How This Quilter Mends Pants

Ok.  I hate mending.  Seriously.  I would rather make something from scratch than mend.  Even hemming pants or reattaching a button ... yuckeroni.

HOWEVER.

If I can figure out how to turn a mending chore into some semblance of a quilting task ... well ... THAT is something altogether different.

This is a pair of my daughter's leggings with not one, but two holes.  (She's an overachiever in this department.)

Not expensive.  And she'll probably outgrow them next week.

But never mind.  I've got an idea.

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I drew a few hearts on my computer, printed them out, traced them onto fusible web, made fusible patches from pretty coordinating fabric (Lecien's Flower Sugar) & found matching thread. 

Then I spent all of about 10 minutes at my sewing machine.

Tada!

Only the top and bottom hearts are covering holes.  But they're so far apart I thought it would look better with a few connecting elements. 

I don't think anyone would ever guess this was a patch job! 

AND she really likes them.  Bonus!

Wacky Hair Day

I don't know if your child's school does this, but mine does ... Wacky Hair Day.  The kids love it.  Secretly, it's my favorite fun day too ... since my girls and I came up with this idea:

crossing a french braid concept,

with a small collection of Littlest Pet Shop toys.

There are 9 creatures in all.  Each one is held in place with a small, clear hair elastic around its neck.

Pretty cool, eh?

Best part is that the hair is out of her face and the animals stay put all day.  These pictures were taken AFTER school. 

Other best thing is there's no hair spray, glitter, color, gel ... nothing goopy or messy.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

We have to say goodbye to someone special today ... my daughter's Grade 3 teacher (who also taught my older daughter).  As far as teachers go our family has been pretty lucky, but Mrs M really topped them all.

She got married last summer and in September when we found out she'd be my daughter's teacher for the second year in a row (yay!) I informed her that she & her husband were allowed to ... you know ... "get busy" in another month because we needed her until the end of June. 

Jokingly of course. 

Sort of.

Sometimes I say inappropriate things like that to people, especially if I've known them for a while.  But she got this weird look on her face.  I thought she was just a little surprised that a parent would say something that ... personal.  A few months later I learned the reason for that look ... she had NOT waited for my permission to get busy!

Anyhow we are all very happy and excited about her new arrival due later this month.  But we're also very sad to lose the best teacher ever.

My daughter - the same little munchkin who made this,

and this,

really wanted to make her a farewell gift.  So here's what she did.

Found a font she liked for the letter "J", Mrs M's first initial, and printed it out.  I gave her a piece of white fabric, she picked a floss color, grabbed my light board and got to work. 

The note on her Template says "Don't throw out! Thx :)"   Apparently my children are used to me tossing out unidentified bits paper they leave lying around.

She stitched this up in about 25 minutes. 

Did I mention she's 9?  You can't see me here but my chest just exploded all over my keyboard with that special & unique sort of pride that can only be known by a mama for her little one.  You know, the kind that can reduce you to a puddle of tears?  Especially if you have PMS?  (Excuse me for a sec while I go get the mop ...)

When she finished the embroidery, however, she didn't know what to do with it.  I suggested a lavender sachet ... 'cause ... well ... what can I say ... I'm just really excellent at solving crafting emergency problems.

Another 25 minutes later and we had this ...

I wish you could smell it.

Happy motherhood, Mrs M.  We will miss you!

Daisychain Sampler "Q"

The first time I did a search for something on the internet was in June 2002 for my first daughter's first birthday.  I wanted to take a picture of her wearing a fairy crown made from the pink daisies growing under our kitchen window.  But I'd never made one before so I Googled "How to make a Fairy Crown." 

Here's how it turned out. 

That's my little cutie almost 10 years ago. 

(Sorry 'bout the quality - they're photos of photos ... remember, I took them back in "the olden days" before I had a digital camera!  LOL!)

A few years later, I made another one for my second daughter.  This time we were on a holiday (and she was almost 18 months ... you know how it goes with the second child ...)  No pink daisies to be found, but there were tons of white ones.

This is the little munchkin who made the anniversary embroidery I showed last week.

Is it normal that looking at these pictures of my babies makes my heart ache?  I miss that new baby smell & the squooshy squoosh & pudgy cheeks & baby giggles & tiny fingers & them sleeping in my arms. 

(Sigh.)  Anyhow. 

This is my long way of explaining WHY I wanted to make this "Daisychain Sampler" in the first place.  Seriously.  It was this post on Alicia's blog that sold me.

And now with this letter?  I would do the entire alphabet with this style of letter.  Really, I would!

I admit to almost wishing I'd used a darker background fabric so I could make the daisies white.

But I think this pale buttery yellow worked out so beautifully.

Normally, I'm a little (ok, a lot) fussy about my lazy daisy petals being exactly the same length and perfectly spaced around each flower.  But in this application, I felt the haphazard, "natural" approach would suit this letter best.

So I let go of my OCD perfectionist tendencies and just let the petals be where they wanted to be.  Some flowers with 5 petals and some with 6 ... and a few are just half flowers. 

Love it.

Something told me to go with my favorite blue as the flower centers.

Could you not just weep? 

Isn't it THE.most.unbelievably.pretty.letter.EVER?!

Creative Teamwork

My daughter & I finished the Anniversary stitchery.  What do you think?

I confess to searching Amy's blog for some ideas and found this one ...

The cute "Washi Tape" idea on the corners of her quilt got me thinking about the seam allowance here which hanging by a thread ...

... LITERALLY!

I thought adding some washi tape applique would help, and be a cute little detail too.

