Ahhhh, My Aching Wrists

Did you know that my ward has a new enrichment leader? Oops, I mean new "additional Relief Society meetings coordinator?"

Did you know it is me?

The previous leader decided that all sisters in our ward would receive a grocery-bag-holder as a Christmas gift from the Relief Society. Of course she was released right before the sewing began of said presents. Lest you think I am bitter, I am perfectly glad to help with the project. It's a wonderful idea, and who couldn't use one of those bag-holding tubes? I just didn't realize how sore my wrists would be after holding stretched elastic while sewing casings. For three hours. Glad to say that I'm done now and ready for the RS party on Tuesday. Now if I can only remember to bake the lasagna...

p.s. I realize that my wrists should probably not be hurting too much just from the elastic. It is the elastic combined with having spent several hours yesterday scrubbing blue crayon out of a batch of white clothes. I used to kind of like the smell of WD-40.

It Finally Happened

I knew it was coming, and I always dread it.

Ryan, at 22 months, asked me for a cookie. No big deal, except he had already had way too many while we were decorating the cookies. Than he pulls it on me: "Mo coo-ee PEEEZE!!" Do you give in to that cute little asking-for-something-he-shouldn't-have-but-he-finally-remembered-to-say-please-all-on-his-own voice, or do you stick to your first answer?

My required answer was, "Thank you for saying 'please,' RyGuy, but no more cookies."

But really I was secretly just waiting to reward those cute little blue eyes with one more cookie. After dinner of course.

Happy Turkey Day!

I worked extra hard last night to finish this cute little quilt just in time for the holiday! My mom gave me this cute little kit a few years ago and I finally had time to finish it. Hopefully you all had a wonderful day, and may your leftovers be especially delicious!

Halloween Costumes

Sewing is a hobby that can save you big bucks in the end.

Costumes can be pricy little devils, especially for three kids. And they are only worn a few times, and then into the costume bin they go! Chelsey informed me she wanted to be a cheerleader this year and I couldn't imagine paying $25 for the one she wanted. So I made up a pattern and sewed away:

Her cheer: "Cookies and cream, cookies and cream, what's the matter with the other team? Nothing, nothing, nothing at all - they just can't play ball!"

Here are the costumes from last year -- pink tutus all around!

Here's to five dollar costumes!

First Birthday Bib

All three of my kids have worn this bib on their first birthday, and I love it!

Six-Year-Olds Are Pretty Smart

Yesterday after we picked Chelsey up from school, the kids were sitting at the table having a snack. Emily and Chelsey were arguing back and forth about something or other and I was having good luck at tuning it out until the "uh-uh," "uh-HUH," "Uh-UH, "UH-HUH!" started. I've been praying for more patience lately, and had a little thought: "Hey, girls...HEY, GIRLS!" (Yelling always gets the yelling stopped, right? Ha.) I asked the girls to say something nice to each other instead of fighting. Chelsey immediately said, "Emily, will you please stop saying that?" Nice, but not what I had in mind. I explained to her that I would like her to say something like, "Emily, I like it when you ----" or "I like your ----" or "My favorite thing about you is ----."

She immediately responded, "Emily, I like it when you stop saying that!"

Not what I imagined, but it's a start. It's a start.

Joy To The World Quilt

Holy cow, this is a lot of applique! My mom and I worked on our quilts together, and she had hers finished two years before me. That's right, years!

I absolutely love the finished product!

A close-up of the applique

My excuse for this one is BABIES. In fact, I call this my baby-interrupted quilt. I began working on this quilt and finished the majority of the applique by about the time my oldest had just turned one (I wish I had realized how much more free time I had then!). Then pregnancy and moving stopped all creative flows for many months. I finally got the borders on and attempted a little bit of hand quilting here and there, but with no real time and a colicky baby to try to calm - nothing was accomplished. Trying to decide what to quilt in the borders stopped all progression on the quilt, and then another baby came along. With even less time and less space.... *sigh* That was a hard time in my creative life! In February 2009 just after my youngest turned one I finally finished this beauty!

And now I finally have a house with room for Christmas decorations. Hallelujah! I can't wait to hang it up! Be prepared for pictures.

You Can't Beat a Homemade Wedding Present

I've made this little quilt three times now. The first time was for my best friend Jeanette's wedding. I absolutely fell in love with the pattern and began making my own but decided to gift it to my mom instead. The next time I decided to make it, my SIL ended up engaged, so off it went to its new home:

Maybe fourth time's the charm!

Embroideries Make Great Christmas Presents

Jason has four younger sisters. As chance would have it, we drew all four names for the sibling present exchange during Christmas 2006. Thank goodness my lovely MIL is on top of things and gave me plenty of notice. I still only finished the day of the family party, but at least it was before and not after!

Picture taken at 4:59 pm

Gifted as presents 5:30-ish pm

What can I say? Some of us crazies need a deadline to finish!

Pumpkin Bars Quilt

I finally finished this one! I worked on the embroidery in April 2008 during an extended trip to see family in Idaho. After I got home I was in a creative surge and quickly pieced together the pumpkin blocks. To my semi-perfectionist horror, MY SEAMS DIDN'T MATCH! Ha ha, when I think how much I have mellowed out since then... In August 2009 I finally felt another creative burst and quickly put the little quilt together:

I am probably going to rip out the center quilting -- I was going for cute loopies and instead got ugly, crooked, crazy, uneven loopies...

But I do love my pumpkin blocks! (And you can't really see where they don't match. Nice.)

Finally, A Place to Call My Own...

I'm a bit of a rambler. I've known this for many years. My husband and I have worked out a little system when he gets home: He changes his clothes, checks his email, looks through the mail, etc. I follow him around, talking non-stop about every single detail of my day, with minute-by-minute description. I talk, he tunes out. It works!

I guess what I'm rambling about (see?) is that this blog is going to be a fun place for me, where I can display my creative "efforts" with a little bit of rambling in between. Or a lot. We'll see.