Just Pure Lovely

$10 Coupon Savings Booklet (Limited Time)

Last time I saw one of these offers, I missed the chance to let you know about it as all of the coupon books were taken.  I don't know if my readers are the coupon-loving kind, but in case you are, click on the below, fill out a simple form, and they'll send you a  $10 coupon booklet for General Mills foods:

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Quilting is on My Mind

 Amy left a comment saying she followed my Disappearing 9 Patch tutorial to make a quilt for her neice for Christmas.  (note later today:  I tried to post a link to, and photo of, her quilt, but it's not working this afternoon/evening, so I'll keep trying and post when able.)

I'm so proud of her for sewing her first quilt, and proud that I - a beginning quilter- was able to help another beginning quilter out.    I'm especially tickled that Amy was able to understand my instructions!

Quilting has been on my mind lately, thanks to the arts & crafts display at our local library.  On display, along with a smocking book and a how-to-make-books book I discovered the Elm Creek Quilts series by Jennifer Chiaverini.  Don't tell me you already knew all about those books!  I wish I had known of them years ago.  They are well-written, inspiring, and twaddle &  smut -free! 

Have you ever become interested in something, only to find yourself surrounded by it all at once?  Or maybe it's just that we're finally paying attention, and it was already there. Anyway, that's the way it has been with quilting lately.  I keep bumping into quilting conversations, fingering my grandma's 60-something-year-old quilt, finding extra moments to read about the Elm Creek quilters, and today I took a nearly-forgotten doll-size quilt top to the movies (to stitch on the way, not in the dark theater!  I prick myself often enough as it is).  Quilting has been on my mind!

I'm wondering:  what's interesting you?

An Apron to Sew

Fall weather makes me want to do things.  Does it you?  I want to Do Things like bake bread, stir stew, sew an apron...

And if I'm going to sew an apron, why not a ruffled apron for baking that bread and stirring those stews?  This apron was an easy one to make, even for me - a straight-lines-only amateur seamstress.  Want to sew one, too?  I'll try to help get you started. Here's how I did it...

First, a piece of muslin cut to the size of the apron (but a few inches less than the length desired):

Cut fabric choices into folded strips the width (horizontally) of your muslin, and twice the length (vertically) you prefer each strip to be. 

Fold the strips in half (into one long strip).  Sew the strips closed along the long side.  The strips will then have one raw, long side (with sewing stitches shown) and one folded long side.

Turn under the raw edges of the shorter ends and sew shut.

Sew the strips onto the apron, along the raw, long side of each strip.  I found it easiest to sew from the bottom of the apron up, allowing the last ruffle to hang over the bottom edge of the apron.

For the tie, I sewed an extra long strip of fabric, folded it over the top edge of the muslin, and sewed along its length.  It looks like this...

And, viola!, an apron!  A ruffled apron, no less!

Oh, p.s., if you don't have a fancy machine, don't worry.  We don't need a fancy machine to sew things!  Mine is an old ugly thing after 16 years of sewing.  It was my first Christmas gift from that handsome man I married and still peek my eyes open to every morning.  It's humble, but it can still sew.  That's what matters to a sewing machine anyway.

"Button it UP!"

The boys got wild at some point yesterday afternoon until I got tired of hearing my voice telling them to be quiet, so finally I gave a "this is really really your final warning" holler (it often occurs to me how ironic it is that I'm usually yelling, "Stop yelling!" to them.  But it's not like you can whisper that). 

Our 13yo yelled again, or banged a door, I can't remember exactly what, but it was loud and it was after my really-final warning, so I called him to come see me. 

Punishment Consequences were due ("consequences" sound so much more civilized somehow, don't you think?).  I started to banish him to his room (always said as, "You are hereby banished to your room!" because they rather like being spoken to as pirates).  Anyway, I started to banish him to his room, when it occurred to me that instead I should just enjoy some free child labor.  I handed him the project I'd been tackling...