I presented the idea of adding tape to all 4 corners but I was vetoed.   At least she allowed 2. 

AND she liked the buttons.

Maybe when she moves away to college I'll sneak on the other 2 tapes and hopefully she won't notice.

Here it is "in situ" in my favorite corner of the kitchen.

Livens up the place, that's for sure!

"Thank you Sweetheart for your beautiful handmade gift for Daddy & me.  We love it and will treasure it forever." ox

Remember This?

That was almost 2 months ago.  But my spunky little 8 year old didn't give up on it.  I think her interest was rekindled when I told her I'd like to sew it up into a wallhanging ... this mama's been around the block a few times now ... ;)

And this little issue about running out of room that was making her so frustrated?

Here is how we solved it.

Somehow the yellow floss she started with went missing so we color-matched as best we could.  We've decided it's not at all noticeable.

The little angel thought she'd "trim" the top edge for me ...

... I'll make it work somehow!  LOL!

Here are the fabrics "we" chose.  She picked the yellow polka dots "... 'cause they're so fun!"

Guess what I'll be doing this weekend!

(Right now I'm SO wishing I had the same kind of magic one of my all time favorite bloggers has ...)

Communication 101 ... For Moms

If your 8 year old requests macaroni & cheese for dinner and you go to the grocery store with her after school to get the ingredients and you're not sure how much milk is in the fridge so you ask her and she tells you there's LOTS, make sure she knows you mean WHITE milk, not CHOCOLATE. 

'Cause even hardcore chocoholics have to draw the line somewhere ... right?

Proud Mama

I almost didn't have anything to brag blog about today.  But then I thought you might like to see what the other needlewomen in my house are up to these days.

Big Sister (10) got this book from Santa. 

Santa rocks, just sayin'... ;)

And she wanted to try out this design on a t-shirt,

so I suggested she practice on muslin first.

I must say she has a most impressive stem stitch.

So of course whatever Big Sister is doing, Little Sister (8, but almost 9) also wants to do, right?  I was a little sister so I know ALL about that.

She decided to stitch her initial, which she drew freehand with no hesitation.  (She did NOT get that confidence from ME!)  Haha!

(Love her little curli-q's!) And check OUT that backstitch! 

So when she realized it was our Anniversary last week, she wanted to "secretly" make something for us.

She's watched me make letter templates many times before with the computer so she just went ahead and made up her own pattern.

And I hadn't put away the muslin yardage so she helped herself to a nice big chunk.  Unfortunately, she was a little upset that the piece she'd cut was still too small, (thank goodness she used the 'el cheapo' muslin and not my prized fabric from the "forbidden" pile) but I have an idea for that.  I'll show you when it's done.

The most surprising thing to me is that this kid usually loses interest in things quickly ... but she hasn't given up on this yet!

(Please notice how she flourished the Y.)

I really am a super proud mama. :)

It's What Canadians Do

If you read this post, you need to pinkie swear first that you won't call child protective services on me, kay?

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I gave birth twice.  I'm not having any more children.  This kitchen is closed.  So you'd think I'd want to keep the ones I have safe, right? 

Just one problem.  I'm Canadian.  I'm culturally obligated to let my offspring participate in somewhat ... er ... unconventional activities. 

Admittedly, the following story illustrates a rather bizarre way to enforce national pride.  But I don't make the rules.  I just live here.

So here's how we spent Boxing Day.

"Ok girls, guess what we're doing today.

We're going to get into this galvanized-steel-coffin-on-tracks (otherwise known as a  snowcat)

named "Felix"

and I'm going to let your Uncle (my brother)

drive us for about an hour along 12 miles (20km)

up a vertical mile

to an elevation of 7,400 ft (2,300 m) at the top of a mountain.

When we get there he's going to use Felix to dig a huge pit in the 4' (1.2m) deep snow in about 30 seconds

and we're going to make a bonfire

so we can roast sausages & marshmallows to go with the smoked salmon sandwiches, veggies, shortbread cookies & chocolate packed for us to eat

while sitting on snowbenches,

complete with hot chocolate mug holders.

Then I'm going to let your Uncle take us waaaaay up there,

where your mom will almost s%&* herself

(Okay dude, seriously?  Dude?!  DUUUUDE!!  STOOOOOP!!!  I am SO NOT LIKING THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!!)

'cause she reeeeeally doesn't like heights.

Up here I'm going to give you an inner tube ... yep, that inflatable rubber donut that comes with warnings about "causing serious injury & even death". 

That's right girls, that what it says right here in big bold letters ... SERIOUS INJURY & EVEN DEATH.

I'm going to let you sit in this human-missile-maker with absolutely no safety devices and have someone give you a big push from this spot right here

and I'm going to let you fly down the mountain

at god knows what speed

and hope you stop before you disappear over the edge.

Then I'm going to follow you on a sheet of plastic called a crazy carpet ...

... in a manner that could not POSSIBLY be less dignified.

And then we're going to do it again.  And again.  All afternoon. 

At some point, your Aunt & I are going to think it's a good idea to share an inner tube down the mountain

and we're going to have an EPIC wipeout

and then laugh until we can't breathe.

Ok girls, you up for all that? 

Good.

Now go put your helmets on.  Wouldn't want you to get hurt."

Humility Bootcamp?

If you're not a parent but plan to become one some day, take my advice and practice humility.  You're going to need it.

For example if you live in a cold climate, your child might make an announcement that goes something like this ...

"Hey Mom, I just farted in my snowpants and now I'm all extra warm!"

... followed by hysterical laughter ... in the produce department of a grocery store ... with lots of people around. 

Just sayin'.