their heart to donate to her family, you can contact brookchelmo@hotmail.com. (Aria's father)  They are doing some fundraising this weekend, so pray that it would be successful. Also, all this rain and wind is really discouraging. Pray that we wouldnt get much, if any, rain this weekend. We don't need it at all. Yet, I am confident God will provide, even if this isnt what we want.

Also, last night I was with some ladies at church and met for supper in Hallock, and went to the green house to get some planting tips and to shop around a bit. I got a rose bush for the backyard and some vegetables for our brand new garden! Hopefully the rain will clear up so we can plant it soon.

I did a little picture taking this week. Here they are! None are edited, b/c photoshop could not be downloaded on our upstairs computer.Some need to be lightened, and some need to be toned down. One is a card I made recently, and the next is our growing flower bed in our front yard. Everything is getting huge!

Sewing

It is naptime now and I think I might do some sewing. I have been so thankful the girls are napping at the same time now. Since it's been so nice out, we've been outside most of the morning and then they both just take naps in the afternoon. Knock on wood though, I dont want to jinx myself.  Here's some pictures of my 'new' room...... it would be nice to rip out the flooring because it is hardwood under there. I am just too lazy to remove all of the furniture and rip.  I have to get a peice of countertop (which I have, just needs to be cut) and then maybe a better chair and some trim around the windows.  I have an old pair of curtains that do just fine for now. I love scrapbooking there. I think I get more done!

I got these cute racks at a woman's close-out sale in her garage in DL.

I decided I needed a spot to put my gift bags and another to put all of my tissue paper.

I had this rack downstairs and it wasnt used except for a decoration. I plan to get more wire baskets (I have no idea where the rest are) to store some scrapbooking things. Or if I get a sewing machine, maybe some sewing supplies since I will put my sewing machine below.

Here's a cute card I made.

And here is my quilt.. s-l-o-w-l-y getting done, with no ambition because I am not sure I am doing it right!

Well better get busy.