Broadway Musical Quilt Completed

For those of you who have been following my post about Hannah's graduation present here it is finally completed.

It is only a little over seven months late but she is quite happy with it. I am so glad that she was understanding about how long it took to complete. Since she has done similar quilt blocks herself she realized the amount of time each block took.

I have been trying to convince her to leave it here when she returns to school this week but she refuses. Oh well, I know it will get plenty of use in her room since her pod is like the Artic zone.  Reach for the Stars my dear Hannah.

Fairies

This past week Libby and I have been busy making fairy dolls. She found a website with instructions about making fairy dolls out of flower petals. I believe she has watched the videos so many times that she has memorized the whole process. We made several fairies this past week.

We made two fairies for the shoebox she was putting together she called them her friend fairies. One was suppose to look like Hannah and one was to look like her.

 

Next we made some mint fairies. These were a bit more complicated because their skirt petals were each dipped in glue and then glitter. We had a good time working on these.

Spearmint Fairy

                 Peppermint Fairy


We also made a flower fairy out of some flowers we had around the house.

Then we made a poinsettia fairy. Libby reminded me today she still needs her wings. Something to do tomorrow. Finally we started another mint fairy but we forgot to bring the correct color thread to make her cloths when we were waiting on the boys the other day. This one is going to be a chocolate mint fairy. I'll share pictures later when we get it made.

BookWorm and Spring Hill College Family Weekend

Two weekends ago we had the opportunity to attend Spring Hill's Family Weekend. Knowing we were coming to visit Hannah asked if I'd make a decoration for her dorm room. Since her and her roommate are definitely bookworms they had decided they wanted a Bookworm for their door. I had shown her a picture of a door decorations made to look like a worm and both the girls like it. So I began the process of attempting to make the decoration.

The first step was to gather my supplies. That was not too hard until I started looking around the house for two wire coat hangers. I had to search all our closets but I finally found two shoved in the back of two different closets. After I finally found the coat hangers I had to untwist them and then join the together. The next step was deciding what shape to give the worm. Once I completed this I began the process of placing the tulle onto the wire. Boy was that a job. I wanted a nice full worm and I never thought I would get done weaving the tulle in and out of the coat hanger and making the poofs. Finally, I finished and it was time to decorate the worm. Here is a picture once that part was finished.

Wanting to stay as close as I could to Spring Hill colors I used purple and black chevron ribbon. Not being able to find grey Hannah said black would work. I added the ribbon alternating the colors as I went down the body. The final step was to make the face. Of course since it is a bookworm he needed a pair of glass. This is my finished project. The girls seemed to like it and hung it on their door.

Family Weekend was a lot of fun. John, Nathan and I attended. While Libby and Noah got to visit with their Grammy. Since Hannah's roommate's family was not able to attend we invited her to be part of our family group. It provided us a wonderful opportunity to get to know the young lady who has become a great friend to Hannah. 

While at Spring Hill we got to visit two different classes on Friday morning. Friday evening we ate dinner on the USS Alabama and then toured the ship. Nathan somehow got ahold of the self tour guide paper and he lead us on all three of the tours. Hannah's roommate just went along with it and even got a laugh when she was trying to climb the stairs and Nathan stuck his arm out to prevent her since he was not done telling us all about the room we were at.

Saturday there was a picnic and then we chose to go to a baseball game. It was the JV playing the varsity. It was a lot of fun watching the game. Nathan even stay to finish watching the game with Hannah's roommate while John, Hannah and I went to Mass. After Mass there was the music fest and then around 9 o'clock we headed downtown for a Haunted Duck Boat Tour. The tour was really interesting hearing about some of the history of Mobile and it's ghost legends.

On Sunday we got the opportunity to meet some of the priest at Spring Hill. We were very fortunate to get to visit with Father Campbell who is Hannah's acting teacher. It was really nice to meet him since Hannah is Alice in their Fall Play. I hear a lot about him because she spends several of her evenings at practice for the play. While John went to mass the girls and I went back to their dorm so they could do some homework and I read my book. Nathan had decided he was worn out and stayed at Grammy's to sleep. We meet back up after Mass and ate in the cafeteria while a jazz band played.

Needless to say it was a very busy weekend. We did not attend all the activities that were offered since we spent some of our time just visiting with the girls. I had a wonderful time and I am so thankful that God blessed Hannah with such a wonderful roommate who is kind and thoughtful. She is so sweet that one Sunday they attend the Baptist church and then the next they attend the Presbyterian church for Hannah.

Libby's Witch Fairy

This past weekend Hannah had a 4 day weekend due to Fall Break. We were all excited to have her home for a little while. I believe Libby was the most excited. Libby had Hannah and me help her with a fairy project she had been waiting to make. Here we are working on the project together.

It was quite an involved project. First we took a wooden bead, some embroidery thread and floral wire to make the hair, head and body. Once we had that on we began to wrap the wire in peach embroidery thread for the skin. Hannah joke about telling people she spent her Fall Break wrapping thread around a wire. Once the skin was complete we used more thread for her shorts and shirt. Then came adding the flower petals for her skirt.  When this was complete we made her wings out of mesh and thin wire and of course we decorated them with glitter. Finally we made her hat out of felt. When we finished I believe we'd all had one or more burnt finger from the glue gun. The witch fairy turned out really cute. Here is a picture of her sitting on a vase in the family room.

