:: Making Little Slippers ::

We woke this morning to many more inches of snow on the ground, and millions of flakes blowing around searching for a place to settle.  The older girls were happy to have yet another snow day to themselves for coloring, painting & watching Anne of Green Gables.  Shortly after we get the call that school is canceled, they tote their pillows and blankets downstairs to make one large nest where they can snuggle up and plan their day.  I love days like this, where life is placed on pause.  The little town around us is cold, peaceful and quiet, we are inside in our own little world - keeping warm. 

So warm in fact that Daisy pretends we live at the beach, and the living room is our ocean. She wears her bathing suit all day, sometimes her lifejacket as well. Keeping socks on her tiny feet are impossible and our hardwood floors do get a little chilly. I made her these little slippers a few weeks ago (and a pair for each of her sisters) they are usually the first thing she puts on in the morning.

Two of the pairs are lined in soft chenille, the others in contrasting cotton.   
Winter Peach also makes a pattern in adult sizes so I'm working on slippers for myself, mom and sister lined in terrycloth.   

Quilting

I fell in love with Anna Maria Horners "Love Emblem" quilt.  It's perfect for Daisy's new little bed. I've never made a quilt like this before, all pieced together with angles and points.  But after downloading and enlarging the pattern, cutting out all the pieces and picking out fabrics from my stash I couldn't wait to get going! 

Before I knew it I had my center finished.  I used all sorts of scraps and fat quarters that I'd been saving, and a yard of cream and white polka dot material that I love.  Daisy picked out the color for the center heart, and I ran to a local quilt shop and found (yay!) a print that matched for the border. 

The backing is beautiful, very vintage looking, like an old eiderdown. 

I always have lots of helpers when I'm sewing.

We pinned it all down so that we could handstitch.
The handstitching actually went pretty quick, my fingertips are killing me because I thought I could go without a thimble- finished quilt will be only about 50x50. 

The edging is going to be scraps left over from the cut pieces in the center.

I'll post more progress soon!

I Heart You

The Tiddlywampus and I are practicing yoga this Valentines Day (she's much better at it than I am.) 

We spent the afternoon water coloring and making cookies, while the babies were sleeping.  She woke up with a fever, so stayed home from school, but seems well enough now - giggling and wanting to go outside to play in the almost melted snow.    

I made this doll for a far away friend,  just look at her heart shaped noggin.

I hope you are having a lovely Valentines Day.  In our house, the girls will take any excuse to make a gifts for loved ones, and today was no exception.  Cards, paintings, wrapped objects found around the house.  We once couldn't find the T.V. remote for days because it was wrapped in pink tissue with a bow labeled "Daddy" last Easter. I'm thankful that my daughters are so giving, it makes me feel like I've done something right.   The Tiddlywampus spent a few hours at her Meemaw's house this weekend, and made a pretty little pincushion.  Meemaw meant for the Tiddlywampus to keep it for herself, but she insisted on wrapping it and bringing it home as a gift for me, she couldn't wait to come

home and transfer all my pins into it. 

I made my Valentine a water color card too, and wrapped up a bag of his favorite candy Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, and a bag of Red Hot Potato chips (a big deal in our "no chips" household!)

Happy Valentines Day!

Outside and In

We've been coping quite well with this cold snowy winter. My husband loves it, and while I don't nessesarily dislike the cold, I'm very much looking forward to next week when our little town is supposed to warm up to 40 degrees. 

The ice is so thick under the packed snow, it's going to take a lot of warm sunshine to melt it all. 

Thankfully,  our house is warm enough inside that we don't have to be bundled up constantly.  We have a outdoor wood burning stove, rather than heating with gas, oil or electric and we love it.   The stove actually works as a boiler, heating water that circulates through our home through pipes.  So no risk of fire or smoke as with traditional woodstoves, and we control the temperature with a thermostat.   

Here he is, my dashing young husband on his little tractor, plowing a path to the chicken coop.

And while he was outside playing working we found a project inside.   

This was so much fun!  We used a linolium cutter to carve out the rubber to make birds, trees, butterflies, strawberries..... we've been stamping everything in sight.  The cutter and rubber  were easy enough to find, and we used ColorBox stamp pads.  I would like to get a couple of tubes of block printing ink so that we can stamp on fabric as well. 

Mountaineer was outside, chasing the tractor - he loves the snow.

How have I survived this long with out one?

I've wanted one of these little gadgets for a long time, but just couldn't justify spending the $6 on something that I could do just fine by myself. 

Making your own bias tape isn't really a big deal, it's just that it is so time consuming...not to mention I burn my fingers almost everytime when folding over the edges of the fabric. 

A couple of weeks ago I was at a craft store and these were 50% off, so I bought one. 

I couldn't wait to try it out!

Isn't that the coolest thing in the whole world?  I sound like one of my kids.  (And I realize if you are reading this and you don't sew, you have no idea what I'm making such a fuss over!) But isn't it wonderful when you find something that makes your life a million times easier?

You just cut your strips of fabric, feed it through, pull it along and iron it as it comes out.

Magical!

You can only imagine how many yards I've already made! I think I need an intervention:

Bess, step away from the bias tape maker and iron! : )



on any given day