a rucksack & mk's first sentence

today i finished a nice rucksack from this pattern: http://www.bethanyreynolds.com/quiltersrucksack.html
i really like the pattern and have made the preschool size 3 times.

here are two i've made for ds and dd a few years ago: ds's is the red and blue one, with some 1940s novelty print on it. dd's has fairies, similar to the flower fairies by mary cicily baker (?). i just love novelty prints.

this is a great pattern: fast, with just enough details to keep it interesting.






and here is the one i completed today:



the close up shows the detail of the fabric, all wwII slogans, i presume. my favorite: "our boys need sox. knit your bit".


as an aside, yesterday mk uttered her first sentence: "ah got shoosh." (i got shoes.) right after that came "ah got baby." she is the first of my kids that absolutely loves dolls. she feeds them, hugs them, nurses them. it is too cute!

my perfect 10 year old

diana turned 10 last friday. she had her party on saturday. isn't she the picture of young maidenhood?

she made her own birthday cake and planned her own party. we gave her roller blades. my sis and bil gave her: a zappo's gift cert. and an american girl gift cert.

guess who's 2 today?

our molly kate turned 2 today. how fast the time goes!

big sis made some chocolate cupcakes that she decorated w/gummy bears. she made 9 of them and put a letter of mk's name on each of them.

at two, mk daily improving her speech. cute words include: "heyps" for derriere; "ishi" for drink.

i had to include the pic of her in a dirndl. i bought it for a buck at a yard sale. it's a real german one. what a find.

a surprise and another ufo bites the dust

last week, while decluttering my sewing area, i came across 27 quilt blocks. i had started this quilt when diana (almost 10) was a toddler. it was one of my first forays into quilting. being a first time mom, i longed for something creative to do. i pieced them by hand, using templates from an old quilt book i found at the library.

the pattern is called "double x" and the book said it was simple enough for a child.

i decided to finish this quilt, so i made 3 more blocks, this time using a rotary cutter and machine piecing. i has so much fun making them, i decided to make another vertical and horizontal row. i haven't quite finished those, but am in the process. trying to decide if it will need a border or not.

it's finished!! it's on our bed as i write this. even though i don't think i'd ever make another scrappy quilt, this one just looks so friendly. :-)

here 'tis:

braggin' rights

i decided to give dd9 some blue peachskin from the stash that doesn't speak to me anymore. a whole five yards, so she had plenty to play with. this is what she did with it:

i love the way she works. she measures a little, but doesn't fret over it:-) and then cuts, and wings it as she goes along. she doesn't like finishing seams, so she doesn't. i find her way liberating to think about, and i usually don't tell her how to do things unless she asks. (as rowena says, "it's only fabric. they'll make more.") www.rostitchery.com

btw, she has her own sewing machine, and a corner of my sewing area. she looks charming in her creation, don't you think? i'm proud of her.

happy birthday dh!

these were made from the jalie pattern. http://www.jalie.com/catalog/casual.html#underwear i've made them before, and dh likes them a lot, as does my ds7. you should see how cute the little boy ones are.

the fit is really good and they go together very well. i got the professional-looking elastic from anne of needlenook fabrics. fabric is from the stash, so these were practically free to make! i found these work best in cotton lycra.

you can't see it well in the pic, but on the black pair i made a label and put his monogram on it with my trusty pfaff machine.

sorry to disappoint, but dh declined to model them for a pic. c'est domage:-(

another sweet dress . . .

okay, okay, but at least it's not for my 22 month old! the pattern is from b & b blueprints, http://www.bbblueprints.com/shelley.htm but i changed it in child's play. dd wanted the waist lower than the pattern had it; also the pattern only went to size 6. easy-peasy changes.

the fabric is a lovely houndstooth, very nice to work with: perfectly straight grain, a pleasant weight, similar to working with linen. i love white collars on girls' dresses. there's something very elegant and pure about them, i think. here's a back view with a little help from younger sibs:

as an added bonus, here's a pic of the whole family, minus yours truly.