Don-ven

I love making things for the baby-grands. The girls were easy - anything pink or purple,  dresses and stuffies -  but Don-ven* has thrown me for a creative loop. 

I’ve made him a whack of blankets but there are only so many a boy can use, especially in the middle of a heatwave.

So I’m trying bibs. And just in time too - Donovan’s reached the drooling, getting-ready-to-teeth stage. 

This bandana-style has a lot going for it - cute, easy and gave me an excuse to buy new toys necessary equipment (snap gun kit and grommet tools, whoohoo!) - but the fold rides up over his mouth, making it difficult for him to eat.

And you probably noticed that the boy likes to eat. At 3 months, he’s wearing 9-month clothes and weighs in at 17+ pounds, making him just 4 pounds lighter than 2-year old Jaclyn. 

We also got him a pair of ear protectors so he can go to the movies with us.

First viewing? Hotel Transylvania 3. It was surprisingly good but I don’t think he’ll remember much of it . . .

 Going nose-to-nose with Pop.

  Baby giggles

 His 2nd favorite pastime 

* Jackie’s first time saying “Donovan”, so cute! (Sorry for the crummy picture; Jac insisted on holding the phone.)

Firefly and Kingfisher Update

Phase 3 of my Kingfisher Stitch-along is in progress and moving slooooowly forward. Phase 1 was hand-sewing the flowers; Phase 2 was cutting out the background diamonds and deciding on a placement design. 

Phase 3 is preparing the flowers, then hand-stitching them to their diamonds. In the picture below, blue checks are finished blocks; red checks denote flowers that are starched, pressed and glue-basted onto their diamonds, ready for hand-sewing tomorrow. With 46 diamonds total, not counting the borders, I still have a ways to go.

If anyone had told me, even a year ago, how much I’d come to enjoy hand-stitching a quilt, I’d have called them absolute nutters. Joke’s on me - I love English paper piecing. For a while I considered only doing EPP and not going back to machine-stitched quilts. Then I saw this . . . 

and remembered I had this in my stash*.

Almost overnight, that became this -

then this -

and most recently this -

 6 done, 10 to go!

I remember watching, chasing, catching lightning bugs with my sisters while growing up in the South and the memories always make me smile. How could I not make this quilt??!?

 

The Firefly quilt-along runs through the end of July and I might finish on time, if you don’t include long-arm quilting and binding. So far, I’m keeping up with the group (6 blocks last week, 5 more in each of the next 2 weeks). Kingfisher stitch-along continues till the end of August and I’m slightly ahead of where we’re supposed to be. Knock on wood, I think I might make that deadline too. (I just jinxed myself, didn’t I . . .)

* This is my collection of lovely, lovely Grunge, originally purchased in Colorado during our eclipse watching trip. 

Sewing Camp Finale

Day 3 was tough. 

The original plan was to make a reversible purse and a snap bag in the 3 hour class. The  purse pattern turned out be a bit too tricky for these beginning sewists. 

The teacher and I ended up doing a lot of sewing when the kids got frustrated and we didn’t have time to even start the second project. Once they were finished though, the girls adored their purses. They are super cute and very easy to “reverse”. I’m betting these will get a lot of use.

 Sewing the “burrito”

Friday was much, much better. 

Before class, the girls raided my stash and chose fabrics for a pillowcase. Leia fell hard for sea turtles and Leanne was thrilled when she found 2 coordinating fairy prints.

The sewing was easy - a few straight seams - and the kids got a kick out of turning their “burrito” into a almost complete case.

Bonus! Even after taking goofy pictures we had enough time remaining to make the snap purses from Thursday’s lesson plan.

 Trying to get a group pic was like herding cats!

This was another fast and easy project. AND they got to use glue sticks, always a hit with the pre-teen crowd. 

The “snap” comes from inserting part of a metal tape measure in the top casing. 

Which of course they had to try out over and over and over again . . .

Overall, sewing camp was a big success. The girls are proud of their new skills and the projects they made. And I’m hoping to build on those skills for more sewing fun this summer. 

iPads and Dresses

Multitasking baby - exercising while doing her puzzles. 

Jac and Leanne both love puzzles, especially iPad puzzle apps. Jac would almost rather do those than watch movies. Almost.

 Girl Club, girl bugs

She also loves the t-shirt dresses I made her. 

 Kitty kats 

Jaclyn has strong opinions (!!) about most things, including what she’s going to wear.

 Fishies!

I’m pretty flattered these meet with her approval. 

 Cool kid 😎 

Sew Camp and Braces

While Leanne was busy

turning pretty fabric

into a tissue box cover

with pockets (!!)

and making a chapstick holder,

poor Leia was sitting in a dentist chair, 

goggled up, 

having her braces removed.

I know who had the better time, 

but I’m not sure who was happier with the end result.

Sewing Camp, Day 1

A shop in Simi advertised a sewing camp for kids and I couldn’t say “YES” fast enough. 

Leia and Leanne have both used my machines 

but their interest was mostly in the pretty decorative stitches.

Today’s teacher had them sewing straight lines, circles, zigzags and pivoting at the corners.

When I came back to pick them up 3 hours later, they were both super excited with what they’d learned . . .

and what they’d made.  

Padded notebook covers on Day 1?? I’m impressed. And I’m excited for the summer’s sewing possibilities once camp is done.

Confession

Donovan’s mom and I were in Target, shortly after he was born, and I fell hard for the cutest sloth lovey. (Lovey = stuffie/blanket combo)

Donovan thinks I have good taste. 

Confession time . . . I loved the sloth when I first saw it but I probably would have put it back and walked away. EXCEPT Matt is always giving me grief about buying Leia too many stuffed animals. Guess what, dude? This is just the first of many. Donovan being a boy will not save you from another avalanche of Grandma stuffies!!