Monday, August 1, 2011

"Sew and Tell"

I guess that technically every blog post could be titled, "Show and Tell," since the whole purpose is to show you pictures and tell about what's going on. But I am thinking about doing a semi-regular feature wherein I can show off some of my recent crafty goodness. Or "amazing feats" of cleaning and organization. Or (if I can figure out how to post videos) some of my recent educational music videos or podcasts. Or whatever I've recently done that bears mentioning.

I have to give a special thank you to my G-ma Alice for this one. She taught me how to sew. Thanks to G-ma, I understand the basics of sewing and construction and can usually find my way around my sewing machine. I am by no means good at sewing, but I can make basic items, Halloween costumes for my kids, and mend some things.

I don't have a permanent home for my sewing machine; all the stuff that seems to follow it around, so I usually wait until I have a list of things to sew. Then I haul it out and it lives on the end of my dining room table until:
  • I am completely stuck on a project and can go no further...
  • I am completely frustrated with a project and would rather eat it than try to finish it...
  • I can no longer stand the mess on the end of the table...
  • I have company or host dinner for one or more persons.

This go around, I've made sachets, worked on a quilt for Riley, and made laundry bags for our pop-up trailer. 

Whenever we go camping, we always end up with no place to put the dirty clothes. Matt's clothes end up in a plastic shopping bag, mine end up going back into my bag (where I make a futile attempt to keep the clean ones separated from the dirty ones) and the boys' clothes end up in the strangest of places (like in the refrigerator, under the mattress, and mixed up with the pop tarts and cracker boxes).

My solution was to give everyone a dirty laundry bag. I went looking, but didn't find any that were priced an amount I was willing to pay. So I made some.

I have a big box of fabric scraps downstairs and actually found four pieces big enough for bags. Then, just for fun, I personalized each one. They are by no means fantastic, but aren't bad for my limited lessons and experience.






We ended up with fun laundry bags that cost me nothing, and taught me a bit about making up my own patterns and embellishments.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Visits in the Snow

When the snow falls quiet,
we put out the tray of seed.
And a host of God's small creatures
come to visit for a while.
Thankful for what they receive,
they commune with each other,
with God,
and for a few moments, with us.