The next day it was time to make the fairy door. Libby painted her door in two sitting making it look old and wood streaked. Once that was completed we had to embellish the door with fun Halloween items. Of course we brought the glue gun back out.  Thanks to my kids I am getting quite efficient at burning my finger with the glue. LOL

Here is the door sitting on the mantel and then  a picture of the fairy by her door. The whole project turned out really cute and the three of us got to have a good time working together.

A Rose for Hannah and More

Here are the latest three blocks I've made for Hannah's quilt. First there is a rose for Hannah. This of course is from the musical Beauty and The Beast. Not sure why it is upside down, but it's too late to try and figure out how to turn it right side up, so turn your device upside down to see it right side up. LOL As I was sewing this block I kept humming the song with the chorus about Be Our Guest.

   Next I made the lion from The Lion King. This is the second time I've made this one since Hannah has some luggage I made with different Musicals on the front. This time I made a smaller size. I always like the way this one turns out with just the two colors of fabric. As I sewed I hummed some of the songs from the musical. I could imagine the powerful music in the background.

And finally I made a block from 42nd Street. This is a musical I'm not familiar with but Hannah was and wanted it for her quilt. Unfortunately, I could not sing any of the songs from this one as I work, but I did enjoy singing many songs from other musicals as I made this block.

Now I only have one more block to sew for her quilt (Peter Pan) and then I will start the fund of putting it all together for her. This should be interesting since the blocks are not all the same size. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have the finished quilt to share with you all.

Noah's Turn to Sew

It always amazes me how my kids especially Noah and Libby come up with these ideas and then thinks I will be able to accomplish them. In the past few weeks Noah has come up with two items he "desperately" needed. The first on was some kind of WWII map/courier bag he wanted me to help him make. All he had was a video of this bag he'd found on the internet and wanted me to help him make a pattern and then make it.

So off to work we went. Oops I meant I went. Fortunately I had recently sewn something that started out with the same basic idea so I start there adapting the pattern. I asked Noah what materials he was going to use and straight away he went to my craft room and found fabric and plastic for this project. Oh well, I probably have too much fabric anyway, on second thought you can never have too much fabric.

I began cutting the pieces out for Noah, but I told him he was going to have to sew the bag. So off to work he went. Noah worked really hard on this project. He had to make two button holes, sew in hardware for an adjustable strap, and sew a sheet of plastic into his project (slippery).

Noah completed his project in a days time which is hard for him since he is easily distracted. Here is the final product. He did a really good job.

Yesterday afternoon, Noah once again had a project he wanted to complete. Having just finished listening to the Eragon series he had gone out to the shed and made him a new sword last week, now he needed a sheath(?) to carry it around. Wanting to do other things yesterday, I told him he would have to come up with a pattern. Well the little turkey went and got his paper, pen and measuring tape and drew a rough draft of a pattern. I was able to put him off on the sewing until this afternoon. I had not been home for very long before here he came with his pattern. So once again I went to cutting out pieces for his pattern.  He did really well. I thought he might give up when he was turning one part since he use pell tex ( a stiff interfacing) to make it more sturdy and it was a narrow 20" tube, but he kept on even though it took about an hour to get it turned.

 After getting the piece turned, Noah took a fishing break. He came home from the lake so excited he had caught 5 fish and a turtle. As soon as he got cleaned up he was after me to get back on his project. So after supper I helped him finish it up. It took just a little bit more of sewing and he was done. Here is his finished project.

Now he can carry his sword around without having to use his hands. Wonder what bright idea he'll have tomorrow???

Steadily Working

Last week Libby came into the craft room and asked to make something. I told her if she had a pattern or a good drawing we would see what we could do. Looking around she saw a pattern I had just printed and was getting ready to make. She decided she wanted to make that pattern. It was a Makers bag which you could make in two different sizes. She wanted to make the large one for her dolls' suitcase when we traveled to see Hannah. The pattern was for an experienced seamstress, which she is a long way from being. I informed her it was a hard pattern but she insisted on making the "Mary Poppin's" bag as she called it.

Next we went looking on the shelves for what fabrics she wanted to use. The pattern is set up so you can use several different fabrics or just a couple. Her philosophy was the more the better. So she picked out fabric which matched with her main color. I was very impressed. So on to cutting it out and sewing now. I cut the many pieces out for her since it was just measurement given for each piece.

Now we began the fun. We began putting it together. First she ironed on the interfacings to the different pieces. Then we began sewing. She made a button pocket for one side of the exterior of the bag. Then she made a zipper pocket. I know a lot of seamstress who dislike installing zippers.

Libby did a great job. Next we moved on to making the inside lining. On one side she made three slip pockets. The other side she made two pleated pockets. It was quite a bit of work but she stuck too it. Next came putting the two side together and then making and adding the end pieces. Once this was done, she had another zipper with a binding to add for the bag to close. I actually helped her out for the next step, which was binding the whole outer part. Once that was done she made the handles and sewed them onto the bag. She did a wonderful job. It took her a little over a week working most afternoons for a couple of hours. It looks great and her dolls will be proud to have their things carried in this "Mary Poppin's" bag.

Zipper side and button side.