 

 

... removing buttons from my man's work shirts.  Since my man just got a job-promotion-new-company thing and can no longer use these shirts, I am very excited to finally be able to snag those pretty blue buttons I've been eyeing for the past three years.  I mean, I'm finally happy to have a kid snag those buttons.  I had things to do like supervising the prisoner while cutting up the pretty blue cotton fabric for a quilt. 

What's this?!  After his,  you know, punishment/consequences thing, don't you think our big fella would have moped or  huffed off or at least been jubilant to be freed from Very Hard Labor?  Uh, no, he stuck around and had fun with those buttons.

 

 

I can't resist a button jar, either.  

For a split second, but only for that long, I wondered if I'd totally let him off the hook.  I mean, you're not really supposed to enjoy your consequences for yelling... I don't think.  Anyway, that thought lasted only a split second, like I said, until I realized how quiet the house was.  And it occurred to me that being a little more quiet was the entire point I wanted to make, so it looks like I got what I wanted after all.

So I handed him a bottle of glue and some cardstock.  I rather like those button drawings.  They'd look good in a frame.

Link: Making your Own Bermudas

I thought this was such a clever use of old blue jeans, that I have to share with you all!

UK Lass in US thought up how to make her own bermuda shorts and so kindly wrote a detailed tutorial complete with photos (two are below) for us to copy-cat her. 

Simple ideas just don't occur to me sometimes, so I just paid $15 for a pair of these at the store, when - sigh - I could have made them myself, complete with cutesy floral lining at the knees.

You want to make a pair, too? Here's the link!

Friday Afternoon Quilting

Our 10 year old ballerina handwrote the entire book of Philippians out of the Bible recently, a project that took 20 pages of wide-ruled paper and a month of writing 5 verses each week day. 

Her incentive was this fine prize, which she received with the biggest grin.

Her very own sewing machine. She no longer has to share my 15-year-old Singer that runs with a rumble, not a hum (but, still, it can sew!). 

When asked what her favorite verse from Philippians is, she replied that she has two, one of which I taught her as the tiniest tyke:  Philippians 2:14, "Do all things without murmuring and disputing."  I got such a giggle out of our toddlers trying to pronounce "murmuring and disputing," that I admit I had them say it more often than their arguments or grumbling required.

Two Friday afternoons a month, our ballerina and I drive to the home of an older woman to learn quilting from her.  Several other women and their daughters also attend. I love it  when mixed-ages of women get together for handicrafting.  There is just nothing cozier than that. 

She is working on her first quilt, a strip-pieced quilt, using scraps from our teacher's bin.  The method is very simple: strips of fabric are sewn together onto a square of muslin, then squared off once the muslin square is covered (ie. the extra fabric hanging over the edge is cut off) . 

This gives our 10 year old practice with 1/4" seams and the other bits of sewing without having to worry over precise cutting yet.

(photo views: 1. Sewing, 2. Sewing, 3. Strip Quilting )

Meanwhile, I'm off in a comfy chair on those Fridays, working on the embroidery and quilting of a wee doll-sized quilt for my new nephew, who was born Saturday. 

Yes, I am quite slow at finishing this tiny quilt.   Soon, Baby, soon, it will be in a box on its way to you along with a few softies for your brother and sisters. 

p.s. The Disappearing 9 Patch Tutorial is located here, if you'd like to sew along.

Softies

Wow.  There have been 700 views of this photo  on my Flickr page:

Who, do you suppose, is peeking at it? 700 times?

Whoever you are, I'm flattered.  Now, get busy sewing some yourself.  They're quick and fun and cute, too.  The tutorials for the bunny and kitty are here.  The turtle monster is by our resident 4-year-old (then; now she's a grown-up 5) designer.  She hasn't yet written up a tutorial.

~ Lori Seaborg 

Community

I consider Just Pure Lovely to be a wee bitty community of sorts. I love the readers who come through here and remind me of the people I see in my quaint little bayside town when I take our ballerina to her ballet classes every Monday afternoon.  I usually stop at the bookshop/ice cream shop/coffee shop/stationery shop/art shop (all-in-one) to grab a milkshake (they make a good one) or a coffee (I keep hoping, but, nope, they don't make a good one) or to get a kid an ice cream cone.

Each time I mosey in there, I see many faces I don't know, but there are always a couple of faces I do recognize, even if I don't yet know the person behind that face.  And with every visit, we start to say a few more things than "hey."  With some, I'm at the "how's the weather" small talk.  With some, we're at asking about the kids. 

This community, Just Pure Lovely, is as pleasant for me to visit as that quirky bookshop.  I like to see all of your faces, er, stats & comments each day, from the ones I don't know yet to the ones I visit in return. 

This blog has been a positive thing in my life.  It helps me focus on the pleasant (just pure lovely) things in life, which has been good for me, but the fringe benefit - the benefit I didn't expect - is that I've found a wee bitty community that I love to visit.

Sometimes I get on here and have no idea I was going to type what I just typed.  When I sat down tonight, I meant  to simply say...

Thank you to one of our fellow blog readers, Renee Ollis*, who sent me a photo of a Disappearing 9 Patch quilt top she created for her daughter's dolls. 

Isn't it beautiful?  I love her choice of colors. 

Renee was inspired by the Disappearing 9 Patch tutorial that I wrote up a month or so ago, so she wanted to share her progress.  I am so glad she did! 

I love every bit of this community of women: the lurkers, the commenters, the chatters, the emailers, but I think I love most the sharing: our words, our photos, our ideas, our recipes. 

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*She's working on her website, which I'll post here when it's ready for you to visit.  Yay, more time spend online reading! 

Studio Shots

These are a few shots of my (very humble) studio in the back of the garage.  If you click on the photos, you'll go to Flickr (in a separate window), and there you can view some detail notes that I wrote about the things you see.

A Handmade (by Children) Birthday

For our Little Gal's recent birthday, we wanted to resist the temptation of giving her plastic toys that only cost $1 (bargain!) but that break within 24 hours (not a bargain!).  Still, we needed to give Little Gal something for her birthday. So we turned to the overflowing craft drawers/bins/shelves/baskets/closets and found things to make.  Everyone got involved in the creating, especially our 10 yo Ballerina, but also the boys.  Well, actually, Daddy didn't get involved this time.  He bought her M&Ms (that she "doesn't have to share with Daddy" as per her wish list) and a My Little Pony.  That pony was our bit of storebought plastic this year, but it had a good use, as you'll see.

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Our 10yo Ballerina designed the above doll for her sister with no direction or help from me.

The details:

• She cut a piece of muslin fabric into a circle shape
• Tied a head off with ribbon and stuffed it with polyfil.
• Hand-sewed patchwork squares onto the dress
• Painted the bodice with red craft paint
• Hand-embroidered the face with sewing thread
• Hand-sewed brown wool yarn as hair
• The doll's purse is hand-sewn with a charm attached

Also from our 10yo is a peppermint-and-lavender herb bag.  The embroidery stitches are her own design.  I love it that children don't see the need to pull out the "Enclyclopedia of Embroidery Stitches" or another equally large book and follow the rules.

The details:

• She sewed a tube out of the white fabric
• Filled the tube with dried peppermint & lavender
• Sewed the tube closed
• Embroidered an "A" onto pink fabric, using sewing thread
• Sewed the sleeve onto the white "pillow"

After two months of working so hard in our Tuesday Afternoon Knitting Class , our 10yo finished this knitted hat just in time for her little sister's birthday...

I don't have the details to give you on that one, as it wasn't our design.  It's a basic stockinette stitch hat.

Here is a gift from a big brother:

This "Pink Cadillac" is a purchased wooden car painted pink and detailed with charm stickers:  a butterfly for the hood and a ladybug on the bumper.  Later, he added a pipe cleaner person to be the driver and, using ribbon, attached the My Little Pony from Daddy to pull the car.

I wanted to share these photos, not as a Mama bragging about her offspring (I would never! Would I?), but hopefully to inspire you to leave out the paints and the fabric and the yarn and paper (oh yes, even the scissors and needles!) for your children, too.  Don't worry about whether or not you are artsy or crafty.  They can do it without help.  Children are naturally creative.